Cooking is an art and a science. If you don’t follow the recipe it might not taste right, but if you don’t experiment and try new things you will never know how good some new thing might taste. I once made lemon bars with my son who measured lemon zest in T for tablespoons not t for teaspoons. The lemon bars tasted like insect repellent. Ugh! I also stumbled upon my favorite spicy sweet recipe when the lid fell off the cayenne pepper and added more than a pinch to my recipe. Life is just the same. Everyone needs sweet and spicy, savory and sour to make life more complete. We need to sense it all to make sense of it all in life.

Your family recipe for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year may be very different than mine. Maybe you like your Christmas tamales fiery hot and your Christmas family visit peppered with drama from Aunt Amy and Uncle Aaron who often fight and then makeup. Or maybe you like traditional turkey with simple salt and pepper and hope the only drama at your family gathering is when Aunt Barbara can’t find her new false teeth at dinner time. No matter which, spice it up your way and have a Merry Blessed time with those you love and hold dear. Then, don’t be afraid to try something new and spicy in the new year. Maybe you never cooked with Curry but when you do you discover you love love love Curry. Sometimes it just works that way.

I can tell you from personal experience that my new spice this year turned out to be spice-alicious. I added a little farm in the big oak treed area of south Texas to my life and Little Oak Tree Acres in Live Oak County has become my new very favorite thing. After over a decade of fulltime POC living we are sharing time with acres of oaks, chickens and cows and a big ole garden I just love. I miss POC but get back often to see those I love and miss. I have discovered several other new favorite things in my oak grove that I never would have discovered if I had been too afraid to take a risk. Like cooking without a recipe, moving was not in the plan. It did not follow the recipe. But, when we did, it made the perfect dish.

So, follow the recipe for old favorites but take a risk, dare to dream, chance it, venture something new…! What you create or discover might just be the best new unplanned thing you never had the recipe for before. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year full of Blessings and Love and Joyful Crazy Cooking with new spices and new things in 2019!