Back From the Dead

... or something like that.


It's been more than a month since my last blog post and my best friend's mom had to message me on Facebook to make sure that I'm still alive. 


Indeed I am. Honestly, I haven't been feeling particularly inspired to write. The thing about living abroad is that at some point, you're just living somewhere. Eventually, wherever is exotic and cool for your friends and family just becomes the place to do your everyday, routine junk. 


I'll be damned if I let Prague become just another place I've lived. 

Bliss.

Luckily, Autumn is here and although it's a season in which nature is slowly moving into short-term death, aka Winter, (only to be reborn again in the Spring), it's one of my favorite seasons. It is also responsible for renewing that "Holy crap I live here" feeling. 



If you'll recall, I came to Prague in early Autumn last year. I fell in love with all the falling leaves and the cobblestone. Now I have built up a bit of a love-hate relationship with cobblestone (my poor shoes!) but I absolutely love falling leaves. 


Oddly enough, the slightly overcast mornings and evenings make for a beautiful background for the yellow, orange and red foliage. 


Autumn has also renewed my passion for cooking. I mean, don't get me wrong, I never stopped loving food. But the heat of the summer had me a little put off of really getting creative in the kitchen. But with the purchase of a (second-hand) food processor/immersion blender/electric whisk/frother, I'm back in the kitchen and it is delicious as ever.


One of the greatest things about my collective time abroad is that I've really had to push the boundaries on food. That and I've just wanted to push the boundaries in the food department. In Taiwan the interesting-looking, albeit sometimes frightening, fruit options had me going to the fruit market constantly. 


Here in the Czech Republic, my fruit options are somewhat limited (That is after eating such deliciously fresh fruit in Taiwan. I mean, who can go back?) but the vegetables are all over the place and there are plenty I had never tried before. 


Hell, since I'm trying new things, why not try new foods and especially new combinations of them.


I also have the website Foodgawker to thank for this. So many creative foodies who post every recipe they ever thought of. It's amazing for someone like me who likes to peruse 35 different recipes and then make up something else entirely. 


So basically I've spent the past month turning every vegetable I can find into a soup. Veggies puree into soup is heavenly. 


So far I've made tomato soup, pumpkin soup, and spinach soup. I've also made some amazing Texas-style chili, four-bean soup, and cannelini-orzo soup. 


Man that's a whole lot of soup. Maybe I'll put up some recipes at some point. 


Look for a post about my party weekend in Krakow, Poland. Also, I'm off to Paris with one of my best friend's from college this weekend so I'll be sure to update about that soon.


There you have it, I'm feeling inspired to write again. 


Oh, I had better go take my eggplant-zucchini casserole out of the oven!



<3
— J