Molasses Spice Popcorn

Is this not the scariest picture of popcorn? Lighting was weird...

I have a magic molasses spice cookie recipe. Everyone loves them, and no one more than me. Unfortunately they are time consuming, messy, and downright terrible for you (at least if you eat them in the quantities that I tend to...).

This weekend when I asked Nathan what he wanted for snack and he said cookies, they were immediately what came to mind. But I know I'll be eating a bunch of them at Christmas since everyone in my family makes them, so I didn't want to overdose now. After the idea of that beautiful medley of flavors was in my mind, I couldn't shake it. So I looked at the wonder that is the internet and found a number of delightful looking popcorn recipes. Popcorn is a good conveyer of things because in itself, it's mostly air.

Thus Molasses Spice Popcorn. It tastes vaguely like ginger bread and reminds me instantly of the holidays.

Pumpkin Chili

Styrofoam cups are easier to eat out of than bowls  when in a field.

This past weekend was Delaware's annual Punkin' Chunkin, a masterful event during which a variety of contraptions ranging from air cannons to catapults do their best to fling pumpkins as far into a field as possible. A group of us went down to tailgate and watch these engineering marvels for the third year in a row.

No tailgating is complete without food, and we have discovered that with the magic of a dc to ac power converter, we are able to have a hot main course without worrying about bringing a grill or something like that. With it being 45 degrees, windy, and overcast, having something hot to eat in the middle of the day is almost essential.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Turkey and Cranberry Crostini

Every year after Thanksgiving (or for me Canadian Thanksgiving) we end up with a ton of leftover turkey and cranberry sauce. Of course, I make turkey soup and that uses up a good bit of the turkey, and Nathan and I will eat a couple of turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches every year. But every year, I end up tossing a lot of cranberry sauce and usually a good amount of turkey as well.

So this year I decided to make a tasty snack of Turkey and Cranberry Sauce Crostini--literally the easiest crostini ever and it used up a fair bit of both turkey and cranberry sauce leftovers.

Pumpkin Cupcakes and Apple Pie Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Nathan and I went up to a house warming last weekend and I brought some cupcakes. I actually made two flavors, Pumpkin and Apple Pie cupcakes to go with the fall season. It was a really fun time and most of the cupcakes were eaten (hooray!). Nathan and I even dressed up in a "couples" costume as a hanging chad and the slutty pumpkin from How I Met Your Mother (which is a hilarious show!).

Chicken Fajita Quesadilla

still trying to find the best lighting area in my new kitchen...

Quesadilla's are an amazing meal or snack. I grew up with my mom making these for us as an easy lunch or dinner. The ingredients for a basic cheese quesadilla (mozzarella and tortillas) can easily be kept in the freezer. Once I went to college, there was a little Mexican place in the student center and I had chicken quesadillas from them fairly regularly.

But now I'm on my own and I have to make my own quesadillas (life is hard...). This week I made a chicken fajita quesadilla. What makes it fajita you ask? I cooked my chicken and veggies with the same spice mixture that I do my fajitas. These are awesome hot and gooey or at room temperature, so they make a great snack. I even ate one the next day cold of of the fridge and it was still pretty good.

Guest Post: Mini-Cheesecakes

Thanks so much to Margaret who supplied me with a guest post for this week. As she mentions, Nathan and I finally moved from our apartment to our new house. First thing to be unpacked: kitchen. Regular posts will return this fall.

Our friend Darren recently bought a house, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, he had a housewarming party this weekend! It was a very busy day, but I was determined to make him cheesecake, since that is his favorite food. In the morning, I helped Heather and Nathan move lots of furniture to THEIR new house... the moving out sucked because of all the stairs, moving into the house was much less sucky because there were fewer stairs and it was exciting to see the house! So I got home and was quite tired, but cheesecake was calling to me. I made two types, chocolate and cherry since those are Darren's favorite flavors.

Green Bay Packers Potato Skins

look at those tasty potato skins

Fun Fact: Nathan is a huge Packers fan. And it's football season again, so that means football snacks. For our first snack of the season (which I did make opening weekend!), I did a Packers themed potato skin. I took what I see as the flavors of Wisconsin and combined them into deliciousness.

