{atonement and new beginnings} <<< What That Says

So! I have been a rather neglectful blogger of late, and I wish to atone and be re-born, like a phoenix. You know, that bird  who hangs  out with Dumbledore. It’s true, a mythical dead bird on fire is what I aspire to. The funny thing is I have BRILLIANT (I tell you frickin’ crazy brilliant!) ideas for this blog all the time. The pictures, the stories, the witticisms, the recipes, they dance in my head and pause on my lips. But then, I sit at the laptop and I’m like, oh shoot, did they just put Season 1 of “The O.C.” on Hulu yesterday? And the rest is just… dead bird. No fire. No ashes. No rising. Just, you know, reliving the good years with Ryan and Summer, and, god, after all this time I still hate Marissa! The show was SO much better when Tate Donovan was on. But I digress.

You see, the thing is, I never really started this blog thinking that people would actually READ it. I mostly just wanted a place to store recipes and stories for myself and like 3 other people who always ask me for recipes. So If you look at my 1.0 version of Off The (Meat)Hook you will see that it’s very… um… experimental. Partly that’s because I had basically only even READ like 3 food blogs before I started so I didn’t even know what to do with it. I know, hubris, right? Who DOES that? Apparently me. HUGE learning curve there. It’s so great though, because I have learned to love taking pretty pictures and I have gotten about a million times better at doing it. I have been able to share travel stories and suggestions that used to just live in my mind or in the ether. I have gotten to codify food experiments that I would otherwise never be able to re-create. I have actually MET other food bloggers that I like and became friends with? I put a question mark because really, I never expected that at all and I’m still happily surprised by it. The food blogging community pretty much poops rainbows. With very few exceptions they are some of the nicest and most welcoming, supportive, helpful people in the world. If they were a$$holes I would have given this up looooooooong ago. Seriously. If you meet one, try to be their friend. Not only are they nice and stuff, remember, most of them are pretty good cooks too.

ANYWAY… let’s not let this become a “Jerry Maguire”-style manifesto, because I freaking HATE that movie, but that’s for another time. While it’s not like there are legions of screaming fans, I have reason to believe there are literally TENS of people reading this site. Sometimes, dare I say, even DOZENS. When I do something super cool that can get to HUNDREDS. Are you kidding me? Hundreds? Sheeee-it. That’s some pressure. So here is what I’m going to do:

1. Take your post suggestions from facebook and twitter (there are some doozies! Prepare yourselves for embarrassing stories. Everyone wants embarrassing stories.) And feel free to send more along as you think of them.
2. Post recipes from the 1.0 site but new and improved-ly, along with new recipes.
3. Post more photos without feeling the need to add lots of text and context.
4. Post more kitchen how-tos: suggestions welcome for what you want to know.
5. Post more about restaurants and cool places to go. I always WANT to do this but it seems overwhelming so it’s a rarity. I’m brewing a plan though so stay tuned.
6. Post more random stuff. You can’t pin me down, man! I won’t do it anymore!
7. Post more pictures and recipes of things made by other people, like when I go to their house for dinner and such. This will mean I might be one of those d-bags who brings my camera to your house and then the next day emails you to make you send me the recipe. In exchange I promise to bring a slightly better bottle of wine than I would normally bring. Which means I will up my price ceiling from $10 to maybe $12.99. But $12.99 at BevMo is really like $15.99 somewhere else so, in advance, you’re welcome for the great wine I brought and by the way may I please have your recipe from last night?

So feel free to keep suggestions for posts coming. I want to do more “how-to” posts so tell me what you want to know and I will do it. I actually know a surprising amount about cooking and such. And please tell me what you want to know how to make and I will make it. I didn’t expect you, but now that you’re here I want to please you. Help me be the dead bird on fire which is so much less gross than just a dead bird, like, on the sidewalk. By the way, have you ever run over a pigeon and then cooked it and ate it? Me neither but that would be insanely gross. Don’t suggest that. I’m not doing that. Keep it reasonable. And if you’re still reading this- gold star! I owe you a dollar, and 10 minutes of your life back. But also don’t suggest I make a time machine because a lot of people have tried that, and it doesn’t usually work out too well.