A New Era of Sweet Side Kitchen.
18th March 2026
I haven’t posted for a long time. I hit a wall with my thoughts and couldn’t put pen to paper so to speak. Some would call it writers block, but I am not a writer, I just lost what I wanted to talk about.
I guess nothing has really happened lately. I haven’t been out for nice lunches or dinners; I haven’t been cooking anything worth writing about. Realistically, I have been laying low. As I have mentioned before I left my job last November to pursue my dream of working with food. I was lucky to pick up a job in a local café relatively quickly; however, it’s not ignited that passion as I was expecting it to. The work has been incredibly tough and to be honest, I haven’t really enjoyed it.
Feeling super defeated and holding on by a thread emotionally, not knowing where my life was heading or how I was going to support myself financially, I truly feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Since staring the new job, I have barely cooked, mainly because I have been so exhausted after each shift. Hospitality is incredibly physically demanding and as a 37-year-old starting out in this industry I had no idea it would be this hard. I was worried I was losing my passion for cooking and baking and starting to resent it as I’m around food all day at the café.
My boyfriend and I had been going back and forth with ideas on how I could get back on my passion wagon, when he struck me with one idea that hit me right in the face. YES, HONEY THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO DO! So here I am, back writing on my little blog, to tell all 3 of my readers that I will be taking this thing in a slightly different direction. In order to keep me focused on what I love doing - cooking and baking, I will be testing recipes from cookbooks and writing honest reviews which I will post right here.
A couple of months ago, I was asked by a dear friend to assist in some recipe testing for a cookbook they will be releasing later this year. I loved every second of testing those recipes, giving my honest feedback and assisting with any tweaks the recipe may have required. It truly felt like this was exactly where I needed to be in life, however, how the fuck do you get a job as a cookbook recipe tester? So I guess this is the next best thing!
I have a little obsession with cookbooks. What? They are the best. A beautiful big book full of food, what’s not to love?! I’m ashamed to admit, I have hundreds of them (only a few are pictured), and my poor boyfriend has to put up with them all around our tiny house. But this little adventure is a win win for me - I FINALLY get to cook all those recipes I have been meaning to cook from all those beautiful books I have on the shelf, and be somewhat of a cookbook recipe tester (well post-release of the cookbook or course).
These reviews will suit the everyday person who loves cooking and baking, who might want a little insight before purchasing a cookbook. I will try and be as detailed as possible and not waffle on too much, which I can do!
Unfortunately, I won’t have the time to cook the entire book, but I will pick 5-10 recipes per cookbook to test. I will try to choose a variety of recipes to really get an overall feel of the cookbook. I will then give my feedback on the recipe, writing detailed descriptions on the process and method, what equipment may or may not be required and of course the cost of each recipe as I feel this is super important in this day and age.
All the books I will be reviewing have been purchased by me. I will not be sharing the recipes of what I chose to cook, I’m not here to post recipes, the intention is see if the recipe truly works, the difficulty of it and to give my opinion on whether the book is worth purchasing or not.
I estimate it to take roughly 2 weeks to complete each book and I also estimate lots of coffee and wine will be consumed during the testing (and writing) process. So, come along for the ride and see how this new little adventure in the Sweet Side Kitchen goes!
Until next time
Jo x