I'll be honest here - this isn't the first time this blog has launched.
Thing is, I've had this blog since 2009. I've been surreptitiously writing posts, trying new recipes, and taking pictures of the food I've cooked. I've put up these posts, taken them down, put them back up again. In my drafts folder, I have the beginnings of so many posts that I've never gotten around to finishing.
Why? Because I wasn't sure what kind of a blog I wanted to have. Back in 2009, I envisioned a blog filled with writing about food, lifestyle posts, and relationship advice. Something that would eventually propel me into a career in writing.
But as I soon realized - while I could write about food and cooking, I knew squat about cute skirts, home decor, or home spa treatments. My wardrobe is filled with sun dresses - and that's it. I don't know anything about the latest fashions or trends. Besides, my nails are always chipped.
And if I knew nothing about life and style, I knew even less about relationships. Good luck giving anyone anything that even remotely resembled advice.
What I do know is food. I love food. I love making food, I love eating food. I love making food for others and watching them eat. In fact, I spend much of my day thinking about food, planning what to cook, how to cook, and who to cook for.
So I perused the web to see what other food blogs existed out there. That's when I found out that having a food blog is apparently the next "it" thing. Turns out everyone who can cook has some kind of a food blog. They take pictures. They share recipes. They tell you what they ate that day. With the sheer amount of blogging about food, I wondered - did the universe need another hungry writer and chef wanna be?
Years passed. I cooked, I ate, I lived life in Los Angeles and kept up my first blog about being a single woman of faith. Yet, the idea of a blog devoted to cooking wouldn't release me. Each time I cooked, I was overwhelmed by emotion, by memory, by thoughts. I longed to tell someone, just anyone, the sheer volume of feeling that flooded me while making food. I had so many stories to tell about the food I cooked. Overtime, my blog posts about being single in LA morphed into posts about cooking and being single in LA.
Still, I was doubtful. Every article I could find about what the world wanted from a food blog stated ever so clearly - your readers want recipes and pictures that inspire them to cook more. Sure I cook, and I try new recipes, but I don't necessarily create them. My photography skills are somewhat mediocre. To inspire myself, I bought an entry-level SLR. It sat on my shelf unused.
Meanwhile, I continued to prowl recipe books and food magazines. I studied the food photographs that appeared in the bloggersphere. I found some blogs I absolutely loved. These blogs were clean, elegant, and thoughtful. They taught me about food and gave me a glimpse into the blogger's life. Posts from these bloggers sent me running into the kitchen and turning on the stove.
But for the most part, I couldn't find a blog that was the blog I had in my head. The blog I had in my head would be about cooking and food, it too would have photos and recipes, but more importantly, it would be about how food could invoke story, memory, and feeling. It would invite you to journey along, to remember your own stories, to feel as you cooked. It would, hopefully, make you want to invite others into your journey through food and storytelling.
This is why, now, a little more than half way through 2012, I find myself helpless against the pull that is food blogging. I'm relaunching this food blog because I can't help but cook, write, and share. And as much fear and trembling as I have over whether I'll have enough recipes or delectable photographs, I'm going to endure that fear and not let it disable me. Because finally know what this blog is going to be about.
It's going to be about food and story-telling.
So with one click on "publish" - ladies and gentlemen, I have myself a food blog.
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