Monday, June 24, 2013

Honoring Others

As a teacher, I always feel like my best ideas are actually borrowed ideas from other people.  Tissue paper clouds hanging in my classroom?  Stole that.  March Mathness project?  Stole that.  Using pictures of kids in classroom posters? Stole that.  Like many teachers before me, and many to come, I am an idea thief.  However, last year, my coworker John told me that I wasn't stealing ideas, I was honoring them.  BAM!  It stuck!  Now I don't feel so guilty for honoring the work of other teachers.  In fact, there is almost a sense of pride.

When it comes to the kitchen, I honor all the time.  I wish I had been blessed with the gift of cooking, instead, however, I was blessed with the gift of enjoying delicious food and enjoying the process of making meals.  Take away the recipe from this Howe girl, though, and there will be a problem.

Right now, I am sitting in an empty apartment waiting for movers to come and haul my things away.  I have been so busy packing and planning for my next adventure that cooking has kinda gone by the wayside.  Sitting on the floor of my empty apartment though, I realized I haven't caught up with my favorite food blogs in a while.  I must admit, there is a little torture in browsing through the pages of these blogs with their well-photographed food while I stare at the boxes that hold all my utensils, plates, spices, and more.  There is not a chance I could make any of these dishes.

Luckily for you, that just means I am going to honor them.  Here are the blogs that I visit more than twice a week.  I get almost 100% of my meals during the week from these blogs and their archives.  I salivate over many of the recipes I am not yet bold enough to try. I share the dishes that turn out the way I think they should.


So, Howe does this girl cook?  She honors the work of others.  I am sharing them with you so you can honor them as well!  Now let's all send positive thoughts to the movers to get here quickly so I can go get something to eat! *update! it worked!  as soon as I clicked "post" the movers called to say they were 30 minutes away!



These homemade tootsie rolls came from A Cozy Kitchen


The Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes came
from a Cozy Kitchen as well.  The robe came from Target.
The terrible posture came from my love of reading.


The Gardener's Cottage.  She blogs about being vegan, wearing amazing clothes that she gets dirt cheap, and renovating her tiny cottage here in SoCal.

A Cozy Kitchen.  I'm pretty sure she lives in my neighborhood because she tends to eat at all the same places I do.  Pancakes are her specialty and what ultimately led to me finding her but I really make almost every single dish she does.

Pink Basil.  I found her because she used to blog with the gal at A Cozy Kitchen.  This blogger has since moved to the east coast and in addition to food, she has been documenting the renovation (often times very real and very frustrating) of her grandmother's house.  I can't wait to see her new living room!

Smitten Kitchen.  I eat A LOT of the food from this blog and I know a lot of other people use this one as well. Simple. Delicious.  Diverse meals.  I've been drooling over the espresso granita with whipped cream all morning.

Sprouted Kitchen.  She uses a lot of natural ingredients as well as in season items.  Her husband does all the photography.  I've made her roasted butternut penne with pistachio pesto about a million times.

In Jennie's Kitchen.  I stumbled upon this blog following a trail of other delicious food blogs.  What has made this one so unique is this young blogger lost her husband of 15 years suddenly last year.  Because I came to the blog well after this happened, I have been slowly learning about the journey she has been on, with food guiding her and her two daughters along the way. Heart wrenching and beautiful. It is more than just food.

Not Without Salt. All these bloggers have such clever names.   This is another one of the bunch.  She has a lovely variety of meals and dishes. 

Love and Olive Oil.  Another cool name.  This blogger also features food challenges for readers.  And tell me this Cherry, Hibiscus, and Goat Cheese Panna Cotta doesn't look divine!


Well, that's it folks. Now you know where I get my good ideas...for food!  Anybody out there have others I simply must check out?