Saturday, June 29, 2013

Internet Free Year

Danny and I have been cable and internet free for about a year now.  We still check our email and whatnot when we're out and about.  Most places have free Wi-Fi now and it's been kinda nice not having the extra distraction at home.  We've been housesitting for the last few days and we have internet and cable access here.  I'm a little unsure what to do with it all.

When we first went internet free a year ago, I was lost without it and could barely figure out how to make dinner every night with out being able to look up recipes to make.  But over the past year, I've been pushing myself to write this cookbook of mine that I've been working on and it's forced me to become more inventive and creative and off the cuff.  I've been creating and I've been learning to taste food as I go and I've learned how to judge taste by smell.  When you take the time to train your senses, you can tell when there's too much salt or it needs more garlic.  I'm still leaning but I'm really impressed with how with less distractions, I've been able to gain such a skill. 
Now, understand there have been tense moments when dinners have been almost inedible but for the most part it's been a really great experience.  Now, all of this cooking at home has come about because I've been learning about different food triggers and sensitivities for ADHD and Auto-Immune conditions. 

It's been a long road and I feel like I'm finally gaining some footing.  Now, it's practically a full-time job cooking everything from scratch all the time for everything and sometimes, I cheat but I'm doing a lot better now than I used to.  It's gotten easier with practice and I've found that most days I can still make dinner in under 30 minutes and there are tons of make-ahead tricks that totally help. I've also adopted some more Italian cooking mentalities which is really all about letting quality foods shine as they are without much technique so to say. 

I feel like I still have some ways to go yet but I'm in a much better place this year than I was last year about being sans internet.  If going internet free is something you've at all thought about, I highly recommend it.  Though I may have to get it back soon so that I can upload my cookbook when I'm finally done with my edits.  :-/

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

So, I know I've been out of the running blog-wise for a while but I just want to let everyone know that I'm not slacking in my writing.  Rather, I've decided to start writing a different medium.  I've finished my first draft of a Auto-Immune/ADHD cookbook which I'm currently editing and I'm about half-way through with the first draft of a work of fiction. I'm very excited about it all.  I plan on self-publishing for the time being.

Once I'm done with my final drafts I'll be putting up excerpts while I'm formatting it for publishing.  Anyone interested in testing out some recipes, feel free to leave a comment to that regard.  I'd love some feedback.  In the mean time, here's a picture of the painting that I recently finished and am super proud of and I'm thinking about using the middle section as cover art for my book.