Potato skins are a great football appetizer and can be modified to suit your favorite team... in fact Food Network did just that! oooh potato skin ideas I tried the packers one for this last year, but I found it to be a little bit too heavy and difficult to eat with the sliced bratwurst. I also didn't know (at that point) what beer cheese spread was so I used some regular cheddar

Hueveros Rancheros English Muffin

nomnomnom

Wow, so long time no post. Nathan and I did this whole "purchase a home" thing which has sort of eaten up a lot of our lives. What with the painting and the packing and the moving. PLUS it was Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend so I was down in Atlanta nerding it up.

In the hustle and bustle, Sunday Snackday was left in an unfortunate un-updated state. However, during that time I DID actually take pictures of things I'd made! So now you get a bunch of posts and probably a super sweet tutorial when I finish my media cabinet revamp.

Homemade Beef Jerky by Alton Brown

mmmm jerky

If there are two things in this world that I love they're Alton Brown and beef jerky (and Nathan, of course... though that would be three). And who do you think has an AMAZING recipe for homemade beef jerky that 100% works? That would be Alton Brown.

Easy Baked Brie

Last weekend I went down to Lake of the Ozarks Missouri with all of the women on my mom's side of the family. I was put in charge of appetizers one day, and had to work with what was on hand in the cabin. Luckily, my family is generally pretty prepared food-wise, even when in an isolated area.

Peach Scones with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Also a good opportunity to pull out grandma's china

A few weeks ago I went out to tea with Margaret. If you haven't ever been to a tea room for afternoon/high/or cream tea, I would highly recommend it. There's something about sipping on a cup of tea out of real china while munching on a scone topped with clotted cream and jam that screams sophistication and elegance.

Plus it's delicious.

Nathan was jealous of my delicious scones (and apparently tea isn't a manly thing) so I agreed to make some for snack this week. Originally I thought I'd make a traditional scone (with currants or raisins) but since it's summer time, I decided to make them with peach and cinnamon.

You can, theoretically, make your own clotted cream. The internet says so, so it must be true. However, I decided to forgo the process and do a thick whipped cream. It wasn't quite as delicious as clotted, but since I flavored it with some cinnamon sugar, I think it came pretty close.

Fresh Chicken Spring Rolls

Our local grocery store periodically sends out awesome coupons. The most recent of these was for "dinner" and basically ended up with me leaving with a rotisserie chicken from the deli.

I like rotisserie chicken, but in my mind if you're going to buy a pre-cooked chicken, then it's time to make something that you need cooked chicken for (chicken salad for instance). I never want to actually have to cook some chicken to make something else. I decided to make spring rolls because Nathan and I hadn't had them in a while (almost two years!) and because I had all the basics needed to make them.

Trio of Summer Salads

Potato Salad

Nathan and I returned from a road trip to Minnesota and back on Saturday night. Naturally, we had not experienced the healthiest eating habits while we were gone which, when combined with sitting in a car 8 or so hours a day, made for a gross feeling by the time we returned. I was ready for some summer salads.

While in Minnesota, Nathan's mom made a super delicious potato salad that I hadn't gotten quite enough of. I don't have the recipe for it, but I modified my normal potato salad with the addition of some bacon (mmm bacon). Since potato salad is fairly heavy, I paired it with a cucumber salad and a watermelon mint salad. It felt very much like picnic-fare (which I love).

Spaghetti Frittata

When I first found a recipe for spaghetti frittata, I thought "wow, that sounds strange". I thought there was a chance that it would taste too egg-y. I like eggs a lot, but sometimes I really dislike egg taste with other flavors. Eventually I decided that since I like Spaghetti alla Carbonara, that I would probably like the frittata as well.

It was delicious and SUPER easy, like wow I can't believe how easy that just was easy. I think you could put pretty much anything you have in the fridge into it which makes it a great meal for when there are things about to go bad sitting around. Plus, as long as you have eggs and spaghetti, you can pretty much throw it together. Nathan also pointed out that it would be great for leftover spaghetti.

French Onion Soup Dip

Nathan requested a dip for snack this week, and I was more than happy to oblige. I wanted to make an onion dip, but I didn't want to use one of the dry soup mix packets and some sour cream. Not to slam onion dip made that way (it's delicious) but I wanted something that would count a little more as an actual recipe than that.

One of my favorite soups is French Onion, so I thought I would take the components of that and combine them with the same base as the Spinach Artichoke dip that I made a few weeks ago. The result was time consuming, but totally delicious.

Picnic Time!

