Three years ago if you told me that I’d love peas, I would have laughed at you. When I was a kid, mean lunch ladies in hairnets dumped cans of gray peas into steam trays to sit for four hours. They should have dumped them into the garbage directly and saved us all a lot of trouble. Well, one recipe changed my mind, and I’ve been in love with peas ever since. The canned peas are still on my hate list, but frozen peas often please. Fresh peas, however, uplift. A quick steam, a tiny pat of butter, and a sprinkle of salt elevates them even more. Too much butter or even a little black pepper distracts from the purity of the sweet popping green. I can’t think of a better meal for a birthday.

Three years ago if you told me that I’d celebrate the first birthday of my food blog I would have said, “What’s a food blog? And are they as awesome as they sound?” Yes, they are! Not mine, I mean in general, which is why I had to start one myself. You write about food! And people read it! Then you do it again! The 3% of so of you who don’t have food blogs should really start one, just like I did.

It was mixed first year, as first years tend to be. My very first photograph won third place in originality in a DMBLGiT? contest, but then I argued that burnt rice consumption results in hot sex. I successfully baked a pie for the first time in nearly 20 years but then advocated using your pets for cooking. I hosted DMBLGiT? in January but then had to go and mention Barry Manilow. I suffered, sweated, and made mistakes (I meant to reference The Exorcist, not Poltergeist), but I also made exciting new obsessions discoveries, disseminated pasta porn, and shared ideas. I was even nominated for an award! Then I had to go and nominate myself for Supergeek of the year.

I regret nothing. Not even the thumbnails. They would have just turned green anyway…green with envy because they didn’t get to eat these awesome birthday peas!