I’ve gotten the nicest comments from people – I didn’t really know anyone was reading the blog regularly, and it feels so great to know you’re all enjoying it enough to miss it!

I somehow lost my mojo over the last few months, with a cross-country move, taking the bar exam, another cross-country move – and now living in an apartment with a tiny kitchen. It is seriously this size, guys:

This is from an ugly kitchen contest: http://getpublished.news-leader.com/UglyKitchen/Gallery.php?ImageID=49

If you’ve never lived in New York, you probably think I’m exaggerating. I am not.

I don’t think I’ve cooked anything happily in…a long time. I can’t remember when. So I’ve felt completely lame about posting when I haven’t been doing anything myself.

However, my wonderful and persistent best friend has been (nicely) bugging me to start writing here again, and I remembered when talking with her that this was never meant to be a “cooking blog”. I’ve never claimed to be the world’s best or most knowledgeable – or even vaguely knowledgeable! – cook. It’s meant to be about entertaining people you love, and good food and cocktails and pretty tables all go into that, and that is why they’re on this blog. So even if I’m not cooking much these days, we can still talk about all that other lovely stuff.

This is especially true as we go into the holidays, which I wholeheartedly and energetically adore. Having an entire section of the year in which everyone is remembering to love and be grateful for each other is an absolutely extraordinary thing. Plus, there’s seeing family, choosing gifts for people they love, having parties, dressing up, and Christmas music! I’ll be back home in Wyoming in a few weeks, and already have one dinner planned and a champagne tasting New Year’s party to throw, so those will be a few really fun things to tell you all about.