chatty – Chloe White's Kitchen

I’m ill. It’s just a cold but I can hardly talk. It has forced me to stay at home, away from work.

We recently got Netflix and I’m watching Chef’s Table, the one with Christina Tosi and I’m cooking. Because I want to cook, not because I need to cook. This feeling has been lost for the past month and I feel a bit more like my old self.

I backed away from social media, finding the pressure of posting perfect looking food stifling. It was taking away the fun and evaporating the enjoyment of cooking. I haven’t been able to come back until now. I didn’t have anything to say.

Christina says that you are allowed to be anything you want to be and no one gets to tell you any different. This show has re-ignited my love for cooking and made me remember what I love about it or maybe it’s the fact that I’m ill and impressionable.

I am currently making roasted tomato soup, with fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs to which I will add shop bought tomato and mozzarella tortellini, agave roasted bacon and parmesan crumble. Experimenting with new flavours and pushing my boundaries in the kitchen.

I have been cooking some Chrissy Recipes too but even that has started to feel fake and I seem to have forgotten all the reasons I am doing this challenge. I will still continue cooking my way through the book, but am not sure whether I will make my target of finishing the book by the end of the year.

The point I have come to realise is that if you are not doing something for yourself then there is no point in doing it at all. Your heart won’t be in it.

I will be taking it easy in the social media world, keeping a healthy balance of real life and the perfect reality which we all create and share with the rest of the world.

Remember, it’s the simple pleasures in life, finding the extraordinary in the mundane and being true to who you that count, rather than the amount of likes you get on a picture from strangers.

Chloe

xoxo

Hi Guys,

I was watching Julie & Julia last night, again, which was the inspiration behind me starting my Cravings Challenge. I must admit that as of late I have been lack lustre in the Cravings Challenge department, partly due to the fact that I was lazy and also because I could feel my waistline expanding at a rapid rate and I wasn’t loving that. So now that I have my waistline back to normal, I need to really pull my finger out and get busy cooking if I want to meet my deadline of completing this cookbook by the end of the year. Watching Julie & Julia gave me the jolt that I needed and I’m raring to go again!

It’s Sunday morning here and after what feels like an eternity of sunshine, the weather in the UK has gone back to grey and sombre clouds. I’m sitting in our living room/dining room, listening to jazz tapping away at this keyboard, while I should be cleaning our apartment as we have my grandparents coming to stay this week. I must admit that the cleaning side of being a domestic goddess is not my strong point and I do it rather begrudgingly.

So while I procrastinate, I thought it would be a great idea to do a check in to see where I am up to with my Cravings Challenge and what the long road ahead looks like until completion. So far I have completed 26 recipes out of the 102 which are in the book, some of these recipes are sauces and I can definitely make meals out of what is left by adding the sides to the main courses. We have 141 days left of this year so 76 recipes to do. Easy right??? (Say yes!!) My plan of action is to see what we have in the house already and what I can make from the book using the ingredients we have and then plan in the rest of the recipes into coming food shops. Let’s face it, buying little bits here and there is expensive and this girl is on a budget! I also need to find a skillet pan to make the dutch baby pancakes, which I am beyond excited about, if you have any recommendations of where to get one, please let me know.

It’s also Charles birthday this week and he has requested the Capon burger, onion rings and mac and cheese. He has explicitly told me that the Capon burger is the best burger he has ever eaten in his life so I’m looking forward to making that one again for him. He’s amazing and deserves all of the carbs for his birthday.

I’m going to finish off this post with images of the recipes I’ve made but haven dedicated full blog posts too (mostly out of laziness!). I apologise for the quality of the images they are raw and unedited as I lost them all when I reset my phone and can’t download them off of Instagram (rookie error!)