A Bacon Wrapped Life (previously Lady in Pink)

What started as an outlet for random rambling and general blogging (and a fun surprise from a wonderful boyfriend!) has become primarily a venue for even more enjoyment of food, with a bit of my random life excitement popping in–thus the name change.

Contrary to the beliefs of many friends,I don’t always cook with bacon, cheese, or other random sources of fat (although these are all delicious and often considered!).  I appreciate my increasing ability to cook with lots of different veggies, leave meat out all together sometimes, create healthier versions of old recipes and just generally bring health and wellness intomy life.

All that being said, I love to indulge, to succumb to temptation, to provide temptation, to jump into a giant hypothetical vat of whipped cream and absolutely gorge myself…OK, so this is where all those previously-mentioned misconceptions come from.  Along with my indulging, I also love to exaggerate. :) If I had to identify my “food philosophy,” it would be this: Food makes me happy and I want to use food to make you happy!  I am enthralled not only by the flavors, textures, scents and other sensations of food, but also by the science, history, sociology, psychology of food. Food is a key part of every aspect of life, and in times when more and more people have harmful relationships with the source of nourishment and life and can no longer take enjoyment in the act of eating, I think it is extremely important to recognize and remember the vital role that food plays in our lives. 

Indulgence is also not such a stable relationship either, and part of my challenge as a cook and a consumer is to work this indulgence into an overall healthy approach to eating.  My boyfriend, Matt, and I work on this issue together and I am so grateful that we have each other for support and the mental and emotional nourishment that supplements the physical nourishment we get from our food.  We both LOVE to eat, and luckily we both hate mushrooms…it works out nicely.

I recently finished my MA in English, so I’m also just getting past my college mentality towards food–fit in whatever you can, whenever you have time.  I’m currently working as an undergraduate admissions advisor at a small, private, naturual health sciences university.  I love student affairs and am excited to be at this early stage of my professional career with lots of hopeful options down the road.  In this job, I have had the opportunity to expand my advising experience and work with a huge variety of students so far, but I have also been exposed to a community of physicians, students and other faculty/staff members who are very involved in the field of natural health.  This hugely affects my perspective on food at this point in time; in a very short time I have absorbed a ton of amazing information and ideas about whole foods nutrition and overall wellness with an all-vegetarian cafeteria at my fingertips.  When I am at work, it’s very easy for me to push my own boundaries in terms of food knowledge and comfort-levels–something I also plan to be encouraged to do through this blog.  I have been in this job for about 6 months now and I can’t wait to see what else I’ll learn from this healthy community while I’m here!

COMPLETE CHANGE OF TOPIC: Another key thing about my life is my wonderfully adorable dog, Santana.  She’s a beagle-chihuahua mix who was a graduation present from my roommate when we finished our undergraduate work.  Santana moved with me from KY to central NY, and while I was in graduate school she helped me get through the rough patch of readjusting, making new friends in a completely different program and school and dealing with a crazy crazy grad student schedule…sometimes I’d be home all day reading and writing, sometimes I’d be gone from 8am until 2am the following morning and she was as flexible as a puppy could be–and always excited to see me when I got home! I was questioning my choices a lot and finding it hard to make time for relaxation and enjoyable activities, not to mention eating right and generally watching out for my health.  I can’t really explain how vital Santana was to getting through those 2 years.  She moved to Seattle with Matt and me and the three months before she got here were brutal (while I was here early doing some job-hunting).  She is a trouble-maker, and I sort of love her for it.  She fits us, and we love her so much we let her start her own blog. Originally this was Matt’s idea, but yeah, I am that kind of puppy mom…deal with it and just enjoy how adorable she is.  The blog does a great job of portraying her very anthropomorphized personality!  Ok, I’m done raving about her for now, but I figured it was important to me and thus to the blog. I may even include some puppy-friendly recipes at times!

There’s a lot more “about me” that I could ramble about; as an English student, one of my biggest flaws was editing things down!  This blog will likely change as my life continues to shift, but my goal is to be constantly encouraged by the presence of the blog world to continue my quest for healthiness in my happily bacon-wrapped life.

One last important note: I love lists! Love them! If it can be said in a list, say it in a list! Here’s a summary about me and my food, in list form:

• A lot of the recipes I use or create are chock-full of indulgence.
• Every once in a while I have the energy to try to clean up around the edges and make something on the fancy side.
• More and more I celebrate new veggie options and other healthy additions to my food life.
• Always I want a delicious and enjoyable experience in the kitchen and at the table–if I don’t like it, I don’t cook it.
• Exception to the note above: If I really like you, I’ll cook whatever you want! Maybe not that extreme, but I love to feed the people I care about, and the act of cooking for them is just as important as eating the finished product. 

I am excited to dive into the wonderful blogging community and hope that you can find some yummy recipes and fun randomness along the way.  I love feedback and new ideas, so bring on the comments! And the bacon!