the kitchen is now OPEN...

Tonight's dinner is exactly the reason why my cousin Jess and I decided to start this blog. I came home from work and a workout and, staring into the abyss of my refrigerator, thought "what the hell can I cook???"

But I had goat cheese. And little frozen baggies of slow-roasted tomatoes from back in August. A bit of cream left over from a recent dinner party. English muffins. Eggs. And a set of VERY sweet mini baking crocks that were itching to be used. "What would Jess do?" I thought to myself. What else, but baked eggs.

Granted, my variation isn't the exact same as hers. She used pesto and cherry tomatoes in her summer post on her food blog, Porky Dickens. But the concept was the same. And if it weren't for the fact that we had "talked" (via e-mail) about baked eggs, I wouldn't have thought to make them.

As Jess put it, this family is founded on food. We love it. We share it. It's how we tell each other that we care, when sometimes the words aren't quite coming out the right way. And by "family", we don't just mean blood relatives. The joy of the Clan Hanrahan is that it has many branches and gets to pick and choose members of its tribe - and once you are a member, you're a lifer. Just ask the Gaudaitis's. And once you are a member, you are likely swoon at the thought of Linda's hot fudge sauce, Sally's cocktail-du-jour, Sue's potatoes au gratin, or any hot cheesy appetizer that Jen chooses to make.

The point of this blog is not to be one person's reflections on food and cooking, but to be ALL of our reflections on food and cooking. To be a way for all of us, no matter how separated we are by physical distance, to check in on what the people we love most are cooking, and, when looking a pile of seemingly mismatched ingredients, ask ourselves "What would Jess (or Heather or Barbara or Lisa or Jean or Renee) DO?"

looking forward to cooking with you all... xo - Sallyann