Holiday Catch Up

My life has been a total whirlwind since Thanksgiving.  My daughter has become a delightfully fun wild thing, climbing furniture, running through the house, building things, playing with her "babies", running around parks, playgrounds and children's museums- basically just being your average toddler.  For me, it's been this really wonderful, exciting experience to get to be a part of her experiencing all these awesome things for the first time, like a few weeks ago when she went down the slide on her own, giggling and squeeling the entire way down with me cheering, having a silent heart attack as she went flying down the swirly slide.  I cherish these moments, and I'm so grateful that I get to stay home and have them with her.

On the home front, I guess I owe all of you a big catch up.  This new, fast moving toddler I've got over here has kept me from being on the computer much (she bangs on the keys every time I open it in front of her, and yes, she can reach the table), which has hindered my blogging.  Here's a quick catch up of some of my food-ventures...

Thanksgiving:

 

I made WAY too much food, but hey, we ate for over a week after!  These pictures don't really do all the food justice, but I was too tired after cooking to supervise how many or what kind of photos were taken.

Christmas 2010:

This is only the beginning...but here's what I made this past weekend:

Chocolate peanut butter drop cookies, peanut butter cookies, chewy surprise cookies, ginger cookies and chocolate chip:

Ginger Cookies:

Chewy Surprise:

 

I have also made macaroons and sugar cookies, but I haven't taken photos of them yet because the macaroons aren'd chocolate dipped yet and the sugar cookies are waiting to be decorated.  Check in Wednesday for more holiday treats!

Turkey Time is Coming!

I love Thanksgiving.  First of all, the food is always awesome (although I have to be honest, I always find myself wishing the Pilgrims and Indians had bonded over some steaks rather than turkeys), and I love having my family get together.  I'm super excited this year especially, since we're hosting Thanksgiving at our house!  Our menu consists of turkey, nicoise salad, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, green bean casserole, corn, peas, stuffing, honey glazed carrots, homemade corn bread, a hazelnut tart, and pumpkin pie.

I'm making the honey glazed carrots mainly because my Daddy doesn't like regular carrots.  He said something about liking sweet carrots, so hopefully he'll appreciate the effort!  Here is my honey glazed carrots recipe:

Ingredients:

• Salt
• 1 pound baby carrots
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add salt to the water.  Then add the carrots and cook until tender for 5 to 6 minutes.  Drain the carrots.  Toss the carrots back into the pan.  Add the butter, honey and lemon juice. Cook until a glaze coats the carrots (this should take about five minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley.

Just as a side note, some easy ways to prepare for Thursday is to make things a few days ahead of time.  Today I made my onion dip, my pie crusts, and I organized all of my Thanksgiving ingredients and recipes.  I'm making my desserts on Tuesday, and almost all of my sides on Wednesday. Try to keep it simple so you don't make yourself crazy, and allow yourself to enjoy the day.

Wednesday, I'll share the pudding recipe I found in my Nigella Express cookbook.  My husband's exact words after his first bite were "Oh God."  After his second bite?  "This is NOT the Jello I grew up with!"
I'm planning on making this for my chocoholic mother-in-law when she comes in from the 'Burgh on Wednesday.