A New Year Update

It’s hard to believe January is almost over and it’s been over two months since my last post. I can easily come up with some excuses:

• Work as been extra busy/demanding lately…
• I’ve been poorly juggling trying to eat better and wanting to enjoy life as the foodie  Hungry Québécoise that I am so there hasn’t been anything too exciting to report on.
• I’ve been tired, had a few colds.
• Jeff’s new diet makes it less exciting for me to try new recipes.

These excuses are all somewhat true but I don’t think they really should have stopped me from writing. On this note, let’s get back to it. Here’s a look at how we ended 2016…

We spent an afternoon on the Ponce City Market rooftop where we shared delicious food and took way too many pictures.

I decided to come up with a new Thanksgiving dish: the Pilgrim Pie. (more on that later…)

We celebrated the Gilmore Girls revival with a day of binge-watching and binge-eating Gilmore-inspired food (i.e. mostly tasty junk food): Homemade poptarts, popcorn, coffee, potstickers and Thanksgiving leftovers nachos.

I made a bunch of homemade holiday goodies for my co-workers: marshmallows (this year’s revelation: dipping them in chocolate!), dark chocolate bark with nuts and a variety of cookies.

I FINALLY made my mom’s spaghetti sauce after months of being worried to mess it up. I was so happy when it turned out to taste just like hers!

I ate all the food I possibly could during the few days we spent in Charlottesville, Virginia. Highlighted here are: Marco & Luca dumplings, tapas from Alley Light, Christian’s pizza, breakfast at Grit Coffee, fajita quesadilla from Guadalajara and, my favorite: rum cake and iced tea with my dear friend Thelma.

Christmas consisted of fondue overload (cheese and meat fondues), followed by maple baked beans and stockings goodies on Christmas day.

We hosted a small Quebec-themed dinner party where I prepared maple pigs in blankets, pelottes de viande (meat dumplings), tourtière (pork pie), bûche de Noël (yule log) and mini sugar pies.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with (wheat-free) fried cheese curds, spinach balls, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

2017 has been a very interesting year for the hubs and I. Jeff was sick/recovering for most of the year. While this made our lives more difficult for a while (especially his, of course!), I truly believe it had a positive effect in the long run. We try to spend more quality time together and, while we are generally pretty frugal people, we now enjoy the occasion splurge to enjoy life as much as we can. We are also learning to have healthier bodies and minds as we eat better meals, try to be more active and try to spend more time learning or reading rather than watching tv. I won’t pretend I made any ridiculously drastic changes in my life but I do believe the small changes are going a long way in making me (and us) generally happier. I guess that would be my version of New Year’s resolutions…hopefully lifetime resolutions too! 🙂