Countdown to New Year's Eve
After moving from CA to MT last year and having to find room and a new place for everything, my answer to the annual question "What do you want for Christmas?" was "I don't want anything I can't eat or drink!"
My beautiful daughter gave me a long-wished for paella pan, the appropriate rice and a can of smoked paprika. Yay! I've been wanting one of these pans for so long, but for some reason have put off buying one. Well, obviously I can't eat the pan, but I will gladly find a place for this beauty! And, I hope you will look forward to my posts about different paella recipes... I can't wait!
I'll be using some Pampered Chef spices in the future too... there is a Citrus & Basil Rub, a Smoky Barbecue Rub, and Jamaican Jerk Rub. If you're a Pampered Chef fan, you can find these spices here.
I would rather shop in a grocery store than anywhere else! I found a few items that I couldn't pass up. A few of my finds were the Maggi Chicken Flavor Buillon with tomato! I think that will make some yummy Mexican rice! Also, I'm a big Old Bay fan, but had never seen the Blackened Seasoning, so I picked up a can of that. And with all the cookie baking this month, I pretty much used up my whole nutmegs, so I bought some to replenish my stock. If you haven't used whole nutmeg, do consider buying some with a small grater... the flavor is so much better than the ground nutmeg you buy in a can!
And finally - a note about our traditional New Year's Eve Dinner. (This picture was our dinner last New Year's Eve.)
My beautiful daughter gave me a long-wished for paella pan, the appropriate rice and a can of smoked paprika. Yay! I've been wanting one of these pans for so long, but for some reason have put off buying one. Well, obviously I can't eat the pan, but I will gladly find a place for this beauty! And, I hope you will look forward to my posts about different paella recipes... I can't wait!I'll be using some Pampered Chef spices in the future too... there is a Citrus & Basil Rub, a Smoky Barbecue Rub, and Jamaican Jerk Rub. If you're a Pampered Chef fan, you can find these spices here.
I would rather shop in a grocery store than anywhere else! I found a few items that I couldn't pass up. A few of my finds were the Maggi Chicken Flavor Buillon with tomato! I think that will make some yummy Mexican rice! Also, I'm a big Old Bay fan, but had never seen the Blackened Seasoning, so I picked up a can of that. And with all the cookie baking this month, I pretty much used up my whole nutmegs, so I bought some to replenish my stock. If you haven't used whole nutmeg, do consider buying some with a small grater... the flavor is so much better than the ground nutmeg you buy in a can!
And finally - a note about our traditional New Year's Eve Dinner. (This picture was our dinner last New Year's Eve.)My gardener and I met just before Christmas in 2000. The next week, my sister invited us for dinner on New Year's Eve and we had live Maine lobster. We've made it a tradition every year to have lobster on New Year's Eve, but this year, in the middle of Montana, there are no live lobsters around!
I grew up in Massachusetts and have never eaten a frozen lobster tail... until... tomorrow. We bought some frozen lobster tails at Sam's Club, so we're going to give them a try. Stay tuned to see what this Native New Englander has to say about frozen lobster tail! Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised!
Happy New Year to all!
