If you’ve made it this far, let me express my gratitude to you, as a reader, for taking the time to find out what I’m all about & why this blog even became a thing.
You made it! First, let me introduce myself, my name is Nicole (in the hat, it’s kinda my staple) and that incredible woman next to me is my better half Amanda.
Food has always been a part of our journey together, in fact it played a huge part in how we met! (That’s for another blog)
But my love and adoration for food and going out to grab a bite to eat started way, way before our paths crossed.
“If a house is a building, home is a feeling”
Anderson East
Food has always reminded me of home.
Growing up, I would always see my grandma (my grandparents raised me) making meals from scratch.
From nightly dinners to family gatherings to Holidays, she always had a recipe or meal plan. And she was damn good at it. Every single dish that she made always found a way to bring everyone together. See attached photo of my attempt of her Sopa De Abondigas.
No guide, no notes, just memory of what was passed down to her from her mom, from her mom’s mom, like most traditional Mexican American families. She would put everything together like it was second nature.
I always watched in wonder asking how she did it hoping that one day I’d be able to do the same. As hard as I try, I still don’t think I have achieved her ninja level of mastery.
It was her super power, one of many.
The older I got, the more and more I realized just how special those moments were and how much food and cooking can mean in terms of creating memorable moments.
I always told myself that I always wanted to carry that same sentiment with me. Carry on those memories into a household of my own I guess you could say. And I do that now with cooking at home for my household. Which, much to wife’s humor, leads me to trying my best to play Chopped in my kitchen then taking pictures of my attempts in hopes that it will make me feel like I kinda knew what I was doing. Chances are, I didn’t.
But the second part of this story carries on to outside of the household kitchen and into restaurants.
Again, growing up, my grandparents had a Friday night ritual. My grandpa would get off work, change, and we would all get ready to go out to eat. It didn’t matter if it was a good week, bad week, a good day or a bad day; this is what would happen, like clock work.
Most times it was one of our regular spots where the owners were family friends. In fact, we were such regulars that we have multiple family pictures on the wall of customers. When I younger, I totally thought we were a big deal for this, nevermind the hundreds of other pictures of other familes on the walls. To this day, if any one from our family walks into El Burrito in Fort Collins, we can search the wall to find all of our family photos of us dining there for any number of occasions.
But it was this type of “ritual” if you will, that made me look at going out to eat as something that was not simply grabbing a meal, but something so much more than that.
It was a celebration of hard work. Hard work from the week before, even if the day or week wasn’t what you wanted, you worked hard for this ability to dine out without restriction.
It was gratitude. Being grateful that we could go out as a family, enjoy a meal and just be together. Be together to talk about how the day was or how the week was. Talk about what was upcoming for the weekend or what big plans everyone wanted to accomplish. Even as I got older and I may not have had the means to go out for a “full meal”, I still would make it a point to treat myself with something small to remind myself to enjoy the reward of hard work. It could always be worse.
It represented celebration. Everytime something big in the family happened, we would always gather to go out to eat. It could be as simple as everyone hasn’t gotten together in a while or as big as having out of town realtives coming in. Either way, it was always a given that if there was something to celebrate, we were going out to eat.
I always have and I always will appreciate the little things like this that my grandparents taught me, whether they meant to or not. To this day I carry all of the above mentioned feelings and values with me which explains why now, I still hold going out to eat with a little bit more than some.
Every weekend my wife and I will make it a point to find somewhere new to eat. Sometimes it’s as simple as finding a brewery that has a food truck we’ve never had before. So we show up and order the menu. Other times, it’s planning out openings of places that have food that we want to try or haven’t experienced yet. All in hopes of giving ourselves a small reward for the work that we put in from the week prior, showing some gratitude for being able to do so, and celebrating nothing more than being with each other or in the company of good people.
With every culinary venture we take and every new person, place, or dish we meet, I want to be able to share that experience.
I want to be able to share in hopes that all of those that need a place to catch up, share a meal, and create some memories have some recommendations. I want to be able to share in that good with those who choose to partake so we can say that there was a community committed to sharing a little dose of good in each other’s week. I want to be able to share the experience in hopes that it will allow for others to partake and have the same goodness in their week that we did.
After all, can’t we all use an extra dose of good in our week? It’s all part of the Nerdy Foodie community.
Good food. Good people.
Cheers!
The Nerdy Foodie 
Family traditions and food bring everyone together❤️🌹❤️🌹❤️
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When you cook that Sopa again. I need to see an ingredient list!!! Yum!!
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Very cool blog! You go girl! Can’t wait to see what’s next! 🙂
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