Before we knew it, another year has come and gone. Happy birthday to both Ariel and No Free Lunch. Scrolling back through the birthday posts is a real trip through time to see how our lives have evolved. This year's cake was the same as the last one: Stella Parks' almond cake. It's quite a complex recipe but worth the effort. If I make it again I might increase the almond extract a bit. The frosting was the old stalwart, Mark Bittman's chocolate buttercream, which I have made quite consistently since 2015. I used sliced almonds to decorate again, this time with a simple but undeniably classic design. Unfortunately, little has changed with my stress level when baking.
This year's birthday dinner was a pan-fried ribeye steak topped with compound butter I had leftover from escargots. This turned out to be an excellent application. We accompanied that with mashed potatoes and roasted mushrooms.
As it finishes its tenth year, the blog has settled into a comfortable rhythm. For the second year in a row, I hit my goal of at least one post per month, with a nice mix of recipes. I recreated some long-overdue nostalgic comfort foods like curry turnovers and Buffalo chicken quesadillas. I've continued to put out original cocktails like the rum nectarine smash, which will for sure feature next summer. I was also pleased to codify two all-time family favorites: fish-fragrant eggplant and parmesan garlic wings. The upgrade series continued with the eggplant and Portuguese chicken, which was for many years the most visited post on the blog. Finally, the highlight of the year may well have been fløtegrøt, not only an addition to the rather thin dessert category but also a tribute to my Norwegian ancestors.
In other news, 2022 represented something of a return to "normal," such as it is. As big changes in our house come down the road, I'm sure it will be an eventful 2023.
