Hi, folks. As I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been so focused on the stories that I read, and the accompanying dishes with them, that I’ve left myself a little behind in the dust. So, here I am, trying to give you a little more insight about me, my story, and of course, the accompanying dishes and treats ;).

While I always grew up with a love of baking, cooking was something that started to evade me in college. In fact, I started to hate it. I hated the feeling of urgency that started to build as my ingredients in the fridge started to lose their freshness – I hated the hours of preparation that proceeded a tasty, but ultimately un-special dish. I just hated it. Within the sphere of domestic care, I decided to stay in the zones of cleaning & baking. Ah, the perfect duo. Of course, cooking is a skill for life, one that all people need in order to care for themselves. Thus, I recognize its necessity.

However, as a soon-to-be college graduate – AH, how scary is that? – I find myself still relishing in pre-prepared meals (oh yes, this means frozen food) and take-out. I’ll adapt, soon. Soon, but just not yet.

In contrast to my cooking blockade, however, I LOVE FOOD! I know, I know, those two don’t have to go hand in hand, but it’s something that I’ve found passion for in the most unexpected venues. Books. While this sometimes extends to movies, books and the descriptions of food within books are what initially sparked and still continuously fuel my passion for food. Within the context of stories, food is used as a way to shape the journey, the context of everything our characters endure.

There is also a lot of love there. Seeing our weathered heroine feasting on a meal after a perilous journey brings a special type of joy and comfort – it soothes us, the reader, knowing that for that moment of reprieve, our beloved characters are content and soothed. In fact, they are more than content. Books and stories show us that we can not only live through our characters, but we can eat and experience food through them. In a way, finding joy through someone else’s joy is the purest and most untouchable form of joy, and it’s books that we have to thank for that. Every struggle and hardship becomes our own, but more importantly, so does every triumph and feast.

It is through our characters that we become something we never saw possible, see things that we never thought we’d see, and of course, experience food in a way that is simply impossible to in the world that we live in – it lives on in the deepest parts of our imagination, a place where there are no bounds. It’s a place where food becomes larger than life, as large as the story itself. Larger than it, in fact. This is a place where food becomes untouchable, protected by our love for it.