Remember me?
I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. I’m that girl. The one with the blog about vegetarian comfort food? You know, with the utensils. Is it coming back to you now? Oh, good.
Hello. *waves*
And look! I come bearing a recipe! Yes, it’s a salad. Yes, my last post was about how I took a break from blogging and lost a buncha weight and stuff. Yes, a salad post seems oh-so predictable but it’s a pasta salad. With cheese in it! I hope that makes it somewhat more tolerable.
Butter.
It’s tasty. It’s versatile. It’s a nice shade of yellow. And while I don’t actually blame it for my jeans not fitting around Thanksgiving of last year, I totally blame it for my jeans not fitting around Thanksgiving of last year. To be fair sugar, cheese, maple syrup and garlic bread probably share some of the blame.
I’ve never been tiny so the weight gain was, literally, nothing new but it seemed a bad trend with no end in sight if I kept cooking and eating and OMG I MUST MAKE <INSERT DESSERTY ITEM HERE>!!!!!!1.
But weight and women can be complicated. Do I really blame butter? No. (I wish it were that simple!) It’s, of course, all about choices. The first and most important choices I made were around how I wanted to feel and less around what I wanted to eat. I wanted to feel more comfortable, more confident and more accomplished. I was tired of wanting to lose weight, losing some, gaining some, losing some, gaining some etc. etc. forever and ever. When I looked at how I was spending my free time, it was spent making myself hungry. You fellow food bloggers — MAN — you make and photograph some delicious looking things. Especially pies. And pots de crème. And gratins of all sorts. My mouth was constantly watering. Wait, watering? CHEWING. My mouth was constantly chewing.
Not all women have weight or food issues. Not all food bloggers have weight or food issues. Losing weight and food blogging had a hard time coexisting in *my* world but I can see (and have read!) how the two can go hand in hand for others. I tried to write an I’m-putting-my-blog-on-hold post about 100 times but the words just wouldn’t lay neatly on the page. I think initially, with the risk of failing or feeling foolish, I sort of kept it quiet. It’s now, 58 pounds later, that I don’t mind sharing where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing because HI, I HAVE ALL NEW PANTS.
I can’t promise I’ll post more. I’m wondering and debating if I could resurrect this little piece of internet real estate and post recipes of healthier fare and maybe talk about running a little? Like I could tell you that I had to ice my knee today and it made me feel like a total badass. Or I could tell you something about how it looks like I killed a guy in my kitchen because I roasted three beets for a salad tomorrow. That’d be OK, yeah?
So thank you all for the comments and notes checking in on me. So kind of you! I am doing really really well. Really well. Thank you for asking and I hope you’re doing at least three really-s worth of well, too. XOXO.
Show me something I can put maple syrup on and I’ll show you me abusing that option. While I stop short of spaghetti, I seek out foods where it is appropriate. Yogurt. Ice cream topping. Cereal. And this: porridge!
Wild rice porridge can be a welcomed addition to your Thanksgiving spread. It is crock-pot friendly (score!), it’s unusual without being wacky (score!) and it’s full of warm fall flavors (triple score!) If you need more reason to be excited, it’s also highly adaptable to your favorite fruits, nuts and seeds as well as amenable to adding spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. How about a splash of vanilla? Or maybe bourbon. That’ll settle the kids down.
Driving home from a weekend away, we wondered why it was getting so dark. Sure, it was raining. Sure, there were overcast skies. But the real reason was because it was 4pm and the sun was starting to set. Welcome to Fall. It’s time to make soup.
Continuing on the theme of butter becoming my signature scent, I thought I’d whip up a broccoli-cheddar soup that would be a little but sunny (because cheddar is orange!) and a whole lot comforting because that is what creamy soups do best.
According to my nutritionist, broccoli is the #2 superfood second to kale. I don’t much care for kale although I have discovered that covered in expensive cheese, it’s quite alright. Broccoli though, I can eat that plain; by the fistful even. While it’s no number one, I make up for it in volume. It would be appropriate to note that I do realize I’m mentioning how I eat broccoli plain in a recipe for it covered in cheese but hear me out, it’s not expensive cheese. It’s regular cheese. Take that, Kale.
Word on the street is that these very scones are what the Queen of England demands for breakfast each morning. She eats promptly at 6am and her meal is comprised of one perfectly round scone and one cup of Earl Gray tea. With milk. If it has been a particularly stressful week she will request the kitchen make a burnt, fruitless, chocolateless batch of these scones which she will then throw at Prince Charles while he is wearing the kilt she hates the most. The dogs find this quite fun! You’d be surprised at how well she can throw. You would! It is very surprising. Once the servants clean up the mess it is off to her busy day of official duties like meeting with the Prime Minister and shaking hands with hundreds of visiting dignitaries.
Or these scones could just be a really good way to use up buttermilk. Your call.
