What's Cooking?!........

It’s hard to believe it has been 6 months since my last blog post! Seriously… where has this year gone?! However with that being said it’s not really surprising when I think about what has been happening over the last 6 months!

When we started the year all cozied up and warm sipping Champagne by the fire at my parent’s house in Scotland we knew that 2015 had some big changes in store for us, and for the first time ever at New Year I was a little apprehensive about the coming year, rather than my usual optimism of fresh starts and new opportunities.

Over the previous few years Scott had been away from home for work more and more and so finally we accepted that the only way to stop that from happening and to have him at home more was to move from Vancouver Island over to the Mainland which would completely cut down on his travel time and absences from home. It wasn’t an easy decision, especially for me, as it meant moving to a new city where we literally knew no one and starting over. My last big move had been from Scotland to Canada and one that at the age of 25 I perhaps hadn’t fully thought through. I moved to follow my heart but didn’t appreciate how hard it would be over time being so far away from my family and friends, especially as we all got older and had our own families. So we thought long and hard and by the time we had gone through all of the pros and cons we realised now was the time to make the move especially since Ben was starting Kindergarten in September. So our house was put on the market in March, we spent some time on the mainland finding an area that we loved to move to and everything was a go! After that life just seemed non-stop! We sold our house, bought a house, said our goodbyes, attempted to enjoy the summer while homeless for six weeks (although found an amazing place to stay!), had my Mum & Dad over (thank goodness – what a help!) and finally moved in to our new home just before Ben started school!!

Of course since we never do anything by half measures while all of that was going on we were also going through the gruelling treatment for infertility. After two failed IUI’s earlier in the year we opted for a round of IVF which took place right in amongst all of the packing and moving! Thankfully for us it worked and so I am delighted to say that although my cooking has taken a bit of a nose dive it’s because I have the most amazing, precious thing ever being made in my tummy!! At 20 weeks pregnant things are finally returning to normal but it has been quite a difficult few months. Those lucky few ladies that sail through pregnancy with nothing but a glow are alien to me! I WISH I was one of them but no such luck! Instead I have been horrendously sick with all day “morning” sickness since I was 4 weeks pregnant! Yep that means 16 weeks or 4 months or nausea and sickness every.single.day. Not the best thing for someone who loves food and cooking! It is literally only in the last couple of weeks that I have been able to actually start enjoying cooking again (much to my husband’s relief!) although admittedly not on a regular basis. So as you can imagine blogging about food was moved to the bottom of my priorities…. In fact anything related to food was pretty much down there at the bottom of the list! Thankfully though despite still being on anti-nausea medication I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and start cooking again and that involves needing a little inspiration to make up for all those lost months which brings me to my new library….

You might remember my “Cookbook Room” from our previous house. It was my library/spare bedroom! Great for anyone that loved food and cookbooks (as they never wanted to leave); jaw-dropping for the other 95% of guests we had to stay!!! This time however with a new bigger house the collection is no longer in the spare bedroom but in our delightfully cozy family room… or should that be our library?!

Last time due to size restraints I had 3 large shelves and 1 half sized shelf which were overflowing with my books and sagging with the strain… You might remember them…..

Needless to say they did not survive the move! Instead we opted for new stronger shelves to match our “white” house and literally they just finished being properly installed (by my wonderful and patient hubby!) last night after coming home from a weekend away! Aren’t they pretty?!.....

So now the task of emptying approximately 75 boxes of books begins and honestly I am SO excited! I know, I know but I LOVE my cookbooks and it has pained me to see them packed away in boxes for so long. I’m ashamed to admit that some of these books haven’t seen the light of day since they were packed up in Scotland from Mrs D’s house and shipped to me 6 years ago because we simply did not have room for them in our last house which means basically that Christmas has come early for me! It’s going to take a good few days to get the books from boxes to shelf, especially with my ever expanding tummy getting in the way but I can’t wait to see it when it’s all done!

So there you go – no blog posts because it has been a CRAZY 6 months! Actually make that a crazy year(!) but hopefully everything is now set to improve (touch wood!)…. That it is until babe arrives and I am reminded what it is like to have no sleep! In the meantime make sure you check out my ‘Recipes’ pages for true and trusted recipes from the last few years and keep an eye out for an updated Cookbook Room page!

I hope you are all well. Thanks for reading and don't forget to keep in touch! xxx