So, how was everyone's Christmas? My foray into baking was a success - the Cherry Breakfast Cake was a major hit with my family and with my co-workers, who were kind enough to eat the leftovers.

Did you try any Rachael Ray recipes this year? Rachael's Southern Green Beans are now a staple at our family Christmas and Thanksgiving, no matter who is cooking them. This year they were as good as ever.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

What a week! Is anyone else exhausted? If you live in NYC, I hope you're not too tired to head out to Rachael Ray's appearance tomorrow (and free lattes should be a good motivator). I'm looking forward to flopping down on the couch and reading my new Rachael Ray magazine from cover to cover.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Three more weeks until Baby Miller's due date! My, how the time has flown. The amount of cooking I've done recently has been disgraceful, but carrying around a baby all day in your belly can be pretty tiring, I guess. When I have been cooking, it's been recipes that I already know and love, such as Creamy Tomato Soup and Italian Patty Melts. Maybe I'll get motivated this weekend, but I wouldn't count on it!

As the big baby day approaches, I've made arrangements for my friend Kate to put up a post announcing her arrival, so I hopefully won't just disappear for awhile without any explanation....

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Here we are at another Friday. But Thanksgiving is less than a week away! We still don't know we're doing this year, so I could or could not be making a big dinner. We'll just have to wait and see. I hope you can handle the suspense. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Any Rachael Ray dishes on the proposed menu? Check out my post from earlier this week if you're still looking for ideas.

I'm so glad I decided to share my pregnancy news with all of you and thanks so much for all the lovely comments. All those people who think this blog is written by Rachael Ray are going to be really confused by that post. Things are still going well!

The baby kicks me all day long, which can be distracting at work, but I'm getting used to it. I've been doing a ton of cooking, which I will really try to make a priority even after baby comes (stop snickering, you moms out there!).

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

I have been such a lazy blogger lately! However, the last of our visitors (let's be honest, they are really Darcy's visitors) are leaving this weekend, so we'll be on our own! With all the help around the house, I was able to do some cooking this week, which was really nice. I made the old favorite Buffalo Chicken Chili and tried two new recipes - Hula Chicken and French Bread Pizzas. All of them were hits and I'll be posting reviews.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

So, this weekend the Christmas parties begin! One of our family members has a party every year where Santa comes with a present for each child there. It is so adorable to see how excited the kids get when Santa arrives with the whole beard, belly, and white suit going on. Plus, the food and company are alwasys great, too.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week!? What the heck? Macy's even has Christmas decorations up already. Sigh. So, to help us get ready, here's a list of Rachael Ray's Thanksgiving recipes. I included both full menus and individual recipes. The ones I make every year are the Southern Green Beans and the Apple and Onion Stuffin' Muffins.

It's time for the Oscars! I will be traveling to a wedding in Arizona, so won't be hosting any sort of Oscar shindig this year, but I couldn't resist sharing some great stuff on throwing an Oscars party from Every Day with Rachael Ray. The good thing is that this list of recipes is intended for a last minute party, so you're not out of time yet!

I can't believe October is almost over, but I won't let my denial stop me from sharing some Rachael Ray Halloween recipes. I tried to put together a mix of appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and cocktails.

For my Halloween dinner, I'm definitely having the Curried Carrot Soup, but I'll try to do a better job with the spider web than I did last time.

Enjoy:

Aren't you proud of how many posts I did this week? It's almost like I'm back in the world of the living. Now, I'm still not sleeping for more than three hours at a time (we've had a few nights where the baby slept five hours and I was in heaven), so please don't expect too much from me!

This week, I managed to do a little bit of cooking, mixed in with some frozen meals from Dinner MyWay. I made Go Green Chicken Sammies, but failed to take a picture of them. Bad blogger. I don't have photographic proof, so you'll have to trust me when I say they were very good. As you'll see below, Cate at Sweetnicks made them too this week. Great minds think alike! I also made Sliced Steak Gyros, so look out for a review of that recipe in the coming weeks.

