I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been thinking about writing this blog post for several months now. Sometimes life got a bit hectic, other times I just didn’t want to do anything beyond the day-to-day. Quarantine life can be mentally exhausting.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that cooking has not stopped. Although, it slowed in the past month or so. Chasing sunlight has been challenging between work and the sun is setting at the break of 3:30 p.m. However, since I have blogged for awhile, there’s a lot to share!

I got really into making salsas during the later months of summer, as a result of the abundance of produce at the farmers market and a new cookbook — Oaxaca: Home of Cooking from the Heart of Mexico. Bricia has some of the BEST salsa recipes I’ve ever encountered. It’s just really simple ingredients that blend together so beautifully.

I also jumped on the preservation train with the rest of America. I know the rest of America was involved because it was impossible to find mason jars anywhere in stores. I discovered how much I enjoyed pickling cucumbers a bit too late in the game. They were all gone from the market the following week when I tried to get more, ha.

Whenever someone asks me where I source recipes, it’s always a long winded answer because it’s never just one place. Sometimes a craving will strike and I’ll comb through my stack of cookbooks for inspiration. Or something will inspire me on my Instagram feed. And other times, I’ll just get inspired by something I saw on the Food Network. Here are some of the those recipes. There are a ton of different shows on Food Network, but I enjoy watching Ina Garten and Molly Yeh.