Back to the kitchen

I am always looking for new vegetarian dishes. I love knowing a dozen variations of roasted tomatoes (which are now lost on my husband who has developed a tomato sensitivity) and trying a bunch of soft pretzel recipes until I find the best one. I like experimenting with different herbs and different heirloom varieties. Unfortunately, I haven’t done much of the above since graduate school.

Between long hours at work and our evening workout routines, I haven’t spent much (any?) time in the kitchen over the last two years… up until we came back from our honeymoon two weeks ago. These past two weeks, partially inspired by the coming of fall and our switch to morning runs, I’ve cooked and cooked and completely loved it.

Now I help out with dinner, I help out with dishes, I help out with planning our meals for the week. We are heading towards a more equal division of labor in the house. While David has never complained about my lack of help around the house, I think he is really enjoying us doing these things together and also having more time during the evening for his research and schoolwork and reading for pleasure (the new Robert Jordan book came out on Tuesday).

I am excited about finally making the time to explore the two shelves worth of cookbooks in our study, remnants of my graduate school cooking experiences and gifts from friends and family. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t really had much of a chance to explore them… until now.

I am so excited.