A stew and a stir fry (Return to Normalcy #1)

Hey! It's March! I kind of promised myself that I would try to get back to posting every day during March. It's a little thing, but it makes me really happy to spend the 5-10 minutes it takes me to put together a post thinking about and talking about food. As I've mentioned to a few people, I think that making myself write everyday is really good for me as a person. It makes me share stuff that I might otherwise hesitate on-- because the picture's not perfect, because I don't like exactly how the recipe turned out, because I don't know if the internet REALLY needs yet another gluten-free vegan energy bar recipe, etc.

And the trouble with that is that once I start not posting for those (fairly legitimate) reasons, then I stop posting for worse reasons-- vague sensations of "not good enough" etcetera. And then even when I make something great (it happens! sometimes!), then I don't post about it. And that's sad, because in case you didn't notice, I freakin' love talking about food.

So. So. Daily posting! That's my goal for March! I am trying a RADICAL new approach today and writing my post in the daytime (rather than after the Emperor goes to bed, which is when I usually post) because I think maybe it's more likely to happen if I just get it done as close to first thing as possible...

Okay, enough chit chat. Time for pictures! I'm primarily making test recipes for Isa's book right now so that's what we've got.

Check this out:



Smoky Aztec Stew. Oh MAN, was this good. When I read the ingredients out to Josh, he looked at me very suspiciously and said: Did YOU think up this recipe? This has so many things I like in it, all in a nice smoky (but not overly spicy) chipotle broth.



Mango Fried Rice. Have I mentioned how crazy the Emperor is for mango? He would live off of dried mango if he could. He even likes freeze dried mango, which I think is a crime against nature. Weird kid. Anyway, I think this was his first time eating fresh mango ever. I don't usually buy it because of the whole mangoes come from a billion miles away thing... but there are local mangoes here for a couple of weeks every year, so I scooped some up and made this.

It was WELL worth the almost $5 I paid for the two mangoes in it. Really freaking delicious. The Emperor loved it too-- he DID pick all his mango chunks out first but eventually came back and ate an entirely reasonable portion of the rice, without even picking out the tomatoes/basil/onions/cashews/etc.

Last but not least: it's Thursday, the end of my 3 day stretch of the Emperor being in preschool, so all I have to share with you are pictures of the Magician. But look at this guy. He's pretty cute:



He also really IS a magical baby. Yesterday he let me sleep in until 9:30 a.m., and this morning he napped for TWO hours in his bouncy chair while I did a butt ton of chores and cooking. If all babies were like this, I'd have like 12.