How we got here.

When we first started Side Dish, it was the beginning of the COVID pandemic. I'd had the idea in my head for a while: why not do a stream of cooking side dishes? Appetizers, desserts, breads. Anything that isn't the main dish of a meal. There are so many of them, and I wanted to explore that. COVID gave me the opportunity. We were all cooped up in our houses, and I missed my friends, so I convinced Amy we should give it a try. She agreed.

That first show, phew. Did we not know what we were doing. The camera was a webcam. We had one Blue Yeti mic. I barely looked at the lens. But something happened during that hour of making Potato Salad. There was a glimmer of something bigger. Not subscribers, or videos, or even dishes. It was the forming of a new community.

Community, to me, is the cornerstone of what makes living worth it. And what we got in those first months, every Saturday and maybe a few Wednesdays, was exactly that. People I knew in real life. People from my adventures on the Nerd.Nu PvE Minecraft server. Friends I'd been doing online fiction with since 2002. And the occasional stranger, who I always tried to make feel welcome. It was that community that kept me coming back each week, to be there as a regular bit of entertainment at a time when we were all at our most isolated.

And honestly, everyone loves a good dish. The dip that brings people together at the table. The dessert you sit and savor as a group, quiet for a second. Food and cooking are an amazing way to bridge the gap between people. Ask someone a simple question. What's your favorite side, or dessert, or appetizer? The dialog just starts. People come together. The laugh shared over the chip bowl. The cry over one too many cocktails. Community. And boy, do we have it.

What started as a joke became something true. "This will probably work." I said it to shrug off the mistakes, or the wrong turns when something went off the rails. But in the process of showing up each week and saying it? It did. Amy and I got better at natural banter. Denise became an extra appendage I didn't know I needed, keeping the show running and bringing a third cooking and comedic perspective.

I wanted to do something real. Something that shows what it's like when you succeed and when you fail (I'm looking at you, Rice Pilaf). Recipes anyone could make in their own kitchen and have great success with. And along the way, explore the history of food, the science, and why we do what we do in the kitchen.

Sure, it's chaotic and corny and sometimes frustrating. But what started as a show about sides quietly turned into something bigger: flavor, curiosity, craft, and a bunch of people hanging out on a Saturday night making something worth sharing. That's the part I didn't see coming, and it's the part I love most.

We close every show the same way, and it's as good a place as any to end this:

Be kind. Be loyal. Give grace where you can. And do something nice for someone.

Thanks for being here. There's a lot more coming, and thanks for being a part of making it probably work.

Doug