Oh, hey.

How's it goin'? I disappeared from Blogger for a while. That was fun. Or something.

The holidays got a little crazy. I took Fred to Springfield for the first time. He met the entire extended family. That was interesting. Despite the giant spread they always have, nothing is vegan. Fred and I made an entire dinner for me. In hindsight, we should've made something much, much simpler, but we did a seitan en croute, mashed potatoes with Vcon mushroom gravy, stuffing with cranberries and pecans, and the VWAV gingerbread apple pie. My sister was awesome enough to make a three sisters chili which was pretty delicious.

Fred finally got to meet my brother. He also had his first horseshoe, this local dish that's something of an abomination to a vegan. Traditionally, it's texas toast open face with some ground beef, layered with french fries and covered with cheese sauce. It's intense. One of these days, I'll veganize it. I've been thinking about it for a while.

Christmas was strange, but only because it was the first time I didn't go home ever. Some awesome friends from work took Fred and me in for Christmas dinner. Our hosts made some awesome bruschetta, some amazing bread, and two cassoulets, one vegan for me, and one with pork for everyone else. The other couple brought a cheese plate and bottle after bottle of amazing wine. Fred and I made Vcon moussaka to bring along with the VWAV raspberry blackout cake. Everything was incredibly delicious.

Just before Christmas, my shoulder started feeling a lot better, so much better that I called my orthopaedist and moved up my appointment. I had a feeling that I could get back to work before the new year. He said I was improving a lot faster than he'd anticipated, so I was cleared for work. Yay! I started back on December 29. Thankfully, since I went back when I did, I didn't have to deal with all the insurance mumbo-jumbo of starting the new year/new month without working.

Prior to heading back to work, I ordered Appetite for Reduction and have been cooking the shittake out of it. There have been few non-AFR recipes around here lately. So many reasons why this book is so timely. Since I've gone back to work, my schedule is a little crazy. Most of the recipes are pretty quick, so I don't have to spend all day in the kitchen. I gained some weight during my leave, and AFR is all about making super-tasty healthy food. I'd also been thinking of incorporating more veggies in my diet, both in quantity and the types I buy. I started off exploring cauliflower and broccoli, two ingredients I've shied away from in the past. AFR is really showing how much I really do love vegetables. My 16 year old self would be totally freaked out by everything I'm eating these days.

I'm definitely glad to be back at work, but I had to step down from my position. Now I'm just a regular team member. I've been struggling to figure out what my place is there now. It's pretty clear that I'm well suited for more responsibility than most of my fellow TMs, but my TLs don't really have a plan for me yet. We've all been talking about it in the last week or so. Hopefully we'll get it figured out.

I hate when blogs say 'oh, hey, I'm back', and then they never post again. I'm fairly certain that won't happen, but I'm not making any promises. There's a cookbook challenge on the PPK starting tomorrow, so I'll try to blog about all of that. Here's hoping it goes better than MoFo.