This is me.
In a suit.
At my wedding.
In Vegas!
Proper.
This is me.
Crazy-eyed.
With a MALLET!
Ready to go Genghis Khan
on some CRAB!
This is me.
On a Boat.
In Florida.
Shooting a sunglasses ad (in my mind)
With Alea (co-worker and blog motivator)
No T-Pain :(
This is me.
Very HAPPY.
At Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland.
Three words:
Bacon...
Maple...
Bar...
GET ONE!
My name is Jason McAndrew and I currently live in Philadelphia with my beautiful wife Mercedes, and my dog Jasper. I have at various times worked as a knife salesman, a copywriter and creative director at an ad agency, a car salesman, and I have also worked in marketing and sales in the publishing industry.
While I like my day job, my true passion is cooking and photography. So, with motivation from my boat-mate Alea (see above pic) I decided to start Blade & Shutter to chronicle my cooking and eating adventures.
The food bug bit me at a pretty early age - as my Mother always had something mouth-watering cooking up in the kitchen. I would help her out with what I could and learned bits and pieces along the way - though mostly I just helped taste test everything. There are actually photos of me as a toddler sitting in my little lawn chair in front of the oven watching cookies bake. Now that is some pure love and dedication for food....Or an unhealthy addiction to sugar...? Potato - Potato (pronounced differently of course... you know the song).
Now a days those cookies don't bake themselves, and I don't have time to post up in a lawn chair and watch glorious little mountains of oats and chocolate turn golden brown in the oven. In fact, I don't even really like to bake. Mostly because I don't like to measure ingredients - that tidbit right there I discovered to be a huge challenge when trying to turn my dishes into actual recipes.
I cook by taste and don't really like to use recipes too much. I have taught myself for the most part and continue to teach myself as I go along. When I want to cook something I have never made before I will generally try and find a recipe online for cooking times and procedures and use it as an outline to create something a bit unique. It is a lot of trial and error, but that's what makes it fun and exciting.
This blog is going to be a learning experience for me as much as anyone reading it. Because I am going to continue to teach myself different tricks and tastes, and tell you how to do them yourself - in terms that make sense and are easy to follow - hopefully.
I will also look to post about great bites I eat outside of my own kitchen, and perhaps interesting food related news or events. It is going to be a surprise to me too, because Blade & Shutter is just starting to cook, and I myself don't know what's ahead.
So please join me on this journey. Make comments, suggestions, or whatever - I am in this to learn and grow and share it all.
CHEERS!
