It's Almost Spring!

Actually, I guess it is spring. 

Hello!

I know it's been awhile, but I'm feeling ready to get back in the swing of things. There's something about spring that's just so inspiring for me, I'm starting to burst from wanting to share recipes and photos again. Winter is my least favorite season, it always feels bleak to me. I know there's many wonderful things about winter, and I appreciate them... for awhile. But then I'm ready for renewal. I love when the early daffodils pop, when there's buds on all the trees, when I start seeing juvenile cardinals and gold finches at the feeders again. It's magical. I have a few items in my garden that just pop up all on their own, like little gifts from nature. Such as my chives, above. They just burst from the ground one day, green and beautiful, full of hope.

Yeah, that's right. I've already harvested some chives this year 😉

The impending arrival of spring (we're still having fairly wintery nights here) has me a flutter. I'm even ready for all those dandelions-

After all, they're one of the first foods of the season for our bees. I've counted a handful out in the yard already. 

🌼 = Happy 🐝🐝 

Mariota is ready for spring too. Bring on that sun! 😎

Double stretch before they go outside 😍

Spring means gardening. I'm soooooo ready! I started my tomatoes on March 15th, and I've already got lots of little sprouts. Go little tomatoes, go! The hubby is away for the week on business, otherwise I'd be out in the garden planting lettuce, onions, and carrots. That'll be next week's activity, I'm guessing. 

I've been doing some work while I've been away. Not as much as I would have liked, but maybe that's what I needed. I've actually been working really hard on my first fiction story. I say first because although I've started writing a lot of fiction stories, I've never stuck with one until the finish. But I did it! Right now, it's about the length of a novella and I'm not sure I want to make it longer. I was mentioning to the hubby that I liked the story as is, and he suggested maybe it was time to just start a completely new story and make that one longer. I like his suggestion. I mean, ultimately, there are plenty of stories out there that are the length of novellas 😃 So, working on that story took a lot of priority over the break. That being said, I need a break from the editing process. I've read my story at least a hundred times, I thought a couple of days away would be just what I needed. There's something to be said for sharing the simple every day things like I do here.

And here's something I've been working on almost the entire time I've been away- fish.

Not every day is perfect for the food blogger. Sometimes your cod fillets stick to the pan and then completely fall apart while you curse your bad luck. Sometimes this happens 3 times in a row, even after you've made little adjustments. It's times like those that I'm thankful for wine🍷😖 I actually had to work this dish 4 times before I got it perfect. I'm happy to say that this dish has finally been completed, and I've figured out many tips for the perfect sear on fish. Which I will be sharing soon. 

The hubby is going to be so happy not to come home to the smell of fish for awhile! 

A little something I picked up for food blogging- bitters. A very important element to craft cocktails which my brother and his girlfriend specialize in. If I want to recreate one of their recipes, bitters are likely to be in them. Now, if I could just track down some of the specialty liquors they use... who wants to mail me some Amaro Nonino? 🍸

I'm totally kidding on that one, it's illegal to send booze to Kentucky 😂

I'll leave you with this sign that was just put up down the street from us. I don't know about you, but I see this as permission to do a rolling stop at 5 mph. Right?? Put up the arrow sign, but there should be no speed limit. It's a stop sign. 

SMH. 

All right folks, it was some good time away. But it's spring now, back to the food! 🍔🌮🥗🍪