Let's do it.

Hello my following of one (maybe two?). As you can see, I'm starting a blog (again).

I created this blog for a variety of reasons, however the primary reason is that I realize I have entered a very new and exciting phase in my life and I guess I have the desire to share it. So pay attention fool(s)! Call it what you will...pseudo-adulthood...independence...dependence (as I'm living with my boyfriend)...adventure...or simply "real life". Whatever it is I am here for the time being.

Aside from the obvious advances (moving out of my parents house and into my own place in a fabulous new city) I've realized in the last few months that while I used to pride myself on always being on the go and in the know (thank you Citysearch!), I am actually quite the home body. I am happiest when cooking dinner and serving guests, baking pies, browsing through Crate&Barrel, buying overpriced kitchen gadgets and cutting lemon peels for cocktail garnishes.

In fact, I am downright Domestic with a capital D.

I have found Domestic to be considered a four letter word to the modern woman (Westridge bred or otherwise). I am all for fighting the power, but what I have found is this aversion to all things Domestic has not led to the empowerment of womankind, but instead led to a severe lack of survival skills.

Now wait a second and hear me out.

I think of myself as a relatively smart girl and a relatively pretty girl and a relatively talented girl. However, in the course of my adult years I have been complimented more for my cooking than any other skill I posses! This is hard for me to believe because I'm really not that great of a chef! I pale in comparison to my friends Allyson (ruler of the tea party and queen of everything vegetarian) and Anya (crepe-master)! And yet, compared to almost every young adult I know, I am Julia Child reincarnated.

So this is Domeschtik. My blog. I promise you won't get too many philosophical ramblings or angry rants.


Just a whole lot of photos of food.

Let's have a potluck soon k?

Love,
Katie

Post Scriptum: check out this interesting book review on Mark Bittman
I can't wait to finish my current book and read this! This segment I felt was particularly astute:

Of all the challenges confronting the "Food Matters" plan for "responsible eating" -- agribusiness lobbying and marketing, the low price of subsidized junk food, even evolutionary factors that attract us to high-calorie foods -- probably the single most obdurate is the fact that so many contemporary Americans simply don't know how to cook. By "cook," I don't mean being able to concoct an impressive dinner the one night a month you have guests over while otherwise subsisting on nuked Lean Cuisine. Real home cooking means having a good repertoire of reliable, quick, uncomplicated recipes and understanding enough of the underlying principles to improvise when needed. It means knowing how to stock a pantry and plan your menus so that you shop for groceries only once a week. It's a set of skills manifested as an attitude, something you can acquire only through regular practice, and it's the one thing that can make a person truly at ease in a kitchen. (An example of this everyday expertise is Bittman's suggestion that, when determining how long to steam a vegetable, you "try bending or breaking whatever it is you're planning to cook; the more pliable the pieces are, the more quickly they will become tender.")

In short, this is home economics -- although when I was taught that subject in high school, our time was largely wasted on learning how to bake perfect biscuits, a special-occasion food if I ever heard of one. Like writing, driving, touch typing and balancing a checkbook, basic cooking is a life skill (not an art or hobby) that everybody needs, and it ought to be taught in public schools as a matter of course. The fact that cooking can also be a craft, featuring a certain amount of self-expression, or that contemporary star chefs have been exalted to a degree far exceeding their actual cultural worth, shouldn't be allowed to obscure that humbler truth.