Pickled Eggs

We're hosting a New Years Eve party this year.  As good hosts we will be serving a few snacks for our guests.  So, today I pickled some eggs.  We've done this once before.  They were great.  Granted, they turned a shade of radioactive yellow but the flavor and texture were wonderful.  Just sour enough to make you pucker but not sour enough to make your tongue raw if you have more than one. The whites were just firm enough that they were satisfying to bit but not quite rubbery.

Not Grandma's Chicken salad

Growing up I never liked mayonnaise.  Hated the stuff.  But, I liked grandma's chicken salad.  Loved it.  It was the only thing I would eat that contained mayo until I was about 25.  It took 24 years for me to get grandma to finally give me her chicken salad recipe.  When I first started making it I was still so grossed out by mayo I used the kind that came in the squeeze jar and I eyeballed the amount so I wouldn't have to wash any icky mayo covered measuring cups.  Things have changed.  I love mayo now and I buy the biggest container of it I can find. 
Anyway, since it took me so long to get Grandma's recipe I'm not giving it to you.  I invested a lot of time being the Best Granddaughter Ever to get it.  And I think I will keep it as my only "secret" recipe for now.  But, I will give you a variation of it that I like almost as much as the original.

Southwest Mac and Cheese

I needed a way to stretch the last of what was in the pantry.  I found this recipe on the Hillshire Farms website.  I typically don't go for southwest-y stuff but this was great.  It's not a one pan meal but it's easy enough and the mac and cheese and cheddarwurst have similar cooking times. A regular sized box of mac and cheese left both of us stuffed! And hopefully I'm off the hook from making tacos for a little while.

Chicken and Tomato Orzo

This was Parker's introduction to Orzo.  I had a recipe that called for something similar to be baked in the oven.  But I wanted something faster.  I'm a fan of one pan meals if I can help it. 

Hot Dish!

The classic Minnesotan meal.  I feel a little silly every time I have to search for hotdish recipes.  I blame my parents.  They didn't make much hotdish when we were growing up.  I've been making up for lost time by eating pretty much any kind of hotdish I can find.  Here is one I came up with all by myself. 

It's been a while. Sorry.

I haven't done much worth posting about.  I am very pleased to report we haven't had much of a winter.  Sunday it was 51 degrees outside.  That's pretty much unheard of around here.  It looks like it might be a brown Christmas but I'm not complaining.  Right now I have a duck drying in the fridge and I will be roasting it tonight.  I will also be serving potatoes browned in duck fat and another side that is TBD.  In the mean time here are a couple of recipes that I've made over the past month that we found enjoyable.  I hope you will too.