at long last

It's been a while, I know, but I have a good excuse. I was on the academic job market last fall, and it was crazy busy. But don't worry, I made time to eat. My goal was to cook simple meals and not rely on pre-packaged garbage or take out, and I was mostly successful. Last night, I scrolled through the pictures on my phone and found these highlights:

Apparently, I made fried egg sandwiches one day. I believe that the biscuit recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen, but I'm not very good at biscuit making so I didn't do them justice. 

I also made a red lentil and broccoli curry, from Veganomican. The original recipe calls for cauliflower, but I'm not a fan, hence the broccoli.

I also made fettuccine and meatballs. The sauce is a butter-roasted tomato sauce from Bon Appetit, and so is the meatball recipe. I made the fettuccine (my reward after returning from a campus interview--fresh pasta is the best!) from Food 52's feature on Mario Batali. 

Let's see, what else? I was on a veggie burger kick and made these beet burgers, from the Post Punk Kitchen. They were super good, but messy to make. I shredded the beets in the food processor and I got beet juice everywhere--the counters and floor--and the kitchen looked like a crime scene.

I also made a butternut squash and cheddar galette, from A Year of Pies.

I was able to make some time for baking, beginning with pumpkin whoopie pies, from either Baked: New Frontiers in Baking or Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Revisited. 

For Christmas, I made Funfetti cookies.

And chocolate peppermint cookies from Baked Elements: The Importance of Being Baked in 10 Favorite Ingredients. 

 And rugelach from Baking Out Loud: Fun Desserts with Big Flavors.

I know I cooked other stuff last fall, and the lack of photographic evidence doesn't mean it didn't taste good enough to share. It just means that I was too hungry and impatient to take a few seconds and document it.