As I’m sure you can tell, I have been focusing a lot on recipes lately. Never in my wildest dreams did I think creating food and taking pictures of it would be a fun hobby for me, or could even be part of something I do for my career. 16-year-old me would laugh in your face. Actually, I take that back. I made some kind of hummus/feta quesadilla after every single dance practice for years in high school and raved about how good it was to my friends. Maybe it was just in my blood all along.

But, as much as I love getting really great photos and posting the crap out of them on Pinterest, I’ve really been missing the bread-and-butter of blogging. Ya know, where I kind of rant about life and talk about everything and nothing and give you a glimpse of what’s going on behind the camera. Usually with some random photo, like an almost finished plate of food. I liked the way the lighting looked on this one.

I’m sure a lot of blogs you turn to now look like regular ol’ content-churning machines, but that’s not how blogging used to be. Back when I started my very first blog, blogging was all about writing these little love letters to your followers called “posts.” You didn’t have to worry about how every post was going to make you money, or making sure it had all the bells and whistles for Google. It was about the pure joy of sharing the things you love around you. 

FYI, my first blog was called Little Hobbit in Chicago where I just wrote about my college adventures. Yes, my nickname was the “hobbit” and I lived in Chicago. No, it does not exist anymore.

Anywho, I was incredibly inspired by a few of the OG bloggers I’ve followed for years to start a blog series unrelated to the normal stuff I do. Like Joy the Baker’s Let It Be Sunday series who just posts about the things she’s loving every Sunday. Or Carly the Prepster’s recent Diary series where she shares iPhone photos and writes about her life. There’s Cupcakes and Cashmere with her Weekday Wardrobe, and Natalie Borton with her Mind. Body. Soul. 

There’s no monetizing to it (okay, maybe a little affiliate marketing happening). There’s no professional staging. It’s just life, shared on a blog. As simple as it can possibly get.

So, here we are. Locked up at home because of an awful pandemic that is sweeping the rugs from right under our feet, leaving us dissolved and confused about even our day-to-day lives. I’m curled up on the couch under my favorite red blanket my husband bought me in Ecuador, laptop plopped in front of me, a focaccia bread rising so we can attempt to make focaccia pizza for the first time, and I’m writing the first of what I hope to be many posts in my new series. It’s where I’m just gonna share about life. Sometimes it will be related to food, sometimes completely unrelated. Sometimes it will be happy things, and sometimes it will just be sad. Because that’s real life.

I’m calling it On My Plate because it’s not just about what I’m eating, but everything else that’s “on my plate” right now. I know, I’m so clever. Or I’m going crazy. You decide.

Since this is already absurdly long, here’s what’s on my plate right now in five points.

• I’m teaching my first online cooking class tomorrow and I’m so FREAKING excited. I’ll be teaching how to make gnocchi for dinner, 8 p.m. EST on Instagram and Facebook Live. Grab a potato and join me.
• We got a beautiful hutch for our pantry goods! The food used to live in this cabinet above our fridge, but really hard for a hobbit like me to reach. I broke a jar of homemade jam a week ago and it shattered all over the floor. Jam was sacrificed. Tears were shed. Hutch was purchased.
• I’m reading Kristen Hannah’s Firefly Lane which is beautiful but also, it’s a series, so I’m mad about it (means I am farther from the end). But apparently, it’s supposed to be a movie in December with Katherine Heigl? I guess I’ll keep reading.
• I’ve been sick like a dog with stress. No, I have no symptoms for the virus. Just me internalizing all the things happening in the world right now. I’d drink some wine but I gave it up for Lent, so…
• I’m supposed to host my first Netflix party with a bunch of teenagers to watch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Any pointers?!?

Alright that’s it. Come back next Sunday for chapter 2!