Welcome to My Blog!!

So, I have decided to start a food blog.  I decided on the rather weird name for my blog because most people associate relaxing with hammocks.  I associate relaxing with cooking.  I LOVE to cook.  And why Hen and not Helen?  Well, when our nieces, Colleen and Megan, were little they couldn't say Helen, so they just called me Hen.  Why be a Helen when you can be a much more original "Hen".

I hope you all enjoy my blog and find some of my recipes worth trying.  I try to cook mainly healthy things but taste is most important.  I also try not to get overly complicated.

So, how did I get so interested in food?  I've always enjoyed cooking and I have a mom who is a great cook so I have always expected that food should be good.  But, I wasn't obsessed with it until we moved to Austin.  See, I used to be crazy about gardening in Florida, but when we moved to Austin I realized that gardening involves heavy equipment, like a pickaxe!  A little too labor intensive for me, so I needed a new hobby.

I started watching the Food Network and started getting more adventurous with my cooking.  I fell in love with a local grocery store called Central Market, which just happens to be five minutes down the road.  The place is incredible and I am now forever spoiled.  About four years ago, I got a job at Central Market and I am now known as a Foodie.

What is a Foodie??  Foodies are unique to Central Market.  We are a group of 10 fabulous ladies whose job it is to help our customers find products, help them with dinner suggestions, answer cooking questions, and much more.  So basically, I get paid for walking around in a store I love and I get to talk about food all day.  Tough job, I know, but someone's got to do it.

I wanted to put together a collection of my favorite recipes and make it into a book to give to my sisters, mom, nieces, etc.  Then my friend, and fellow Foodie, Shelly, told me about her food blog (http://shellypalooza.blogspot.com/).  I knew that was the way to go!  So, now I have a blog that I am sharing with you.  Stuart has been so supportive of my new hobby.  Of course, he loves to eat the food I cook, but he also puts up with my craziness before almost every dinner:  "Wait, don't eat that yet; we need a picture for the blog!!!"