Picture this. A log cabin the size of a mini-mall looms amidst a gigantic parking lot the expanse of two football fields. Roasty gray smoke billows from the restaurant’s chimneys and wafts towards your nose. You look ahead towards a line of blinking taillights and a large, unshaven man stumbling from the back of a faded brown party bus. A security guard approaches your Prius and announces a 2-hour minimum wait for barbecue, while the oncoming rush of fellow meat lovers towards the check-in point is about like that of me stalking Kerry Washington and/or John Besh on a street corner.
This is the passion of the eaters in Austin, Texas. It is the city- inspiring, challenging, beautiful, original and unexpected. And Austin changed me.
The change was subtle and slow. It was an initial shift that grew over the following days into a reminder of who I am, what I want this blog to be, and who I hope you find that this blog is. What I realized is this: Luv Cooks is for you, it’s for me, and it’s on a journey.
Without boring you with the details of my inner psyche, I’ve felt lately like I am on the edge of a growth spurt- feeling the ache in my bones for height, but not exactly sure what the final product will end up looking like. Austin clarified for me what I want to grow into. Y’all- just ok isn’t good enough anymore- and while there were some good food moments, I realized how important great food is to me. Not just for taste, but for nourishment- physically, spiritually, emotionally. And the growth spurt has made me hungry. Hungry for better recipes, better food, better health.
So I offer to you a new commitment. I want Luv Cooks to be a place of beauty and well-being. Not in an over-the-top, health-crazed, helicopter-parent kind of way. In an oasis, come here for refreshment and rest and renewal kind of way. I want you to be renewed by the beauty of food and all it has to offer to your life.
So in lieu of a recipe this time, I leave you with food and Austin-spiration. I can’t wait to see where our creativity goes next.
