Friday, February 1, 2008

About Me

Hello and welcome to my internet kitchen! Grab a cup of tea, a Madeleine, and get comfy.

My name is Irene, and I started Confessions of a Tart as part of my 2008 New Year's resolution to eat better and use more local and in-season produce (not a difficult thing when you live in sunny California!). Food has always been really important to my Russian-Jewish family. I think my grandmother could make a feast out of rusty nails if she tried, and my mom and my aunt are famed for their hospitality. It is a way for us to get together and transcend culture and generations - in my mind, food is inextricably linked with comfort, laughter and love.

From the time I left my parents' house at 17 to go to school, and until A. and I got married and moved into our own little house with a real kitchen, my adventures in cooking were pretty much restricted to baking chocolate chip cookies and forgetting to put eggs in challah (a Jewish egg bread). Clearly, with my family watching (and wondering what in the world I was thinking and when I would start feeding my poor husband), this could not go on. So I slowly began experimenting with recipes, learning about food, and integrating different ingredients and techniques into my cooking.

It has been a great journey of culinary self-discovery, and even though I love to go out and try amazingly complicated food that great minds have thought up, I still believe that the food I make should be unfussy, non-pretentious, satisfying and delicious. I admire all the wonderful people out there who can look at a 15 page recipe and roll up their sleeves, but I am not one of them, and hence, you will find that the recipes on this site are as easy to cook for a beginner as they are fun for someone who knows his or her way around the kitchen.

The most satisfying thing about blogging has been meeting all the impossibly kind, brilliant, generous people who are part of the food community. If you are reading this blog and are feeling friendly, drop me a line and say hello. I would love to hear from you!

Advertising and Reviews

If you would like to advertise on Confessions of a Tart, or you would like me to review a product or a restaurant - first of all, thank you! I am very, very flattered! Please send me an email at sweet.persuasion (at) gmail (dot) com about you and your product to see if we are a good fit for each other.

Out of respect for my readers I will only endorse products that I myself use or would like to use - I feel that it is the best compromise between remaining honest to my readers and leaving the door open for me to find out about all the wonderful products that exist out there.

Copyright

All text and images on this website are mine, unless otherwise noted. They are copyrighted to me, 2008-2011, and are protected by the current intellectual property laws and by the international treatises regarding authors' rights. Although I am generally a nice person, I am also a lawyer (really), so I take this sort of thing seriously.

If you would like to use my photos or text, just send me an email. I will probably be really flattered that you liked my photo or blog entry and send you a virtual cheesecake along with the permission. Really, I haven't said no to anyone yet. All I ask is that you either link to my blog and/or put a line somewhere that says where the photo came from (that's pretty reasonable, no?). I also have high-res copies of all of my photos if you should like one for personal use.

Contact

You can contact me by leaving a comment on this blog or emailing me at sweet.persuasion (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks for stopping by Confessions of a Tart! I hope you will come again!

19 comments:

Mrs Ergül said...

Gorgeous site!

Shelley V said...

I love this blog! I work with Luba and she just introduced me to it!!! Magnifique!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely place to visit! I'm totally taken in with your pictures and your words. I'll be stopping by often.

Jane said...

Your food photos are absolutely exceptional. I was hunting for a good strawberry scone recipe and that's how I got here. So glad I discovered your blog!

Jane (of Janessweets.blogspot.com)

Nazli DeFazio said...

wow wow wow! I'm a friend of Shushana's and just saw a picture of the nutella cake you baked for her bday. it looks amazing. your blog is so inspirational! I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to talk about, read about and do anything w/food. can't wait to try out your recipes.

Anonymous said...

I have given you a MeMe Award!
Hope to hear new and exciting things about you!

Danielle

www.delightfullysweet.wordpress.com

Zochlette said...

Irene this is amazing! You've won another devoted fan..I'm already eyeballing your pizza recipe :)

Irene said...

Thanks, K! :) Also try the pizza dough recipe with regular all purpose flour - it's so good!

Dana said...

Wow what an amazing blog!! I'm very impressed and so many of your recipes sound absolutely scrumptious. I find it very inspirational as I love to cook too (especially local produce, though I'm in Canada so winters are harder), and I love photography...great mix. Your pictures are just fabulous!

I look forward to stopping by often.

Cheers! :)

Julia said...

Hello Irine!

Thank you so much for leaving a comment on my blog. Glad to know people are stopping by to visit :)

Your blog is awesome. If you don't mind, I'd like to add you to my blog roll.

Keep cooking and sharing :)

Around the world in 80 markets said...

I am officially jealous to the poisonest possible shade of green about the title of your blog and, of course, the photography!

you have a new, Russian-esque;), fan. hope to see you around on mine, Irene!

Katrina

Hannah said...

I love your blog, its so good. i feel like cooking everything on this site! mmm mouth watering looking at those beautiful pictures.
I am going to try your strawberry tart tonight, if i can get some nice strawberries from the shops.
i hope i can be as good as you are one day! :D

Adler said...

Great Blog! I had a bunch of strawberries in the fridge and came across your strawberry scone recipe (delicious!!...and easy). All of your recipes look great and being a newbie to the kitchen they don't look intimidating so I can't wait to try more of your recipes!

Charles said...

Great blog! I look forward to following your cooking adventures!

Mi said...

I came across your blog while searching for a recipe for scones, wow, so glad I found it!! not only is your recipe for scones so easy and so delicious but I just finished making bagels with my 3 year old as well! I can't wait to use more of your recipes, thanks for sharing them and your adventures!(and congrats on your beautiful daughter!:))

Mi said...

I came across your blog while searching for a recipe for scones, I'm so glad I stopped and took a look around! you're scone recipe is so easy and so delicious! I just made bagels with my 3 yr old today( he loved the kneeding:)) and look forward to trying many more recipes! Thanks for sharing your food adventures!(and congrats on your beautiful daughter:))

Oksana said...

Thank you so much for your web site! I accidentally discovered it last week and can't wait to try some of your recipes! Some of the recipes sound familiar but all have a certain unique twist!

Deborah said...

I love your photos - not an original comment - true nonetheless. The pictures inspire!

Irene said...

Thank you, that's lovely to hear!