New blog. Who dis?

Welcome to Recipes Are Guidelines!

This is an opportunity for me to push myself further into the cooking and baking realms than I have ever ventured before. When I previously worked as a retail dietitian, I loved helping our food service department and customers modify recipes or find substitutions to fit specific health needs. Since college, I have been intrigued by how ingredients and cooking methods can alter recipes - a lot or a little!

I am not a chef, nor have I had any chef training. I'm someone who enjoys cooking and doesn't mind messing things up in public. Everyone can learn from my mistakes! Because of this, I call myself a "cookatitian." I hail from a family of bakers and chefs - some professionally. It makes me feel very inadequate. After I have made and sampled each recipe I try, I will give it a rating of 1-5 stars. Below is the rating scale:

* (1 star) - baked garbage
** (2 stars) - meh
*** (3 stars) - edible
**** (4 stars) - I've impressed myself
***** (5 stars) - delicious award

In addition to regularly ruining recipes and making a fool of myself, I'll also try to post suggested grocery lists for various situations. As I'm starting this new adventure during a global pandemic, an emergency non-perishable list seems like an appropriate place to start.

When I'm not pretending I'm a professional, I enjoy spending time with my 10 year old doghter, Lola. She is small and fluffy and really wishes I would drop more food on the floor. She likes snacks and naps. She gets that from me. Lola and I live in a small rural town of just over 500 people. It's quiet with lots of open spaces, several different types of manure smell, and everyone knows your business. I absolutely love where I live, and in a time of quarantines and self isolation, this is the perfect place to be - friendly people who look out for you and plenty of space to be outside but not alone.

Lola, Queen of Everything

As you read along, please leave comments or post reactions. If you have suggested recipes or would like to reach out to me, please email RecipesAreGuidelines@gmail.com. If you have a recipe you would like me to attempt, please provide a weblink to the original recipe. I want to provide credit to the people it belongs to.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure.