Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve I hosted my in-laws for dinner and gifts. I cooked from 8:30 am until I sat down at the table about 5:30. We ate:

Rock Salt Crusted Prime Rib

Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary

Green Bean Bundles

Focaccia Bread

Garlic Hummus (no picture)

And of course, oodles of cookies and other Christmas goodies!



Baby Shower!

Awhile back my friends and I planned a baby shower for another friend, the first in our group to have a baby. I've been so busy sewing Christmas presents (see my Black Friday post) and then celebrating Christmas that I never had a chance to post pictures.

It was a "mocktail" party and featured lots of book themed food paired with actual books for baby. My less Martha-esque friends braved lots of crafting to help pull this off, they claimed that their fingers bled...

And last Thursday, the baby arrived! Ava Nicole was born around 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was lucky enough to hold her two hours later. That baby has lots of "aunties" who love her already!

Colder Weather = Baking Time

I think my body is subconsciously trying to put on weight. I've been cooking and baking like crazy the past few weeks, which Andy loves. I tried "flooding" cookies as a frosting method, and the results were great. I'll definitely be repeating this when it's time for Christmas cookies!

Then I tried a homemade chicken pot pie with homemade pie crust. I just used Betty Crocker's crust recipe, which I've used before, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. It tasted fine, but it didn't look quite right to me. It got glossy like it was supposed to, but I don't know about all the puckers on the surface. I expected smooth and shiny. Also, I probably overfilled the shell a smidge. Oh well, Andy loved it so much that it didn't last long!

Two nights ago I made homemade oreos from the Smitten Kitchen. I didn't take a picture, but they looked exactly like the pictures on her blog. As she suggested, I reduced the sugar, and in the future, I'll use less filling. These babies are sa-weeeet.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

Potato Chips

Last week I made homemade potato chips with my new mandolin. I sliced the potatoes thin, soaked overnight in 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar, and then dried them off. Then deep fry and salt. Simple!

Post-Holiday Catch Up

So the holidays have come and gone, and finally there is time to sort and upload pictures of my culinary and entertaining successes. Here you have it!

Mini-Cranberry Meringues from Thanksgiving

Cookie Prep

And we hosted Christmas at our house this year, which was a first for me. More successes!

My dad's beagle (name: Beagle) especially enjoyed the festivities. He got treats and had fun getting lost in the wrapping paper!

Oh yes, and we had a blizzard of mass proportions. Andy was at his overnight job, and I was off work (thankfully), so it was up to me to hold down the fort. The neighbors helped me plow our parking space which I was very thankful for, and in total, we had about 17 inches of snow.

Even growing up in Alaska, I don't remember a time being litterally "snowed in" to our house. I'm sure it happened, but my parents took care of the doorways and sidewalks before we went outside. This was my first big girl snowstorm, where I had to take care of it all by myself. I kept thinking what a great workout my arms were getting.