Well, here goes…my first piece of blog writing.
My name is Joan Robinett Wilson. I live in a small town in the great Pacific Northwest. There you’ll find me working from home as an architect, managing my husband’s and children’s lives, forgetting to clean the house, building some crazy thing or another, sometimes cooking a great meal and always packing my kids horrible lunches.
I decided to start a blog to document my favorite recipes, projects and perhaps share my opinions on architecture and share some of my architectural projects. One thing we should clear up right away is that I am no Martha Stewart. Some might even consider me domestically disabled. I love to plan and cook for a big occasion, but I have trouble with the everyday meals. I love a quirky, well designed home, but I hate to clean it. I love do it yourself projects, but they need to be short and sweet so I stay focused!
Food inspiration for me comes from many sources – family, friends, magazines, travels, restaurants, and of course, cook books. I love magazines like Saveur, Bon Apetit, Southern Living and Sunset to name a few. I love all cookbooks – church cookbooks, community cookbooks like my Seattle Chinese Parent Service Organization of 1975 cookbook, old time cookbooks I get at the Goodwill, and new fancy schmancy ones from Anthropologie. Oh, I almost forgot, I love junior league cookbooks – those junior league ladies sure do know how to cook! As far as food celebrities go, I worship adore Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa as you will see from my recipes…..
Foods I like? Well, pretty much everything except offals and escargot (which remind me too much of the slugs in my yard). I really like ethnic food- especially dimsum and indian right now, anything with sugar in it – which is a problem- especially pie, tea and all things British, and bread – which is another problem…..
On the architecture/design end of things, I must say I like things on the traditional side. Let me clarify that, traditional and organic. CFA Voysey, shingle style, towers, right angles with maybe an ellipse or two thrown in, old English libraries, chicken coops, barns, La Canche ranges, stripes, plaid, velvet, and Lilly Pulitzer all bring me joy.
At home eating my sometimes disasterous and sometimes delicious food is my husband the police lieutenant, who henceforth shall be known as The Lieutenant, tenth grade son, Mr. D., and third grader, Coco. Our oldest, Miss G. has left the nest to attend college in Massachusetts (did I spell that right?). A dog, two cats, two turtles, an axolotl, three fish, numerous tadpoles , a couple of baby bullfrogs and one lone chicken round out our household.
Welcome to my life!
