Xmas Time.

I have been very lazy with posts here of late. But that is not because I have not been cooking. I in fact have been cooking a lot. For Thanksgiving we had a houseful of friends who were not able to be with their families so they were with their surrogate family. There were three other couples who joined us, all who brought with them something special to share with the group for Thanksgiving. We had Matt and Beth who brought apple cider and Matt's most delish ham cheese ball, and a somewhat modified green bean casserol which was so yummy. Christine and Phil came and they brought homemade cranberry sauce which also had blue berries, heaven and Christine's family recipe for chocolate mousse, which Ashley ate us all that was left at the house! Rachel and Bruce came. Rachel is a friend from when I worked over at DCMC and is another social worker. They brought amazing wine and a chocolate hazelnut tort with caramel. I of course made the turkey which I brined this year, and it was a total success and so yummy. I made a sausage and pecan white bread and corn bread dressing. The traditional sides of corn casserole, mashed tatos and gravy. Then for the desserts that I made I of course made the pecan pie and then found a recipe for a pumpkin custard which was yummy, I have since shared that with a few of my WeightWatcher friends as it is only 3 pps per serving.

So that was Thanksgiving, as the Xmas holiday approaches though I have lots of baking on the horizon. I have so far made Tricia Caralton's Cheese log, which I shared with Emily and Jules, Annie and Jon, and then I have had several bits with crackers. I think I will make more of that soon! Then yesterday I made some peppermint sugar cookies that were a bit cheater style, as they were the Pillsbury premade dough, they are good, but I prefer a cookie a bit undercooked, so have to watch instant closely. Once those were done I made the recipe my family has always used for Cranberry Orange Bread, I have since had two slices and it is delish!!! I think also that this may be the best loaf of that I have ever made, IT CAME OUT PERFECT! So today I have been working away on mom's sugar cookies, she has the best recipe ever! The cookies are a perfect tender when the are rolled and cut then decorated, all of which will happen later. I have plans for apricot coconut bars this afternoon, and also some candy cane cookies in a Christmas cookbook which I will blog about later.

On a few personal notes... Since starting WeightWatchers again in October I have lost almost 15lbs. Which makes me a very happy girl! Ashley's mom has had surgery on her knee and then when she broke her femur during rehab had to have surgery on that as well. We are trying to keep up with her progress. Then my sweet husband Ashly has been having some dental issues, and has spent a good portion of the morning at the dentist. I hope that all goes well. More to come. Happy eating all!!!