What’s On My Table
I was never really one for writing in any form. My school papers were always slapped together last minute and probably made little to no sense. So this will definitely be a new experience, but one I think will fill the need I have to share more about my day to day life of becoming a stay at home mom/chef. The transition from the working world to staying home full time has had so many highs but there are lows that you don’t believe are true until you actually experience them. Losing my identity as a working woman in society has been challenging but might be the real push I needed to build something so much more.
I started sharing my food through Instagram back in 2014. At the time I was fresh out of culinary school and working for a corporate catering company hosting events at a local museum. Long 12-16 hour days were spent cranking out exciting food at events ranging from 25-500 people. Many nights I would come home, use an idea or technique that I had learned at work and try it out on my boyfriend and roommates, capturing the finished product and sharing on IG. My time was not my own and that was okay because when jumping into the culinary world that's to be expected. The nights, weekends, and holidays are long and can be grueling but the rush and food make it all worth it. After a while I ended up slowing down (not by much) and taking a role outside of the kitchen. I was part of a management team that managed 100+ employees working front of the house of a campus dining room. Talk about shell shock! But still it was a way to round out my resume and a chance to gain a little bit of my life back. Though I wanted to still be creative I knew somewhere down the line I eventually wanted to start a family. Something I knew would be doable but hard if I continued full time catering. Since I was no longer cooking I really ramped up my creative cooking at home. No meal could be touched until I took the perfect picture to post and share. Eventually I needed more from what I was doing, which is when I found myself back in the kitchen. I would never have imagined ending up in the K-12 dining world but that is exactly what happened. I was back in the kitchen, somewhat, but not in the most creative setting. But let me tell you the work-life balance was out of this world. Not to mention the team of women I found myself working with made the transition a dream job. However it wasn’t long after starting, that my husband and I decided to have a baby. Never in a million years did I think I would have the option to be a SAHM but after some long discussions and financial planning we figured out how to make it work. So in August of 2019, just 2 months after Logan was born I stepped down and made the move. A dream come true for sure, being able to be there for every single minute of my son growing up is amazing. But I struggled with who I am now? I was so used to grinding every day and contributing financially. That once that stopped I felt, almost lazy. I was doing the same thing everyday and as hard as it was it felt like at the same time I did nothing all day. Now when I take a step back I obviously know this is not true. I not only grew an entire little human and pushed him out after 12 hours of labor, but also feed him and my husband, take care of all the household items, chase the now little 14mo old human around the house, and probably 10 other things I am forgetting…. And that was before we realized I was growing ANOTHER entire little human. As much as I love being home full time I still didn’t want to lose my culinary identity, which is what brings me here.
So here is what I am hoping you can expect:
Sharing my “recipes”, loose term of course since I rarely measure anything or make something the same way twice.
My weekly meal plan, also loose since by the time Thursday rolls around “screw it lets get pizza” often happens.
Baby/toddler meals which is an entirely new world so we will have to learn together.
My grocery hauls, which during this pandemic have been hard to handle, but we’ll talk about that later.
And whatever else POPS up along the way. **HINT HINT**
So whether you end up reading my rambling posts or just scroll down to the recipe you need I hope enjoy What’s On The Table!