Orange Chocolate Pudding! Sweet, creamy and chocolaty with a citrusy twist, this mouthwatering pudding will become a favorite dessert!
Saturday marked The Kitchen Prep’s 5 year anniversary.
Five years of stories, recipes, eating and tasting. Two hundred-sixty weeks {give or take} of meeting new friends, going to conferences, attending dinners and covering food events. One thousand eight hundred twenty five days of molding this space, and being enamored with this space, and detesting this space, and wondering if it’s worth all the work, and knowing that it’s the only work I’ve ever truly loved.
If it were a kid, I would be packing its lunchbox and sending it off to Kindergarten, though sometimes I feel like it’s been around long enough to have earned its Ph.D.
This space means an awful lot to me. It has been the cause of many tears, but even more smiles, and it has given me the chance to make some dreams that I couldn’t imagine coming true become realities.
All from sitting here typing my thoughts. From being candid about my life and sharing personal things, ridiculous things, and things you shouldn’t wait another minute to take a bite out of. {Oftentimes, while using terrible grammar and horrendous sentence structure.}
And though I would continue to do it for myself even if no one else read one word, it’s so nice to know that you are out there on the other side of this screen letting me take up a second of your life so that I can add some purpose to my own.
That’s a pretty big deal.
Until about 3 years ago, I didn’t even know this could be the kind of thing it’s become. To be honest, I am in a constant battle with myself, contemplating going full-steam ahead so that I can potentially become as successful as some of the other bloggers I have come to know, or keeping this a sacred place and “doing it my way.” {I wish it could be both. It can’t. Or at least I haven’t figured out how to make that happen.}
I’ve had to practice “staying in my lane” and avoiding constant comparison to others I admire. I’m sort of the toughest boss I’ve ever had.
I’ve sold out a little bit in the past year because diapers are expensive and so are college funds. I’ve made myself feel bad enough about it sometimes, so I’m thankful that you haven’t. {Note: There’s never been a time when I’ve tried to sell you on something I think is gross. Nothing is worth that kind of deception.}
While the past five years have been full of all kinds of changes, adjustments, ups and downs… this blog has been a constant, slowly becoming a bigger and bigger part of my identity.
So, I guess what I’m saying is thanks for getting to know me while I continue to figure out who I am. Or at the very least, thanks for letting me share a meal with you, because few things make me happier than chatting and sharing food with people.
Except maybe chocolate. Chocolate makes me pretty happy, too.
Orange Chocolate Pudding
