Greetings, happy new year, and welcome back to No Free Lunch. Yes, it's certainly been a while. As we celebrate Ariel's birthday, Chinese New Year, and the thirteenth anniversary of the blog, it is clear this has been a pretty busy year full of changes.
The biggest adjustment has been my starting a new job at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and making the move across the country from South Dakota. The work has been fulfilling, but it has kept me very busy and left little time for culinary innovation. I've mostly focused on getting something on the table quickly. Simple dishes consisting of some kind of vegetable, sausage, and pasta (similar to last year's zucchini pasta) have become staples. Of course, moving to a big city has also greatly expanded our options for eating out and getting takeout. The move also resulted in us dumping all the ancient herbs and spices that we had accumulated over the years and donating some old cookware we don't use anymore. I would encourage everyone to do the same. Shayna is growing rapidly and overall has been a good eater. Sausage, chicken, pasta, and eggs are among her favorites. Recently, she has been developing her ability to use utensils to eat.
For Ariel's birthday, we went out for Ethiopian food and ended up getting buying a cake. I hope to have the energy to get back to making a cake next year. We celebrated Chinese New Year with char siu chow mein, made almost to the specifications of the recipe, plus some garlic. Shayna loved trying her hand at using chopsticks.
Sadly, with all the things going on this year, the thirteenth year of No Free Lunch was pretty thin. I only posted one recipe, but it was a good one - Alabama white sauce. By July, we were able to fully reintroduce dairy and Shayna has become a great lover of cheese. With that, ranch dressing has returned to our house, but I developed a real taste for the white sauce and still make it often. I increase the garlic and onion powder from the recipe I posted and usually use apple cider vinegar now, but the recipe is fundamentally the same. I sometimes still make my own mayo, but have also experimented with Duke's, the southern favorite.
Although I haven't been able to write as much lately, I am very thankful to still have this blog going after all these years. I use my own recipes all the time, particularly the Chinese ones. Just recently, we had a nice simple meal consisting of rice, steamed egg, and pea tips. I do have some ideas for new posts swirling around in my head. I'm hoping to write more this year as things at work stabilize.
