Two Plus Three: New Year 2012

2012! We've already made it through all of the Holiday's, and once again are at a fresh new year. There is something profoundly boring about January, yet it starts the course for a whole new year filled with possibilities. I'm sad all the festivities are done just as I am every January. It seems to short and yet I've eaten enough sweets to tide me over for the next two months. Eeessh!!!! Now I have to wait eleven more months before I can here Mariah Carey singing "All I want for Christmas is you, baby." I'm hoping this year brings much joy and fun for our little family. We've had a rough past year and of course I always try to look ahead and hope in the things to come.

Our New Years Eve celebration was very low key as it has been since Ruby came along. There isn't much you can do with babies and no sitter. We had our dear cousins over that have a little boy who is almost a year and a half. We ate dinner, had coffee and desert, hung around and talked while the kids played and then called it a night at 9:30. I'm so horrible! I took a picture of what we ate and nothing else! SAD! We had simple fare of homemade chicken veggie soup with a delicious Kale salad Stephanie made and some gluten free vegan focaccia with balsamic and olive oil. Someday I hope to have a very large kitchen and a beautiful dining table that I can do up to the hilt for special occasions. Until then.....

New Years day we had our traditional prime rib that my dad makes to perfection. I'm obsessed with horseradish and a good prime rib is the perfect pairing! These are my first set of holiday's doing everything gluten and dairy free so I had to be a little more creative on my side dishes.

I made Bacon brussel sprouts,

Candied walnut and pear salad with fresh raspberries, yellow and red bell peppers, tomato and a blush wine vinaigrette,

And a green bean casserole! I LOVE green bean casserole and haven't had it in forever! I decided to try my hand at modifying it to be completely dairy free and it turned out Delicious!!!! I'll post the recipe too.

GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Bag of fresh green beans washed a trimmed
1 + cups Chicken stock
1 cup rice or hemp milk
3 Tbs Brown rice flour
1/2 onion chopped
1 clove garlic finely minced
8 ounces fresh mushrooms chopped into pieces
olive oil/bacon fat
3-4 pieces raw bacon

First take your trimmed and cut green beans and boil them in chicken stock or salted water.
Cook until soft, drain and put in an 8x8 baking dish.

In a medium sized saucepan heat a generous amount of olive oil or bacon fat on medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until just tender. Add mushrooms and cook until the juices are running. Add garlic and saute just until starting to brown. Add 2-3 Tbs of brown rice flour and stir to incorporate with mushroom mix. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of rice/hemp milk and stir well. Turn heat down and simmer for a few minutes. Salt to taste. Once cream of mushroom sauce is at your desired thickness and taste, pour over green beans. Add raw bacon slices over top and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until casserole is bubbling and bacon is crispy. If bacon isn't to desired crispness, put oven on broil for 3-5 minutes watching closely so it doesn't burn.

After we ate until we could eat no more, we used our second stomachs and had dessert. :)