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| On a bridge over the Adige River, Verona, Italy |
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Poirrier and welcome to Dinner on the Porch, a blog about food and life. I decided to start blogging because I spend an insane amount of time thinking about food and contemplating life and I thought blogging would be a fun way to share my love of food, cooking and life with others and what I have learned and am still learning on this great adventure. A little history about me: I was born in Michigan City, Indiana but I was raised in various cities in Florida, the city I lived the longest being Tampa. Born to a Cuban father and country girl mother, my two older sisters and I were exposed to my father’s Cuban heritage by my grandmother, Elida, who was most definitely the matriarch of our family. My father and grandmother adored one another and he adored her cooking. And I think that’s where the roots of my love for cooking reside, with my Cuban grandma. I have so many great memories of her standing in the kitchen cooking and although it was many different kitchens, she’s always in front of the stove, in her slippers, checking the pots, one always containing white rice – a staple of the Cuban diet. And of course she didn’t cook with recipes…
There is a lot of history between my memories of her and the life I now live in Houston, Texas, with my wonderful husband Bobby and our sweet dog, Oakley. I’m sure I’ll share a lot of those memories along the way while I’m sharing favorite recipes and other tidbits of life. But I have found that over the past 10 years, making food for others, heck, just thinking about food and recipes, tends to center me and bring me back to what’s important, with a clear head. You know, house work can do that too, but you can’t eat the results and making food is a lot more fun!
Through this love of food and cooking has been an outgrowth of wanting to know more, learn more – not just about where our food comes from but learning how to make foods from scratch like bread and pasta and stocks and… So in addition to being employed full time, I attend culinary school part time so I can continue to expand my knowledge. And that’s one of the reasons I decided to start this blog, to share some of what I’ve learned. Because I’ve often been questioned on how to do certain tasks like “how do you clarify butter?” or “isn’t making homemade pasta really difficult?” and the answers are, “it’s really very easy” and “no, it’s not really difficult at all” it just takes a little practice.
I hope you enjoy my favorite recipes, places, things and many other favorites I'll be sharing - with some reminiscing along the way. And I hope you’ll comment and ask questions and share in return. I’ll be talking about this experience with Bobby, what I've shared and what I've learned, while drinking a glass of wine and enjoying Dinner on the Porch.
