Enjoying Some Cooking.... I LOVE FOOD!

Well now that we've gotten somewhat more settled I have been enjoying getting to cook again. Oh how I have missed it! Literally since the beginning of the year because of work travel (for both me and Ken all over the world), staging the house to get sold, Ken's deployment, my whooping cough, keep the house clean for showings to sell, moving to Annapolis and living in a hotel room and then moving into our house but having so much unpacking to do... I haven't had a chance to cook "real" food at all! What I mean by that is we've been able to make easy "staples" of grilled chicken and some pasta etc. but nothing complex and certainly no new recipes. But that's all changing....

Oh how I love food!!!!!

Yesterday Ken and I hosted all the folks from his department at our house for an afternoon of small bites and a last semi-relaxed afternoon before classes start on Monday for them. In preparation for this I spent most of Thursday baking (several new recipes) and all day yesterday making appetizers. Yes I worked out of a cookbook for most of them but there were some super great recipes I think! Here are some pictures of what I made and what the stuff is called.... If you want the recipe for something here leave a comment and I will post it in another blog. (Bottom line I am too lazy to type up all the recipes if I am not sure someone wants all of them!)

Parmesan Artichoke Dip
I actually didn't get a chance to try this...

Party Stuffed Pinwheels
Delicious!! Cheese & "herbs" of sort.... Yum! Goes perfectly with beer drinking too I might add!

Herb Stuffed Tomatoes
I am not much of a tomato eater so I didn't try these but Ken said they were delish!

Pizza Snack Cups (though they turned out to be less "cup" than hoped)
Pretty decent but a little doughier than I might have hoped

Pimento Cheese Dip
YUMMY!!!! I mean it's cheese of course it's yummy right?!

Peanutty Chocolate Truffles
This is one thing that I have made several times before and they are always delicious and a crowd favorite.... (And I had extra chocolate so I went ahead and dipped some pretzels too!)

Maple Cashew Tarts

Macadamia Nut Coconut Blondies

I also made Jayme's Amazing Jalapeño appetizers which were once again a huge hit. (Jayme I think you are going to need to name these something officially!) And in the spirit of using up something we had that needed to be used up I made a modified Mexican Layer Dip where I added in a layer of rice. (I am guessing it was good because the pretty much whole thing got devoured!)

All in all I think there were lots of happy tummies and I am happy to have some new recipes that I know are good in my bag of tricks :)