Happy Blogiversary Week-end: Superlatives!

Our little ol' blog will be a year old on Monday! Recently I was looking back through old posts, so surprised that it's been a year already, and so impressed at all the cool new things we've been able to do this year. I met the great Judith Jones, Sanne went to Cupcake camp, and we both had a private cooking lesson at home. We churned our own butter, invented sauces and toured the chicken coops of the Boston area. We learned to make Indian food from an Indian, Greek from a Greek and Sanne went all the way to Italy to eat genuine Italian cuisine (also, for a wedding).

The votes are in, so let's take a look at the goodest, the baddest and the ugliest of our maiden voyage.

Best Reader Suggestion: Kelli Oglesby's idea for a recipe index. I am updating this regularly, and have even noted vegetarian options. If you can't find exactly what you're looking for in the search engine, try our recipe index. Thanks, Krelli!

Most Missed Sous Chef: Figgaro. It's been about 7 months, and we still miss his human-like expressions, his thousands of nicknames, and him stealing our milk and cuddling on the couch. The Sweetest Fig.

Figgaro Walters
March 1997 - March 2011

Favorite Kitchen Game: This is a tie: the "I'ma Play Your Song" Game, in which the first player tells the second, "I'ma play your song", and then plays the most random sogn she can think of on Youtube. Usually something from the early 90s. This is the reason for the random B52's, Harry Belafonte videos. We spared you the rest. The other favorite game is "Make Something Out Of Nothing", which we have played many, many times...

Most Likely to Shove Her Hand Up A Turkey's Butt: My littlest sister, Katie! Congratulations, Kate!! You Won! You put your hand in the turkey-butt!

Most Likely to Live in a Little House on a Prairie: Alyssanne! Between churning her own butter, marshmallows from scratch and candy-ing her own lemon and orange peel (because she was "too lazy to go to the store"), Sanne kicked some serious Ingalls-Wilder ass this year.

Most Likely to Mooch Off Of Our Meals: Rajiv. And you're welcome to them, Rajiv!
Runner up: Raymond and/or Susie.

Best "Who'da thunkit" moment: cooking seasonally! We kind of do this in Florida, but only to a certain extent. Seasonal cooking up here is so fun! Especially in the Fall (more on that Monday...).

pork tenderloin and roasted root vegetables

pumpkin scones

Most Improved Baker: Mandi. In the beginning, she avoided it like the plaque. Gradually warming up to it, she is proud to say that she mastered Sanne's brownies from scratch recipe and is no longer afraid of homemade pizza dough.

Most Memorable Guest Chefs: So many wonderful people have cooked in our kitchen, how can we choose just one?! Here's a montage of our favorite friends to cook with...

clockwise from top left, that's Lauren, Madaline (with twins IV), Elizabeth, Susie, me  &Kelly & Katie, Sanne & Sam,  Kasia, Neville, and Kelli (with Hannah IV)

Come back, all you you!

Most Used Ingredient: Besides flatbread for pizzas and our never-empty cheese drawer, we love adding citrusy flavors to things. Whether its a bit of orange zest to a batch of cookies, or fresh lemon juice to a pasta sauce, for us, citrus is a comforting reminder of home.

orange chocolate torte

roasted garlic garbanzo beans with mint, feta and lemon

Favorite Theme Party: We love us some theme parties...
Mandi's favorite: Southern Party, of course! Even though it was Josh's Farewell party, the food was ah-mazing, and so much fun to cook. Add in a Becky-mix CD, some accents and stories, and we couldn't be happier.

Sanne's favorite: Indian Graduation party...  Some of our favorite new friends, trying out their cowboy accents moght be one of the funniest things ever. Plus Susie's cooking... you can't beat it!

Those are just a few of our favorite moments from the year. We are sitting in our kitchen now, snacking on freshly picked apples, sipping on harvest pumpkin beer and talking about all of the cool things we've gotten to do since deciding to document our adventures one year ago. It's got us thinking about what our cooking resolutions are for the next year. 

Personally, I have enjoyed being daring and trying new things (I almost won an Anthony Bourdain award in these here superlatives). I would like to continue being adventurous in the kitchen, learning to make dishes I would have never thought to try to make myself. I'd love to do some pickling and have always wanted to make my own flavored mustard (there are some design-ideas behind this, if you haven't heard...). I would also like to cook for all of you. Sanne would like to hone certain techniques from the simple, like knife skills, to the more expert.

What about you, eaters and readers? Do you enjoy the direction we've taken this in? What have you enjoyed the most? What would you like to see more of? 

m&a