We’ve been a little quiet here due to the holidays (Chanukah followed shortly after Thanksgiving this year) and then a rather unpleasant bought of the flu, but we simply can’t ignore this very important day!

Get Cooking’s 2nd birthday!

We’ve  learned so much in the last two years, and hopefully you have too. We’ve explored the complicated and delicious world of pickling. I’ve delved deeply into my family’s Syrian culinary heritage. I’ve learned to love some foods that I wasn’t originally a fan of. And we’ve had our share of kitchen mishaps too, but luckily more successes than failures. We’ve even dipped our toes into the world of community-supported agriculture and community gardening.

We’ve had a lot of adventures but we’re not done yet. Thanks for joining us on our cooking journey this far!

A few months ago, I added a little feature to our sidebar here that pulls in interesting food related articles we are reading. It includes a mix of great posts from our blog roll, and also interesting food posts from non-food blogs.

If you want to see the kinds of posts that are influencing me on a daily basis, check out the sidebar every once in awhile, or follow the stream of shared posts in a RSS reader of some sort. Please note that these are not articles written by me.

Lately, I’ve been sharing a lot of holiday related posts and Syrian recipes that I’ve seen across the blogs I read. If you ever want to share a link with me, just comment on any relevant post, or send it to sarah@getcookingblog.com.

One year ago: Pickles and Pickling

I could run off a huge list of excuses about the lack of posts lately, but I find those kinds of posts tiresome and I bet you do too. The most interesting reason that I’ve been a bit absent here is that it’s just been too gorgeous out to hang out in a hot kitchen. As much as I advocate for cooking instead of always eating out, there are times when getting out of the house and enjoying the great food your city has to offer is pretty much obligatory.

So get out, enjoy the great food that summer brings out! And hey, if you aren’t lucky enough to be in New York where you can get a great hot dog pretty much anywhere (in any meat or non-meat variety), make one yourself and have a picnic.

I’ll be back soon, I just need to soak up a few more rays and eat a bit more terrible, but oh so wonderful, local foods.

Psst: If you’re still not satisfied, check out the archives by poking into the tags, categories or monthly links in the right side bar.

One year ago: Warm Creamy Peanut Chicken Salad

This may be premature, but tonight, after over 3 months of a very gripping sinus infection that took my senses of smell and taste captive (which you may remember me mentioning a few posts ago), I inhaled and I could smell! Then, I made a gravy for a chicken pot pie, and not only could I smell it, but, upon putting a little dab on my tongue, I could taste it too!

I almost shouted Hallelujah!

I’m not making any promises, but if my returned senses decide to stick around, we’ll probably be able to get back to our regularly scheduled programming without me oversalting, overspicing, or undercooking anything else for the time being.

Along with the sense of taste has come a pretty ravenous appetite, so I think that despite the unseasonably warm weather in New York this week, it’s time for me to get back into the kitchen and fire up the stove!

One year ago: Picnicking under the cherry blossoms

Just Bento published a guest post by yours truly this morning. The post features my take on Mabo Dofu, a Chinese turned Japanese dish that I fell in love with some years ago. The dish is simple, satisfying, while still tantalizing to the tongue and taste buds; it’s one of my favorites. It gave me an entirely new perspective on the use of tofu as an ingredient rather than a meat substitute. The sauce, which is vegan, can be used in many other dishes, so don’t be put off by the meat in the whole recipe.

I’ll be posting the recipe here for posterity but for now, go check it out at Just Bento!

Related posts:

1. Get Cooking’s take on Mabo Dofu, a classic tofu and meat dish

Enjoying hanami

After a long week of packing, moving and unpacking, eating mostly instant foods or takeout, it was refreshing to have a day off to enjoy the weather and some fresh, unprocessed produce before returning to work tomorrow. Because we noticed many of the cherry blossoms in our neighborhood blooming, we thought it would be a good time to head down to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for hanami and beat the crowds at Sakura Matsuri (the annual cherry blossom festival) next week. We took some croissants (fresh from a trip to Costco yesterday) and an assortment of raw vegetables and the books we are currently reading.

A bee having a great day

The cherry blossoms in the main esplanade have not quite popped yet, as it was a week too early (BBG is really great at timing the festival so that the blossoms are in peak bloom), but they were still gorgeous. Many trees were blooming all over the grounds, including some crabapples and magnolias, and of course, rows and rows of tulips were opening as well. We had a wonderfully relaxing time walking from one end of the garden to the other. We secretly munched on our veggies and laid out a blanket and read under a half-blooming tree. Then we were asked to move as apparently blankets are not allowed on the lawn (despite the 2-3 dozen other groups I saw with blankets throughout the day, and the fact that we’ve done it every other year without issue). Regardless of the fact that the groundskeepers seem to want to keep all the visitors moving constantly and not sit on any of the lawns (that display no signage forbidding it), nature’s calming effect wound down an incredibly hectic week.

Macro lenses aren't only for photographing food!

Now that our new kitchen is all decked out, I expect things on Get Cooking to resume as usual. Just wait until I post the chicken gyros I made before the move!

Redbud tree, truly Spring is finally here!

A banana after my own heart!

As soon as we’re settled, expect a slew of more tantalizing photos. Our new kitchen is more spacious and well-lit. No more taking pictures of bowls of food over the stove (which hopefully you didn’t notice… until now)! With more counter space shall come more dishes to cover them. I can’t wait, and I hope you’re excited too.