Closing the Kitchen on 2011...

As we close the kitchen door on 2011 -- we're going out to eat this evening -- I want to reassure those of you not following my food photography on Facebook that while I didn't share it here, we didn't exactly spend a year in fasting. The image to the left emerged from the oven for dinner last night, our takeon this Blue Kitchen masterpiece. Bacon and blue cheese... a capital note on which to close the kitchen.

I leave you this evening with a collage of images representing a year's worth of comestibles. As I get back into the groove over the next few weeks, the stories behind some of them will appear on these pages. While 2011 was certainly a year filled with change it was also one of discovery and reaffirmation. Happiness to me is sharing good food with good friends.

• A beer and a burger with my "Sick Sigma" buddies from Sunnyvale.
• A sensational summer afternoon sipping sparkling wine...
• Introducing an old friend to a new trend: pork belly buns off of a food truck...
• An amazing "caught this morning" roasted salmon fillet...
• Portuguese cheese sold from an outbuilding on a Petaluma farm...
• The ultimate farmer's market find: saurkraut "juice" as the ultimate cure for radiation-induced dehydration...
• A last minute reunion with some of the people who inspired my early love of food, over dim sum after Thanksgiving...

Here's to a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2012!