New Years Part 2

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Day! I think I already broke a resolution--be a better blogger! I didn't mean to go this long between posts. Anywho, the brunch. One of the best parts for me is the picture above. After we ate, my brother, dad, and I took the kids across the street to the park. After romping on the swings and monkey bars, we started hiking Falcon Hill. It's a real easy, short hike as Arizona hikes go, and the kids had a blast chasing the dogs up the trail. They made me promise to take them on a longer one someday, so I told them in a few weeks we'll all go hike the Wind Cave Trail at Usery Park, which is only 10 minutes from our house. If you haven't been to Arizona, this is the place to be if you like outdoorsy stuff. The mountain hikes around here are beautiful, and with the weather in the mid 60's to low 70's, well you just can't beat a beautiful desert hike. In the pic above, our house is one of the ones in the background.

In the spirit of other resolutions, like more time at the gym and less fatty foods, I decided not to post FOOD pictures. I'm betting that's on everyone's list! Instead, here is our menu. Gregg made everything on it by hand. He started cooking on the 30th, and went straight through until 5 AM New Year's Day. He got back up around 9 to keep going. Voici le menu:

Appetizers:
Lil smokies n bacon (Mmm, good--mini dogs wrapped in bacon covered with brown sugar!)
Baked Dates w/chorizo prosciutto (Thought I hated dates, but damn these were good.)
Mini Quiches (The only "cheat"...frozen LOL)
Bloody Mary Soup (A type of Shrimp Cocktail)

Drinks:
Champagne
Mimosas
Bloody Mary’s
Orange juice
Apple Cider
Coffee Costa Rican & Mocha Java
Juice boxes for the kiddies

Main Dishes:
Pork Roast in apple
Prime Rib Roast (OK this was fantastic!)
Penne pasta and turkey sausage
Fudge Waffles (Picture this: Chocolate waffles with white chocolate chips...dreamy!)
Blueberry Waffles (Fresh blueberries; G. has none of that dried boxed stuff!)
Texas French Toast (This and the next one are from French bread, let go stale overnight, then turned into French toast...really good--I'm still eating the leftovers for breakfast!)
Double Cinnamon French Toast

Sides:
Mac N Cheese 5 cheeses (Yes, 5!)
Mac n Cheese 10 cheeses (In case your heart still beats from the 5, this one uses 10 cheeses!)
Sweet Potato Hash
Bacon
Sausage Links
Turkey sausage patties
Baked eggs and mushroom and ham crisp (I should have taken pics of this one...like an egg cupcake, from a muffin pan, with the ham as the "paper" and the eggs baked inside, poached style.)
Scrambled eggs n Cheese
Scrambled eggs mushroom/green onion/ cheese/
Gravlax (Salmon in herbs and spices; it was in the fridge with a giant rock on top of it for 2 days...apparently that is the customary way to make it.)

Dessert:
Pumpkin cheesecake (Yum!)

Sometimes having a fantastic cook for a boyfriend is what makes "More gym time" the resolution you have to keep!