Great Start to the New Year

What a great start to the new year.  All of the Holiday decorations have been put away and we spent the day watching college football.  Hooray for the teams from Texas, TCU and Tech both won their bowl games but boo hoo for Penn State who came up just a little short.  (We are....PENN STATE!).  At least Urban Meyer left on a winning note.

As always, I was up early with the puppies, Max and Gus who spent the day being very cuddly.  I'm not sure it is because of the weather is a bit on the cold side or if they, (especially Gus) have decided it's nice to have someone rub your back for 24 hours a day.  Either way, I'm good with it.  The puppies are like my babies now that my babies are grown and aren't so cuddly anymore.

And look at those faces, they are ready for a new year of running and playing with treats and long walks with Mom and Dad.  What a life these two spoiled little puppies have.  Isn't it great to have pets in your life?   Max is getting older (he's the schnauzer) and sometimes when he jumps up onto the ottoman, he misses.  It hurts his feelings so bad that he'll hide under the kitchen table until we go get him and pick him up.  He won't try to jump again for a few hours.  It's really sad to see him getting older.  Gus, on the other hand, is only a year old and he flies through the air.

We always spend our New Year's Day like this,  being a bit lazy, cooking pork, peas and cabbage with whatever else we want.  I was taking the easy way this year and put some frozen peas in a small pan, just enough for me since the Yankee Charlie doesn't really care for them.  After putting them on, I went back to watching football.  In a while, Charlie asks me if the peas are supposed to have water in them?  I see you laughing....I covered them in water, however, I guess I had the burner too high and it all boiled out.  What a nasty mess with peas stuck to the bottom of the pan.  OK...no luck for me in 2011, guess I'll have to make my good fortune.

We did have pork chops and sauerkraut.  Charlie wanted kraut this year instead of the traditional cabbage that we usually make.  I guess it's the inner Pennsylvania boy coming out in him.  I didn't take any pictures of that meal.  However, we (I) had some leftover soup from yesterday that I heated and ate some of.  It was so good.  It is Panera's Broccoli and Cheese Soup.  Our son and daughter-in-law gave me "America's Most Wanted Recipes" cookbook for Christmas and told me this was one of the best.  They, of course, were right.  It has just the right mix of flavors with nothing over powering.  I thought that I had screwed this one up while making it because you start with a rue and I didn't think that I cooked it long enough.  Whenever I tasted of the broth before adding the veggies and cheese, it reminded me of the breading on chicken fried steak.  I just knew I was going to have to throw out and entire pot of soup.  But nope, when it was all said and done, it was delicious.

The best part of the day though were these pretzels.  I have never tried making them before but say the recipe on 'Pennies on a Platter'.  I had to try them.  They called out to me. And since I had everything I needed in the pantry/fridge, I went for it.  Actually, I've been looking for a pretzel roll recipe for a turkey sandwich that I used to order at Bennigans.  They have closed all the Bennigans here and left me without my favorite sandwich.  Now, I can live again!  I didn't put ham in these but I sprinkled some with cinnamon sugar, some with cheddar cheese and left some plain.  And I made all kinds of shapes, buns, logs, etc.  They were fun to play with.  And I will be making them again and again.

If you haven't read Pennies on a Platter, give it a look.  Nikki has a lot of great stuff going on there.

If the rest of the year follows today, it's going to be a good year.  And I can't wait!  One last note, we joined the challenge for January 'Eat in Month' on The Chic Life.  Every meal and snack should be made from your kitchen without going to restaurants.  It helps your waistline as well as your wallet.  Since we generally cook most of our meals at home anyway, it shouldn't be a problem.  You should pop on over and give it a look.   Now how do I tell Charlie that he can't have a Whataburger during January?