It has been almost a year and a half since I started working in the food industry. It is also clear that during that time my writing here has dropped drastically. Someone once said to me that when you make your hobby your job, it is hard to keep it as the hobby as well. I have found that to be true. I love cooking, but since I started doing it professionally, it is harder to write about it. I also find that I cook less at home because by the time I get home, I’m done cooking, and the last thing I want to do is another pile of dishes. Needless to say, I’ve had an absurd amount of delivery pizza in the last year.

But, I also love it when I get to work each day. To be honest, the getting out of bed and getting to work part still sucks, but when I get there, I often feel centered, calm, and in control of my world. And, it’s fun! I think these feelings are a lot better than what most people experience in their work on a daily basis, and for that I’m grateful.

I’ve learned so much. When I first started at Le Reve Bakery, I had a great conversation with my mom about my choice to go into the food industry. She said to me that, the Cox family can throw great parties and that we can put on holiday meals to remember, but that I was going to learn things that she never had about food. It was exciting and inspiring. And, its true. I now know about purchasing, about how many cases of eggs a restaurant can go through in a week (a shocking amount). I know about all the proper rules for cleaning and food preparation. I can scale recipes up to an absurd degree, and budget it all. I know how to turn a profit (though I wish I turned a larger one), and I know the satisfaction that comes with knowing that I’ve fed a lot of people and made their days a little bit better.

Le Reve was just named as one of the top five bakeries in Seattle, and I couldn’t be prouder. I’m very thankful that they brought me in, with no experience to show other than this blog, and taught me so much. I loved the people I worked with and the food that I produced. They let me experiment and come into my own.

Last April, I started working with Lishfood.com. Lish delivers professionally prepared meals from Seattle’s top chefs to your door. That’s me, a top chef! (Though my hair looks nothing like this anymore. You can’t keep pictures of me up to date! I like to keep people on their toes.)

My specialty is in Southern Comfort food. You need some BBQ, mac and cheese, meatloaf, chili, or some cornbread? You let me know. Doing the best I can to get some comfort food distributed around Seattle.

But, to be real here, it wasn’t just the change in profession that slowed down my blogging. Last year had to be the hardest year of my life to date and I just didn’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth to keep up here.

There was the physical strain of switching to a job where I was on my feet all day, and the very early morning schedule. My partner and I both had new and powerful stressors in our lives. We moved last year and both had epic professional changes. And though now, it is lovely to be in a new home, last summer, learning that the place we’d lived for five years was going to be torn down and having to find and move into a new place was very stressful. In the midst of all this, I suffered a number of losses in my family last year, something I have been lucky enough to not have experienced in my adult life up until now. 2015 was rough. Physically, mentally, emotionally.

But, I did have the kitchen to keep me busy, and that was lovely. I had the support of a wonderful partner and the love of my family. And so far, 2016 has been just fine.

And so now that things have calmed down a little bit, I’m back. I hope to be back here regularly again, but life has a way of making things crazy, so we’ll see. But my intentions are good and I have a backlog of recipes and half written posts that you wouldn’t believe. So wish me luck and I’ll wish you luck and we’ll see where the journey takes us.