December Daily #31: And Back Home Again - Safe & Sound

New Year's Eve is my birthday. I usually wish for a day free from cleaning, cooking and kids bickering so that I can spend peaceful time with my family and do a bit of art. This year was a bit different. My wish was for my kids to return from their road trip safe and sound. But my day had a wonderful start when I had breakfast at Mimi's Cafe with Natalie.

We had a lovely, leisurely, chatty visit. She even gave me some birthday presents.

The gifts she gave me were perfect and I was so touched with the cotton candy that her kids sent. They received a cotton candy maker for Christmas and are really enjoying it. The whole morning was perfect.

I then opted to clean and do laundry so that the kids would come home to a clean house and they would both have clean clothes to wear. (This is a nice gift as they have been doing their own laundry since they were each 10 years old.) I love coming home to a clean house.

I also made a few things to eat including crab cheese rangoons, roasted cinnamon nuts, oatmeal cookies and fish tacos.

Here are some of the recipes:

Crab Cheese Rangoons
via: Damn Delicious

2 cups vegetable oil
5 ounces drained crab meat
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 clove garlic, minced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
24 2-inch won ton wrappers

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat.
In a large bowl, combine crab meat, cream cheese, garlic, green onion, sesame oil, Worcestershire, salt and pepper, to taste.
To assemble the wontons, place wrappers on a work surface. Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons of the crab mixture into the center of each wrapper. Using your finger, rub the edges of the wrappers with water. Fold the dough over the filling to create a triangle, pinching the edges to seal.
Working in batches, add wontons to the Dutch oven and fry until evenly golden brown and crispy, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce, if desired.

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Roasted Cinnamon Nuts
via: The Sisters Cafe blog

1 cup white sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg white
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups almonds

Preheat oven to 250. Cover a 13×17” baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease well. In small bowl combine sugar, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. In a large bowl slightly beat the egg white. Add vanilla and beat until very frothy, but not stiff. Add the almonds and stir until well coated. Add the cinnamon sugar mixture and toss until evenly coated. Spread evenly on the prepared pan. Bake for one hour, stirring half way through. Allow to cool, then store in an airtight container.