Hello World.

Once upon a time, I had never touched a piece of raw chicken, or fish, or steak, or turkey. And then one month ago, that all changed with the watching of Julie and Julia. Totally cliché, yes, but very, very true. From the moment I purchased Julia’s signature cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I could not put down cookbooks, recipe reading, and food blog searching. Here I am, one month later, starting my very own food blog.

Savory Flavors became the title of my blog after a bottle of wine, a home cooked dinner in, and many debates between Jack and myself. I finally won the debate after promising to give him the title “Professional Taste Tester.” Anyway, I digress.

I am not a professional chef by any means, and have had no professional training. I am a 9-by-5er by day and an exercise and cooking nut by night. I will be sharing my cooking and baking experiences from a learning point of view. This means that I will write about both my successes and failures, and tips to fix any mistakes that I might have made during the process.

One such example was this past Sunday. It was a rainy, miserable day in New England, and I was hung-over. What better way to cure a hangover than to cook, and bake, and well, burn. I set out to make cinnamon bread from the blog of Confessions of Tart, “the best ever Mac and cheese,” from the blog of Cheese is Alive and Sautéed Chicken a la Julia Child.

The bread was much easier to make than I had anticipated. I guess I confused a long inactive time to mean difficult in terms of baking. Not so as the loaf came out splendidly.

The macaroni and cheese was extremely time consuming with loads of dicing, chopping, and shredding of cheeses. Everything was going splendidly, until the recipe called to “broil the breadcrumbs for a few minutes.” I placed the pan under the broiler, not keeping particularly close watch on it, and then I noticed smoke coming out of the burners. I called Jack in and we couldn’t figure out the issue, and then I opened the oven. I was greeted by a puff of smoke and the realization that the breadcrumbs were jet-black and burning. I was devastated. Thankfully, after scooping off the top layer of crumbs, I was able to salvage the dish, and thankfully able to enjoy the fruits of my labor (if not in the perfect form).

And per usual, Julia Child came through again, always my saving grace when cooking.

So see, I admit my mistakes and hope not to make them again. Lesson Learned #1: Actually watch the breadcrumbs broiling, and never forget to check on the oven.

Anyway, look forward to some honest blog reading along with some great recipes, pictures of recipes, and taste testing critiques.

mt.