Inspiration in the form of a Friend

Back in January, around the time I was having some serious doubts about this whole cooking thing, I needed some major encouragement and guidance, and thought: who better to give me some sage advice than the magnificently AWESOME Mr. Cronin? So I went to him with my dilemma: a much undesired lack of inspiration. We discussed a bunch of different options about how I should approach the rest of my blogging experience. One thing he thought would really help was feedback from an outside source. I took this wisdom and ran.

That night I searched through what felt like hundreds of different cooking blogs. When I found one that I liked, I would leave a message, practically begging for someone to check out my blog. I didn’t have much hope that anyone would respond (a repeat of my personal blog), especially anyone from one the more popular blogs, because who really wants to follow some kid's amateur cooking attempts? Answer: not a lot of people. So, imagine my absolute surprise when two hours later I had received a very in-depth email from a woman named Cath who ran a very popular blog called A Blithe Palate (I highly recommend any lover of cooking or great writing to check it out, I do every day for updates!), saying that she had read over my blog and would love to help me with anything I needed for my project.

Cath’s enthusiasm and willingness to help me was extremely inspiring. The way she talked to me about what she cooked/baked and her ever encouraging comments on my (to me) questionable abilities, relit my fire for this project, and then some. She seemed to have complete faith in my ability to cook– something that I seemed to lack, but when she told me I could do it, I believed her! Now, because of Cath, I don’t believe any cooking feat is beyond me, if only I try. Cheesy, but so, so true… When she told me that I had inspired her to write more often on her blog, I could barely believe it! I had inspired an amazing (because I know she is) cook! Me! I mean, WOW! When I saw that comment, I was so incredibly PUMPED that I wanted to run up stairs and just start cooking whatever we had and never stop. When I shared this with my mom, thinking she’d be as excited as me (I mean, I actually WANTED to cook, A LOT), she shut me down. “Lauren,” she said, “it’s 1:34 in the morning. How about you wait until like 7?” And, because I am a reasonable person, I agreed. I went to bed, all excited and twitchy, barely able to wait for tomorrow to arrive. That morning, I was up at exactly 7 and ran to wake my mom up to take me to the grocery store. (SIDE NOTE: Why did I wake up so early, besides from my obvious excitement you ask? You see, I have this thing for waking up to breakfast. I think it’s just so…so magical, and happy. Anyways, I really, REALLY wanted to finish breakfast before my dad and sister woke up, hence the early rise. Long explanation, is there any other kind from me?) I was disappointed once again when she informed me that they didn’t open until 8 am, but I didn’t let that get my spirits too far down. I ran around the kitchen getting things prepped for when I did have my ingredients…

Whoa, I had planned on this post being completely Cath-and-her-inspiration-on-me-oriented, but I guess I can’t mention her without talking about the blueberry muffin recipe she gave me (which is the cause of my little diversion above). I promise that my next post, will be about that particular cooking conquest.

So, to conclude this very long post (I seriously have a problem when it comes to keeping things short) and get back on topic once again: Cath is awesome. My inspiration is back FULL FORCE! And have I mentioned that Cath is AWESOME?