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It has been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve blogged, so long that I no longer consider myself a blogger or identify as being one. I honestly lost the desire to write and to share. Then suddenly last week, I looked up my blog and the desire returned.

It is not that I have the time to blog. Life is currently nuts (recovering from surgery, moving, selling a house, training two dogs, and work). I think my time in the kitchen has rekindled my urge to share. Cooking has inspired me.

In the last two weeks I’ve cooked 4 new recipes, while in 14 days that may not seem like a lot, 3 of those have occurred within one week. The prior week, one of the recipes was not new to me and the rest of the week was spent eating out and celebrating my 32 birthday. In those two weeks and 5 meals, I’ve really rediscovered my love for cooking.

What has changed in the last two weeks? I moved in with my boyfriend. And while I’ve cooked for him before moving in, it was typically only once a week and it wasn’t my kitchen. Things were always missing (his kitchen isn’t as stocked as mine), I’d buy ingredients we already had, or he would do the grocery shopping. Also, I was skimping out on cooking/shopping for myself. Up until the move, my kitchen was pathetic.

I also find it a great joy to cook for someone else. So far, I haven’t screwed up a meal nor has he given me the thumbs down on any meal. I know it is only a matter of time before something turns out awful and there is a total failure that ends with me ordering pizza.

So what have I been cooking?

• Pineapple Chicken Kabobs
  Sundays are grill days. Scott grills all of his chicken for the week for his lunch, so I figured if the grill is going that dinner should be grilled too. While the grilled pineapple was delicious and the combination of sweet and peppers was perfect I was disappointed with the recipe’s marinade and sauce. I’ll definitely use a different marinade next time.
• Chicken Quesadillas
  This meal was kind of a disaster, only because it was really messy. To simplify cooking dinner on a Monday night, I decided to use the crockpot for the quesadilla filling. Except it was a taco recipe, which means it was wet. Doesn’t do well in a quesadilla. The flavors were spot on and we used my quesadilla maker but we did need extra napkins for this one!
• Grilled Pork with Charmoula
  We knocked it out of the park with this meal. I do the prep work and Scott fires up the grill. This original recipe calls for lamb chops but Scott isn’t a fan, so I used pork chops instead and rubbed them down with LOTS of cumin. I doubled the sauce recipe (because as the Sauce Boss, I always need extra). We grilled sweet corn as our veggie and they were so wonderful, they didn’t even need butter! I highly recommend pulling out the grill and giving this recipe a try. If you do it with lamb, let me know!
• Salmon Meatballs with a Dijon-Lemon Sauce
  I was a little nervous about this meal because I was going to make the salmon filets into ground salmon. I may have over pulsed it one too many times in the food processor. I also used the food processor to chop up spinach to add to the meatballs.
  For the sauce, I used a cup of half & half and a cup of greek yogurt. I didn’t feel like it called for enough mustard/lemon so I added more to taste. I served it over a bed of zucchini noodles. This one was a big hit.
• Spinach and Artichoke Skilled Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes
  This recipe was made on a whim because I was too lazy that morning to prep everything in the crockpot. I wasn’t crazy about this. Probably because I didn’t use cream cheese. Though it wasn’t bad and didn’t get any complaints from Scott, I don’t think I’ll be repeating it again.

I look forward to blogging more in the future and sharing not only my adventures in cooking but in life as well.

Until next time.
Jen Leigh