2014 Round Up (Food Style I guess)

So… blogging. Like many others in my field I’ve reached, continually, the “too busy for blogging” threshold.

http://www.freshandnew.org/2014/12/busy-blog-short-2015/

https://exhibitdev.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/2015-thoughts-and-plans/

http://reganforrest.com/2014/12/a-reflection-on-blogging/

Just to show a few…

Like they all say, it hasn’t been because I’m not busy or because I don’t have anything to say (YOU ALL KNOW that’s not true). It’s because blogging takes a lot of time. Not only to think about, but to write, and to remain well-read on other blogs to make sure you aren’t just regurgitating a bunch of stuff people have already figured out.

2014 has been a very busy year for me, unfortunately it went out with quite an awful ending being sick with all the flus for a month and capping it off with a bacterial infection in my sinus. BY MY BRAIN! If that doesn’t freak a person out and make them reflect on their year.

Believe it or not the reason I decided to post tonight was, well because, I made something unbelievably delicious. I’ve always wanted to be a food blogger, because I love cooking and I’m damned good at it if I don’t say myself, but I don’t have the patience to photograph every step of what I do. I wing, fling, and often garbage cook (throw whatever I have around in, but more responsibly than my Grandma Rose’s Garbage Soup, that lady seriously put EVERYTHING in there!) so I never think about photos until I’m done and the spoils have been mostly demolished. I’ve been so sick the last couple of weeks my menu has basically been tomato soup, mashed potatoes, and oatmeal (not all together). Thank goodness for my parents taking care of me or I may have shriveled away to nothingness in a heap of agony and not being able to chew. Tonight, I’m either getting better or was at the right point in my med schedule that I felt I had the gumption to chew real food. However, I haven’t been home in a few weeks, nor have I been grocery shopping. That left me to the devices of the cupboards I’d been trying to run out before I left. I made Buffalo Chicken Quinoa. Sounds weird right? It’s amazing. It’s the second best quinoa I’ve ever eaten in my life, right after my lemon, sun-dried tomato, asparagus, edamame quinoa that I make. The biggest annoyance in making quinoa is titling the dish, that’s why I just list almost every single ingredient included anyways. Here are a few of my faves from the year:

Mediterranean stuffed beef tenderloin, rosemary potatoes, homemade sun-dried tomato bread.

Not going to lie, these were not a win! I made these for Joel’s birthday because what about 40 rolos on top of a brownie sounds like a bad idea? It was, unless you like getting your teeth ripped out with every 1,000 calorie filled gooey but delicious bite.

The 70s themed Oscars party (right?). This was not my own doing, I had a lot of help in creating all the delicious and terrible things we consumed that night.

Taught myself how to make pua’a in a crock pot. One of my new favorite recipes, and the ever beloved cheesy hashbrown casserole that is a family staple.

Made cornbread from scratch for the first time, attempting to model it after cornbread muffins I had in Atlantic City. Sorry Showboat, mine won out. Also, made a lot of these style breakfast sandwiches for Marco. Wet yolk grosses me out, but does that man love him some breakfast.

My crepe recipe had been perfected for years, but again in an attempt to copycat, I recreated the Cheese Shop’s Rosemary Ham for my crepes. For the major win! Also, perfect my pumpkin seed roasting technique so that they are crunchy instead of weird and chewy. Buffalo Ranch, go figure.

Last but not least, I reinvented Long John Silvers’ chicken and hushpuppies (but with a green chili and cheddar spin). I really don’t attempt a lot of copycat stuff but this year I was pretty successful whenever I set out to do it. My friends whine at me because when we go out to eat I say I could make it at home, well, sorry. There are a few things I’ll never make quite the same as the original though:

My mom’s chicken dumpling soup

Bareli’s (New Jersey) Buffalo Filet Mignon

Eddie Palardy’s Broccoli Rabe and Pasta

Campbell’s Tomato Soup (though I think I may have beaten this with homemade this year)

Last but the most important, my Grandma Martha’s Blarney Stones.

I didn’t set out for this post to be entirely about food, it was supposed to be about my 2014. As usual, food played a big part. Again, I hope to be better about blogging this year, on all fronts, personally and professionally. Here’s looking at you 2015.

2015 Food Resolution – Get better plates to photograph food on. I mean seriously.