I'm a high school music teacher (band directing is my primary job and love) in a Seattle suburb. I love music more than almost anything, but when it became my job, I realized I needed a new way to escape the stresses of the day, and cooking became my hobby. I've always LOVED eating, and my family is full of great cooks, however I wasn't interested in cooking until my college roommate and I moved into an apartment and had to fend for ourselves culinarily. It just exploded from there. I started reading cooking magazines for fun, perusing the internet for recipes whenever possible, and snapping up used cookbooks at Half Price Books. I love all kinds of food and enjoy trying new things, though my comfort food is anything Japanese. Or anything with noodles. Yum. My biggest influences are my parents, who are great cooks, and my grandmothers. Grandma is American but of Czech descent, and Obachan is Japanese. Over the last couple years, I've started cooking with them side by side as much as possible, taking notes and asking questions. I'll never make homemade egg noodles and chicken noodle soup as delicious as my Grandma's, but I guess I'll just have to keep trying until I'm a grandma myself! I've got a several more decades to go, thank goodness.
What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
Natto - sticky, mucus-y fermented soybeans in Japan. It's, as they say, "an aquired taste."
What do you cook when home alone?
Usually Japanese - miso soup, rice, udon, a steamed vegetable with sesame dressing, okonomiyaki...
Your most treasured kitchen possession:
My big Le Creuset pot. It was my first big kitchen purchase as a first year teacher!
The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
Six. Eight or ten if it's a barbeque.
