It has been too long, my friends.\u00a0 I know I casually dropped by a few days ago with my Mr. Bourdain Goes to Cuba rant<\/a>, but I wanted to formally say hello again as my absence has been far too lengthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Six months off food writing can change a man.\u00a0 I spent the last month engaged in the oh-so-narcissistic act of reading many of my previous posts.\u00a0 How can I improve?\u00a0 Did I say anything relevant before my break?\u00a0 Why did I spend so much time obsessing about Food Network?<\/p>\n

The answers are, like a properly prepared pomodoro, simple yet complex.\u00a0 Improvement as a writer comes with practice, so by assuming my place here at EP I will no doubt improve.\u00a0 I may or may not have written anything relevant, that is for you, the reader, to decide.\u00a0 As for Food Network, I owe a lot to FN.\u00a0 I received a culinary education from the likes of Alton Brown, Mario Batali, Emeril, and even Bobby Flay.\u00a0 The fact that their programming has gone to shit is not my concern, and certainly not worth my time or witty insults.\u00a0 They never owed me a thing.\u00a0 If people want to watch Guy Fieri or Anne Burrell then more power to all of them.\u00a0 I will leave Food Network with a gracious thank you and move on.<\/p>\n

I do want to issue one very earnest retraction.\u00a0 In my anger over my beloved Man v. Food<\/em> visiting Tios, I called Adam Richman a loser.\u00a0 He most certainly is not.\u00a0 I look like an asshole for making that statement, and it is beneath you, the reader, and me to make such a stupid claim.\u00a0 Adam Richman has entertained me countless times, and my son and I love his show.\u00a0 (More on M v. F in an upcoming post, as we all have noticed the change in format).\u00a0 Adam comes across as a great guy.\u00a0 Likeable, funny, friendly.\u00a0 All the things I wasn\u2019t when I insulted him.\u00a0 Consider this an apology.\u00a0 To him and to you.\u00a0 You deserve a higher level of discourse.<\/p>\n

In the future, I hope to continue to bring humor to EP.\u00a0 Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn\u2019t, but when you are a stay at home Dad if you can\u2019t find humor in life you will surely run amok.\u00a0 Not that my running amok wouldn\u2019t be humorous, I suppose, but you get the idea.\u00a0 Humor is good.\u00a0 I plan on writing more about my efforts to properly introduce my children to the larger world of food\u2014that which exists beyond chicken nuggets and boxed mac and cheese.\u00a0 I will cast a cynical eye on the important food issues of the day, from the welcome increased focus on local ingredients to the horrors of our national food safety policies.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, I will endeavor to continue to write in the spirit of Epic Portions\u2014great food, devoured with enthusiasm.\u00a0 John and Todd founded this blog and laid the groundwork for its success by sharing their humor, love of eating, and willingness to be bold in the search for delicious food.\u00a0 I see no reason to venture too far from that formula.<\/p>\n

Finally, a sincere thank you to those of you who keep Epic Portions on their internet radar.\u00a0 Aside from being called a few nasty names (probably some of it deservedly so), my interactions with you have been a lot of fun.\u00a0 I like debate and disagreement.\u00a0 Call me out if I\u2019m an idiot, I need that sometimes.<\/p>\n

In my re-reading of my previous writings, I noticed that I certainly wrote quite a few beer reviews.\u00a0 On that note, and in anticipation of the awesomeness that is the upcoming Michigan Summer Beer Festival right here in my hometown, I\u2019ll have a new review up on Monday.\u00a0 Until then I invite you to \u201clike\u201d us on facebook where I will re-post a few of my old reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been too long, my friends.\u00a0 I know I casually dropped by a few days ago with my Mr. Bourdain Goes to Cuba rant, but I wanted to formally say hello again as my absence has been far too lengthy.\u00a0 Six months off food writing can change a man.\u00a0 I spent the last month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,121,645],"class_list":{"0":"post-5946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-food","8":"tag-food-network","9":"tag-man-v-food"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5949,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5946\/revisions\/5949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicportions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}