Six months have passed in a blink of an eye. My friends and family have partnered with me every step of the way. My daughter Lauren is an internet marketing wiz, and her company Bixa Media has handled the technical aspects of Something New For Dinner and launched our social media campaign. My daughter Margo, of Margomade, designed the website and recently designed some much needed business cards. My husband, JP, has graciously acted as official tester, recipe rater and super human dishwasher. My friends have tested my recipes and been invaluable in finding typos. Jean, in particular has had keen eyes for errors. My readers have rated recipes, reviewed them and sent in many many kind and encouraging words. Thank you all!

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Our focus

I have focused on healthy, whole food meals to share with family and friends. I believe family connections and traditions, as well as life-long eating habits, are made at the dining room table. I love Michael Pollen's new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. Pollan explains how just about everything is made better by taking back home cooking, from health and nutrition, to family values, to building community and solving food supply issues.

We have published 76 recipes

Each recipe was tested, evaluated, edited, photographed, coded and published. Only dishes that my family and friends considered "Very good" to "Excellent" made the cut. Some of these recipes I have been making for years, and some were new. Some of the recipes I created, others came by way of family, friends, cookbooks, restaurant chefs, online publications and fellow bloggers. I have done my best to credit all the many recipe sources I have used.

We have posted 80 articles

Our posts have evolved into mini-cooking classes that support our recipes. Articles discuss inspiring ingredients, nutrition, tools I love, cooking methods, culinary history and even flower arranging. The goal is to provide cooking education so that even the most novice cook has the information needed to be successful in the kitchen.

We have sent 30 email newsletters

We provide free weekly updates to our subscribers on our latest recipes and posts. These email updates summarize what's new on Something New For Dinner and provide additional information not found on the website.

We have launched a social media campaign

We post weekly updates on Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. Thank you all who have "Liked" our Facebook page, pinned our recipes and added us to your circles. Every time you do this you help us grow.

Our most popular recipe

We have been keeping track and our most popular recipe by far is Sam Choy's Hawaiian shoyu chicken. If you have never eaten pot-simmered, Chinese five spice scented shoyu chicken you are in for a big treat.  

Hawaiian Shoyu chicken

What to serve with shoyu chicken

Raised in Honolulu, I am a big fan of Hawaiian-style food. Hawai‘i is renowned as a cultural melting pot, and island food reflects the diversity of the people who call Hawai‘i home. Here are our best island-style accompaniments to serve with shoyu chicken:

Puamana coconut rice

Japanese cucumber and shrimp salad 

Perfect Asian sesame noodles

Simple Asian green salad 

And last but not least, Hawaiian chocolate bread pudding made with King's Original Hawaiian Sweet Round Bread.

Hawaiian chocolate bread pudding 

We are looking forward to the next six months and have a lot of exciting recipes and projects in the works. Thank you for your tremendous support!

Enjoy!

Kim