July was a hot month here in Kentucky and here on this blog. I love how the use of the blog changes as the year moves along as evidenced by the favorite recipes over the past 30 days:

Fresh Blackberry Cake

Oven Baked Chex Mix

Mojito (and Blueberry Mojito) Recipe

Well with one exception: Oven Baked Chex Mix. This recipe always receives lots of visitors. Just the other day I had a conversation with my editor about recipes that readers of my book can get from the internet and recipes that my book need provide. Oven Baked Chex Mix, while a favorite of my family, and a favorite of many of you will continue to live only here on this blog and not in my book. My hope is that you’ll visit the blog for certain recipes and conversations with me and then also buy the book for recipes, tips, techniques, and menus for fresh homemade food with a focus on traditional Kentucky ingredients.

One last thing: one of my favorite parts of any of my work is talking to people. Whether I’m doing a food demonstration at a farmers’ market, or passing a tomato over the back fence, so to speak, I enjoy connecting with people through the talk about cooking. That goes for this blog too.

I can tell many visit and use this blog, but I would love to have more conversation. Feel free to comment on any blog post. This comment from yesterday at the bottom of this blog post is my reason for bringing this up. This lady missed her mom and a taste of olive nut spread helped her remember her mom via a recipe. That pretty much sums up what I love about cooking and the kitchen in our homes. Kitchen are a place where we nourish ourselves, and each other, if we take the time. Kitchens are more than just a place to run from, more than just another room to keep clean, and more that just the place that holds the food we assemble in a last ditch effort to get supper fixed before the next activity. A kitchen, and the potential that lives there, is a place to embrace and to use to touch the lives of those we feed in a healthy, nourishing way.