Year End in Review Pt. 1

Part 1: The Homestead
Rating: A+

Nothing beats being home for the Holidays. Especially when home comes with a beach house, ocean views, and all you can eat food. I am a lucky native Floridian. Which means Winter to me is 76 degrees and sunny. A "White Christmas" is rollers coming in over the shore and white shells on the beach. South Florida was a great place to grow up and an even better place to go visit!

 These are my two beaches. The top 2 pictures are of Palm Beach. We got to go almost every morning we were home because my dad's (lucky guy) office is a block from this beach. The bottom two are of Lake Worth Pier/beach. I grew up dancing, twirling, and shell hunting on this beach. It was our first destination after the airport.

 My family has a beautiful 9ft artificial tree. Fun fact about me... I'm allergic to real Christmas trees. I get a fever, sore throat and cough. YAY. But I love our fake one. It has just enough room for our hundreds of lights and ornaments we cram onto it!

 It is a Christmas Eve tradition that my family has Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner. My mom and I handmade the meatballs! YUM.

This was my favorite part of Christmas this year:

This to me is what a Christmas Gift should look like when being opened.

Let me tell you about my Mom. My Moms Christmas list is usually simple and to the point. She wants something useful, and small. She rarely asks for anything expensive or fancy.
So getting her a present worthy of her awesomeness is a challenge.
However, one of the items on her list this year was that she wanted a trip to NYC to eat pizza, pastrami and see the sights. She of course threw it on there as a joke, I took it as a challenge!
SO... I got uber creative and ran with it. Obviously the Mr. and I can't fund a trip for her to the Big Apple. So we had to think outside the box. What could I give her? Pastrami.
I made a card using my sweet In Design skills that I never get to use anymore that basically told her she was the lucky winner of a trip to NYC, all she had to do was take her credit card out and book now. Funny me, there was even fine print at the bottom saying the offer was only valid for parties of 4 or larger, meaning please take me with you.
The present part of it was that to wet her appetite for her trip I was giving her a complimentary Pastrami Sanwich. Curtesy of Carnegie Deli. I ordered 2 lbs of pastrami from the world famous Deli in NYC. I even tricker her into thinking that it was a cheesecake for my husband to explain the huge styrofoam box in her fridge the 3 days prior to Christmas!
Now for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend eating at Carnegie Deli if you are ever in NYC. They have the best Pastrami and Corned Beef in town!
Needless to say her mouth was watering and she couldn't wait to heat it and eat it! It may not be an object that lasts forever, but a pictures worth a thousand words, and her expression was true Christmas Joy. YAY!

This was our Christmas Dinner. Lobster Fisherman's Pie. I based the recipe loosely on one of my favorite recipes from, where else, Disney. It was surprisingly easy to do and was absolutely delicious! I encourage everyone to give it a try cause it was simply amazing!

Lobster Fisherman's Pie
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
Lobster Bisque*

Mashed potatoes:
4 large Idaho spuds, peeled and cubed
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (depending on potato size)

Fiserman's Pie Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
about 2 3/4 tablespoons flour
1/2 lb lobster meat, cooked and chopped
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
Hot sauce - to taste, We probably did a few tablespoons of Franks
1 cup Sharp Irish Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
Potatos:
1. place in large pot of boiling water, make sure you lightly salt the water. Cook over high heat for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender.
2. Drain and whip/mash potatoes until soft.
3. add butter, heavy whipping cream, and mix until it is all combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lobster Fisherman's Pie:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Butter, and olive oil go in a large saute pan over medium. Saute onions, celery, and carrots (the trinity) until soft. about 10 minutes. Add flour and stir until combined, will be a little pasty. Don't over cook a t this stage or the flour will burn.
3. Stir in the lobster bisque, continue stirring and cooking until it comes to a boil. 8-10 minutes.
4. Add the cooked lobster, tarragon, hot pepper sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir to combine.
5. Using a ladle for the neatest results, carefully pour mixture into small ramekins or baking dishes. Top with mashed potatoes, and cheddar cheese. We did and individual dish for each adult and then took the leftovers into a larger one for refills.
6. Place baking dish in preheated oven, we set all of ours on a tray with wax paper on it so if they bubbled over it wouldn't be messy in our oven. Cook for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly on the top. Let sit 5-10 minutes after removing from oven.


*The original recipe makes it from scratch, I didn't have the time so we used Costco's pre-made Lobster Bisque Soup. It worked just fine.

Hope you guys enjoyed your Holidays! Stay tuned for the rest of My Year End in Review!

XOXO
The Mrs.