I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but recently, cooking has become more of a challenge that I force myself to take on. Whether it’s coming up with recipes from scratch, trying to create healthy foods out of otherwise unhealthy dishes or coming up with desserts to satisfy my family’s sweet tooth (or lack thereof), anything is a welcome possibility. 

I even started a food blog to keep track of my culinary journey, and yes — I’ve become a “Foodstagrammer.” 

I first started my food blog earlier this year in June when I baked a chocolate tart for my older sister’s birthday. It wasn’t the most complicated recipe in the world, but even I was surprised by the level of detail my messy and unartistic self was able to create. 

After baking the tart, I created a basic website, wrote my first recipe and published it. It wasn’t fancy or anything mind-blowing, but it was a start. From there, I continued to create more recipes and make more food, posting more blogs along the way and gaining more readers. 

I’ve continued to challenge myself to make unique recipes like crepe cakes and vegan ice cream and grow my following to more than just my family — which now, it thankfully is. 

What used to be me lazily baking chocolate chip cookies in my kitchen for the hundredth time has become a mess of cooking homemade recipes while simultaneously trying to take pictures and videos of everything I do. (I’ve had my phone fall into piles of flour many times.) 

Cooking and writing are two things I always find myself doing, so the combination really is the perfect outlet during quarantine. 

So for anyone out there looking to get cooking or find new recipes, do it! The only thing left to do is start.