Cheesy New Year!

Cheese! Er, cheers!  Er, both! We had a cheese fest here in the Nest to eat out the old and eat in the new. Mini cheese souffles and brie en croute were the cheesy pre-midnight offerings. They were eaten alongside grilled flat iron steak mini sandwiches (T was in her backyard grilling when it barely topped freezing temperatures that day; how's that for a good guest?) with cheese atop some, horseradish beneath others. M brought rice and hopping john, a traditional Southern dish served on New Year's Day (she left us some so I could eat it on the first and hopefully garner whatever good thing hoppin' john consumption is supposed to bring to the consumer of same). I made an egg nog cake for dessert, while T brought mini chocolate cream puffs. Cheesy! Mini! Finger foods!  Downed with Pimm's cups (my Pimm's was still good even though I bought it in Belize in 1998, which I figured then was probably going to be my last trip to Belize). Yummmmm...............

Then, as MoM always says that whatever you do on the first is what you will do the rest of the year, I had to cook something new and good for the first dinner of 2011. After all, I ate leftovers for breakfast, to hopefully herald good planning and home cooking throughout the new year. Naturally, there was lots of cheese. Cream cheese and cheddar cheese, to be specific, to make creamy, cheesy chicken enchiladas. MoM thought they were delicious, even with a smidgen of green chili which I was afraid she'd pick out and not even try.

Happy eating in 2011! May your dishes be spicy, tasty, and healthy, with nary a burnt mishap in sight.