I have been greatly desirous of a wicker picnic basket for years. There's something to me about them that is a picnic, and without the picnic looses something indescribable (or you could describe it as a wicker picnic basket). Maybe I'm a romantic, but I have this vision of the blanket spread on the grass (perhaps under the shade of a tree) with a few pillows for easy/comfortable leaning. A bottle of wine or summer beverage

Anyway, they're absurdly expensive. Seriously, a new one is about $100 and that seems like an awful lot to spend for the idea of a picnic. I mentioned my desires to Nathan's aunt and uncle and behold they had two and were willing to part with one! They are full of win.

Nathan's Surprise Star Wars Birthday

the main party table

Nathan's birthday was last week on a Tuesday and we really didn't do anything for it. Both of us ended up working late and we ate burgers with a dessert of pudding. He didn't mind, he's not super into his birthday. I don't think he noticed that I didn't get him a gift.

On Saturday he happily went up to see the house that our friend had just bought in New Jersey, not realizing that it was a ruse to get him out of the apartment for a few hours. I went into hyperdrive cooking/cleaning/decorating mode with the components that I had hidden all over the house.

Half the Fat Guacamole

This is an amazing recipe for guacamole with half the fat of standard guacamole. I made this for a Memorial Day bar-b-que at my Aunt and Uncle-inlaws house. They and their kids devoured it! When I told them that it was made with broccoli and peas they were shocked and amazed. All that you really taste are the spices and the avocado, but you're comsuming a higher fiber, lower fat dip.

Just remember, this does have avocado in it, and it will brown the same way. So keep a piece of plastic wrap stuck right on the top until you serve it... afterwards it will be eaten so fast it won't be a problem!

Blueberry Cinnamon Muffins

This is another recipe from the book of my mom. I'm not a huge fan of muffins for breakfast because so many of them are too sweet and super bad for you. These, while perhaps not super healthy, aren't an embarrassment to nutrition, nor do they pack the caloric punch of a cupcake.

Cinnamon and brown sugar give these a fabulous flavor with pops of fruit to brighten them up. They're great for breakfasts or to serve with a brunch, or for an afternoon snack. I've even frozen these and reheated them in the microwave and they stay delicious (though they're best when they're fresh!)

Spicy Spinach Artichoke Dip

My favorite recipes are often the ones that are inspired by foods that I already like. Nathan was gracious enough to be in charge of dinner last Saturday night (I was working that day, so it seems fair) and he made a delicious sort of spicy grilled cheese sandwich with Monterrey jack, jalapenos, cream cheese, and sour cream Italian bread. nomnomnom I ate three.

So on Sunday when I was trying to decide what to make two things came to my mind. 1. We now have all sorts of leftover ingredients from those sandwiches. 2. Dip.

Stuffed Pizza Breadsticks

cheesy goodness

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. It's a delicious combination of toppings, cheese, and bread. It's versatile enough that I can eat it for a few meals in a row, but simple enough that it's easy to throw together as a meal.

Using some store-bought pizza dough, I made some super easy pizza-stuffed breadsticks. These look nice, are easy to dip, and can be made smaller or larger as the occasion demands. They have the same versatility as normal pizza. I used varying combinations of sausage, pepperoni, bell pepper, pineapple, and ham in mine as they are the prefered toppings in my house.

Baked Turkey Eggrolls

Crispy and Delicious!

Chinese take out is one of those things that I get cravings for, but even if you know that it's MSG free, it's probably still pretty unhealthy. Plus, if you're getting delivery, there's always a $10 minimum... and $10 of Chinese food is a lot.

Personally, I think if I had deep fried these egg rolls, they would have been vastly superior to anything I get at a local Chinese spot (Delaware is not known for it's Chinese population). Baked, they were still extremely delicious. Given my general dislike of frying things (it uses too much oil and I inevitably burn myself) I will choose the baked version every time!

Deep Dish Taco Pie

At the begining of each month, I plan out what I'm going to be making for food on a calendar stuck on our fridge. It allows me to keep my eye out for good deals on things that I'll need later on and it helps me track new recipes and whether or not they were any good. For instance, ham croquettes now has a little frowny face :(.

This week I didn't plan very well because two of the meals that I planned as having as leftovers the 2nd night did not produce enough leftovers, forcing me to come up with quick, easy dinners on the fly.

Ham Croquettes--FAIL

I really enjoy tapas. I think it's because it's a meal of snack sized foods. One of my favorite in tapas restaurants is a ham croquette. They are super delicious, cheesy, salty, and overall wonderful. Oh, and deep fried!

