Happy Blogiversary to me!

One year ago today ...and a cookie for dessert was born! I've had so much fun with this blog and I look forward to growing in the kitchen this upcoming year and having lots of exciting things to post. For now though, in honor of my blogiversary, I thought I would look back over the past year and show off some of the best recipes.

First things first - dessert! By far, my best received dessert of the year were the peanut butter cupcakes pictured above. The frosting is out of this world. Seriously. If you need an amazing dessert, try these!




My pick for my other favorite dessert of the year is a shocker even to me, since it contains no chocolate. I am usually a firm believer that a dessert must contain chocolate to be worth the time, but this banana split "cake" proved me wrong in a big way. It is so, so good - light, fresh and incredibly delicious.

Next up, my second favorite topic - baked goods! I've had a lot of winners this year, but these two knocked my socks off!

My top pick, and contender for favorite all around recipe of the year, is these Hawaiian rolls. Words can not describe how delicious these are. Soft, sweet...mmmmm... I dare you to make these and not love them. Double dare you.


This year, I also discovered that I love pumpkin. Like really, really love pumpkin. Last fall pretty much everything and anything that came out of my kitchen was pumpkin related. The best of the brightest? This pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Incredibly moist, dense and sweet, this bread just rocks. I know, because I ate an entire loaf myself in one sitting the first time I made it.

Okay, okay, I do cook some dinners around here too - so here are two of the year's winners.

These teriyaki turkey burgers became my all-time favorite dinner after having them just once. There's just something about them - the moist, tangy burgers, the sweet grilled pineapple. I'm forever making Joe light up the grill for these babies.

I also spent the past year making many a chili in a quest to find the very best. The one that stole our hearts - this corn chip chili from Rachael Ray. It's easy, full of flavor and it gave me the idea to serve my chili over Fritos - so simple, yet so brilliant.

This year also gave me the confidence to experiment and try things that I never would have tried before and get creative in the kitchen. The best random treats? Homemade granola bars!

Wow, are these good. In just the past month or so I've made granola bars and homemade peanut butter Fiber One bars, and let me tell you, store bought has nothing on these babies. I just keeping making batches of these over and over because I inhale them so quickly. But that's okay, because they're healthy!

Oh, and speaking of healthy - I had to remind you about his rockin' fat free fruit dip! Mostly guilt-free but addictingly yummy.

And finally, I need to give a little shout out to my sous chefs and taste-testers, without whom many of these recipes would not have been possible - my kitties Roy and Roger and my dog Tucker. Roy and Roger (especially Roger) are always anxious to "help" me slice, dice, saute and assemble and Tucker is the best beater-licker there is. So I leave you with a pet friendly treat for your favorite kitchen assistants - cat crackers.

So with that, I call it a year! Thanks for reading and I can't wait to see what this next year brings!