I’m not sure how to start a blog.  Sure, I figured out how to set up the technical details, design a header, even create an RSS feed sign-up button, but after teaching a class on writing introductions today, I realized that I just don’t have a good one.  I looked at some of my favorite blogs for inspiration, but I think they got off easy; starting a food blog in 1999, in 2005, even in 2007, was a different enterprise.  There weren’t really expectations of the “go big or go home” sort: bloggers didn’t get deals for cookbooks, or movies, or autobiographies.  Not that I think that’s what this is about, but still . . . If cooking blogs are “done,” then how done is “hello?  anyone there?  this is my first post on my cooking blog!”

Which I guess leaves just me and my sparkling wit.  Oh boy.

I still think back to five or six years ago, when I thought that I was probably one of only a few dozen people reading David Lebovitz’s blog or when I single-handedly “discovered” 101 Cookbooks (perhaps adding to my delusion was the fact that I’d first seen a link to the blog in a Gmail news feed – clearly it was unknown) . . . I used to think the Food Network was the height of culinary sophistication, and that I could learn all the secrets I’d ever want to know about picking out the best avocados from furtive viewings of Rachael Ray (actually, she’s probably got your back for all your avocado-sorting needs), but it’s really been a wide variety of food blogs that have taught me about so many new ingredients and ideas, and convinced me that I want to keep cooking new things every week, even if it’s frequently just me eating.  I’m not sure how much cooking expertise I possibly have to add to the world, but at the very least, I hope to be able to jump in and share my experiences – and maybe pass along some of what I’ve discovered.