Hello everyone and welcome to Three Peas in a Pod! I’m Kate, a graduate student in desperate need of a passion project. This food blog will celebrate seasonal and simple savory meals and crave-able sweets, along with a few elaborate dinners and adventurous desserts. More than anything though, this blog is dedicated to family recipes. As a child, I remember watching Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show with my dad. Bam! On holiday’s, I remember waking up to glorious smells wafting from the kitchen, where my parents were cooking for holiday parties. Our family Christmas Eve parties were particularly legendary, bringing together a gaggle of extended family members to linger over fancy, specialty store-bought pate and unfancy drunken dogs- a specialty of my dad’s that combine a magnificent amount of brown sugar and whiskey to create an unforgettable dish. Appetizers were followed by Julia Child’s cream of mushroom or asparagus soup, a main course of beef filet or spiral glazed ham, and lusciously creamy scalloped potatoes. Meanwhile, Christmas and Easter mornings were occupied by Eggs Benedict brunches. Are you hungry yet?

Though I’m incredibly interested in sharing my recipes with you, hearing feedback, and getting inspired, I must confess that my motivations as I begin to write this blog are mostly selfish. I would like to preserve in writing my most favorite recipes and the memories associated with them, including everything from my earliest kitchen experimentations to those fabled Christmas Eve parties. Here on the East coast, we live by the gradual morphing of season to season. Comfort food dominates during the flurry of winter snowflakes. Farm stands crop up in the early summer months. Easter heralds the fresh produce of spring and fall- glorious fall- represents a time of foliage, sweaters, pumpkins, and spices. Thus, we begin in my favorite season, Autumn, where we celebrate the last vestiges of summer and look forward to warming, comforting dishes. This month, I’d like to introduce myself by sharing some of my favorite recipes- my dad’s Penne alla Vodka, my favorite Pumpkin Muffins, and my interpretation of Julia Child’s French Onion Soup. Let’s get cooking!