About

Who we are:
Paul Merley, age 24, Assistant Unit Director, Ellettsville Boys & Girls Cub
Jess Vogt, age 24, PhD student in Environmental Science, Indiana University

The Story:

Paul and Jess have just recently finished their undergraduate education and moved together to Bloomington, Indiana to start a life together (or bide the time while Jess finishes graduate school at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University). We both love to cook (and eat) good food, and this has been the source of a large portion of our entertainment since moving. However, our kitchen is tiny. The floor measures 7′ x 7′ and we have hardly any cupboards for storage. The fridge, dishwasher, and stove are all packed along one wall of counter space and the sink takes up pretty much the entire other side of counter space. As you might imagine, we bump into one another cooking quite a bit. Oh, and it gets really hot the minute we fire up the stove or oven. (The only blessing, as the picture in the header illustrates, it’s an L kitchen, open to the living room.) But we laugh and have fun cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner (and some desserts!) anyways! As it gets boring to only cook for our own enjoyment with no one else to compliment us on our delicious dishes, we’ve decided to start a blog with pictures and recipes of what we’re cooking. Hopefully, we’ll make your mouth water!

Our equipment:

1 standard refrigerator, freezer on top, fridge on bottom (on the small side of standard)

1 small Black & Decker toaster oven (to the top of which Jess has melted part of the plastic from a bag of bread)

1 oven-stove combo (electric coil), of the Whirlpool variety (supposedly “brand new” according to the apartment complex, but the oven temperature dial is not digital, so oven temperature probably varies a lot; we need to invest in an oven thermometer)

1 RED microwave (courtesy of Target and extraordinarily powerful compared to the old variety)

1 set Farberware pots and pans

Assorted wooden spoons (see header picture; we are very proud of our mineral oil job) and the usual cooking implements

1 large wooden cutting board (of whatever material was on sale at Target; I can’t remember)

A large number of second-hand, ceramic/glass dual-use mixing/serving bowls

Assorted baking pans/casserole dishes