Thursday, December 22, 2011

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.

Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash and Bulgur

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.

Rosemary and Sea Salt Soft Pretzels

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.

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins with Streusel Topping

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.

Cucumber Mint Lemonade

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.

Pasta with Bacon, Rosemary, and Tomatoes

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.

Best Pico de Gallo

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.

Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

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.

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8 comments:

Erica said...

mmm chili. One of my favorite dishes this time of year. And those pretzels looks so good. Enjoy the holidays :)

Joanne said...

What a delicious list! I feel like even though you might not have posted as many recipes, the ones you did were sheer quality.

angela@spinachtiger said...

Great pics. Those pretzels are to die for.I wonder if I could use sweet potatoes for that chili. I've been having intense cravings for sweet potatoes and beans.

Diana said...

Vegetarian recipes at home foooo life! I bought dried black beans like 9 months ago to make that chili and then never did! Maybe next week I'll make it happen.

Pam said...

Yum! It all sounds and looks delicious. Love that pasta with the tomatoes! Happy holidays!

Russell at Chasing Delicious said...

Look at all these scrumptious dishes! I want all of them. Lovely shots too!

Alison Kilpatrick said...

I say you start cooking a lot more!

marla said...

Please come cook for us sometime - these recipes look great!