Oh forgot to tell you....

Remember that cake competition that I put the Thanksgiving cake in that Sean and I made??

Well....

We won!!!!!

I came home a few days later and there was a box on my doorstep from Simon & Schuster with some books in it.... As I love being in the kitchen and 'creating' masterpieces it was brilliant... like Christmas had come early!!! Here is the list of books they sent...

An autographed copy of 'Cake Boss'
Bon Appetit Desserts
Foodista - Best of food blogs
The World Kitchen - Williams Sonoma
Cooking Essentials - Williams Sonoma
Cooking from the Farmers Market - Williams Sonoma
Tools & Techniques - Williams Sonoma

I made some Indian Korma and substituted the chicken for Turkey with an excellent recipe from The World Kitchen.... My only disappointment was that I thought Aarti (Aarti Paarti) would have been in the Foodista cook book. As soon as I got it I combed the pages looking for one of her recipes and much to my dismay there wasn't one!

I haven't quite made my way through all of them yet, I love reading cook books.... but, if you like making cakes, desserts, squares etc... Bon Appetit Desserts is an excellent book to have in your cooking library. I did get a lot of my Christmas baking recipes from it. I have been trying to collect all the Williams-Sonoma collection cook books so I was really happy that there were a few Willams-Sonoma books in there too!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope a wonderful Christmas was had by all! Ours was pretty low key (but I am still exhausted!)... Santa, presents, dinner with the family, building ginger bread houses, waiting for the man in red...


The Christmas tree after Santa & Grandma & Grandad visited....


A special gift from Caleb that he made at school... some Christmas and tree decorations! He was so excited to give it to us! My favorite day is boxing day. The kids woke up today, we all just hung out and they played with their new toys almost all day. The kids make my Christmas... (that and the fireplace channel on the TV!) they were super excited for the man in red and to get their little hands on the parcels under the tree. I love cooking Christmas dinner for our family. The only thing I hate about Christmas is being so far away from all my family. I wish that I could share the excitement with my sisters, my grandparents and my friends that are so close to me that they will always be family.....
Caleb & Dad enjoying a Christmas nap... had to share. I love my boys :)