Let’s Learn to Cook!

Ever since I (Nicole) can remember, food was a huge part of making memories with my family. Whether it was homemade pasta on New Year’s Day, Grandma’s giant Thanksgiving spread, or just weekly dinners, so many wonderful memories have centered around food. My family is comprised of some fantastic cooks. My brother learned how to cook several years back and since then has become (in my opinion) an amazing at-home chef, my sister-in-law knows all about nutrition and providing fuel for your body, my dad is a grilling master, and my mom has been perfecting family recipe staples since we were kids. On top of all of that, my family loves wine. We don’t love wine just for the pleasure of drinking it (although that’s definitely a bonus), but we think the best part about wine is the learning experience it provides. We all love to taste and discuss different wines, and this shared interest creates stimulating conversation and lasting memories. Just like wine, food provides so much learning potential.

Although we love to taste food and wine, Sam and I have yet to really dive into cooking anything too complex. However, it is so satisfying to make a high quality meal yourself. There’s something magical in working hard to create something that produces tangible (or in this case, edible) results that you can enjoy right away. Even better is when we get to share that accomplishment with others by bringing them around our table. This is why Sam and I have been inspired to learn more about the intricacies of food and wine. I hope you can tell that we are not claiming to be experts in any of the areas we will be blogging about. This is all about LEARNING. We have a passion to learn more about food and wine and want you to be a part of that process.

Here is how it will work: every week we will be sharing 1 cooking technique, 1 recipe, and 1 wine that we plan to pair with the meal. We will post each cooking technique at the beginning of the week to give all of us some time to master it. Then, we will put it to use at the end of the week by making a recipe that incorporates our new skill. The best part? You don’t have to do any of the research! With each cooking technique, we will provide a link to the recipe, ingredient list, and wine that you need to pick up before we cook it all together. Since Sam and I are not chefs or recipe developers, we’ll be sharing recipes from cookbooks and popular chefs as well as featuring friends and family who have cooking specialties of their own. As we go along, we will also post about topics that we feel are significant to this learning experience such as where to get the best ingredients, hosting tips, and a deeper dive into wine tasting.

I encourage you to join in, learn with us, and engage with others over some great food and wine!