A Brand New Year

Happy New Year to anyone and everyone that reads this. I wish for you blessings of family, healthy, and finances.

I am in the middle of cooking for a big dinner tonight so will keep my posting brief. My oldest son and his new wife are coming over to start the new year off with dinner and I am so glad that they are coming over. My youngest son's girlfriend is coming too. If I can get the TV off of football (bloody unlikely) I want to watch a movie with everyone. It is nice in the living room now that it is all cleaned up and the surround sound back in place. The other one shorted out. Also, even though it is a holiday, the guy came and fixed my living room sectional today so that is all taken care of as well. Also, hubby has gotten the new wood laminate flooring all installed down the hallway. It is so nice to be rid of that old worn out grungy carpet. Now to get them to assemble the DVD shelf unit and rehang some wall decorations and that room will be in good shape.

My youngest daughter, 12, helped me clean out all my pantry and cabinets in the kitchen. Still have a few more to do, but we are taking a break. A much deserved one. At least now I know what I have on hand to work with as far as meal preparation. Now to just get the time to sit down and figure out just what to cook for the next two weeks, how much of that I can do ahead, and then get it done.

Tonight's menu:
Ham
Sweet Potatoes
Black-eyed Peas
Carrots
Pistachio Salad
Deviled Eggs
Relish Tray
Cheese Cake

My bread did not turn out, but the kids are bringing some rolls when they come. I know there should be more, and I had ideas along that line, but this is the first, and in sticking to my new resolution I am keeping the menu simple. My mother tries to fix everything with food. Lots and lots of food. For example, Christmas dinner, she had turkey, ham, green beans, salad, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pistachio salad and fruit salad along with rolls. For dessert there were cookies, pumpkin, pecan, apple and buttermilk pies. Now mind you, there were only twelve of us eating. She tells me I need to work on my weight, tells me how good I have been doing, but then guilts me because she did all this baking and no one eats sweets anymore. The only problem with the sweets was there was just way too many.

Oh yeah, and my youngest daughter was so good at helping that I went and bought the fixings for us to make punch. A treat they all dearly love for some reason. I don't understand it, but it has always been this way. Myself, am looking forward to that strawberry daiquiri or something with Capt. Morgan.

Okay, enough, need to check out my emails, group postings and go see how things are in the kitchen. I will be posting my menus when I have it figured out.