And so it begins.

S and I had been talking about a blog for a very long time. It’s quite possible that we talked about starting a blog without realizing it, actually. That’s mostly because our conversations amuse us so much – so witty! so quick! so like the Gilmores! – that we felt we’d be doing the world a favor to share them.

I’m joking. Mostly. But we did want a place to record our adventures – culinary and otherwise - and keep some sort of record of what we love. And this love of love is pretty much this blog.

S and I met when I complimented her bright green shoes in our Algebra class when she was a new freshman and I was in eighth grade. We didn’t talk for the rest of the year. But as the next few years rolled around, we bonded first over tennis, and everything else just followed suit. I don’t really know when the cooking thing started, except that before I knew it, I was Sarah’s official sous-chef and we had made batches upon batches of chocolate chip cookies, a whole mess of cakes, and had moved on to marinated chicken on a shiny gas grill. Food&Wine and Bon Appetit has transformed from a magazine with really pretty pictures to one with a whole other world. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but me and my stomach are awfully glad it did.

We have an entire list of things we’d like to accomplish making this summer. For me, at least, risotto is at the top. It’s probably one of my favorite foods in the world. However, a gnocchi cloud has been hanging over my head for awhile now, and I’m pretty sure a carrot cake with cream cheese icing is about to take over. And preferably all this with fresh, local ingredients. For living in an occasionally lackluster Midwestern city, we have kick-ass markets all over the place. We are locavores, hear us roar!

Other things that I love? My family and friends. They’re all fabulously strange and lovely. I love reading and writing and books, and yes, I was probably that girl you saw at your favorite coffee shop who let her chai tea get lukewarm because she happened to get wrapped up in a chapter of beautiful writing. I’m a photography fiend, and I miss the darkroom constantly. I like design – whether that’s on a plate, in a room, or around a person. I’m a big fan of big conversations on kitchen floors late at night. I want to see the entire world. I watch trashy television on an embarrassingly regular basis, but Mad Men has become my new obsession. The New Yorker is my Bible. My favorite color is cobalt blue. Balance is my mantra. I can’t help it: I’m a libra.