A Post for "Foodies"

"Foodie" is a new term for me lately. I actually came across a game for "foodies" at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, with all kinds of trivia questions for people who love and know a lot about food!

Well, although much of my attention is given to James, I have found time to cook and bake a little in the past twelve weeks. I was even able to remember to grab the camera a few times to take pictures! The last two days were 'inclement weather days'...just too cold to take the tiny guy out and about. So I baked. Today Mark took a platter of Christmas goodies to work. I tried a few new recipes; Cookie Dough Truffles and Sugar Cookies!

Here's a picture of the cookie dough truffles before being dipped in chocolate. And that's my make-shift double-boiler. It worked great!

These truffles are SO rich...you really have to love chocolate chip cookie dough to dig these. It's a Paula Deen recipe found here. I tried them this summer at a friend's house and have been waiting for a great excuse to make them....a snow day is a good enough excuse, right?

I hadn't made sugar cookies for a long time. I used this recipe and then discovered I only had circle cookie-cutters. Oops. So I had to get creative and made ornaments and snowmen. The dough really did hold up nicely. I used this recipe for the frosting. It was really creamy.

Here's the turkey we made a week after Thanksgiving. I tried my friend Natasha's turkey rub. It was the best turkey I've ever had. I also 'brined' my turkey. Brining is a new concept for me this year. It all worked pretty well, except for the fact that our turkey was done two hours before our company was to arrive!! Oops again. It turned out to still be delicious. We had it carved and cleaned up before anybody came! :)

These were the easiest Pumpkin spice muffins to make...and so yummy! VERY vew ingredients and three of them are spices. I mad ethem a month ago. Here's the recipe.

A few weeks ago my Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary Ann were in town. I tried making Spanish Paella for the first time, shrimp, chorizo, saffron, and all! It was awesome and not too hard to make!