I enjoy sharing recipes on my website and social media articles. In 2025, I am pleased to note that I shared more than 2 dozen recipes with you. They ranged from appetizers (like Super Simple Beet Hummus Avocado Toasts)
…and beverages (like the Super Simple Bellini) to soups (like Manhattan Clam Chowder and Creamy Mushroom Soup)
…to entrees (like KISS Lobster Thermidor and Super Simple Beef Stroganoff) and desserts (like Potato Chip Cookies and Mom Burnham’s Whoopie Pies). You can find them all in posts from 2025 on this site, in case you missed one!
This year, I begin with a favorite appetizer… or entrée, if you prefer. It doubles and triples easily and works with any of the included sauces, a favorite of your own, or even a bottled option, such as Sweet Thai Chili Sauce.
Super Simple Coconut Shrimp
While I have been making Coconut Shrimp since the 1970s, this Super Simple rendition sprang to life when I started making them more often for a dear girlfriend. So easy and so tasty, too!
1/3 c coconut flour
½ tsp each: fine sea salt & ground black pepper
2 x-lg eggs, beaten with ¼ c monk fruit (or sugar)
¾ c panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1¼ c shredded coconut (sweetened or not, as you prefer)
1 lb large (16-20 count size) shrimp, peeled, deveined, and butterflied, if desired
Coconut oil
Combine flour, salt & pepper in 1 small bowl. Place beaten eggs in 2nd small bowl. Combine panko and coconut in 3rd bowl. Dip each shrimp in flour, then in eggs, and then in coconut crumbs, pressing to help coating adhere thickly. Place on wax paper in single layer. Once all are complete, warm 1” oil over medium heat. Work in batches and fry shrimp, 1 min per side. Remove from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. (These freeze well at this point, too. To serve, thaw and reheat 5-6 min at 350°F.) Serve with your choice of dipping sauce. Makes 16-20.
Pina Colada Sauce
¼ c sour cream
¼ c pina colada drink mix
¼ c crushed pineapple (juice-packed)
Combine and process with an immersion blender to your desired consistency.
Mustard Sauce
½ c Dijon mustard
2 T each: brown sugar & white wine
1 T freshly squeezed lemon (or lime) juice
Combine and warm just enough to melt the sugar.
Peachy Sauce
½ c peach preserves (or a marmalade)
2 T white wine
1 T lemon juice
Combine and serve at room temp.
Throughout 2025, I posted more than 225 quotations, proverbs, and witticisms from a broad range of people and centuries. I shared words from pacifists and activists, conservatives and liberals, soldiers and sculptors. Notable Quotables hailed from humorists, humanitarians, and historians, as well as from playwrights, performers, and critics. We heard from musicians and physicians, cartoonists and coaches, along with scholars, satirists, and superstars. Whether the words hailed from Founding Fathers, Nobel Laureates, or philosophers, I truly enjoyed reading and sharing thoughts that inspire, encourage, and help me feel grounded. I hope that a few touched you, too. Naturally, I look forward to sharing more words of wisdom and wackiness in 2026.
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
“A person who tells you that you are not good enough knows that you are better than they are.”
THEN…. I looked at it later and saw the way a carrot had been cut and placed just below the eyes. I said, “You know, that makes it look like a bird!” Well, duh. She had artfully arranged all her veggies in such a way that she’d fashioned a turkey. I got to the party, but I surely arrived late… but laughing!!!
“Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.”
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
They hugged and thanked us, just for being Americans, for making freedom possible. I wept, remembering all the people who had worked, suffered, and sacrificed for that freedom.
