The Recipe for My Recipe Blog
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When I first considered what “ingredients” I wanted to include in my blog dedicated to sharing my favorite recipes, I thought:
“I should start every blog post with a long-winded nostalgic rambling about the details of said recipe long before I ever share the actual recipe…
While people scroll endlessly to the bottom of my blog post desperately trying to find the actual recipe and ingredient list, I should plug in as much outside advertising as possible—preferably adding in as many distracting videos as I can to bog down their phone and computer.
Their experience should be mildly frustrating and physically difficult to view and/or replicate the recipe I’m attempting to share with them.”
Kidding—of course! 😂
What I actually thought was,
“Who am I to have a recipe blog? I am the worst person ever to be giving instructions to others on how to duplicate something.” 😂
In the same way that I could get in my car right now and successfully drive to my grandparents’ old house several hours away by memory, but couldn’t tell you the vast majority of the street names to actually get there…
I am a “go by feel” and an intuitive type of homemaker and well, everything-maker in general.
If something calls for one clove of garlic, I know I’m using three. Shaking spices here and there, and knowing when something is finished by looking at it…
The challenge for me in sharing my recipe blog was not in finding the many recipes I adore and make for myself and my family all the time—my challenge was to take my driver/expressive personality type and attempt to put on my best analytical/precise personality hat: (How many minutes is this actually taking? How many cups of blueberries was that? Was that 1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp?)
In the same way the book, “How to Deal With Annoying People” will forever be one of my favorites in breaking down personality types and the distinct differences in people that both repel and attract…
I do my best to highlight what is most important to me personally when it comes to cooking as someone who very rarely eats out and cooks fresh meals for myself, husband, toddler, and even dogs on a regular basis.
What matters most to me is making meals that are:
— Delicious
— Simple
— Healthy
While not all of my recipes are particularly simple—and maybe my very favorite broccoli cheese soup isn’t the “healthiest” per se… 😂—I find all of these recipes delicious, and love to know exactly what is in the food I’m preparing and serving to my family.
Maybe my blueberry muffins aren’t as “healthy” as someone who might make them with no sugar and with as little fat as possible… but I can guarantee you there’s a paragraph less of preservatives and questionable ingredients in mine than what I’d read on a label of readymade muffins at a grocery store last month.
While I’m sure I can do more research to find out more, do I want to be regularly eating processed food (designed for a long shelf life) filled with ingredients I can barely pronounce and don’t even fully know what they are?
That is a hard no for me.
While I grew up making bread from scratch with my grandmother, following the handwritten recipe of her Hungarian grandmother the many years of my childhood… my mother bought me a bread maker that I adore, and I have not went back to store-bought bread since.
Spring water, avocado oil, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.
This bread fits the bill for all: delicious, simple, (and I’ll let people argue in the comments about what quantifies as “healthy”! 😂)
Perhaps by “healthy” I mean more specifically, “clean” eating.
In that: my fresh tomatoes and raspberries are so much better than anything I could buy at the store.
Thus: I have an entire blog about gardening as well, and as with cooking, and doing dishes, and doing laundry, and doing the mundane work of keeping up with a home (whoever you are, however and wherever you live)… eating (and cooking, and cleaning…) are (hopefully) a way of life, a common thread we all share for survival.
(This makes me think of a meme my mom once sent me, badly paraphrased as, “Who knew the most challenging thing about life would be deciding what to eat for the rest of your life?”)
For me, as you may have noticed in my oh-so-many yet complementary passions intertwined to be Peace to the People itself… everything is connected. Plain and simple!
I prioritize cooking for my family quite simply to:
— Save Money
— Eat Well
— Know Exactly What’s In Our Food
The sacrifice? Taking the time to actually cook and then (quite begrudgingly) tackle the stack of dishes said activity yields 😂…
However, if you too are in any way interested in listening to lectures by Alan Watts (one of my very favorite teachers of Zen, philosophy, and interconnectedness), you could find yourself in a relatively monastic way recognizing that the beauty of life isn’t out beyond even doing the dishes—even in the mundane finding that “this is it.” 😉✨
In fact, I love using the time it takes me to cook and then clean up after my cooking to listen to long lectures that I love, uplift me, or make me think.
While overanalytical types may find my blog (or many blogs 😂) infuriating—(“Define a handful, please!” #throwsuphands)—I am here to share my very favorite recipes to the best of my ability, encouraging you to make them all your own as you best see fit!
Many of my favorite recipes are ones I have tried from family and friends that I have doctored myself or made specially for my own family.
(I.E. Is your toddler obsessed with peas? Put as many as you want in your fried rice! Do it to it using your best judgment.)
As I teach regardless of the subject: here’s what I do; you can do this too, or do what you think is best for you.
You know yourself best!
So take what I share with a grain of salt, and I wish you a lifetime of delicious homemade meals!
