I’ve got­ten a pass for the past six weeks or so. Pack up a house, drive across the coun­try, and unpack said house into a slightly smaller house, and no one expects culi­nary bril­liance for a while. Despite our excite­ment about new vis­tas in take­out and a long list of restau­rants we are dying to try, I also just want food that tastes familiar—that I cooked myself.

I’m still find­ing my way in this new kitchen. The cab­i­nets go all the way to the ceil­ing, which is great for space-saving pur­poses, but also requires that I keep a step stool handy. There’s a deep cor­ner cab­i­net that’s a lit­tle awk­ward for stor­age, and I can’t fig­ure out what, if any­thing, belongs there. I’ve cooked in smaller kitchens. I’ve man­aged just fine with­out a dish­washer. My first solo apart­ment in New York had a sink so small that I filled my stock pot from the bath­tub. I can adapt. It’s just that since we’ve unpacked, the kitchen just feels a lit­tle off. I know that I won’t be able to fix the weird things until I fig­ure out what they are. And the only way to do that is just to get in there and cook. But what?

When Michelle (aka Pretty Mommy) wrote about her own din­ner dilem­mas, I felt a lit­tle less alone. (An aside: I am not a Pretty Mommy myself, unless you count moth­er­ing my dog, but Michelle’s site is one of my faves, so you should check it out.) Any­way, she’s host­ing a recipe exchange of sorts, and my recipe is up on Wednes­day (mark your cal­en­dars!) but until then, take a look at what every­one else has been whip­ping up.

• Pretty Mommy: taco soup (Michelle, you had me at taco.)
• A Place to Share: but­ter­nut squash, sage and white bean soup (Despite a will­ing­ness to eat almost every­thing, my hus­band doesn’t dig squash, which is a shame, because left to my own devices, it would be sweet pota­toes and squash all the dang time up in here. This might have to wait until I have a more appre­cia­tive audi­ence. Or until Ryan has other plans some night.)
• The 30 Girl: pump­kin apple break­fast muffins and (*cough* over­achiever *cough*) chicken pot pie (Yes and yes. I love the Costco chicken pot pie, but they are crazy big, and if I buy one it means we eat it for days.)
• It All Started at Mother’s: apple tart (This uses puff pas­try. I have never bought puff pas­try. How is that pos­si­ble? This moves up to the tippy-top of the list.)
• Under a Pink Moon: win­ter warmer soup (Sounds like one of those soups you want to take a bath in. Am I the only one who feels this way about par­tic­u­larly deli­cious soups?)
• Domes­tic Dish: pump­kin lasagna (I am warn­ing you now. There are some ridicu­lously cute kids in the post. Like it might dis­tract you from the recipe.)

Don’t worry, Indian delivery—we’re not break­ing up, we’re just going to see a lit­tle less of each other.

(I don’t keep recipes on index cards, but if I did, I would totally use these from Two Poo­dle Press.)