New year, new blog

How God leads us along new paths

Peanut and chocolate energy balls, made by my daughter.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43.19

Years ago I had the idea to start a blog called ‘Things my husband cooks,’ as my husband Tony would create original meals that seemed good enough for recipes. That idea never came to fruition, but whenever he cooks something delicious I will try to ask for him to tell me the amounts. He’s often reluctant as he doesn’t measure things, but in various places around the house or on my phones, I have scribbled recipes and typed up notes for meal ideas.

Last year, I even did get him to recreate some of his concoctions and write down the amounts. My daughter also loves baking and has been working on some recipes too! I even caught the recipe bug, and began to understand more about the process and created some simples ones of my own.

Since I became a Christian, God has helped me to put different areas of my life in order, work, money, physical energy, keeping the house organised, and cooking.

I’ve always loved cooking, but it’s been complicated for me. I think it stems back to the ages of 14-19. When I was 14 both my parents were chronically ill and not working for a year. At that time I took over cooking the evening meal. I cooked each night until I left home. It was completely voluntary, and I enjoyed doing it, I chose to do it. But nevertheless, I think deep down, it was a lot of responsibility.

I had phases of my life, where I did not cook hardly ever. Even though I’ve never disliked it. Weird.

Anyway over the last 10 years or so I’ve been writing for wellbeing magazines. When I became a Christian I thought that would be something I’d stop, since these magazines often feature articles about mindfulness, yoga etc. But it seemed God had other ideas; instead I would write things about topics like ‘radical honesty,’ ‘forgiveness’ and ‘humility.’

Then came the food article ideas, like ‘how to be creative in the kitchen’, ‘how to get inspiration for dinner,’ and together with my husband and daughter, we’ve even had some recipes published.

I have absolutely loved this process because it’s like killing two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. By looking through cookery magazines, brainstorming article ideas, and exploring new flavours, I can write, articles, get paid, and also get inspiration for what to cook for dinner!

I guess it’s because I’m not someone who wants to eat the same thing all the time - although there have been phases of my life as a student when I did that. I want healthy, and delicious food, food that might actually take an hour to prepare but it can be done in a big batch, and put in the freezer.

I grew up in a very feminist household, and part of becoming a Christian has been untangling that and reflecting on how we are different, male and female. It’s not that my husband is going to stop cooking any time soon (LOL!), but that I think this has been God’s way of leading me towards cooking more too.

Italy is an amazing country to live in for food inspiration, although I also love other nationalities as not such a huge fan of white pasta or pizza, although the pizza bases here are sourdough which is a lot easier to digest. We lived in Vietnam for four years, and travelled around Asia, so all that spicy food with healthy rice, is a big favourite.

Anyway all this to say, I have started a new Substack blog! It will be a family affair with recipes to share from all three of us and stories and reflections on food, and what we’re cooking.

Click the link below to Subscribe!