An obligatory hello! and welcome!

I'm Lauren. Loving wife, daughter, sister and Facebook friend. I live in Brooklyn by way of Detroit. I'm a professional graphic designer, a newbie blogger and a retired poet. My skills include over-sharing and lying quietly in the sun for extended periods of time.

Like most living things with a will to survive, I like food. I like to read about it and talk about it, but I especially enjoy eating it. I'm good with my hands and at following directions, so it makes sense that I would be interested in cooking. I just haven't had a chance to do much of that yet.

I like to blame that on the fact that I've never not had a full-time job since I graduated. Lack of time has always trumped motivation. The college cooking method of Thaw and Reheat was replaced with the slightly more involved-- and satisfying-- Food Assembly Method, requiring a protein, some veggies and some sauce, tossed in a bowl over pasta or rice. Things got interesting when Trader Joe's came into the picture. My meals felt complete and moderately healthy.

But in recent years, I've started to appreciate food on a deeper level. Like many others, I'm increasingly aware of and concerned about the health risks of processed food and the questionable ethics of industrialized farming. But moreover, I find that as my tastes have developed, so has my desire to be closer to my food and be involved with my meals on a more intimate level-- knowing where each of my ingredients came from, how they taste, and what to do with them.

It's a craft and I like to be crafty.

So I've joined a fantastic CSA. I figure: what better way to learn to be a proficient cook then to let the ingredients themselves inspire me? Every two weeks I'll pick up my share of fresh (and sometimes exotic) produce and challenge myself to find and execute recipes that incorporate all of it. And in case anyone else finds this journey nearly as interesting as I do, I'm going to do my best to document my experiences.

Grab your tea towels, kids. Things are about to get messy.