What started out strictly as a foodie website to track my own personal culinary growth has morphed into something of a hobby blog, in every sense of the word. Cooking is a hobby, but so is glassblowing, updating and running this website, occasionally training our family dog plus all sorts of small projects that end up stuck in my brain. And a lot of it ends up here, I hope you don’t mind.
I’m married with two children, and in my house, I am the one largely responsible for stocking the fridge and getting food on the table every night. And if, as I sit down with my wife and children, I can provide a fairly nutritious meal and avoid most of the dietary pitfalls so common in our society, then that is just the icing on the cake, so to speak!
Which is what has lead me to read so much about what ails our society, the fact that many of us are literally filling our mouths day in and day out with food-like products that are making us sick. This compelled me to be a bit more thoughtful about my eating, and cooking.
Am I doing the very best I can for my family? Am I helping them be the healthiest and happiest people they could be? Or am I contributing to their eventual poor health by not taking the time to research our grocery list and cooking whatever popped into my head an hour before I wanted to eat?
And that brings me to this site… born largely as a challenge from my wife and kids, to serve two purposes. First, my children wanted a digital collection of the meals they grew up with, to help them as they eventually transition into college and life beyond (which we have passed, they have both moved out!)
And second, I wanted a space for myself to experiment and discover my evolving food philosophies. Am I willing to give up gluten, and do I know why I would even try? What about sugar, or carbs, or fats or whatever the newest potential evil ingredient is that I “must” avoid in order to be a healthy functional adult in today’s society?
Spoiler alert: I haven’t quit eating any specific foods, but there are quite a few that I eat quite a bit less of than I used to.
It would be nice to think that after a full day working that we all had time to put together one of those awesome looking gourmet recipes from a fancy cookbook, but alas, it is not to be. At least not for me. With kids, sports, musical lessons, chess games, dance classes, homework, my hobbies, wife’s work… I am lucky to get everyone to the table at the same time for dinner, much less prepare a five course dinner made with 10 pans and 20 ingredients!
That’s why I search for, and save, those recipes and techniques that just flat work, that allow me to cook something that my family appreciates, is flavorful and sometimes has some nutritional benefits still attached. These may not be gourmet dishes, but they are good, solid recipes that I am happy to share with my friends and family.
But I don’t spend all of my time in the kitchen. My favorite hobby is blowing glass, a skill I was first introduced to in college and I haven’t been able to shake since. Now that our kids are a little older and I have a little extra time to myself, I find myself drawn more and more to the hot shop.
I’ve settled in to a nice schedule of blowing glass about once a week, which allows me time to make some work to sell, make gifts for friends and family and still a little extra time to try some new techniques and push myself as an artist.
I try to update this website on a regular basis, so if you are looking for some blown glass to purchase, the pictures that are posted should be a nice representation of what I have available at any given time.
If you like what you see and are interested in a purchase, I promise you will be hard pressed to find pricing much lower than what I have listed here. My primary concern is covering material costs, packing and shipping expenses instead of trying to pay myself a fortune. And shipping out of NYC does not come cheaply! All listed prices include packaging and shipping costs, there are no add-ons.
And I can’t leave my doggie out! When he was a puppy, I spent a fair amount of each day with Auggie, our Bernedoodle, a Covid pandemic dog brought home from the breeders in early 2020, just in time for lock-down! Every now and then I’ll include a new training method or experiment we’re working on as I continue to try to teach him to be a great family dog.
He is older now, and the kids are gone attending graduate school, but Auggie is a well adjusted family treat who likes almost anybody, needs just one good walk each day and then he likes nothing more than snoozing away while we putter around the house.
Except when I cook, then he is quite attentive as lays on the kitchen floor just waiting for a treat.
Thank you for visiting and please let me know if I can be of assistance,
Greg Fleischaker
