A Very Bloggy Week

It's been a big "faces with the blog" week. Tuesday night was dinner with Dara at Mari Luna (I'm not going to write a full-on review until I've been a few more times, but it was awesome from start to finish. Would recommend.)

And I've just returned from the very fancy-gourmet Dulaney Valley Shopping Center Starbucks, where I had coffee with a small brain trust of Baltimore food bloggers - most of the people who will be on the Great Tastes panel. In addition to Dara, I met Rachel, John, Dan, Meg and Erin.

I wasn't really sure what to expect going in. I've never met anybody "offline" before and, honestly, I think I have some negative mental images of the kinds of people who actually meet people online (somehow I exclude myself from that group, despite the fact that I am entirely a part of it). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to meet the whole group - besides being totally normal (not an internet-obsessed shut-in among us) they were really funny. I love funny.

In unrelated news (though I suppose it could affect the blog, it being a food blog and all) my kitchen is back up and running. There are still some little things that need to be finished, and we'll have to be out of the house for a day at some point soon, so the floors can be finished, but almost all of my things are put away (I still have to empty out the buffet, since we're getting rid of it) and everything is 100% functional.

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost any sort of ability to cook. I haven't gotten the hang of the new range and oven and so far, the two meals I've produced out of the kitchen have kind of sucked. Also, I keep forgetting to go to the grocery store, since I'm completely out of the habit.

It's like starting at square one again - a not so triumphant return to the winter of 2002, only with a wider variety of kitchen tools to play with.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get back to at least passable as a cook soon. If for no other reason than that I can't stomach any more pizza.