Cooking for Fewer

Like many people, the new year has made me stop and think about the changes happening in my world and the changes I want to make happen in my world.  Some of these changes happen to us like becoming an empty nester.  That last child out of the house.  The end of being the daily caretaker of my children.  A job I have had for 32 years and have done with love, success, failure, laughter, tears, and a bit of craziness.  We can't stop these changes, we just have to adjust to them.  

Other changes we intentionally make like getting healthy. I decided to do just that and that meant going on a diet.  The chef on a diet!  The lover of food on a diet!  It was time to reset the body and start again.  At first, I was miserable.  I thought that getting healthy was killing my creativity with food.  But as the days turned into weeks I got my creative groove back.  

In my home, I have a wall of cookbooks.  Some I love and use over and over and some I have used once, maybe twice.  Some I use for inspiration and some are just for reference and technique.  I love them!  I am a very visual person so if a cookbook doesn't have beautiful pictures or illustrations, it's probably not on my shelves.  Today, I found myself back at those bookshelves pulling for inspiration.  The ones pictured above are where I will start today to get creative again and feed my love for cooking.  And while my life is about fewer people around my table, fewer pounds, and inches around my middle, it will be about the abundance of flavor and creativity with food.  I fully intend to embrace "Less is More".