Eight is Great: The Eighth Annual Weekly Eats Roundup

 

Once upon a time in November eight years ago, a recipe blogger decided to start writing a weekly post about what she was eating, her workouts, what she was watching on TV, and what she was reading.  After a year, the blogger decided to write an annual round up post with the best of the year, which became known as "Birchwood New Year".

And so it continues...

Weekly Eats Memory Lane

The First Weekly Eats Post

Year One Recap

Year Two Recap

Year Three Recap

Year Four Recap

Year Five Recap

Year Six Recap

Year Seven Recap

Best Things That I Cooked This Year

The best "Fancy" Meal of the Year award goes to Pinch of Yum's crockpot chicken bowls with yellow rice and cilantro pesto.

The best overall dinner recipe of the year award goes to Recipe Rebel's cheesy ground beef and potatoes.

The best "it's cold outside" recipe of the year award goes to Recipe Rebel's cheeseburger soup.

Best "that's not a recipe" recipe of the year: roasted potatoes, broccoli, and chicken sausage bowls.  I roast potatoes in batches and freeze them, and we bulk buy Costco frozen broccoli and chicken sausages so I almost always have the ingredients in the freezer ready to go: 20 minutes in the air fryer for the broccoli, add the chicken sausage after 10 minutes, reheat the potatoes in the microwave.  Bonus points for add-ins like pickled red onion and whatever sauces we have in the fridge.

Best "I'll Have What She's Having" recipes that I stole from other people.  This year we have a tie:

Winner #1: Kim's crunchwraps - the photo that made me drool is here and her reel showing the method is here.

Winner #2: "Boyhouse Enchiladas" from Nicole.  The backstory is that this recipe started as an enchilada recipe and was modified to suit the family's tastes.  Roast sweet potatoes, bell pepper, and black beans in seasonings, and top with salsa and guac.

Best New Breakfast of the Year: Spicy rice paper omelets from the So Easy, So Good cookbook.  The So Easy, So Good cookbook is also the winner of "the only cookbook that I can remember buying this decade" award.

Best New Dessert of the Year: Budget Bytes Eggnog cookies.  Oddly enough zero eggnog is used in this recipe but the cookies are fantastic anyway and have earned a permanent place on my holiday cookie tray.

Best New Kitchen Gadget of the Year: a potato ricer.

Best "I used to have a problem but now I have a solution" tip of the year is regarding canned chipotles in adobo sauce.  It's very rare to need the entire can, so a frequent problem that I was having is using whatever I needed for the recipe that I was making and finding the leftovers months later languishing in the fridge.  Part #1 is to blend the entire can up so that the peppers and sauce are one and store the leftovers in the fridge via The Frugal Girl.  If you need to store them long term, freeze them in one tablespoon portions via Suzanne.  Thanks to these tips I still have the remainder of the can that I opened in January.

Best TV of the Year

The pickings have been slim for this category in recent years, but TV is back in 2025 baby!  Even if only one of these shows was made in 2025.

First off, this year saw the Great Seinfeld Rewatch, which started as a solo project and soon became a Hot Couples TV project.  Doggo joined us for most of the rewatch.

We Were the Lucky Ones was an incredible show that I found to be just a little bit better than the book.

Season Three White Lotus!  Say what you want, I was all in on this one.

Last but not least, I was late to The Gilded Age party, but I'm here now.  I'm currently in season two and taking my time with this one.

Best Books of the Year

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra.  I adored this short and suspenseful (but not too scary) book about a mother who is alone in the house with her two young children when she becomes aware that someone else is in the house with bad intentions.  She can't get to her phone but she can get to a secret room with her kids to wait the bad guy out.

Shred Sisters by Betsy Learner.  When you're the good sister watching the bad sister get away with everything.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.  I'd heard the buzz on this one when it came out, but decided that I didn't want to read about a missing child and gave it a pass.  I only picked it up after Julie raved about it, and I'm so glad that I did.  This book got me in my feels.

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom.  I heard about this book on an episode of the Sarah's Bookshelves podcast while I was hiking and pulled out my phone then and there and got it on Libby.  I'd recommend that you get your hands on a copy with just as much haste.

Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery.  This was the spring pick for CBBC and it was a wow.

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk.  The story of a woman who has a fetish for plane crashes.  Weird premise, AMAZING book.  Thank you Kim for putting this on my radar and thank you to the universe for having my Libby hold come in while I was in San Francisco so that I got to finish the book on a plane flying out of SFO (the book is set in SF and the main character flies out of SFO).

Joy Prescriptions: How I Learned to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Connection by Tiffany Moon.  This is a combination memoir/self help book.  The author is a physician who built a successful social media brand and was on Real Housewives, and got to a point where she had to stop doing All The Things but wanted to find a way to do Some of Each Thing.  First of all, she has a fascinating story, but second of all, this was helpful for me to read as I was navigating my way out of the workforce.  Want more info on the book?  I'd recommend the Best of Both Worlds episode where I heard about it.

Best Stuff That I Did This Year

I went places and met people!  

• Florida in February for an epic lunch with SHU, Lisa, and Jenny, and a hangout with Stephany!
• California in May to meet San and Julie!
• British Columbia in August to meet Nicole!
• Nova Scotia in September to meet Elisabeth!

After a couple of years of shooting my mouth off on the blog, I did the FIRE thing!  I'm only in week three of early retirement, and so far so good.

That's a Wrap on Year Eight!  Thanks for hanging out with me!  What's on your best of the best list for this year?