Ramblings

Hello, old friend.

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A couple of weeks ago, I briefly thought I had lost all of my old blog photos from 2010 and 2011. It’s been years since I posted on the blog, and frankly it’s not something I think much about day-to-day. But one day I was making guacamole, and I googled this post as I’ve done dozens of times before, and was stunned to find the photo of the stained post-it note with my guacamole recipe was no longer on the site. There was just a tiny little box where the photo used to be, but the photo itself had vanished. Not just from that particular webpage but from my website entirely. What followed was about 3 hours of panic and frantic customer service messaging, a deeeeeeeep nostalgia dive into my old posts, and a quick decision to axe my old hosting service (bye bye Bluehost, thanks for the heart palpitations).

Reflecting back on this from the safety of having my site and cherished guacamole post-it photo restored, I’m not surprised that the thought of losing all those grainy oh-so-poorly focused photos was so upsetting. The blog was such a major part of my life for over SIX years–maybe the MOST major part of my life? But somewhere in graduate school, I lost that connection. This was partly due to moving to a new city and partly due to graduate school trying to end me. But also because it felt like food blogging had changed, like it had become mostly about achieving influencer status, and that is just not my scene. I just want my own little space on the internet to share the things that I’m excited about and have it be totally OK if me and my mom are the only ones who ever read them. I’m not sure what this means at the moment, but I hope it means I’ll find some inspiration to tap back into the creative parts of my brain (the ramblings posts were always my favorites). Feel the excitement of pounding out a blog post when an idea strikes. Maybe even dust of the old DSLR.

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Ramblings

It’s complicated.

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When I was a freshman in college, I often carried a rice crispy treat in my coat pocket. I had a little black pea coat that I bought for next to nothing with my American Eagle employee discount. It wasn’t even the slightest bit warm, but it had perfect treat-sized pockets, and unless I forgot, I had a rice crispy treat on me. It makes me laugh, looking back, that I would choose such junk as a daily snack, but it’s also a reminder of simpler days when the words “healthy” and “calories” didn’t exist in my headspace. Days when I had a piece of pie practically every day because the dorm buffet always had pie and how do you say no to pie. Instead of health, my focus was on hunger and doing whatever I could to avoid THAT feeling.

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Product Review, What I ate

Republic of Vermont – Organic Maple Syrup & Raw Honey {review}

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If you’ve never had the pleasure of doing a honey or maple syrup tasting, I suggest you give it a shot, flight style. I did my first honey tasting at the farmer’s market this summer, and it was surprisingly grounding to compare the light, floral flavor of the spring harvest to the rich, butterscotch flavor of the fall harvest. I’m all about tastings because it’s often difficult to tell just how complex or special a flavor is without a benchmark. So you know I jumped for the spoons when a box of Republic of Vermont goodies showed up at my doorstep.

I happened to have one local honey and one not-so-local store brand syrup in the cabinet for comparison. The contrast between the store bought syrup and the Republic of Vermont organic maple syrup was STARK. The store bought syrup tasted flat, and though the label didn’t list it, it had a faint hint of liquid smoke. I’d had this store-bought 100% maple syrup many times, but I didn’t pick up on these weird flavor points until I compared it to the Vermont syrup. The VT syrup was robust, with buttery smooth full-mouth flavor and just a hint of floral in the background. This syrup was leagues ahead of the store bought variety.

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Recipes

Back Pocket Kale Salad

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A big thanks to Hook Line and Savor for sponsoring this post and for creating great-tasting, allergy-friendly, clean ingredient products.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In my opinion, every person should have a kale salad recipe in their back pocket.  This is important.  File it under Mary’s life rules to live by.  Whether you’re the only vegetarian in your family or the only person in your circle who cares about hitting your daily green quota, kale is there for you my friend.  In the past year, I think I’ve brought a kale salad to every family dinner I’ve been invited to.  Sometimes I’m the only one who eats it, but I’m not complaining.  In fact, if I were a vegetable, I think it’s safe to say I’d be a kale salad.  And if you think that sounds boring as far as anthropomorphized vegetables are concerned, then you don’t even know kale salad.  It’s healthy, hearty, and surprising every time.  Just as I hope to be.  Don’t sleep on kale salad, y’all.

I’ve documented many times here on the blog that I prefer weeknight dinners that are fast and balanced. Ain’t nobody got time to make an apple and pear mostarda on a Tuesday night… I save that sort of cookery for the weekends.  Instead, I opt for fast proteins and even faster vegetables, like this delightful meal of kale salad and beer battered haddock from Hook Line and Savor.  Side note:  this beer battered haddock is dairy, egg, and gluten free, and is cooked from frozen in about 25 minutes.  Plenty of time to make yourself a nice kale salad.

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Product Review, Recipes

Hook Line & Savor: Black Bean Crusted Cod and Avocado Salad with Chimichurri Dressing

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A big thanks to Hook Line and Savor for sponsoring this post and for creating great-tasting, allergy-friendly, clean ingredient products.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When the word “hangry” became a thing I felt so very validated.  After years of me proclaiming that “bad things happen when I don’t eat” (sort of like a werewolf faced with a full moon or like the Hulk when he rips off his t-shirt right before he smashes things) the world had finally slapped a label on the condition.  Hungry + angry = HANGRY.  A complex concoction of physical and emotional unfulfillment.  A critical mass of dissatisfaction.  A state that once entered into left me incapable of making conversation, let alone decisions.  In fact, once hangry, just the thought of deciding what to make for dinner often left me curled up on the couch with that soft checkered blanket I’ve had since I was thirteen, sucking my thumb, and wishing my mom was my roommate so she could make me some dang meatloaf.  Hangry.  When that word became a thing, I realized (at least in this one respect) I wasn’t a weirdo.  

(This is an actual photo of me trying to decide what to make for dinner.)

Through years of dealing with my condition, I’ve developed several coping mechanisms, namely grilled cheese and peanut butter toast.  Two quick and carb-filled comforting cure-alls.  But you know the problem with grilled cheese for dinner?  It always leaves you wanting another grilled cheese.  Alas, I’d considered stocking the freezer chock full of microwave meals for times when life got crazy, but the problem is the ingredients lists on these sorts of pre-packaged foods are typically so out of control that I’d regret fueling my body with this sort of junk.  Oh and also, I don’t own a microwave.  

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