Welcome

Welcome to Haute Cuisine for the Everyday Cook. I am writing this blog for two reasons:

• To capture my thoughts and experiments as I play with my food.
• To show that really cool, nifty food is not as difficult as you might think.

I've never had formal cooking training. I watch, listen, taste, and experiment. Not all of my experiments have been successful -- my parents have some real horror stories. But as I've gotten older, wiser, and more experienced, my successes far outnumber my failures.

In addition to food experiments, I plan to include the occasional book review. I've got a good collection of recipe books that I mine for food ideas. But I also have a growing collection of books that talk about how food is put together and why it works. Understanding why certain recipes or techniques work is why I spend two hours at Christmas constantly stirring the boiled custard and it turns out perfectly creamy and delicious.

I also will review appliances I use. We all have found appliances and gadgets we can't live without and others that are a waste of the materials used to make them. Hopefully I can help you avoid buying the useless and help you find the useful.