Happy New Year Y’all! I’m big on tradition and for New Year’s I must have black eyed peas. I found this recipe to help make up for the fact that most black eyed pea soups call for a ham bone and I don’t have one handy.

This salsa is so refreshing and light and flavorful and it was a perfect snack after hiking Camelback Mountain’s Echo Trail yesterday. And not to brag, but temperatures were in the mid 70s, sky was crystal blue and this is the type of weather that makes you happy that you live in Arizona.

I think Carey and Corey were a little sun-struck too! We did a bit more sight seeing, had a margarita in Old Town Scottsdale and then headed home to grill dinner. Look at the love birds. Holding hands and hiking.

Texas Caviar
Active Prep Time 10 minutes/ Inactive 3 hours

1 can black beans, drained
2 cans black eyed peas, drained
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 pint plum tomatoes, quartered
4 stalks scallions, diced
cilantro to taste
8 oz zesty Italian dressing
salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients and allow to marinate for at least 3 hours.

Variations: Add jalapeños, green chilies, garlic.

Other recipies:

Old San Antonio Texas Caviar 

Texas Caviar 

Grandma’s Texas Caviar 

Cowgirl Hall of Fame Texas Caviar 

“Giddy Up!” That was the phrase that launched Carey and Corey deciding to come to Arizona for New Year’s Eve. I might as well said, “I triple dog dare you.”

They had no idea what they were in for a 23 hour drive from Texas to Phoenix. It was awesome having them help break up the time and for conversation.

We made a stop in San Antonio to have lunch on the Riverwalk:

Look at them, all smiling, happy, excited to be on a Road trip. Poor kids, they had no idea that there was another 20 hours ahead of them.

Merry Christmas! My head is spinning with ideas and inspiration and I have a super special secret Christmas prezzie from my Dad to thank for it. So, not to be sneaky, but I want everything to be perfect before I unveil it.

There are some things for me that stayed just as consistent as ever (and trust me after a messed up 2007 I needed consistency this Holiday). For my family, it’s Christmas PJs. Every year on Christmas Eve, we get to open ONE present. This year was all about the polka-dot! Check us out, it’s my Mom and sister Lizzy:

Notice the PINK theme? Liz’s room is painted PINK this year and I think she picked PJs to match. She’s 16 and I’m 30, I think I’m hanging in there even with a 14 year age difference.

For those of you who don’t live in Central Texas, I’ve got a little treat for you also. There’s a jewlery company in Central Texas called James Avery. If you grew up going to church in Texas you know about this company. First Communion, Confirmation and high school graduation presents all come from this one company.

This year, I received one very special present, the first instalment to a charm bracelet to replace one that was stolen when my house got broken into in 2005. What do you think?

I’ve got so much to share and I hope you had a fun, special and relaxing Christmas. Merry Christmas Y’all!

I didn’t grow up baking. I grew up making candy. I know of the scale of time, talent and patience; Candy takes the cake? But that’s how it was. My mom making pralines, my grandmother making divinity and fudge and my job was making the peanut brittle.I was 12 or 13, and that was 16 or 17 years ago, when a revelation was made in our candy making world, Microwavable Peanut Brittle.

There was a lot of excitement in the kitchen that year. Here was a candy recipe that didn’t require constant attention; it didn’t require a thermometer, just a wooden spoon and Pyrex. My mom’s original recipe card says it’s from B. Hill. I don’t know who that is, but she was Betty Crocker for us that year.

The trick to this recipe is that you don’t do a lot to it while it’s being nuked. Just leave the wooden spoon the dish while it’s cooking. Make sure you choose a spoon that will fit in your microwave and because the candy is pretty harsh on the spoon, you might as well just dedicate it to this recipe and use it each time you make it.The brittle has such a great buttery flavor (see the glean on the picture) and it’s just the right combination of firm on the outside and gets slightly softer in the middle. 

Microwave Peanut Brittle

1 cup sugar
1 cup raw spanish peanuts
Dash of salt
1/2 cup white Karo Syrup
1 T. margarine
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda

Mix syrup, salt, peanuts and sugar with wooden spoon in a 1 3/4 quart size Pyrex
Put in microwave for 8 minutes, turning four times.
LEAVE SPOON IN THE PYREX. DONT STIR IT EITHER.
Take out of the microwave and add the margarine and vanilla.
Put back in the microwave for 2 additional minutes.
DO NOT STIR.
Take out and mix in the  baking soda.
Quickly pour mixture out onto a greased cookie sheet.
Cool 30 minutes.

“You’re Daddy and I have been sick all week and I haven’t had a chance to much of anything.” That’s part of a conversation my Mom and I had this week while I was planning my trip back home for Christmas. I really didn’t understand the ramifications until I got home. Everything looked normal.

Christmas decorations were all set, a fire was burning and the stockings were all hung with care. What did she mean, “We haven’t done much of anything.”

Then I noticed it. I started investigating the cookie jars and they were almost all empty. Most notably, there were no pralines. Now, I know this might not be show stopping for most of you, but in my house pralines are an integral part of the Holiday.

