I have not written here in a while because I have not cooked in a while- we just moved and the new kitchen was not set up until the night before last.

And, people? I gained 5 pounds just from eating all my meals out. 5 pounds in a week! If that is not a reason to keep cooking, I don't know what is. I certainly never gained 5 pounds even when cooking nothing but Julia Child, y'all.

The new kitchen is much, much smaller with not nearly the obscene amount of counter/cabinet space that our old kitchen had. However, it is shiny and new. The refrigerator is sparkling. And while I may not have the counterspace to keep out a stand mixer, blender, toaster and food processor, I do have a new shelving unit to hold them all. (I told Jeff that Phil Spector may be known for the "Wall of Sound," but Hannah Spector had the "Wall of Small Appliances." He did not find that nearly as funny as I did.)

Tuesday night I made stirfry, using my old standby technique adapted ages ago from Mark Bittman. We did not have any hoisin sauce and instead I used a General Tsao's sauce from Trader Joe's- and it was a little sweet, but tasty. When I first started cooking, that is one of the very first recipes I ever used. I remember taping it inside the cabinet over my stove where I followed it religiously in my first apartment. Now, of course, I use different vegetables, different meats, different nuts, different sauces- and it always works. Cooking is mostly doing, I guess.

Last night I was going to fire up the little kettle grill but I realized I left the bottom part of it at the old apartment. So instead I seared a flat iron steak that I bought from a vendor at the Farmer's Market (which I can now walk to on Sundays) in a cast iron skillet and roasted some potato chips in the oven. Which was delicious- I served the steak with just a smidge of compound blue-cheese butter- but also caused the entire apartment to smoke like Denis Leary. I am thinking it was because I had the pizza stone, which is somewhat crusted up with cheese, was also in the oven when I roasted the potatoes. I will have to clean it, I guess. Because there is nowhere else to put it.