Time to eat

I've spent most of my life as a runner. I remember being five years old and chasing my sister around. I remember my dad coming in to the house and telling my older sister that she could run track. I couldn't wait until it was my turn.

After practice, we would visit my grandparents, and my grandmother would let my dad have it, scolding him for keeping us out in the triple digit heat. She would tell him that we shouldn't be out there running, that it wasn't good for us. My grandmother tells this story to us now, twenty five years later, describing primary schoolers in ponytails, in tiny running shorts, hair disheveled from training, and with electric red cheeks.

Anytime we stopped by my grandparents house, there was always something cooking and we needed to prepare to eat...no matter what time of day it was. I remember her feeding everyone from my grandfathers employees to my aunts' friends. We learned how to cook in that home.

I can count on my hands the time we visited a fast food joint growing up. Everything made at home or at my grandmothers' was made with fresh foods and made with lots of love. All the recipes I originally learned were meant to feed a football team (I have an obnoxiously large family full of cousins). It wasn't until I moved to college that I learned how to cook for one...and two....albeit with a few screw ups.

Cooking for myself has become such a fun activity. But it has also saved my sanity and my health. I am a marathoner. I have been blessed with the ability to run many miles and still have strong knees...not to mention a healthy appetite. I look forward to sharing my victories and blunders in the kitchen and on the road.