Wants happy back in the kitchen.

Back in 2013, I started a post with the above title. I also wrote the next four paragraphs:

'You know what I miss?

I miss this place. I miss writing. I miss cooking. I miss pouring over cookbooks, having them lying next to my bed when I fall asleep at night.

I don't know why I stopped. Wait, maybe that's not the whole truth. There are just so many reasons I did stop - child, school, home life, oh, and a brand new interest in knitting - that coming back became hard. And also, food blogging became a chore, not what it started out being: an adventure, a sharing of dreams and posibilities and ideas. It became a popularity contest. I don't know if it still is, because frankly, I don't read food blogs very much these days. But that's probably good, for me, if I want to bring it back to basics. Writing about food, about what I do in the kitchen, and about what happens in my life, and how what happens in the kitchen reflects that.

I miss being happy in the kitchen. Not that I'm unhappy in the kitchen, that's not how it is. But there is no doubt that these days, it's more of a chore, something that needs doing within a certain time frame, with a reliable result. I miss liking doing it.'

And then, not much happened, here. During COVID, I think I contemplated it again, but still - 12 years, and while I thought about it every once in a while, many of the feelings I had in 2013 remained, and to some extent still do. I had the odd urge now and again to share, but then who would I be sharing with? 

I don't know. I know that I still feel like bringing happy back in my kitchen. 

Recently, on one of the SoMe apps I tell myself I'm not on, my feed presented me with someone that might help with that: Justine Doiron, maybe better known as Justine_snacks. She has a blog and a cookbook. Her approach to food drew me in: she had a series of reels where she used up stuff in her kitchen cupboards, and whe wasn't scared of mixing cuisines and ingredients and the food she made, made me want to COOK. I tried her Charred Lemon and Snap Pea Bean salad, and I was sold. Then I made her version of Radio Bakery Foccacia, and after that - I bought her book. 

It makes me want to cook. I read it in bed, and there isn't a recipe in it, that I wouldn't like to try. The idea alone of cooking from this book makes me happy. And I think that's a pretty good starting point, for getting happy back in the kitchen, also. 

Maybe I'll end up making two recipes. Maybe I'll cook the entire book. Maybe I'll share, maybe I wont. Maybe there'll be photos, maybe not. Only time will tell. Right now, I just know I'm excited to cook, again.