The Journey Begins

Hi, I’m Kris, and this is my incredibly supportive husband, Scott. He’s the reason this little blog – or any of my creative endeavors, for that matter – exist at all. And yeah, let me get some content up here before you decide if that’s good or bad!

So who am I?

I’m a career Army officer and a recovering workaholic. I’ve had some really demanding jobs – for good reasons and for bad. Some have taken me all around the world dealing with crisis situations. Some just like to use “hours at desk” as a success metric. As a supervisor and leader, I don’t want to fall into the second category. I owe it to my family and my team to unplug when I can.

My husband’s idea? Quite simply, get a hobby.

Find something to do that I’m passionate about and I have fun doing just for the sake of doing. Something that would help me unplug from the world of work but might also help our family come together and spend more quality time together.

But what?

The answer to that one, if you know me, is pretty easy. Food.

I love to cook. I’ve loved to cook since I was a child and my mom taught me all her favorite cookie recipes and Scandinavian treats she learned from my Swedish grandfather and my dad immersed me in the fine French cooking and Cajun and Cuban flavors he grew up with in Miami. Wherever we’ve lived and wherever we’ve traveled, I’ve immersed myself in the accent terroir and tried to learn the stories food tells about a place.

As I’ve gotten more comfortable with my tastes and skills in the kitchen, my own kitchen stories have emerged. Simple, seasonal, mostly healthy – although I have a weakness for pasta and cheese – and mostly in the style I call Central Coast Casual. Inspired by my California upbringing, I cook a lot of fresh produce, fish and seafood, lean meats, and things with a decidedly Italian or Mexican flavor to them. It’s what I grew up with, it’s what I love.

There’s not much I love more than packing our enormous table full of people and food, no matter what the occasion. All happiness truly requires is a full home, a full heart, and a full belly! But it’s also important to have delicious and healthy ingredients, and beyond important to sit down together as a family and gather together after the day over a meal.

Cooking is something I feel like I will never get bored with. If we truly eat with our eyes first, as they say, then a beautiful, simple, and welcoming home and table are an important ingredient of good eating as well! I love working to transform our home and watching how it flavors the gatherings we have around our table along with playing with flavors.

My hope for this blog is simple – to share with you the joy I have in exploring the worlds of food, family, and gathering, both on our home front and wherever my little family wanders, and to spark in you the same joy these things give me. And to give us all a little opportunity to gather, break virtual bread, and unplug away from our daily grinds.

Pour yourselves a glass and sit down with me for a virtual meal or two, a few adventures at home and abroad, or just some fun dinnertime stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Welcome to Home Front Cooking!