Favorite Framed Cooks Recipes of 2011!

One of the things I always try and do at the end of the year is make sense of the towering pile of recipes for things I have made over the past year.  Many of them get filed into my gigantic binders, some of them get tossed out, and there are a handful that I put aside into yet another pile because they were so scrumptious that I have to make them again, and SOON.  And while I was being all organized about this, I thought I would pick my very favorites from the past year to share with you...one in each of the major food categories.

So, drum roll please...here are my very very favorites.  All of these have links back to the original post...just click the recipe title and off you go.  ( One quick note for my wonderful readers who have already bookmarked or pinned these recipes...my blog is going through some re-formatting, so if you could re-bookmark or re-pin, that would be terrific!)

 And so here we go, starting with:

Favorite Appetizer: Mini Bacon Herb Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This super-easy appetizer is one of those savory cupcake deals that gets me every time.  They have a teeny bit of herb in them, and of course...bacon!  That and the cream cheese frosting...oh yes.  Make more than you think you will need, because you will need that many.

Favorite Pasta: The Best Tomato Sauce in the World!

Okay, so this is technically a sauce recipe, but it goes over pasta, and I've made it at every possible opportunity over the past year...it's THAT good and THAT  easy.  You need to make this...you'll never even consider opening a jar of pasta sauce ever again.  Promise.

Favorite Chicken: Stacked Chicken Enchiladas

It's hard to get excited about chicken, I know...but add a few tortillas, some cheese and assorted other Tex-Mex flavors and my heart starts to beat faster.  This is a hearty meal, so be prepared to share with a friend.  Or friends.

Favorite Beef: Brisket Slow-Cooked in Coffee and Brown Sugar

I've never been a coffee drinker, and I've always been afraid of beef brisket.  So I don't know what possessed me to make this recipe...maybe it was the brown sugar.  Boy am I glad I did.

Favorite Seafood: Lemon Shrimp Scampi with Linguine

Shrimp is pretty much my seafood of choice...it's easy, reliable, relatively affordable (especially if you buy them at Costco, which has AMAZING seafood).  And when you pair it up with lemon and garlic and linguine - oh yeah.

Favorite Soup: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Soup, glorious soup!  This one has a nice little kick to it, and it also cooks in the slow cooker, which is extra added bonus points for any recipe, as far as I am concerned.

Favorite Veggie: Pan Roasted Baby Artichokes

This is so much more than a veggie recipe, because while you CAN make them as a side dish (and oh, I have!) you can also pour the artichokes and the delicious olive oil they cook in over pasta and you have an instant dinner.  Don't be afraid of the artichokes - use the baby ones and it's a snap.

Favorite Sandwich: Brie Croque Monsieur Sandwiches

Maybe the best sandwich I have ever made/photographed/eaten/dreamed about in my entire life.  Oh, this sandwich.

Favorite Dessert: Butterscotch Pudding

Butterscotch pudding is the Southern husband's fave, and I made him suffer through many, many, many duds before I finally hit the jackpot with this recipe.  Silky smooth butterscotch wonderfulness!

Favorite Bacon!: Cornmeal and Brown Sugar Crusted Bacon

You didn't think I was going to end this post without giving you my favorite bacon recipe, did you???  This is not only my favorite of 2011, it's my favorite of FOREVER.  Happy bacon sigh.

See you next year!