Books, Appetizers and a Happy New Year!!

Good morning:)

Happy New Year’s Eve! Do yall have your black eyed peas, cornbread and cabbage ready to go tomorrow?:) I have to admit, I do not. I have to get to the store in a bit and grab everything. I think I’m going to get a pork roast to cook as well, seeing as Sear-Bear and I are the only ones that will eat it. So probably will have to throw some mashed potatoes, pork roast and mac and cheese into the mix. That should please just about everyone:) I tell you, it’s never easy to cook for my brood. Last night, I did make the lasagna and the Shepard’s Pie. Sarah and I ate the lasagna and Matthew and Daddy ate the Shepard’s Pie. Jamie made himself White Castle burgers *sigh*. Everybody got fed, so that’s all that matters. I tried taking pictures of the Shepard’s Pie but they just didn’t come out all purdy. I’m going to try to run them through the filters and see if I can’t make them look ‘postable’. That’s something I’d like to do on here is post the pictures of things I make. My friend Carrie over at BarelyControlledChaos takes lovely pictures of her crafts. I love sites like Pioneer Woman and Mommy’s Kitchen. Pioneer Woman is more professional looking but Mommy’s Kitchen is so homey. Both two sites I enjoy very much. I’m going to work on that though. It is one of the reasons Paul did a redesign for me. My kitchen though, is not the most ….. um…. well, it’s not really great to be honest. Our house was built in the late 40′s early 50′s and it feels almost like an after thought. There is no room in there. Although we have a big window looking out to the back yard, it feels dark and cramped. It is very small and not real functional. But then again, I hear (and I’m NOT comparing myself to her whatsoever!!) that Julia Childs kitchen was super small and everyone knows the culinary wonders she came up with. So I shouldn’t complain. It is in bad need of remodeling though. Oh well, in time… it’ll get there.

I think I told yall a month or so ago that I began reading the Twilight series. Well, I just finished Eclipse last night (book 3 of 4). It wasn’t my favorite book so far but it was good. I’m debating whether I want to start the last one or not. I’m so sad I’m on the last one. I’m going to miss the Cullens. It’s like when I read the last Harry Potter. I have to admit, I like these even better than Harry Potter. I guess I will go back to reading my lovely Katie Fforde books after this. My sister in law gave me two books for my birthday that I want to read. One is Strictly Love by Julia Williams and the other is Tales of Beetle Bard (Dumbledore’s favorite book:). However, a certain little red headed girl has run off with my Beetle Bard book. One other book I want to get read before the movie comes out is the Time Traveler’s Wife. I’ve had that book for a couple of years. I started it then I started re-reading Pride and Prejudice then it was on to Northanger Abbey. Then Elena (my sister in law) introduced me to Katie Fforde so it just kind of got away from me.

We don’t have any big plans for tonight. We never go out on New Year’s Eve. I find it’s just safer to be home and watch Dick Clark I’m not even sure we have fireworks for tonight. I can’t believe tomorrow is 2009. Crazy crazy. I’m leaving yall with some very quick, very simple appetizers if you’re saying in tonight and having ppl over; or you may just want to have a little ‘do’ but have a little something special:) If yall go out tonight, please be careful. Have a very safe evening and if for some reason I don’t speak to yall tomorrow, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! *hugs*

take care,
~kat:)

p.s. I just ran the pictures through filters and that didn’t help:( I’ll keep trying. But here are some that I just found on my camera from this past year, including our Christmas Tree this year:)

**********************************************

Nannie’s Cheese Straws

Spiced Pecans

Mushroom Bread

**********************************************