Changing directions in 2012: Frugal Nosh makeover, transition, rebirth

It has been quite a year for Frugal Nosh. Actually, the past few have been a little nutso. I’ve written only sporadically the past two years mainly because I spent them as a full-time web producer for the Los Angeles Times — and who wants to sit staring at a computer any more than one has to? That is not to say that I didn’t have the desire – it’s most easily compared to kids forced to read in school, where the pleasure and novelty of reading somehow withers away when you have to read 10 books every month or whatever insane amounts of reading they gave us. There were also plenty of changes that were going on on the side and thus, very little time for blogging, no matter how dear it was to me.

   

For those who don’t know, 2011 had the extreme distinction of being the year that I walked to the proverbial altar (it was actually in the desert) and married my very best friend and dearest love. What followed was a bit of insanity (but isn’t all of life?) A few months after we were married I fell victim to the inevitable budget cuts in journalism and left the Times; we then moved from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City just a few months later (a longtime dream of my new husband’s), my only sister-in-law was married as well, to my husband’s very dear friend and moved to Salt Lake with us; and after floundering around a bit in the dreaded unemployment arena, I’m now happily working at a nearby ski resort.

Perhaps the most important — certainly the most devastating — change this year was the very unexpected death of my father. My Brooklyn-born father, after all, was the main inspiration behind this blog, and the source of the significance behind its name. Back in the day, Frugal Nosh, as simple as it is, was what set me apart and landed me the unpaid internship at the Times, an internship that later turned into a wonderful full-time job for two and a half years. My most faithful reader from beginning to end was always my father.

After all that has happened, I’ve been thinking long and hard about where this blog is going and two things remain clear:

1. Frugal Nosh must be revived
2. Frugal Nosh must change

The most obvious change is the focus. This can no longer be a blog about the restaurants and highlights of L.A. because we no longer live there. I wasn’t exactly sure then what to do – we aren’t eating at restaurants as much as I used to in order to save money, the food culture here is far less interesting than bustling Los Angeles, and I don’t live under the constraints of a college student’s budget any more (though we are still very frugal.)

Then I remembered one of my husband’s favorite passages in Ecclesiastes.

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful
and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and
drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

And I realized that that’s it – that will be the new blog direction. Frugal Nosh already combines three things I’m passionate about: a love of food, a
love for sharing food with people, and the ideals of frugal living –
the word frugal actually comes from the Latin words frugalis and frui that
mean “virtuous” and “to enjoy.” We are here on earth for such a short
time, and I hope to focus more now on how easy and worthwhile it is to live
generously, eat well, and spend wisely the dollars we have been given.  

Thanks for reading – I would love to hear from you in the comments section below.