Hello!

Hi everybody! We're Iain and Emily, a couple of recent graduates of Macalester College up in St Paul, Minnesota. Over the last year we've done a whole lot of cooking together. It's been both a source of stress-relief (I have a ten page paper due tomorrow. I'm baking cookies NOW!) and a fun way to try something that isn't connected to a grade, something that you can take pride in right away just because you made it...even if it didn't turn out quite how you expect.

Now that we have diplomas on our desks, our cooking adventures have grown in size and scope (we believe this has nothing to do with the B.A.s and everything to do with the fact that Iain doesn't start his job until September and Emily gets off work at 4 PM). We'll use this blog to share these dishes with all of you, and we might also throw in some posts relating to our favorite cookbooks/enjoying kitchen life/cooking on a budget/etc. We'll see what we're inspired to write!

Let's be clear here. Neither of us has a lick of professional cooking training. Both of us grew up in families that cook, so that taught us the basics, but almost everything we throw together these days is an experiment of sorts. Whatever the reason, we both thought it'd be fun to chronicle some of our eclectic kitchen adventures. Feel free to try them yourselves, but mess around! Don't always use exact proportions! Change up the vegetables! Listen to music and sing in the kitchen and above all, HAVE FUN! After all, that's what cooking's all about, right?


If you're just interested in the cooking stuff, stop reading here, but in case you want to know more about the two of us, here's a bit more info.

Iain: Iain majored in Studio Art with a minor in Computer Science. He has an avid interest in computer animation and sometimes wishes that he'd picked up a geology major/minor too. He's a musical dude, playing (in order of proficiency) penny whistle, guitar, voice, and bagpipes. He's a Chicago native, born and raised, and wants everybody to know it. Although not actually a vegetarian, he lives and cooks with one (Emily) and so ends up consuming most of his meat while out at restaurants or in bacon-form as a special treat. In the religion category, Iain describes himself as an Episcopalian Pantheist. In the kitchen, he has a flair for frying and loves chopping garlic.



Emily: Emily majored in history with minors in music (she's a soprano) and Chinese. Her secondary instruments are penny whistle, piano, and bagpipes. (Macalester has an endowed piping program. Lessons are free.) Emily grew up mostly in Virginia, but beyond that where she's from gets a little confusing. She's Jewish and actually thought about going to rabbinical school for awhile, but at the moment at least that doesn't seem as likely. She does want to go back to China next summer/fall. Emily is, beyond all other kinds of kitchen usage, a baker. "Baking Adventures," in which she throws together cookies/cake/muffins/whatever without any attention to proportions but somehow usually ends up with something delicious anyway, are her favorite kind of cooking.