Since I didn't die in the Mayan Apocalypse I should probably blog more.

(Blows a thick layer of dust off my blog.)

Hello there!

So yeah, it's been a really really damn long time since I've actually blogged. Part of it is because the word blog sounds funny. Part of it is because I'm extremely lazy and its easier to photo-dump and food chat in facebook's echo chamber. That's made for a year of fairly low-content and high velocity food blurbs, and nothing particularly in depth. So I'm aiming to change all that. It's not going to be easy, man. Not at all. I'm fighting against a powerful lazy urge that is genetically written into my bones. Now, you might say "But Chuck, you do all of this cooking, surely you can't be lazy!"

You would be silly and wrong. I have to eat to live. I do not have to blog to live. So no matter how lazy I am, I do enjoy to eat food and be alive, so they're slightly different things, cooking and blogging about cooking.

But like I said, change is in the air. The Mayans didn't kill us with an ancient alien mecha doomsday whatever, so I feel a new lease on life, and as I've already established, that necessary life process that is cooking and eating food. So since I both love contradictions and abhor new year's resolutions, let me say with confidence that:

In the year 2013, I will blog no less than 52 entries, at least one blog entry per week!

If I succeed, I will buy myself a bottle of single malt scotch as a reward in 2014. If I lose, I will buy myself a bottle of single malt scotch to console my broken heart in 2014. I love a hedged bet.

And because not every week can be a journey into homemade charcuterie or doing a DIY food crawl of Indonesian street food, I'd also like to spend a portion of that time visiting, eating at, and writing about some of the fairly badass eating establishments in and around my home city of Birmingham, Alabama. Before my readers in NYC scoff (yes, I can feel you judging me) we may not have a food scene like that, but you take a city + metro of 1.5 million or less and compare it to us. We do pretty dadgum good down here, and I intend to spread the love around. Whether you like Lebanese chain gyro shops or chefs that make Bobby Flay look stupid on national TV (always a good thing), you'll find both in the 2-0-5.

And just to make sure I'm not no-content posting, here's what I made to ring in the New Year. I forgot to buy the usual traditional stuff like collards and black-eyed peas, but I did at least have a greasy breakfast on hand to offset any new years festivities.

Toast, some garlic rosemary and cheddar hash browns, and home-cured applewood rosemary bacon. My wife did the honors with the poached egg to make it all perfect.