One of the cookbooks that I didn’t include in yesterday’s summer cookbook roundup was the 10th anniversary edition of Simply in Season.
Those of you who have followed The Local Cook (now Wholistic Woman) from the beginning know that Simply in Season is how this blog – and my local eating journey – began.
I was sitting in my living room one day with a refrigerator full of CSA vegetables and a pile of cookbooks on the floor paralyzed, not sure where to begin.
“Ugh, where do I begin?” I complained to DH.
“Why don’t you pick one cookbook and work your way through it?” He suggested. DH is a design engineer, so of course he thinks in an orderly fashion. Me, not so much. We’re like yin and yang that way. I crave order but never put things back in the same place twice. When he trains he is all about the Garmin and numbers and heart rate. I just run because it feels good and I use training plans as a guide. I do keep track of time but more out of curiosity than anything else.
About that same time, Julie & Julia hit it big so I thought hey, I could blog my way through a cookbook. Since I work for an international relief and development organization, I was drawn to the stories and philosophy behind Simply in Season.
So I cooked. And I cooked. I made it through about 90% of the recipes. And then somehow, cooking became not so fun. Despite eating healthy the weight was going up, not down. I started to follow several real food blogs and get caught up in the good food, bad food mentality. It was not healthy.
Last year I decided to get off the roller coaster. I took a break from CSAs, from cooking, changed the name of my blog to Wholistic Woman to escape the mental cage I had made for myself. I took a deep breath and had bariatric surgery. I’ve since lost 100 pounds and counting, and found myself in the process.
This past winter I was asked to provide feedback on the recipes from Simply in Season as they were creating the anniversary edition. It was fun to go back to my old blog posts and see what we liked, what we didn’t, how we changed things up. But I still wasn’t ready to go back to cooking.
Simply in Season the new edition arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago. It was like saying hello to a new friend, who had had a makeover. A new cover, some new photos, but it was still the same friend inside.
Then, last week, I had my first CSA pickup of the season. Fresh spinach, bok choy, lettuce, parsley, green garlic.
I think I’m ready.
Great read. Old friend (rejuvenated) re-encountered is nice imagery – brings to mind the oft-seen meme about true friends being those with whom you can lose contact, but pick back up with and preceed as if you’ve never been apart. The post also serves to remind that our journeys often proceed in ways we had not planned upon, but that there are are places that we visit repeatedly as we refind their relevance. Kudos on your journey, your post, and your reacquaintance with an old friend.