Hello everyone! I’m Sara, and welcome to my tiny kitchen! Not literally of course - not because I wouldn’t love to have your company, but because two people cannot comfortably fit in my kitchen.
A little bit about me. About 480 years ago, when I was in my 20’s and food blogging was still very much a baby industry, I had my own little corner of the internet with artichokesandgarlic.blogspot.com. That’s right - blogspot.com. That should tell you a little bit about how long ago we’re talking. At the time I had just gotten married, and my brand new husband kindly pointed out that while he loved me dearly, he also didn’t want to eat spaghetti and taco salad on repeat for the rest of his life. To which I replied “well, I guess you should make your own dinner then, huh?” The truth is, I enjoyed cooking, but was scared of it. We were pretty broke at the time, so if I spent money on ingredients for a recipe that turned out to be a stinker, that was a big deal for us. If I broke dishes (which I did, spectacularly, at one point, I’ll tell the story some day) or used salt instead of sugar, or just accidentally picked a bad recipe, we were out both that money and time. But I knew that if I wanted to get better I would have to practice. And I figured, why not practice in front of the whole world?
So I started blogging. Some of my various pictures are still up if I search hard enough for them (and boy howdy, did I NOT know how to use a camera at that point.) Yellow lighting, extreme close-ups, bad angles. It was BAD. I’m by no means an amazing photographer at this point, but at least I know about natural light now. And after 6-9 months or so of blogging with no real plan or guide or idea even of where I wanted this all to go, I got incredibly frustrated that I wasn’t pulling in numbers like The Pioneer Woman, or Smitten Kitchen. After all, I was doing my best to emulate them, wasn’t I? Taking a million process shots like Ree. Trying to be dry and witty like Deb. Trying to act like them in order to become them. Which clearly works 100% of the time (insert eye-roll emoji here). I was so busy trying to act like famous bloggers that I very rarely acted like myself. And myself is pretty okay, if I may. I’m nice, I’m smart, I’m funny (at least that’s what I tell myself). I burned out very quickly - the pressure of trying to be something I wasn’t was overwhelming and exhausting, and I just couldn’t hang anymore. This time around, I’ve vowed to myself to always be myself. That’s not to say there aren’t bloggers that I respect and emulate, and that my recipes aren’t (at this point) almost entirely based on other people’s. But I will be me, and what I’ve learned over the last 612 years since I started that long ago food blog, is that “me” evolved into a really good cook and baker. I still mess up recipes, I still break dishes, and I cut and burn myself regularly; but overall I’m a damn good cook.
My dad passed away a few months ago (sorry to bring the mood down) and after he passed, I was going through old messages from him, and I was struck by how little time he had to accomplish the things he wanted to. So this new blog is in part dedicated to him. He would be so pleased with me for taking a risk, and for trying to create something that I can be proud of.
If you’re still reading this (hi, mom!), I hope that you’ll stick around. I tend to cook the same way I think a lot of people do: about 80% of my recipes are quick, weeknight-style meals and desserts with easy to find ingredients, and the rest tend to be “all day in the kitchen” knock your culinary socks off types of affairs. Hopefully you’ll find something here that you love as much as I do.
Talk to you soon!
Sara
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