Second Birthday - And Some Favorite Recipes From the Past Two Years

I missed a lot of things while I was out of commission recently.  One thing I hadn’t realized I’d missed was the second birthday of The Well-Fed Newlyweds.  Now you know I was seriously under the weather!  I can’t believe it’s been over two years since I shared my first recipe with you.  Some of you have been with me since the beginning, and some of you are new friends.  However long it’s been, I’m so happy to have you here to share in the successes (and occasional) flops of our kitchen.

Since I’m feeling kind of nostalgic, I thought I would share some of our very favorite recipes from the past two years.  These are recipes I’ve made over and over again – and will likely continue to make for years to come.  If you missed them the first time around, give them a try.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.


One Year Ago: Nutty Pumpkin Granola

Tortellini Soup

Cheesecake Brownies

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup

Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken

Three Bean and Beef Chili

Cranberry Applesauce

Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Beer Bread

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

Baked Risotto with Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

Baked Banana Oatmeal

Slow Cooked Puerto Rican Pork

Tex Mex Chicken and Rice Casserole

Too Hot to Handle

Well friends, I have good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad news and get that unpleasantness out of the way. Two nights ago, I was making dessert for my in-laws who were visiting for a few days. In the process of being more focused on getting a good shot of my dessert than on remembering that I’d just pulled the skillet out of the oven, I wrapped my hand around a 400-degree handle. Let’s just say it wasn’t pleasant and leave it at that. I spent the last night of their visit in the emergency room and have spent the past two days with my hand wrapped up in gauze, mummy-style.

A trip to the burn clinic today – one of those “we have to make it worse so it can get better” things – has left me pretty much unable to do any cooking for the next week. (I can’t get my hand wet, and I consider hand washing to be an important part of cooking. Plus I can’t really do much with three fingers and my entire palm out of commission.)

Here’s the real kicker – I have been looking forward to our Second Annual Sweets Week for the past month. I was looking forward to sharing a different dessert recipe with you every day this week, and I was counting on having the early part of this week to finish up my baking. Clearly that isn’t going to happen, so I am so bummed to say that Sweets Week will be delayed for a week. This is especially bothersome to me considering the whole “sweets for your sweet” thing is a little less fun the week after Valentine’s Day. You’re a nice group of folks, though. I know you’ll understand!

Here’s the good news though. I have several non-dessert recipes that I can’t wait to tell you about. I’ve already cooked them and photographed them, so all I have to do is type up my posts using whatever fingers happen to not be wrapped in gauze that day! (I am incredibly lucky that I burnt my left hand since I am a rightie.) Be on the lookout for something delicious coming at you tomorrow. And for goodness sake, please be careful with hot handles!

Healthy Recipes to Kick Off the New Year

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve with friends and family and have kicked off 2011 with a bang. We stayed in to ring in the New Year this year, and celebrated with friends, an enormous meal, and a whole lot of celebratory libations. After all of that revelry, Stan and I are feeling the need for some healthier meals and a little more exercise in our lives. While neither of us are big on New Year’s resolutions, eating better and moving more are certainly tops on many people’s lists for this time of year. So, in honor of those, like us, who need some holiday detox, or are trying to make good on healthy resolutions, today’s post features recipes that can help you cook your way to a healthier new year.

Soups and stews are always good in January, heating you up without filling you out. Here are some delicious, belly-warming options... (Just click on the recipe titles to link to the original posts!)

Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

Island Kale and Sweet Potato Soup

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

 Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup

Tortellini Soup

Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Chickpea and Kale Stew

Chicken Posole

Newlyweds No More? No Way!

One year ago today, on a rainy evening in Dayton, Ohio, I walked down the aisle in a big, poufy white dress and became a wife. For the past three hundred and sixty five days, I have been a blissful newlywed – and a well-fed one at that! And perhaps because our first year of marriage seemed to have passed by in the blink of an eye, I still feel like a newlywed. (At least most of the time. Sometimes I feel like we’re an old married couple, feeling every minute of our six and a half years together.) So fear not, my friends. Even though we may not technically be newlyweds anymore, I still feel like we are, and will continue to blog as such.

I wanted to bake something special today to post in honor of our anniversary, but to be honest with you, no recipe could top my excitement over eating cake saved from our wedding. Our wedding cake was so delicious that I have high hopes it will have survived a year in the freezer. If six layers of plastic wrap and aluminum foil didn’t do the job, well then, I have a backup recipe at the ready. In any event, there are some exciting recipes coming your way this week. Check them out and share them with the ones you love – no matter how long you have (or haven’t) been married!