5 Years and Counting!

Remembering the beginning, pondering the future

Three early stories: my mother-in-law Judy Graham making soup, a Passover seder table set for two at my friends Ellen and Allen's house; and my cousin Dalia with her dog Leela, near the fire-ravaged town of Paradise, CA, one of my first stops when we finally took to the road again.

Five years and 2 days ago on April 4, 2020, I posted my first blog on Substack.

It was an experiment. I sent it to 10 people, mostly family members. It was the very beginning of the pandemic. Everyone was at home. There wasn’t a vaccine, and we were stocking up on colorful homemade cloth masks because the more protective variety weren’t yet available—and we weren’t sure if we needed them anyway.

All kinds of rumors were flying about regarding how Covid-19 could be spread, with much of it contradictory—and some of it flat out wrong. You didn’t need to spend an hour sponging down your groceries, for example. It was safe to walk outside, though signs said the beaches and walkways near our home were closed. We went anyway. There weren’t many humans there—but there were birds!

Shelves at the markets and big box stores were running low on flour, yeast and toilet paper. Everyone was trying to figure out how to cook simple recipes at home because all the restaurants were closed. So were schools. A lot of kids were wandering around in kitchens in search of food. Some of us feared that every sniffle or stomach ache meant the end. Sadly, for some folks, it did. But meanwhile, we were looking for diversion, and I thought I’d give Substack a go.

A photo of a potato sourdough bread I wrote about for the earlier incarnation of my blog. After rereading the post, I’m thinking maybe I’ll take another crack at making rye bread. It’s SO good!

I revived the name of an earlier blog that I’d given up on years before that ran on a different platform—Ruth Talks Food. I thought I would interview people about what they were cooking during the pandemic and post podcasts, along with some written commentary. My thoughts didn’t go far beyond that. I imagined my blog/podcast might run for a month or two. Then most likely I’d decide it wasn’t worth the effort. Would anyone be interested?

My friend and neighbor Susie doesn’t enjoy cooking but loves to eat and has a terrific palate. She’s the best listener an insecure blogger could ever hope for.

Well, five years on, I’m still at it, though I stopped doing the podcast years back. I have some 1,200 subscribers, give or take a few. I try not to take it personally that the numbers aren’t higher and that they increase by ones and twos, not multiples of 10. This blogger or that one started long after I did, and look at them; they’ve got 5,000 subscribers—or 50,000!

But then I have to ask myself—why are you doing this? For fame or fortune? No. Because you like to write about food? Only sometimes. Because you like to talk about food? Yes, sort of. Because you’re obsessed with it. Okay, again, sort of. Because you like to bake? Getting warmer. Because baking reminds you of your mother who also loved it? A bit simplistic, but yes, especially when there’s KitchenAid mixer involved, but that isn’t all of it either. Here’s a post I wrote about my thoughts on the subject:

Why 'Ruth Talks Food'?

And what about all those travel articles? Was that something you intended from the start?

No, not at all. Remember, I wasn’t traveling. We were stuck at home, afraid to stick our unprotected noses out the door or to invite anyone in, never mind taking off on a trip. And then, as time went on, we did travel, even during the pandemic to Paradise, CA to visit my cousin Dalia whose home and business miraculously survived the devastating 2018 fire; to the beautiful Oregon coast and to New Mexico to sample the chiles and everything else. We vacationed on a tiny island called Savary in western Canada. I tried out my high school French in the markets and cafes of Paris, Lyon and Avignon. We finally visited my son and daughter-in-law in Japan. Better masks and vaccines made it possible. And I kept blogging about it.

Pound cakes, okonomiyaki, and crockpot beef stew.

The first posts had been all about how we were coping with Covid restrictions: my mother-in-law’s pandemic soup, my friend Ellen’s Passover seder on Zoom, my own experiments with sourdough bread, the joys of feeding a friend and a friendship in troubled times. Then I moved on to making Jewish staples like rugelach, babka, challah, brisket, hamantaschen and potato latkes. I tried making dishes that were out of my comfort zone, like Persian stew and my daughter-in-law Nagisa’s okonomiyaki. Then I returned to comfort foods I grew up with, like lentil soup, chili, beef stew and pound cake.

A Palermo food tour with Laura, a Christmas fruitcake, and a pasta lesson with Manuela on a farm in Sicily.

When the holidays arrived, I wrote about my weird obsession with fruitcake and sent a couple to fellow bloggers who seemed to love it too! (Thank you, Jolene and Amie!) I sampled Sicilian cuisine on a food tour in Palermo and made pasta on a farm in Noto, ate codfish fritters at a market in Barcelona, and learned the benefits of eating vegan foods from a popular YouTuber. I threw in stories about my immigrant family and of a 300-year-old grandfather clock that once belonged to my grandparents and had traveled some 11,000 miles to land in my living room.

From Nazi Germany to the Beach: Travels of a 300-year-old Clock

It takes a village

And none of this blogging has happened in a vacuum. I’ve gotten to know a number of wonderful bloggers here on Substack—most of them food writers (that’s who you run into when you write about food!), but also others who dive into books, travel, history, film, politics, photography, and more. Below are just a few names of those whose work I admire and whose acquaintance, friendship, kind comments, support, and/or example has sustained me over the past five years. I’ve included links to their blogs, so please, if you haven’t already, subscribe, read, leave comments, and share their excellent work.

