Welcome!

Welcome to Smelling Salts Journal! What’s it all about?

My name is Roseanne. I am a writer, editor and archivist. I live in Toronto, Ontario, with my husband, Blaise, my daughter, Bea, my son, Toby, and our mini-schnauzer, Elvis. You might know me from my ongoing work as a creative and professional writer ( roseannecarrara.com), from my days as an instructor in Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Toronto (I still sub in for arts & culture and creative writing courses from time to time), or from the online magazines I edited for six years, The Lunchbox Season and Summer of Funner.

Smelling Salts Journal is my new home. I hope it represents a journey towards a more authentic presence online. It’s a public journal where I share my opinions about the things that fill me with purpose, either because of their inherent goodness or because they’ve forced me to resort to my “smelling salts.” I keep track of my participation in Toronto’s vibrant creative culture and the tools and strategies I use to try and live a balanced, colourful life. And, I cook, indexing my family’s recipes, trying new ones, and tweaking classics from this century and centuries past. I focus on using and preserving in-season ingredients, making meals and celebrations easy and elegant.

Here’s a little bit more about the main features of the site:

Cooking
Here’s where I index and share the best of my recipes. You’ll find a lot of budget-friendly weeknight dinners and desserts alongside the kind of seasonal preserving that makes those weeknights even easier. I do conquer an elaborate recipe from time to time. But, since I’m a fan of frequent celebrations [#alltheholidays + #sundaydinners], I’m a proponent of simple, fresh, and frugal fêtes. Most are original recipes. [And, over the next few months, I’ll be revising, porting, and properly indexing some of my best recipes from my previous sites, The Lunchbox Season and Summer of Funner.] I also feature my own twists on the classics I’ve depended on for years. I test out new cookbooks. And, I tackle a few historical or vintage recipes!

Living
Here’s where I take notes on style, health, and creative everyday living. You’ll find fashion, decor, and handmade projects, from #goals to #diys. As with the cooking section, my focus, here, tends to be on easy, frugal, and inventive style.

Essays
Here’s where I go free-form. As I said above, I write essays about the things that fill me with purpose as well as those that have me “reaching for my smelling salts.” You will certainly hear about the films, books, and music that inform my world-views. After that, who knows?

The Journal
All the posts on Smelling Salts Journal are here, in one place, from newest to oldest.

I hope you’ll follow along and participate!

First and foremost, have a look around, and enter your comments on individual posts! Next, do me a favour and “Like” the site’s new Facebook page. Then, enter your name and email in the subscription form in the sidebar or footer to receive exclusive updates [no more than once-a-month] and a quarterly newsletter. You can also add the journal to your RSS feed. [Don’t have an RSS reader? Try feedly!] Check out my Contact page for even more ways to participate!

Once again, Welcome to Smelling Salts Journal!