Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This is a project I've wanted to do for quite some time, but never really got around to it. Until now.

In this blog, I'll write about some of the fun I have in my kitchen. I'm mostly a baker, but every now and then I veer off into the murky world of cooking. I have no formal culinary training. I own a lot of books about baking and cooking, such as Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking and Michael Ruhlman's Ratio. I've made a lot of desserts in my lifetime, most of which were well-received. For about two years, I operated a "restaurant" in my college dorm room, but that's a story that will come up later (probably around bread baking).

Why do I enjoy baking so much? It appeals to me because I'm a scientist at heart. But I'm a bit of a "mad scientist." While I usually stay on point with the recipe, I often have to make changes. Sometimes, this is because I forgot to make sure I have an ingredient and I'm 20 minutes into the process and need to come up with a substitution on the fly. Other times, it's because of dietary restrictions. And I also keep kosher, so I need to find effective ways of replacing butter in a lot of things.

I want to share with everyone the adventures I have in my kitchen, not only talking about the end result but about the process, too. And yes, even though the title of the blog has "Baking" in it, there will occasionally be posts about cooking. A guy needs to eat more than just cake and cookies, you know.

I hope you have as much fun with this as I do. Enjoy.