Happy New Year!

Wow, this last year has flown by so quickly it's hard to believe it's already December 31 today! I started this blog back in May thinking a few friends might stop by just to humor me :) I just realized the other day that I am at almost 4500 views! Now, I know I don't have that many friends that spend that much time clicking on recipes so it's exciting to know that people I don't even know have stopped by and found something worth reading! That's very encouraging to me. I love trying new recipes and I love sharing the good ones!

What will the New Year bring? I honestly don't know. I do know that I am going to be much more busy then I was this year and may not have as much time for updating. I will still try to do it as often as I can, but it definitely will not be as often. Why? I am taking my LPN by distance starting in January and am trying to fit this around having a 3 year old, a 1.5 year old and husband who all need my time. However with the special diets in our house I will still be doing lots of cooking and hopefully I can share some of those successes here. Who knows, I may need an outlet that has nothing to do with anatomy and be on here frequently lol! The LPN course will be year round, taking as many courses as I can at a time. I am allowed 3 years to finish but I hope to be done a bit sooner then that.

In 2012 we are considering making our entire house a 'Gluten Free Zone'. I don't know exactly what this will entail. I'm not sure if we need to go strictly certified GF, or if we can do 'this product doesn't list anything that should contain gluten'. It's going to be a learning curve. My almost 3 year old seems to be still having trouble and I'm wondering if cross contamination is an issue or if he's getting ahold of his sisters regular cheerios when I'm not looking. It's hard to know. Do I have to replace things that are coated with wheat 'dust'? (toaster etc.) or will a good cleaning be good enough? So many questions, so few answers!

I will try to update on what the house 'scrubbing' process looks like should we choose to do it. I know several people that frequent this site are having their own gluten issues. We are in this together! Sharing information and how-to's is the only way we can learn without having to always experiment with our kid's diets (or our own)!

I hope to do more cooking experimenting and not fall into a rut of the same old recipes over and over again so hopefully I will still have new tasty recipes for you all to try! I love spending time in the kitchen and I love creating recipes or just tweaking old ones. I really don't want to stop that for the next 3 years!

I have several recipes on the shelf right now that I need to get typed up, including some amazingly yummy gluten free mozza sticks that beat out any gluten containing mozza stick I've ever had! Hubby and I have had some of them 3 nights in a row they are so good! I have also figured out gf deep fried shrimp, gf onion rings and gf pork bites. Oh deep fry how I love thee :)  Especially around new years it's good to have some yummy appetizers back on the menu!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a wonderful New Years! I'm looking forward to 2012 despite is busy outlook. I know that it's going to be crazy, but it will be great because of the good friends and amazing family God has blessed me with :) Thanks for joining me these last 8 months and I hope you will continue to join me in 2012!