buongiorno

greetings internet people! i've been mulling over the idea of blogging about my culinary exploits for some time now, and have finally decided that my facebook page will no longer suffice. i'm hoping this blog will capture the joy i get from cooking and inspire you to create that same connection to the food you prepare and eat.
as the title implies, a lot of posts will be pork related. derived from the french words for "flesh" (chair) and "cooked" (cuit), the term charcuterie was used to designate shops in fifteenth-century france that sold products made from pork. with said pork you can then salt, smoke or cure it for fantastic results. I really enjoy cooking with pork because it's inexpensive, flavorful and extremely versatile. I have been making homemade fresh sausage and hot smoked meats for the last six months, and i will dive into the recipes and techniques involved shortly.
i am a little uneasy about divulging all of the ingredients in my recipes, so if i omit something (and i will tell you i'm omitting it!), it's because of me and not you. one of the things i love about cooking is creating something completely unique, and the journey of continually improving a recipe is something that you will have to experience yourself. i am a firm believer that recipes and measurements shouldn't be static and tweaking recipes is part of the fun to create food YOU enjoy. you are not cooking for the person that wrote the cookbook, and you won't hurt their feelings if you change things up. you just need to understand certain ratios and then the sky is your limit. this is obviously not the case for all of the culinary arts, like baking, so it should come as no surprise that i don't bake a lot!
i have no idea how often i will blog, and i'm sure there will be some non-food related posts thrown in for good measure. but most of the posts will focus on recipes, techniques, my culinary inspirations (people and restaurants) and maybe a restaurant review or two. i don't intend on cooking my way through cookbooks, a la julie and julia, because i don't want to be confined to making things i don't like. but i do use cookbooks and epicurious.com as a jumping off point for a lot of my recipes.
a few quick notes about me. i am an amateur chef, my only industry experience is having worked in a handful of pizza joints in high school and college. my sister is a professionally trained chef and has told me several times that you don't have to go to culinary school to create delicious food. i work in real estate development and love my job. just like cooking, there is something i really dig about the tangible aspect of real estate. you are creating something from the ground up and providing for people an essential part of their daily life. i really like cooking for other people and often find myself uninspired if i only have to cook for myself. so that's it, feel free to contact me if you have any questions or things to share!