Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and fun 2014.  This last year went out with a bang, so much so that I never found the time to blog the last month of 2013.  We traveled to Houston for a long weekend and enjoyed watching the New England Patriots beat the Houston Texans, visited the Beer Can House, the absolutely terrible Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, NASA where we met very official people and took a small stroll in the underground tunnels of Houston.  The middle of the month our dear and beautiful friend and our amazing 23 month old niece came to visit us in Austin.  It was a blast and a moment that we will cherish forever.  Then Christmas, well the plans that I had for my husband, friends, and adopted family of dogs didn't go over so well as I was struck with the full-blown flu.  Next year!  

A very fond memory I have for celebrating New Year's is the many years that we celebrated at my Gramma and Paw-Paw's house in Illinois.  Every year Gramma and Paw-Paw made a very big deal of the New Year for us by getting Pizza, Mountain Dew, board games and puzzles to celebrate the occasion.  We had so much fun that even my Aunts would come from time to time to enjoy it with us.  Now I know, that in 2014 that may not sound to some like a blast of a celebration but from 1983 to 1997 it was amazing.  I believe that they had a bit of a similar celebration again this New Year's Eve at my 80 year old grandmother's house.

Beer Can House created by John Milkovisch

At the NASA Natural Buoyancy Laboratory

Sitting in the Historic Mission Control Room with David L. Cisco

xoxo,

With Angela O'

 

Raspberry Chipotle Cream Cheese Appetizer

Thanks Internet b/c I haven't ran to the store yet and didn't want to deprive my followers of this recipe before their weekend holiday grocery trip!!!

I would like to point out that I absolutely hate raspberries, I despise them.  Many people say they are too sweet but I really don't have any idea if they are sweet or not, I just can't get past the flavor of them.  However when I tried this by accident the other day I fell in love because the chipotle gives the raspberry a smokey flavor.  Delicious.  Thanks Brittany for serving this at your birthday party.  It will go over excellently with this New Year's cocktails.

Ingredients:

*One 8oz block of Philedelphia Cream Cheese
*One bottle of Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
*Keebler Club Crackers

Instructions:
Simply open the block of cream cheese and set onto plate.  Open bottle of sauce and pour over top.  Either lay crackers around on same plate or serve crackers on side plate. 

Heck you could even get fancy and sprinkle shaved almonds over the top.