Change is in the Air....

Indeed. Change is inevitable, and hopefully for the better. If you have been here before, you would remember me as the "novice baker". That was my identity when I started this blog almost 2 years ago. The time when I knew zero about baking, and cautiously taking my baby steps to learn to bake and cook in a foreign land.

Two years has passed. It wasn't a long time, but it was neither a short time. I made some silly mistakes and threw away some inedible concortions along the way, but more importantly I learned not to do things in certain ways. Like whisking cold egg white in the mixer? No, it will not rise, and certainly it will never triple in volume.

I love to eat. I am constantly hunting for good food. And when I am not eating, I am probably dreaming or thinking of what to eat the next second. But I wasn't a cook, neither was I a baker. When I was staying in the food paradise where good foods are abundant and affordable, cooking was the last thing I wanted to do. The pleasure of eating good food the moment you craved for it is immensely gratifying.

I learned to cook and bake when I first moved to St Louis, to join my husband (aka OCT) in his last year of grad school. Leaving a corporate job and having all the time that I once lacked, I started to discover the pleasure of cooking and baking. A craft that I never had the chance to learn as a kid. Actually the opportunity was always there, since my mum was a good baker herself. But I chose to chase after other frivolous pursuits.

Joining OCT in St Louis means we will have more quality time together, after going on a long distant relationship for 4 years. But it also means we have to live within a tight budget, since I no longer have the dispensable income. Naturally, eating out is no longer a luxury we can afford as frequent as we would love. But I. Love. To. Eat! So, in order to feed my eating enthusiasm, I started cooking and baking. I bake everything and anything I crave, from Chocolate Cake to Cheesecake, as long as I can find a reliable recipe.

So this is how it begins. A blog is started to record my adventure and misadventure in my tiny kitchen. The place where I spend my happiest time as well as the most frustrated time (when the white eggs didn't triple).

Novice baker was an anonymous identity I used for almost 2 years now. It was a perfect excuse I used when something didn't turn out the way it should. "Because, I am a novice baker". Two years of trials and errors and more bittersweet experiments in the kitchen later, I am a better cook and baker now. Though there are still a whole universe of culinary wisdom awaiting me. I will keep learning, cooking, baking and make mistakes if that's what it takes to make me a better cook. But for now, I just want to introduce myself.

My name is Mandy, and I will be your hostess here. I hope you will be entertained by my adventure in the kitchen, and I look forward to know you, my guest a little better. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.