Holiday Meal Recap

Thanksgiving- I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving.  I want specific dishes that don't require a recipe because I know how to make them.  This year I wanted to change that a little so I decided to go out on a limb to make a different vegetable side dish instead of just cream corn out of can.  I found this recipe and was sure it would be good since it is a Paula Deen recipe.

Corn Casserole- This did not disappoint.  It had great flavor, wasn't dry, and went well with the rest of the meal.  I'll definitely make this again and not just at holidays.

Garlic Chicken Puffs- Made these as an appetizer to eat while we watched the Lions football game.  They were really easy to make and good.  A little overwhelming on the garlic powder, so definitely watch how much of that you add.

Christmas- Christmas dinner was up to me.  Since Thanksgiving is so traditional for me, I think to mix things up a bit.  I've done steak for just H and I in the past, so yeah I can go way out there with this meal.  I needed something easy but also popular for different tastes and likes.  Italian fit that bill, and I opted for 2 different pasta dishes instead of 2 of the same.  I'm glad I did this as it gave a little bit of variety to the meal.

Pioneer Woman's Macaroni and Cheese- I used regular sharp cheddar in this recipe.  While it tasted great and was certainly better than the stuff out of the blue box, it could have been better.  Considering this is a really basic recipe I'd say improvements could only come with the type of cheeses used.  I'll just have to figure out what works best.

Make-Ahead Unstuffed Shells- This was the favorite between the two dishes.  It had awesome flavor.  It was really easy to put together and leftovers did not last long.

Nilla Turtle Cookie Balls- These were OK.  Honestly I thought they were a little bland.  I was expecting more flavor from the wafers, so that was my mistake.

Praline Crumb Caramel Cheesecake Bars- These were awesome!!  So good.  I stored them in an air-tight container so they stayed nice and moist.

New Year's- New Year's was spent with my family at my grandma's house.  She provides the meal, and just said to bring any appetizers or desserts that we wanted to have.  Since the Nilla Truffles didn't go over that well at Christmas I wanted to change things up so I went with Nutter Butters.

Nutter Butter Truffles- These tasted pretty similar to a peanut butter cup.  I opted to use milk chocolate instead of the white.  I think they may have been better with semi-sweet.  They went over really well with my family.  

Catching up

So I've been a major slacker.  Not in the cooking department, but in the blogging department.  I've continued to make new recipes, but I've failed to take pictures since I hate our camera which has led to me not blogging about those recipes. 

So I think I'll just do a post about a whole bunch of recipes and do a short little review about each.  I won't post ingredients and directions, just links back to that info. 

I'm thinking I'll do 2 separate posts.  One for the holidays- Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.  And the other recipes in another.  Hopefully I can get these posts done quickly so I'll feel like moving forward with real posts again.  

Here's to getting back on track!

New Year, New Goals

 

  Last year I set goals that were mostly personal to me, things that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. 2012 is going to be a little different.  The husband and I sat down and made a list of things that we wanted to accomplish this year as a couple.  We had no set number of items, just discussed things and wrote them down.  I'm not going to share every item on that list, but I'll share the ones that I'm comfortable with.  

1. Pay off credit card debt.  We each have a credit card left to pay off, so we want those gone by the end of the year.

2. Create a $1000 emergency fund.  We'll build from there, but we have to start somewhere.

3. Have a Daddy and Baby Rebel Day.  No Mommy allowed.  Somehow my feelings aren't hurt.  ; )

4. Find a family dentist and all 3 of us visit them twice this year. 

5. Lose weight.  A carryover from last year, but I really want to be thinner for my sister's wedding in June and H would like to lose a bit of weight that he's put on after his big weight loss.

6. Job search and interview for myself.  I really really want a part-time job for myself. 

I'll update as the year goes on, and hopefully we'll have some success.