As I looked back on the pictures from the month of January, there were two common themes across almost every picture. (1) Food. (2) Smiles from eating food. Seems like the surefire way to a smile in our house is a well cooked meal shared with friends. I think that means we’re doing alright!

As is customary in the Wiktor house for the past I’m-not-sure-how-many years, we started 2025 with a hearty bowl of homemade ramen. We haven’t tried to make our own noodles (Mike still holds that award) but three days of cooking yields a pretty magical dish and isn’t all that complicated. Even the leftovers are fought for by all four at the house.

With ramen in the rear view mirror, pizza was up next. Our little sourdough continues to kick out fantastic dough! No this is not a COVID bandwagon project. No the starter does not have a name (it’s just yeast goop after all). But yes, it is the same sourdough starter we made almost two years ago. We have too many favorites to list but pizza day is always a happy day at the house.

So the next undertaking was a bit of a last minute leap. We couldn’t settle on a birthday meal for the old man of the house so finally Meredith declared that it would be “Beef Wellington or bust!” Ohhhh man, I absolutely love Beef Wellington but I hadn’t over-analyzed, over-planned, and over-thought this problem set yet. The only thing worse than not having Beef Wellington is spending all the time and money only to have it come out wrong! Well, good thing Meredith is awesome at everything. She crushed it! The only real issue was that it left every one of us feeling like we may have just had the best meal we would eat in all of 2025.

The other 29 days of the month not gushed about in the text above were still filled with meals to be remembered. The lengthy winter break from school was lengthened even more with a couple of snow days. This place is not built for snow so weather that would be considered unremarkable in Minnesota shuts this place down for days… and days.. and days… While a lot of this post is about food, none of it would be as enjoyable if we didn’t have happy people to share it with. So here’s to the next “snow storm” that keeps us home and gives us opportunity for more smiles around the table. Maybe Virginia’s snow response is just where it needs to be…