Back At It!

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

~ Nelson Mandela

What a beautiful, thoughtful, and appropriate quote to summarize my return to blogging. I have been gone for some time (seven and a half months!), but it's nice to know that I have my sweet vorace. to come back to. Like the quote says, vorace. remains unchanged, but I, myself, have altered. 

The blogging trailed off around Thanksgiving and I chalked it up to the inevitable busy-ness of the holiday season, but the truth is I became very distracted and somewhat consumed by the exciting appearance of a new person in my life. I found my brain capacity focusing on day dreaming of sparkling blue eyes instead of concocting new recipes, and time usually spent cooking was now being devoted to new adventures with this special someone. Even if those "new adventures" sometimes consisted of ordering takeout (we practically kept this place in business!) and watching reruns of The Office on Netflix, I happily traded in my spatulas & computer for time well spent next to my new guy on the couch. I know, how cliché. But love is a  cliché and one I can't get enough of, so I just went with it!

Cut to a few months later and I sold my condo - said goodbye to this kitchen where I did the majority of my cooking for vorace. -

[view during staging]

- and moved to a brand-spankin'-new apartment with my man, my pup in tow! Very exciting! It's been a super busy few months, but things are finally starting to slow down and settle in, so I figured I could dip my toe back into the warm, toasty, welcoming waters of vorace. once again. I have missed it, after all.

I had very little spare time while continuing to get unpacked and settled after the move, so I took the opportunity to brush up on something I'm not very adept at: following a recipe. How ironic! I'm very much a cook-by-intuition kinda gal, which 95% of the time works out very well for me. But when you are dead tired and cranky from house prep, packing, moving, unpacking, and negotiating a sale, there is very little leftover for creativity. I wanted to cook meals at home after months of nothing but take-out, so I turned to my ol' buddy Pinterest for some recipe support. Many of the recipes pinned to Pinterest are from bloggers like myself, so I was able to study their ways while following their recipes. This greatly inspired me to get back into the blogging game! While some of the recipes I found are great in theory, they lack in directions - literally. I pride myself on being very thorough and really make an effort to be explicit and clear in my instructions. I hope my readers benefit from and enjoy that aspect of my blog. 

With a little more free time on my hands and room in my brain for inspiration and creativity, I can't wait to get back at it! First recipe will be posted this week and it's a good one! 

I will leave you with a picture of my precious pup, Milli, and invite you to return later this week for some notable gnocchi... Stay tuned!