Holy cow, it's almost Christmas. How did this happen? I've got almost all my Christmas shopping done. Just one more gift to buy and I'm golden. Shockingly, I didn't give out even one Rachael Ray-themed present this year. I think I've pretty much given everyone I know at least one of her cookbooks, so that well may have run dry.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

What a week! Today is my last day at work before the arrival of Baby Miller, which is a very very odd feeling. I've either worked or been in school since college, so to have four months ahead of me without heading into an office every day is going to be a little surreal for awhile. However, I am sure that taking care of the baby will be a much harder job than anything I've ever done (and definitely more rewarding, too).

So, while we're waiting for her arrival, we might as well check out some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere, right? Before we do, I have to let you know that Dunkin' Donuts is offering a free donut with the purchase of a cup of coffee on April 15th to make your tax day a little better. So go get some free stuff!

If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

I have a few little tidbits that didn't make it into posts this week. A reminder for those of you with pets out there - Rachael's Feed Your Pets special airs tomorrow at 9:00 pm. Also, there's an auction closing today at 6:00 PM EST over at Charity Folks to benefit the Alzheimer's Association. You can bid on 2 VIP tickets to Rachael's show. Right now, the current bid is $1,000.

As for me and Baby Miller, things are going well! This weekend my best friend is throwing a shower for us, which will be very fun. It's like a wedding - lots of my college friends will be there and we'll get the chance to catch up. I think there might even be some Rachael Ray recipes on the menu (who would have suggested those?), so I will report back!

What a week! Only three weeks to go until I go on maternity leave and things are definitely heating up at work. It's kind of like everyone just realized I'm going to be gone soon! Maybe I need to wear more outfits that show off my belly more, as a better reminder that I am, in fact, not going to be there for awhile!

Anywho, other than that, things are going great with Baby Miller. My gestational diabetes is still under control, but I am looking forward to a donut once it's gone! Alright, back to what's going on with Rachael Ray this week.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

If you read my recipe reviews, you know that I often use organic and local ingredients when I prepare Rachael Ray's recipes. It's something I sort of eased myself into, which became much easier when my local chain grocery store started selling a less expensive line of organic products. Plus, there's a Farmers Market all summer just around the corner from my work.

So how was your Valentine's Day? I hope it was a good one, especially if you tried any Rachael Ray recipes. After a request for a "garlicky shrimp pasta thing" from my husband, I went with a combo of two recipes. I made 4 Minute Spicy Garlic Shrimp and the Spaghetti Aglio Olio (Garlic and Oil).

The spaghetti recipe includes a Spicy Shrimp recipe, but the 4 minute one just looked better to me for some reason. A normal person would have thought they were similar enough and just printed one recipe, but I have never professed to being normal! While not as fancy as our usual Valentine's Day meal, it got rave reviews. To round out the meal, I made some Roasted Asparagus.

Man, what a day already! The wind here in Northern California is so bad that it knocked over our heavy stainless steel grill (I hope I can still make burgers come Summer!), the lights are flickering, and there's no way I'm driving into work today. Luckily, we've got flashlights, batteries, a gas stove, and a full cupboard. The high wind advisory ends at 4, so I guess I've got that much time to figure out what kind of soup I'm making tonight....

It's Super Bowl time again! We're having a few friends over for the game and I'm just now starting to figure exactly what to serve. I try to have at least three or four different things that are good at room temperature, so people can pick at them throughout the game. Now, serving chips and salsa just seems too easy, so I try to avoid that. For me, the Super Bowl = dips!
Here are a few ideas I have for this year, taken from Rachael's recipe collections on the Food Network, her talk show, and her magazine:

I found out this week that my diabetes has completely gone away! Phew. I also found out this week that I have to give up dairy, nuts, soy, and eggs, because dear little Darcy is apparently allergic to some or all of them. I get to add them back in little by little to see what I can and can't eat. So, that should add a fun new dimension to my recipe selections!

