Monday, January 2, 2012

Is It Over?

Only 357 days until Christmas. . .

heehee

While cooking our New Year's dinner I turned to Pooldad and asked "Are we done cooking YET?"
He laughed because honestly it feels like we have been churning out big, home cooked, traditional meals, snacks, gifts and desserts since October.

Don't get me wrong - y'all know me. Next to eating, I love to cook.  The family loves to cook.  And yesterday's meal was no exception.  We went pantry diving and were able to have a scrumptious meal of smoked pork chops, scalloped potatoes, collards [had to buy these fresh - 99 cents/lb - bargain], yeast rolls and a chocolate bundt cake.

The scalloped potatoes and collards were new [to me] recipes, but wowser - they were both so delicious.
Pooldad smoked me a turkey leg to make the collards, which was wonderful because it has no sodium like a ham hock would.  There are no leftovers of these. :D
 My first attempt at homemade scalloped potatoes and I will never buy the boxed kind again. These were so easy to make and cheap!   I looked through a lot of recipes and this was the only one I found that didn't have any type of "Cream of . . . " soup in it.  Completely from scratch and oh, so good.  They do take two hours to bake, but they are definitely worth it.
 My plate.
I didn't even come close to finishing the chop, but I do know what I am having for lunch. :wink:
I didn't quite make it to the chocolate bundt cake.  I went to bed at 8 o'clock and slept through the night. Go me!

We have one more holiday visit today and then we can officially say goodbye to the 2011 season.  I am not sad to see it go as much as I am so happy I was here to enjoy it.  That's a big YIPPEEE!

Now, bring on 2012! I am ready.

I think.


Have a great week Tadpoles.  See ya' on the flipside.

13 comments:

Jennifer said...

Your family does some serious cooking and your posts always make me hungry! I would love that scalloped potatoes recipe if you could pass it along or direct me to where you found it. I'm always looking for new side dishes. Shells and cheese get old after awhile, dontcha know. Enjoy your lunch and Happy 2012! I'm sure glad you were here for 2011 too, and hope you will be around for many, many, many, many, many, many, many etc. (do you get my point) more years to come! :)

Jeannie said...

Scalloped potatoes are the one kind of potato I'm not so fond of. (Well potato soup as well.)

But if you enjoyed them, go for it!

I'll bet the great meals aren't over - just the crowd needing to cook for won't be there :(

I'm also glad it's over. But I'm not really glad to be back to the real world either.

Southhamsdarling said...

Like you, I feel I have been rustling up these big family meals for quite some time now. Perhaps (as it is just the two of us again) we will just have some chips, fried egg, cold meat and beans this evening. That sounds pretty good to me at this moment!
Took the tree and all the decorations down this morning :( I really do wish that it could be Christmas every day!! Hugs to you my friend.

ellen abbott said...

you should worry when the great meals stop.

Celia said...

Yum yum!!

Knitty said...

I'd like your recipe too. My mom made them with soup and while they're a fond memory, I'd like to get away from canned soup casseroles.

Anonymous said...

Hi Skippy,
Nice food you've got there.
Bring on the 2012 - it will be a great year I'm sure!
Enjoy your week my friend! Big hugs x

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

I'm not a huge fan of collard greens, but those look GOOD! Happy New Year.

qandlequeen said...

Happy New Year, Skippy!

Teresa said...

I love homemade scalloped potatoes and mine also don't include cream of anything soup. They're just layers of thinly sliced potatoes, a bit of flour (for binding), pepper, cheese, and very small amounts of milk. Pop in the oven (or, great in a microwave presto cooker - a pressure cooker for the microwave). delish...

your dinner looks delicious. not sure on the collards though. are they similar to spinach? i love spinach.

Rebecca said...

YUM to the pork chop and potatoes but YUCK to the greens, but can i please have the recipe for your potatoes they look so good.

Yart said...

The food all looked so good! Jealous... LOL!

Yum Yucky said...

If it were possible to do a back flip in my office right now, I would. Tet sight of that food porn is mahhhvelous. And for the record, my office can contain a backflip, I just don't know how to do one.