Welcome to Rosemary and Olive Oil!

I started this blog to keep track of the many recipes that I try. I love to cook for family and friends and plan birthdays, baby showers and dinner parties. I had the bad habit of cooking and creating recipes then forgetting what I made or how I made it. Hopefully this blog will allow me to have my own personal record and help me share it with others at the same time!

37 things about me:

1. I graduated from VCU in December 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications
2. My son Devin is in 11th grade
3. I love to make lists
4. I live in downtown Richmond, VA
5. I have a Honda scooter
6. Buying organic and locally grown or raised food is very important to me
7. I am the oldest in my family; I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers
8. I like to order vegetarian dishes when I go out to eat even though I’m not vegetarian
9. I have a rooftop herb garden
10. My fiance, Travis and I have been together for 7 years.
11. I have a labradoodle named Walter
12. and a goldendoodle named Randolph
13. and a 11 year old cat named Kane
14. In January 2013 I started making a fruit and veggie smoothie almost every day for breakfast!
15. I love Pinterest
16. Giada De Laurentiis is my favorite Food Network chef
17. I worked for Dominion Virginia Power for 10 years (1999-2010)
18. I left my career specifically to focus on college and I’m not working right now. Thanks Travis!!
19. I want to learn how to clean and filet a fish because people on Chopped always get made fun of when they don’t know how to.
20. I love to cook (and EAT) Mexican food
21. I buy fresh cilantro almost every time I grocery shop
22. Sauvignon Blanc is my favorite wine…especially if it’s from New Zealand
23. I collect matchbooks
24. We love to travel but pretty much stick to the east coast… NYC, Philly, DC, Charleston, Key West
25. Speaking of DC, my sister Zandria used to live there but she moved to Buffalo, NY in 2012.
26. I love pickles
27. My boyfriend taught himself how to play guitar and is awesome at it.
28. He also now collects guitars…he has so many that I lost count!
29. I graduated Magna Cum Laude
30. I made a school scrapbook for Devin that covered kindergarten through 8th grade
31. I work out 4-5 days per week (the elliptical 4 days and weights 2 days)
32. Hydrangea’s are my favorite flower (green and white)
33. Even though I LOVE our house my next house WILL have a pool!
34. We are members of a Mariners Club and go boating as much as we can.
35. We have a Nepresso machine and it makes the BEST cup of coffee!
36. My first ever nephew, Ryder, missed sharing my birthday by just a couple hours. He was born at 8pm on July 5th, 2011 and my birthday is July 6th.
37. I love to see comments and likes on my new blog and follows and comments on Twitter…if you like something let me know…I will always respond 🙂

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NOTE: This is what my boyfriend Travis wrote about me after being sneaky and taking my computer from me one day. I had been working on putting my blog together and he took advantage of the opportunity to write on my behalf! I just had to keep it because it is so thoughtful and funny. – Elissa

Hello, I am a very lucky girl. I have 2 labradoodles, a very handsmome man in my life whom is of the utmost in terms of quality and delivery. Whether it is music on his gibson dove or his conversation. It always delivers inspiration and is one of the things in my life that has propelled me towards cooking. He likes my potato salad.

I am very fortunate in that I am so well taken care of and have little to no petty daily time-killers like commuting to work or being bothered with bills etc. This has allowed me to further my education and pursue my full self actualization.

My labradoodles are like having happiness in a four furry paw paws. They greet me every morning with a new day and biscuits.

Devin is my beginning. He has now been with me for 14 years and is quite the little traveling  companion while I am on walkabouts through new york, philly, miami, or DC. He is always so helpful. He makes me laugh and has had a deep voice since he was like 4. He was like a 4 yr old barry white. MOM.