The Lost Draft: Happy New Year!

2009 was a big learning year for me. I'm proud to say that I've spent a few moments reflecting on the top ten lessons that have made the largest impact on me.

1. Even on my worst days, my son will still make me laugh.

2. Being a stay-at-home mom is both rewarding and torment.

3. I sometimes feel bored, when really I still have a lot to do.

4. My living room won't stay clean no matter how hard I try.

5. I am not very good at keeping up on my blog.

6. A part-time job is sometimes a big night out.

7. We really need a babysitter in our area.

8. I really need to learn more about photography.

9. I'm in love with my dutch oven. What's better than one pot meals.

10. I'm easily inspired by movies and books. I recently watched "Julie and Julia", and all I want to do is try to cook my way through an entire cook book.

That being said, I decided to be a bit more realistic and aim to simply cook dinner more than once a week. I am also vowing to try out new recipes, and make use of my dutch oven. We got a whole bunch of snow this weekend, so I decided to aim for something that sticks to the ribs.

My searching lead me to a recipe for chicken and dumplings found on marthastewart.com. I decided to give it a go as it called for my beloved dutch oven.

Cooking with Booze: Buttershots Recipe 2 & 3

Truth time people. I tried two more recipes, but the honest truth is that recipe #2 was not in fact cooking with booze. It was drinking it. It seems that there are few available recipes involving Buttershots that do not involve simply drinking the sweet libation.

Recipe #2- Caramel Apple Martini
Let me tell you, this was YUMMY! So yummy in fact that I considered making a second and decided that my liver might not appreciate it. This is definitely going to be a staple recipe for the holidays, and as a matter of fact it would probably be extremely delicious warmed. As I am not an avid drinker at home, I don't own any normal martini glasses, so please pardon my "Shopaholic" glass.

Recipe #3- Butterscotch Apple Pie Filling
I used a recipe adapted from Pixiwishesforeheadkisses and it turned out awesome! The original recipe I'm sure is far better than mine as Becky uses her own pastry recipe. As many know, homemade pastry is far tastier than store bought but in the interest of time, I bought from the refrigerated section of Shaw's. I ended up using roughly 6 medium red apples (mostly Cortland), and skipped the lemon juice which simply keeps the apples from browning. Overall, it was awesome. I will say though, I would probably use more booze. C didn't taste it at all, and I was more than comfortable feeding it to my children. I intended on taking a photo, but my husband dug into it before I had a chance!