Okay, I’m a bit of a dilettante, I admit it.  Over the course of my twenty-eight years I’ve been a teacher, a tax assistant, a head hunter, the town drunk (well, I’m probably still the town drunk).  My hobbies have been just as varied; I went through a phase where I carved wooden runes for divination purposes, I sewed stuffed animals, and I’ve even taken up martial arts (I’m a ninja — really).

Cooking, though, has stuck with me for awhile now.  The first dinner I technically made was fettuccine alfredo, on my mom’s birthday.  I want to say it was a success, but I don’t really remember how tasty the meal turned out; we were all sort of concerned that my brother, in the middle of an argument with his now-wife, then-girlfriend, threw her shoes out the door.  Real mood killer.

My real obsession began when I became a Food Network junkie, starting with Rachael Ray and moving onto Giada and then Ina.  When I got Garten’s Barefoot in Paris as a Valentine’s Day present, I was hooked.  Every year my cookbooks, gadgetry, and (hopefully) skills multiply like tribbles, and sometimes I daydream about hosting a show about drunken cookery.  Forcing my friends and family to eat the dishes I make is one of my most sadistic treasured pleasures in life, and this blog is about what I make and how I feel about food, though sometimes other thoughts may be present, too.

Born and raised in a giant pine forest in New Jersey, I spent my undergrad with the Amish at Bucknell University, drinking myself silly and watching cows (for the record, I did graduate with a BA in East Asian Studies and Creative Writing).  Add some years in Japan homestaying/working/exploring, and then a couple in England at Oxford (Master of Science, Modern Japanese Studies, School of Sociology) and you’ve got me:

I’m Brian, a recently-graduated bilingual Oxfordian with no money and no real job to speak of.  Pour yourself a glass of wine, and let’s cook!