Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everybody! Hope you have a fun AND safe night of celebration! Me? I'm enjoying a day off of work by cleaning! Ick... but yes, my house is icky too. Things are finally organized, dusted, mopped, and vacuumed. Yay! It is a great feeling to sit down and grab the computer or watch TV after all that is done! :)

I got a wonderful "load" of gifts this Christmas season! I got a new black coat, khaki jacket, jeans, hair stuff, a GRILL/GRIDDLE PAN!!!!!! and some gift cards! What did Santa bring you?! Thanks everyone for my gifts! I'm very happy this year! :)

Well, you're probably stuffed to the brim and ready for "the diet" of 2011, right? Haha, me too. But, my overall outlook for 2011 isn't to diet, but to cook and eat wisely with God's good gifts. That's really my goal- to use God's creations more, like fruit, veggies, meat, natural stuff you know? I'm not a big processed food or restaurant go-er, but I could certainly improve. And my #1 downfall is eating out while I'm at work or eating treats/food that someone else makes and brings to work or get togethers. My grocery cart usually isn't the culprit! :)

Anyways, tonight I have a Snickerdoodle recipe and a burger recipe for you! I also have pictures of my old and new kitchen table.

SNICKERDOODLE COOKIES

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon for dipping

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combine, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in milk. If dough is still crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Remove dough from fridge and roll into big 1 1/2 inch balls. Dip in cinnamon sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. Lightly press down on dough to flatten it. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Next, I have my supper tonight! It was a homemade version of the Mount Olympus Burger from Red Robin. It is extremely delicious because it's topped with Spinach & Artichoke Dip! :) Yum! I happened to have some leftover spinach and artichoke dip from Christmas, and I remembered this burger I had a few months ago! So, you get a double whammy of recipes here, because I'm sharing the recipe for the dip and I'm showing you that you can top a burger with it too! :)

SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP
8 oz cream cheese
1 jar alfredo sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 frozen box of spinach, drained
1 can of artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

I like to combine all the ingredients in a crock pot and cook for a couple hours, but you can also put in a pan and cook at 350 for 30 minutes or until warmed.


I wanted to share my new kitchen table with you! I'm quite excited about it! We got it from Aaron's parents for quite a deal, so we couldn't pass! I do love my old table- it was counter height, dark wood, and just gorgeous with the table decoration and placemats... BUT it only had 4 chairs and its not like we could use our card table chairs with it, because the table was so high. And there were like bars at the bottom of the table to stabalize it, but it made so that 2 of the chairs stuck out from the table really far and if you ever want to move the table it's impossible! But we did it like 3 times! :) That being said, if you need a new table, mine is for sale!

OLD--
NEW---

It matches our wood work perfectly! And it has 6 chairs, 2 leaves, and we could use card table chairs too! :) YAY! Thanks Sharon! :)