And there you have it.

My name is Kirsten. I've been cooking, or trying to since I was...well -- look at my profile photo.

The first thing I ever cooked on my own was macaroni and cheese. I was doing fine until I poured the milk, butter and flourescent orange cheese powder into the noodles. I did so in the strainer, which doesn't really work.

Fortunately, things have looked up since then. Ever joined to my mom Toni Ann's hip in the kitchen, it seems I picked up a thing or two.

While I love more than anything to make our family favorite -- manicotti -- as I've grown to be one of 2 vegetarians in the family, I've had to go outside the family repertoire to find other foods that make me feel good and make me happy. That, and a girl can only eat so much pasta.

But, it's not always easy to find good recipes for a variety of vegetarian foods. I've found a couple of great Websites and have gotten a few good cookbooks, but I want more. And maybe some people out in cyberland do too.

Perhaps this blog can be a source where people can turn for ideas, variations and recipe successes and failures. If nothing else, I hope it will lead to other sharing their recipes with me. I'm here for selfish reasons, mostly, you see...