A Girl's Gotta Eat!

Hello again! This is a short one, but I wanted to share now while I was think of it. Mike and I occasionally like to try a new cocktail or beverage.    When were out to dinner with my parents last week for their anniversary dinner (Happy 44 Years, Mom and Dad!), I noticed a Spiced Pear Martini on the menu at Olive Garden. I didn't get one for dinner, but the idea of stuck in my head. I Googled "Spiced Pear Martini" later, and I found a recipe that seemed tasty and easy to whip up.    I would say it tastes more like Christmas cookies than pear, but it's still delicious and very holiday-inspiring. The original recipe places one maraschino cherry at the bottom of the martini glass, but we omitted that as maraschinos are not something we keep on hand, nor would we finish a jar bought for this purpose.   We would make this again, though I think I might look for pear vodka (which I feel certain I've seen before) to see if the outcome would be more like pear

So, we were lounging about yesterday morning, thrilled at having no plans for the entire weekend (a rare occurrence indeed). We were enjoying some (deer) steak and eggs for breakfast and watching The Pioneer Women on the Food Network channel. We like Ree a lot. They seem to have a really cool family, and her recipes sound delicious and totally make-able. Anyway, while we were eating breakfast yesterday, Ree was making Rigatoni and Meatballs. The meatballs looked amazing, and the more we watched, the more we thought we needed meatballs for dinner last night. I've made meatballs plenty of times, but have always used either my mom's recipe or no recipe at all. We decided we needed Ree's meatballs. And so, as we ventured out in the rain and drizzle for a few Christmas things, we stopped by Kroger for meatballs fixin's. And nothing against rigatoni, but decided we really wanted spaghetti with our meatballs. Three things we did differently: We used 3/4 cup breadcrumbs

Mike and I enjoy sweet potatoes, and in the farm box we subscribe to, we often get some fresh ones just in time for fall. It seems though, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas, that most if not all of the recipes we have copious amounts of one or more of the following: brown sugar, marshmallows, bourbon, maple syrup/molasses/sorghum, etc. We wanted savory sweet potatoes. With our sage plant still producing in the garage under a grow lamp, the recipe I found for Sweet Potato and Sage Butter Casserole was just what were looking for! This was easy to put together and very tasty. So tasty, in fact, that I forgot to take any photos. Ours looked just the original, so check out this link for a visual: Sweet Potato Sage Casserole 2 pounds sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes , peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces