Marty and I are ending this year on a high note! We have a new and exciting plan for our business in 2025 and lots of other things to look forward to.

No matter your year, it’s best to leave it in the past and look towards the future.

If you are stuck in a rut, in a relationship that isn’t working, unhealthy habits, and thinking negatively all the time, it’s time to get off your ass and make some changes.

Change is good and can be scary. Our new business plan for our business is filled with uncertainty as it is exciting. We’ve been in a rut.

The changes I made this year transformed me in mind, body, and spirit. The changes came easily when I finally trusted my guides, the angels, and the Big Guy himself.

At bedtime, I spend time in gratitude. Next, I give all my worries over to the universe.

When I begin to worry during the day I just say, “I give that worry away.” It works every single time.

I have found good things actually happen when I give those worries away. I am very specific regarding my worries.

I know I don’t have to list them off one by one, but I do it for me. It’s like attaching each worry to a red balloon and watching it float away.

When I wake up, I give thanks that I woke up and have another day to live. Each day is a gift and so is waking up in the first place.

I am grateful for all of you who have stuck with me through all my ups and downs.

I am ending this year on a high note and will ring in the new year with our close circle of friends.

Happy New Year! 🎆

Happy Christmas Eve! We celebrated our Christmas Eve last evening with our boys and Aja.

Sammy works today and Noah & Aja go to her mom’s house on Christmas Eve so it worked out for everyone.

I served Christmas Eve in courses this year instead of a buffet. It was so much nicer and easier.

Sam helped with the platings, serving, and clean up. The menu followed the feast of the seven dishes we traditionally do each year.

I’ve never done 7 different dishes but yesterday I served 4 fish which is the normal for me.

I spent a good amount of time coming up with a different menu than I usually make for Christmas Eve.

Menu

Scallop Bisque Soup

Baked Stuffed Clams

Shrimp Scampi Stuffed Shells

Caesar Salad with freshly made crotons

Eggnog Tiramisu

The Baked Stuffed Clams are a crowd favorite and can’t ever be changed because they are that good.

Our dinner was relaxed and the portion sizes were perfect. Everyone always fills up on the clams and doesn’t have time for the entree

Everyone was happy I did it this way and no one was overfilled. They had room to appreciate dessert too!

I put a lot of love into that dinner. Aja told me she could taste the love I thanked her since that meant a lot to me.

Yesterday afternoon, Sam did a photo shoot of the girls in their Christmas Bella and reindeer antlers.

He also took a few shots of us as well.

Today, it’s just Marty, our little Frenchies and I which has been wonderful and relaxing.

We watched A Christmas Carol the musical with Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. I loved it.

They did such an amazing job with this film and the singing, dancing, and choreography was terrific.

Afterwards, I set the table for Christmas breakfast with my boys and Aja. It’s a tradition we’ve started a few years ago.

We open gifts, Marty makes his famous German pancakes that are like crepes with all kinds of fillings.

Another tradition is my overnight french toast casserole, bacon and Sam requested mini quiche which I already made. ✔️

Having Christmas breakfast as a family frees up Noah and Aja so they can visit her family and enjoy Christmas dinner with them.

Right now, it’s 5:30 pm and I am in the process of braising beef short ribs for Christmas dinner tomorrow.

We are making pizza for dinner tonight. Yum!

Sam and I decided on polenta and spinach soufflé as sides with tiny pecan tarts for dessert.

My family and food are very important to me all the time, but it always feels special around the holidays.

I have a very close relationship with God and this year I feel his love so much more not having so much anger and sadness in my heart.

This is truly the most peaceful holiday season I’ve ever felt. It really is the most wonderful time of the year for me after decades of torture, guilt, manipulation, and anxiety from both of our mothers.

I used to cry every Christmas out of frustration and disappointment. I am blessed to finally be able to feel Christmas in my heart and not just go through the motions anymore.

I am at peace. I am calm. I am loved.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah my friends. 🎄♥️

Last night, I hosted a few friends, and we celebrated the winter solstice with ingredients that have been used for hundreds of years.

I didn’t even scratch the surface of ingredients that I could have used, but I used as many as I could that would have been available 200 + years ago.

If I could go back in time I would have gone to school to be a food anthropologist. I love learning about what and how people prepared their food for thousands of years.

In my solstice dinner I used carrots, nutmeg, cinnamon, eggs, walnuts, chestnuts, maple syrup, parsnips, onions, raisins, chicken, spinach, butter, cranberries, orange, rosemary, and cheese.

All very common ingredients that I use almost daily and I always have on hand.

I made a solstice cake and realized when I found the recipe, which is pretty much a festive carrot cake, that I saved the image of the cake a few years ago.

I used that image for an eggnog cake I made and brought to our neighbor’s White Elephant Christmas party.

