I thought I’d log in to make sure I still had a blog out there somewhere. Turns out it’s still here! Shocking. I can’t promise thrice-weekly updates but I would like to get back to something more frequent than every three months.
It feels like forever since the holidays–a lot has changed around here, about which more in a moment–but I guess Christmas was only a month ago. Tom joined us again, and cooked basically every meal while he was here. It was bliss. Among our projects:
Carnitas, per The Homesick Texan, as published by Smitten Kitchen:
After 3.5 hours of braising, during the brown-in-their-own-fat stage
As tacos
The leftovers were a boon for almost a week–we ate lots more tacos as well as a number of quesadillas, and I think Tom scrambled them into eggs a few times. The citrus juice in the recipe made for a brighter flavor than other batches I’ve made. Definitely one to repeat.
For Christmas Eve, Tom made duck confit.
Those three magret legs rendered TWO CUPS of fat. I have so much duck fat, you guys! I need to start roasting potatoes, stat. Unfortunately we were too excited to eat for me to remember to take any decent photos. Oops. This is the feel of the meal (we had roasted potatoes and a sharp salad with the duck):
And then we descended into chaos. We moved, you guys. Mid-January. It was a mad scramble, especially because our babysitter suddenly left us two weeks before. My parents were here for a last-minute visit, and then Ben’s mom came up and saved our butts, and his brother/brother’s girlfriend joined for the day of and were also lifesavers. Man, moving is horrible.
Tuck hated seeing his books packed but he was a very, very, very big fan of the crane that moved the piano:
And now that we’re getting settled in, things like this are happening:
It’s going to be great. And the kitchen is 100% white (not as good as our old one, but better light), so it’s a lot easier to take pictures of, say, the only thing I currently want to eat, that asian-inspired butter lettuce/avocado salad:
Ok, that is a scarily large picture of a grapefruit supreme. But still. You know you wish you were eating that right now.
HOLD THE PHONE, I never wrote up that salad dressing? That will come soon. I promise. It’s too good not to share.
Yay!! I just checked your blog today and was excited to see a new post here AND at Fit Pregnancy! Glad to hear things are smoothing out for you and hope to see pics of your new place soon! P.S. I finally took my son’s pacifier away and it went well- I think it’s harder on the parents than the kids. I was heartbroken for him!
Hi there, from your former neighbor (Ethan’s mom)! You moved? Wow, cool! Er, are you still in the neighborhood? 🙂 We live in the wilds of Arlington, which, after our former neighborhood in Our Fair City feels like the deep country… but on the good side, we mostly hear birds and kids outside playing, and there are three (and counting…) parks and a pond (“ducks!”) in walking distance. Hope all’s well. Nice to read your updates, looking forward to checking in on occasion…
Hey there! Yes, we’re still in Cambridge. Arlington is so pretty–it sounds like you’re enjoying it? I can’t believe the boys are almost 2; where does time go?