Welcome to our adventure!

Hello and welcome to our daily home cooking adventure weblog. We live in California. Here we chronicle our culinary journey beginning fall of 2012 and maybe we can complete it before the end of 2017? We will see. :) The original plan was, for 365 days, we will discover and cook 365 different dishes, learn about the history of the exotic cuisines we will find. We will read, look at pictures, and while enjoying each cooked meal, we will discuss something we learned about the country of origin: it's people, geography, history, culture and everything interesting.  We will keep a record of the recipes of every food we made for our future use and to share. 365 great international dishes in 365 days! No repeats. BUT...being a full time career woman and a single mom, I really do not have all the time to do it. Realistically, this project should be done within three to five years. We are truly excited! :) 

I have so much to learn about cooking and international cuisine in general. I love and want to taste as many different foods from all over the world as possible.  This hobby will allow my family and I to regularly experience many previously unknown flavors, help me bring order and life to my kitchen, will give me something worthwhile to do with my extra time  daily as a single parent, which will eventually improve my cooking skills and most importantly, immerse my little family in different cultures, as food is the direct link to the heart of a culture. Together, we will learn more about our world, one dish at a time!

ABOUT ME:

I have no formal culinary nor photography training. I simply LOVE food; I love to learn, create and share. I am happy when I cook from scratch and  I enjoy capturing images that will be remembered for years to come and treasured by hopefully- many of my generations. I am the type who can spend many hours in the kitchen when needed,  because I enjoy making food and I  appreciate how much accessibility I have now to a big working oven, all the ingredients at nearby stores found in recipe books, a well stocked and equipped kitchen. I did not have all these 6 years ago. I moved to the United States from my beautiful tropical island in the Philippines in 2006. I come from a small town where it was hard to find fresh herbs like basil, sage, parsley,  and other ingredients that are easily found here. Now,  everything I imagined as a child that's needed to make all the delicious and healthy meals are at my fingertips, and I want to take advantage of this privilege while I can. This ambitious project will be fun because  of my love for cooking and my preference in eating at home as much as possible.

All photographs in this weblog are taken by yours truly, using a simple point and shoot camera, the Nikon Coolpix L120*. All recipes are mine unless otherwise noted. We will cook our 365th dish on November 5, 2016? We'll have a wonderful journey and I hope you will enjoy your visits to our site. Thank you for reading!

*Update, I have invested in a simple DSLR and prime lenses. I can't wait for sharper photographs in my future posts. Stay tuned! 9/15/2015

*Update: In the beginning of 2017, I have made some changes in my diet, started exercising and lost a lot of weight, so I have not been really cooking much yummy food that will just tempt me to overcook and eat more than I should. Now I feel that I have figured out a good exercise plan and I have learned how to control my cravings and maintained my weight for 2 years, I think I can safely go back to cooking without gaining 30 lbs back...let's see.. :) I plan to finish 365 dishes by end of 2020! :)  12/31/2018