I got the idea from that image to make the small rosemary trees. I used crumbs under the trees and to cover up the failed frosting job on the sides of the cake.

When I found the cake recipe I used and went back to that image, it was the same cake. It was begging for me to make it and I’m glad I did.

Here is the link to the solstice cake recipe. https://bromabakery.com/winter-solstice-cake/

I added some sugared cranberries, which by the way are shocking wonderful to snack on or put into a salad and they are super easy to make.

Here is the link to the sugared cranberries recipe I use each year. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/sugared-cranberries/

The rest of our dinner included a chestnut and caramelized onion crostini topper with cranberries and rosemary.

The entree was a spinach and cheese stuffed chicken breast, parsnip purée, and maple glazed carrots. All came out very good.

We had a lovely evening celebrating the first day of winter. Only a year ago, Marty and I hated when winter was approaching for as long as I can remember.

During my transformation, I’ve learned to love all four of our seasons, to slow down, to look around at things, and to appreciate the little things in life.

This year, I looked forward to winter coming and I don’t mind the cold weather at all. Damn, things have really changed.

Embracing the four season has taken more negativity out of my life that has been there since adulthood.

As an adult, I never stopped to appreciate winter and how beautiful it is here in Vermont.

Dressing for winter is also a game changer making going outside refreshing and even pleasant when the sun or the stars are out.

Instead of joining bitching sessions about winter, now, I smile and say I like it and walk away from the conversation.

To those of you who dislike winter, I get it. Growing up in the overpopulated part of Jersey, I grew up where, unless you are a child, it’s harder to find beauty when the snow turns black after 5 minutes, and people do not know how to drive in it.

Happy Winter, guys! ❄️

Happy Winter Solstice! I’ve always loved this day especially when our boys were young when we would hang popcorn in the tree outside for the “snow angels.”

Here’s a link to a short sweet episode of Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear three part “Winter Solstice” tv show that we enjoyed with our boys when they were little.

https://youtu.be/7YfpKSNzQ2g?feature=shared

Maurice Sendak’s books were favorites in our house and the calming episodes on tv brought little bear to life.

Tonight, I’m having a few friends over for a Winter Solstice dinner celebration using some traditional solstice ingredients and flavors.

I’ve taken some photos of my dishes I made yesterday and will again today to share with you.

One of my favorite things to do is cook for my family and friends which I will be doing a lot of over the next two weeks. Yay!

I wish I could cook a meal for all of you. Making food for people is one of the best ways I can share a part of me, I guess writing is another.

I put 100% into the thinking and planning, shopping and meal prep, setting the table, actual cooking and baking, and finally serving a meal made with love. ❤️

I wish you all the best on this longest night of the year. Let go of whatever is no longer serving you and look towards all the bright and wonderful things that lay ahead.

After Marty left for work at school on Monday morning, I made myself a small pot of chia oatmeal, lit some candles, and turned on a winter solstice playlist.

I created a hygge morning in a matter of minutes. As I ate my oatmeal I began to make Indian spiced nuts and apricot chutney.

I had a long to-do list while Marty was at work and I quickly bit off more than I could chew.

I knew things were getting out of control when I started to get that adhd feeling kicking into overdrive.

While I was working on my food projects I started looking for things in my pantry and decided I needed to reorganize the whole thing.

Of course, the other pantry in our back room needed some organizing as well.

I looked at the clock and thought, “oh, shit!” I knew I had to get it together since I still had work to do in the production kitchen.

I walked back into my kitchen and looked around. My peaceful hygge morning went off the rails.

I set a timer for 10 minutes to clean off my island and clean up. Next, I set a 30 minute timer for me to make baked stuffed clams for the freezer for Christmas Eve dinner.

Ding! I made it. Then, I ran out to the production kitchen and set another 30 minutes timer. I got my work done with 4 minutes to spare.

I ran back inside and started caramelizing onions for French onion soup. While babysitting the onions, I cleaned the kitchen and turned on the dishwasher.

I looked at the clock and it was 2:45 pm. Marty would be home in half an hour.

I ran up to change my clothes and make myself presentable enough to go to Bennington with him to go shopping.

I was almost 100% done when he showed up 2 minutes earlier, picking me up than he said. I quickly grabbed my shit and flew out the door.

I still had a few things left on my to-do list, so after dinner, I completed it around 8:45 pm. Whew.

I finally sat down and realized I was utterly exhausted and went up to bed.

I certainly bit off more than I could chew but come hell or high water, I was going to get that fucking to-do list done no matter what. 😜

Wednesday night was our last belly dance class of the year. It was a very small group and I got to actually dance the whole time instead of talking.

Next week, we are having our annual Holiday Hafla, which means celebration. Our students will perform, and Kathleen and I will dance as the Sahidi Sisters.

