Hello dear friends

We are back!  I have so much to tell you and can hardly decide where to begin, Oh the sights, the wondrous food, the drinks, the Mediterranean sea at sunset, the salacious details of our private life that I dare not reveal here for fear of dull, grey-suited censors with sharp red pencils. We had a glorious time on our cruise of the Holy land.  And like a fine Venetian pastry, we finished off our time away with a few amazing days, alone in Venice, free to discover the city and ourselves slowly. 

Our holiday was also a time of confirmation for me.  As we visited each of the amazing destinations on our cruise, I found myself sampling the local cuisine, inquiring into how it is prepared, thinking to myself that I would have to share this insight or recipe with you, how I could incorporate this new flavour or technique into my own cooking or considered whether it should be included in my cookbook.  I found myself seeing the world around me through the prism of this adventure I am on.  To be fair, I often laughed at myself for my seemingly obsessed view of food but it confirmed for me that writing this cookbook is exactly the right thing I should be doing for myself at this time.  The journey to write this cookbook is becoming an opportunity to reflect on my marriage and on my life through a passion for food.  And I decided I don’t need to apologize for it.  Candidly, I did as forecast, I over-ate, and over-indulged, and basically made a pig of myself.  But I could hardly stand not to do so.  After all it is food!

So here I am back, among my favourite recipes, sitting at my desk, staring down the instruction manual for InDesign that remains to be tackled, and my yellow stickie notes strewn across the desktop reminding me of the next things to do.  And I am happy.  Very happy.  I feel calmer about writing this cookbook.  Well at least for today.  I think I can do it.  And perhaps in the future, should not even a single copy sell, it will still have been an amazing journey for me.  It is time to go and wander around in my kitchen and say hello to my favourite pans and sniff the spices in the cupboard.  It is time to be home.