the muffin maker

anyone who has lived in germany knows: sundays are a day of rest. 

grocery shopping, dry cleaning, purchases of any kind - these things are best taken care of on one of the other six days of the week. once sunday rolls around, you have to accept that the fact that not much is going to be "accomplished" beyond eating, reading, and spending time with friends and family. 

when this american first moved to germany as a master's student, the truly lazy sunday was one of the hardest cultural adaptations to make. 

having grown up in the land where supermarkets never close and holidays have little influence over opening hours... sundays took some getting used to. 

but weekly days of rest, closed shops, and a tiny kitchen are the opening lines of the story of how i learned to bake, cook, and eventually, blog. what so innocently began with a muffin tin and a yearning to "get something done " sunday afternoons led to something far more fulfilling: a joyful habit of kitchen experimentation, hours spent over a hot stove, and more delicious home-cooked meals shared with family and friends than i ever could have imagined. of course, there have been enough less than successful ventures along the way, but don't worry - i'll warn you if any of the latter ever show up here.

though i cultivated a culinary passion during my three years in germany, i've now relocated to northern california and taken with me my passion as well as a deep appreciation of peaceful, non-consumer sundays. and i'm using this humble blog to continue documenting the journey.

here you'll find - apart from enough muffin recipes to either rouse your appetite or induce nausea - lots of healthy and accessible vegetarian and vegan dishes. i love working with seasonal vegetables and herbs, and i'm particularly wary of ingredient lists that reach the double digits. you'll also notice that i seem to like pasta. a lot.

i look forward to sharing my amateur cooking passion with you. thanks for stopping by!