The first quarter of the year was rough, not being able to dance much due to my lung disease. It was frustrating and sad.

I threw myself into my teaching role and pretended it didn’t bother me. It did. A lot.

In May, I began my physical transformation after having strep though the end of April. I quit drinking and began dropping weight.

With every pound I lost, the better I felt.

In August, Kathleen and I changed our dance time from Wednesday afternoon before class to Saturdays which is so much better.

We can focus on just us and not have to worry about not tiring ourselves out for dance class. We have both improved and are happy how things are coming along.

I’m excited to perform for our students with Kathleen. We’ve been working hard to climb back to where we were professionally, before all this lung disease shit started.

We still have a ways to go but the best part is that we are having fun again! Yip!!

All of our core group of students have improved greatly as well this year.

I am focusing on musicality with some of them and how to start and stop songs with confidence and pizzazz.

We have a two week break since both Christmas and New Year’s days are on Wednesdays.

I always need the break to recharge my batteries and prepare to start off with another 12 week cycle. New comers are always welcome anytime. Hint, hint!

Hopefully we are able to capture some of our performances and we do well enough to want to share them on YouTube which I will share with all of you.

Sam is here and did the dishes for me tonight. I had a couple of pots, sheet pans, and a large frying pan.

He managed to get everything into the dish rack and turned to me with a warning about the jenga of dishes.

I have to admit that I was pretty impressed since I play dish jenga as well.

The glasses and dishes went into the dishwasher so there is no need to worry about any thing breaking.

Goodnight, everyone.

Here is the link to the recipe I used to make the ricotta meatballs. I forgot to add to my original post. 🤓

https://theclevermeal.com/ricotta-meatballs/

The recipe includes a quick marinara sauce recipe as well. I was lucky that I had a container of my sauce in the freezer and used that.

I love meatballs! I’ve written about all my favorites, plus shared my recipes with you guys. Now, there is a new kid on the block

I have made and eaten all the different types of meatballs I love while eating clean, I have lightened them up a bit by using leaner beef here and there. They are still delicious.

I’ve cut way back on saturated fats since eating clean , it’s a good thing too since butter is over $4 a pound!

While I was menu planning I came across a new meatball recipe originating from Sicily, Sicilian ricotta meatballs, also called “polpette di ricotta al sugo.”

I read through the recipe and the next time I went grocery shopping, I bought some whole milk ricotta, I never use low or fat free anything.

The recipe was very easy, I kept thinking this is too good to be true and expecting them to melt or fall apart.

After rolling them into balls I gently set them in marinara sauce that was heated up in a skillet with a lid.

I followed the recipe exactly however, the only thing I would change is not flipping them as early or as often as the recipes says to.

Once they are steamed in the sauce they become larger in size and firm enough to carefully move around with a spoon covering them with sauce.

How were they? Holy shit! They were so good! They had the same texture as my soft and fluffy meatballs.

The ricotta meatballs were flavorful and full of protein. What a perfect meatless entree. I can’t believe I haven’t seen or heard about them before.

I made the meatballs with spaghetti because I love spaghetti and meatballs. I also made an Italian tossed salad with our dinner.

Marty was a little unsure he said he wanted to bite into something but I pointed out they were the same texture as my soft and fluffy meatballs.

We had enough leftovers for Marty’s lunch the next day and two lunches for me later that week.

Now, when I get a craving for spaghetti and meatballs and don’t have ground beef on hand I can always whip up a batch of these ricotta meatballs along with a quick marinara sauce.

If you are an Italian food lover and a lover of cheese, these are something for you to try. They are fast and easy to make and are good for you! A win/win situation.

Buon Appetito!

I fell in love with colors from outdoors this year. I spent a lot of time outdoor and loved every moment of it.

I wanted to continue with last year’s nature inspired Christmas decor I started searching for items in September.

I love sharing whenever I create something. I am super pleased with how our home came out this year. It looks warmer, simplistic, and soothing.

The only two trees that do not follow the nature decor are my small tree with my Mema’s vintage Christmas ornaments.

The tree in our bedroom is girlie. Our room is feminine and elegant complete with a chandelier.

I added just a bit of Christmas in our downstairs powder room and kitchen.

It took me a week to complete the decorating this year. I used to do it in one day, but now I take my time and create as I decorate.

When the boys were small I put everything in the same place year after year and didn’t have to think about it. It was called operation Christmas.

I’ve been decorating our tree alone since the boys grew older. Sam took me to pick out our tree again this year. It’s a mini tradition of ours.

I always play Christmas music while decorating our tree while Marty sits in the living room with me.

This time of the year, I love seeing other people’s holiday decorations on my newsfeed and in the hygge and cozy homes groups I belong to.

They make me feel like it is the most wonderful time of the year.