2011 has been a fun year for me and one where I ventured out and tried my hand at some new things. Eating food has always been something I’ve really loved and for the most part I really enjoy cooking it (unless my life is crazy busy and then it just ends up being another thing on my long to do list). But with two kids in school – and being pregnant all summer long and not wanting to get out much in the HOT weather – I ended up wanting to cook more often. And so 2011 was a great year for cooking and experimenting at our house and one of my proud moments was when I successfully made something with YEAST in it. You see, yeast and I haven’t always been friends and every memory I had with yeast before 2011 ended with either rock hard baked goods or ones that were growing so fast they were taking over the better half of my kitchen. But with the encouragement of several friends (you know who you are Missy and Lori) I was able to overcome my fear of yeast. I started out by making some delicious pizza one afternoon and from there have now ventured into making french bread, wheat bread, crescent rolls, Lion house rolls, bread sticks, cinnamon rolls, and even have made a few pies completely from scratch (Key Lime, Peanut Butter, Pecan, Banana Cream, etc.) It really has been so fun and for the most part everything has turned out really good (with the exception of some wheat crescent rolls I made one day when my sister and her family came over that ended up being WAY too dense. Sorry guys!). But even those were gobbled up by hungry tummies.
This year I’ve also tried a lot of new recipes as well and almost everyday I go online and search the web for yummy looking things to make. I love the website allrecipes.com and have tried MOST of their 5 star recipes with thousands of ratings from users. Its great to see all the positive comments on those recipes and the things others have done to change them to be even better. We’ve tried everything from a lasagna recipe with over 6000 5 star ratings to banana crumb muffins, to yummy chocolate melting cakes like the ones you get on a carnival cruise! And each week I find myself adding to my personal recipe file as I find more and more awesome recipes for good food. I also really love pioneerwomancooks.com as well – and I follow a whole slew of other food blogs too and usually end up making something new from one of those blogs one or two times per week. But seriously cooking has been so fun this year and I’ve really enjoyed making so many new things. Here are just a few of the new recipes we’ve tried this past year:
Chicken Pot Pie
Parmesan Chicken
BBQ Chicken Pizza
Teriyaki Salmon
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
White chocolate macadamia nut cookies
Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
Curry chicken broccoli casserole
Ham fried rice
Coconut Shrimp
Spaghetti Carbonara
Marshmallow Cream Fruit Dip
Easy Eclair Cake
Ham and Ranch Pasta Salad
Mexican Lasagna
Lime Chicken Enchiladas
Poppy Seed Chicken
Thanksgiving Turkey
Prime Rib
Honey & Pecan Glazed Salmon
Prestwhich Farms Halibut
Clam Chowder
Broccoli Cheese Soup
Cauliflower Soup
Zuppa Tuscana Soup
Carrot Casserole
Asian Chicken Salad
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Scones
Texas Sheet Cake
Oreo Cookie Cheesecake Cups
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Bars
Egg Nog
Picture of my first crescent rolls ever made from scratch!
Isn’t food wonderful? I LOVE IT!