The Cooking Vent: birthdays

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I can't believe it's already been one year since I started this little blog of mine. I wanted to just thank all of you who come by and read, encourage me, and keep me motivated to keep trying out new recipes. As I've said on here before, I love this blog, because it keeps me sane. That's what the 'Vent' part of the "Cooking Vent" is all about. Through this blog, I've discovered so much more about myself, and who I really am. Not that I'm done yet, or have that whole thing even close to being perfected, but I've found a little bit more of the person God has created me to be.

As odd as it sounds, this little blog has brought me closer in my relationship with God - it's hopefully made me a better wife, a better friend, a better follower of Christ - and hopefully a better cook! :) "All of that from this simple blog", you say. Yep! It's amazing what doing what you love to do, and following what God tells you to do will bring about! Of course it goes deeper than cooking stuff and taking pictures, but that's for another day.

It's weird to look back at my entries a year ago, and see how different (read: bad) they were, and I'm sure I'll feel the same way about this one in another year.

In order to conclude the year of 2010, and recap my first year to blogging, I've compiled a little list of what I think were the best recipes I put together this year - 10 recipes for 2010.

Which one was your favorite?

Cookies:

1. Browned Butter Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies 2. Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting

Cupcakes

1. Gooey Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Truffle Filling 2. Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Yummy Comfort Food:

1. White Truffle Oil & Cognac Cream Mac & Cheese 2. Beef Bourguignon 3. Two Cheese Risotto

Cakes:

1. Red Velvet Cake Brownies 2. Mini Chocolate Ganache Cakes...aka - the best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting you'll ever taste!

Refreshing Beverages:

1. Refreshing Blackberry Lemonade

And now for the fun part....

I'm giving away a fun little package to thank each and every one of you for reading! Saying it on here and having this giveaway really doesn't explain how much I really appreciate all of you guys - I wish I could bake you all a big ole' batch of cookies.

Unfortunately, I can't make them for everyone, but I can make them for one of you! :)

The giveaway includes:

1. Your choice of the above cookies - either the peanut butter sandwich cookies or the browned butter chocolate chip cookies

2. A Whoopie Pie Kit from Crate & Barrel/Sur La Table - How cute is this fun little kit.. I wish I had one too! (It includes a Wilton 12 pie pan from Sur La Table, Red Velvet Whoopie Pie mix, and the mini cupcake spatula's both from Crate & Barrel)

TO ENTER:

1. Post a comment here on this blog telling me what your favorite part of 2010 was and which cookie you would choose if you win

2. For an extra entry: post about this giveaway on your blog with a link back in your comment

Make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner

Contest ends - Thursday, January 6th at midnight PST (which just so happens to be my REAL birthday, making it a great day to give away some fun treats!)

GOOD LUCK!

I celebrated my birthday this week. Yes, I know, it's only a week and a half after Christmas. You don't have to tell me that. This was not always fun growing up.

You know, getting everyone's toys they didn't like from Christmas as a birthday gift. Or celebrating my birthday before we all went back to school from Christmas break, so half of my friends were still on vacation and couldn't come to my party. Or not getting to bring in cupcakes for your birthday because my birthday was always on a day when we hadn't gone back to school yet. BOO! :)

But it wasn't all bad - you know the let down when you are a kid on Christmas night after you've opened all the gifts and played with all the toys, and then you think to yourself that the next time you get to open gifts again won't be until your birthday? (Oh come on, you know you all thought it!!) Well, for me, that just happened to be only a week and a half away! Of course I never have those thoughts anymore - you know, I meant when I was a kid! Don't judge me.

As I've gotten older, doing the big birthday dinner out to eat with a bunch of friends always sort of overwhelms me. I have a difficult time choosing somewhere that I might like, that will be able to include everyone, fit everyone, etc. My husband and I were talking about this, and I mentioned that I would just love to have a few of my friends over for a small dinner party, with a good meal, and something really special. Well, let's just say I have the best husband! Boy did he deliver. He threw the best dinner party, with a meal that he made (all my favorites, and I didn't do a thing), even made a cake from scratch, and had a few close friends over for a really fun and relaxed time! It was great!

Yes, he did need a little help and some extra time- okay a lot of help, at one point every person (except me) was doing something in the kitchen to get the dinner ready, and he said to me "how do you do this by yourself and have it ready on time" Practice, lots of practice!

He went the extra mile to make everything special: coordinating dinner ware and table runner (yes he went out and bought some of this stuff!!), candles, roses, all my favorite foods, he even coordinated the wrapping paper for my gift with the color scheme. I should take notes! :)
We had Chicken Bryan (a Carraba's recipe that we figured out the recipe for), two cheese risotto, balsamic roasted asparagus, and raspberry laced vanilla cake that had this amazing buttercream frosting with raspberry liqueur in it!

I had an amazing time with lots of laughs, love, and amazing food!

Got one amazing gift I wasn't expecting - an Apple MacBook - more blogs!!

And I have one amazing husband to thank for all this! Thanks to my husband and friends who made this a really special night! Best birthday in a long while!

What about you? What's your favorite thing to do for your birthday?