Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major.
Right now you are probably staring at your screen. Blankly. Since this is a food blog. Bear with me. One of the reasons I made a lousy history scholar is because I could not settle on just one area of the world to learn about. England. Ireland. France. Russia. Poland. I ran out of time in college before I got beyond Europe.
One day, while I was searching throughout all of my Spanish cookbooks to learn what I could about , a Spanish fasting soup served during Lent, I had a realization about myself as a cook and as a food blogger. I have re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. Which it turns out is often intertwined with their history—bonus for me! That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen, and also just to educate you. Even if you never make an authentic biryani, there is value is learning about what an Indian biryani (for example) is.
I am also a mom and wife, so you will see other dishes on here, especially baked goods, but truly our household mostly answers culturally to the question “what’s for dinner?” (Thai, Mexican, Indian, South Indian, Caribbean, Spanish, Polish, you get the idea…), and all of my cooking and baking has been influenced my knowledge–including dishes I have only read about as well.
Jmaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech, July 2011
I am an ambidextrous Libra (they tell me the Libra part has changed but I don’t buy it). My usually enthusiastic tasters are my elementary school aged daughters Alex and Sammy, and my husband John. The always enthusiastic dogs are Delilah, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and Skamp, the Golden Doodle the girls got from Santa. We have also added a kitty, Persephone, to the mix. She lives in the basement, hence her name, unless being supervised on the main floor–I cannot handle cats on the counter. If you follow me on Twitter you know I bleed Maize and Blue and follow the Wolverines in football, basketball and ice hockey. I am also a Cleveland Indians fan in the summer when college sports dwindle away. I am a voracious fan of many genres of music, but at this point in my life I pretty much only go out of my way to see U2 live. I read every night before bed– fantasy, science fiction, sometimes mysteries, whatever has been assigned in my book club, and cookbooks. I have a huge cookbook problemcollection. Nags Head, 2013 My idea of complete bliss is lying in the sun on the beach–and the fact that I don’t live near one probably explains a lot about my state of mind. Instead I live in a small college town in southwest Ohio somewhat in the middle of nowhere–but I can get to civilization (i.e., Dayton or Cincinnati) in about 45 minutes. Special thanks are due to my husband, a bio-informatician, who spent one of his spring breaks teaching himself WordPress and Thesis so I could switch to this site. The design is by myself (with his input). and don’t miss a post! And if you need to ask me a question or just chat food, you can reach me at thespicedife AT gmail DOT com. Paestum, Italy Summer 2015
© Laura Tabacca