hello, 2016!
Well, the start of 2016 came and went in a flash..so much so that here we are in the middle of February and I still haven't posted about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day yet. To keep a long story short, I worked on New Year's Eve and drove straight up to St. Augustine from work. I arrived into town pretty late so Ryan and I both decided that Chinese food would only be fitting. We came back home to eat dinner and to decorate Ryan's apartment for when the clock struck midnight. We had party hats, ALL the confetti, and we even made our own balloon drop. Even a month later, Ryan is still finding confetti all over his apartment ;)
On New Year's Day morning we woke up and had breakfast at Les Petites Pleasures, a little french bakery and restaurant in town. Neither of us had been before so we thought we would start the new year off with a new to us restaurant. Ryan had a dessert style crepe with bananas and nutella while I opted for the quiche loraine with spinach and gruyere cheese. Both of our dishes were delicious and while the wait for food was about 30-40 minutes, it was worth every last bite. We'll be back!
After breakfast, Ryan and I hopped back on the road and headed straight over to Tampa for my grandmother's traditional pork and sauerkraut dinner. It's probably my favorite family tradition that I look forward to each holiday season. For as long as I can remember my grandmother has always spent the entire day roasting pork and hot dogs in the biggest beds of sauerkraut I've ever seen. The one year I lived in Atlanta and couldn't make it home for New Year's Day my grandmother called and gave me her recipe and advice for making her traditional dishes. The trick is to just keep the sauerkraut in the oven alllll day long, consistently taking it out every hour or so and stirring it up with a little brown sugar. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it. After gobbling up almost all the sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, pork, biscuits and corn possible, we finished it all off with dessert and headed home for the evening. Spending that time with my family in my grandparent's home is something I cherish deeply. I wish New Year's Day came around more often so we could enjoy her holiday cooking more often, but the wait just makes it even more worthwhile in the end.
Although we all dove head first into the new year, I hope it's proving to be a happy and healthy one for all thus far!