About Me, About This Blog

Hi there! My name is Andrea, and you've landed on my blog. More specifically, you've landed on this page, which means you probably want to know a little more about me. And since I aim to please, here it is.

I was born and raised in Colorado, perhaps the best state in which to be both born and raised, but moved to New York City four five six years ago in order to do a PhD (I hate the phrase "pursue a PhD") in Art History. At this moment, I've finished my coursework, passed my oral exams, and am now floating along, working on a dissertation on 18th century French Drawing and working at a gallery.

I began cooking at around the same time I moved to New York, or into the world's tiniest kitchen. But you know, no matter what kind of equipment or how much space you have, if you love to cook, you'll cook. My love sprung, honestly, out of a need to eat some good food and a budget that prevented me from buying it all from restaurants. That, and the fact that New York has some pretty amazing things to offer in the way of what's available.


Now, the other pertinent aspect of my life is my obsession with books. I have hundreds (a couple thousand? I don't want to think about it). Most of them are books on art (that PhD and all), many are on literature and travel, and many, many are on food and cooking. And food history. What can I say, I've always loved books. They've taught me a lot. So I started this blog to record the things I make out of my many cookbooks, and, in some way, to justify them. Also, to track my progress as an unassuming home cook, to keep track of what I've loved, a little less of what I didn't, and to document the lessons I've learned. If I had to describe my style, I'd say I'm ingredients focused (What does that even mean? That I love things like vegetables and I love figuring out how to use them), that I'm relatively healthy, but not adverse to sweets (uumm, sweets) and that I love exploring cultures and regions through food. (I also love run-on sentences and especially parenthetic asides. They make me feel like we're whispering secrets to each other.)

Oh, a quick note about that husband of mine. He's from Norway. As in, a real live Norwegian, born and raised (second best place outside of Colorado perhaps?). So there do tend to be Norwegian recipes floating around on here. They're great. He used to be a professional triathlete, and we met through the sport of triathlon. He's done 10 full Ironmans, and I've done three four. Someday, I'll catch up with him.

So that's about it for now. I'll update this page if I think of anything else. If there's something you've thought of that I haven't, you can email me: cukingbooks (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Cooking Books Can Also Be Seen Here:

And a couple more from The Kitchn.

Kamille, One of Norway's Largest Woman's Magazines