Sayster

about me

I got married to my high school sweetheart last August at the ripe old age of 21, and my husband Luke and I just moved to Birmingham, AL from Auburn. He's starting dental school in August. I have a BFA in Graphic Design, and I'm working at Southern Progress and doing freelance book design for Crane Hill Publishers. I'm planning to go to grad school for a Master's of Fine Arts in Book Arts starting in the spring or next fall.

Getting married and getting HALF of a refrigerator instead of sharing one with seven other girls really ignitied a cooking fire. I've gotten to love baking; it's therapeutic, I think.

We graduated from Auburn in May and it's been so nice to have some time off to work on our new house! We love gardening and have been sprucing up the backyard lately. I'm cutting out letters out of tin to spell out Garden Party, painting them, and hanging them on our fence.

Favorite Foods:

I LOVE salads, seafood, and fresh summer vegetables and fruit. I think I could grill out vegetables with s & p and eat them every day for the rest of my life. Also love seafood, and especially crab cakes, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, and the southern basics. I LOVE the Stuffed Eggplant at the Red Bar in Grayton Beach, FL. Right now I've been making and mixing up a shrimp and corn salad, with jicama, tomatoes, roasted pumpkin seeds, scallions, lime juice, honey, cumin, s & p. I change it according to what I have, or according to our "newlywed/grad school" budget. It's still good with chicken and pine nuts instead of what it calls for. I also really love coconut and chocolate--like Hello Dollies!

Sometimes it's hard cooking for Luke because he is a plain old meat and potato eater and not as experimental as I am. I try to string him along on my cooking escapades and he's pretty good about eating what I make. Usually he likes it! It's just that he prefers meatballs while I prefer shrimp and asparagus.

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