It’s been 11 months to be exact, since I last posted a recipe and stopped by to say Hi.
That might mean I qualify for ‘Worst Blogger Ever’, but if you are reading this, then let me say a huge thank you for hanging in there with me.
On 22 Feb 2015, I took a big deep breath and pressed ‘publish’ on my first every blog entry. I remember thinking ‘this busy online world does not need ANOTHER mum/food blogger, this is going to be a flop.’ But then you all showed up and surprised me.
My purpose had been clear from the get go. I wanted a central online place for family and friends to access my recipes. I wanted to champion home cooking, and keep reminding people of the sacred space of gathering loved ones and new friends, around a table. Whether it’s before soccer training on a Tuesday night, or a special dinner with friends on a weekend, we stop, we see, we listen, we nourish, we hear and we show love when we share our homes, our table and our food with others.
4 years on, my purpose hasn’t changed one bit.
I have cooked, tasted, tested, written, tweaked, photographed and posted recipes in this space, along with my personal ramblings about life and motherhood. During that time, close to 55,000 people have visited cookfasteatslow.com and still today, over 300 people access the recipes each week.
The top 5 recipes that people keep coming back to again and again are Jamie Oliver’s 7 Vegetable Sauce, Slow Cooked Chicken Chasseur, Slow Cooked Massaman Beef, Simple Berry Almond Tarts (no pastry) and Raspberry & White Chocolate Scones.
Some things have changed since that day in February 2015. One of my sons towers over me and is never in bed before 11pm. He has a part time job and will soon fly out of the country on his first overseas trip without me. A dog named Winnie entered my world a few months ago, and I am still learning how to be a dog owner, but she has well and truly won all of our hearts.
4 years ago I was a stay at home mum, who spent a lot of time at the park pushing a little boy on a swing and watching him ride his scooter.
Today, I work at my church in a job that I love and that same little boy is now doing his second year of Year 1. I wrote about his premature start to life here and we are still working through some of the ongoing effects of that today.
Some things however, haven’t changed. Like meal times. They are still mad, loud and crazy, but we keep fighting for time together around the table, even though our evenings are busier now more than ever before.
I still need to feed my family every day. I still struggle to get an adequate quantity of veggies into my youngest child. I still write weekly shopping lists, and often turn up at the groceries feeling like it’s Groundhog Day. I still look forward to the times I get to curl up on the lounge with a cuppa and a stack of recipe books to read.
Over the last 11 months I had almost given in to the business of life as a working mum, deciding that the demands of family life meant I should let this silly little hobby slide. Who really cares what we are eating for dinner? And each time I got to that point, I would receive a photo of a meal someone had just tried from the blog for the first time, a request would come in from a weary mum of young kids wanting fresh ideas or someone would stop me in the supermarket, telling me ” I am cooking your ____ tonight!”.
So here I am.
As long as I continue to feed my family, I will continue to share my favourite, simple ideas for quick easy meals and every now and then, the lessons I keep learning about life along the way.
I so hope you will stick around for the ride.
