Honestly, I did. It's just that stuff kept happening, such as I had another little Gateau. Lucky me, with each pregnancy my experience of morning sickness got worse and more prolonged, this time coupled with a freaked-out sense of smell that sometimes made it very dangerous to go into the kitchen, so my cooking (and writing about it) fell off sharply.
But now I'm back. It's sometimes hard to cook with a babe in arms, but on the upside, I've pretty much mastered the art of quick vegetable soups that then get pureed into oblivion with a stick blender. They're delicious and good for you, and since they get pureed smooth, it really doesn't matter how nice the chopping job is, as long as the pieces are relatively even in size so they cook at the same rate. In addition to a family favorite White Bean Soup with Red Pepper Swirl from Jeanne Lemlin's Simple Vegetarian Pleasures, one of my recent successes has been with carrot soups. Nobody in our house likes sweetened carrot soups -- and there are a lot of them -- but we all liked this Moroccan Carrot Soup from Epicurious and I recently did another deliciously spicy one based on this chilled soup with curry and coconut milk, though I served it hot. I think the addition of Thai yellow curry paste was a great addition.*
Actually, now that I'm poking around on Epicurious, this one sounds worthy too.
So very much looking forward to the summer cooking ahead of me. A few herbs are in the garden, we have strawberries that actually look like they might turn into something, and I recently planted blueberry bushes. Tomato seedlings are due to arrive soon. The Bobcats are kicking off tonight with a margarita-laden group cookout, and next week we take on Greek mezze. Stay tuned.
*Special thanks to Chef Jane at the Institute of Culinary Education, who taught the Thai cooking class Ms. Cake and I took together. She encouraged us to think of the numerous ways that Thai yellow, red, and green curry pastes can enhance other dishes, and ever since then I've been incorporating them all over the place. A few of her great idea were red curry in barbecue sauces, yellow curry anywhere you'd use curry powder, and green curry in guacamole.
