Welcome to the Blog

As a "foodie," I come from rather humble beginnings.  Growing up, my dad's spaghetti sauce was the highlight of a month of meals (still is), with the rest of the month consisting of a LOT of chicken, potatoes and frozen peas, with the occasional frozen shepherd's pie thrown in for variety.  Fine dining was going to my grandma's for noodle casserole (ground beef, cheese, canned tomatoes and macaroni) and apple crisp (still AMAZING).  This of course was better than our other grandma (Mimi's)'s speciality: instant mashed potatoes topped with paprika and Monterrey jack cheese. 
I began cooking for the family shortly before high school, with exotic specialities like canned mushroom soup Alfredo and pork chops with Mrs. Dash.  My big break came when I got a job cooking at the restaurant down the street and learnt such culinary secrets as microwave scrambled eggs and putting chicken stock in mashed potatoes.  In university I became an accidental vegetarian, discovering the joy that is minute rice.
I have faced many challenges in my quest to become a foodie.  The main one would be the fact that I hate almost EVERYTHING.  I have been described on more than one occasion as "the pickiest person I know."  I like to think that I am more like Meg Ryan in "Harry Met Sally" and I have a particular idea on how things should be prepared.  My food "issues" are as follows:

• Bacon - won't eat it, won't touch it, don't like it if something even has bacon in the name.  If you are looking for blogs about bacon, head down the net to the Bacon, Bacon, Bacon Blog because you will not find any here. 
• Green Peppers - The most invasive food EVER.  If I want to eat green peppers (which I don't) I will, I don't need my entire pizza to to taste like green peppers.
• Lemon - I don't want lemon in water.  I don't want lemonade.  Lemon squares, no thank you.
• Onions - ok, this one is all texture.  I can't stand the crunch of raw onions.  I am much better than I used to be.  I actually like the taste and if they are cooked beyond recognition, I am good. 
• Burnt - you may call it "char grilled," I call it burnt.  Incidentally, I could have breakfast with 15 people and my toast (which I love) will be the only burnt toast at the table. 

There are many more but this is a blog, not a novel. 

Now that you know a little (or too much) about me, here's the direction I intend to go with this blog.  I love to cook and try out new recipes and have friends over for dinner.  I'll share my successful recipes and maybe a fail or two (if they are funny).  I also love to go out to different restaurants and food events in Windsor and other places I travel.  I started a Dinner Club over a year ago and I'll share some of our experiences. 

Thanks for checking me out.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for recipes or restaurants, criticisms or you just want to curse me out because I don't like bacon.  All comments welcome.