Being grateful for food

Every morning I cook eggs for breakfast.

Without fail, every time I crack the egg I am astonished.

Astonished by nature's clever tricks & beauty.

An egg.

So perfect in Form & Function.

The best of all fast foods.

Today as I cracked the egg I was thinking about how grateful I am to be able to eat such glorious perfect nutritious food.

More than anything it is the thing I try to teach my children in relation to food.

To be grateful.

We are so lucky in Australia to have access to amazing quality produce.

It can be easy to take it for granted.

To forget how it came to be on our table.

To close our eyes to the many many things that enabled it to be there on our plate.

It is really important to me that I have this conversation about food provenance with my children and often.

I encourage you to do the same.

Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion app

Last week was pretty monumental.

Lots of really fabulous things were going on in my world.

One of them was an email from STEPHANIE! *faints*

YES i know!

Addressed to me!

Oh Em Gee.

For realz!

*faints again*

All this year she has been working hard on turning her Kitchen Bible (AKA The Cooks Companion)  - that SO many, if not ALL Australian kitchens own, into an app for all you peeps who like to have your iPad propped up on your bench.

For so many people this is going to be a game changer- just like the bible was when it was first published all those years ago.

We received our copy soon after it was first published as a wedding present from my brother- a chef trained by her close friend Maggie Beer. Such a perfect gift.

Our copy has moved to other countries and back with us and been cooked from in the many homes we have lived in since that time.  It is the book that most of us turn to when we are stuck for ideas or need to refer to it for some expert advice.
It's pages are sploshed with the stains of me cooking from it time and time again. The marks of a loved cookbook.  Just like I hope my very own will be one day.

Stephanie is also running a little Instagram game with prompts to play along- cooking through the alphabet day by day.
How fun!

A is for : Are you going to join in?

You can download the app by clicking here.

Happy Cooking!

Please note: I received no incentives, money or otherwise, to share this information. I
 just love Stephanie and am happy to share her awesomeness with you because I think you will enjoy it. xxx

Herbie Hancock's Canteloupe Island is as much a classic as Stepanie's bible I reckon ~

The blog post where I tell you my dream of publishing a book.

In late September I took some time away from the blog to concentrate on my family.

We have had a very busy year (I know right- when is it NOT busy at my place? But this was a SUPER DOOPER busy one with some extra tricky stuff thrown in the mix) and I needed to put my family first.

The time away from the blog allowed me to think about some goals for 'me', it allowed me the time to think about what this space is and what I want it to become.

As you know I have five young children. Next year all five of them will be at school.  I have always intended to become my own boss at this time.  To start my own business.

I have been working behind the scenes to turn what I do here into a business for myself for some time. I think I have grown something of value out of this space & it feels like the right time to make it into something that can contribute in a monetary way to our family.
It means that some things about my blog will evolve as my business does.

One of the MOST exciting things that happened during my bloggy break was that I let my head listen to my heart about my dream of getting a book published.

So I have started.  My defining moment was when the magnificent and long-time inspiration to me - Stephanie Alexander followed me and commented on my Instagram saying that 'my food looked delicious' & reposted one of my pictures. I decided it was time to take myself more seriously and truly consider getting started on a book- a defining moment. If you ever read this Stephanie, I can never really tell you in words how much that meant to me, just know it means the world. 

Sometime next year I hope to be able to offer you all the opportunity to buy my very first book. I am so super excited about this.
It will be a cookbook, family-life type book with what I hope contains lots of inspiration for you & foodie loveliness- all done by ME! 

Yippee!  
I am so happy about making a start on it.  And thank YOU to the many readers who have encouraged me to do so.
Your encouragement, kind words & consistent readership is a constant joy to me. Thank you so much for coming here, and to my Instagram and to my Facebook page and being part of Gourmet Girlfriend.

My blog will change a little, but the essence remains the same. It is fundamentally about the importance I place on cooking real food for your family & how the value of that goes so much further than nourishing your bodies- it is about nourishing your souls as well. The importance of the Family Table is something I feel passionate about and I want others to include it in their lives too.

I will be taking on sponsors & advertisements that I feel are in keeping with this space and of value to my readership. I will retain control over what advertising goes on my space. 

I will continue my recipe writing for other people & I am intending to start my own cooking classes too- I want to share my knowledge with others and help people feel confident enough to cook real food in their homes too.  

A lot of you may not be aware of how much time goes into just one of my posts.  It takes many hours of work to cook & photograph the food & then to write the recipe. I have always tended to write a piece and then go on to the recipe as well. This is a LOT of work and limits how often I can post.
In the past I may have found little snippets of something great, been thinking about something important or have found a source of inspiration somewhere but I felt so compelled to add all the other components to my posts & so didn't publish anything at all.  
I really hope changing the way I post allows more great stuff to come your way! WIN!

I am going to mix things up a little.  There will be some posts that don't have recipes but are just snippets of my thoughts, or inspiration that I think you will enjoy. There will still be plenty of recipes but I will be saving some just for my book!

Eeeep!
Did you read those words?

MY BOOK.

Oh Em Gee!!!!

Soooooo exciting.

I want to thank you all for sticking with me & I hope you enjoy the changes you see here. And I am totally aware that not all of you will like the changes- and that is ok.  This is about what is best for me & my family.  This is a further development to all the hard work I have already done in taking back me. It is super important for me to teach my children HOW important doing what is good for you (however that manifests) is.

It is NERVE wracking pressing publish on this post but here I go.........

2014 is all about being vulnerable and yet being the most courageous I can be.

It is all about being me, wonky bits and all.

(If you are a business that would like me to consider you for advertising on this space or to have me write recipes for you please email me at gourmetgirlfriend (at) me (dot) com )

"Everything is going to fine, expect to see me anytime....I'm coming home."