The Idaho Factor

I guess it's time to fully explain my situation and try and explain exactly what I'm doing here in Idaho. I had another blog going, No Bull in Idaho, that I sort of let slip, but the two really do go hand in hand. As I have found, more and more everyday, cooking is just a part of life - and sometimes there is a lot of life going on. And then some days I look out and see snow and feel the cold and wonder where life is.

I am a native Angelino, born in Santa Monica, raised mostly there and lived there most of my life. My son, Chris, is going to school now in Oregon, and I raised him there in Marina del Rey and Culver City. I love Southern California, I left because something was calling me, and not because of a bad relationship or an I'm sick and tired of the traffic attitude, although, I don't miss the traffic. I left solely on a gut feeling that this was going to be good for me and it was something I needed to do for myself.

Idaho, was where my ex-husband, Chris' father and I came to get away from L.A.  in 1986. My father and step-mom live in Caldwell, so we lived in Boise for about six months. One day we took a drive to the mountains and I said if I'm going to live anywhere outside of California, this is where I'm going to live. So we moved to Ketchum. I hated Boise, sorry about that. Ketchum is just so pretty. To make a very long story short, I got pregnant, we got married - and right after my son turned one, we got a divorce and I moved back to California. Phewww.

The thing is, is that I always had it in the back of my mind that I'd go back. I had wanted to raise my son there, but things did not work out. And happily for his sake, he wants to be on the water, so the best thing I could have done for him was stay there so he could enjoy that kind of life, now he's going to school studying maritime science and is a captain. It all worked out.

In coming up here, it took me a while. First, I had a dream in January of 2007 that I just saw the mountain range looking north of Ketchum. I was really happy when I woke up and it started digging at me. How could I do it? How could I get there? It was on this belief, that I could find the happiness that I was looking for, that I made it on August 16, 2009.

I remind myself now: Good things take time, just like good food does.

There is a lot more to Inspired Home Cooking than meets the eye. It's a labor of love, a journey an adventure and discovering adversity is just a  really good lesson, with something better to come.

TBC...to be continued.