About Me

How it all began

Hi, I’m Kathy Strahs. When I received a panini press for Christmas in 2007, I was, of course, grateful to my sister for the thoughtful gift. She knew I loved to cook and panini presses were the “it” gift for cooks, thanks to Oprah and her “Favorite Things.” But in the back of my head I was also thinking “Uh oh…you know I’m gonna use this once and then add it the appliance wasteland that is my pantry.” That’s what I did with the ice cream maker, the crepe machine, the pizzelle machine – and those are the ones that I can at least remember. Good intentions fallen to the wayside. I had to break the cycle, but I would need some serious motivation.

Then came the idea for a panini blog – I would come up with new ideas for panini, test them out on my press and write up my recipes. At the time, I was a new mommy to a baby girl and while I had scarcely any control over my schedule, I did have pockets of time that seemed ripe for a creative outlet. And so Panini Happy (my other baby) was born.

Now my panini maker gets plenty of use! It’s been so much fun to get inspired, try out some variations and come up with great-tasting results (most of the time). Each experiment is like a little project that I get to conceptualize, execute – and eat! It may be the job I’ve been looking for all my life

About Kathy

Cooking has also been among my favorite hobbies for as long as I can remember.  While I get much enjoyment out of planning and preparing food, my true passion is for eating – I tend to gravitate toward so-called comfort foods, simpler cooking techniques and a few shortcuts now and then. Great taste is always my ultimate goal, and if it happens to look pretty too, all the better!

Before taking some time off to focus on raising my toddler daughter and infant son, I worked in online marketing and advertising for several large, well-known brands. These days, I’m enjoying the delicious life of a foodblogger in sunny San Diego.

UPDATE: In March 2009, I launched a second blog called Cooking On the Side where I “reveal” recipes that are printed on food packaging.

Contact

Got feedback? Questions? You can reach me by e-mail at panini[DOT]happy[AT]yahoo[DOT]com