Coffee Date #7 (Catching up and some Social media updates)

Hello everybody. Hope you’re all doing well. I’ve been meaning to write another one of these for so long but life has completely taken over. As it always seems to do. One thing has remained quite constant though: readers of this blog just reminded me that the time for another coffee chat has lapsed and it was high time for an update.

Without taking away anything from these lovely people, I’m always taken by surprise when I get asked for updates. I’m glad many of you find these useful, and if not that, sufficiently entertaining. As I have said before, as much as I love reading about people’s life and adventures, I lead a small life and I’m constantly wondering why my readers keep coming back here. I’m so glad they do.

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Warm Tortellini Salad (#PastaFriday) and something that bothered me today.

This post is supposed to go up tomorrow but I have some totally unplanned time today to write. Tomorrow will be a busy day and anyhow something happened this afternoon which I feel deserves a mention. So if you don’t mind sticking around just for a little while, I would like to share something with you. Some will not like me after this but in this space I’m allowed to speak my mind and get to the personal stuff once in a while. Don’t worry, you will find a recipe at the end of his post, but you will have noticed that by now in the title. Here we go.

If you know me personally, or even if you come by my blog or Facebook wall once in a while, you will notice that I take many matters to heart. C&T is mostly about food and I understand that’s why many people come here. Hopefully you stop by because you like the recipes and photos, and my occasional rants about food, and I’m always glad when you pop in and say hello, both on this blog and also anywhere else you can find me on social media. Reading comments is something I hold dear and I don’t take these for granted. No blog comes to life without readers, both the regular ones and those who visit sporadically. I have been criticised many times, and that’s OK. Really. I do get upset sometimes but I am learning to let some things go.

For the love of cookbooks, food blogs and other thoughts

Blogs are funny things, especially when you’re just starting out. You have this space on the web where you can write about whatever you want (well, within certain limits of course but as long as you don’t harm yourself and anyone else in the process then you’re fine) and be whatever you want for that matter. A few days ago a lovely reader asked me for some advice on starting a blog and this got me thinking about how I started out. She didn’t want to know about the technical details as such, even though I think you need to know the basic stuff beforehand. What she was interested in is how to get going and how to get the message across. I gave her a few things to think about, which I listed below. I’ve been thinking about writing a few words on this but never got round to doing it. I guess the time has finally come.

Some fruity photos, a little chat and a strawberry and banana milkshake.

So I have some time to myself on this lovely Sunday morning and thought I would drop a few lines. This week has been quite a hectic one. What made it worse was another little round of the flu. It’s easing a bit now all due to some rest I had yesterday. J wasn’t feeling too good either and after a bowl of minestra (the Maltese version of minestrone) we had a delightful movie afternoon. My feather blanket and hot water bottle became my best friends. I still managed to bake chocolate cookies *just got up and having one right now*. The Sun’s out today and that makes me happy. (Is Spring around the corner?)

Image: Buttercream Muffins (with links to other recipes)

I feel as if I’m getting my blogging mojo back! And since I am now on Flickr, I have decided to upload a two or three photos a week whenever I can. I was very hesitant at first and always questioned why I (or rather J) thought I would need to be present on another platform, apart from the usual Facebook and Twitter. I had almost enough of Facebook and again, I often think about not bothering with it at all. What I hate is the fact that they change the rules often, without making any form of announcement. (Case in point: I’m trying to upload this on FB and some setting has definitely changed since three days ago!)