About The Chemist

I am a married mom of three little girls, one biological and two adopted. After researching my medical condition, trying to lose a few pounds and wanting to cook more for my family, I came to the conclusion I needed to change my habits surrounding food.

About three years ago, I started casually reading a few nutrition books and talking to friends. I seriously considered many food 'philosophies' and tried to be thoughtful and conscientious about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to feed my family. I gravitated towards real foods, prepared well. It seemed to me that women in years past knew how to cook using only whole grains and real foods - where was that knowledge lost? I wanted to get it back and understand it. I wanted, in order, healthy, tasty and convenient food. I wanted to cut back on meat and eat better quality, use raw, cultured dairy where possible, include more legumes and whole grains prepared properly, cut out processed food and overdose on fresh vegetables and fruits. So far, the convenience isn't there but I trust that after an enormous learning curve, it will fall into a pattern I can live with.

I grew up on fish sticks and Kraft mac and cheese with hot dogs. I had a long way to go - still do. But I am encouraged. Now after about a year and half of expiramenting with traditional but 'new to me' ways of cooking, I am having more frequent success. I am also giddy about how tasty and satisfying it is. I like how I feel and don't miss the 10 pounds I have lost so far. I used to think that healthy food or food from 100 years ago was less desireable or a compromise. More and more I recognize that eating real, whole foods prepared well is decadent and rich. I feel like I'm getting away with something - like a guilty pleasure. Why did we sell our food souls for convenience and marketing? I don't know. The learning curve may be shorter if I could channel my great grandmother but, for now, I'm on my own along with a seemingly growing swell of bloggers and friends interested in the same thing. Good on ya, mate!

Why the Chemist? There are several reasons. The first one is that I have turned our kitchen into a food lab. My husband is so tired of the science expiraments and refuses the lab rat (taster) role any more or at least I just don't talk about how I prepared what he is eating (denial). It is working for us for now. The other reason is that I actually like chemistry and have a problem solving analytical mind. I started my college degree with a declared chemical engineering major albeit lasted 2 weeks and took AP chemistry in high school. In fact, I liked it so much that, for a 'scholarship' pageant, I did a chemistry expirament for my talent. I got severely chastised by one of the judges that said I would have won except for the talent not being a 'real' talent. It's true. It was lame. And beeker? My siblings and I grew up watching a lot of Jim Hensons' Muppets. I love beeker and think he's funny. When the Salty Saint put the blog together, she put a picture of beeker under my name as a joke. It stuck.