The Big Traveling Potluck 2: Twice Struck

I didn’t think it possible to witness lightning strike twice, but it did. Last year it happened with the first Big Traveling Potluck. The blog was born and I had finally found my people, my tribe. The cynic in me thought there was no way the second Potluck could personally top the first. I was wrong.

The second Big Traveling Potluck was familiar, yet different. For most part, it happened in mostly the same places and a handful of the amazing people I met last year returned. I brought cookies again, but this time with vegetables in them. So many things had happened since I was last in the place, with those people. The blog is now one, I have a different job, I have new thoughts and challenges than the year before. I had no idea what the Potluck would hold for me.

I saw the lightning strike when Aran, of Cannelle et Vanille, speak. Her honesty and openness about imperfection and feeling disconnected floored me. Then Ashley of Not Without Salt spoke about the importance of staying inspired and the slow creeping that comes upon us when we get caught up in the rat race. Cheryl of 5 Second Rule shared her choices to stay true to herself, regardless of the “musts” that the mysterious blogging authority placed upon us, and she’s just like me. Hard on herself and not always able to take and cherish the success.

The heat and sizzle of the lightning comforted me and reassured me. At the end of the day, regardless of who’s won an award, who’s doing a workshop in a droolworthy part of the country or who’s working on a book, all food bloggers are human. We struggle. We’re imperfect. We cry in front of strangers. We work hard for what appears on the screen. We have our own baggage. The accomplishments that can come with blogging doesn’t wash that way, and that’s okay. That’s why I love my community, my food bloggers. We’re just people who love food. A lot.

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Thank you to everyone who made The Big Traveling Potluck 2 possible: Maggy, Pam and Sharon of Three Many Cooks, Erika of The Ivory Hut, Chris and Karen of The Peche, Brian of A Thought for Food, Brooke of Food Woolf, Sabrina of The Tomato Tart, and Deb and Rod of Smith Bites.

Thank you to the sponsors who also helped make the weekend so delicious: Gourmet Garden, Sabra, Earthbound Farm, KitchenAid USA, OXO, California Ripe Olives, Kerrygold and Fork in the Road.