New Year's Eve Dinner

Here's the menu for this evening's feast:

• Roasted, home-raised chicken (celery inside and butter keep it moist for baking)
• Roasted butternut squash and apples drizzled in honey
• Creamed sweet potato casserole with brown sugar crisp topping- home grown sweet potatoes
• Yeast rolls
• Potato latkes (home grown onions- the potato patch needed a rest after a blight... maybe next year)

Happy New Year!

Loaded Grilled Cheese

Here's an idea for a veggie-boost in a grilled cheese day: 

• sweet potato quesadilla filling (shredded sweet potatoes, onion, cumin, chili powder, garlic sauteed until soft)
• shredded cheddar/jack cheese
• salsa

Make grilled cheese sandwhich, only with the addition of sweet potatoes!  My son loves this, and often dips it in some salsa to boot.  Quesadillas on whole wheat toast- the best of comfort food on a cold winter's day!

Fondant Fun

I'll admit it:  I can't resist a challenge, and I really REALLY can't resist trying to "one up" my big brother.  You see, he's become somewhat of a master cake cooker for his children when their birthdays roll around.  My children have birthdays as bookends to his, so we inevitably wind up making lots of cakes (and comparisons).  It's a fun game to see who will do what for their little angel come birthday time.

This year, I've decided to kick off the birthday bash with an elegant approach.  Little baby has no appreciation of cartoon characters just yet, so I made a double-chocolate layer cake with vanilla and chocolate filling, topped with a robin's egg blue fondant.

I honestly have no idea how it tastes yet, but it's pretty.   If the fondant winds up being even remotely edible, I'm imagining the creations I could make when it is Mufasa's birthday in May! (Aliens from Toy Story? We'll have to wait and see...) For baby and kids, there will be apple-spice cupcakes with a blue "dipped" frosting.  This makes the cupcakes look lovely- all smooth and shiny.

Making the fondant was truly entertaining.  I loved it!  It's like a gigantic silly-putty playtime for grownups.  I highly recommend making some, if only for some stress relief- play time that tastes yummy! Here's the link for the recipe, in case you're interested. Enjoy!