And here we are…the last day of August, already a week into the new school year.  It’s crazy how quickly summer has come and gone.  On the surface it may look like we were slackers here at Sifted Together as we did not bake and post on our regular schedule over the summer months.  Travel and heat interfered with our routine.  Rather that taking something we enjoy and stressing about getting it done when the odds were not in our favor, we opted to be gentle with ourselves and work on a schedule that didn’t steal our joy.

Though our ovens were idle during these past couple months, our minds were not.  We have spent a lot of time thinking about what we do here, how we  do it, and why.  With all of that thinking, has come renewed energy.  We are ready to jump into fall with two feet….and lots of recipes as well!

We have been writing together for almost four years.  During that time, what we are has evolved.  We began writing under the name Pixels, Plates, and LOLs. There we shared all kinds of our personal favorite recipes, a little about photography, and a little about ourselves.  After two years, we realized that baking is our shared love…and that we both favor King Arthur Flour baking products.  So, on our second anniversary, we changed our blog title to its current name, Sifted Together.  The one thing that has not changed is that this shared endeavor is not only about food, it is, and always has been, about friendship.  Though we met because of our mutual interest in photography, it was much more than that that drew us to become friends.  As we wrote in our earliest blog posts, on the surface we appear to have very little in common.  What we have grown over the past five years proves that the obvious is not the most important thing.  Here are a couple of posts that share our beginnings.

Pixels, Plates and LOLs: And So We Begin…

Sifted Together: The First Ingredient

So where are we now?

We still love baking. But let’s face it.  Food blogs are a dime a dozen.  We’re not complaining about too much food, mind you.  Food is most certainly a good thing!  And more importantly, we still like each other!  We have the best time deciding on and discussing recipes, sharing our successes and failures both in the kitchen and in life, and just being friends.  Truly, t is our friendship that is the unique aspect of Sifted Together.  (Where else can you be amused by the Cinnamon Star Bread Duet?)  During our summer baking hiatus, we realized that what we need to do here is share not only how a cake’s ingredients are sifted together, but also how the secret ingredients of an unlikely friendship have also been sifted together.

Here are the changes and additions you will see here beginning in September. 

Oh wait…September’s is tomorrow!

Here come the changes!

• We are moving are feature Food Friday posts to Mondays – Mix It Up Mondays.  We’ll continue to include the monthly King Arthur Bakealong recipe as well as a mix in this rotation.  We think this will work better with our various weekly routines.
• You’ll get our quirky perspectives on love, life, the universe, and whatever else creeps into our brains in alternating mid-week  Tuesday in Texas and What’s Up Wednesday in Michigan.
• Fridays will be our fun days.  We’ll share some of our favorite things.  You’ll learn more about our long distance friendship than you may want to know.  And, we’ll invite you all to share some of your favorites with us.  Our goal is to share life with each of you in a real, raw, and often humorous way.

A big thank you to all of you who stop by each week to see what we are up to.  Your comments on the blog posts and Facebook links, as well as the private messages that you send, mean a lot to us.  If we can help one person find a reason to smile, then our mission has been accomplished.  And a bonus if your bellies are full and happy!

Stop back by on Monday for some delicious breakfast recipes!

Thank you again for joining us on this journey!

Tracey and Kris

First of all, thank you all for your patience and understanding while we have been on our unplanned, but much-needed hiatus.  This was a case of it being important for us to listen to that small voice inside.

It’s hard to know when it is appropriate to soldier on through challenging circumstances and when it’s OK to say, “It’s just not happening.”  I knew that I was going to be away from home for three weeks and in a state of having an inflated perception of my ability to get things done, I thought that I could work ahead and have all three week’s posts done before I left.  That didn’t happen.  Then I thought that I could at least write a “food for Thought” post or two while I was gone.  I probably could have, but once my head was in vacation mode, I didn’t want to do it.  It’s as simple as that…I just didn’t want to do it.  So, I didn’t.

Early on, Tracey thought that she would go solo for these weeks.  Again, it sounded like a good idea at the time, but the reality of picking up my slack, once the time came, was not so appealing.  As a gift to ourselves, we took some time off.

Now we are back…

…sort of.

As I am writing this, our outside thermometer reads 110 degrees (feels like 120 thanks to the humidity).  I am most grateful for air conditioning during this dangerously hot heat!  Tracey is not quite as warm up in Michigan, but temperatures even in the 80s when you don’t have air conditioning can be seriously uncomfortable.  The last thing that either of us wants to do in these conditions is stand in a hot kitchen and warm things up even more by baking.

That said, we are back to regular weekly posting, but for the next few weeks, we will be alternating “Food for Thought posts with simple and cool mix recipes.  

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I mentioned above that our time off has been a needed break from our normal rhythm.  

It is a scary feeling when you have zero desire to do the things that have always fed your heart and soul.  Since I returned from Alaska, I have had no real desire to pick up my camera.  And though I haven’t minded fixing meals, I haven’t really wanted to bake either.  The baking thing probably has to do with the fact that because I am still trying to lose a few more pounds, I don’t want to eat what I bake.  Since I am not teaching this summer, I can’t pawn all of those calories off on students and colleagues.  The lack of interest in my camera, I can’t really explain.  All I know is that not wanting to do either of these things is not a feeling that I like at all.  Creating something, anything, photos or cookies or knitted toys, is what makes me feel most alive.  Photography and cooking are the avenues that much of my “recreational” creativity takes.  I say it this way because as a musician, you’d think that my entire world is all about creativity in making beautiful music, which at the core is true, but at the end of the day, music is my job.  Don’t get me wrong; I love my job, but it is a job and thus has the limitations and responsibilities that come with almost any type of job.  As much as I don’t like to, if the job requires it, I have to play Pachabel’s Canon in D at weddings and Amazing Grace at funerals.  After so many times, trust me, there is not much creativity left in doing so.  Not that the performances are bad, it’s the intent with which they are executed.  This is an undesirable, but unavoidable, side effect that comes from working in the arts.  It is the reason that I have no desire to become a paid photographer.  Photography then becomes a job.  And I already have one of those!

This lack of inspiration and motivation is even scarier when your partner in crime is in the same creative rut that you find yourself.  Usually, Tracey and I can coax one another out of this desert, but this time we are in it together.  What we have discovered this week is that we are trying some new things to get the creative juices flowing again.

Tracey has been working on her cookie decorating skills.  And she is doing an awesome job!  Maybe she’ll share some photos here in the next week or two.  I think trying something new helps to revive your spirit.  This may be because when you are first learning new skills, the progress is much faster and much more obvious than when you are working to fine tune and perfect “old” skills.

I also played with cookie decorating this week.  I have A LOT of room for improvement. 🙂  It’s something that I have always wanted to learn to do, but have never taken the time to try.  Let’s just say that I will not be sharing photos anytime soon!  At least now I have cookies and royal icing in the freezer so I can practice anytime.

While I was traveling these past few weeks, I most missed playing my guitar.  Guitar playing is not part of my real job.  Lol!  I am a true beginner so it in no way feels like work.  Practicing guitar is, however, a means to creative expression for me.  Here, like with Tracey’s cookie decorating, I feel progress quickly so I am inclined to keep practicing.

Hopefully the motivation to bake and take photos will return soon.  I miss them, but not enough to do anything about that…yet.

Like in all things, we need to follow our instincts.  I trust that this hiatus from the things that occupy a big part of my life and really do shape who I am will cause a return of these things to their right place when the time is right.  And again they will bring joy.  Until then, I look forward to becoming a better guitar player!

Thanks for reading!

Kris