scallion meatballs with soy-ginger glaze

cinnamon brown butter breakfast puffs carrot soup with miso and sesame

scallion meatballs with soy-ginger glaze

It's a fairly accurate indication of how charmed my life is these days that I considered the act of having to choose what I would make to bring to a New Years Party tomorrow difficult. If makes you wonder what I'd consider easy — which spa gift certificate I should use first to get a manicure before the party? Whether I should wear the earrings from this year's or last year's little blue box to the party? Which jet to take there? It's all in a day of the glamorous life of a food blogger. Ahem.

In the last year, I've made a lot of jabs, mostly in my own direction, about how much various projects that I thought I'd handle like a pro have in fact kicked my ass — in order, those would be: a toddler, a cookbook, trying to have evenings and weekends work-free for Fun Family Things (even if they're, like, "Let's go buy mama more conditioner and eat warm pretzels along the way!") and this weird blend of feeling like I have absolutely no time for myself while also spending too much time by myself. We are definitely not going to discuss how many hours I have spent this year wondering how anyone ever gets dinner on the table/keeps an apartment clean/gets any sleep/takes vacations… all while looking cute. Nope, definitely not that either. But if you could read through the self-deprecation and exhaustion, I always hoped you'd figure out that I was, am, totally blissed out by this life I ended up with. This gig — 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, this beast and all — is pretty sweet and I wouldn't change a thing about it. I hope next year involves more of the same, with a little more travel and a lot more hanging out with people like you.