A Season for Change

Big, big changes on the “Cooking for Madison” scene have contributed to my relatively long absence from the blogging world.  All good of course, but all exhausting.

When I started my blog, I was a working Aunt living with my brother and niece and I was focused on sharing stories about our mealtime antics, (with a few recipes and a bit of ingredient information thrown in for good measure.)  A little over two weeks ago I moved into my own place (a super-cute mid-century apartment that has been sapping my creative energy.  It’s tough to maintain focus and think creatively about food AND interior design.  Now I know why Martha has staff.)  As much as I love my brother, I know that we can’t live together FOREVER, and I’m excited about the change.

I’m also back at home full-time now so I have even more time to devote to sharing what I’ve learned (and am continuing to learn) about ingredients, tools, cooking methods and seasonal ingredients in other parts of the country.  I’m also looking forward to interacting more with readers, followers and the food community at large, so keep an eye out for more interactive features here, on Facebook and Twitter.

Even though I’ll be focusing more on local, seasonal ingredients and how to prepare them, I’ll still be sharing a family anecdote from time to time and my focus will always be on cooking family friendly meals.  Joel only lives a few miles away and already he’s made a few drive-by pantry raids.  I’ll see Madison regularly and as she grows I’m looking forward to sharing more time with her in the kitchen.

In fact, she actually made dinner the first full weekend I was in my new home from her favorite cookbook, “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Cookbook”.  She had spent the night and the next morning I was going through my usual Saturday morning ritual – planning the weekly menu, writing the food list and preparing to go to the Farmers Market.  I was thinking out loud about what to have for dinner and Madison overheard me.  “Are the cookbooks unpacked yet?”  she asked excitedly, “I’ll make dinner one night.”  So I pointed out the new home of the cookbook library and she thoughtfully perused the cookbook until she found her favorite recipe for “Merlin’s Fried Chicken”.  She also decided that she would make her “famous fruit salad” (strawberries and bananas) but she asked me to get “some other kind of berry” to make the salad at bit more interesting.  (Clearly, I’ve had much more influence on her palate and vocabulary that I thought.)  I bought blueberries at the Farmers Market and it added “just the taste she wanted.”  I made the biscuits, per her request, and dinner was declared a success!  (And a welcome night off for me.)

So as much as things have changed, they have still managed to stay the same.  I’ll hope you’ll stay tuned for even more interesting ingredients ideas, tasty recipes and fun family meal stories.