December Recipe Re-make Recap

2013 is over after today concludes and I have to say this has been a pretty uneventful year in my life. Overall things have been status quo. We were fortunate that we had no tragedy or sorrow, yet no major happy events either. My sister got engaged which was a wonderful event, I was named Teacher of The Year at my school which was also amazing, but overall a very standard year. I'm at a point in my life where I just prefer it that way. I am so happy with how things are right now with my family, my job, and my life in general that status quo is perfectly acceptable. So here's to 2014- may you be just as uneventful as 2013! And to all my readers, I wish you the happiest and healthiest New Year!

December was hectic, as it always is. I had Landon's birthday party at the beginning of the month, John's birthday was in the middle, and the holidays wrapped up the end of the month. Not a ton of cooking was done, I don't even really remember why. December is always like that though, no? You get to the end and you think, "Wow, how did this happen? What did I even do this month?!"

I started off December with my ol' favorite, BBQ chicken pizza. Really I make this monthly. Even *I* am sick of seeing this in my recaps, but I'm not sick of eating it...so... you'll probably keep seeing it.

For Landon's birthday party we had a kids' party out and then had the grandparents back at the house for dinner after. One of the appetizers I served at the kids' party for the adults was the veggie pizza. I never use the spinach anymore and load up on the other stuff. It was such a hit. Several people asked to take some of the leftovers home with them. This is always a crowd pleaser.

I also served spinach dip for the adults at the kids' party. The whole platter of it went so I guess people liked it!

That night for dinner I made chicken parm and baked ziti. I made a batch of tomato sauce with onion and butter. I'll tell you, it wasn't as good this time. I used regular canned tomatoes instead of San Marzano and I saw a big difference in the taste. Now I've learned, always use the good tomatoes!

I used the sauce to make San Giorgio baked ziti which is my standard ziti recipe. Landon was a big fan of it this time around and ate a huge plate. He was starving after the excitement of his birthday party. I think he housed a big plate of this which made me one happy mama!

After Landon's birthday comes John's! That means one thing: Oreo fudge bars! These are John's absolute favorite thing I made. My food processor is broken so I hand crushed them with a rolling pin and it didn't form a fine enough crumb. Due to that I didn't have enough to fill the whole 9x13 pan, but it was still perfectly delicious.

I also made John a favorite meal of his, buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese. This was the perfect meal for the day I made it. It was snowy and cold and this meal was the ultimate comfort food. Totally hit the spot.

For a Christmas cookie exchange I made my famous cake batter cookies but rolled the balls in red, white, and green sprinkles to make them more festive. I found them a little too sweet with the addition of the sprinkles but they were still delicious.

Last but not least for Christmas day I brought corn casserole. It's just not a holiday dinner without this stuff!

...now everyone go have a wonderful New Years Eve and I'll see you in 2014!!