Welcome to Kitchen Collateral!

Hello! Ciao! Salve! I’m Michele: high school Latin teacher by day, avid home cook by night, bursting with chaotic energy and a passion for cooking that goes way back.

I became obsessed with cooking in 7th grade. It was a different time in the world of television–a time before streaming sites and watching things “on demand”. A time where if you were home sick from school, really the only thing on TV, besides the news, was the Food Network. I spent most of the spring of 2007 at home (plagued by a strange sinus infection that to this day I still don’t understand) making new friends: Giada, Ina, Rachel, Sandra, Bobby…the list goes on. I started asking my parents if I could make things like ribollita for dinner and began incorporating pancetta and gruyere into morning breakfast sandwiches (like the bougie child I was). I never grew up in a cooking oriented family, so my parents were more than happy to let me take the reins (as long as I accepted that “good” olive oil was going to be Costco brand–no matter what Ina Garten said). 

Cooking became a way for me to stretch my creativity. It was an activity to feel even closer to another one of my budding obsessions, Rome. But most importantly, cooking became an essential emotional outlet for a type A, slightly(?) neurotic, anxious, control freak of a woman. No matter what happened in my day and how I felt about it, I could always go into the kitchen and feel a semblance of calm and control back. The joy of cooking has allowed me to learn to let go and embrace this simple, yet powerful truth: you can’t fix everything, but you can fix a meal.

“Collateral damage” is the unintended (often negative) outcome of something. The word “collateral” comes from the Latin col-, meaning “together”, and latus, meaning “side” (sorry for the etymology lesson, but as a Latin teacher, I can’t help myself). In essence, “collateral” can be thought of as another word for “side effect”. 

That is what the kitchen has always been for me–a place to work out the “side effects” of my day. A space where I can create an unintended, hopefully positive outcome (although if you ask my mom how many dishes I use when I cook during the holidays, positive might not be the words she chooses…).

So what exactly is Kitchen Collateral? A place for all sorts of recipes (old, new, borrowed,...blue?) and stories inspired by the chaos of life. A place for friends, family, and everyone in between to find both recipe inspiration and (hopefully) a laugh (if only at my misfortunes). A place for my mom to have my recipes in one place so I don’t have to re-text screen shots of cookbooks to her all the time (jk love you mom).

But, most importantly, Kitchen Collateral is a space to remind you of the importance of laughing at yourself–whether it be while cooking something to take your mind off the blunders of the day or at a failed recipe attempt (whatever–it happens to everyone and it’s still edible!). It’s a reminder to grant yourself grace in all areas of life, but especially in the kitchen.

So let’s make a mess (and hopefully some memories)!

Salute!

xoxo Michele