Reflections from 2024 & What I Cooked These Last Two Weeks!

My Most Popular Recipe & The Best Advice I Got, Cheesy Broccoli au Gratin, Shrimp Sushi Bites, Parmesan & Leek Puff Pastry Pinwheels, Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jan 03, 2025

∙ Paid

Hi everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and a fun New Year’s Eve! This year, Doug and I hosted his family at our home in LA. On Christmas eve I cooked prime rib, my cheesy potatoes au gratin, a delicious spinach salad that’s going to be in my cookbook, and a salted chocolate tart for dessert. As some of you know, I always feel the pressure when hosting, but everything turned out great, and everyone loved the food! (phew!)

On Christmas morning, I made my mom’s fluffy pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. After opening presents, we hit the road to the Ojai Valley Inn for a few days with Doug’s brother, my sister in-law, their family, and Doug’s parents. It was so nice to unwind and spend quality time together.

Christmas morning with the best husbie <3

As I look back on this past year, I’m happy with how things have gone. When I was laid off from my corporate job in December 2022 and went full-time with Maxi’s Kitchen, I put so much pressure on myself. (I’ve talked about it in a previous newsletter!) So this year, my goal was to take some pressure off and enjoy the ride, since there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing! Looking back, I feel that I was able to do that and find more of a balance—developing and sharing lots of amazing new recipes while having fun with the process. One of the biggest highlights of my year was working on my cookbook. Testing all the recipes has been such a fun, creative adventure, and I can’t wait to share them with you when the book finally comes out :).

Below, I’ll be sharing some highlights from this year, like my most popular recipe, the best piece of advice I got, and more.

But first, here’s a recipe for cheesy broccoli au gratin. My mom and I dreamed it up together when I was home for Thanksgiving. It was so delicious that we couldn’t stop eating it!