Welcome to the first post

I guess I will start by telling you a little about myself. This might be the only time I talk about myself, I am much more comfortable talking about things I love, which is what you'll see in this blog. I am turning 30 this year, just had a baby, am married to a great guy and am an Arizona native but have not lived here my whole life. I was born in Tucson, moved to Southern California for 10 years (with awesome farmers markets nearby - that's where the food thing started, I think) until I came back to Arizona for college. I didn't know that I would be staying in Arizona (Phoenix) to have a great career in food (I've worked at a major major soft drink company, a major major coffee company, a high end restaurant supply company, a culinary school, an organic farm and a food magazine).

I have enjoyed all of it and have learned probably a lot more than I wanted to know - some scary restaurant food prep stuff. I will share some secrets to what I've learned and I hope that this blog will help others to eat better, cook better, shop better, organize better, feed their baby better and I guess learn from my experiences, or just be entertained. My mom encouraged me to start a blog, I suppose, due to all the weird things I have stored in my head that she thought people would be interested in reading.

By the way, that picture on the header. I took that at Crooked Sky Farm. That is Tuscan Kale for those of you who don't know. It's also called black kale or dinosaur kale. It's pretty great stuff. I would say that it is similar in taste to spinach, has loads of nutrition, you just have to cook it a bit longer than spinach. Here is a link to some recipes from an awesome CSA farm in California.

The title, with the reference to Under the Tuscan Sun, I thought would be cute and a fun play on words. I have not read the book but have seen the movie version and quite liked it. Diane Lane is always fun to watch in movies in European countries.

This is a work in progress. I am working on making this a great resource for folks looking for more information about where to find food in Phoenix. So, please be kind as I work on making this as rad as I think it will be.