Lentil Soup

Tonight we experimented with Lentils for dinner. Honestly, they had been in the cabinet (not sure how they got there!) So, it was time to try some lentils. 

Thanks to the trusty internet, I found a recipe that seemed appealing. Of course, it was Martha Stewart's recipe for lentil soup. How can one argue with Martha? 

No offense, Martha, but I can't make a soup with ONLY 3 pieces of bacon. Crikey. What are you thinking? So, I used the entire pound. 

The critics certainly approved.

Christmas Cooking adventures

This year's Christmas cooking adventures were truncated by an impromptu visit to the Midwest. Sadly, my great-grandmother Henrietta passed away on Wednesday, December 19. Bryan and I had talked about the need to travel to her funeral (when the day came) for quite some time. On the plus side, the trip did mean that we could see my family close to the Christmas holiday. (Hey, maybe Grandma Hennie wanted us to be in the Midwest for Christmas!)

Ginger Crinkles (old family recipe), Spritz (a Christmas tradition!), and  Chocolate Stuff

 After returning late Sunday night from the marathon roadtrip, there was not much time for cooking in advance of the Christmas holiday. However, I did manage to cook up three batches of sweet treats including Ginger Crinkles (a Buelow family recipe), Spritz (from the Betty Crocker Cooky book - yes, that is the spelling - circa, 1950) and the yummy chocolate graham cracker concoction that the White boys are now referring to as Christmas Crack. (Yes, it is that good - and it is that simple!)

We also hosted the Christmas dinner for the family at our house. It seems that I can never cook the appropriate quantity, so we had plenty of leftovers. The menu included dinner rolls (made from scratch of course!)

 turduchen (not made from scratch - I'm not completely insane!)

Bryan's giblet gravy. Ok, I'll admit - this was a new one to me. In the midwest, lumps in gravy are a bad thing. Apparently in the south it's ok to have lumps in the gravy as long as the lumps are giblets (really?) and hardboiled egg whites. It's tasty, but it is still taking some getting used to on my part. Also on the menu were green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and some sausage & cornbread stuffing. 

Apparently next year's recipes will need to add some Special Shit. Thanks to Steve for this unique ingredient. 

Christmas Baking

Do you enjoy baking for Christmas? I do! Ok, honestly, I enjoy baking most any time of the year, but Christmas gives me an extra reason to spend days preparing delicious treats.

This year, our yard provided a bounty of pecans and thus the inspiration for our baking projects. This year, Bryan worked with me in the kitchen to create pecan tassies, pecan turtles, pecan logs, sugar & spice pecans, three pepper pecans, and spicy pecans. In addition to our pecan treats we created spritz cookies, Belgian waffle cookies, and sponge candy.

Now, I enjoy baking in large quantity, but I know we shouldn't eat baked goods in large quantity. That's we prepared bags of goodies for some of our Amarillo friends and family - to share a little Christmas cheer. If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of happy tummies from all across Amarillo. :)

I'll admit, I haven't downloaded the pictures from my camera yet, so this artful picture of the goodies is from our good friend Janet. Thanks, Janet!