Cookin' it real

So, after a not abnormally busy week, I have finally got to sit down and write the post I wanted to write initially. Since starting this blog, I've been keeping a notebook next to me to write down ideas for posts and features, because, believe me, my mind has been flooded with ideas. I was skyping a friend in South Africa this week and I told her I'd started a cooking blog. This drove her to hysterics, since, readers, I already have a craft blog which has been sorely neglected since children arrived into our lives, and she found it hilarious that, in order to cure this blog neglect, I would see fit to begin a new blog; I take her point!

The thing with being a blogger, especially one who writes about something they make or create, is that you are constantly reading other peoples blogs, and making judgements about yourself based upon what you see in them. I am at the stage with my children where I am usually just shattered when bedtime has been taken care of, and the "me time" I have been so craving all day, so I can make and create, is craftily usurped by "sitting on the the sofa and staring into space because I am so mentally exhausted." This is hard when one is creative, because you are constantly being inspired by the productivity of others, and you know you could also be as productive, but tiredness from looking after two small boys always takes over. So, after chastising myself for quite some time over my lack of creative output, it occurred to me that there is something very creative I do every day, but because it is a necessity as well as a hobby, I hadn't realised its potential. I am speaking, of course, of cooking.

After a couple of months of consideration, various moments of thinking how ridiculous an idea it was, interspersed with the thought that I'm already doing the cooking so I won't actually need to produce any work which I won't be producing anyway, I finally reached a decision to take the plunge and go for it. But with the previous paragraph in mind, and also the post title (!) the premise of this blog is:

- To show that anyone can cook from scratch every day if they want to, even with small children around
- How it's possible to get your children used to trying any new ingredient simply by giving them everything you eat yourself
- To get people excited about trying new and unusual ingredients and techniques, and getting your family interested too
- The importance of using your own intuition when following a recipe (for example; a recipe you are following says to roast a butternut squast for 20 minutes until golden. Everyone who's ever roasted a squash will know it takes 40 - 50 minutes)
- To show that you don't need a plethora of equipment to be creative in the kitchen, and the tools it is useful to have

This blog, although I would like it to be aesthetically pleasing, is really about the reality of cooking in a family kitchen. I shall endeavour to give you pretty photos, but there will be plenty of real life progress shots with all the utensils and detritus of cooking in the background. I would love to say I'll post every week, but, let's be honest, this is likely be an endeavour at best. However, I shall try my utmost to keep give you something inspiring to read and look at.

For me, being able to cook is a gift, and definitely the way in which I like to make people feel special. I am very blessed to be able to do this for my family every day, and even more blessed because my husband arrives home from work around 5.20pm, which certainly does help facilitate things. I'm really looking forward to sharing my cooking with you too, and I really hope you can take some inspiration from it, and in turn, inspire me too!

xxx Sam