New Year's Eve dinner

We broke tradition tonight. I think this is the first time in 10 years we haven't gone to the Smith's on New Year's Eve. We have just had way too much going on and too much work to enjoy anything tonight. We had a nice relaxing evening. I grilled some ribeyes, applied Boursin butter liberally, made Hez's chipotle mashed sweet potatoes, and stir fried zucchini. I opened a bottle of Old Vine Gnarly Head Zinfindel.

Happy New Year's! I'm going to bed!

The new favorite "Tini"

I took 2 of the Riedel "O" martini glasses and filled the hollow stems with water. After they were frozen, I put a Dellalo garlic stuffed olive in and filled with gin. The ice kept everything nice and chilled without too much dillution. Nice.

Heather's seafood pasta

Heather made some linguini with chucks of "crab". The sauce was perfect. Another one of Hez's accomplishments.

Indiana Tanner

Tanner had a blast putting together the Indiana Jones Leggos. He is a very intellignt, skilled little man.

Leftover ribeye roast sandwiches

I warmed up some leftove roast. I made a horseradish sauce with grated horseradish, a bit of dijon, and sour cream. I put that on leftover rolls. Tanner LOVED it. I thought it was good. C and his attitude lately didn't say anything.

A Burwell Family Christmas at the Ray's

Nat Ray was gracious enough to let the masses invaded her home for a few hours. We destroyed the place while we opened gifts. She served wine and various cheeses. The kids destroyed the bags of cookies. It was a lot of fun. Aunt Sheryl looked like she was having fun, the disappeared like a ghost. We are glad for the amount of time we got to spend on her.

Noble Family reunion at Char

The food was very good. I don't want to sound surprised, but it was very good. Kudos to Mimi for organizing the event and the menu. It was varied from Country Fried Steak with stone ground grits, Bayou Shrimp, vegetable plate, etc... The staff did a good job of serving so many people in a short period of time. It got loud at times and poor Uncle Russell couldn't hear any of it at that point, but overall it was very nice. The beautiful baby is Houston Kirk. He made it clear that he is very fond of his uncle Brian.

Friday after Christmas

We all met at Sal and Mookies. We had all the Burwell, Hull, and Barkley crew plus Rusty and Bobbie Burwell and the Kirk's including Brian. We ate some pizza and Heather had a greek sub. A few pitchers of beer were passed around and we finished with ice cream from the ice cream bar. It was a lot of fun out on the porch.

Then Brian Kirk, aka, Hackman Kirk, the Barkley's and Rusty and Bobbie went to the Hull's and played Brian's game. I cant tell you the name of it, but it was a lot of fun.

Christmas Dinner

Heather and I had the rest of my birthday present crabcakes. They were excellent. I steamed some broccoli and reheated the tasso grits. Not a classic combo, but it was all good. The boys had venison steak with rice.

Christmas Lunch at Uncle Bobby's

This was a typical Witt Christmas Dinner. That means lots of casseroles. Great casseroles. And Aunt Tootsie makes the BEST dressing. It was good to see my family in one place.

Christmas Morning Carnage

More pics from Christmas Eve

I forgot to mention Heather's artichoke fritters. They were a huge hit.

Christmas Eve at our house

We had all the Barkley's over for dinner Christmas eve. We roasted a ribeye roast, made a cheese tray, tasso grits, Gran Pearle's sausage casserole, mac and cheese, and banana pudding. Chance made a cheesecake (imagine that). Karen brought creamed spinach and a squash casserole. Melissa brought a layered Tex-Mex dish. Marilyn brought Bobby's first attempt at smoked turkey (which was a success) and her infamous broccoli casserole. Dad brought, well, everything else. There was pork roast, corn, peas, green beans, cornbread, etc.... We had a good time and it was a nice evening. We want to thank everyone that made the drive to spend time with us.

Dinner at the Smith's

We had dinner at the Smith's to celebrate friends and Jesus' birthday. Lisa had made some gumbo and cornbread. Rog opened a St. Emillion that was spot on. The kids played and we had a nice time. Heather was well long enough to enjoy the evening, then crash.

The Nipper's cookies

OK, close your eyes and imagine this. Your neighbors that are great cooks make you a tin of cookies. You are so excited to see what is in the tin as soon as Jennifer leaves. You crack the lid and see a mouse! Too cute. They have some skills....

Osso Bucco

It must have been like 10 days since she made this. Scott was out of stock at Tony's last week so she had to wait. It was well worth the wait. The marrow was bountiful in this batch.

Pan seared Halibut with burre blanc and green beans

Heather was in the mood for halibut and we had some, so she made this delicious meal. The green beans were PERFECT; crisp, but not crunchy. Wow!

Bistro style short ribs

Heather spent the day in the ER with a migraine and was really still out of it when I made her this. It was my attempt at making her feel better. You'll have to ask her if it worked.

Chicken Natalie with chipotle powder

This was Heather's rendition. Quite tasty. That is white rice with it. Tanner didn't eat it because we were waiting on him to finish the tilapia.

Tilapia with tomatillos and maque choux

This is one of our quick easy dinners we enjoy. Well, except for Tanner. It took him 3 days to eat it. I ended up putting it in a tortilla and tricking him. This was one of those battles of will that we both lost. Check out the recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/tilapia-with-tomatillos-and-avocado-filled-with-maque-choux-recipe/index.html The avocados weren't quite ripe so we rolled without it.

Beef Bourguignon

Don't ask me how to pronounce it, but I can tell you how to eat it. This was good. Heather had found a large chuck roast on sale and brought it home. This is half of the roast. She used Ina Garten recipe found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beef-bourguignon-recipe/index.html . There were a few modifications to better fit what we had available. She used egg noodles to soak up all the goodness.

Pan Braised Halibut

Heather found some fresh halibut at Tony's. I was recuperating from the big "V". She asked me how I made it before. After a brief discussion she ran with it. She opened a white Burgundy, added a little lemon at the end and braised the halibut with capers. She made some Yukon Gold potatoes and served it up perfectly. It was FINE. That woman has skills beyond her modesty. I was so enthralled with the meal that I forgot about the pain I was in. Or maybe it was the Lortab haze...

Chance's first time as a testing judge

Mr. McMichael asked C to help judge during last week's testing. Chance is very good with the smaller kids and they respect him. I think he was proud that he was chosen to help judge. I am proud of him for all that he has accomplished. Now we have to work on that algebra grade....

Vegetable night

Vegetable night, also known as, Tanner goes hungry night. Heather made some broccoli casserole, butter peas, and some sweet corn. I made a pan of cornbread to go with it. Tanner was a problem, but everything else was nice. It made for some good leftovers as well.

Osso Bucco with asparagus

Heather added some mushrooms to the risotto tonight. She had found some really fresh asparagus at Kroger and roasted some to go along with the osso bucco. The shanks were so large that we actually shared one.

Tamales with Kelly's chili

OK, I cheated. I opened a can of Kelly's chili with beans. I LOVE this stuff. My coworkers are wondering when I am going to burn out on it. Well, to avoid the burnout, I mix it up a little. I took a disposable aluminum pan and spread a can of chili across the bottom. I opened another can of Hormel beef tamales and placed them over the chili. Add some chopped onion and grated cheese, bake for a bit, and you have a $4 meal that was delicious. Chance had seconds and thirds.

Backstrap and biscuits

I fried up some venison and made a gravy for Heather's delicious tea biscuits left over from this morning. Butter peas and a potato gratin rounded it out. I need to harvest another deer. We are running low on venison.