Jolene Handy, Time Travel Kitchen (one of the very first bloggers I met here!); Vicki Smith, Easel to Table; Amie McGraham, Cook & Tell and the micro mashup; Anne Byrn: Between the Layers; Domenica Marchetti, Buona Domenica; Kate McDermott’s Newsletter; Julia Matusik, Apples & Elderflower; Jeanine Kitchel, Mexico Soul; Marg Moon, Book Chat; Life’s a Feast by Jamie Schler; Leah Koenig, The Jewish Table; Pat Willard, America Eats!; Annette Laing, Non-Boring History; Hoang Samuelson, Nourish Me; Lori Olson White, The Lost & Found Story Box; Crowden Satz, Letters From Satz; Ingredient by Rachel Phipps; Planet Carnival;Mark Dolan, Why Living Today Rocks; Marco & Sabrina, Nomad Foodies; Clarice Dankers, Travel Doorways; Ethan Chorin, The Middle East-Told Slant, Constellations in Her Bones, Constellations’ Substack; Emily Grim-Throop, In Good Taste—and SO many more.

And then of course I can’t overlook the person who encouraged me to embark on this venture in the first place and has been both a booster and occasional thorn in my side ever since. He is quite often my final reader before I press publish—or when I can’t bring myself to do it, threatens to buy me a hammock so I can retire from the blogging business.

The two of us pretending to be French (and fooling no one!) in a selfie taken near the Eiffel Tower in November 2022.

I’m talking about my husband Jefferson (Jeff to me!) Graham, the prolific author of the PhotowalksTV blog here on Substack and my companion in life and on our travels. Though I’m enormously grateful, I must admit it’s sometimes frustrating living with someone as productive and multi-talented (writer/videographer/photographer/editor/reporter/guitarist) as Jeff, with scant interest in food—unless it’s grilled cheese or chocolate or drenched in lemon and/or parmesan cheese (the type in a green canister). Jeff’s response to most dishes I test on him runs the gamut from “fine” (which might mean he hates it) to “good,” which probably means he likes it. Below is a piece I wrote about the challenge of being a food writer married to a fussy eater:

'Just Try It! You'll Like It!'

And now what?

Five years in, I wonder if I should be rethinking this blog. Should I continue sharing food tales and recipes, write more from our travels, include more personal thoughts? Should I dig further into memory and family archives in search of stories and buried secrets? Should I interview other bloggers and food-obsessed souls and revive the podcast idea?

Should I veer into the politics that have preoccupied me lately or avoid it like the plague? Are signs I saw at a protest this weekend fair game for a wide-ranging food blog that doesn’t always focus on food? Here’s one of the less controversial ones.

Or should I stick to “safe” discussions about ingredients? Lord knows, such discussions are bound to turn political anyway in the next few weeks and months as tariffs affect prices and supplies of goods we depend upon to cook and feed our families, never mind to test the recipes we want to write about.

Already I’m coping with the high price of eggs and scarcity as I plan a Passover seder for 12. Almost every dish on the menu contains eggs—from the matzo balls in the chicken soup, to a layered meat and potato casserole I’m contemplating to the cookies and cakes that will cap the meal.

Egg worries! (Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash)

Serving a hard-boiled egg to each person as a symbol of spring is another custom of the feast among Ashkenazi (eastern and central European) Jews. And that’s just one dish. So far prices haven’t risen that far on other things—other than chocolate, which seems to have gone through the roof (and is definitely a Passover ingredient at my table!). I was shocked to find a Pound Plus bar of dark Belgian chocolate was selling for $7.99 at Trader Joe’s. I could have sworn that last time I purchased it, it was in the $5 range.

Another of my must-have products from TJ’s is the Kerrygold Irish butter, which at $4.49 for a half-pound most recently (a rise from its longtime $3.99 lb) still seems fair. Now, with the new 20% tariff on goods from the European Union (you know who to thank for that!), I’m expecting the price will rise again. My overstocked freezer is now full of frozen foil-wrapped rectangles of the unsalted variety—an essential ingredient in my baked goods.

Inspired by Vicki Smith’s latest post , here’s my tiny collection of eggs and egg cups.

I’m planning a multicourse meal for Passover in a week—and will be very busy in the kitchen from now until then. I hope to break away to write more about what’s on the menu—including matzo ball soup—in the coming days. I’d love to know if you’re a fan of balls that sink or swim. Okay, cue the dirty jokes, but you know what I really mean: the kind of matzo balls that float on the surface of the soup or plummet to the bottom. There are fans of both varieties—and I hear there’s a middle ground too.

Please also let me know what you’re cooking for the holiday—or for Easter or any other spring occasion. Are egg scarcities, other shortages and price hikes affecting your menu choices?

Thanks for being here and to all of you who have made me feel that you’re interested in what I have to say. Five years, 172 posts and counting. Still free, but hopefully worth your time. Thanks for your support.

Ruth