Try new recipes.

I’ve also played around with cocktail recipes when I didn’t have all the right ingredients. I’m finding cranberry-pomegranate juice a pretty tasty substitute in some cases.

I mixed in shredded co-jack cheese and bacon bits into mashed potatoes. I need to add just a tad more milk next time, but other than that, it was well received. Perfect for a cold winter day.

For New Year’s Eve I tried a cheese fondue, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make! I found it in a Betty Crocker app on my iPhone (I love the app – cookbook at your fingertips). I also made a chocolate fondue from a package, but want to try a recipe from scratch next. Both disappeared rather quickly. :-)

Okay…it’s been a long time…I tried a simple hummus recipe from the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, mostly because I like hummus and wanted to make my own vs. buy from the supermarket. My first batch turned out a little grainier than I wanted, but my second batch was perfect! Now I have to figure out how to make the bread that comes with it in the restauraunts. I bought a bread cookbook that had pictures worth drooling over. I love fresh bread and can’t wait to find the right one.

I saw this great recipe in the paper for an Italian plum cake that originated in Germany and thought that I really wanted to try it. So now I’m on the hunt for Italian prune plums in the local supermarkets. I’m not sure how successful I’ll be since the author of the article said that they were in season now and went pretty quickly. The photo of the finished cake looked so good!