chicken enchiladas

Sometimes when you lose interest in something or just can't seem to prioritize time for it, you need to step away and revisit it later...like in half a decade or so. Which seems to be what I've done with my blog.

The thing is, I've actually been using my blog this whole time -- to refer to my favorite recipes and remember the necessary modifications. (Hooray -- that's why I started the blog in the first place.) But recently it has been nagging at me that I've made several awesome dishes in the last five years, but none of them appear here. And every time I want to remake one, I have to find the right cookbook or website and hope I recall any changes I made to the recipe.

four-star fried chicken

So I made some changes to the design of the blog, mostly just because I was tired of looking at the old site. The new design has some big benefits though. When I finish adding the necessary links to the "Recipes" tab, it will be a heck of a lot easier to pull up a recipe from the site on my phone (I find myself doing this quite a bit at the grocery store). I think my favorite addition, though, is the "Worthy Reads" tab. A combination of blogs and books, this tab has almost all of my favorite literary kitchen resources. (Though not mentioned, I also utilize the recipe databases on MarthaStewart.com and Epicurious.com.) There are only three blogs listed, and I can't say that I keep up with them on a daily basis, but they are the first three blogs I visit when I'm looking for a new recipe. The books section, however, is the bread and butter of this tab. (Or maybe the cupcake and frosting?)

turkey meat loaf with sun-dried tomatoes

OK, here is the deal: I am going to go back to posting and no one is going to hold a grudge about how failed to post anything good (or bad) during October, November, or December. I won't even claim that I was busy. I wasn't. But no one wins if I tell you what was really going on. I've come to realize that no matter how I tell it, the story will make you feel sorry for me, then you will think that I'm a little pathetic, and then you will think I am crazy. In that order. So we'll just skip that saga story and move on to one about a coat.

roasted dry-brined turkey

Mmm...turkey. It's a shame my family only make it once a year. The Athlete insists that if we had turkey more often, Thanksgiving wouldn't be as special. I disagree -- I think Thanksgiving would be just as special, and we'd all be happier if we had more turkey. More is better, right? Isn't that the American way? Anyway, here is the recipe I used for our Thanksgiving turkey this year. In previous years, I used a Williams-Sonoma recipe that was perfectly fantastic. It certainly set the bar high, but this year's Martha recipe didn't disappoint.You have to start 2 days ahead of time, but the advance salt rub makes the turkey oh, so tender. (If you have even the tiniest cut on your hand, this process will seem torturous, so wear latex gloves.)

arroz con pollo (cuban chicken with rice)

I like my car. It's an SUV, really, but I refer to all passenger vehicles as "cars." It braved four South Bend winters and it dutifully performed on countless five-hour trips between Notre Dame and home, so when it was time to move to Seattle, I gladly forked over the money to have it transported to my new locale. (Because I sure as heck was not going to spend a whole week driving it out here.) What I do not like, however, is when my car shuts down in the middle of the busiest street in Bellevue, which is what it thought it might like to do last Friday. [DANA ND2, what are you doing?!?] Now, all things considered, this was a minor problem -- a firm press on the gas pedal turned the sputtering idle back into a pleasant hum -- but now I'm faced with the irritating task of explaining it all to a mechanic in a way that will actually yield a productive result. Thank goodness for technology, right? I can look up the problem online (oil pressure is low) and read all about the possible causes and remedies (worn bearings - replace them). So now when I go to the repair shop on Friday, I can tell the mechanic exactly what I would like him to investigate, rather than make a vague statement like, "Umm...my car shuts off...sometimes...." Isn't that nice? I think so.

chicken and dumplings

It seems like almost everyone was trying to upset my apple cart this week. Remember that new gym I told you about? The one I liked so much? Yes, "liked." Past tense is appropriate here because I showed up for my workout on Monday only to find that the place up and shut down over the weekend. Nothing says quality customer service like closing shop without giving your members any warning.

coq au vin

Hello, Friend! My heart leapt when a big box of culinary happiness was delivered to my doorstep on Wednesday. It was finally here! I carefully tugged my new cooking companion out of the box. Hefty, deep, shiny, and red. Even better than I imagined! It was love at first sight. La Cocotte love, to be precise.