Well, where do I start?

 

Me, on one of the best days of my life.

Okay, some of you may already know me from my personal life and social networking. Some may be meeting me for the first time, as it were. I'm Ed - and I have a few favorite things. Not in any particular order - cooking, making beer, and writing. That's just the ones that pertain to this site.

Over time, I, as many people do, posted pics of finished meals on things like Facebook. Sometimes it ended with me sending recipes to friends. Then it occurred to me - why not just create a one stop shop? Hence this blog. 

I'm not going to lie - not everything you find here is some masterpiece of originality. The recipes - some are original, others are my take on known recipes. The flavors are my own. A lot are influenced by where I grew up - the Jersey Shore. So, yes... there will be some Italian and Italian style foods. I also make my own rubs and love to barbeque and smoke meats. I'm going to share all of this with you here. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

I also brew my own beer. Not as often as I like, but when I have a good recipe (all of which I do dream up on my own,) I will share it. 

The pictures you'll see are, for the most part, spur of the moment iPhone pics of the finished product. You are in my kitchen and this is what you see. I'll do my best to make it most appealing.

My style of cooking is pretty natural, though for some things I have to resort to using prefab items (mostly seasoning mixes) in my ingredients list. I prefer using fresh produce and herbs, but not everything is available all the time where I live. I also strongly encourage getting all the cool toys for the kitchen - the more, the better.

Remember - living life well is more important than living it long. If you can do both, bonus. Eat up!