Wednesday, October 27, 2010

And so I begin

In May, 2010 my husband and I moved from upstate New York to Sacramento, California.  We moved here on blind faith; neither of us had a job, we didn't have an apartment and we didn't know a soul.  Like the many that have come before us, all we had (or needed) was the naive assumption that it would all work out.  Slowly and surely things are starting to work out, but, they are definitely taking the slow road.  Once we found an apartment my husband quickly found work, leaving me jobless and bored, with way too much (alone) time on my hands. 

A few weeks in and starting to feel lost and unsure of the decisions I had made, I wanted to re-read, “Comfort me with Apples”  Ruth Reichl’s second memoir about her time living in California and getting into the food scene.  I was hoping that reading this would boost my spirits and inspire me to start my new Californian life. Not only was this one of the first food related memoirs I have ever read, getting me entirely hooked on the genre, it has also continued to be my favorite.  Because my copy was packed away in a box in New York, I decided to walk across the street to the Goodwill with the sole purpose of finding this book.  If you are a used book shopper you know, as well as I do, that you cannot go into a setting like this assuming that you will find exactly what you are looking for.  If you do this you will constantly be disappointed.  With that said, I not only found, “Comfort me with Apples” but also a stack of other foodie memoirs!  It was at this moment that I knew that even if I had no job and no friends I had made the right choice by moving here. 

The fact that finding a certain book in the Goodwill had the power to squash most of my fears and insecurities about my move should give you a good indication of the type of person I am.  I can and will talk about books and food constantly, often wondering if my listener is just being polite or if they are actually as interested in these things as I am.  Thus, I start a blog.  I assume that if you continue reading, you are interested, and if you are only semi interested you will jump around only reading parts.    

My goals for this blog, (because as with any project I feel I must start with some) are to be able to not only share my love of food literature, but also to make the process of being a food lit lover easier.  I have spent an incredible amount of time tracking down titles, and though this is a process that I happen to love, I have always felt that there needs to be a place to find a comprehensive list.  My list will never be complete but I am going to do my best.  I will share my thoughts on what I am reading, and also my attempts at following the recipes that are scattered throughout the stories.  Occasionally there will be random thoughts on my food life in Sacramento, as well as books that may have nothing to do with food that I just happen to really like. 

Whether you are a little interested or a lot I hope you enjoy my musings and gain a few things from my plethora of food lit information.  If you have questions or need recommendations please feel free to ask!

3 comments:

  1. Jessie, what a beautiful entry! I can't wait to read more.
    Betsy

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  2. Jess,

    So glad you are doing this.

    N

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  3. Jessica,
    I hope you'll add Fleeing Famous - A SpellBound Cafe book, to your list. It's only available on Amazon at this moment.
    Also - Slim to None by Jenny Gardiner is a great foodie fiction book!

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