By Estela

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah with family and friends. The past few days here have consisted of relaxing, cooking, eating, drinking, watching movies, etc.–exactly how I wanted to spend my time off work.

Yesterday, our friend Estela and her daughter, Amy, came over to teach my mom and I how to cook some of their authentic Mexican dishes. I’m featuring Estella’s shrimp cocktail today, and will post her chicken verde later this week. Unless you’re planning on bringing this as an appetizer to a party, I suggest cutting the recipe in half. You’ll notice in the photos below that it makes a lot.

The preparation is time intensive, specifically de-shelling and deveining the shrimp (it took four of us 45 minutes); however, the end product overshadowed the time spent preparing.

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Since Christmas is fast approaching, I wanted to squeeze in one more holiday post before Sunday. Ever since I tried Trader Joe’s Peppermint Pretzel Slims, I knew I had to recreate them. The concept and preparation is unbelievably simple, yet the flavor combination is divine. I’m pretty sure I finished the entire Trader Joe’s bag in a few days–they’re that addicting. These are a must make. Trust me!

Ashley and Kristy, aren’t you proud of me? This is my second ‘chocolate’ post in a row. ;)

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As I mentioned in my last post, I went to my boss’ Christmas party this past Saturday. We spent the night eating copious amounts of food from brisket to turkey to stuffed eggplant to roasted vegetables (the list goes on), drinking wine, decorating the Christmas tree and enjoying the snow-covered front lawn.

Oh, you didn’t know it snows in LA?  Only kidding, of course. My boss had someone come and blow real snow on her lawn. Close enough. :)

I offered to bring dessert, so I made my go-to lemon bars and these festive white chocolate, cranberry and macadamia nut cookies. Both were a hit, as were the rest of the desserts–lime cheesecake, apple, raisin and walnut cake, brownies, etc.

I’m still finding it hard to believe that Christmas is literally right around the corner. But that means only three and a half more work days until I get to go home to see my family!

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It’s no secret that I’m a huge chicken fan. The meat is versatile, easy to cook and high in protein. Since my freezer is always stocked with chicken, I’m constantly on the hunt for unique recipes to spruce up a plain chicken breast. This roasted red pepper and tomato sauce sure did the trick. It was scrumptious drizzled over chicken and rice, and I can imagine it working wonderfully as a pasta sauce.

Since I won’t post again until next week, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I’ll be baking up a storm on Saturday morning for my boss’ Christmas party that night. Pressure’s on. ;)

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With the unexpected appearance of rain today, this soup turned out to be the perfect dish. It’s simple and comforting with a slightly gourmet twist. Though fairly easy to make, the soup is time-consuming. If you’ve caramelized onions before, I’m sure you understand. But, we all know the final product is well worth the wait–sweet and buttery onions that melt in your mouth. The addition of fried sage leaves and sage butter gave the soup that extra boost of flavor and complexity it needed.

Now the only thing that would make this soup even easier to make is an immersion blender. I’ve already asked Santa for one this year. :)

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The other night, I realized that my pantry was overflowing with unopened cans and bags of beans, boxes of pasta, crackers, etc. It was clearly a sign that I needed to make use of some of these ingredients. Pasta is always a quick-fix meal, so I created this simple, yet flavorful, pasta dish with ingredients I’d seemingly forgotten about.

Though this recipe isn’t anything groundbreaking, it was a delicious and hearty meal after a long day at work. Granted, I probably ate a much larger bowl than those photographed above, but I’ll let you think I have portion control. :)

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Since I was still battling a cold (much better now!), my weekend was mellow and relaxing, yet productive. My roommate and I fully welcomed December–we bought and decorated a Christmas tree, listened to Christmas music on repeat and had a holiday dinner with some close friends.

Our dinner party provided the perfect opportunity to start baking with gingerbread, so I made these simple gingerbread ice cream sandwiches. If you’re not an ice cream fan, these bars would also be delicious topped with a ginger cream cheese frosting and candied ginger.

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Right when I thought I avoided the nasty cold going around, I got hit with it yesterday. Nothing sounded better than a hot bowl of healthy and hearty soup, so I went home after work to make this homemade chicken and rice soup. I kept the recipe simple, aside from the homemade chicken broth (which I always keep stocked in the freezer). Since there’s minimal ingredients in the soup, the rich broth helps boost the flavor.

I’ve got cold medicine, Emergen-C and tissues close by my side, so I’m crossing my fingers I’ll fight this off soon. Here’s to hoping you won’t catch what I have!

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As promised, here’s the recipe for the pumpkin and gingerbread trifles I served at Thanksgiving. Since November is almost over (I can hardly believe it), I wanted to squeeze in one last pumpkin recipe.

I’m in charge of bringing a dessert every Thanksgiving, but couldn’t decide on what to bring this year. My Mimi (aka grandma) came to the rescue and suggested I make these pumpkin trifle cups, as she said they’re always a hit. I tweaked her recipe a bit, making homemade whipped cream, adding cinnamon, etc., but kept the general focus of the dessert.

My Mimi was right–the dessert received rave reviews. I’ve already contemplated variations I could make on the trifle. I think a lemon curd, whipped cream and graham cracker trifle would be pretty delicious. :)

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Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday full of family, friends and food. I thought I’d share some photos of our bountiful Thanksgiving…including the three turkeys. :) Thank you to the gracious hosts, Kitty and Mike.

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