The One With My Favorite Recipes from 2011

In the later half of 2011 I was really trying to expand my repertoire of dinners and desserts. I want to grow in my ability to cook healthy, delicious meals for my family even more in 2012. But first I'm revisiting some of my favorite recipes from 2011. These are all good and I'm going to be making them again soon.

Favorite Family Dinners

• Turkey Stuffing Bake - easy and delicious all year round
• Veggie Casserole - meatless, yummy and warm
• Nacho Bake - easy to make the meat and beans part in doubles and make your life easier later in the week
• Chicken Wraps - always good
• Famous Sub Sandwiches - always a crowd pleaser
• Chicken Korma - a little more time consuming to make, but if you make double it's good the next day as a chip dip

Favorite Party Food

• Tortellini, Broccoli and Bacon Salad - so simple and so good
• Brushcetta - fresh, yummy, and easy to boot
• Potato Bacon Bites - need I say more?
• Passion Lemonade - a little twist on a classic
• Of course, Famous Subs and Chocolate Chip or Almond Scones are also great for parties

Favorite Sweet Things - these don't require much description. They're amazing. You should make some. And maybe I will, too.

• Egg-free Chocolate Chip Scones
• Egg-free Petite Almond Scones
• Dutch Baby Pancakes
• Salted Caramel Chocolate Pie
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites
• Pumpkin Spice French Toast (for Thanksgiving!)
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Fudgy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

Favorite Cakes and Cupcakes

• Pink Almond Party Cake
• Cherry Coke Chocolate Cake
• Lambie Cupcakes (for Easter!)
• Sweetheart Cupcakes (for Valentine's Day!)
• Strawberry Lemonade Cake
• Caramel Cake (especially great for Book Clubs discussing The Help)

 It was a good year. And I'm looking forward to the next.

The First One of 2012

 

Happy 2012!

I apologize that I've been a little MIA these past few weeks. I didn't want to worry anyone (sorry, Ellen!), but we have just been busy little bees. Christmas "break" was just about the farthest thing from an actual break. The whole family got the flu as soon as Steve took work off. Then we road tripped to Idaho to visit my family for Christmas. As soon as we made the trek back we moved into a new house. It has certainly been a crazy couple of weeks. I just unburied my laptop this morning... and still have a lot of unpacking to do.

But I have been taking pictures for you so that I can post a few retrospective posts.

First up: New Year's Eve cupcakes. How else would I ring in the New Year than with great friends, board games, s'moretinis and cupcakes.

I just made chocolate cupcakes with a mint buttercream frosting and sprinkled them with some gold pearilized sugar.

To make some Mint Buttercream Frosting of your own you'll need:

• 1 pound (3 1/4 cups, loosely packed) powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4-8 tablespoons milk or water*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp mint extract

First, combine the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and mint. Blend in the water one tablespoon at a time until you have reached your desired consistency. 

*I don't notice much of a difference between the use of milk or water in this recipe. Some people think the milk makes it creamier, however, if you use milk the cupcakes must be refrigerated.

I know I'm looking forward to 2012 and I hope that you are, too! I've got lots of great things coming up and hope you'll stick around, despite my recent absence. See you again soon!

Speechless Sunday

A beautiful hand-lettered stamp by Ampersandity on Etsy.

Speechless Sunday

Via.

The One With the Christmas Cards

Well... Christmas is like next weekend. O my! How did it sneak up on us so quickly?!?! Anyway... it's past time to have made the Christmas card. So yesterday I made a few. Now, I love all of these, of course. And it was super hard to choose which one went to print. I let Steve have all power in that department. Seems only fair since I made them all. This one is my very favorite... but not Steve's. So it didn't get printed. But I still love it.

 This one is very similar to the one that did go to print. But just in case any of your are on our Christmas card list, I chose not to reveal the actual copy. 

And these last two are just fun and casual. I like them, too. I also like that the picture is more goofy - but shows off the girls' personalities better.

That last one looks a little familiar, maybe? I did a similar font style on Cyril and Liam's (see the end of that post).  And if you're interested, here's a link to last year's Christmas card designs.

The One With the Ornament Wreath

I've been wanting to make one of those ornament wreaths for a few years now, and I finally got around to it. Thank goodness for the dollar section of Target. Their ornaments are the only way to go when making one of these - you need so many that it would be fairly expensive to use anything else.

To make one yourself you will need:

1. Styrofoam wreath for base
2. Hot glue gun and glue
3. Ornaments in three sizes

Remove the part of the ornament that attaches to the hook to make them less bulky. Before you begin gluing, strategize a bit. Arrange your ornaments in a circle to make sure you have enough to cover the wreath size you have chosen. I began by gluing on the biggest ornaments, then adding the medium size ornaments. Finally, I filled in the nooks and crannies with lots and lots of tiny ornaments. As you go along, make sure you pick up your wreath and look at it from different angles to make sure you don't leave any big blank spots.

You can hang it with a ribbon showing, or, like I did, you can hot glue a thin ribbon onto the back and hang it with that.

I'm so glad I finally got around to making one of these. I originally wanted to do it in many colors, but eventually decided the silver would be more versatile in coming years, and therefore more worth my time. It took me a little over an hour and two burn blisters to make this. But now that the blisters don't hurt and it's hanging snuggly above the mantel, I'm pretty happy with it.

P.S. This is also a great way to use old or somewhat damaged ornaments, because you can glue the damaged sides down so they aren't seen. Yay for recycling!

The One With the Bits and Pieces

Little baby with ham on her face.

Little baby smiler.

Little baby cereal lover.

Little baby who is getting so big.

Little baby kisses.

Little baby playing peek-a-boo.

Just a few bits and pieces from our day yesterday. It was grand.