First Post! Let the Quest Begin!

Hello everyone! My name is Patrick. I figured what better way to get you excited about cooking, eating, and general kitchen gadgetry than a wall of beautifully patina'd glimmering copper pots, right? I'm not a chef, nor do I profess to be one. I am, however, very inquisitive and love diving head-first into topics of which there seem to be endless amounts of information to learn.

Currently I live in a tiny shotgun house in Uptown New Orleans. My kitchen would be a decent size for someone who doesn't cook that often, or gets all his or her cooking done in one or two pots and pans, but my kitchen is about to collapse under its own weight. In fact, if I ever move into a bigger house, I think it will solely be for a larger kitchen. For instance, I have 59 cookbooks, and no bookshelf. I have these big heavy copper pots (not the ones pictured), but a little round pot rack that nearly flips and topples over every time I take one pot off and redistribute the carefully thought out weight-balance placement of them all.

That being said, I love to cook! I love learning new cooking theory (a trend I'm seeing more cookbooks focus on these days as more and more recipes are available en masse on the interwebs). I love trying to figure out the best way to introduce ingredients to a pot or pan, having my house smell of deep, rich flavor as a pot simmers for hours, and then diving in to my creation. Most of the time they're delicious, but once in a blue moon something comes out just awful.

The focus of this blog--my first blog--is not only to discuss what I'm trying to make each night- along with the recipe, but also share some cooking gadget knowledge that I've amassed over the years. For instance, what is better, Staub or le Creuset? What's the best cooking thermometer? To what temperature does pork really need to be cook to to kill all trichinosis hiding around in your meat?

I named my blog the Culinary Quest because for different people, the quest will be different. Some may just be looking for interesting recipes. Other's may want to walk away with an encyclopedic knowledge of 10 or 20 recipes that they can cook any time without ever having to look at an ingredient list. Maybe some others are just curious about what the hell a celery root is. I hope all of you can find answers in this blog.

Happy Cooking!

Patrick