I know this blog has kitchen in the title and I know people like finding recipes when they go to blogs that have the word kitchen in them, but I thought it was best to start by introducing myself first. We'll get to recipes a little later.
If someone had asked me if I would ever think of starting a blog a year ago, I would have laughed. "Absolutely not" I'd have answered without skipping a beat, while wishing deep down that I had the nerve to put something out there that the whole world would have access to. I'm the 5th in a family of 12 so don't underestimate how difficult it is for me to speak up, open up and be listened to!
The funny thing about getting older is you stop caring so much about getting things perfect on the first try. You start to realize that life is flying by so fast that if you ever do want to succeed at something, even if it seems a far stretch, there's only one option and that's to give it a try. So as I transitioned from my 20s into my 30s I decided to create this space to form (let's be honest *force*) a habit of writing.
I've been listening to podcasts lately, reading books, and can recall several recent conversations that all seem to be pointing me in the same direction. If you want to get good at something practice it often, make a habit of it. That one little habit might not change your life dramatically but there is the chance that it might do just that so why not give it a shot?
Anyways, a little about me. I love to cook and bake. I grew up with 11 brothers and sisters on a small farm in rural Alberta. I remember going out to milk cows in the mornings with my brothers (let's be honest, I was a pretty whiny kid, so they did most of the work), churning fresh cream into butter, watching my mom make mozzarella and cottage cheese with the extra milk we didn't need. We would have days set aside for butchering chickens and I specifically remember butchering a cow on Christmas one year. My mom bought a flour mill and ground organic wheat to make big batches of homemade bread. We would usually have one day a week set aside for bread baking and usually made 10 loaves at a time. I remember being proud when at 12 years old, I could make a whole batch of bread from start to finish with minimal help from my mom. We had a huge garden and spent hours weeding, watering and thinning vegetables each summer. As kids it seemed ridiculous and unfair when our friends explained that they had whole days during the summer holidays free and we had chore after chore before we were allowed to go play.
But luckily for me, all of this set the stage for where I am in life now. I want to go back to my roots. A simple, wholesome life of growing and preserving foods, cooking and baking with quality ingredients, and moving away from the consumerism that is such an easy trap to fall into. All while devoting 30 minutes a day to reading, 20 minutes to practicing piano, 1 hour to working out, 1 hour to walking our puppy Hank, 2 hours to cleaning house, 8 hours to maintaining a management position at work, maintaining a healthy relationship with my significant other, budgeting our living costs, etc. Sound unreasonable? Knowing me, it's probably not. Ha!
I want to invite you to join along as I make an effort to create new habits and changes in my life, trying to get that 1% better each day. In the meantime, here's a picture of aforementioned puppy, Hanky Panky. We thought it'd be pretty cool to call him Hank the Tank but right now he's more of a Hanky Panky, aka he's a big baby, and that's okay.
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