Tasty Tuesday ~ Cocoa Bar & Life Off Line GIVEAWAY

In case I feel like I miss the holidays, a few extra pounds are with me as a reminder. It's funny how too much of a good thing produces the opposite of what we want and celebrate - health & happiness. Online information about food and recipes also fit in to the "good things" category, but too much leaves us unhealthy, if all we do is take it in without getting out of the virtual kitchen and into the real one.

How has your "online life" affected your real life "offline"? The topic usually stirs us strong feelings, mostly based on our own experience. When it comes to my real  life kitchen to table, I admit I have access to more recipes and tutorials than I EVER did before ... but I'm afraid that a hidden camera might reveal that I actually cook less. That doesn't make sense! If you have cable tv you can access a wide range of "chef mentors" on the Food Network and pick the personality that most appeals to you. New apps for iphones literally let us carry recipes with us. It's funny that, despite all of the help online and electronically, it seems like people in general cook less and know less about making food a good part of life. 

Where's the gap between all of the awesome motivation online and the actual pots and pans in our cabinets? Yesterday our 17 yr old JoHanna had a younger friend over to do some "wear an apron-flour on your face-read the recipe" cooking. I'll admit, ingredients had to be thrown out, windows had to be opened, and the smoke alarm did go off ... but a lot of "real" things happened in our kitchen offline. The recipe book was splattered with batter .... and memories. Notes were written on the page about discoveries ... in 17 yr old handwriting. Problem solving. Experimenting. Talking. Laughing. Creating (they modified the recipe, of course). Mentoring. Friendship. And not least of all ... some great food. And when it was all over and cleaned up (floor and counters), I posted pictures on Facebook and shared them with friends who wanted to know what ebelskivers are. I sent the pictures to my mother-in-law who gave the gift that inspired the cooking, but lives too far away to see the real thing. Life Online complements Life Offline.


Perhaps the kitchen is the perfect place to show us that the best recipes are those that use good portions of a variety of ingredients. Life online can infuse and inspire real cooking and real relationships in healthy, even delicious, ways off line. Proverbs 31:14 tells us that excellent women get their "food from afar," so this is nothing new!  Let's not lose our motivation, our creativity, and our confidence somewhere between virtual ideas and actual kitchens. 

Recipe carnivals, food blogs, coupon blogs, and meal planning sites are awesome resources. Do you have favorites? Let's be good stewards of this richness we have access to. Let's feed our families, our friends, our guests, the needy, and ourselves well. 

Here's a picture of a great winter party idea that I saw at a real friend's December open house. CUTE way to serve hot chocolate!

Do you need to get back to REAL COOKING?

Ideas to take virtual to real:

• Print out a recipe you find online and make it.
• Does a recipe make you think of a friend? Forward it with a note of encouragement.
• Get together & cook with a friend, each bringing a new online recipe & ingredients.
• Use digital scrapbooking software or online publisher & make a family recipe book.
• Choose one new recipe each week to try out & serve.
• Use online resources to find the best recipes to take to needy friends & then take one.

Today's Life Off Line Challenge:

• Virtual resources complement real ones. Take out a hard copy recipe book and rediscover some "oldies." Look for splatters reminding you of when you cooked and who you served. See what the handwriting reminds you of. 
• Have a favorite online resource? Write a recipe you discovered there on to an index card or paper, then include it in your recipe book or box, or mail it to a friend in a "real" envelope. ;)

REAL GIVEAWAY ~ 
Leave a comment today telling me what your favorite online food resource is ... recipe blog, meal planning site, cooking carnival ... what online resource motivates you? You'll be entered to win a 2012 Family Meal Planner/Calendar from the Gooseberry Patch. I'll announce the winner Thursday!