Everyone Starts Somewhere
Remember when I was an OG food blogger? Back in 2004, I was recovering from the whiplash of my design career screeching to a halt just as it had barely gotten off the ground. I was lucky enough to be working for an amazing company, but in a role that had me feeling restless and dissatisfied, nudging me towards making a dramatic change. And you know how I love a dramatic change. So while I was plotting my next steps, I started a blog called (ambitiously) Domestic Goddess, and later (realistically), Home Wreckonomics.
Having literally used the “Wayback Machine” to mine for old posts, I'm reminded that while I may have cycled through a not insubstantial succession of well-fed boyfriends over the past decade-ish, my point of view on food and cooking has remained steadfast. I cook based on wherever I'm calling home, driven by what's good and what's in season. It's that simple. Were only my heart so true. I've been an incredibly fickle blogger, a fairweather Tumblr, and a two-bit Tweeter. Yet I’ve never actually stopped writing. I write constantly– notes, ideas, recipes, scraps of thoughts just in need of the time and attention that I neglect to give them because I’m too tired, too distracted, too lazy to actually DO THE FUCKING WORK of finishing them.
But emails. I love writing emails to my friends. Long, rambly ones. (Hmm. Do they actually like these emails? I wonder.) Writing to friends is easy. It comes naturally, it’s a conversation that unfolds at its own pace. Better still, there’s no pressure to portray the gently-lit, artfully “unstyled” I-woke-up-like-this tableau of softcore food porn that is the de facto standard of being a food blogger today.
Speaking of long, rambly emails, starting a newsletter was an idea that came from one such exchange with my friend Leigh, who is always and forever my dream collaborator. However, she is current writing her SECOND cookbook, plus raising two very precocious boys, plus being the partner to a very precocious man, plus writing and editing a magazine about CHEESE!!!, and also about a million other things because she is amazing. So I am borrowing her idea for myself, hoping that when a gap in cheese-related reportage opens up, she'll find some time to join me here.
Meanwhile, let’s us catch up on life and reminisce about when we were cool and fearless and wore ridiculous shoes. We can vent about our jobs our partners our wrinkles and how we still suck at laminating dough. (Maybe that's just me?)
Write back when you get a chance.