It seems like the thing I do most often with this blog is completely drop it for long periods of time. This is, what, the fourth time I've just completely abandoned it? At least it didn't take me three years to get back to it this time.
Anyway.
2015 was pretty awful. We definitely had good times - lots of them, in fact - but also some pretty huge bad times, too. Between us, my husband and I lost three Grandmas, leaving our son with only one set of Great Grandparents. This necessitated two drop-everything-and-go-to-Spokane trips for me. Randy and I both had some pretty serious health issues (although thankfully not long lasting). In addition, he worked a lot of really long hours over the spring and summer, although with the downturn this year that's a little more like a good thing than a bad thing.
I'm really looking forward to a nice, normal year in 2016. Good health, happiness, and low stress all around! Oh, and a Powerball win would be nice, while I'm wishing for things.
I didn't get on just to whine, though. I do have four recipes to share to close out 2015 and get 2016 started.
1. German Red Cabbage This is not really a new recipe for me, I've made it a couple times in the past, but I like it a lot and wanted to share it. I fussed over this recipe the first time I made it, but have since taken a "throw it all in the pot and clean the kitchen" approach, which seems to work just as well. This is a nice side dish for meat (I serve it with pork chops), and is very flavorful. It's also pretty good for you, as proven by this nifty Self.com chart thing. (Note, the serving size on that site is for one leaf, which has to be the most useless but still vaguely correct unit they could come up with). Two things to remember about cabbage, though: not everyone enjoys it (this is apparently a genetic thing), and it will make your house smell like poverty while it's cooking.
2. Banana Bread Muffins
This was technically a new recipe for me, but it's basically "make banana bread batter, pour into muffin tins", so I won't waste much space on it.
3. Turkey Soup with Sweet Potatoes My husband requested soup from the leftover turkey, so I found this. I tried to keep the ratios of things about correct, but didn't have green beans so I used the rest of the celery from Thanksgiving and threw in some frozen mixed vegetables instead. I also left out the pasta. I was a little worried that the sweet potatoes wouldn't cook, but I cut them into about 1/4 inch cubes, and they seemed fine. Not amazing, but a decent use for leftovers.
4. Herb Roasted Pork Loin This was a new experience for me, because I very rarely cook large pieces of meat in the oven. I liked how this turned out, but somehow it took almost twice as long to cook through as the recipe said it would. I did put a few carrots and potatoes in the bottom of the pan, but I wouldn't have thought that would do it. I think now that I should have turned the meat over part way through, but I'm not sure that would have helped. The sauce is very good, though, if you like sweet and salty. I've made it since to serve with stir fry.
So, there you go. A blog post only 8 months late. I think the next one will be about craft projects I did in 2015, then I'll try to update once a week with either a recipe or craft. I like having a blog, although I am clearly the world's least consistent blogger.
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