So long to 2011, on to the New Year!

Happy Joe's Taco Pizza

So I am a bad holiday blogger.  Part of it is work, well, a lot of it was work.  Plus I was without my big oven from Thanksgiving until somewhere around the 15th of December, and of course those last 10 days really ramp up at work.  So I did cook and bake, but I was a little lax on blogging.  I decided before I do a quickie on what I did accomplish, I would look at the year that has passed.

In January I posted some sewing projects, and that makes me think I have got to get back in there!  I also made crack pie (yuck) and macaroons (yum, the meringue, coconut kind, not the trendy ones).

In February I made lots of Valentine sugar cookies, some fresh garbanzo beans and I made a cookie in honor of the best dog ever.  We also drank Dark and Stormys, and I am thinking how good that tasted!

In March, I cleaned my copper, no small feat.  I also made a fantastic Mardi Gras pizza and welcomed spring in the South.

I was pretty busy in April.  I made a lot of Easter cookies, and cookies for the premiers of Something Borrowed.  I blogged a lot!  And I even baked for the Royal Wedding watch party.  Well, it isn't really baked, but it is the future King's favorite cake!  One of my more popular blogs appeared too, but more on that later!

May was really all about the cookies.  Frosting For the Cause, graduation, my handyman and lots of others.  It was also Mother's Day, so I wrote a tribute to my mom.

June was all about the cookies again.  Seashells, Frosting for the Cause again, the Mailman, and Cars 2, among others.  I did make a gorgeous dinner and blogged it lest anyone think all we eat is flour and sugar!

July was a hodge podge of blogs.  Of course the 4th of July and my birthday.  But also some barbecue and an assortment of cookies, my favorite would have to be Bigfoot.

There's just too much in August to pick.  We became empty nesters, I had a family reunion that could only have happened because of this blog, and another popular post I will get to.

September was busy and I did a rerun.  But I baked a lot of cookies, my favorites being for the sorority girl.

October was all about our amazing trip to Wine Country, St. Helena and meeting my chef crush, Michael Chiarello.  

November was all cookies until I recreated our Bottega dinner.  Then my oven died.

There were no sugar cookies in December, how sad is that?  I made some green tomatoes though, and found an old family recipe and story that was published on the Smithsonian Magazine online. 

Minnie's Chocolate Pie

But I have to highlight the big 2 posts.  They continue to generate emails and comments and page views.  The first is Happy Joe's Taco Pizza.  Every Iowan it seems loves this stuff, and I get many comments from people who are happy to see how to make it at home.  It is not the exact recipe, but for this girl, it takes me back! The photo is up top.

The other post is Minnie's Chocolate Pie.  The movie The Help was a blockbuster no doubt, at least here. I have had many versions of chocolate pie and fudge pie, but it was fun to do this blog and share it.  I even had a blogger friend down under baking it!  But the last comment was the best, she reminds me I left out Minnie's key ingredient!  
Here's to 2012 and all it holds.  May it be happy, healthy and prosperous to us all!