Vegas was fun! The highlight (other than a Monopoly slot machine in a corner in New York New York) had to be lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. My husband ordered a sweet potato hash with a fried egg and green chili hollandaise. I went with a pork tenderloin sandwich with arugula, caramelized onions, and ancho-chili aioli (I broke my mayo rule for Bobby), which came with spicy Southwestern fries. I can't recommend the place enough. The flavors were something I've never run across anywhere else and certainly can't be found in your local tex-mex place. And if you go for lunch, it takes a little sting out when when the bill arrives!

It was only a matter a time. I got my first cold of the winter. Really, I think I deserved it since I was picking on my husband for getting sick twice in a two week period (the speech consisted mostly of my depracation of his ability to maintain a strong immune system - I won't bore you with the details). So, my meals lately have consisted mostly of canned soup and saltines.

So, apparently everyone in the blogosphere was too worked up about the stupid "Is Rachael Ray a terrorist" story to write any posts about making her recipes this week! I cannot tell you how many blog posts and news articles have been posted about the Dunkin Donuts ad where Rachael Ray was supposedly wearing a keffiyeh.

The ad has now been pulled by Dunkin Donuts, who also informed critics that the scarf actually had a paisley print. Whatever! It's such a stupid story that I really didn't want to write about it at all, but instead it'll just make this appearance in the Roundup instead of getting its very own spotlight. If you want to check out the ad and read about the non-scandal scandal, check out this ABC News story that sums it up and has a video of the ad.

Okay, I'm starting to miss cooking. Think I can get my act together to cook a meal this week? Maybe I should make that my goal this week (in addition to the usual one of not dropping the baby). This week's Roundup has a bunch of my favorite posts - recipe reviews. They are the whole reason I started the Roundup in the first place.

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Well, there's big news in Rachael Ray's world today. Rachael's Ray's magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, has itself a new Executive Editor. Silvana Nardone, who is the magazine's Editor, said: “Theresa shares our sense of humor and our fun, flirty attitude. We can’t wait to have her join the party at Every Day with Rachael Ray,” said Ms. Nardone.

I got a fun email this week from Tammy, who appeared on Rachael Ray's talk show last March with her dog, Spudgy. They were featured in a segment called "Famous YouTube Stars." Tammy said the experience was a great one, from the staff all the way to meeting Rachael.

According to Tammy: "Rachael is stunning in person and just as nice as she portrays on TV." She also said that being on Rachael's talk show was one "of the best experiences ever and she and her staff are the best!"

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Rachael Ray is a spokesperson for Dunkin' Donuts and it is having another fun event in NYC, although Rachael Ray won't be appearing at it. If you live in NYC, the event is happening on February 13th to celebrate the launch of Dunkin' Donuts' new Oven-Toasted Menu.

You can get free samples of new toasty flatbread sandwiches, personal pizzas, hash browns and Dunkin’s famous coffee. Relationship expert and Time Out New York Dating Columnist, Julia Allison, and celebrity cabbie matchmaker, Ahmed Ibrahim, will also be on hand to give free advice to help New Yorkers with any pre-Valentine's Day questions. WKTU's Cindy Vero, co-host of "Cubby in the Morning," will also be giving away a vacation to a warm locale. The event starts at 8 AM and goes until 2 PM on February 13th, at Herald Square (34th St. and Avenue of the Americas). Eat some free food for me if you go!

Here are some Rachael Ray posts from around the blogosphere this week. If you see a post that you think would be good for the Roundup, or you write one yourself, e-mail me so I can be sure to include it.

Last year, I did a whole week's worth of Rachael Ray Christmas related posts all at once. This year I decided to space them out a bit so as not to overwhelm you (or myself) with all the choices and planning! I also wanted these posts to serve as an update to the last round, so I won't be including recipes I previously posted about. To check out last year's brunch recipes, go here.