I have always loved to cook. If you have been around me in the past few years (especially since moving to Nashville) you probably know this. Yes, I own a cake business and yes I obviously bake a lot but I am one of those rare people who like both baking and cooking. A lot of people (like Martha Stewart and Paula Dean) like one or the other. Not me, I like them both.

I have started reading ThePioneerWoman blog a lot more lately - thank you Melody - after realizing she has some AHHHMAZING recipes as well as just funny content. She is fantastic. I've added her blog to the right under "Blogs I Follow." Check it out - I have to say, it is a little tricky to navigate and figure out where her new content is, but it's worth your time. It's also inspired me to involve more of that on my blog - it's a big part of who I am, so why not include it here? I promise I won't turn this into a cooking/recipe blog, but I also use my blog for my own point of reference sometimes - tagging my posts so I can easily go back and find different things I've posted about. {I'm also a little bit of a nerd when it comes to organization. I used to organize my Halloween candy as a child and I even organize my friend groups on Facebook. Wow. Not sure why I just shared that....}

All of our New Year's Eve party food that I prepared was chosen from her blog. I made French Onion Soup Stuff Mushrooms, Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Mushroom and Swiss Sliders with Fry Sauce. OMG they were all INCREDIBLE! I really should have taken pictures, but if you follow each of those links you will see the amazing photography of Ree - she does an exponentially better job than me at food photography anyway.

I also LOVE using recipes from Faithful Provisions. She sends emails and Facebook updates on coupons and deals, but she also has a great section called her recipe box where she has created yummy recipes based around commons ingredients that are on sale. She does try to make an effort to make them healthy as well. I've talked a lot about her blog over the years - I went to one of her grocery shopping workshops right before I had Gabbie and helped me sooo much. For a while, I was really really good at couponing a little and stockpiling. You may remember a few posts I did bragging about my savings - I still looove to do that, but I'm not as good as taking pictures and posting about it.

So all that to explain a few of my upcoming posts about food.
I've made some super yummy recipes lately and wanted to share them mainly because they all turned out to be super simple and SOO delicious-o. Even Brent, the quirky eater of a husband I have enjoyed them all.

My first one turned out to be such a pretty dinner that I had to post pictures. I wish I had taken a better picture of it because now it's not looking as appetizing as it did when I made it, but I'll work on my photography. I just read a post yesterday from Pioneer Woman about tips she's learned from photographing food....hmm I guess I should re-read that one.