Time to dust off the blog and get back in the kitchen. As one would imagine, in the span of two years quite a bit can happen. For example, one may find oneself uprooted from the glistening aisles of organic decadence in a vast Whole Foods in Chicago and dropped into a noisy mercado, staring at a gutted pig carcass and trying to wrangle ribs from a butcher in Spanish. (I swear to God it’s costillas de cerdo, yet somehow I always end up with pork chops).

No matter. After nine months of living in Buenos Aires I’ve learned to be flexible and creative when it comes to cooking, I’ve gotten used to shopping in five different places to track down the ingredients for one meal, and I’ve adjusted to the short storage life of foods that aren’t pumped full of preservatives. Chicken breasts really shouldn’t survive in a fridge for days, anyhow.

When moving to Buenos Aires, I didn’t have a lot of pre-conceived notions about what it would be like. I’d never even been here before, and if I believed everything I read on the internet I’d have expected to be robbed and/or assaulted within the first few days. (If you ever want to scare the shit out of yourself before a trip, seek out the ex-pat forums for your destination. It’s cynicism on a whole new level, friends.)

Happily, nine months in I’ve yet to be robbed or attacked, unless you count getting fake money out of an ATM as robbery or dirty piropos as verbal assault, and I’ve really started to settle in and focus on enjoying the changes and opportunities our new life in Argentina presents. Bringing this blog to life is one of them.