About Ashley

My name is Ashley and I live in the Kansas City area with my husband Zach and two dogs, Preston and Riley. My professional background and training is as a pediatric nurse, and am currently working on a team that focuses on education and process improvement.  I love my job, but my true passion came to me as a surprise a few years back. When I graduated nursing school I found myself with a lot of extra spare time. Countless hours of watching Food Network became the hobby that filled my newly discovered free time. This was a shock to me, why did I enjoy this? I didn't grow up liking to cook or even caring about food much. I wasn't a picky eater by any means, but my family didn't experiment much either. My grandparents did some cooking and so did my parents, but definitely not something that was a true passion for any of them. Figuring out what to cook for dinner was a chore for my parents, like many families. What do I get at the grocery store? What do I cook for dinner? What can I make that the whole family will eat? What can I make that won't take up my entire evening? Whatever the reason for enjoying cooking who knows, but I did - very much!

My love for the Food Network 30 minute cooking segments translated into learning about the kitchen, food, cooking and encouraged me to want to try new things. My then boyfriend (now husband) was always the guinea pig. I was always trying lots of new recipes. Thankfully, my husband is the type of person that will eat just about anything....swiss cheese is the only thing to date that I know of him not liking. This played very beneficial for me because when you experiment constantly you are bound to have things that don't work out quite like you hoped.

Five and a half years later, I am still cooking and loving every minute of it.  I am to the point where I am more confident and comfortable in the kitchen, with my skills, learned techniques and am having fun experimenting and not just following recipes.  I love incorporating photography into my cooking, having dinner parties, eating at restaurants (later trying to re-create the meal) and also being inspired by different culture's food as we travel. Quality of food and the environment in which it was produced is also now a priority for my husband and I.

I am not a chef, but rather a self taught home cook, with a desire to contribute to a better tomorrow based on the decisions I have made today. My goal of this blog is to help people feel comfortable in the kitchen by sharing techniques, skills, tips, recipes and hopefully help people start to enjoy being in the kitchen. I also hope to help you make choices that will positively affect you, your family, and the environment around you, all while having fun and being creative!