And here we are…the last day of August, already a week into the new school year.  It’s crazy how quickly summer has come and gone.  On the surface it may look like we were slackers here at Sifted Together as we did not bake and post on our regular schedule over the summer months.  Travel and heat interfered with our routine.  Rather that taking something we enjoy and stressing about getting it done when the odds were not in our favor, we opted to be gentle with ourselves and work on a schedule that didn’t steal our joy.

Though our ovens were idle during these past couple months, our minds were not.  We have spent a lot of time thinking about what we do here, how we  do it, and why.  With all of that thinking, has come renewed energy.  We are ready to jump into fall with two feet….and lots of recipes as well!

We have been writing together for almost four years.  During that time, what we are has evolved.  We began writing under the name Pixels, Plates, and LOLs. There we shared all kinds of our personal favorite recipes, a little about photography, and a little about ourselves.  After two years, we realized that baking is our shared love…and that we both favor King Arthur Flour baking products.  So, on our second anniversary, we changed our blog title to its current name, Sifted Together.  The one thing that has not changed is that this shared endeavor is not only about food, it is, and always has been, about friendship.  Though we met because of our mutual interest in photography, it was much more than that that drew us to become friends.  As we wrote in our earliest blog posts, on the surface we appear to have very little in common.  What we have grown over the past five years proves that the obvious is not the most important thing.  Here are a couple of posts that share our beginnings.

Pixels, Plates and LOLs: And So We Begin…

Sifted Together: The First Ingredient

So where are we now?

We still love baking. But let’s face it.  Food blogs are a dime a dozen.  We’re not complaining about too much food, mind you.  Food is most certainly a good thing!  And more importantly, we still like each other!  We have the best time deciding on and discussing recipes, sharing our successes and failures both in the kitchen and in life, and just being friends.  Truly, t is our friendship that is the unique aspect of Sifted Together.  (Where else can you be amused by the Cinnamon Star Bread Duet?)  During our summer baking hiatus, we realized that what we need to do here is share not only how a cake’s ingredients are sifted together, but also how the secret ingredients of an unlikely friendship have also been sifted together.

Here are the changes and additions you will see here beginning in September. 

Oh wait…September’s is tomorrow!

Here come the changes!

• We are moving are feature Food Friday posts to Mondays – Mix It Up Mondays.  We’ll continue to include the monthly King Arthur Bakealong recipe as well as a mix in this rotation.  We think this will work better with our various weekly routines.
• You’ll get our quirky perspectives on love, life, the universe, and whatever else creeps into our brains in alternating mid-week  Tuesday in Texas and What’s Up Wednesday in Michigan.
• Fridays will be our fun days.  We’ll share some of our favorite things.  You’ll learn more about our long distance friendship than you may want to know.  And, we’ll invite you all to share some of your favorites with us.  Our goal is to share life with each of you in a real, raw, and often humorous way.

A big thank you to all of you who stop by each week to see what we are up to.  Your comments on the blog posts and Facebook links, as well as the private messages that you send, mean a lot to us.  If we can help one person find a reason to smile, then our mission has been accomplished.  And a bonus if your bellies are full and happy!

Stop back by on Monday for some delicious breakfast recipes!

Thank you again for joining us on this journey!

Tracey and Kris