I made Pecan-Crusted Chicken for dinner, and I blogged about it. It felt sort of comforting and familiar. Both the blogging and the dinner.

This might shock you to know, but that's not the way I usually work.

Blogs evolve. When I started this blog November 21, 2008 I was very intent on presenting the food that I was eating everyday. I somehow thought that my dinner choices were fascinating enough to support a prolific blog and a slew of happy followers. If I made it, I would photograph it, I would eat it, I would blog about it– and they would come! Simple as that.

This started out as a pretty good deal, because regular old menu planning equaled blog posts– night after night (after night).

However, the longer I blogged, the more I realized that recurring "big salads" and 2 nights a week of pasta or 3 nights a week of summer grilling could get repetitive fairly quickly. It also meant that dinner got held up for photo shoots. Uncomfortable arguments entailed, etc.

I was brought up Episcopalian, I'm not used to raised voices at the dinner table. It seems so Fred and Ethel to me. Certainly we were more Howard and Marion Cunningham than Fred and Ethel Mertz. Certainly.

I'm sure you've guessed that the squabbles were usually about late dinners and crappy photographs. Ken was peeved by cold plates, and I was embarrassed to be seen running all over the house with a plate of spaghetti in hand looking for good light (at 7pm on a rainy winter's evening). I pretty quickly determined this was not the path to blog success (or marital bliss).

Something would have to change if I was to continue blogging.

Blogging would have to become my job. Calenders were put in place. Schedules were designed so that I could blog at more reasonable hours. Dinner once again became the time to reconnect. A time to focus my attention on Howard (I mean Ken) and ask how his day went.

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

However I recently had a bout of nostalgia and reverted to my old ways. I was making this Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Roasted Apples and Maple-Bourbon Gravy for dinner when I realized that Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Roasted Apples and Maple-Bourbon Gravy was perfect for Sippity Sup. So for old time sake I grabbed the plate I'd soon be serving Ken and ran all over the house looking for some good light. It was kind of fun and I'm grateful that after 6 years of blogging, a plate of Pecan-Crusted Chicken can still remind me what it's like to be a brand new blogger. GREG

Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Roasted Apples and Maple-Bourbon Gravy