An Afternoon in New York City

Martha Stewart is doing another show on blogging tomorrow and I’ll be in the audience along with many other bloggers. I am thrilled for the opportunity to see Martha in person and to meet more bloggers that I follow. Pim will be on the show making her famous pad Thai (I hope there will be enough for the audience) and other bloggers will make appearances as well.

Though I’ve been to New York City twice before on business, those trips did not allow time for sightseeing. Each time I left the city with a longing to return and explore, to see some of the places that capture my imagination. Today, ten years later, I finally got to do a little of that. Read more

Four Years and Counting

Four years ago today…

We were living somewhere else with our two sons.

We found out we were going to have another child.

I was playing around with recipes and porting them to WordPress, my chosen organizational tool, when I found a comment from a complete stranger. Then it hit me: people were visiting my silly little site that I hadn’t told anyone about. Suddenly I realized I had a blog. Then I panicked. Read more

Grow Your Own #38

I’ve always believed in the innate goodness in people and I’m continually inspired by the goodness I see in the blogging community. Though we might be strangers that have never formally met, people reach out online and extend that reach into the world, making a difference in the lives of others, whether by sending healing thoughts and prayers for families dealing with medical crisis or raising money for causes that address hunger, health, housing, and a myriad of other humanitarian needs. And sometimes it can be as small as writing an email saying you care about something and want to help.

So I send my heartfelt thanks to Nate & Annie of House of Annie, who have graciously offered to help with Grow Your Own this winter while we tend to some family matters. It seems like a little thing and yet it’s big, knowing that people care about this event and will step up to help keep it going.

You can get more information about how to participate this month at Nate and Annie’s blog. The deadline for posting is January 31.

House of Annie – Rambutans, plus a Grow Your Own announcement

Slow-Cooked Achiote-Marinated Pork (Cochinita Pibil)

The boys start back to school today and Michael went back to work after a well-deserved holiday break, which means we have returned to our weekdays full of drop-offs, pickups, multiple schedules, homework, and little time for preparing dinner. Tackling big cooking projects on weekdays is out of the question, so we are making easy weeknight meals such as this achiote-marinated pork. Read more

Ringing Out 2009 & Our Best Of

2009 was a learning year. I started off the year learning how to use my new camera and am so glad we made that investment. The learning curve was steep even though I had been using manual mode in my little point & shoot camera for two years, but I’m finally seeing results and improving my photography.

We celebrated the third anniversary of this little cooking blog in January, and as I think about it I can hardly believe it’s been almost four years. I’ve learned so much while working on this blog and have made some wonderful friends that I treasure.

In February I offered to be a recipe tester for a new cookbook from Culinary Media Network, and I’m so glad Chef Mark and Jennifer took me up on it. The recipes were delicious and it was a lot of fun to play around, give feedback, and take some photos. The big surprise came when Mark and Jennifer asked to use three of my photos in the new cookbook which was released in July (The Gilded Fork: Entertaining At Home). Mark and Jennifer, congratulations again on your new book and thank you for letting me be a part of it!

In June I accompanied Michael on one of his trips to Germany and had a fabulous time traveling around and photographing the area and sampling the food. My visit to the Stuttgart Markthalle is one of my favorite memories.

In September I traveled to San Francisco for the first annual BlogHer Food conference and it was indeed a weekend to remember. The sessions were informative and being in the company of so many fantastic food bloggers was inspirational. Getting to meet some of my favorite bloggers was quite a treat!

Autumn was a time of epiphany for me as I assessed the state of our family life, and I decided to take some time off from freelance work and went on hiatus from Grow Your Own for the winter so I could more easily devote time to helping our special needs sons with school. Work will always be there in one form or another, but I only get one chance to raise our sons.

And the year has ended on a high note with the word that I was invited to be in the audience for the upcoming Martha Stewart blogging show in January! I’m so excited! I’m making the trek to NYC for my first ever overnight stay in the big city—I’ve gone on a couple day trips for business but never had a chance to see anything—and I hope to catch up with some of my friends I met or wanted to meet but missed at BlogHer Food (Alice, Jennifer, Olga). If you are a food blogger and will be at the taping, let me know so we can hopefully arrange to meet. And of course I hope to have at least one amazing meal while there! I’m also looking for a decent affordable place to stay in the Chelsea area and would love some recommendations.

In closing, Michael and I want to share our favorites from the blog this year. Best wishes to you and your loved ones for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010.

Pomegranate-Ginger-Chile Nojito Cocktail

Pomegranates are one of the most festive fruits. The deep red color of the arils captures the eye, and the flavor of the juice is a wonder on its own and is very versatile. Though we’ve enjoyed pomegranate juice for a while, this year marks the very first time we ever purchased pomegranates, and as we munched on the arils we wondered how we ever managed without them. Read more

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