I did not begin my adult life as a ‘Good Cook’. The first off-campus flat I moved into — my first proper flat — I gave myself food poisoning because I tried to cook frozen chicken nuggets in the microwave. My flatmates and I were afraid of using the oven after our land lord told us a horrifying story about a former tenant burning her eyelids off after making a mistake while trying to use the grill. We called the oven ‘Bernie Eyelids’ and refused to touch it. Thus, my chicken nuggie fiasco.
My journey from microwave maven to Someone Who Can, and Will, Confidently Cook a Multi-Course Thanksgiving Meal has been fraught with mistakes, bad recipes, and dabbles in vegetarianism and lackadaisical veganism. If you had asked me all those years ago, as I fretted over my sort-of-warm chicken nuggies, if I ever thought I would become the kind of Artisanal Chef I am today, I would have laughed in your face and then asked if you thought I should have used the ‘defrost’ setting during my frozen nugs prep. But my relationship with food and cooking has changed over the years.
Another thing that has changed over the years is my physical global position. I was born and raised on Massachusetts’ North Shore, and then moved to the UK a week before my 18th birthday to earn a degree and amass a large collection of embarrassing and cherished photos of myself before, during, and after having Too Much Fun*.
My family has remained in the United States, as has my younger sister, Devin. She is only three years younger than me, and we look very much alike, but the easiest way to tell us apart is that she is much cooler and more fun to be around than I am. Devin recently moved into her first proper flat in Cambridge, MA. She and her flatmate are not scared of their oven, and neither (to my knowledge) have ever tried to microwave a chicken nugget. Already leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I was first starting out on my own.
But Devin will still sometimes ask me to share recipes with her. Things that I’ve cooked for her in the past, things that I’ve never tried making before — she is usually willing to give it a go if it looks tasty and I’ve made it myself. So I decided to start this cooking blog as a way to archive recipes for her. A lot of what I cook is a combination of 3+ recipes from the internet, cookbooks, and my own tastes and sensibilities. Frequently, I forget to write my modifications down on paper or in Word Doc format. Therefore, a lot of what I do to make my recipes my own has so far stayed strapped inside my noggin’. This is my gift to myself, my sister, and you, dear reader.
May this blog provide some delicious meals, happy memories, and may it gently encourage you to put down the frozen nuggies and step away from the microwave.
– Griffen
*The ingredients for a Too Much Fun include: 2 shots of vodka, 1 can of an off brand energy drink called Relentless, and 5 million pairs of tights that you will inevitably rip a hole in the first day you wear them.
Things to Plug
I will post here when myself or my sister have productions, merch, art, events, etc. coming up that you might be interested in. Dev, message me if you have a thing you want to plug!
That Recipe You Wanted, Devin 