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Sunday, January 1, 2012

NYE 2012: A great start

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone had the opportunity to ring in the New Year surrounded by family and friends and if you enjoyed yourself a little too much...hopefully you're recovering from your hangover!

I spent my NYE with my sweet friend Laura, who drove in from Houston, Stacy (a co-worker from 3+ years who has become one of my closest friends) and Krystle H (co-worker for one year that I rarely get to see and need to spend more time with).  Laura and I sat and talked for hours and caught up and then met the girls at Houlihan's for dinner and drinks.  We enjoyed some amazing food together and then hung out by the fire on the patio.  We were very low key and we rang in the New Year with the Carson Daily countdown.

The next Laura and I took a walk/hike on a trail that it just 2 minutes from my house (who knew!).  It was beautiful weather and such a peaceful way to welcome 2012.

Laura and I had lunch with beautiful Miss Casey who will be celebrating a wedding in 2012 (so excited) and In-n-Out Burger (yum)!

I was sad to see Laura go, but so glad she came.  It was a much overdo and needed visit!

I also kicked of Resolution #1 and here is my first Pinterest post!
In order to start off right I made black eye peas for dinner and the recipe I used is found here at thekitchen.com.

I went to 3 different stores and could NOT find frozen black eye peas, so I made the recipe work with canned.  I can never follow a recipe fully so here are the adaptations I made:
-I do not own a dutch oven, so I just used a big stew pot
-Used Hillshire smoke sausage instead of andouille
-Only used 26 oz of stock since the beans were already cooked
-used canned peas by adding the chicken stock bringing it to a boil and THEN adding the peas



It was delicious, quick and easy to make. 

I'm ending my first day of 2012 with a glass of wine, a fire in the fireplace that is finally successful, watching the Cowboys lose terrible (as usual) with my babies at my feet.  Couldn't get any better.

How did you spend your New Year's?

-Ashley