It was sad because they look so tasty!

Anyway, I found a recipe for them and thought "Hey, I can totally do this!". But I couldn't.

Genuine Irish Coffee

step 1: add whiskey to coffee

When I went home for the holidays in December I got stuck in the airport for about 7 hours (thanks a lot bad weather somewhere else!). Sitting across from me were two young men who were pretty obviously going home from college and hadn't been allowed to drink in public for very long. They were talking about getting an Irish coffee from the bar and were pretty certain that it was coffee with Baileys in it. I almost followed them to see their reaction when they got their whiskey laced drink.

I'm not a big whiskey fan, but a well made Irish coffee is delicious. That said, a poorly made Irish coffee is almost undrinkable (unless you really like whiskey). That's why you should make it yourself!

I was taught how to make these by one of my coworkers last week, and there is a little bit of skill involved.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

Seriously this recipe is full of deliciousness. I mean, when you combine buffalo sauce with one and a half pounds of cheese and bake it with a panko crust how can that not be delicious? I admit that when the cheese sauce was done I ate some with a spoon in the name of "taste testing". 

Nathan requested this meal based on the menu of a local restaurant to us that serves varieties of mac and cheese. I went to the internet to see if I could find a base recipe. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do since I have a pretty bitchin' regular mac and cheese recipe and last week made a buffalo chicken and rice casserole that turned out super delicious (we like buffalo stuff in our house).

Creamsicle Cupcakes

Today it's almost 80 in Wilmington... in March. Apparently we're on the cusp of breaking all sorts of records. It seemed appropriate with the weather to have a treat with flavors inspired by the classic Creamsicle.

Soda Bread with Corned Beef

As promised, I'm providing a St Patricks Day recipe before the actual holiday!

Soda bread is one of my favorite things. It has a wonderful crust and a tasty, delicious interior. It goes well with butter or dipped in a stew. It's incredibly easy to make and I don't have the inevitable screw up that using yeast brings with it (yeast and I are not friends).

Sneak-It-Into-the-Movies Snack Mix

Last Sunday I went to see the Secret World of Arriety in theaters. I don't see a ton of movies in theaters, and I feel like every time I go the ticket price has gone up! If you were to buy a ticket, some popcorn, and a soda you're looking at the least $25. So when we decided to see a Sunday movie, I decided to prepare by making some good movie snacks.

Balsamic Chicken Lettuce Cups



seriously, how awesome does that look?

I wanted to try something a little different for snack last week and felt like going in a slightly Asian direction. These lettuce cups are very pretty looking and also taste delicious. They are a bit more time intensive than the majority of snacks, but most of the time is spent in the slow cooker, so it's not too bad.

Prosciutto Cups with Beet Goat Cheese

how pretty are these!?

For Valentines Day I made asparagus bundles wrapped with prosciutto and I had some leftover prosciutto. I didn't want to waste it (because it's fairly expensive and super delicious!) so I wanted to make a snack with the leftovers. I also had some goat cheese and a can of sliced beets from a salad that I never quite made. I combined them into a creamy, sweet, and salty bite size snack that were also really attractive.

Heart-Shaped Tomato Tarts

Ok, I'm making a commitment. From now on I will be more organized with upcoming holidays so that I post the holiday snack the week before the holiday occurs instead of after it's over.

Except for today which is heart-themed for valentines! I actually like Valentines Day, and did even when I didn't have a significant other to celebrate it with. I love corny valentine cards(especially if they're pun-ny) and the excuse to make things heart-shaped.

Super Bowl! Corn Dog Muffins and Buffalo Chicken Poppers

The super bowl is well... the super bowl of snack days. We had a nice group over to our place to watch the game and I decided to do a little tablescaping as well since it was a party. Some of the snacks are blog favorites (beer bread and beer cheese). Others are self explanatory (nachos).

the table! pictures are not going to be great this time, people wanted to eat!

Pull Apart Pizza Bread

Alright, so we've finally moved so that I'm posting these on Sunday. Obviously today is Super Bowl Sunday! Which is exciting and full of multiple snacks right? Right. But you're going to have to wait til next week to see my delightful set up (so maybe you can use it next year?)

To be fair, this recipe would be an awesome last-minute snack for the big game as well. It's an assembly snack more than an actual cooking snack. Sometimes that's exactly what you need!

