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I remember a few years ago when I first met Dan’s parents, one of the 30-Questions (as he likes to call any series of “interrogatory”/inquiring questions) they asked was: “Do you have a sport?/enjoy any sport?” Now Sports and me, we don’t really go together. Next question please. Understandably, they wanted to know who I was and what I like, and what I have in common with Dan. One of the things we enjoy doing aside from eating out, traveling and discovering new places and activities, was shopping. He does not complain about shopping for hours and hours with me, and on rare occasions he is capable of out-shopping me. What more could a girl ask for? Of course my better judgment told me that it’s best not to tell your boyfriend’s parents on the first meeting that shopping is the sport of choice.

Then we discovered COOKING. Of all things! It’s now our most-beloved year-round sport. Who would have thought that two people who had deliberately avoided and excused themselves from doing any kitchen-related duty for more than twenty years will end up dreaming and breathing menus and recipes, and spending so much time cooking and baking? Dan and I, we are late bloomers in this arena, but we sure are catching up.

It could’ve been Rachel Ray’s vodka cream pasta with the ridiculous name, “You Won’t Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Pasta“, that did us (not that it was particularly awesome, but only because it was our first dish). One afternoon while Dan’s mom was out for a golf tournament, we prepared this pasta dish for her. It turns out she has already eaten when we called her on her way back. However, M.A. being M.A.–graceful as always–she still had a few bites of the pasta that night and loved it. We ended up with so much pasta that we decided we need to do this again and have everybody (i.e. his whole family) over to have pasta. Thus, our “Pasta Night” was born and we cooked four-course meals from scratch for his family whenever I visited. And just like that, it came to us…Cooking, our lovechild.

Fast forward to when we eventually moved in together. Kitchen Mayhem ensued. We cooked and cooked, and shared what we cooked, tried new restaurants, coveted the delicious fares on the menus and tried to make our own versions in our kitchen, and well, sent pictures! This digital age and being in one cellphone network make it so easy to send pictures.

Recently we received ‘complaints’ from the family about these and Dan’s brother (hi Chris!) even went so far as to send him this facetious email in response to fresh tortilla photos:

“You’ve got a food porn problem; your constant pictures of whatever you’ve created in your kitchenary lab borders on obsessive. Even though those look fluffy and tasty, the first step is recognizing you have a problem.“

HAHAHA. Steps needed to be taken. I have a blog but it’s so much more a cooking blog now, and Dan needs a place to show off his mighty meaty kitchen creations. So here we are!

Dan and I absolutely LOVE food and we are SHAMELESS of it! Love it, love it, love it. Our food obsession has been further fueled by the Food Network and those restaurant shows (ahem, Kitchen Nightmares). We end up thinking how we can tweak dishes to suite our tastes.** When we cook, we ask ourselves what we can do better next time. When we eat out, we critique the food while eating (fresh? crisp? overdone? good flavor? too chewy?) and compliment the chef when it is deserved. We go Oooh, purrrrty! at the plating. We talk about making food at home. We stay up at night formulating our menu for get-togethers. We recommend places we’ve enjoyed to people we know and meet. We LOVE cooking for our friends and family. Yup, we’re all about food!

Welcome to Gourmet*ed. Gourmeted, or Gourmet Ed, I think both apply to us. You’ll see us through our journey with food. We’ll show you what we’re making, with recipes, their boons and banes, and include tips we’ve learned along the way. We’ll tell you all about our favorite kitchen tools and gadgets, and God knows we love shopping for those. We’ll take you to restaurants and cute little snack places. We’ll share with you our newfound passion for food.

Enjoy!

**Note: Dan does not fancy seafood at all and he is very picky with food textures and tastes, so half the time, we tweak the food to his liking.