Earlier this year I wrote about change and the urge I was feeling to reconnect with some books I hadn't visited in a long time. When I look back on the almost four years I've written Cooking After Five, I realize it's made me into a home cook. Though I was full of enthusiasm, I knew far less about cooking when I began and made plenty of mistakes (like over-reducing balsamic vinegar and nearly burning down my kitchen making mozzarella sticks). Cooking After Five also helped me find my voice, which is why I believe I'm ready to move forward with a new project. The time is right, I can feel it.

I've decided to channel my voice into a new forum by turning Eat This Poem, the series I recently started here, into its own blog. For this reason, I hope that for most of you, this is not goodbye. I'm still blogging, cooking and welcoming you to join me in my little corner of the web. I just changed the name, changed the brand. There's a whole world of literature out there dedicated to food, hunger and the idea of nourishing our bodies and minds. It's just waiting to be adapted to our kitchen! I'll read poetry (and a little prose, too) and create recipes inspired by it.

I first went to Pizzeria Mozza for lunch in 2009. It was my birthday, and a group of colleagues decided to make the drive from Century City to Hollywood for the occasion. Since then, Nancy Silverton's pizza has been the standard of comparison for every other restaurant. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that I pre-ordered the Mozza cookbook as soon as I learned about it, for the sole purpose of having her somewhat-modified-for-home-kitchens pizza recipe.

What is it about this time of year that makes us want to start fresh? It's not the same back to school feeling of September, either. It's not new pencils and homework assignments and blank notebooks, because all of that is routine. Your life begins and ends with the school bell, and while it's a new year, a new grade and a new teacher, it's more of the same. A comfortable routine. Right now, I'm talking about actual change. New ideas. Clearing out the physical and mental clutter. Making lists of tasks that will refresh and inspire us. Achievable, for the most part, so come March we aren't completely disappointed with ourselves.

As for me, I've had an itch lately. At first, I wasn't entirely sure what for. What I did know is I struggle with the decision to read a novel instead of the latest food manifesto. Lose myself in a story, or learn the inner workings of our food system? Both are important, but the latter seems more useful somehow, though that wasn't always the case.

I was one of those teenagers that thought coffee cake actually tasted like coffee, and since I didn't like coffee yet, I presumed I didn't like coffee cake. It was a sad, sad time. One night I was hanging out with two of my friends who had just come back to the store with a red box of Aunt Jemima coffee cake mix. Even then, seeing that coffee didn't make an appearance in the ingredients, I was still skeptical. Then I took a bite, and the brown sugar crumble topping won me over. I made that cake for years, from the box, whenever I craved it. Then I started cooking, learned to bake, and well, I'm sure you can see where this is going.

The truth is, breakfast is simpler than I originally thought. I'm used to the 30-second approach: remove a bowl from the pantry, fill it with cereal, splash milk over the top, eat. Aside from the no-cook method, I also love cereal for the slightly sweet, crunchy o's swirling in my almond milk. I'm a texture person, and I've loved cereal for as long as I can remember. Since it's one of the last bits of processed food I eat, I wanted to at least make an attempt to let go, so I made a pact with myself towards the end of last year that I'd make a concerted effort to give up cereal.  

Over the last two months, I'm happy to say that I've almost eliminated it. Almost. There was no use removing it completely, at least until I came up with some new things to eat. Now that I have a growing aresnal of morning meals, I wanted to share a few of them with you.

JANUARY | Red Lentil Soup

This soup was all about simplicity. Minimal ingredients, simple preparation and the beauty of making something wholesome from scratch.

FEBRUARY | Mujaddara with Spiced Yogurt

This is a near-perfect pantry dish with lots of flavor and a comfort-food quality perfect after any busy day. It was also something I never cooked before, so I loved that it taught me something new.

By the time Christmas comes along, I've had my share of cookies, pies and late-night sweets. More than my share, in fact. I usually give baked goods away, but then I made an amazing batch of cookies, froze the dough, and proceeded to eat a cookie (or two) for dessert every night for a week. (No complaints from Andrew, mind you.) Then there was the caramel pie I ate for dinner once. Chocolate cookies. Cookies with ice cream. Cake. Sugar. Butter. Flour....

Between cookie exchange parties, baking for school and office parties and whipping up dessert for yourself or gifts for neighbors, there are many sweets vying for your attention this season. These cookies are not frosted, painted, or rolled in sugar, but they are the best chocolate chip cookies I've had, so that's worth something, I think.

I was always skeptical of these 24-hour cookie recipes. Who wants to wait that long to eat a cookie? Beyond the time commitment, there are two types of flours, neither of which are all-purpose, so that might seem inconvenient unless you happen to have them in the pantry. Andrew and I did a little quality control just to be sure this cookie was worth everything it claimed. We baked two cookies from the freshly made dough, and chilled the rest as instructed. They were good, but the next day's batch was exceptional.

The last time I made this dish was in 2008 after reading Molly Wizenberg's Bon Appetit column. I posted a lone photograph with a link, and offered very little insight into the finished dish. It was time to revisit one of my favorite, long lost appetizers.

When two friends came over for dinner earlier this month, pumpkin risotto was on the menu, but I also wanted to make something that could serve a dual purpose of appetizer and entree side dish, should anyone need to munch on something after licking their risotto bowl clean.