Pull Apart Pizza Bread


Ingredients

1 round loaf of sourdough (unsliced)
4 oz of mozzarella cheese (more if you want it really cheesy)
15 turkey pepperoni slices (regular pepperoni is too greasy and turkey has the same flavor)
sliced black olives (I used like 1/8 cup)
4 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 t salt
1t Italian seasoning

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350

Using a bread knife (or other serrated knife) cut your sour dough in 1" slices in two directions, never cutting through the bottom of the loaf.

I cut my mozzarella into tiny cubes, but I think in retrospect that shredded cheese would have worked better. So shred you your cheese and carefully push it in between the bread cuts. Cut the pepperoni slices into quarters and push them down on top of the cheese. Repeat with the sliced olives.

In a small bowl, mix together the butter, salt ,and Italian seasoning. Use a pastry brush to brush heavily over the top of the loaf (it's good for it to get down into the crevasses too!).

Wrap the entire loaf in foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil from the top of the loaf and continue to bake for another 15 minutes. Serve warm with marinara for dipping sauce.

With this recipe, I especially liked the bottom crust of the bread. It was really crispy from the butter that dripped down tasted really good. The great thing is that you could easily customize this with different types of cheese, meats, dipping sauces etc. I think a buffalo chicken version with blue cheese sauce would be super tasty!

French Toast Sticks

golden brown with some maple syrup to dip

After two weeks of south of the border inspired recipes, I thought it was time for something completely different. You may know french toast sticks as something in your groceries freezer section. I'm here to tell you that these are easy to make AND easy to freeze + much less expensive than the kind in the grocery store. Make up a big batch, freeze them, and have super delicious times for less money for snacks and breakfasts.

I thought that just french toast sticks, while delicious, wasn't very well rounded (I at least like to cover two food groups with my snacks) so I made some tasty fruit-salad kebabs. Really you could just make fruit salad, but kebabs are more hand held for snack purposes. They would be more economical in the summer/fall when fruits are in season, but my local store had some fruit on sale and I took advantage of that.

My intention was to make a maple cream cheese dipping sauce for the french toast sticks, but I forgot to buy cream cheese. Maybe in the future I will update this because it would be seriously tasty.

French Toast Sticks

Ingredients

fruit kebabs in a mason jar

About half a loaf of Italian bread (texas toast or french bread would also work)
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
3 large eggs
1tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp real maple syrup
pinch salt

Directions

The night before you plan on making your french toast, slice your bread into about 3/4 inch slices and put on a wire cooling wrack to stale up over night. The stale bread holds up to the batter better.

Preheat your oven to 360 degrees (I found 350 wasn't quite hot enough).

Mix together all of your ingredients in bowl until the egg is well incorporated. Pour the mixture into wide dish (a casserole dish works really well).  Slice your bread slices into 1-1 1/2 inch fingers. Set each finger into the mixture, letting it absorb for about 30 seconds on either side. Set back on the cooling rack to drain excess mixture for at least 2 minutes.

Place fingers on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Don't let them touch as they will stick together.

Bake for 30 minutes, flipping half way through. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired and serve with maple syrup or fruit.

These were really yummy with a nice custard texture inside and crunchy outside. And the best part? Baked, not fried for a little healthiness boost!

Easy Homemade Salsa

Sorry for the majorly late post, we had some computer difficulties this week and ended up having to reinstall Windows! Not so much conducive to uploading photos.

This past weekend I worked both Saturday and Sunday (hard for the money) so when I returned home and Nathan gave me the puppy-dog look and was like "snack" I was not in the mood for anything complicated... or messy... or with stirring or extended chopping. I'd been standing pretty much for seven hours and my feet were saying "no more".

Now many of you are going "why didn't Nathan make his own snack? is he some sort of lazy mysognistic jerk?". While at that particular moment, my feet were screaming "yes, yes he is" my heart was going out to him as he was watching his beloved Packers lose their chance at the Super Bowl and I thought snacky goodness my ease the pain. Plus he would not have taken a picture and then I would have been left with a much less exciting post.

To the snack! Homemade salsa is super easy, super delicious, and super cheap (three of my favorite things!). It's tasty with chips, any recipe that calls for salsa, on eggs, or by the spoonful. General yum.

Homemade Salsa

Ingredients

1 large can whole canned tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 small onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 fresh jalapeno or about 6-7 slices from a jar/can

Directions

Drain the tomatoes. You can freeze the juice and use it later in chili or soup or whatever. You will forget it in the fridge and it will go gross and moldy. Freezing is the way to go. If you like your salsa to be low liquid, you should pierce and squeeze each tomato to drain out some of the juices inside as well.

