And We're Back...

I know, I know...it's been a LONG TIME since I've posted anything here. But I have a good excuse. Okay, like 14 good excuses. I had a baby and we moved out of my sister's house and into our new house that had no kitchen. (None, zip...we had completely gutted it. It didn't even have a floor). The last 9 months has been a labor of love by my husband (love for me, not the kitchen) as he put our kitchen together piece by piece. The refrigerator, the tile, the cabinets, the sinks...on and on. Finally, this past Sunday night, the remaining vital piece went in...the oven and stove. We rejoiced by making a batch of chocolate chip cookies...that hadn't happened in a while. And while I could have posted many recipes, especially over the summer while we were grilling EVERYTHING...and I do mean everything, I just couldn't do one extra thing like blog about it. But now, I feel motivated. My new beautiful range has brought back my love of finding new recipes, tweaking old ones, and writing them down so I can repeat it. Plus, I love my oven. It's a dream. And it has a blue interior. It just makes me smile. Even when the baby is screaming at me while I'm trying to get dinner on the table. Oh, my Elextrolux 30 inch Free Standing Gas Range...I love you. And I love my husband for installing it.

So I hope you'll join me again as I get back into this cooking thing. Not that I haven't been cooking over the last 9 months. I have. I should post about everything you can make in an electric fry pan...that is one of the most versatile little kitchen devices every created. I was kind of sad when I put it away the other day knowing I probably wouldn't use it again for a long while...but then I looked at my range and quickly got over it.

Lingering Scent of Fried Tortillas

I made tacos for dinner tonight, which surprisingly was a big hit with Payee. She had a bean, cheese and avocado taco. She ate the whole thing...unbelievable.

But here's my problem...my kitchen now smells like fried oil, and will continue to smell that way for a number of days. How do you get rid of that? Is there any possible way?

What's Cooking...

I love food. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I love eating. That doesn't mean I'm not picky...there are definitely foods I avoid, and some I would even go as far to say I hate. (My wonderful husband would tell you I'm afraid of them.) So, even though I've never cooked brussel sprouts or lima beans, and I refuse to put anything in my mouth that has an essence of banana in it, I love cooking. Love love love it. I love trying new recipes and tweaking old ones. (The tweaking doesn't carry over as often into the discipline of baking, but then again, I was never very good at chemistry. With baking, you can't add a little of this and dash of that. You'd end up with an exploding cake or a tasteless cookie.) I have good size recipe collection, but I'm not very good about writing down changes I've made or new ideas I've had. Hence, I'd make something once, decide to do something differently, and the next time I went for the recipe, I had no clue as to what I had wanted to change. I'm sure this never happens to you. I'm hoping that with this blog I can keep track of some of the changes, for better or worse, that I make, and in the meantime, write about something I love.

Originally, the idea of a food blog grew from my desire to better control my eating habits, thereby feeling more in control of my body shape. I thought about writing down everything I'd eaten in a day...but who would want to read that? It might help me maintain my weight, but it sure wasn't going to be interesting to share with friends and strangers.


At about the same time, I began to get bored with the meals I was preparing. I felt like we were always eating the same things (and eating out at the same restaurants.) The rut was only made deeper by the two little mouths that get fed at our table every night. I found I was continually feeding them the same things over and over and over again. How were they going to be better consumers of food (especially the 2 year old) if I keep their diet the same?

At the same SAME time, I received four old copies of "Everyday Food" from my grandmother. I love the format of the magazine and how every recipe is one page, and usually has an accompanying photo. I began to rip out the recipes I wanted to try, and soon I had a stack about an inch thick. I clipped them together and hung them on my bulletin board with the intention of trying at least one new recipe a week.

So far, it's mostly working. I'll have to back track a bit to chronicle the ones I've tried, but hopefully by combining new recipes and writing about them, the dynamic of meals in our home will be elevated.

And hopefully, you'll find something useful here as well.

That's the goal, anyway.