Food is My Love Language {plus 4 foodie pro tips}

“If she likes you, she will share her food with you.” I overheard Wolfgang saying that to someone a few months ago.

(I had just brought yet another sad clamshell of storebought cookies (the pink frosting ones! I ate most of them too) when I really wanted to bring something amazing and spectacular.)

I thought Wolfgang’s statement was silly at first, very “JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD”.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was right.

It was doubly confirmed a few days later as I was berry picking with a friend who was asking questions about my blog. I mentioned I had written a post about Game of Thrones and she looked super confused.

“Why would a food blogger write about Game of Thrones?” she asked.

Both she and Wolfgang were right. Blogging only makes sense to me when I’m writing about food.

If I like you, I will go out of my way to get you fed. I will share my homemade cookies. I will give you some of my homemade fig jam. I will offer you salmon bone broth. I will learn how to make those trendy drip cakes last minute for your dessert auction, while sobbing and watching a YouTube tutorial. I will agree to make your wedding cake (that’s a big one, because I had a bad experience. Don’t ask).

I own more cookbooks than any one non-chef-person should. I have 2 bookshelves full and I’m pretty sure there are still some out in storage in our shed.

That’s how my life works. If I love you, I will feed you.

Food and making people happy with the culinary concoctions I create: that’s my love language.

I will spend hours reading about your favorite food so I know exactly how to cook it. I will make homemade chocolate chip cookies right before we leave for a movie AND bring my big purse, so they’re still warm when we sneak them in. I will spend my precious little time in the kitchen creating something wonderful for you.

And I suppressed that joy of cooking (ha) for a really long time.

I tried to stuff that part of me way down deep because I thought it was too much for me to enjoy making food. That may stem from my last relationship, which was with an incredibly talented chef, I don’t know. I may have tried to punish myself for some unknown wrong by denying myself the things I enjoyed.

I suppressed my love language while I tried to heal myself without it, which threw everything else out of whack.

Now, I’ve tried for the last few months to be a “healthy living, self-help blogger”. But my heart isn’t in it.

I’ve been trying to be like someone else, and it’s no longer working for me (if it was ever working at all?).

It’s not me.

I would love to talk all day about matcha, but I want to make matcha chocolate mousse or a matcha frosting. I want to taste what happens when you sprinkle matcha over macarons. I want to research matcha and figure out what foods I can combine it with. I want to make a matcha marshmallow!

I love sharing my life with y’all, but I have to do it through food. That’s how I roll.

So we are shifting gears slightly, and moving away from self-help posts and “healthy living” posts. If you like those types of posts, I highly recommend my friend Autumn’s blog, or my friend Carleeh’s blog. Self help, self love and healthy living is definitely their thing.

Here, we are going to keep the fun travel posts like this Disneyland one, and we are going to keep the “local love” posts. Maybe the occasional “how’s it going in the Cupcake household” posts.

But everything else is going to shift.

The central point of Mia Cupcake, both me as a person and the blog as an entity, has always been food and if I try to convince you otherwise, I am straight up lying.

So let’s kick off the shift with 4 of my favorite foodie pro-tips I’ve picked up through watching, reading about and listening to (and dating!) professional chefs:

1. Sprinkle Maldon Sea Salt (or another flaky sea salt) on top of your chocolate chip cookies right when you take them out of the oven. (Maldon is on CRAZY SALE on Amazon right now – add an 8.5 oz box on your order for a little more than regular salt!)

   Salt PLUS chocolate = out of this world. (Check out this post where I put this protip into action!)

2. Infused sugars. I use old Vital Proteins collagen peptides canisters, and layer in sugar with vanilla beans (after I’ve scraped their innards into cookies or jams or what have you.) I’ve also used (dried!) lavender blossoms, lemon zest and mint leaves!
3. Infused finishing salts. Have a recipe that calls for lemon juice, but not lemon zest? Get half of a cup of fine sea salt and a jar, and zest that lemon before you squeeze the juice out. Add the lemon to the sea salt and rub it in with your fingers.
   Store in an airtight container and use to finish up fish, or chicken by sprinkling a TINY BIT on top before serving.
4. Taste your food. This seems like a no-brainer, but you always see that one guy on the cooking shows that has an absolutely stunning dish (despite having to cook with plastic utensils while wearing a sumo suit and singing showtunes or something) but it’s SO BLAND because he didn’t take the time to taste his food.

Food doesn’t have to be scary, and it can be something that shows how you feel about someone.

I’m ditching the fast food lifestyle I was leading and getting back into the kitchen. And I hope you’ll join me <3

I have included a few affiliate links in this post. Clicking them won’t cost you any additional $$, and help keep the Cupcake Haus in frosting, glitter and fancy pens.