I started blogging in 20o3 and fell hard for it. Writing about social media, RS feeds, search, structured data and the user behavior was my thing, and it seemed not that many women were in the field in those days.
Partly to prove a point, and partly because I am (and have always been, a passionate cook, I started posting on my blog about the food I was making for my family as well as about tech.
These posts, many focused on “Sunday night supper” became a way to state that femininity, domesticity, and comfort—as in cooking nice meals—could be a part of a life in tech, even if the bros’ blogs reflected nothing of the sort.
I remember that Lisa Wiliams, Julie Leung and other women who were techies and young parents bonded with me through these posts, and started doing their own.
Now that it’s 2016, my son is grown (and a chef), and I am still a passionate cook.
While Z is an adult, I am back to thinking about family meals and good food kids like because, two wonderful young people, ages 10 and 17, are now in my home on a regular basis, children of my partner, the VSP (very special person).
With that in mind, and coming off the wild success of the caramel cake the Little Dragon (age 10) and I made last night (similar recipe here, ours came from The United States of Cake) , I wanted to go back to my old blog and see what I was cooking that wowed the fam back then.
I can’t access the front-end views of the early dinners from 2003-2006 (thanks redirects), but going back to the actual draft posts and reading those, I see that there was a lot of pasta—and Mexican food–more than I remembered, Highlights that jump out:
- Thai noodles (Mark Bittman recipe)
- Linguine with sundried tomatos/baby spinach/fresh mozzarella with garlic
- Home-made garlic bread
- Capellini pasta with fresh tomato and basil sauce and Asiago cheese
- Humboldt stew (this is what we dubbed the eggplant/peppers/onions/tomatoes and other veggies ragout we started making on vacation in Northern California)
- Lamb stew with curried onions and potatoes
Later, after the son leaves the house(2005 ish), I get divorced and I am cooking mostly for myself, I eat differently. The foods I make include:
- Caesar Salad
- Roasted dover sole with lemon and parsley
- Lemon Zucchini Marmalade loaf
- Spinach, radicchio and endive salad
- Roasted tri-tip
Today, I am really focused on using as many fresh vegetables as possible in what I make, and supporting local farms and markets to the extent possible, so it’s a trip to look back at all this and realize that:
- All kids love pasta
- Bread is addictive for everyone (I knew that)
- Cooking for others makes home feel like family.
I started blogging in 20o3 and fell hard for it. Writing about social media, RS feeds, search, structured data and the user behavior was my thing, and it seemed not that many women were in the field in those days.
Partly to prove a point, and partly because I am (and have always been, a passionate cook, I started posting on my blog about the food I was making for my family as well as about tech.
These posts, many focused on “Sunday night supper” became a way to state that femininity, domesticity, and comfort—as in cooking nice meals—could be a part of a life in tech, even if the bros’ blogs reflected nothing of the sort.
I remember that Lisa Wiliams, Julie Leung and other women who were techies and young parents bonded with me through these posts, and started doing their own.
Now that it’s 2016, my son is grown (and a chef), and I am still a passionate cook.
While Z is an adult, I am back to thinking about family meals and good food kids like because, two wonderful young people, ages 10 and 17, are now in my home on a regular basis, children of my partner, the VSP (very special person).
With that in mind, and coming off the wild success of the caramel cake the Little Dragon (age 10) and I made last night (similar recipe here, ours came from The United States of Cake) , I wanted to go back to my old blog and see what I was cooking that wowed the fam back then.
I can’t access the front-end views of the early dinners from 2003-2006 (thanks redirects), but going back to the actual draft posts and reading those, I see that there was a lot of pasta—and Mexican food–more than I remembered, Highlights that jump out:
- Thai noodles (Mark Bittman recipe)
- Linguine with sundried tomatos/baby spinach/fresh mozzarella with garlic
- Home-made garlic bread
- Capellini pasta with fresh tomato and basil sauce and Asiago cheese
- Humboldt stew (this is what we dubbed the eggplant/peppers/onions/tomatoes and other veggies ragout we started making on vacation in Northern California)
- Lamb stew with curried onions and potatoes
Later, after the son leaves the house(2005 ish), I get divorced and I am cooking mostly for myself, I eat differently. The foods I make include:
- Caesar Salad
- Roasted dover sole with lemon and parsley
- Lemon Zucchini Marmalade loaf
- Spinach, radicchio and endive salad
- Roasted tri-tip
Today, I am really focused on using as many fresh vegetables as possible in what I make, and supporting local farms and markets to the extent possible, so it’s a trip to look back at all this and realize that:
- All kids love pasta
- Bread is addictive for everyone (I knew that)
- Cooking for others makes home feel like family.