About

About Amy

My name is Amy, and I am a budding blogger and foodie.   While my formal training is as a Food Scientist, my passion is for cooking.   I love reading cookbooks as if they were novels (is that normal?) and food magazines, trying new recipes and developing my own!   My dream job would be to be able to play around in the kitchen all day long with an unlimited budget and time. 

I recently got married which has brought about a whole new era in my life in cooking.  Finally, I have someone else to enjoy dinner with every night, which is much-needed after living on my own in Grad School and generally feeling uninspired.   My husband Matt also likes to cook, but he’ll still eat anything I put in front of him…I’m pretty sure. 

In general, I like to cook comfort foods.  But I am also conscious of health.  My cooking philosophy is truly “everything in moderation”.   I may make indulgent dishes, but I’ll probably use the part-skim cheese.  Or substitute ground turkey for beef.  Small changes that make the dishes I love slightly less killer, so I can eat until I’m satisfied, not deprived.   I like to be healthy, but I also love food too much to ever go on a diet again, so moderation it will be!

About “The Kitchen is Calling”

I started this blog to encourage people to get in the kitchen.  I want to teach you that anyone can cook – all you have to do it try.  And try again.  Practice makes perfect and that is how I’ve learned myself.  I’m here to do some of the trial-and-error for you, and to give you not only good recipes, but for strategies for making them and for making them your own.

I’m a self-taught cook, though I would love to go to culinary school one day.  I’ve learned all I know through reading, watching cooking shows and watching others in the kitchen.  And, most importantly, by trying.  Nothing will teach you more about cooking than getting in the kitchen and giving it the old college try.   Don’t be afraid, there will be a few disasters, but those are the funny stories (like when I realized I forgot to put eggs in some brownies once they were already in the oven, proceeded to take the batter out of the oven, mix in the eggs and call it a day…).  There are just a few basics you need to get going in the kitchen:

1. The appropriate kitchen tools/supplies

2. A pantry stocked with basics

3. Some basic knife skills

4. Inspiration

One of the most important things I have realized in cooking is that a recipe is just the beginning.  Adjust everything to your taste.  Use it as a starting point, not as the final say.  (The same cannot really be said for baking though – which is a science – and everything is there in a certain amount for a certain reason.  As a Food Scientist by training I respect the laws of baking.).  I love to bake, but cooking is that much more fun because there is no right and wrong.  So use my recipes as a base and adapt them as you want.  I will try to suggest alternatives and ideas with all my recipes so you can develop your own! 

I hope you enjoy reading about my culinary adventures and misadventures – I promise to share the good and the bad! (Don’t you hate that on cooking shows when EVERYTHING they ever make is perfect on the first try?!  That probably won’t happen here…)

All pictures and recipes on The Kitchen is Calling are originals, developed and photographed by Amy Wopperer, unless otherwise cited