About Me

 Hi! My name is Angela and I’m the author and chef of New Food Tuesdayz. I could write this like someone else wrote it about me and put a lot of time and thought in to my life and what makes me tick, but that’s silly. You all know I’m the only one that writes on here. So here goes nothing…


My full name is Angela Roxanne Kugler Samuels. It doesn’t fit on one line of my driver’s license. More than once this has confused the person checking me in at the airport because they never think to look down one line. Really? This is the first time EVER you have had this problem? Doubt it.

I’m in my mid twenties but if you want to tell me I look younger than that I would really appreciate it.

I was born in Northern California (where my parents met and fell in loooooooovvvvve) but I spent most of my first eighteen years in our family’s home in Orange County, California. I have spent the last seven years living on the west side of Los Angeles where I attended college at Loyola Marymount University. I have a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis is Management and had ZERO interest in cooking until I cooked crab cakes in January of 2010. In college I spent most of my time swimming, studying and being a sorority girl.

Most people say this, but I have the MOST amazing family. I’ll bet you five dollars mine is better than yours.



My mother Elizabeth and my father Marty have been going strong for the last 37 years and are the best example of a healthy relationship that anyone could ever ask for. I have two younger brothers who give me immense joy and really tough skin. Albert is a crazy smart young man who I am convinced will take over the world one day. Joshua is a leader at the institution famous for winning more NCAA Division 1 titles than any other. He plays water polo at a national level and I follow him to foreign countries to party… I mean, “watch him play.”

I love hockey, jewelry making and puzzles.



I love to read and lay in bed all day. I love children and teaching them to swim.

        

I have asthma and allergies and I am allergic to all animals. I love shoes.

The lifelong friends that I’ve been accumulating since I was nine years old never stop amazing me. They all are smart and talented and they always tell me my food tastes good.



I am lucky to have them frequent my dinner table and they never protest (too much) when I want to talk about them in the blog.



They might be all over the country and the world, but it feels like they are right next to me, holding me up as I clumsily stumble through life.

That’s right. I’m SUPER clumsy. Maybe it’s because I spent a large portion of my life in the water, but whatever the reason, I’m not very good on land. I fall down, run into things, spill and knock things over on a regular basis.



Adding really hot things and knives into the equation has made things extremely interesting.

Somehow, I managed to find a man that allows to me to be my crazy self. Wesley understands my tendency to bite off more than I can chew and is there to pick up the pieces after I freak out.


He is the perfect sous chef. And that is not a metaphor. He literally used to work in a restaurant and chops and preps food WAY better than I do.

I currently live at home with my parents. Sometimes I think I am a loser for living under Mom and Dad's roof, and then I think about how much money I'm going to save and I know I'm doing EXACTLY what I'm supposed to be doing and making the right choices for me.

Moving home was really scary, but being here has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. Living with my parents as an adult has been one of the most special and rewarding experiences I've ever had. This time we have together is unique and is something most people will never experience. Plus they have a rocking kitchen and they let me cook in it whenever I want. As long as I leave it the way I found it. Totally a fair deal. 

I started cooking in January 2010 on a whim. Up until that point in my life I had always had a direction but never a true passsion. Something to work for and something that motivated me. After I graduated from college and started my real life I felt a little lost. I really enjoy my job and the people I work with, but I needed something else. Something I could get excited about going home for. The more I cooked, the more I wanted to cook. I started New Food Tuesdayz to share the journey.

Cooking is something that seems scary and unapproachable, but I promise that is all in your head. The most important thing that I have learned about cooking is that it is REALLY hard to mess something up. The hardest part about cooking is committing to doing it. I realized that going to a restaurant or heating up something frozen is much easier than making your own meal. I know because I do it often. But the feeling you get from creating something from nothing is unmatched.

Challenge yourself to create something. I did and I couldn’t be happier.


Love and Beer Floats
Angela