Blogging is the best medicine

I've been a resident of the blogosphere for just over a week now and I feel it's time for me to stand up, proud and tall, and say "I'm Dominique and I'm a blogaholic". It feels good to get that out there. True to my usual form, blogging is becoming a pleasurable obsession for me, so much so that not only am I a blogaholic, but I am also a sleep blogger. I have never been a sleep walker or a sleep talker but it seems I am a sleep blogger. Well, I'm not exactly asleep as such, I'm sort of in between, the slow drifting and the wide awake, the alert and the dreamy; it seems that my mind enters a blogging state just as I want to call it a night.

As I'm slowly teetering on the edge of deep sleep, my racing thoughts and ideas give me a gentle nudge, and hastily awaken me. I then turn to my bedside table where my blog diary sleeps, and I rustle the pages to find a blank page. I then quickly jot down whatever groundbreaking idea has come to mind (generally these are not so groundbreaking, merely silly sleepy thoughts of a nut job who blogs in her sleep). This however, wakes up my poor husband, who tends to say something along the lines of "oh my god will you stop blogging Dominique". So my solution to this problem: blogging in the toilet. Yes that's right in the toilet, well actually on the toilet (a girl does need to sit while she's blogging) but let me assure you I'm not 'doing' anything on the toilet; it's just me and my bare bum awkwardly perched on a toilet bowl, pen and diary in hand, eyes barely open, scrawling silly blog ideas. This must mean only one thing, I'm a nutcase. Actually, what this definitely does mean is that many a post you have read has been lovingly created and written on the bog, but when the ideas come you have to let em roll (I think by admitting this, my readers may never take me seriously again, but I'm willing to take the chance). I think after the toilet story I owe you some further explanations for these obscenities.

I didn't know what to expect when I started blogging. It had been some crazy idea that I came up with together with Samuel, who was already blogging, and my Dad (who was soon to be a blogger too). I love reading blogs of all sorts and so I thought that I too could write one. I didn't know what I would write about, whether it would be interesting, and more importantly if anyone would read it. But I decided to just start one; I have never been very adventurous or exciting for that matter, so I thought I would just take the plunge, a bit like I did with cooking, and lucky for me, just like the cooking, I am so glad I did because I truly love it. I knew I had to start going for things more, and stop being so worried about what may happen and what people might think. What I have come to realize throughout my blogging initiation is that if feels really great to be inspired everyday; to constantly look for ideas to write about, reflect on what you're doing, what you're learning, and to just have something you truly enjoy doing. And it's incredibly cathartic.

I am also truly grateful for the way this blog has reconnected me with people I haven't seen for many years. Life passes you by so quickly and unfortunately you lose lots of people along the way; as you reach different stages of your life, you find yourself living and experiencing those stages with different people. But this blog has brought me back in touch with so many people from my past and I am reliving so many great memories as a result. I never thought that would happen and it's been an amazing outcome of this blog.

I encourage you all to try this highly addictive and exciting form of expression; although I don't encourage toilet blogging, it's quite weird. I also don't encourage saying, "oooohhhh I can blog about this" when you're significant other is kissing you; apparently it's offensive but I don't see why. Molly Wizenberg, the blogger behind Orangette, sums it up perfectly in her book "A Homemade Life". She says, "And like the human-to-human kind (of relationship), the human-to-blog kind is oddly addictive. It's hard to beat the rush that comes when you press "Publish", sending your words out into the ether, or the satisfaction that stems from someone leaving a comment on your site. There's always a twinge of fear-Will anyone read this? Will I alienate all my friends?-but so long as it's only a twinge, it's tolerable. Delicious, even".

When I read this, late last night in bed, I got the inspiration for writing this post. I was so excited as I read these words, I almost shouted out "Yes, yes this is exactly how it feels!" I will confirm that I too got irrationally excited when people started commenting on my blog; although I'm sure all bloggers experience this thrill and overexcitement when they lose their blogging virginity. I can often be seen slouched on my sofa, laptop on my lap, bobbing up and down like an overexcited puppy when I see comments in my inbox. I will say; "Look Samuel, I got another comment! Somebody's reading!" I now think Molly and I are kindred spirits, though I doubt she feels the same. Following this life changing revelation, I'm sure you can guess what I did next...I let out my excited energy on my blog diary. And now you're suffering it.

Because Molly and I are now kindred spirits, here is her book. If you love people, food, recipes and heartfelt writing, you will love this book. I took this to practice my still life photos. Taken with the 50mm 1.4.

And here is my latest heavy pile of inspiration. As you can see when I say I'm looking for inspiration, I really am clutching at straws...but you never know where the big ideas will come from and these books are great.

My aim for this post was to show my appreciation and to say that you, dear readers make it all worthwhile and why I constantly strive to find the best ideas for my posts and hopefully you will enjoy what I have in store for the future. So I want to end this post by saying a huge and bloggly THANK YOU for all your comments, support and encouragement. Every single comment makes me feel wonderful and puts the biggest smile on my face; it really helps keep my positive outlook and enthusiasm and so I wanted to say a big thank you for this. I hope this post has illustrated what this blog means to me and how much I enjoy writing it. I fear I have probably revealed that I take this blogging far too seriously.... I promise to keep up my posting and I hope you keep reading! If you think you might like writing, try it, blogging really is the best medicine. All I hope for now is that you don't picture me on the loo whenever you read my blog.

To end here is a really simple recipe for my favourite way to roast carrots, parsnips or any other root vegetable. It's so easy and it makes a boring vegetable super nice! The trick is to get the seasoning spot on so that have lots of flavour. You can also throw in some herbs-rosemary or thyme would work quite well.

Yummy Roasted Vegetables

1 kg of root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, and regular potatoes.

5 red onions cut into wedges

Handful of garlic cloves skin left on (these will taste lovely and sweet when roasted)

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius

2. Peel the vegetables (you don't have to peel the butternut squash or sweet potato if you don't want to ) Cut up whichever vegetables you choose into equal sized chunks

3. Toss in a good pinch of sea salt and pepper and a guzzling of olive oil (this is key to making them taste good)

4. Roast for around 45 minutes or until soft, golden and yummy. This could be an 1 hour even or perhaps even 4o minutes.

These are great with a roast dinner.

P.S. To make sure I don't violate copyright I have provided a link for recipes where I have not adapted the original version. If a recipe has been adapted by myself then the text will be on the blog. If you have any questions about any recipes please do ask, especially if it's about the linked version! Happy cooking

I have a few posts lined up for the coming days that I hope you like! Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave comments, you know how I like them!

xx