Prelude to the Oven

So ever since I was a little kid I have always wanted to be a chef. Over the years I grew out of that goal, or so I thought, and I went to college, got a degree, and began my life within a office cube. I'm sure a lot of you know what I'm talking about when I say things didn't turn out quite like I would have hoped after college. I mean sure I married the woman of my dreams and I have somehow acquired a dog, cat, and some ducks (don't ask) in the last year but my career has been anything but exciting. So two years out of college and I'm really starting to wonder what I want to do with my life. Security of a well paying job is nice I have to admit, college life was fun but I often did things on a severe budget. But maybe that is the point, I realized lately that I don't need to make the money that I do especially if it's going to come at a price.

Go back 3 or 4 years, I had the great idea that a degree in Geology would be fun, it was, but for some reason I thought there would be jobs to be had, I was mistaken. Go back two years and now I'm starting to panic. The job market looks bleak and as much as I want to live with my parents after college for the foreseeable future, still having my mom make my bed in the morning and packing my lunch doesn't look too appealing. Don't get me wrong I love my parents but when you graduate college you think to yourself "I should be self sustaining and independent because I have a degree!". The honest truth and what they don't tell you in college is that a "degree" doesn't mean jack these days, almost everyone has one, actually a bachelors in some field is pretty much the equivalent of a high school diploma 10-20 years ago. Sure there are fields like engineering that companies are just chomping at the bit to get new grads but the rest of us kind of feel left out on this whole "college opens up opportunities" thing. Oddly enough I found myself in engineering after doing an internship and working for a construction company for a while. Truth is I found it really interesting at first and even at times I disillusioned myself into thinking I could do this for the rest of my life, but now here I am writing this blog.

I struggled at first as to what I really wanted to write about in a blog. I considered this being a journal of my life but I know I would just rant, I like doing that from time to time, and ranting just makes me sink deeper and deeper into holes that I can't claw my way out of. Remember when I said I wanted to be a chef when I was a kid. I used to watch cooking shows religiously, as a matter of fact my favorite was the Frugal Gourmet (now known to be a child molester or something like that) because he made things that everyone could make and he even had Elmo on once. Anyway a coworker recommended a patisserie in Eugene called "The Sweet Life" a month or so back and it changed my life. I have never had deserts that were seriously orgasmic. Their deserts inspired me they gave me a purpose, a goal if you will, a goal to open a patisserie one day.

The choice for my blog is an obvious one, it's about cooking and my journey to my ultimate goal to hopefully someday own and run a patisserie. I would like to share with you all the things I've learned in the past and hopefully in the future about cooking. Hopefully I can share recipes I know and give reviews on ones I will try, basically I would like to help anyone that reads this blog learn great ways to do anything from baking to brewing beer. I'm also doing this for myself so expect lots of food experiments and lots of failures. Stay tuned I should have my first recipe up soon.