The Obligatory Best Of 2009

Heather says:

Just for fun, here’s a look back at the best of 2009 Home-Ec 101:

January: Ask The Audience: Advise the Newlyweds – you must read the comments
The recipe: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

February: Keeping Up with Housework when Your Schedule is Unusually Busy
The recipe: Taco Soup

March: Tightwad Tips for Tuesday
The recipe: Popcorn Snack Mix

April: How to Use Dried Beans in Recipes
The recipe: Roast Beef with Walnut Crust (actually this is 4 recipes + Walnut Wilted Spinach, Bleu Cheese Mashed Potatoes, and Worcestershire Sauce

May: Scratch Cooking, the Whys
The recipe: This time it’s 4 weeks of recipes A month long menu with complete shopping list

June: Fostering Encouragement (the birth of #BackonTrack)
The recipe: Pie Crust 101 (I have to say I can now knock out a pie crust with my eyes closed)

July: Budget Menus: Short Term Strategies
The recipe: Broccoli Almond Salad

August: Quick Tips from Everyday Life – this is another, one to read the comments
The recipe: Pancakes 101

September was recipe heavy: Vegan Collard Greens & Fried Chicken

October: Splurge-lets -more fun comments
The recipe: Burgundy Button Mushrooms

November: The time I let you see my messy kitchen
The recipe: Apple, Cranberry, Sage Dressing

December: 50 Cooking Tips
The recipe: The Great Fried Egg Tutorial

Did you have any notable Home-Ec successes or failures this year? Is there are moment you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them.

For many, 2009 has been a year of job losses and belt tightening. I have watched friends struggle with depression and addiction. Even in those dark moments I have also seen stirrings of a new life, destructive habits shed, broken relationships repaired.

2009 has been a watershed year for Home-Ec 101; in just three short months we’ll be celebrating our third anniversary. I want to thank everyone who has grown with us. I thank you for your questions, your wisdom, and most of all for your encouragement. I count many of you among my friends, though we have never met.

To those of you who are struggling, keep fighting the good fight. So often, change and growth happen below the surface, ready to burst to life like the first crocuses after a long winter.

I close with the words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of a year.

Happy New Year, my friends.

Tagged as: Holidays with Home Ec 101