Why Do We Blog?

All week I struggled with what to write for the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog Challenge. Finally, my son reminded me why I started the blog. Several years ago, I started writing down all the recipes and tricks we use in our kitchen for our boys to have as they grow up, and for the  when they want to learn how to cook in hopes that eventually they would have their own kitchens and families and traditions. When I began the project, I wrote a letter to my sons:

“To My Sweet Boys:

Our lives revolve around the kitchen. This is not by necessity but by choice. In fact, the very first weekend I met Dom (my husband,) he cooked Chicken Marsala for me. We have had many wonderful times in our kitchen including Sunday dinners with family, cookouts with friends, birthdays, dancing & singing, and Chef’s Table.

Other families have bigger, fancier kitchens and yet they still eat out in restaurants most evenings. We actually cook in our kitchen. We use the recipes our grandmothers have handed down. We take recipes from cookbooks and make them ours by adding our own special flair. We have had a blast experimenting with new ingredients: cardoons, oxtails, and stuffed squash blossoms for example. We have made homemade pasta and sausage, have lots of “secret ingredients," and have even waltzed on the kitchen tiles on Fat Tuesday.

This [blog] has recipes, tips, traditions and even some of the family “secrets” that we have cooked and tried as a family. We want you (and our readers) to take them and make them your own to share with your family into the future. Buon Appetito! ~Mom”

I believe the above fully describes me as a food blogger and the reason I take time to take pictures and type the recipes. The recipes may not always be “foolproof,” but they are real, made with love and shared with my three favorite men!