The Chefs

Chelsea: Born and raised in the Midwest, brought up on hearty meals and fed by none other than THE Mary Crocker Barnes (haven't heard of her? She's famous. Check out her blog at www.marycrockerbarnes.blogspot.com) I grew up with a love of food. In fact, an ankle injury in high school led my doctor to ask my mom if I was eating enough. She laughed and told the doctor that I eat like a truck driver. I'm not a natural talent in the kitchen, but my love of eating has kept my perseverance strong. Favorite foods: Zucchini, red peppers and parmesan cheese. 

Edwin - Born and raised in Houston, TX by Salvadoran parents and my grandma. My culinary training began when I was 8. My grandma really didn't like when I bothered her around lunch time (which happened to be when her favorite soap opera aired) so she taught me how to cook so I'd be more independent and so she could watch her shows uninterrupted. Other experience has come from my love of grilling, cooking with beer, living with a roommate who had weird eating hours (and eating habits... yes I'm talking about you Ross), embracing the food from El Salvador, and Chelsea. My favorite foods include fajitas, pizza, fajita pizzas, cheese, and cheese.

Rumored cameos will come from Chelsea's roommate Lydie Miller who makes mouth watering fish tacos, Edwin's roommate Miles Rooklyn, a Hipster extraordinaire who has a knack for cooking oriental food and organic products, and Hannah Banana who makes colorful salads.

Watch out for our recommendations on great places to eat in the RGV, good beers or wines we come across, and a special expose on Taco Palenque.  

Welcome

Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us. Here's a little background: we (Chelsea and I) met in June of 2009 in the Rio Grande Valley, TX. For those of you who slept through Geography in high school (or received a public education in Texas), the RGV is located in the southernmost tip of Texas along the Mexico border. I knew she was a special girl when we first danced... it was hilarious! We continued the courting process (as much as you can "court" between waking up at 5 am, sitting in training until 4 and working endlessly until midnight) in Houston, TX where we both received our training for our "awesome" jobs. We came across a couple of speed bumps regarding our professional lives (aka Chelsea being distressed over not having a job until the week before school started), but in the end, fate decided to place us under the same school house (and for an entire semester in the same classroom!). After weeks of mental exhaustion, "pee pants", 5 year old children calling me "Miss", and 3rd graders putting Chelsea on prayer lists we managed to discover a shared passion: cooking. We also discovered another shared passion: not wanting to work. We have combined both of those passions to bring you this blog. 

Our purpose (besides not doing school work) is to share our passion for food. Because our jobs demand a lot of time from us, it is easy to settle for fast food or Subway. In this day and age that option can be very costly for our health. Especially in a region where afternoon delicacies include "Hot Cheetos" with nacho cheese on them and delicious (but artery clogging) tacos, and mayonnaise covered corn. So for the sake of our bodies we try to cook as healthy as possible and hope to share that with you. As a disclaimer for any health nuts out there, we embrace cooking with butter (Smart Balance), cheese, and carbs. We can't promise that everything here will be absolutely healthy, but we do promise it will be delicious and not very time consuming. We will share our experiences as we try to recreate recipes from Cooking Light magazine (thanks to Delta Airlines providing frequent flyer miles for subscriptions) , our childhood cuisine, comfort food, and food for when you've had a long day. We will also include cameos from our roommates and best friends who are also fellow teachers. We hope to keep you entertained with our cooking, the nuances that come with teaching and our transitioning into adulthood. Thank you for reading, Bon Apetit, y buen provecho. 

Edwin and Chel