make your own pasta bar + a blogging break

I’ve got a lot of feels for today’s post, so bear with me.

Part of the feels comes from the excitement I have over this make your own pasta bar with alllll the yummy pasta sauces. I’ll admit it — I’m a pretty routine jarred pasta sauce buyer. I know, I know. I’m ashamed of it. Especially because whenever I make a homemade pasta sauce and take even one bite, I do a jig in the kitchen, slap my knee and say, “By George, I should be making this all the time!” Or something to that effect (I promise I’m not so weird that I say things like “By George!” At least not often. Ahem).

ANYWAY, I’ve got not one, but three delectable sauces here — including a roasted red pepper sauce, a creamy Parmesan chive mushroom sauce and a garlic alfredo sauce, all made in the blender! — for you to choose from for your next pasta dinner. Or, if you’re in the pasta bar partying mood, you can make all three at the same time along with a big spread of cooked pastas and have your guests go crazy on adding their own sauce and toppings to their pasta bowls. Serve it all up with lots of bread and wine and by George, you’ve got a great party going. AHEM.

You can find all three easy recipes on the KitchenAid blog here!

The other part of today’s feels comes from the fact that I’ve decided to take a bit of a break from the blog. It’s been a long time coming and very, very needed, but I’m conflicted.

You see, I’ve been blogging quite regularly for nearly six years now (holy cannoli.), and except for that one time I had a baby, I haven’t taken a real break. Not even on vacation. So it’s time, it’s definitely time.

I’m only planning to be away for a month, and by “away” I mean I won’t be posting anything new here for the entirety of July (but I’ll still probably hang out a bit on Instagram and Snapchat –> stephmwise), but you guys, that’s hard for me. I feel like this space has become a weekly gathering of all my favorite people (i.e., you, my dear readers) at the table with all of my favorite foods, and I’m deeply going to miss that, if even for a few weeks. But I’m finding myself so burned out, so tired, so uninspired and so hungry to live a little bit of life offline that I need some time to step back completely, re-prioritize, re-energize, relax, restore and rediscover who I am and who I want to be — for myself, for my family, for this blog and in turn, for you.

I feel my fingers going rigid even typing this post because the perfectionist in me is freaking out over the lack of routine and regularity I’m going to have by not showing up here for a while. But I have hope that this hiatus will be so good and so healthy that it’ll wash away that growing sense of dread and exhaustion and overall “meh”-ness I’ve been feeling lately whenever I open WordPress. Gah. I’m hesitant to admit that, because I don’t want you to think I’ve been a fraud over here. I haven’t been. Everything I’ve written is honest and sincere and comes from the heart, and that’s why I’m taking a break. Because that fire in the belly is dwindling and I feel like a break is the best way to get it back.

In the meantime, you can find some of my recipes to tide you over here, and also here and here. I’ll also be popping in on Instagram and Snapchat, as I mentioned, from time to time. I might even work on some recipes during this month (because who am I kidding if I think I won’t be in the kitchen because cookies) and I’ll show some sneak previews there.

Thank you all for being here. Thank you for making this my happy space. Thank you for allowing me this gift of much-needed time away. I’ll be back, promise! Until then, lots of love and carbs to you all.