[ short version ]

Michelle. Mom. Geek. Foodie. Writer. (Wanna-be) Photographer.  In more or less that order.

[ longer version]

My name is Michelle and I am a life long obsessed foodie. Some of my fondest early memories include sitting atop of fabric rice bags at the local Filipino store, playing with the cheap candy-toys as my my parents perused imported wares: tropical vegetables and fruits, pungent patis and bagoong. If I was really good, my parents would buy me a box of champurrado (chocolate sweet rice porridge) for breakfast the next week. (Sadly, I wasn’t always good!) My dad was responsible for a lot of the cooking while I was growing up. We ate almost exclusively Filipino food, so much so that the rare casserole night was downright memorable.

I was five years old when I tried cooking on my own for the first time. Perched precariously on a kitchen chair to reach the counter and cabinets, I happily whipped a egg destined for scrambled eggs into frothy oblivion using an egg beater, pausing every now and then to add shakes of parsley and garlic salt. I honestly can’t remember if the eggs ever made it to the pan. Or if there was an adult in the kitchen with me at the time. Hrm.

I spent many a happy childhood Saturday morning sitting in front of the TV watching cartoons, followed by a PBS Saturday morning cooking program chaser. (Now that I think about it, this accounts for much of my adulthood television habits as well.) As a teenager, I could not even begin to tell you what the popular shows/bands/etc. of the day were but I could totally geek out about that week’s “Great Chefs of…” episode.

Oh yeah, I was so totally one of the cool kids.

I started cooking for myself in earnest when I moved out of my parents’ home shortly before graduating from college. The Hubs ™ was my willing guinea pig while I learned to cook. There have been a few disasters in the process but over a decade later, he’s still alive to talk about my cooking so I think it’s a safe bet to say that my food isn’t toxic, at least.

We spent the first part of our marriage living in the Silicon Valley which had a plethora of great places to eat from. Since having our daughter and moving out of the Silicon Valley to far east Contra Costa County, which is not famous enough for its crazy awesome availability of family farm raised produce, we eat almost exclusively at home. Thanks to graduating in the dark days of the the DotCom Bust of the early 2000s (and the later Great Recession,) I learned a lot about how to feed a family well on a budget.

I started taking photos of my food back in 2004. I’ve been writing about food on and off on various incarnations of a food blog since abou 2008. In 2011, I took the plunge and registered the delishiono.com domain where I’ve been ever since. I hope to make this blog a decent place to visit and find recipes for other food loving folks ]

Because if I’m to be honest with myself, I’m gonna lay out right here and now:

I’m a damn good cook. Not the best cook I’ve ever known, but I’m decent, I can definitely make food that makes people happy but more importantly, it makes me happy.

I’m a geek. I can and often do go out and make something because I saw it on a a TV show or because it reminds me of a favorite character or somesuch.

I can appreciate haute cuisine but let’s face it: I can’t afford it. Not in this economy; hell maybe not in this lifetime. I’m not ashamed to say that I like a bag of Bugles just as much as I like fancy white cheddar and black truffle popcorn. (Which is really damned good, by the way. Try it sometime!)