Early Christmas . . .

It will be an early Christmas for our family this year. Since we are traveling a bit over the "real" Christmas for my youngest brother's wedding, we are celebrating tomorrow. That way we don't have to transport Christmas (and pay for it) across the country and back again.

I celebrated even earlier by buying a Christmas present for myself. Selfish? I don't think so! I think of it as more of a reward for the past 4 weeks: doing all the packing and unpacking for our NC trip, getting gifts for everyone on our list, decorating (including cutting a Christmas tree by myself!) and cleaning and cooking for Jake's office party at our house, helping kids with school projects and gymnastics class and birthday treats to school, and managing to do all of that on top of everything else we normally have going!!

Plus I had 50% off at Borders.

Here's what I chose:

We have always liked Nigella. Jake because she's English and me because I like her cooking style. She isn't terribly concerned about whether food is calorie-conscious, she cooks with basic and easy-to-find ingredients and kitchen equipment that is not super fancy or expensive, and her food (at least what I've made!) is simply yummy. Also, she has children and keeps them in mind as she cooks, which means my kids will eat most of what I make from her recipes.

So, I'm excited to read this, and my goal for the New Year is to have a better cooking blog, so look for some good posts to come!