Hello! Thanks for stopping by.
Those who know me know that I’ve been dabbling in blogging for a long time. It was my husband who encouraged me to pursue a food blog due to my love of recipe collecting, food, photography, and writing. While I’m not an expert on any of those topics (except eating, I’m really good at that), I have enjoyed my blogging adventures very much.
However, something always felt a little off. I started a food blog with the intent of showcasing my favorite recipes and sharing the stories behind them. Over time, I drifted away from that and in an effort to increase the quantity of posts, I let the quality slide. While I shared some favorites here and there, I also shared a lot of experimental recipes that I’ve never made again. And we won’t even talk about some of the bad photographs.
A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a live demonstration by Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman. One of the things that she said regarding her blog was that you should always be yourself and let the rest come naturally.
So who am I? That question lingered on my mind for some time. What type of food do I want to showcase exactly? I try to eat healthy most of them time, but I sure don’t ever want to lose my mom’s pie recipes. The food I grew up with definitely had southern influence but I hate grits. And Kentucky really isn’t the south (sorry peeps, it just isn’t!) After much soul searching, the answer finally hit me. It was time to get back to my roots. And my roots are firmly in the mountains of Appalachia.
So what does that mean? It means soup beans and corn bread. It means pie with homemade fillings. It means recipes from church cook books or swapped from co-workers. It means fresh garden vegetables. Canning and pickling. Recipes off the back of the cereal box. That’s who I am. It also means trying new things occasionally because like everyone else, we Appalachians like to dine out and try new cuisine.
In that extra ten minutes I have each night after my toddler goes to bed (I’m exaggerating, sometimes it’s more like 3 minutes), I’ve been researching both Appalachian food and blog development. I’m way more versed in the former rather than the later, so bare with me while I work out the technical pieces. And while my focus is on food, I’ll probably still talk about other interests from time to time.
I’m still amazed at times at the visits my old blog receives and I appreciate everyone who has given it a click over the years. As of the writing of this post, I’ve had 26,000 visitors. That is amazing to me. You’ve given me the courage to take a leap forward into more serious blogging, and I appreciate you. I’m excited for what the future holds. That blog will stay active while I work to transfer some of the posts over here and you can still visit it www.mindascooking.wordpress.com.
Now, let’s get cooking!