Why Am I the Next Food Blog Star?

A great food blog star isn’t made…a great food blog star is born.

When other kids were building sand castles in the sandbox, I made a sand oven and served sand roast beef.  And to my credit even at the tender age of three, I was smart enough to serve my roast beef with a side of au jus.  Even if I didn’t exactly know what that was and the au jus was just muddy water.  Yep, I was a sauce guy even back then.

One of my first memories ever was eating campfire food.  The only problem was that the campfire “food” was something  I had drawn in crayon and cooked over a campfire made out of construction paper (red and yellow, of course.)  I still remember how that campfire food tasted.

I later graduated to play dough pizza.  Which, if you can believe, tasted worse than the crayon food.

Undoubtedly, some of the other competitors will tell you about the first dish they made and how awful it was.  The first dish I ever made was a stir fry made from ground hamburger, spaghetti, canned mushrooms, and frozen vegetables.  Oh, and soy sauce.  Way too much soy sauce.   But it was good.  I made even made it for my friend’s family.  It’s probably better than half the stuff I make now.  Though I have gotten smarter about soy sauce.

In college, I cooked.  For myself, my roommates, potential dates, girls that my friends were trying to set me up with, etc.  I continued cooking for girls until I met the woman would be my wife.  On our first real date, I spilled tea on her.  For our second date, I set fire to my oven.

So, you can see that food has been with me my entire life.  But there are a lot people who can’t say the same thing.  And I’m not talking about “food as fuel” people.  God love ’em (even if I’ll never understand them), at least they have chosen their relationship with food.

There are people who are afraid to cook or who have never tasted a good meal.  For some of these people, it negatively impacts their self-esteem.  They think a good mom, a good dad, or a good friend should be able to bake or make dinner and their inability to do so makes them feel like less of a person.

I am for them.

Do I like it when foodies, chefs, gourmets, etc. try the recipes on my blog?  Sure.  But the pinnacle of being a food blogger is when some says “I was afraid to try X and because of your post, I did it.”   There is no greater moment for me.  Period.  (Well, except when they say they made it and it was good, I guess.)

And that happens for me now.  When I win Next Food Blog Star, I will do everything in my power to see that it happens every day.  Not for my ego, but for that mom who wants to give her children a treat, the dad who wants to put a meal on the table, or the friend who wants another way to say “I love you.”

That’s why I am the Next Food Blog Star.

Enjoy!

(Oh, plus, look at me.  I’m creepy.  Are you going to argue with me? :))