You may have been under the impression that I had fallen off the face of the earth, having not posted in (yikes!) 4 months or so, without a word or warning of my hiatus. For that, I am sorry. To use a cliché, life happened this past few months, including:
- Travel, both work-related and personal
- When not travelling, a very busy work schedule, and
- Serious illnesses in the family.
The last one was probably the biggest contributing factor to my absence, and although I won’t go into detail, let’s just say that the words “tumor” and “ICU” and “coma” have unfortunately become part of my daily vocabulary. I found I hadn’t the time or (frankly) the heart to tend to this blog. Spending time with family, or even time doing nothing productive at all, like reading books or binge watching Netflix (new season of OITNB anyone?) seemed to fill my days.
That said, here we are in August and my little project is languishing from lack of new content since early April. What is the future of this blog? I’ve thought a lot about it over the past few weeks, and although I can’t make any concrete promises – since I don’t know what else life may have in store for me in 2015 – I would like to start posting again.
I’ve found that the most time-consuming part about blogging is developing recipes and testing them until they are worthy of sharing with the masses. True, I’ve shared many recipes that had already been part of my regular rotation (like my Broccoli Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Potatoes, which I perfected years ago), but often it has been a challenge to come up with something original to share that is also tasty, simple, and beautiful. Since this is definitely not my day job, I found that it was adding stress to my life when it was intended to be a fun hobby.
What I’m thinking is I’d like to selfishly make this blog more productive for me as a cook, and spend the next several months ticking items off of my Culinary Bucket List: classic dishes that I’ve always wanted to try but never gotten around to, or recipes that seem too fussy or challenging to prepare myself. This way, I will be able to rely on the experts for their recipes (giving full credit, of course, and/or specifying any modifications I made myself), I will improve my skills and expand my repertoire, and (most importantly) I will have new content to share with you. What do you think?
Here is my preliminary list, in alphabetical order and organized into Sweets/Baking and Savory dishes:
Sweets/Baking:
- Baklava
- Brioche
- Cannoli
- Challah
- Cream Puffs
- Crème Bruleè
- Crepe Cake
- Eggnog
- Flapper Pie
- Grandma’s Sponge Cake with Strawberries
- Irish Soda Bread
- Key Lime Pie
- Macarons
- Panettone
- Rugelach
- Rum or Whiskey Cake
- Semifreddo
- Tarte Tatin
- Tiramisu
- Soufflé (sweet or savory….)
Savory:
- BBQ/Grilled Pizza
- Beef Bourguignon
- Beef Wellington
- Cacio e Pepe
- Chicken Marsala
- Coq au Vin
- Crostini Toscani con fegatini
- Eggplant Parmesan
- Eggs Benedict
- Fried Green Tomatoes
- Jambalaya
- New England Clam Chowder
- Osso Bucco
- Paella
- Pimento Cheese
- Porchetta
- Prime Rib Au Jus (my husband’s favorite thing in the world, and I’ve never made it! I am such a bad wife.)
- Ravioli (with homemade pasta dough)
- Sushi (some sort of maki/roll)
- Yorkshire Pudding
What I love about bucket lists like these is that everyone’s is different. In fact, you probably read my list and thought “What kind of food enthusiast has never made Eggs Benedict or Tiramisu?!” but these are all personal things – challenging or simple – that are new to me. I will share the fruits of my labour whether they are successful or not, and hopefully together we can learn as much from the flops and failures as from the triumphs.
Finally, I wanted to ask if you have a knockout recipe for anything on my Bucket List. Does your mom make amazing cream puffs? Did you escape from the womb being able to make perfect paella? I’d love to hear from you, and hear any tips or words of wisdom you’d like to share.
Again, sorry for deserting you. I’m excited to get started!
Until next time,
Sarah
