CookinFanatic 2010: A Year in Review

I think one of the most amazing parts about having a blog (besides “meeting” all of you of course!) is being able to literally scroll back through your life at any given time.

Almost like reliving those memories all over again, a photo album of sorts.

I decided that this year was definitely worth a look back, hopefully ya’ll will join me! 😀

COOKINFANATIC 2010:  A YEAR IN REVIEW

January started off with a bang!  The Man and I headed out to sea with the rest of the Fanatic Fam on a much welcomed Caribbean cruise.

 

We ate some delicious food and drank some delicious drinks…

Life is good 🙂

The warm weather didn’t seem to follow us back to Richmond however, since towards the end of the month we got record breaking snowfall here in our fine city!

   

At least we know someone really enjoyed it 😉

  

February was quite the eventful month saying goodbye to my tonsils!!!

No more sore throats & trips emergency room in the future (hopefully!) for this gal 😀 

 

Never ate so much soft food in my life.  If you need a smoothie recipe then give me a call, just sayin’ 😉

The spring got off to a healthy start, with a trip to FitBloggin in March and a chance to meet some amazing bloggers!

Also had a fabulous time hanging out with my girl Brit and getting into all sorts of adventures on our train ride up to Baltimore 😛

New friends + old friends.  Such a fantastic weekend!

April marked the beginning of the farmer’s market… a definite cause for celebration in my book!

  

Ahhh the thought of those fresh ripe summer tomatoes still brings a smile to this girl’s face 😀

May kicked off with none other than a Cinco de Mayo party!  

   

Would you expect anything else from this Mexican lovin’ fanatic?

And ended with a 21^st birthday celebration for mini-Fanatic!!

How did she get so grown up already?  Wasn’t she just doing cartwheels and playing with Polly Pockets, like yesterday? 😉

June was marked by one of the biggest days in one of my college bestie’s life – her wedding!        

All of our college best friends were finally reunited for the first time in years – it was seriously amazing!

Once the weather got HOT we made a family trip to the Outer Banks in July, which hadn’t happened in ages!

From stops at the roadside farmer’s markets (incredible) to days spend lounging in the sun…

 

To nights spent out with some of my favorite people in the world…

 

And Mom, if I had any beach pics of you and Dad they’d be up here too, but apparently someone was a bit camera shy 😛  Love you!!

This was a week of summer fun that I’ll never forget! 🙂

Late summer rolled around and The Man and  I had an impromptu August day trip to Virginia beach…

Including an amazing oceanfront meal.

And also celebrated our 2 year anniversary!!!

Gorgeous.

The start of the fall season included a September trip to Wintergreen resort for an international wine festival…

  

We all know how much I love me some vino 😉

And ended with a visit to lil’ miss mini-Fanatic to relive our college years!

 

And enjoy the VTech vs. ECU football game too 🙂

In October, I’ll admit it, I began my love affair with one of the most amazing foodie books ever:

And began tasting flavors and foods that I never dreamed would be part of my kitchen.  Simply amazing 😀

We also trekked our way up north to see one of my best college friends (pregnant with her first child) and her hubby!

During this trip The Man got to experience NYC for the first time… and I got to spend time in one of my favorite cities everrrrrrrrrr 🙂

So much incredible food was consumed and maybe even some ummmm pink tequila???

Yea let’s not go there again haha…

November was a busy busy busy month!  I made another lil’ trip up north for reasons yet to be disclosed….

(so soon, I promise!!) 🙂 🙂

We surprised The Man with a big party for his birthday…

(He never even had a clue :P)

And I celebrated Thanksgiving with the family who has become my own…

Since Fanatic family was out cruisin’ the open waters!

‘Twas delicious.

And now we’ve reached December, the end of December none the less (can you believe it?!), a month filled with family, food and fun.

From making homemade pierogi with the Fanatic ladies…

To baking mountains of sweet treats over at The Man’s parents’ house…

The holidays ended up being nothing short of amazing!

The Polish Christmas Eve dinner tradition carried on another year and wonderful times were had celebrating with the Fanatic Fam 🙂

Eating traditional dishes like our homemade pierogi!

And snuggling up with the cutest dog in the world (IMO :D)

We spent Christmas Day at The Man’s family’s house, in which I received one of the most amazingly thoughtful gifts ever from my one and only love…

Year 1 of CookinFanatic, all wrapped up and bound into a hardcover book.  I was in shock.  And cried.  Alot.

And now here we are, looking a new year right in the eyes.  I seriously can’t even believe 2010 is over?!

In looking back, I can say that I am so truly blessed with family, friends and health… plus all of you, since without ya’ll this blog just wouldn’t be the same!

I seriously can’t wait to see what 2011 will hold…  I hope all of you will come along for the ride, I have a feeling it’s going to be an exciting year 😉

Girls Dinner In!

After the chorizo, chicken and unseen beef that was consumed this week, tonight all I was in the mood for was a meat-free meal!

Lucky for me, lil’ sis agreed to come over and have a girls’ dinner in with me – she appreciates a meatless meal (and beans!) as much as I do 🙂

And don’t worry – The Man had plenty of chicken wings, nachos, etc. while watching football with his buddies – he def didn’t starve 😉

So I set out to make us a healthy, veggie filled dish!

Veggie and White Bean Pasta & “Better Than Fries” Roasted Broccoli

First up, the pasta sauce.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 bag frozen squash
• 1 can San Marzano crushed tomatoes
• 1 can white beans, drained
• fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• sea salt & black pepper to taste
• *edited to add* there was a splash of white wine & shake of red pepper flakes also involved towards the end!

I normally don’t like to buy canned tomatoes, however these San Marzanos appeared at Whole Foods a few weeks back and I’ve never had them before *shock!* so I had to go for it.

So worth it.

Also, in case you didn’t know, fresh basil freezes wonderfully for later use in cooked dishes.  This is from our basil plant this past summer and the flavor is still spot on!

This was definitely a throw together kind of meal.  A great one to use up some odds n’ ends in the pantry too!

Onion, garlic and squash.

Tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and beans.

Plus some water to thin it out. 

The sauce cooked away while lil’ sis and I drank away had some time for girl talk 😀

And prepared the roasted broccoli…

Garlic infused olive oil.  Seriously amazing.

I used frozen broccoli this time around, drizzled with the garlic olive oil plus some sea salt and black pepper. Into a 425F oven for about 20 minutes (one flip in between) and you will have an amazing veggie side dish on your hands.

Lil’ sis proclaimed this broccoli to be “better than french fries”….

And if you knew of her deep love for fried taters then you would know how serious this was!

We served the veggie bean sauce over some thin spaghetti too – plus a topping of Parm cheese for moi 🙂

Deelish deelish deelish.

Now it’s movie time!  Anyone seen Knight and Day before?  Hope it’s good 😛