Vote for food!

After yesterday’s admittedly very blue post today something more fun. Let’s talk about food. Yes, you read correctly not pasta, but food. In general. All sorts of food. Food and the fact that I think it may have just been me who nominated my wonderful cousin Thekla for the Eat In Best Food Blogger Award. Because she just is!

A little over a year ago she started in this venture called blogging and though it was after Julie & Julia and Jamie Who not a new thing by far, there was something that she was just doing right… and different…and lovingly.
In a world of 50 course menus, blobs of food served in test tubes, and portions that make French cuisine look like a Mount Everest on your plate, there has been a new trend in food lately. Call it back to the roots. Old school is nouveau. Not little is more, but simple is. With her blog and service Domestic Goddesses I think Thekla has hit the mark of this new appreciation for honesty on a plate and simplicity in the kitchen.

For me personally...well, she was the one who inspired this little blog here. She also inspires me in the kitchen. I still mainly cook pasta, but I try and play with new things thanks to her. If I find a recipe I don’t quite dare to attempt myself I will take it to her. Most of the time she ends up cooking it while I keep company with a glass of bubbly or two. I just pretend I learn all there is while watching and do my share by chopping the occasional onion.

Out of an impulse when putting things in my kitchen after moving in, I put this picture of her and me up next to the stove. A picture taken when I had just moved here and had enough time to acquire a proper tan. Though it might be an odd place for a photo, I just like it there, cooking, looking at my inspiration – we look happy, it makes me smile.

When I was back home in August I went through old boxes of photos and I came across the one on the left. It was taken when I first came to South Africa 16 years ago. It shows Thekla's Mum Colleen and myself at some farm stall and though photographically it seems a silly picture (no faces, no scenery, no nothing) to me it sums up everything that drew me here in the first place: light, warmth, and extraordinary people.

I took it back to Cape Town with me and for some reason it found a fitting place in my kitchen as well. Considering that Thekla draws her cooking inspiration from her mother, I think it closes the circle nicely.

Now we get to the deal: Thekla is nominated and needs votes. Either you liked this post or you liked my cooking and since now know where it comes from – vote for Thekla!*

*Or I shall never cook for you again. Obviously.