The recipe for success…

Lately I have been wrestling with this thing they call “success”. What is it? Where does it come from? Does it have a price tag? Once you have success, can you lose it? Does it exist in abundance or will we one day be going to war over it, like oil or food or even water?

For some reason, after we moved I developed a strange habit of inviting people over and cooking big meals, and Jake recently commented that my cooking has improved since Rachel was born. It's almost as if post-pregnancy hormones have awakened some kind of homemaker gene that is desperately trying to navigate to my fingers. I really wouldn’t be surprised if that's the case. After all, pregnancy hormones effected every single other part of my body right down to my nose holes (I swear they got bigger last year). Since we moved last spring I have hosted several big (for me) get-togethers, planned meals better, made way too much baby food (if I have to clean and cook and puree one more vegetable….) and watched enough cooking shows to earn an honorary culinary arts degree.

This cuisine inspired journey has renewed my appreciation for the importance of following recipes to-the-letter (turns out they’re not all just guidelines). My mother once advised me never to try a new recipe when taking a dish to a potluck. I must admit that, although this is good advice, I haven’t always listened to it. However, after choosing to throw caution to the wind I did have the sense to stick to the recipe like glue on a horse (huh?). By following the recipe my dish was a success.

Although I’m often right about almost everything (yep, pretty sure of it) I can honestly admit that I have no idea what the recipe for success is. I can’t even define "success"…yet.