Intro

So I have never done this "blogging" thing before. I think blogging sounds like a ridiculous term. But recently I had a friend suggest it so I could tell people about my creations in the kitchen. As I am guessing most of you know, I am by trade a neurologist. Fourth year resident, so this is my last year before I can officially go out and practice on my own. I apparently am a glutton for punishment, however, and signed up or a year long fellowship next year studying exclusively stroke (vascular neurology). With the hopes of being a hospitalist after I am done. Besides my day job (any one who is familiar with the system knows it is really more than just a day job) I have two small girls. Allison turns 4 in December and Emma is 13 months old. We have two large dogs and two cats. It's a full house here. I don't have a lot of free time but my biggest hobby is cooking and above just cooking, it's baking. I love baking. It's my passion. I would never give up being a physician, but I LOVE baking. Someday I will have the income and I will open my own bakery. Cathy's Cupcakes has a nice ring to it I think.
I can't tell you how many times over the past week I have heard, "You are a doctor, why do you like to cook and bake?" Everyone has their release, what makes them happy and de-stresses them. Baking is mine. Cooking is as well, but baking beats cooking in my world. It's my stress relief. If I have had a hard day or week at work it's nice to come up with a new different type of cupcake to try out.
I think having a science and chemistry background adds to that. Everything I make is kinda like a little experiment. I've always been good at chemistry and if you can do chemistry you can bake. Technically if you can read a recipe you can bake but if you can do chemistry you understand baking. If you understand the concepts of why things work then that is how you can bake without recipes. I don't have to measure everything precisely because I know proportions of about how much you would need.
I think having the ability to cook something great or bake something amazing gives me an advantage to connecting with my girls as well. Both are interested every time I am in the kitchen and want to be there with me. I hope to be able to pass on my skills to them just like my grandmother and great-grandmother did for me.
I have had a busy week this week, involving the baking of 400 cupcakes, cooking all the neurology resident's dinner and presenting my Grand Rounds presentation all in the same week. I just wanted to give a brief introduction as to what I hope to get out of my ramblings here. My next post will give more details about the past week.