One Year + Ten Things...

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, dear little Blog,

Happy birthday to you!

Yes, I just sang Happy Birthday to my blog.  Maybe that is weird, being that it doesn't really care whether or not it has been around for a year or whether or not I sing to it, but I care.  One year... wow.

This year has been filled with growth.  I sat down with a pad of paper and a pen a moment ago and I thought about that growth.  How am I different now than I was one year ago?  My blog was meant to record my recipes, but it did so much more than that.

So, what have I learned?  Well...

1. Veggies have flavor -- and it's not Ranch.  My excuse for eating a salad before was to get the toppings: the croutons, the cheese, the dressing.  And I was able to excuse it because I was eating something "healthy".  But last Fall during my October Unprocessed challenge, I had to give up the dressing unless I made it on my own.  By substituting something simple in, like fresh squeezed lime juice with salt, I realized that there is flavor in that salad than just the seasonings in the bottle.  Beets, arugula, tomatoes... the flavors are there -- and they are good!

2. There are real people behind blogs.  I mentioned this a few days ago, but it is worth repeating: people are out there who I can connect with that I would not have had the opportunity to do so without this blogging community.  These people live and breathe and eat and sleep and love and hurt and laugh just like me.  This is just a way to capture that into something that can be shared.

3. I can take good photos.  To see where my food "photography" started to where it has come... light years, my friends, light years.  And there is still a lot of room for improvement.  But I am happy about that; the journey is fun.

4. The definition of "me" is fluid.  One day I might think that I will never bake a cake in my life because I hate baking that much, and the very next day I can fall in love with baking and proclaim it as my favorite thing, and that is OK.  Life is a process; we are not fixed in one place.  Embrace that and the change that comes along with it.

5. I can bake.  Yes, this follows the previous one, but it is true... I am capable of mixing this fraction of ingredients with that specific fraction and putting it in the oven and having something good come out on the other end.  Who knew?

6. Food and life are intertwined.  It is impossible for me to talk about the food in our house without talking about the life in our house.  We eat what we eat because we are who we are.  This means that some days you will see recipes shared here and other days I will post a snippet of a conversation we had about our dreams for the future.  That does not make this any less of a food blog; it makes it is a complete food blog.

7. You must lose the fear of "putting yourself out there" if you want to grow.  Sometimes I question myself before I hit "publish".  Will people really like this?  Will they laugh at me? What if nobody reads it?  But really, what if I don't hit "publish"?  Sure, nobody will be judgemental or critical, but nobody will be able to connect with me, encourage me, or challenge me.  So I hit that button, and I grow.  And then I think, "You know, that wasn't that bad!"

8. If somebody else can do it, I probably can, too.  Sure, it might take me a little more time (or a LOT more!) and I might need to learn a few skills first, but most things that others are capable of (whether it is a cooking technique or a photography skill) are within my reach... if I am willing to reach for it. 

9. Some people will love what I have to say while others couldn't care less, and that's fine.  I don't need to have a thousand people reading each post.  Sure, it boosts my ego when that does happen, don't get me wrong, but you know what is better, honestly?  Having one person come to you and say, "Thank you for sharing such-and-such.  It was exactly what I needed to hear/what I wanted to eat/echoed my thoughts exactly/made me burst out laughing."  It is easy to get caught in the numbers game, but we all know the truth -- numbers are just numbers.  Inspiration and connection, however, run much deeper.

10. ...

Three little dots. 

What do they mean? 

That this is not finished; that this quest for nutritious, delicious, and affordable food that I started one year ago is still on, and all of the life that happens with it, too.