Retro-Dating

What's retro-dating, you ask? Imagine yourself dating someone, deciding that you aren't right for each other and breaking it off. More like a mutual thing instead of a going-all-crazy, destroying-each-other-in-a-reckless-kind-of-way thing. Later on, your paths cross again, and the idea of dating each other again is kind of like wearing a favorite worn sweatshirt. And even though you know that soon it'll be summer and t-shirt season, it's really comfy and you just can't help yourself. That's retro-dating. I've been there and it's fun while it lasts.

How the heck does this apply to a food blog?? Glad you asked. I had a long affair with Cooking Light magazine. It was a faithful, comfy companion. I loved opening the mailbox and checking out the new edition. I would bring it to work and at lunchtime go through it with a pen, circling all of the recipes that I was interested in. Then the silver started to flake away, as it does in many relationships. The recipes became complicated, with lots of ingredients, many of them expensive and hard to find. Our love became complex, as I didn't want to be left with a bunch of crappy ingredients that I would never use again, and I had no desire to spend hours cooking each night. Cooking Light delved into more adventurous dishes that I just didn't have the taste buds to try. Time spent pondering recipes was with less pen-circling now. After awhile, I broke it off.

Recently I found three of the Annual Review cookbooks that I got sucked into buying (2001, 2002 and 2004; respectively) and BAM! We're retro-dating. Sweet potato pancakes with maple-vanilla syrup, mmm! Strawberry-Lemon Syrup. Barbecued meatloaf, how are you? I know it's not going to last forever, but the memories are priceless. How I've missed you, Cooking Light. We'll live in the past, together, just for a little while.