This morning I baked the casserole, fried the bacon, and made the coffee. Just a note – be sure to read the recipe all the way to end. If I had done that, my brief bout of anxiety would have been eliminated. I should have taken the casserole out of the frig 30 minutes before I put it in the oven. The weather was bad so people arrived a little later than I had expected, so all worked out well. The party was fun and everyone liked the food.

Once the kitchen was clean it was on to another meal. For New Year’s Eve dinner our family has prepared Paul Prudhomme’s Shrimp Creole recipe. We don’t remember when this tradition began but we are glad it is now part of our holiday tradition. The recipe is not difficult to make and is soooooo good!!!!!!

While we cook like crazy, we do enjoy eating out. Today all 10 of us went to Chaps Pit Beef, a Baltimore favorite, to see why The Food Network thought its food was great. We sampled their basic pit beef sandwich, the Triple D, the Chaps 52 with cole slaw and fries on the side. The vegetarian in our family said the fish sandwich was okay, and Blonde girl’s son, who is 6, gave the hot dog a double thumbs up!

If any of our readers are in Baltimore, be sure to eat at Chaps.

Now it is time to think about finishing the Shrimp Creole.