December Monthly Meal Wrap Up

Yep, I've been MIA around these parts for a bit. For me, this is the best time of year to unwind, enjoy time with my family and time on the couch with a book! I only perused one new cookbook this month, but I've copied down a bunch of recipes from Love Real Food by Kathryne Taylor of Cookie and Kate.

Lots of yummy salads I can't wait to try, as well as a number of sweet treats. So far I've made the Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies (because I have a thing for breakfast cookies) and they were tasty, but mine came out a little crumbly.

I may adjust the wet ingredients or add an egg in my next attempt... Most of the month's notable eats revolved around favorite holiday foods like my family's famous Salami Stacks for appetizer night on Christmas Eve, my favorite Linzer Muffins recipe from Cooking Light (which I tried with Trader Joe's Sugar Plum Jam this year - DELICIOUS)

plus Reindeer Chow and sugar cookies for decorating, of course.

We also enjoyed a few meals out and I tried the Breakfast Burrito Bowl at The Commons before we went to see Start Wars and it was as tasty as it was HUGE.

I also took my seven year old out for sushi, which usually means chicken katsu, sesame balls and fruit for her. But, this time she ate up her crab salad and tried a bite of salmon and tuna sashimi - which is heads and tails above my experimentation level at her age, so I'll take it!

And I tried a couple of new whisky cocktails this month: the Food Network show The Kitchen continues to kill it with easy and delicious bourbon recipes. This Gobble Gobble Punch is soooo good and worth purchasing the St. Elizabeth allspice dram. I also finally tried a Paper Plane when we went out for my husband's birthday, and now I must add Amaro and Aperol to our liquor cabinet...

We did try a rather decadent Chicken Tortilla Casserole I found on Pinterest, I guess my first clue should have been that the recipe was from a site called The Chunky Chef.

It will definitely be a 'once in awhile' meal, as it was rather rich, but tasty! I'm feeling like I need to reset after all the (totally worth it) holiday indulgences, perhaps with some of those yummy looking salads from Love Real Food...