Favorite Recipes of 2011

I cooked a lot less this year than the past few years, but the food was still delicious. Here are some of my favorite recipes from the past year:

I'm not vegetarian, but I tend to gravitate towards vegetarian cooking. So many of my meals out are so heavy, that the food I eat at home has to be light to balance it out. I love this black bean and butternut squash chili because it's hearty, healthy, and warming all in one comforting dish.



Sometimes I like to take on fun baking projects just for the heck of it. To break in my new kitchen, I made these gorgeous rosemary and sea salt pretzels. They tasted as good as they looked.



For our Easter potluck, I made a bunch of things, but the highlight were these strawberry cheesecake muffins with streusel topping. Using in season strawberries in muffins is always a treat, but the cream cheese layer and streusel hits them out of the park.



I tend to choose beer and wine over mixed drinks, but an early season heat wave had me breaking out the blender to make these cucumber lemonade cocktails. These are a totally refreshing way to beat the heat.



It's hard to say how much money I spent on tomatoes this past summer, but I just couldn't get enough of them. I love this simple, savory pasta with bacon, rosemary and tomatoes for a quick meal any day of the week.



My other favorite way of using tomatoes is this simple pico de gallo. It's safe to say that I consumed buckets of it while tomatoes were in season.



I just love baking whether I'm making scones to relieve tension, or bringing treats to friends. These salted caramel apple cheesecake bars probably got the best reaction all year, not just from my friends, but from me as well and I can be picky about dessert.



And there you have it. I hope you are all having a wonderful, fun, busy, and happy holiday season. Thanks for another great year of blogging, friends, laughs, and many, many glasses of wine. I once again find myself looking forward to another delicious year.