About
This phrase is a bit southern, a bit irreverent, and a bit fun.
As it pertains to this blog, it is intended to reference those among us who want to cook but probably don’t have the benefit of a fancy wedding registry, the luxury of a gazillion kitchen tools, or a well stocked pantry. Most recipes listed here will, at most, require the tools you can find in a $50 “Kitchen in a Box” kit from Target. Additionally, I want to help demystify the act of cooking. That is why every post will have informative pictures of just about every step. Cooking at home is generally more fun, healthier, and much cheaper than eating out. It doesn’t require expensive ingredient lists or classes in French culinary techniques. Most of the recipes posted here are compiled with that goal in mind – to motivate more home cooks, especially those of us who have yet to have much experience in the kitchen beyond brewing coffee and making toast.
About this blog:
Here you will see every inch of my kitchen, all of my tools, everything I eat, and (more often than I would like) my little pink hands. The recipes are intended to be fun, simple, and accessible. I am going to give a quick preview of each recipe so you’ll know what to expect with each recipe before going through all the pictures.
This blog is my way to share my passion for excellent, simple cooking and photography. I am a self-taught (i.e., I read it on the internet) chef and a mostly self-taught photographer. I am currently learning all there is to know about blogging, css, and WordPress in order to make this a quality blog. Random bits from my life show up on the “Bunk” page.
I expect to incorporate a FAQ page, a photography page, and a manual on important kitchen tools. I also intend to include a few pages highlighting a few of my favorite cooking sites and stores. As always, this website is a work in progress.
About me:
My name is Jamie. On the internet, I go by jamiepatra (follow me on Twitter @jamiepatra!). By my family, I go by Jamie Kaye. Hopefully, in the next year, I will be able to go by Jamie, PhD.
I grew up in Texas and miss her like crazy so you’re bound to see some Texan influences in my cooking. Right now though, I am cooking in a teensy tiny apartment kitchen in Chicago. I am entering my final year as a graduate student in Neuroscience studying gait rehabilitation for people who have experienced a stroke.
Grad school, plus a grad school stipend, plus an urban kitchen mean that I have constraints on my cooking that require me to be a bit frugal, a bit time conscious, and a bit creative in order to make home meals that are delicious and economical.
My constant companions in cooking are Chris (my husband) and Linus (my dog). Chris is an avid eater of my food, a professional dishwasher, and an obliging gopher of groceries. He also makes a mean waffle. Like me, he too is a graduate student. Chris is due to get a doctoral degree in clinical psychology in the summer of 2012. I keep asking him if he thinks I am crazy yet, but he only tells me that I am the most normal person he knows. And I take that as nothing short of a compliment most days.
Chris and Linus will inevitably show up from time to time in these pictures. They are my favorite things to take pictures of and trust me, I’ve taken alot of them. However, I am sure these pictures are only interesting to me so I take pictures of my food instead. I will resist making a fan page for my dog despite how smart, stubborn, and goofy he is.
I promise…