Seed and quarter your bell pepper. Peel and quarter the onion. Peel the garlic. If using  fresh jalapeno, remove the stem.

Add all but tomatoes to your food processor. Pulse a couple of times to large rough chop. Add in the tomatoes. Pulse a few more times until everything is small but not completely pureed. You can have the salsa be as chunky or not as you like.

Pour the salsa from your food processor to a small pot. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes to combine flavors. You can skip this step if you want, but I like how it tastes better after its simmered.  Cool and serve with chips. (we didn't let ours cool much because we were hungry).

I made cheesy chips by putting about a cup of shredded cheese on top of my chips and sticking them under the broiler for about a minute.

You can store the salsa in your fridge for about a week.

Tex-Mex Dip and Homemade Chips

I have this great book of fingerfood recipes that has a ton of great ideas. The basics of its recipes are awesome and the reality of them are ridiculously challenging and full of ingredients I have no access to. I don't live in NYC or LA. I'm in Delaware and while we have a respectable number of of ethnic food stores, there are some things I can't get. My regular grocery store doesn't even carry dried lentils. 18 different types of dried beans, but not a lentil in sight. Weird right?

yum! I would eat you again through the picture if that were possible

Anyway, I flip through my fingerfood book, looking at all the pretty pictures and generally inspiring myself. This recipes is adapted from one in my book using ingredients I could find and liked (cilantro is gross) using techniques that seemed more practical than those in the book (why would I drain tomatoes when I can just seed them? why would I bake the sausage on a pan when I can stir it in a skillet?).

It turned out really well and Nathan and I both enjoyed it. It was more mild in flavor that I anticipated with the amount of chorizo sausage which I think of as quite spicy. It's possible that that was due to the brand I bought. I would probably add in some diced jalapeno or other spicyness in the future.

Tex-Mex Dip with Homemade Chip

my mouths view

Ingredients

8 6-inch flour tortillas
3-4 Tbsp olive oil

8 oz chorizo sausage (uncooked)
2 cups tomato (seeded and chopped)
1 avocado chopped
1/4 red onion chopped
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
sour cream

Directions

Remove chorizo sausage from casings. Cook in a skillet until browned. Put on a paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Cut tortillas into triangles (about 6-8 per tortilla). In a large pan, heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in a layer of tortilla triangles. Fry for about 30 seconds on either side, or until golden brown on both sides. Remove to a paper-towel lined plate.  Add more olive oil as necessary and continue frying until all triangles are golden brown. These are not going to be crispy like a corn chip, but they are going to be super delicious.

In a bowl, mix together tomatoes, avocado, onion, balsamic, and olive oil. Stir in the chorizo sausage.  

Spoon on top of chips with sour cream.

New Years Tomato Cheese Hand Pies

So it's been a couple weeks since my last post.  I totally intended to post one of the delicious foods that was prepared while I was visiting with my family in Florida, but somehow I managed to not. And then New Year's Eve came around and I made foods and thought "good enough".

We had a very relaxing New Year celebration with a couple of friends, tasty food, games, and watching the ball drop at midnight. I didn't want to go overboard, but still made a couple of classic party foods. The hit of the evening were the tomato-cheese hand pies. I was not convinced that they were going to be awesome, but one bite of the delicious filling changed my mind.

I adapted my recipe from Paula Dean (http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/view2/967) because while I personally find her voice irritating, her recipes have never failed me.

Tomato-Cheese Hand Pies

Ingredients
about 2 cups of seeded and chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 tsp dried thyme
1 Cup good sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mayonaise
1 container refrigerated biscuits 8 count.

Directions
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Seed your tomatoes and chop. Mix in green onions and thyme. Stir in mayo and cheese. Set aside.

Tear each biscuit in half and roll into a circle. I rolled mine into about 3-4inc circle. Put a heaping tablespoon of mixture into the center of each biscuit. Fold in half and pinch together the edges to seal. You can use a little bit of water on the edges to help the seal if you need to.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Can be served immediately but are also good at room temperature.

the whole new years spread

These were a super hit, even with those who are not huge veggie fans. I think I would add in about half a cup of diced ham to replace half a cup of tomatoes if I make them again. I think the ham would really mesh well with the flavors already present.

Happy New Year!