I just put a pan of muffins into the oven. Banana-blueberry muffins. Mmm, it’s been a long time since I did something that ambitious for breakfast. Sad, but true.
Over the last few months, I confess that I have been a slacker. My blog has suffered dreadfully, and I fear some of my internet friends have moved on to greener pastures, and I can’t say that I blame them, it’s been awfully quiet and boring in my corner of the internet world. And for that, I am so, so sorry. I am sorry for those who came here often looking for inspiration and finding not much at all.
Somewhere, somehow in the last few months, I lost Tummy Treasure. Maybe even longer than that. When I first started food blogging, I wanted to be real. I wanted to bring a real voice to the land of gourmands and food critics. I’ve been food blogging since May of 2005- that makes me a dinosaur in the land of food blogs! Somehow, I lost that voice. I totally lost what I wanted to do, and as I waded through the world of fancy food photography and cookbook reviews, I started shifting into just one of many. I think it was blog envy. As I’d go visit the many blogs that I read from time to time, I would see the readership in the thousands, the comments in the hundreds, and the amazing photos, and then I would come back to my little site and feel terribly inadequate. Like I wasn’t being all that I could be.
I am grateful to you if you are still reading this, because maybe it means that you’ll stick around. Maybe you’ll hang out a little longer with me and help me to get this voice out that’s been in hiding for a while. Because it’s coming out.
Over the last few months, my kitchen has been incredibly boring. It’s been a lot of the same old stuff, or reworking of leftovers yet again, and I honestly have not thought that my readers would find much of it very interesting. Or would they… and this is where I hope to get back to what I meant this blog to be all along. Real cooking. I cannot possibly be the only person out here who has to rummage through the pantry, fridge and freezer and find breakfast, lunch AND dinner. And then a snack for my son who does not stop eating. Ever. I cannot possibly be the only person who looks in the fridge, sees the almost-gone gallon of milk and has to rethink the idea of pancakes for dinner, because there isn’t enough milk and a trip to the grocery store isn’t happening for another week. And I know I’m not the only person who trolls food blogs looking for real inspiration- something new and exciting to feed family that isn’t going to require a trip to the store.
I have no idea how I’m going to do this. But I’ve wanted to do it for nearly five years now, and it’s time I stop procrastinating and thinking someone else can do it better, and just do it! This isn’t fantasyland! There are real people who have no idea how to cook from scratch and put nutritious and delicious food on the table. And yes, sometimes that nutritious and delicious dinner is simply a creative combination of four leftover tubs hiding in the fridge. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking about learning how to cook without a recipe- I’m talking about intuitive cooking, the cooking that tells me I’ve got a leftover stew in the fridge. A little stock, a handful of greens and sprinkle of cheese and I have an amazing rustic soup. Crusty bread is not as difficult to bake up from scratch as it seems- and yes, I use white flour and I have no qualms about it. My family prefers it. Is it less healthy? Maybe, but it’s still missing all those preservatives that go into bread bought at the store, and that’s worth more than all the whole grains in the world.
It’s a new day, I hope you’ll hang around for a while and see where this takes us. And I hope you’ll share with me too. Is there something that you’d really like to learn how to do? Something you wish you knew how to do? An ingredient perhaps that you’d like to learn how to use. Let’s discuss it together and go on an amazing adventure together. I’d like the company on the ride.
First of all Big Hugs to you! My blog often goes silent, and I totally admire your ability to balance being a mom and domestic goddess with writing for so many sites. I am responsible for feeding only me 3 times a day, and I frequently overwhelmed. Oh and that gallon of milk that is running low? That is why I keep canned milk and powdered milk on hand – breakfast for dinner is necessary at times!
Anyway, I hope you don’t feel too alone – I am intimidated by the people who seem to be professional photographers who like to cook (instead of people like me who love to cook but have no clue how to operate a camera). Hang in there and know that I definitely still visit your blog to see what’s cooking. Take the leap with cooking without a recipe… I am the opposite of you and need to learn to really use recipes instead of fiddling with food on my own 🙂 I am sure there is a happy medium!
Oh yes, I have been there. Sometimes I am so sick of feeding people that I could scream! No wonder my mother fed us jarred spaghetti sauce 3x a week…
I am with you on the white bread too–although yesterday I ran out of white flour and used 1/2 wheat in my pizza crust and my husband actually liked it. Small victories help.
I dont blog (tried that and gave up), but I do cook alot.
I go through phases of being inspired and creative and then not wanting to do a thing. I get inspiration from watching Food Network and from reading food blogs written by real people with the same time constraints as the rest of us. I go to http://www.foodgawker.com and http://www.foodblogs.com a few times a week for inspiration and ideas.
Oh, don’t despair, Erika. There are times when I don’t feel like posting either. And days when I simply don’t feel like cooking, either. I do understand how you feel. Maybe you need a weekend off, a little trip somewhere. Or an afternoon with the girls. I do enjoy your blog – always have. Hope coming days and weeks will find you back in the thick of it.
Yay, Big Sis! I am very much looking forward to your changes around here. We get to the grocery store once a month, and don’t do much running to the local store between trips. Some days I do wish I had a bit of inspiration to do something more interesting with the things in my fridge and pantry — maybe Tummy Treasure will be just the ticket! Looking forward to it!! 😀
Wow- thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and comments. I really think the cloud is lifting, and I have some great ideas on the horizon. This time, I’m just going to let it all out and stop holding back, simply because it isn’t interesting. Maybe in the end, it will be. And if it isn’t, hey someday we’ll have a big fat meet-up and we can laugh about it over mojitos and margaritas.
I find myself not wanting to put the improvising stuff on my blog b/c there isn’t really a recipe, but I guess it does show that you don’t have to have a recipe to cook! Keep on posting when you can.
Claire, that’s going to be the challenge isn’t it? I also skip sharing those things because there is no recipe, but I guess not everyone can do that. Or they get like me and forget they can do that and rely on recipes all the time.