Intro

I've always loved cooking. I started cooking creative scrambled eggs for myself when I was about 7, because on the weekends, while my parents were sleeping in, I would get up super early to watch all the cartoons (GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, Gummy Bears...dare I say Gem? Hey, I had sisters...anyway, you name it, I watched it) -- and during the hours and hours of TV with no parents around to feed me, I got hungry! I got bored of cereal and there was nothing good to microwave for breakfast, so I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands...

My first creation was scrambled eggs with onions, a meat (hot dogs, salami, ham, whatever mom had in the fridge), cheese and salsa. I would sautee the meat with the onions, crack in the eggs, scramble them around, add cheese and finish with some Pace Picante. They were damn tasty for a 7 year old, and I got trremendous satisfaction from the fact that I had made them myself. I also became a hit with my firends, for whenever we had sleepovers, I would cook everyone breakfast!

As I got older, weekend breakfast became a staple routine for my father and I. We had competitions on who could cook the best scramble combo. My dad used to always say, without fail, that whatever he was eating at the time was the "best ever", so no one ever really won or lost. After eggs, my dad taught me how to properly grill a steak (filet), and make some killer sauteed mushrooms. So those became my two go-to dishes. Scrambled eggs in the morning, and if necessary, a steak dinner. Those two dishes got me by until college. I couldn't really cook, but i could do two things well, which was all you really needed to impress the guys or cook dinner for a girl.

While I was in college, I spent a summer living with a guy, Alex, who grew up in Milan and really knew how to cook. Today he's one of my best friends and God-Father to my daughter. Alex is a true renaissance man, and from him, I've learned a tremendous amount about the finer things in life -- Art, Music, Wine and especially food. Because of Alex, food and cooking became a hobby of mine and it's one of the things that's given me great joy in my adult life.

So why the hell am I writing a blog?

Good question. The reason is that most people I know love good food. Who doesn't? And many people I know love watching cooking shows like Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen and yet, they don't cook themselves. Why? One simple reason: they're intimidated. Even if they have a cookbook and are following a recipe, they are intimidated. And because they are nervous about cooking, when they try, they're so worried about screwing up and what people will think when they taste their food that they don't have any fun and therefore just say "forget it". Or they say, "Oh, I'm going to go to cooking school so I can really learn how to do it right." Cooking school is wonderful, but let's face it -- 99% of the people who say they're going to go to cooking school never do. Even though most chefs and cookbooks tell people that anyone can cook, that it's easy, and provide things like "great receipes in 20 minutes or less" -- people who love good food still don't cook because they say, "Yeah, sure, 20 mins or less for YOU, a professional!"

Well, I'm not a chef. I'm just a regular guy with a job and a kid who likes to cook, and I'm here to tell you that it is easy. It is fun, and very satisfying to the mind, body and soul. There is nothing else you can do where you can be completely creative while providing essential nourishment for yourself and others. It's like painting a beautiful picture, and then getting to eat it! I'm here to share with you things that I cook on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and hopefully whoever reads my posts will get inspired to start cooking for themselves, friends, family and strangers.

Tyler