Peggy made this yummy dip. It includes one of my favorite melting cheeses, Fontina. So Good! Again, sorry for the less than less-than-stellar photo, I’m snagging these from a video since I forgot to get photos of each dish.

Lisa made these delicious caramelized onion bites. This recipe is a keeper.

I made salmon bowls for Anne’s belated birthday dinner last week. I’ve been on a salmon kick recently, in excess, since now I’m sick of salmon. I do this more often than I’d like to admit. I think it’s simply part of cooking for one. Admittedly, a large part of the problem is that I shop at Costco for my business. While I’m there (several times a week) I will also pick up food for myself. I think we can all agree that shopping at Costco when you’re cooking for one, isn’t the best strategy. This is another “something” that I need to work on.

YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T PLAY!

Today is Monday. Our drawing is Wednesday. Time is running out. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, please see the previous post – 14th Blogiversary. In the meantime, a new recipe:

This recipe comes from Instagram influencer, Lauren Garcia aka whatlolalikes. I met Lauren in the summer of 2019, about 8 months after I started Harmony Boards. She was at an Airbnb doing a photoshoot. The owner of the property ordered a board from me for Lauren, her photographer, and stylist to enjoy while they worked. Lauren tagged me in the photo and my Instagram account blew up. She ordered several more boards from me over the years and I can honestly say that my account quickly grew by leaps and bounds, in large part to her and her strong influence.

Lauren makes this salad all the time, so I finally decided to try it, yes she influences me too! It is amazing! It is now my go-to quick, easy, and healthy meal at least 2 times a week. I have no doubt that you’ll love it too.

Fourteen years ago today I began blogging. To celebrate, I’m having an easy contest, keep reading to learn more.

Here is a link to post number one. If you go to that link you’ll see that I speak about Julia Child. Ironically, I attended a birthday dinner last night with Kim Howard at Tarbell’s to celebrate what would have been Julia Child’s 111th birthday. My friend, mentor, and former boss, Barbara Fenzl was the guest speaker. Thank you, Mark Tarbell, it was a delicious and delightful evening.

The day I began blogging, Connor was a few days away from heading off to college. Not to be overly dramatic, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. Having been a stay-at-home mom for over 21 years, I was feeling a bit lost. This blog was a great distraction and gave me something to look forward to each day, a purpose if you will. And I was dedicated! Posting nearly every day for 4 years!

Just as with the mushroom recipe from last week, I need to give credit where credit is due. I usually report that the female of the couple is the one making the recipe, well, because that is usually how it goes. But when it comes to Tram and Steve. Steve is the one who loves to cook and is the master of the kitchen. Tram gets the credit for picking this recipe to bring but Steve gets all the credit for making it!

Lisa made these fluffy triangles of goodness. The adjustment I’m going to make to these is the exact opposite of the adjustment I made to the recipe, also using puff pastry, that Kim made in the last post. For Kim’s puff pastry, I adjusted the recipe to make half as many because they were too small and for this recipe, we’re going to make twice as many because these were honestly, too big for an appetizer party. Perfect size for a lunch dish though, if you want to make the original recipe and go that route.

Kim took on this recipe and the word on the street was that she didn’t really like it. I have yet to ask her what is what she didn’t like about it, but my read on it is that the resulting “bite” was too small. When an appetizer is too small, it can be tedious to make and deal with and not give the flavor punch you’re hoping for when you eat it. The original recipe calls for one sheet of puff pastry to be cut into 25 pieces. That made each pastry puff about the size of your thumb. I’ve changed the recipe to use both sheets of puff pastry that come in a package and cut into 12 rectangles each, resulting in less tedious work of topping them and a bigger flavor punch when you eat it.

Recipe #8 was chosen and made by Anne. She was gracious enough to leave behind a gallon-size ziplock of these tasty little morsels for me and the family. We snacked on them right through Christmas! Thank you, sweet friend!

Photographer, Mary, chose to make these quick and easy goat cheese stuffed dates. I found a couple of other photos that Mary shared with me of the lovely party-goers. Those are included here. Mary, Thank You! <3

If you or your guests are not big fans of goat cheese, use half goat cheese and half cream cheese to tone down the tangy taste. Personally, I’m all the way Team Goat Cheese!