I really do regret that I haven't been posting much. I'm touched that people visit and take the time to comment here on something they like, and I will try to respond to you all. It is encouragement to continue posting, or in this case, to make a promise to get back to posting more regularly. I've found myself overwhelmed at both work and in my personal life, and this blog has suffered as a result. I'm always optimistic that I will be able to juggle all my competing interests, and I predict a resurgence Kitchen Chick activity in the near future.
While I have not been blogging about food, I have been cooking. My attempts at better time managment has meant that I've turned my attention to finding fast and easy recipes that leave me more than an hour or two in the evening to give to other activities. I promise to post some of my favorite new quick meal discoveries.
At 6:23 PM, EDT, September 22 it will be be officially Fall. (It's the 22nd already!) The leaves have already started to turn. We've had a dry summer, and I'm wondering how that will affect our fall leaf colors.
I love Fall. Although New Year's Day gets all the promises and Spring is the traditional time of rejuvination, I have always associated a sense of new beginnings in September with the start of a new academic year. Maybe I'm secretly a college professor at heart. As a college town, Ann Arbor always going through an amazing transition at the end of August from a semi-sleepy town to a bustling mini-metropolis filled with college students. The traffic gets more congested and parking spaces are an extreme challenge to find, but the upside is the cyclic resurgence of a vibrant entertainment and academic environment of concerts, lectures, movies, and performances.
Food-wise, I love Fall for concord grapes, and crisp apples, and the excessive bounty of my tomato harvest that leaves me wondering how I'll eat them faster than they can ripen and and before they "over-ripen." (The secret: share them with friends.) Blueberry season is, sadly, over, but raspberries (in southern Michigan, at least) will last another month or two. By the time September comes around, I realize that I did not nearly get to have enough peaches and resolve to compensate for that by over indulging in raspberries and apples. And sometime during Fall pomegranates, my absolute most favorite fruit in the world, make their appearance. I eat so many pomegranates that my fingertips are stained deep red for months.
Yes, even with the shortening days and cooling temps, I love Fall.
Hi!
I would like to invite you to participate in "I Like 'em Spicy!", a fortnightly food event, where all participants have to come up with a spicy recipe using the Star Ingredient (which id different every fortnight)!
The rules are simple:
1. The recipe has to use the Star Ingredient as the base of the dish
2. It has to be SPICY!!
3. Dishes can be of any form you can imagine, appertizers, mains, desserts, drinks...whatever you can come up with!
On the 1st and 15th of every month, I will the post the Star Ingredient and you are expected to email your entries to [email protected] by the next two weeks.
At the end of the two weeks, I will post all the recipes on a special blog built especially for "I Like 'em Spicy!" so you can all view the fabulous entries!
For further details do drop in "Hooked on Heat", at www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com and join in on the fun!
- Meena
(www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com)
Posted by: Meenakshi | September 21, 2005 at 12:43 PM
I'll certainly give it a try!
Posted by: Kitchen Chick | September 25, 2005 at 04:02 PM
Ah yes, not enough peaches... I bought a quart or two weekly during the season at the Farmer's Market (but also had a fling this summer with the nectarines one vendor was selling). I love to buy "Flaming Fury" for the name along, but it's hard to go wrong with a local fresh peach! Sadly, I never got around to buying a big batch and freezing some slices for that reminder of summer. Maybe I'll compensate with raspberries as well. :^)
Posted by: Tricia | October 13, 2005 at 09:51 AM