First it was Fish Tacos (which I sort of expected, because that’s a top choice each and every year).  Then it got switched to Shrimp and Pea Pod Stir Fry.  Then Balsamic Tilapia with Asparagus and Red Peppers.  These changes all occurred over the course of a few days!  And yes, my daughter loves fish.

Needless to say, I waited to do the grocery shopping until the day of her birthday dinner.  And what happened?  You guessed it – her choice was changed again to Shrimp and Sausage with sides of broccoli, corn on the cob, and crescent rolls.  Good thing I waited.

The one thing that never changed?  Her cake choice.  Yep, you guessed it – Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.  The other thing that never changed?  Her choice of cake decoration.

Sugar Rush indeed!  (For anyone who hasn’t seen Wreck It Ralph, I highly recommend it – a very cute movie with a very cute message.)

In light of this we had a day a week or so ago that was warmer.  Not quite warm enough to break out the grill but warm enough that I wanted something with spring flavors.  Here’s what I came up with!

Sometimes life happens.  Things come at us and we have to make choices, decisions, and prioritize.  Then, once things settle back down, we can come back to the things we love.

It has been that way for me the last few months.  December of 2012 was insanely busy for me, followed by a topsy-turvy January, February and March.  Things are finally settling down a bit, and I’m back to the things I love – one of them being cooking and this website!

I’ll be posting a new recipe next week, and many more to come.  I want to thank all of you for your patience, and let you know I can’t wait to start creating new dishes again and sharing them with you!

In the meantime, what was I cooking you might ask?  My go-to list, for sure.  Lots of Breakfast for dinner.  Sometimes even cereal (those nights when you barely have enough energy to unscrew the cap from the gallon of milk).  I made stuff that freezes well so I had meal upon meal all done.  And the nights when I had a bit of energy and my daughter and I wanted something more than pancakes, I made garlic shrimp.  Here’s how:

In a pan over medium heat, melt 4-6 tablespoons of butter.  Add large peeled, devienned shrimp, 1-2 teaspoons of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes.  Saute 8-10 minutes, until shrimp is heated through.  Add garlic powder to taste if needed.  Serve immediately.

So once again, thank you – and I truly look forward to cooking again!!!

In honor of this time of year I thought I’d put together a list of my favorite treats to make for the Holidays.  Many of these are great as gifts, and a number of them are fairly quick and easy.  Enjoy!!

As I shared last year, we have done quite a variety of ethnicity from Peruvian to Cajun, South African to Scandinavian, Greek to Indian.  It is customary for us to choose the Christmas theme at Thanksgiving.  This year however, friends have been talking about Christmas night at our house all year long and the choice was made months ago.  This year the winner is Vietnamese!

This truly warms my heart; that our friends and family look forward to Christmas night so much that they start planning for it months in advance.  It is an evening filled with great food, friends, and laughter – no presents, no gift giving, just the joy of each others company.  I sense two things this year:  1) it will be bigger than last year and 2) we’ll start planning Christmas 2013 that same night.

When my family was back from New Zealand this past September we had many discussions about how we’ve continued the tradition and expanded it to include friends and others.  They were clearly proud and a bit melancholy, as they hoped to join in the festivities.  Who knows?  Perhaps Christmas 2013 will be a reunion of us all and the best Non-Traditional Christmas Dinner yet!

We ended up buying another freezer that year we had so much corn.  It was great; I could pull fresh sweet corn out of our freezer from our endless supply.  It went in soups, stews, casseroles – anything!  One of my favorite recipes that I made was this chicken corn chowder.

Since then, my father in law has backed off a little – this year he only planted about 1/4 acre.  Sounds strange, but that really doesn’t seem like enough!  When I open my freezer I only see a few bags of corn rather than bags of yellow shoved wherever they’ll fit.  Perhaps we’ll plant more next summer!

As I mentioned in my last post, we don’t have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  However, I remember years ago having leftover turkey for DAYS.  By the beginning of December, I hated turkey sandwiches.  When the frozen leftover turkey was pulled out of the freezer to partake of yet again, I would pick at my food.  Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind turkey.  Once in a while.  Once in a great while.  But the leftovers?  Let’s be honest, nobody wants to eat leftovers of anything for more than one additional meal.  Unless you change it up and transform it into something totally new!

So here you go – links to sites that offer their best Turkey Leftover Recipes.  Enjoy, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Taste of Home Top 10 Turkey Leftover Recipes

Simply Recipes Turkey Leftover Recipes

Eating Well Leftover Turkey Recipes

Food Network Top Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipes

All Recipes Turkey Leftover Recipes

This year is especially busy for us!  One of the main differences with the 2012 Holiday Season is that our home is in our local community’s “Holiday Parade of Homes”.  Needless to say, my husband and I are scurrying around finishing up house projects, cleaning and organizing.  Against my better judgement I was browsing the Christmas aisles as soon as they were put out by local retailers (yes, that was around Halloween) looking for new decorations.

With all that going on, I don’t see a turkey in my future.  Know what?  That’s okay.

Frankly, no one in our house likes turkey.  This is not the first Thanksgiving where our table has not been packed full with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole.

In fact, I don’t know that I’ve prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in the past decade.  We’re kind of a Non-Traditional Holiday Meal type-family.  That’s okay too.  See for us, it’s the family that counts.  The food is important too, but as long as it’s good food, it doesn’t matter too much what it is.

The day before Thanksgiving is traditionally when my mom and I go Christmas Shopping.  No, not the day after Thanksgiving – the day before.  Sound strange?  It’s awesome.  You should try it; the stores are completely empty.  Everybody is saving up for Black Friday.  Anyway, after a full day of shopping I’ll no doubt want to come home to a crockpot meal.

Honestly, Thanksgiving Day will probably be spent working on the house.  My youngest is looking forward to decorating all the trees (yes, being in the parade there will be more than one!) so we’ll likely start that on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Dinner?  No turkey for us.  Giving thanks?  We do it every day.

I might have to sneak in making a pumpkin pie though.

I really wanted to make some sort of honey mustard chicken dish, but obviously I didn’t want to be the only one to eat it.  So how to do that?  Spice it up with curry and red pepper!

This turned out way better than I hoped.  You’ll notice there’s no actual honey in the recipe – it’s not something I keep on hand, so I substituted some maple syrup in there which worked just fine!

“This is really good.  You should make this again.”

“I’m glad you like it, thanks honey!”

“It needs more mushrooms though.”

Because 16 oz of baby bellas isn’t enough.

So if you love chicken, mushrooms, rice, and a nice creamy sauce (without a lot of work) here you go!