Retro

Last post of the year. Just a few thoughts on what has passed. I'll have more thoughts about what's to come in the posts next year.

From the 'sphere:

Thank you to CeF. More traveling and less fretting this year. I'm a fan.

Thank you to TGWAE. Like I said in my note, been there once about 14 years ago. Didn't understand the food I was missing. Thanks for letting me see the side of that city I like to hope I'd see if I lived there.

Thanks Michelle, for not stopping the smackdowns in the face of crap part of a year. We need your friggin' frigs in the 'sphere.

Thanks Lisa for doing food and local and for finding fun ways to bring the two things together.

Thanks to Stef for another year of beautiful food and pushing the envelope in the kitchen.

From my world:

Thanks to Mom and Sally and to Dad and Beth. Some of the best memories of the year are at the farm or the new house in Annapolis sitting on a stool or a step-ladder while good food happened right in front of me.

Thanks to Bec and John. It's always good to have a big sister and her hubby. Especially when it's these too. Gorgeous new house John. Thanks for building it and making me feel welcome there.

Thanks to all my pals who kept me alive through another campaign. Can't name you all because I'm just too damned blessed with 'the family you get to choose.'

Thanks to Chez for lettin' me be one of the macaronis.

Thanks to G for steppin' up and doing it real big.

Thanks to Julie, Wendy, Molly, and Traci for including a kegger hanger on.

From my blog:

Here are my tops from the year. Not an exhaustive list of what I think I did right but the posts that stand out as I look back over the year. They may have been gorgeous food, or they may have been the post that indicated a direction I'll take in the coming year.

Lazy Man's Supper. Read that cattle call e-mail again and realized that's about as close to how I feel about feeding people as you can get. Good food. Zero pretense.

Easter Supper. It was just a beautiful meal.

Waverly. Travel. Food. Local. Shades and hues of a neighborhood. A good friend. A great market.

Gettting Back to Cooking. A late spring day. My favorite summer recipes for a cookout. Video of Pearl. It's all there.

UGK. Ah, yes. The side-project of the year. The Underground Kitchen. Poured a lot of my soul into that project. Turned out to be four gatherings this year. Not sure on more since all three of the front of the house people have moved (Ashland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago). We'll see what else I can get into that involved food and hordes of people. Have faith.

44 Years. A rebirth of family and tradition and food and health and a future with fewer complicated days and longer hours on porches.

Crust and Steam. Getting over a phobia in the kitchen and finding that there is absolutely no substitute for homemade. There really was a moment when the bread came out of the oven and slid right out of the pan onto the cooling racks that my knees got a little 'one cocktail too many' wobbly.