Introductions!

Hi. I'm Amy and I'm an illustrator. You can find my website at www.rumplesharkillustration.com. I share a household with my husband Norm, and our two kids. Annika (17) and Keegan (14).  I love to cook and they love to eat.  In about a year, Annika will be off to college and this blog will be about documenting family recipes so she will always have immediate access to them.  Whether or not she'll be the one cooking or convincing her room-mate to do so remains to be seen.

Somehow, Norm and I raised two very adventurous eaters. I have yet to serve up something they won't at least try. Not to say everything I make is a success, but its been a long time since anyone has had a peanut butter sandwich instead of what's being served. With that kind of track record, I must be doing something right.  We eat at dinner at the table as often as we can. Even if we eat in the living room around the coffee table, chances are the television is off and we're discussing something weird and moderately to extremely thought provoking. (You know, typical family stuff like...merging with the singularity-its not if but when.)

My kitchen philosophy is about balance. I cook as much as I can from scratch (though, not always.) And vegetables play a big part of my meal planning (usually).  You won't find many beef recipes here. And I, personally, don't eat much dairy. My family, however, eats lots of yogurt, cheese and milk and would happily eat any form of beef, if it appeared on the dinner table. I haven't used white flour or white sugar in a couple of years. If I use a recipe that calls for white flour or sugar and I use a substitute, I'll make sure to note the change. For the most part, I use whole wheat flour in any recipe that calls for white flour and rarely do I have to adapt other ingredients.

Not only will I be sharing recipes, I'll also be illustrating them.  I cook. I draw. Why not do both? It will keeping me drawing and creating things that I might not normally tackle. Any photos, digital or traditional art used in this blog will be my own unless otherwise credited. Please don't use them without my permission.

Ready? Let's eat!