RECIPES!!!

I know you are all dying to see pictures of Christmas....or perhaps Harrison's birthday party last weekend with the awesome volcano cake, or maybe the audio file of Harrison and I singing jingle bells (too bad I don't know how to post an audio file..anyone?).

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't think that will be happening today. Since Cory's phone contains our best camera (sad, I know-mine was lost in the move somehow) I have to wait for him to download the pictures to snapfish so I can put them on the blog....and wait I do.......

Anyway, I've been meaning to post some recipes for awhile. I used to put recipes up all the time, and I hate for anyone to think that just because we both work full time jobs and typically are gone at least 12 hours a day that keeps me from cooking, OH NO! Actually we've been trying really really really REALLY hard to not eat out so much (I'm incredibly impressed with how well this has been going, we haven't spent more than $20 a week between both of us eating out since Christmas...for us this is a HUGE deal, knock on wood...) so lots of cooking happens in order that there are things around to bring for lunch that will keep me from going to chipotle or panera or one of the 8 million buffets or pho places in the close vicinity of my workplace everyday. (mmm...panera...how I miss you...how I resent you for wasting so much of my money needlessly with your onion soup and yummy panini sandwiches....).

Back to the recipes.

This Fall, I made this Apple Pie with this crust twice and it was heavenly.

I contributed these and these to the Thanksgiving celebration and was loved by all.

And of course the best stuffing ever for the AZ Christmas soiree (gotta love recipes with "awesome" in the title...).

This was a hit at my work Christmas party and was ridiculously easy, although I recommend freezing it and I used real whip cream because I'm anti cool-whip on principle.

And then there's the recent dinners, nothing amazing, but some recipes I can honestly be EATING in 30 minutes (because those Rachael Ray ones always take me at least an hour, I'm slow... and when you get home at 6:45 and your kid's bedtime is 7:45 you don't have an hour....).

Seriously Yum salmon with some carrots and rice.

Easy way to use a jar of tomato sauce.

This one is not exactly kid-friendly but it was good and a breeze to put together.

Fast and easy and you don't have to buy the pricey gruyere cheese. I was happy using parmasean and leftover frozen spinach.

This one felt like a quesadilla version of bbq chicken pizza, with pineapple...yummy.

I can't remember how long this took me, but it was really good.

And of course the party this weekend, I made this pizza and this pizza (and a lame boring one for the kids, what do you do?). They're both favorites and really don't take much if you make the dough beforehand or use a pre-made crust. PS do use the fontina in both of these, YUMMY.

Oh yeah, and who can forget the new years eve sugar cookie bars with buttercream frosting six adults devoured in one evening right before we all started our diets, right?

Happy eating!!!!