A Blogger Missing in Action

Sorry. It has been months since I last blogged a recipe. The thing is, I’ve not stopped cooking or baking and I still enjoy trying new recipes and flavours. So, what’s my excuse? Um, time and motivation. Oh gosh was that too blunt? Perhaps I should soften that by saying that the marathon training also changed my tastebuds? (It really did.) But, I’ll be honest with you. Really I stopped blogging because I’ve lacked time and motivation.

I had too many moments thinking, ‘does anyone read this blog anyway? and ‘is it worth it?‘.

Do all bloggers get that?

I think, for me, part of it is because I can’t see the immediate, face-to-face feedback, or people don’t leave comments. It makes it a bit harder to keep pushing yourself when you can’t be bothered to anyway. Some recent visitors left comments and that’s helping me out of that state of inertia.

And the time? After the end of a busy term, the students left halls and I immediately flew off to Chambery to experience a week of snowboarding. When I came back with a very bruised bottom, it was April. And not only did April feel like it had crept up on me but it also felt like it just tiptoed past me too, unplanned.

Then with three weeks to go, I started panicking about running a marathon.

My pre-marathon jitters transferred over to my food. I was worried that I’d ‘hit the wall’ once I got to mile 20 because I hadn’t fed myself properly. So, when my sister and brother-in-law came to stay, I asked my sister to make up some wholemeal pizza dough as an acknowledgement to my panic. We set out to make three different kinds of pizza toppings: courgettes with parma ham, mozzarella and basil, yellow cherry tomato sauce. The gender stereotype hit us in a funny moment in the supermarket, when Ola picked up the one packet of parma ham and very seriously asked ‘are we sure that there is enough meat going on these pizza?’ I made up a special sloppy joe style pizza just for him with minced beef, fresh chillis, onions and cayenne pepper. His favourite meat dish, however, was when I made Nigella’s buttermilk chicken from the Nigella Express cookbook for a Royal Wedding party. Ee-Reh had already made it before the week was out, when they returned home.

May had some awesome food moments. My mum cooked me her korean chicken casserole on the weekend of my marathon. However, May was really chocka, so no blogging from me.

I ran my first ever marathon at the start of May. I didn’t hit the wall and ran it all in 4 hours, 17 minutes and 47 seconds! My empty stomach woke me up at 2am the morning after and I finished off my mum’s casserole and gleefully indulged in a Magnum. I think that I deserved it.

stratfordmarathon

My mum had a major operation in the middle of May so I spent a week in Aberdeen looking after my mum. There’s not a photo to illustrate this one, more for your benefit 🙂

Then, just as the ash cloud was descending upon the British Isles, once again, I flew out to Morocco to visit a friend of mine in Casablanca. There, I learned how to prepare sardines for cooking, and went to the market to buy a few spices.

everydaylifeinthemedinaspiceshopping

And then… it was June.

Published by

Han-Na Cha

English Language Teacher, Academic and Personal Development Skills Trainer, Baker.

8 thoughts on “A Blogger Missing in Action”

  1. I read it Han-Na 🙂 I love to hear about your culinary adventures. Hello from cyber space x

  2. I read them Han-Na – it’s a lovely way to keep up with someone I don’t see very often. And I want your mum’s chicken casserole recipe…… bevx

  3. I read it Han-Na. Because you’re an interesting person. Interesting in all the most positive of senses 😉 x x x

  4. I read it Han-Na. (just thought i’d mirror the three previous comment-givers…) Yellow tomato sauce… mmmmmmmmmm! Yes!
    Anyway – surely it does not matter whether anyone reads it or not? It’s a record of you keeping your new year’s resolution, and also a way of making a few squid every now and then ;-).

    I hope you keep writing it. I always brag about you to my friends, thinking it will up their estimation of me. Hahahahaha! =D

  5. i know. The writing of it should be like that… but somehow it’s not. Don’t we always write to be read? Even if only, by ourselves?

    Anyway, when I was in Aberdeen, I read that Gino T also uses cherry tomatoes in his sauces. But I feel like we discovered that before him – if only for making the yellow cherry tomato sauce 🙂 before I read it

  6. I read this blog it is nice. No this is the first time that I read your blog it is good.I read that Gino T also uses cherry tomatoes in his sauces. But I feel like we discovered that before him.. keep on blogging some nice posts….

    Arrow

    University

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