Transitions

I'd like to think I know a thing or two about transitions. I, for one, am a 30 year old (it's the new 20, right?) who has catapulted myself through various identities and landed in, what the academics like to call, a post-transition country (Czech Republic). Not that I'm claiming expert status on this notion, but I feel the word is important. Especially now.

Now is the time of year of Great Transitions. Sandwiched 'tween Christmas' wanton over-indulgence and New Year's prim resolutions, we struggle with the desire to continue our new pattern of calling chocolate truffles with coffee our breakfast, and then feel instantly guilty with such a cliché wanting...and then feel guilty about the guilt. On and on we go, all week. Or at least I have tended to. This year I thought I'd mix it up a bit and accept the truffle-breakfast

while focusing on real dinners (even though the Czech sweets from my mother-in-law sitting on the table technically could do the fill-the-belly job as well!) - sans guilt.



(See exhibit A: real dinner - even enough meat and potatoes to satisfy the hubs!)

Here is a Spanish flavoured pork/chorizo dish I barely adapted (read: added a heaping teaspoon of a smoked Spanish paprika) from a Delia cookbook. It turned out lovely, and made excellent leftovers.

This inner-declaration to maintain food balance this week then evolved into into a New Year's resolution: to make public both my attempts at improving my food photography and continuing to cope with pleasing my palette while living smack dab in the middle of Europe - in a country that somehow has not soaked up the myriad culinary traditions surrounding itself and maintains a reputation for somewhat bland and heavy food (more, muuuuch more, on this later!)

So here it is people, the birth of a new food blog. If you are reading this very first post, thank you, and I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on the photos, or future topics, or anything really! Dobrou Chut'/ Enjoy :)