Yikes! Can you believe that in some 10 days or so it will be 2018?!! How in the heck did that happen?!! Trite to say, but time has seriously flown by and what a crazy, wonderful, crazy year it's been. Some highlights for our gang have been my oldest getting into med school and getting engaged, my middle guy getting to work on an award-winning primetime news show, my twin nieces' bat mitzvah ( and my daughter's overtime game winning goal on the same day that took her team to Nationals--long story and we're still tired out from it), the tenth birthday of one of my nieces, the continued zany adorableness of my youngest niece and finally our amazing kitchen renovation that has made each and every day of the last 6 months that I've spent in the kitchen and entertained my wild and crazy family, so much more fun and roomy!! 

If you've been with the blog for a while, you know that I majorly LOVE cookbooks and generally dedicate every Friday to cooking and talking about one of my favorites--new or old, aka Famous Fridays around here. Being that we're almost through with 2017 and I will be traveling next week a bit (for a hockey tournament of course) I thought I'd cobble together a list of our favorites from 2017. Now, I really love all of the Famous Fridays I've made--wouldn't share them with you if I didn't, but some of them are fussier, fancier recipes that I don't know that I'll make again, or at least not in the very near future (though I still love those cookbooks and make other things from them). The ones I chose today are all tried and true keepers that I've since made a bunch of times and/or at least know that I will. So without further ado or chitter chatter here (in no particular order) are some really swell recipes from some really swell cooks that wrote books! Take it away, the best of Famous Fridays 2017!!!

1.  Huckleberry's Vanilla French Toast with Brown Sugar-Cranberry Sauce--(pictured above) this is one of my husband's favorites from one of our favorite CA bakeries. Easy, colorful and homey--make this with this homemade brioche for a holiday breakfast and people will do your bidding forever!!

2.  The Perfect Cookie's Brown Sugar Cookies--truly a perfect cookie. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these!!! Will become one of my go-to cookies forevermore. Also a great book--full of all different kinds of wonderful cookies.

3.  Cook's Illustrated Italian Chicken Soup with Parmesan Dumplings-(pictured above)From their All Time Best Soups book and it is aptly named. This is full of the yummiest dumplings and I could really go for a bowl of this right now. Perfect winter comfort food!

4.  The Seasoned Life's Brown Sugar Chicken--from Ayesha Curry which tells you that Stephen Curry is a lucky man in more than just basketball!! Such an easy, homey, loveable dish. Sweet and savory perfection!

5.  One-Pan Wonders' Unstuffed Shells with Butternut Squash and Leeks--I don't make pasta very often so when I do it has to be special and this is out of this world good!! Have to whip this up again for the crew soon.

6.  Small Victories' Best Rice Pilaf with Roasted Red Cabbage--this is the first dish that I ever tasted roasted red cabbage in and I am now in love with not only it, but Julia Turshen's terrific cookbook. Hard to believe that you can fall for red cabbage, but one bite and you will understand. So much color, flavor and crunch!!

7. Bread Toast Crumbs' No-Knead Peasant Bread-- You MUST make this if you have even the slightest desire to bake your own bread. It's life changing!! I've been baking breads from Alexandra's book since May--haven't bought a loaf of bread since!!

8.  Love Real Food's Black Bean Tortilla Soup with Sweet Potatoes--not only is this soup intensely flavorful, vegetarian and good for you, but also easy to make too! And the baked tortilla strips are addictive!! This is a great cooking for everyday healthy life book.

HERE'S TO AN AMAZING 2018 FULL OF FAMOUS FRIDAYS!!!!