Red chili flakes

I love food/cooking blogs and would love to write one or incorporate recipes into my blog. However, it's the cooking part that holds me back and that is, of course, problematic and preventative of food blogging. I love to cook, but I often don't follow a recipe or write down what I'm doing. I don't really think of great tweaking ideas to recipes already written nor do I want to try a recipe four, five, six times until I get just right. I don't want to waste food with failed attempts at crazy things although this has happened on a rare occasion regarding of intent.

Melissa and I used to cook together once a week and this delicious tradition went on for years. I wish we'd kept a log of recipes tried, tasted, loved, and hated. I've recently tried to start taking photos when we cook, but often I forget as I get so anxious to sit down and get to eating.

On Sunday evening, I made a delicious vegetable, chicken, and white bean stew. It is hearty, healthy, and tasteful. The only problem is that the entire soup is purple. I added a whole head of chopped purple cabbage to the soup as it was cooking and everything ended up a deep, rich purple. I'm talking beans, chicken, mushrooms, everything. It's a close-your-eyes-and-it-thankfully-tastes-normal-but-open-and-surprise! It's a soup you could dye Easter eggs in. This is the kind of thing that steers me away from the food blog. I've got a huge pot of soup and I don't care to make another pot today just so I can photograph something beautiful and get it posted. However, I will hold on to the lesson that I need to cook the cabbage separately and then add to the beautiful brothy soup. I could post the photo next time, but I wouldn't have a recipe to match because I always add something different each time with whatever spices are in the cabinet and whatever veggies are in the fridge. Poor Jared's "favorite" dishes never taste quite the same as it depends on my mood and the number of shakes I use from red chili flakes.

Well, I must take my cue from Hershey. It's bedtime soon. Happy evening!