New Holiday Recipes

Hello Friends,

We had a dumping of snow this week! Finally! It usually arrives right after Christmas for us, and it is as cold as can be!  Lauren is back on campus; my Christmas decor is neatly packed away and I am ready for a home refresh. As I begin my year, I begin to think about what goals I want to accomplish and things I would like to complete this year. I am already dreaming about how I am going to change rooms around when Lauren leaves the nest. Right now, my office is in the loft. If we stay in this house, I want to move my office into Lauren’s room and turn the loft into a study. I would love a study! A room with built in bookcases for my books and a giant table in the center for me to sit read, spread out, burn a candle, and have a cup of tea. I will be changing the boy’s old room into a guest room. I am on the hunt for a queen size bed. We will see. 

Anyway, the holidays are over, and I did try a few new things for my menu. I wanted to share those recipes. What worked and what didn’t. 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

For Thanksgiving, I tried two new recipes. First was this appetizer called the French Quarter Cheese Spread.  My friend Angela made this at one of our evening Guild meetings and it stopped us in our tracks! I had never heard of it before and never tried it. It was so good. It had a beautiful combination of sweet and savory and the salty crackers gave it the perfect crunch! It’s lovely with a glass of wine. Now did my family love it? No, not really but I didn’t care. My husband and daughter don’t really have sophisticated food palates. 

The second new recipe that I tried for Thanksgiving was a pear salad. I had a craving for a salad for Thanksgiving so I “googled” fall salads and a list came up. This salad stuck out to me. I loved the idea of having pumpkin seeds, blue cheese, and roasted pears. I wanted something fresh and crisp. Something that was not so heavy on the stomach. Now my family (Lauren and my husband) don’t eat salads. Again, they don’t have great eating palates, but I wanted to add it any way. My stepsons’ wife and girlfriend took bites out of the pears and said, “those are good”, so hearing that made me happy. I loved them so much I ended up making a second batch of the pears. Soo good! Overall, I got a good response. 

My last new recipe was sweet potato casserole. Now I decided to make this for our Christmas Eve dinner because I host additional people at this dinner. I wanted to have more people who would be willing to try my dish. It was very simple to make, and I love sweet potatoes. The creaminess from the mixture and the crunch from the pecans was wonderful.  The one item that I will change will be using dark brown sugar instead of light. I love the taste of dark brown sugar! I believe that the molasses from the dark brown sugar would give it a more earthy taste.  I loved the dish and so did my other guests. We usually have the same items but this year I wanted to add a few new dishes to my list and I am glad that I tried. This upcoming holiday season I might add a few new things so we will see. 

Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of these! Have a great week, stay warm!