Mmm, chocolate dipped pretzels. These could quite possibly be the easiest things I have ever, ever made. Seriously. And of all the treats I made to give away this season, they got the biggest wow. Go figure.

How did I do it? It all started with a bag of pretzel rods (be sure your bag has as many unbroken ones as possible – I ran into some treacherously broken bags). I melted 8 oz. of chocolate chips per 12 rods in a makeshift double broiler (pot of hot water with a melt mixing bowl over top – the chocolate chips go in the mixing bowl. Stir frequently until just melted smooth). Then I used a spoon to coat about half of each pretzel with chocolate. To smooth it out, I held the rod by the chocolate-free end and gently shook the chocolate down and off. Then, over a plate, I sprinkled nonpareils and other little decorations onto the chocolate. After they cooled and the chocolate hardened, I transferred them to decorative bags.

Sooooooooo easy. I’m tellin’ ya!

This photo was taken last week, while I was still delusional enough to think that I could get it together and mail Christmas cards out before Christmas. Yea. Right. Nice try. Anyway, I love the expression on Will’s face as he checked out the little rock he found on our driveway of rocks. And the curls . . . love his little curls.

So it’s been a mommy day – Will went off to daycare while I headed to the dentist (ugh!). But after a long day of doing what I wanted to when I wanted to, I am now just sitting here waiting for Will and my husband to get home. I miss my little boy and my hubby too.

Funny how things change when you have kids.

It’s getting to be that time of year when we remember all the things that happened over the course of the year. Looking back moves us forward to the next year where there will be all sorts of new things to learn. Crazy, isn’t it?

Over the course of the next week, you’ll see several year-end posts, along with a recap of recipes that made it into my gift baskets this year. Stay tuned. There is a lot of great stuff to read about this week…

Now onto 10 things I learned in 2006.

1. Never put an extra hot pan in cold water or an extra cold pan in a hot oven…it will warp.
2. Photos make a blog post so much more interesting. See my first photo post here.
3. Molto Mario…truth be told, I had no idea who he was before I went to the Martha Stewart Show in March.
4. Making cinnamon rolls at home takes a bit of time but is well worth the effort. These rolls from Chef Michele’s Adventures are awe-worthy.
5. Beet greens are delicious.
6. Homemade potato chips . . . mmmm.
7. Homemade French bread . . . ooooooooooooh.
8. Groundhogs in the garden STINK!!!!
9. Two words: square watermelons!
10. A few life lessons . . .

You notice that you’ve turned on the wrong burner, scorching a poor hapless potholder and failing to boil that damned water for your pasta . . . and failed to turn on the lukewarm oven (since there’s been so much cooking going on) leaving your chocolate chip cookies in disarray.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I think I need a break. Fortunately that all happened last night. And the marshmallow disaster (we’ll talk about that later) happened much earlier in the day. Too much pressure, I tell you. And it’s all self induced.

*Sigh* I just want it all to be perfect. Is that too much to ask???

My husband and I love to make pizza at home. We’ve been doing it for years, since we were dating.

At one point when we were dating we wanted to try whole wheat pizza dough but couldn’t find any premade to try. Enter The Best Pizza Is Made At Home. Of course, I made it once or twice (actually, the husband-then boyfriend- never even tried it) and then grew tired of it. The book was resigned to the bookcase to gather dust.

Years passed. We got married. We had a baby. I quit my job to stay home for awhile with Will (aforementioned baby) and freelance. Of course, money was tight. Really, really tight. Then I started cooking more (it saves so much money). And then I began digging through my library, trying whatever I could so that we could have a variety of homemade goodness.

That’s when The Best Pizza Is Made At Home reentered my attention. It costs only a few dollars to make pizza at home as opposed to $10 or more for a good pie around here . . . The result was a number of great pies, some of which were dished about here (yes, bad pun).

The Parmesan crust is among my very favorites. The deep dish is flaky and good. And of course the plain crust is great too. I am still looking forward to using a number of the other recipes – like the herb dough.

The point? If you love pizza and love to cook and want to cook pizza, then get this book because it is filled with a wealth of wonderful variations on pizza dough.

It’s time to cast your ballot for nominations for the 2006 Food Blog Awards, hosted by the Well Fed Network. There are many categories so be sure to get all your favorites to represent.

NOTE: The Well Fed Network is now defunct.

I was shocked to see that I only had ONE visitor all day yesterday . . . and then I remembered that I upgraded to the new Beta version of Blogger on Friday and that had probably killed the HTML for the counter . . . WHOOPSIE!

So to all the bloggers out there: don’t forget to re-add your html code for site traffic counters and whatnot . . .

PHEW! For a second there I was really worried that my traffic had really deep sixed.

Once upon a time, I was a vegetarian. In fact, I was a vegetarian for a number of years (7 or 8, if memory serves me). I bought and poured over dozens of vegetarian cookbooks during that time, looking for innovative recipes that didn’t call for tofu. I am not particularly fond of tofu.

The Vegetarian Pasta Cookbook was one of the best ones I happened on. I L-O-V-E pasta. This book has a variety of hearty, filling recipes that pack a punch of nutrients. And everything has photos, so you can salivate while deciding which one to make. The recipes are divided by major ingredients such as legumes and mushrooms and there are many of each.

Unfortunately, the book falls into the out of print category so you’ll have to buy it second had (but it’s well worth the money if you are a pasta-loving veg-head).