I’m a little lot late on writing an anniversary blog entry (Where’d that year went, I don’t know) but here goes nothing…

I started this blog when I was on mat leave and my intentions were; to have a record of that special time, a storehouse of recipes and to have an outlet for writing.

All of that worked-out which is amazing unto itself as most of my plans don’t quite come out the way I thought they would. Not that that is always a bad thing.

Here is what I wasn’t expecting; to finally find my voice as a writer (this is still a work in progress), to find inspiration (both spiritually and creatively) and to find a sense of community.

Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond blessed with an abundance of family and friends (the two not being mutually exclusive) but I have been quite shocked at the amount of REALLY fabulous folks out there with amazing ideas, advice and simply a differenct perspective. There isn’t one day that I don’t say to myself “huh, I hadn’t thought of that…”.

I have been inspired to hopefully be a better person, mind you, I’ll still be working on that for a long time and to also cut myself a bit of slack when I am VERY far from perfect.

So here is a tongue-in-cheek, celebration recipe for those of you who have been so spectacular and surprising, in the past year.

I look forward to reading all of your future musings.

Meatloaf Cupcakes: cute food for dinner
(note: you could easily make these with veggie groundround for a truly faux version)

This is more of a method than anything else. Make meatloaf (see previous recipes) in a muffin pan. I know this seems like just too much work but they cook quicker and all the pieces have the yummy crunchy bits as all them are “end pieces”.

“Ice” the cupcake with creamy, whipped mashed potatoes. I like to make what my husband calls baked mashed potatoes. These are mashed potatoes that are mixed with lots of butter and instead of milk you use sourcream [don’t skimp as fat = happiness at least for a short period of time] and a few chopped chives to mimic sprinkles.

The topper-a carrot slice to stand-in for…the cherry. You could use a cherry tomato but I didn’t have any in the house.

I love hearing from you. Leave a comment-make my day.