Happy New Year!

It's almost 8pm New Year's Eve and my date just fell asleep. My husband is at work ensuring drunken cheer when it turns midnight in Washington, DC so here I am sitting on the couch with the dog and the cat. This was the first year that my kid was old enough to continue a tradition from my childhood so that was my highlight. Every New Years' Eve as a kid my parents went out and left my brother and me at home with a babysitter. We were allowed to go and pick out large amounts of our favorite candies to fill our own big bowls, grab our sleeping bags, and watch tv all night in the family room til the ball dropped in Times Square. Which reflecting right now was kind of slick on their part since we were in Kansas (an hour behind New York). HEY! I don't think we ever made it, if anyone did it would have been my little brother, he has always been the night owl. I didn't have candy until my brother came along 4 years later and loosened up my parents. Until then they told me raisins were candy. Clint came and all the rules went out the window (he also saw a rated R movie -Pretty Woman- waaaaaay before me). So this was a REALLY big deal for me to have mounds and mounds of junk food on New Year's Eve.

So tonight my kid and I had our first New Year's Party for 2 and I stepped it up a notch from my early days.

With a quick run to the party store to grab a $5 backdrop of Times Square, an $8 ball pinata, and some party hats and noise makers we were ready to go!



Yes, he was very excited to use a bat indoors



Goodbye 2010!





So after the ball dropped and broke open we were ready for our feast

Tonight my kid had his first pixie stick and his first ring pop and loved every minute. We watched "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" and "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" and he then asked if he could go to bed.

So here I am. The rest of the candy is hidden, Times Square is down and put away, and I about to type up the first blog menu of 2011 for Arubula's Kitchen while enjoying some peace, quiet, and champagne.

Happy 2011!





Pickles

I have to laugh because of all my recipes requested throughout 2010 my pickles were the most popular. I have heard from friends that they polished off the jar the same day it arrived (or very shortly after) even one report that they drank the pickle juice. I added a jar for good luck in my basket of goodies for my kid's teacher and she asked for more jars for her son as a Christmas gift. These pickles are super easy to make and if you don't have the time to can them you can stick them in the fridge.



6 pounds pickling cucumbers
3/4 cup sea salt
4 cups white vinegar
1 head garlic cloves, peeled
Dill seed
Fresh Dill
Black Peppercorns
8 mason jars

Rinse cucumbers in cold water, cut off the ends.Cut into wedges. Put cucumbers in glass bowl, add 1/2 cup salt, and cover with water. Cover for at least 8 hours.
Drain off brine. Rinse cucumbers.

In a medium pan combine vinegar, 3 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup salt. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

In each jar place 4 garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon dill seed, 1 teaspoon dill, 8 peppercorns.

Pack cucumber into each jar and cover with vinegar solution. Wipe rim clean with damp cloth. Place on lid and screw bands until finger tip tight.

If canning, process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (you know it's properly sealed if lift lid with fingertips and it doesn't loosen), let cool.

Otherwise just throw in the fridge, and any jars that don't seal through canning put in fridge.

My Top 5 Cooking Resources of 2010

I was making my Christmas baking list, then my menu for Christmas dinner, and it got me thinking what cookbooks have I bought this year, which one's have I actually used, which one's have I loved. While thinking about it and thinking about sharing it with you I began to think about the publications I subscribe to and what I use most from those, and what about online, blogs, websites. Browsing through a cookbook should be inspiring, but not off putting....I would love to eat that, but there is no way I can make it or that looks awesome, but what is with all these absurd ingredients that will send me to 5 different stores to find maybe half of them. As a dairy free house who eats locally/seasonally and my sister in law is gluten free I have a lot of cookbooks for vegans, gluten free, seasonal cooking. I have an addiction to cookbooks. My "save for later" checkout cart at amazon is pages upon pages and I browse through picking up another few every so often (more often than every so). My top 5 may or may not be on NYT must have cookbooks of 2010, they may not have even been released this year, but they have been my go to's this year, giving me extra confidence when I am looking for inspiration they are going to help me out. So here is my list of Top 5 Cooking Resources of 2010.

1. The Divvies Bakery Cookbook
I have loved Divvies products for a few years, regularly ordering 5 lb bags of chocolate chips or festive lollipops for my kid or chocolate bars for s'mores in the summer. When I heard they had a cookbook coming out I could not wait. It was a name I trusted, and the cookbook has not let me down. I have by now made several items from the cookbook and nothing has been short of mouthwatering. I always enjoy people who sneer at dairy free claiming you can taste a difference. I laugh, because trust me, these days you can't and this cookbook proves it. (and this comes from a dairy lover) But not only is it dairy free it is also nut and egg free too. And it is hands down turning into one of my all time favorite baking cookbooks. *Note even if you don't have food allergies you should pick this one up.

2. Gourmet Today
I miss Gourmet magazine. It feels like I lost an old friend. Thankfully I have Gourmet Today to fill some of that void. Sometimes cookbooks feel like they left out that one ingredient that would put the dish into the WOW, but didn't want to share it's secret, well Gourmet Today is sharing the secret. When I'm wondering dinner and looking for inspiration this is my go to book.

3. ChopChop Magazine
Ok this one is a little young to get too excited about, but I have loved what I've seen so far. It's a quarterly magazine that launched in 2010. It is for kids, teaching them about food, choices, and getting them cooking. My 3 year old has loved looking through and we read it together. I hope this magazine sticks around for a while because it's a good one for a kid at any age.

4. Twitter
So I changed this one (if you read a little earlier). I was driving around thinking about it and I felt I needed to change it. I know it's broad, but following folks who cook and/or tweet links to blogs or food news, there have been many times this past year where I have a read a tweet and then printed out the recipe or run into the kitchen to make it or just gotten inspiration, advice, or a connection. Twitter has opened up my world to people who have similar interests from the farms that my food comes from, to chefs, to hobby cooks, gardeners, restaurants, etc. So Twitter should definitely be on this list.

5. The Flavor Bible
This is a fantastic resource to have in your library. It is full of awesome flavor profiles: what compliments each other, helps in what to stay away from combining, what is in season, it goes on. I have used this most of all of my cooking resources. Knowing what I have in my kitchen I would look up an ingredient and from there create a dish. Instead of reading a recipe and going to buy the ingredients, this book allows real creation to begin. Love it.