Subtitled: State of The Blog & Where I Stand

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Those of you who have been around for a while know I’ve tried to restart this blog multiple times since it first went quiet around 2014. I’d get excited, plan content, write posts, even publish a handful of them. And then… silence. Rinse and repeat for so many years that “this is the year I start blogging again” became less of a promise and more of a punchline.

Well, this is the year. I think I’ve finally figured out what happened and what I’m going to do to fix it.

Settle in because this is a bit longer than my usual post.

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The Evolution of Food Blogging

I started this blog back in 2008 because I love to cook and share food. I loved reading other food blogs; their stories, recipes, pictures. I belonged to blogging groups where we worked on projects together, cooked from the same cookbooks, learned to photograph food. It was a friendly, happy community of food-loving people, and it didn’t matter that we weren’t professional cooks because it was fun.

And then it changed. Food blogging, like a lot of the internet, got commercial. If you weren’t publishing cookbooks regularly, if you didn’t have tens of thousands of followers, if you didn’t have the right ad campaigns… you weren’t a “real” food blogger. The fun, social aspect faded away. The groups dissolved. The friendly competition blogs disappeared. A lot of the blogs that survived lost their personal voices. There didn’t seem to be room for a home cook who just wanted to have fun with cooking and food.

In that environment, I couldn’t find my voice. I didn’t want to be a cookbook writer, or a food scientist, or an internet influencer. I didn’t want to make videos. I didn’t want my blog to become a second job where I had to start paying attention to analytics or SEO or any of those things. I just wanted the fun, creative outlet I started with.

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And Then…

And then, in 2016, the world turned upside down. Things got polarized.

I’d look at other food blogs staying light and happy and cheerful, never mentioning politics, and think that’s what I had to do. So I’d try to write that way, but it felt fake and inauthentic. I couldn’t do it, so the blog would lie fallow for another year.

But posting seriously, talking about what was going on, didn’t seem to be an option either. After all, the blog is called Kara Cooks, not Kara Politics. To be even a halfway successful food blogger, I couldn’t give a hint of any external turmoil. I absolutely couldn’t mention politics. I couldn’t mention food waste, or climate change, or human rights. Because I’d lose followers. (Not that I had many anyway, because I hadn’t been blogging, but you get the idea. It was stifling and it kept me from posting.)

And then came 2019 and the beginnings of a pandemic. And then came 2020 and a nearly worldwide pandemic shutdown. And then came 2024 and… well. You know.

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Life is Political

I was stuck. I couldn’t figure out how to separate my views about what was going on in the world from my blog. I couldn’t go back to writing about food – something that is inherently political and social and moral and ethical and something I was increasingly becoming aware of – without bringing all of that in.

I was afraid to link my personal social media with my blog because I didn’t want to “bring politics into the blog.” I was trying to keep everything separate; not just separate but with a hard barrier between “Kara who cooks” and “Kara who exists in the world.”

Then, somehow, in the last couple of months, something shifted. I realized I don’t want to create a sanitized version of myself for this blog. I don’t want to pretend to be neutral. The fun, frivolous food blog community has moved on and become something else. And so have I.

My blog is personal. It’s about things I love and cherish – cooking, food, my home, my garden, my pets, my partner. I can’t be true to those things without being true to who I am.

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That’s Why This Time Will Be Different

I think this blog reboot is actually going to stick. Not because I have a better content calendar or more time or a brilliant strategy. It’s because I’m not chasing anything anymore. I’m not trying to build readership numbers or become an influencer. I’m not trying to monetize or grow a brand. This is just a place where I write about things I care about, in the way I actually think and talk.

If I wind up writing for a tiny audience, just for myself and the handful of people who care about what I’m cooking this week, that’s okay. That’s better than having a large audience while pretending to be someone I’m not.

I’m just going to let the blog be what it wants to be, authentically and naturally, instead of forcing it into a shape that doesn’t fit.

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So: Let Me Introduce Myself

I’m Kara. I’m 58 (well, in a couple of weeks). I live in the north suburbs of Atlanta, GA, with my partner Zach, our pibble Remy, and two cats named Callie and Finn. I cook, I read, I garden, I take pictures, and I write about food and life and the things that matter to me.

I believe in:

• LGBTQ+ rights. Full equality. Marriage equality. Adoption rights. Protection from discrimination. Healthcare access. The right to exist safely and openly without fear. Trans rights are human rights. Love is love.
• Reproductive freedom. Your body, your choice. Always. Abortion is healthcare. Access to contraception is essential. Reproductive decisions should be made between a person and their doctor, not by politicians.
• Racial justice. Black Lives Matter. Systemic racism is real and needs to be actively dismantled, not just acknowledged. I’m committed to doing the work, learning, and using whatever platform I have to amplify marginalized voices.
• Climate action. Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and it’s caused by human activity. We need policy solutions at every level. I’m going to keep talking about how climate change affects gardening and food production and how we eat.
• Immigration reform. Immigrants make this country better. They grow our food, cook in our restaurants, enrich our culture, and contribute to our communities. They are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, our family. We need comprehensive, humane immigration reform.
• Healthcare access. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Everyone deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare regardless of their income, employment status, or pre-existing conditions.

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What This Means for the Blog

Everything is political. What we eat, where it comes from, who grows it, who has access to it—all of that is shaped by policy and power. And all of that is going to impact what and how I write on this blog.

When I write about my GLP-1 journey (more on this in the coming year), I’m going to acknowledge that healthcare access is a justice issue. When I write about gardening, I’m going to talk about climate change. When I write about Southern food, I’m going to honor its African American origins. When I share recipes from different cultures, I’m going to credit the people and traditions they come from.

I’m not going to make every post explicitly political. You’re not going to get policy screeds with every recipe. But I’m also not going to stay silent when things matter.

What you’ll see in 2026:

• Recipes that are delicious and make me feel good
• Garden updates, successes and failures
• Stories about Remy, Callie, and Finn
• Honest conversations about health, food, and life
• Values-based content that reflects what matters to me
• Amplification of voices and perspectives beyond my own
• Occasional explicit political content when things matter

What you won’t see:

• Pretending politics doesn’t affect daily life
• Silence when things matter
• Apologies for my positions
• A sanitized, neutral version of myself

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What That Means for Readers & My Comment Policy

If my positions bother you, this probably isn’t the blog for you, and that’s okay. I respect your right to have different opinions. But I’m not going to pretend I don’t have opinions, and I’m not going to soften them to make people comfortable.

This is my space. I built it, I maintain it, and I’m going to use it in ways that align with my values.

If you disagree with my politics but still want to stick around for the recipes and garden updates, that’s fine. I’m not going to quiz you at the door. But you should know what you’re walking into and understand that I’m not going to soft-pedal my beliefs out of fear of giving offense.

Respectful disagreement is welcome. If you have a different perspective on seed starting techniques or pizza dough recipes, great. Let’s talk about it. I’ll even entertain some political discussion on explicitly political posts (and those will be clearly labelled for folks who want to skip them).

However, bigotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and cruelty will be deleted. This is my space, and I get to set the boundaries. I don’t owe anyone a platform for hate, and I’m not interested in “both sides” discussions about whether certain people deserve basic human rights.

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The Final Word

If you’re still here after reading this, welcome – and thank you. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s cook good food, grow vegetables, celebrate our weird pets, and try to make the world a little better in whatever ways we can.

If you’re not, I understand. No hard feelings. I genuinely hope you find what you’re looking for elsewhere.

This is going to be fun.

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Comments on this post are open. The comment policy outlined above applies.