It's been a while, but an actual post about cooking

After a crazy, busy week, I spent some time cooking this weekend. I finally have a larger kitchen, and I haven't spent that much time cooking in it. But I realized as I was cooking that the kitchen setup actually makes sense. I was making soup and pulled out my immersion blender and realized there is an outlet right by the stove.

After a kitchen with no drawers and one outlet, which meant rotating appliances, this i a very nice change. What is also nice: Throwing all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, wiping off the counter and having a clean kitchen.

I've tried a couple of new things, I thought I'd post about because in theory this is supposed to be a cooking blog.

After restaurant week, I was inspired to make zucchini cakes/fritters again. I knew I wasn't going to match the zucchini crab cake I had, but I wanted to get close to the zucchini fritter I had. Of course, then I got the job and moved and started the new job... But this weekend I did make a batch of zucchini fritters. I used this recipe from smitten kitchen. The recipe is pretty simple, but the directions are extensive, so I'm just linking it. I thought they turned out really well and were good left over.

I've been using Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust, and it has worked great. But then she raved about another recipe, and I figured if she thought it was better than hers I probably should try it. I've been making it with all butter and leave out the salt. I used it in a couple of tomato pies and then a zucchini pie this weekend. I'm trying freezing some of the dough this time to see if it works as well as the other one. Again the directions are pretty extensive, so I'm just linking to it.

Also, I bought some kale at the farmers' market last weekend. I am still a little shocked I chose to buy it, but I was on a mission to spend all $8 in cash that I had and have some variety in what I bought. I went to make kale chips and suddenly couldn't remember if there was something else to them besides olive oil and salt (there isn't). I texted a friend and she reassured me I had it right, but also suggested putting the mix for ranch dressing/dip. I tried that yesterday, and it was really good, definitely added some good flavor.