Our Week in Meals #320 + Top Books & Recipes of 2022

Good morning, happy Sunday, and happy New Year! This week we celebrated Christmas, went on an overnight trip, spent time with family, and welcomed 2023. All of the highlights, along with each of our dinners, are included in today’s roundup of Our Week in Meals. Plus, don’t miss the end of the post, where I’m sharing the top recipes and my favorite books from the past year!

For those of you who are new to the blog, Our Week in Meals is where I share a little bit about what we’ve been up to over the past week — as it relates to our dinners each night. This series gives you a glimpse “behind the scenes” at some highlights from our life, shows you how I balance a busy schedule with feeding my family, and offers a few new ideas for your own weekly meal plan.

Now, let’s back up to last weekend…

We started Christmas morning with a pan of cinnamon rolls and some fresh berries while opening presents, and then Keith and I went for a walk to get some fresh air before my parents arrived.

Mom brought lobster rolls for lunch, and I served a big dessert tray full of various Christmas cookies, brownies, bourbon balls, saltine toffee, and Irish mince pies (from my neighbor) for dessert.

Our Christmas dinner was a delicious feast of bourbon-glazed ham,

grilled beef tenderloin (credit to Keith for standing outside in the cold to cook the meat!),

easy au gratin potatoes,

Watergate salad,

a house salad with candied pecans, and dinner rolls.

Plus coconut cake for dessert. Oh my goodness, what a day! So much fun, but also exhausting when the kids start at 6:00 a.m. We watched football on TV and crashed hard that evening!

We were off to a slow start on Monday, while everyone was still recovering from the excitement of the weekend. My aunt and uncle came over for lunch and a visit, I went for a walk, and we cleaned the house from all of the holiday fun. So many boxes!

I took advantage of leftovers for dinner that night, and used some of the extra Christmas ham in this ham and cheese casserole with a side of broccoli, leftover rolls, and leftover Watergate salad. If you need even more leftover ham recipes, you should definitely check out this post!

Let’s chat about this week’s books! First up: Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney. This is a fun, creepy thriller with so many twists and turns along the way.

I also read Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson. Country music fans will enjoy this one! It has the suspense and drama of a James Patterson novel, with Dolly Parton’s heart. I found the plot to be mediocre — nothing too surprising or unpredictable — but I still loved the setting and the behind-the-scenes look at Nashville royalty.

And finally, One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. This is a beautiful story of love, grief, and the strong bonds between a mother and daughter. The backdrop of Positano, Naples, and the Amalfi coast felt like a little getaway and a warm escape in the middle of winter, too!

Keith took the boys for a walk at Cedar Mountain Battlefield on Tuesday morning, and then on to Culpeper to run errands while I got some work done at the house.

I popped into some local antique shops that afternoon, and then served Crock Pot BBQ chicken for supper.

Plus baked potatoes, cake mix cornbread, and store-bought coleslaw.

Keith’s mom gave me Ina Garten’s new cookbook for Christmas, so on Thursday morning we tried her recipe for overnight steel-cut oatmeal. This makes a batch that you can store in the fridge and reheat all week long, so it’s very convenient.

My breakfast was the ultimate bowl of oats — a splash of vanilla spice eggnog, maple syrup from Vermont (a gift from Gibbs’s golf coach, a VT native), candied pecans, salted nuts, fresh berries, sliced banana, dried cranberries, and this gingerbread spice blend. YUM. Highly recommend! I actually bought that gingerbread spice as a part of this holiday box, which I’ve enjoyed all season in my coffee, cookies, oatmeal, and more.

I also baked another batch of Chex Mix, since I had all of the ingredients in the pantry…and this stuff is just too good!

A winter walk in the mountains!

I’m a total wimp when it comes to the cold weather, but I’ve perfected some of my attire so that I’m actually comfortable when we’re outdoors at this time of year. Here are a few favorites in case you’re in the market for some new gear during the post-holiday sales: down hooded coat (with multiple layers underneath!); wool windproof mittens and beanie; fleece-lined leggings (and the pants are great, too); soft scarf; and — the best of all — these rechargeable hand warmers that were in my stocking this year!

Photo credit: Spencer!

Keith and Gibbs went to the UVA basketball game in Charlottesville that evening, so the younger boys and I were on our own for supper. Casey and Spencer requested breakfast-for-dinner at the IHOP in Culpeper, so I had biscuits and sausage gravy, they had stacks of pancakes with loads of fruit and whipped cream…

…and we shared the seasonal gingersnap cookie milkshake, which was the best part of the meal. 😊

On Thursday we drove to Farmville, Virginia to do some furniture shopping at the Green Front warehouses. These are old tobacco factories that have been converted into showrooms — about 12 in total! We had the kids and the dog with us, so our shopping time was limited, but productive.

While in town, we grabbed Mexican food for lunch, went for a walk on The High Bridge over the Appomattox River…

…and visited a Civil War fort. Thank goodness for a 65-degree day in December!

We had burgers, fried chicken, shrimp tacos, chili, salad, and soft pretzels at The North Street Press Club for dinner…

…and spent the night at the Hotel Weyanoke in downtown Farmville, which sits right next to the Longwood University campus. A lovely little getaway!

More glorious, warm weather on Friday…

We visited the National Park at Appomattox Courthouse, which was wonderful. So pretty, but also completely deserted. Such a gem!

The courthouse, which was rebuilt after the original burned down.

The home where General Robert E. Lee signed the papers with General Grant to officially end the Civil War.

A tavern, which was occupied by Union soldiers,

a mercantile,

a law office,

and other snapshots from our visit…

We made it home mid-afternoon, so I had time to make sheet pan chicken fajitas for supper, along with rice, guacamole, chips, and salsa.

Saturday was New Year’s Eve! Keith’s parents came by for a visit, we went for a walk, and we took care of chores around the house.

I served our favorite homemade spaghetti sauce with pasta for supper,

along with garlic bread,

and fried cabbage with apples and onions. The rest of our cozy New Year’s Eve “celebration” was spent watching football on the couch! It was a busy week, and we were all ready for a quiet evening.

As we look ahead to a fresh new year, I wanted to spend a few minutes celebrating a handful of favorites from 2022. Here are the top 10 new recipes from this past year (based on the number of pageviews per post)…

And, for a far more subjective list, here are my top 10 favorite books that I read in 2022. They’re a nice combination of mystery-thrillers, historical fiction, feel-good novels, and romance, so hopefully you’ll find something new to add to your library holds list! In no particular order:

• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
• A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss
• These High Green Hills by Jan Karon — and really, any of the Father Tim books in this Mitford series! I’d start with the first book, At Home in Mitford, so that you can really get to know the characters.
• The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis
• The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dure
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

And that’s it for this week, friends! I hope that your new year is off to a great start. Thank you for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!