Its been three years now since I left my home in the UK to move back to Canada. There have been a lot of changes in my life since then and since moving into my own home in May of 2021. Its quite different cooking for one person as opposed to cooking for two or more people. You have probably noticed that I have cut back on the sizes of my recipes quite a bit.
There have been other challenges also in cooking the things I want to cook. Its much harder here in Canada to cook the traditional English food that I was cooking in the UK. The center I live in is a very rural area. It is often difficult to get the things I want to purchase when I am trying to cook recipes.
I will make plans to cook a few different recipes, but more often than not my plans go awry when I get to the grocery store and discover that the ingredients I wanted are just not available, or the ones that they have look incredibly manky.
I find myself falling into really bad habits as well. I only ever rarely (read never here) sit down at the table to eat a meal. It often seems like too much trouble to set the table, etc. for just me. And so I end up eating on a TV tray and eating in front of the television without any thought much as to what I am eating.
I don't have any strict meal times. I eat whatever, whenever. I am missing the structure of having three regular meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and supper. It very naughty of me to have gotten into those poor habits.
I will go out to check my post and smell the bacon cooking from a neighbors house and think, ohh, I would love a nice cooked breakfast, but then . . . I don't bother to cook myself one. Too much trouble. I think I have been a bit depressed, which I suppose it only natural given the circumstances.
I went from cooking for a large family of seven people, to cooking for a living, and cooking for two people and guests, to now cooking for one. That's a huge change.
Then I get readers who are new to the page questioning why I sometimes cook North American recipes. Am I not The English Kitchen? I hate disappointing people. I have over 13 years worth of 365 days a year recipes on here, many of them traditional English/British recipes . . . I worked hard to build my brand and reputation.
Do I change the name of the blog and let "him" take everything that I have worked so hard for on here away from me as well? I don't think that would be very fair.
So I don't think I will ever change the name of my blog from The English Kitchen, even if a few people are disappointed that I don't post traditional British recipes every day. Surely the several thousand of British recipes I have already posted on here are enough.
And I still want to post those types of recipes, it is just a bit more difficult for me to do so. I put hours into this page every day. With the planning, cooking, photography, etc. And I know, its not even that great of photography. I am under no illusions as to that. I have never claimed to be a professional in that arena.
If I can inspire one person to cook what I have cooked, then I am happy.
We live in an Instagram world where everyone posts beautiful photos of little squares of their lives. What you get here is simple and true and honest. There are no bells and whistles. Sometimes you get my drying laundry in the background.
My son keeps saying, "Mom you should do videos." But to be honest I spend so much time doing what I do now that the idea of doing videos overwhelms me, and in all truth I wouldn't even know where to start.
I do know that I need to start being more intentional about what I eat and when. I need to bring more joy into my cooking, eating and eating patterns. I fear I am becoming boring.
I know I will always be The English Kitchen. I have worked too hard for this not to be The English Kitchen, and I am sorry if some people are sometimes disappointed in what they find. I have to be true to myself and to what I am capable of.
I do want to bring more joy into my eating. I want to go to the grocery store and see what's available and cook from whatever I find and am inspired to cook. I want to set my table and sit down and eat like a normal person. I want to bring a little bit more joy back into the process.
When I first moved over to the UK there was a program that I used to watch every day that I really enjoyed called "Ready Steady Cook." On it, two guests would show up, each with a bag full of ingredients and the "Celebrity" chefs would be challenged to cook as many things as they could from the bag of ingredients that their particular guest had presented them with.
I am not a "Celebrity" chef, but I do think it would be fun to go to the store a few times a week, pick up a few ingredients and see what I can do with them, and I think you might enjoy coming along with me on that process. I could be wrong, but I hope that I am not.
If you have come here looking for British/Traditional recipes, don't go away disappointed. I have tons of them on here and occasionally I will still try to cook some as and when I can.
If there is some traditional recipe in particular that you are looking for just ask! I am sure I have probably already cooked it and I can point you in the right direction.
In the meantime I do hope you will stick around to see what is coming next. I might just surprise us all, and do be gentle with me. I'm dancing as fast as I can.
