Introduce Yourself? No Way! Introduce Yourself? Okay! KayCalCooks

Hey, My Name’s Kay...
Short for Kaytee... Which is short for Katherine.
I'm a creative wizard, born and bred in the suburbs of Greater West London, England. I work a standard 9-5:30 day job as a Graphic designer and Marketer. Here's a picture of me dressed up as Carmen Miranda.

I've recently given my life a little bit of fizz by becoming a home-cook, food instagrammer and amateur food blogger- with aspirations of hopefully one day, having my own cook book, becoming a food journalist or restaurant reviewer.

When I'm not growing my food blog or cooking, You'll find me in my bedroom, listening to vinyl or spotify, maybe sat at my desk testing my digitally artistic patience (I mean skills) and attempting to become a Freelance Illustrator or Entrepreneur.

Who am I kidding?!

I'd be tucked in bed, having not moved for hours, watching countless dramatic series on Netflix OR playing a mix of Call of Duty / whatever-big-release-has-come-out on Play Station 4 and hanging out with my other half. Very occasionally, I'll be at the pub having laugh with mates and drinking to excess. (Oh, Mr Hangover and Mrs Minor-Alcohol-Poisoning, I know you all too well.)

An interesting fact about me is that I have Bipolar disorder which I was diagnosed with when I was 14 years old. God, that means it's almost been 10 years. I don't want to go into it too much without getting deep into my own head but basically, my brain works at 100 miles an hour. I also have three emotions, which is the happiest of happy and almost worryingly positive and enthusiastic (this is called Mania) or uncontrollable negativity (this can be shown through either sadness / rage). I use my food blog as a creative outlet to channel my mania and self help / focus when times get tougher. There will be ups and downs and sometimes moments where I struggle to post consistently- I will try my hardest to keep a routine with my blogs.

With health in mind, I should also mention that for the past 3 or 4 years I've suffered from Ulcerative Colitis; which means that I have to be very careful with my foods. Due to this, I’m a lactose intolerant pescaterian (There are more dietary restrictions but those are my main ones) and you’ll find that in my blog, most of my recipes will tend to my dietary needs. (I may make a blog one day to truly explain what it is and what it does- not sure whether I will yet though- it's very personal and also pretty graphic.) If you find some of my meals / recipes contain meat, I haven't had UC my entire life, I have learnt to cook a lot of meaty dishes and i would be eating meat under the use of medication / steroids (mostly over Christmas, Birthdays and vacations.) I also go through periods of remission where I can 'try' small amounts of meats without suffering from excruciating abdominal pain. I bet from reading that you're wondering why the F-ck I decided to create a Food Blog... I'll tell you shortly.

Upbringing, Family and 'My Other Half':

An East-meets-West love story is probably the best way to describe, not only my existence (BIG SHUDDER), but my cooking style; based on an English / Irish and (more predominantly) Filipino upbringing. My Mum (throughout my writings, I'll refer to her as MamaCal) is an agricultural and gardening enthusiast who moved to England from the tropical East Coast of Luzon, The Philippines in the '80s. You may see her 'harvests' featured in some of my food blogs. She has spent years turning the back of our garden into an allotment which, during the Autumn season, creates an abundance of fresh vegetables. She works in Boots (The UK's version of Walgreens, which is happens to be bought out and owned by Walgreens.)

In complete contrast to my tropical Asian Mother, my Dad is british, and a former grease-monkey (mechanic) who currently works as a security guard for a film studio in London (No, I will not tell you which one and No, I will not get you autographs from film stars). At birth he was adopted from an Irish family to an English Family (Our English family is as Anglo-Saxon as you can get. We've got a Coat Of Arms and everything!) Being honest we don't really know how English or Irish my dad is... But we do know that he grew up in 'The Big Smoke'. We just say he's English Irish (but i'm totally sure he's fully irish). You'll find him most days couch-potatoed infront of the TV watching classic car / motorbike refurbs or wrestling in 'Homer Simpson' fashion.

Based on my parents, you can only imagine that I grew up surrounded by a variety of different influences and interests.

Oh yeah, I also have an sister who is older by 20 months... She isn't really that interesting, so I wouldn't need to write much about her. We look similar. We're both are chatterboxes. We do and don't get along but that's sibling-hood, right?

I spend a hell of a lot of time hanging out with my Barber, Skater and Gamer of a boyfriend, Christos (he's half English, half Cypriot). He's bearded and beautiful (This is when I swoon and dribble...) Here's a picture of us being adorable.

Being Introduced to Steemit and Using Steemit for my Food Blog:

Prior to finding Steemit, I had previously created a blog via Wordpress www.kaycalcooks.com that hadn't really taken off... mainly because I hadn't formally 'launched' it. A close friend of mine (@freerunning) recommended that check out Steemit and consider using it as my main platform as it's great for networking and connecting with other bloggers. From having a browse and taking a little look around Steemit and its family (Dtube, Dsound, Dmania, Busy, Steepshot .etc .etc), I feel excited to join, be part of and contribute towards the Steemit community.

My blog started from an instagram account @kaycalcooks, and evolved recently into a wordpress www.kaycalcooks.com.

I'd describe my blog as a “sloppy mixed up noodle bowl” of food driven findings, tongue-tantalising thoughts, mouth-watering memoirs, refreshing recipes, raw restaurant reviews and tasty travel logs. All based on my food obsession and unfortunate dietary needs.

It wouldn't surprise me if I discovered that my body composition consisted of rice and noodles alone, as that's pretty much all I cook and eat (maybe a few western dishes here and there). I guess that comes naturally thinking about my upbringing. My love of cooking stemmed from being one hell of an annoying (but curious) child. I couldn’t wait patiently in another room until meals were ready so I would hang out in the kitchen and tug at my mum's clothing as she did the daily prep, constantly asking questions like “How do you make this?”, “Why do you do that?”, “What does that do?”, “Why do you add that?”, “How long until dinner?”, “Can I taste it?” (If this part infuriates you now, just take a moment to imagine her frustration as I did this almost-daily for years.) Everything in the kitchen was so exciting for me as a child. Learning about the world, new cuisines and techniques. The colours. The smells. The tastes. The fact that you could, with one ingredient change, innovate and create a whole new dish.

I've simply taken that excitement to adulthood. I strongly believe that food is fully customisable and you will discover that in my recipes a lot of the ingredients and techniques are not set in stone. I want to provide you with options so you can pick what best suits your taste / preference and start thinking a little bit more creatively in the kitchen. (People tend to forget that, unlike baking, that your own dishes are only great if you match them up to your taste. Having this mindset also helps with the "F-ck! I forgot to buy…" moments or the fridge emptying moments. I don’t like food waste so in my blogs you’ll discover that most of my recipes are created because I have things lying about in the fridge that need using up.

Although I love food and spend a lot of my time attempting to create versatile recipes. I am completely against mushrooms (Don’t try and argue about it with me, I just don’t like them at all) and therefore will not feature them in my recipes, nor the food I eat at restaurants. They WILL be removed from all dishes.

I hope you appreciate this little in-site into my life and introduction to my foodie world. I have lots of exciting content planned and I hope from this blog onwards, you look forward to what I have to contribute to the foodie Steemit community. (These things are hard work).

Cheers!
Kay.