Three years in, it’s time for reflection.
Looking back over my blog, I am struck by how much I have done. I have travelled from Alaska to the Caribbean and places inbetween. I have met amazing people, professional chefs and home cooks. I have eaten all kinds of food at the most refined resterauants and in the most simple of kitchens. I have cooked and baked things I never made before or thought I would make. And I have shared it all (or most of it) on these pages.
It is almost impossible to encapsulate three years in nine pictures!
Was it really three years ago that I posted my first recipe on A Woman Cooks In Asheville?
It seems so. At the time, I was in a place of change. My marriage had ended. My inn was sold. Life, and my future, as I had envisioned it was a rubble around me. I needed something to do, something to focus on, to give a sense of meaning to my days. I turned to two things I enjoy: writing and cooking
My blog has been a source of enjoyment to me. In pursuit of food and recipes it sent me out into the world. I filled many hours sharing my experience here. This blog has been my friend and companion. I have been thrilled every time someone tries one of my recipes. I have loved growing my Instagram account (will I EVER reach 1000 followers???). I am proud of how much better my photography is. (Especially because brown food (tastes good) is hard to make attractive.)
Recently I went back and read my first post: Outrageous Cookies
I was struck by the content. My voice was clear and expressive. The pictures were basic. The recipe was only okay. But the writing was good. I was interested to see how my blog had changed from a reflective essay with a recipe attached to a how-to cooking blog.
And I wasn’t sure I liked the change.
To be fair, Covid and the isolation it engendered has limited my opportunities for thought provoking experiences. And inspirational food… ? Honestly I bore myself these days!!
It’s time for a change.
I am taking a break from my blog for the next 30 days. I am going to use the time to take some online cooking classes, to read lots and lots of things, and to experiment with some new photography techniques. Along the way, I am going to be thinking about what I want to do with my blog. In what direction do I want it to go? What is it about—life, food, or both? I will keep posting on Instagram and Facebook, but only as I am inspired.
Does it mean anything that my first and last post were about cookies?
For this month, I am leaving you with this recipe for thought. See you in February
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Ingredients
- 65 years
- 1 Loving family
- Regrets a few
- Hope a lot
- Faith endless
- Thought liberal
Instructions
- Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
- And sorry I could not travel both
- And be one traveler, long I stood
- And looked down one as far as I could
- To where it bent in the undergrowth;
- Then took the other, as just as fair,
- And having perhaps the better claim,
- Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
- Though as for that the passing there
- Had worn them really about the same,
- And both that morning equally lay
- In leaves no step had trodden black.
- Oh, I kept the first for another day!
- Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
- I doubted if I should ever come back.
- I shall be telling this with a sigh
- Somewhere ages and ages hence:
- Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
- I took the one less traveled by,
- And that has made all the difference.
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The five stars are for the post and the life recipe! I’m going to miss your blog because sadly its been the primary way I keep in touch with YOU. Perhaps that is the thing that needs to change. I miss you my friend, as you are the person who I love in spite of our differences, and maybe a little bit because of them. You make me think about WHY I believe the things I believe and you make me see the other side when I might otherwise be blind to it. I hope your month off is only a month and you find it provides the rest you need.
Thank you. I also appreciate our friendship, sometimes because of our differences. It proves that friendship can thrive in many ways!
I do intend for this to only be a short break. The Cooking Class I am taking is intensive-2-3 hours/day–and I want to maximize my experience without feeling distraction or pressure!