Well… I’m not exactly starting out the New Year out right. Several meals cooked, pictures taken, and no blog posts to talk about them. Not an auspicious beginning. But being that I did take pictures, there’s hope.

I almost have an excuse – I redid a website and since it’s a live site, I had to do it start-to-finish, plus I’m working on another one that’s also going to be a lot of fun.

So back to cooking…

The first meal I didn’t write about was a big pot of bean soup. I cooked a small ham for the two of us on New Year’s Eve and even small hams are too big for two people. But that luscious bone makes for great soup. I don’t generally follow recipes for things like soup – I’ve made them too long to think about what it is I do – but it’s pretty hard to screw it up.

I soaked a pound of beans over night, drained and rinsed them, then placed them in a pot, covered with water, and cooked, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, I sauteed a chopped onion in a soup pot. When it was translucent, I added the ham bone, covered it with water, and simmered it about 2 hours, uncovered.

I pulled out the bone, added the beans, a couple of chopped carrots, celery, and a bit of garlic powder, pepper, and herbs d’Provence.

It all cooked for another 45 minutes, or so, then I hit it with an immersion blender to break up some of the beans and thicken it up. Oh – and I also took all the ham from the bone and chopped it up and added it to the pot.

It came out pretty good…

Next was a simple Salisbury Steak.  To ground beef, I added finely-chopped onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a splash each of soy sauce and worcestershire sauce. Formed it into patties and then cooked them on the grill. I made a simple mushroom gravy and served it all with mashed potatoes and peas. Simplicity. And tasty, too.

Victor took over on Thursday and cooked up a chicken cordon bleu with leftover ham and gorgonzola cheese. He pounded the boneless breast, added pieces of ham and then crumbled gorgonzola. He then rolled them up, dipped in egg and then into breadcrumbs  and into the oven at 350° for about 25 minutes. Rice and cauliflower – along with a simple chicken gravy – finished the platThree excellent meals that took no time at all.

Cooking isn’t as difficult as writing about it afterwards.

Really.