Why this blog?

So, I like to cook (usually). And my family likes to eat (usually). But that doesn't mean they always like to eat what I cook. There will be many a day when we're headed home from school, and in their throes of hunger in the back seat, when that 5-minute drive is just too long to wait for a snack, they'll ask, "what are we having for dinner?" Sometimes they like the answer. Oftentimes they don't. And when they don't like the answer, I hear a chorus of "OMG! Chili?!?!?! Again?!?" Or, "MOMMY!! We just had frozen blintzes for the LAST FOUR DAYS!!!" (Which is totally not true, but they always seem to think we have their least favorites all the time.)

So I am starting this blog, not as a huge navel gazing exercise (because, seriously... how much more navel gazing can you get than chronicling your dinners for a year?) but so every time the kids say, "We had XXXX for dinner 10 times this week already!" I can say, "go pull up the blog and show me. We so didn't." Also, for those rare sweet times when I try a new recipe and everyone LOVES it (so I can have it on record, surely to be added to the 10x/week rotation, ensuring we'll all be sick of it within a month...). Finally, I like trying new recipes (usually. When they turn out well, anyway) and if you're a friend with too much time on your hands, swing on by here and see what we've been eating lately. If it's a keeper, I'll let you know. And please don't be shy about leaving comments. It's always nice to know when people are staring at your food pics :) Even if it turns out really crappy.

Where do my new recipes come from? For the last couple years or so, probably 75% are Pinterest inspired (ugh, navel gazing AND Pinterest?!). The rest are either from friends/family or from Allrecipes.com. I've lived and died by Allrecipes for many years -- I don't have faith in a new something to try unless 950 people have all reviewed it (let's not get into the reviews where they change 90% of the ingredients and then complain the recipe is no good...).

Some disclaimers: I am not a fancy chef. I am generally married to following a recipe and hate deviating much from it, aside from making significant sodium reductions (more on that later). I do read Allrecipes reviews and take heed of reviewers' suggested substitutions/changes but I generally like to make the recipe as intended. I would Crash. and Burn. if I were a contestant on a Food Network show like Cutthroat Kitchen or Chopped or Next Food Network Star (we watch those all regularly around here) and I had to make mid-course adjustments to a recipe or even worse, be handed an avocado, corn flakes, and syrup and told to make an entree. I try to cook healthfully but there are definitely nights when a big ole pot of homemade mac n cheese (chock full of cream and butter) is required. Compensating with a big bowl of steamed veggies on the side helps, no?

Also we do go out to eat. Maybe once every week or two weeks? I don't cook every single night. Often I'll do a number of nights in a row of cooking, then we have a fridge/freezer full of leftovers and we'll have a "leftover night" where we each choose a different meal to reheat. We just did that last night, actually. Steve and Owen had leftover creamy tomato soup and Mindy sandwiches (will save that for a future meal night post). Genevieve had two huge servings of lasagna. I had leftover broccoli soup and toast, and Camden had a few bites of everyone's and PB&J. Also, I tend to make almost 2x what our family eats on a given night. Typically we break the leftovers into single serving containers and freeze for individual future lunches, or leftover dinners.

This is also not going to be a step-by-step cooking blog, a la the Pioneer Woman. I plan to post a quick link to the recipe du jour, maybe a quick photo I've snapped with my phone when it's done, and overall how the meal went over. You aren't going to see me chopping the onions. Both of the big kids are saying they want to post commentary after dinner -- if there's time each night we'll see what they come up with.

Do you have a recipe you think my family might consume happily? By all means, please send it. I need all the help I can get.