My super sweet Mom, looked at me and said, “I’m making a batch today.” Yay!

This morning, my Mom and I had coffee and pralines for breakfast. It was awesome.

Pralines

Makes 3 dozen

1 t baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 T light corn syrup
1 stick margarine
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans

Combine all ingredients except vanilla, pecans and baking soda and buttermilk in a Dutch oven.
Disolve soda in the buttermilk and add to mixture on stove top.
Heat mixture to 240 degrees stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and add pecans and vanilla.
Beat until creamy. Drop from a spoon onto wax paper.

Grand plans. I had grand green plans for this Christmas. I was going to make eco-friendly presents for my friends and family. I was able to find a few very cool prezzies, but I can’t disclose them yet. BUT what I can do is send out a little reminder that one easy quick win to make your Christmas a little bit more green is to use newspaper to wrap your gifts.

Since I’m always, ALWAYS talking about where I grew up to my colleagues. I thought it would be funny to wrap their presents in my hometown newspaper. See that guy on the right of the box? That’s my dad!

Have you ever seen “My Sweet 16″ on MTV? The show where millionare spoiled brats have their parents throw a party for them and then a camera follows them around as they complain about how they want a BMW and have to fly to Paris to find the right outfit. Augh!

Take out the spoiled brat part and my company Holiday party was JUST LIKE A SWEET 16 party.

It was at Chase Field. Yeah. The baseball stadium. Not a rented suite, but on the field. I think my table was set up around 2nd base (ok, insert what ever joke you want here).

It really was quite spectacular. The Gin Blossoms were the musical act, they served great food, poured heavy drinks and offered 4 star hotel rooms dirt cheap. It was a red carpet event with Danika Patrick, Candice Michelle and Amanda Beard. I haven’t heard the final tally, but I stopped keeping track of the $$ that we gave around around, $250,000!

At 11PM, the roof opened and they ended the night with a huge fireworks show.

Everybody looked so nice and shiny spruced up.

My computer is overheating and randomly shutting off. The fan isn’t working. At Computer Geek (crap, what’s the name? you know one of those white short sleeve shirt, black tie fix’it for you places) they were going to charge $99 to back up my computer data and another $200 to replace the $44 dollar fan.

Um. No.

I use a product called Online File Folder to back up my PC. It’s awesome and if you’ve ever lost all your PC data or in my case, had your house broken into and had your computer stolen, you know what it’s like to lose everything you had stored on that little box. Including your pictures.

But I digress. I did a little Google search for the computer part, ordered it up and now I’m learning up and getting ready to move through the 62 screws I’ll have to remove to get to the fan.

I’m actually quite excited about it.

In the mean time, in quick 5 minute spurts, I’ve been updating little odds and ends. Look over to the right. See the little box that says Viddler? That’s a camera video I took for the Habitat for Humanity project I worked on a few weeks back. Click on it. 

Cookie cutters and I have never gotten along. Ever. Last year, I attempted this recipe, only to end up chunking the dough and moving back to my beloved cupcakes. Heck, I’m good with a drop cookie, a bar, a brownie, but these cut out cookies really have my number.

But, I’m amazingly hard headed and stubborn and today I decided that I needed to try to tackle these cookies again. I learned a lot though trial and error and by the last batch, I think they were starting to look like real cookies!

Lesson One: Chill the dough. It makes it way easier to cut and place the cookies.

Lesson Two: Put the sprinkles on before removing the cut out.

Lesson Three: Use a pastry scraper to transfer cookies.

Lesson Four: Don’t over cook. 3 minutes means 3 minutes!

Lesson Five: Be patient!

I’m super happy that I finally got this one under my belt. I used a recipe found in my favorite cookie cookbook, The Cookie Bible. What I <3 about this cookbook is that it’s big and loaded with lots of recipes and each recipe has a picture of the cookie. It makes it easy to browse by type and then just pick the cookie that matches what you had in mind.

I’ve always been enchanted with Mexico. It’s the colors, the sounds, the people and of course the food! My dad calls it my ’spice.’

After college I moved to San Antonio, TX and it was there that I was able to explore and learn more about this amazing culture. There were Mariachi festivals, luminarias, tamales and tequila, and so many other influences.

Living in Arizona now, there are still a lot of opportunities to explore the culture. Now that the weather is cold, wet and windy (60 degrees!) one treat that I look forward to is Aztec Hot Chocolate.

Recipes can get as simple or as complicated as you want. Some ingredients I’ve seen included in this drink are honey, cloves, cinnamon, chili powder and anise. As simple as it is, here’s what hit’s the spot for me.

Aztec Hot Chocolate

Equipment

Hot chocolate Frother 

Ingredients

Quality Hot Chocolate

1/2 Cinnamon stick

1/2 dash of Chili Powder

Make hot chocolate according to the directions on your container. Add cinnamon stick and a dash of Chili Powder.

Note: I use McCormicks grocery store Chili Powder for this drink. I find that when I use some other Chili Powders they can be too smoky or too spicy depending on the brand.