Hungry for the Holidays

One of my favorite aspects of the holiday season is the increase of treats available. The increased amount of cookies, cakes, and sugary warm beverages is reason enough to smile and be jolly. Who doesn't love a great holiday themed dessert? Did you know that 2 out of 3 Americans will gain 6 pounds between Halloween and New Years? It's really not that surprising considering all of the winter holidays revolve around food. It's shocking that I've evaded that statistic and haven't put on that much weight from all of the yummies I've devoured each year (maybe 2 lbs. versus the 6 lb. national average). My sweet tooth persuaded me to begin Christmas baking super early. The weekend before Thanksgiving my boyfriend and I made decorative sugar cookies with a variety of sprinkles, colored icings, and cookie cutter shapes. 

This is me & the boy decorating the cookies. They were so tasty!!!! 

We also made red velvet brownies from a Duncan Hines mix. It came with a cream cheese icing to drizzle over the top which made for extra delicious gooey brownies :)

I packed him a little care package to take home with him. This adorable holiday themed box came from Michael's and was about $7. The first layer was sugar cookies with a pumpkin muffin that had a cream cheese filling, the second layer was the red velvet brownies, and the bottom layer was chunky chocolate chip cookies!

I also dropped by the grocery store today and made a little 'pick your own' 6 pack of beer with seasonal flavors. There's only 5 pictured because the 6th was a regular Stella (which is my favorite beer by the way). I figured each time I drank one I could do a little review! So below is my commentary on Blue Moon's seasonal brew.

You'll have to excuse my lack of expertise when it comes to the vernacular of beer and beer tasting. I'm not much of a connoisseur in regards to the drink.. I only started consuming the stuff a few years back because I much preferred the taste of fruity mixed drinks. Once I started drinking craft beers it was like a whole new world was exposed to me. I'm much more brave nowadays to test out a new brew. Anyhow, tonight I tried out Blue Moon's Mountain Abbey Ale, part of their seasonal collection. The description is as follows- "This copper-colored ale is crafted with roasted malts, Belgian sugar and a touch of wheat for a rich caramel flavor and a smooth toffee finish." My initial impression was indifference (more like an audible 'meh'). You can definitely pick up the sweet hints of toffee and caramel which are two flavors I typically enjoy. I don't know how I felt about the overall taste, though. It reminded my roommate and I a lot of a dark liquor.. like a bourbon or something. Although the drink was chilled, it had a warm undertone in taste. The more I sipped on it the more I enjoyed it. I think it took time for me to get accustomed to the heavier flavor since Blue Moons are typically light wheat beers. I give it a 6.5 out of 10. Not sure I'd purchase a six pack of it, but I wouldn't turn it down if someone offered me one!

I'll post reviews of the drinks as I consume them! If you know of any yummy holiday ales let me know. I love trying new flavors!   

Baking & Building

I know that it's been some time since I've posted on here & a lot has happened in my life that I'd like to share with you. You should see me when something exciting happens nowadays- I whip out my iPhone and say, "Wait! Let me take a picture! I wanna blog about this". I actually brainstormed a list the other evening about post topics. So believe me when I say that I have a lot planned, my only shortcomings in being a blogger are my semi-busy life and sheer laziness. 

The Holiday Season brings with it so many goodies in so many forms- there are candies, cookies, cakes, pies, breads, etc;. When the first chill bites my skin through my knit sweater I know that it's time to pull out the Christmas sprinkles and preheat the oven to start baking. The other day I picked up a pumpkin pie bar mix from Krusteaze that has a gingerbread cookie crust. It. is. SUPERB. It was also quite simple to put together and quick to bake. 

Along the lines of cooking- this weekend my boyfriend and I took turns cooking dinner for each other and the results were tasty. I did a shrimp scampi and he did a steak dinner with sweet potatoes and asparagus!

Cold weather is also an indicator to me that the decorations ought to come out. As a young adult who moves frequently, I don't have a collection of holiday decorations compiled over time to call my own. I tend to pick up a couple things here and there. On Halloween my boyfriend and I found a little kit in Target for a miniature themed house made of foam pieces. It was like a 3D puzzle with glittery stickers that finished impressively. When I saw Christmas houses at Michaels I knew purchasing them needed to happen. The other evening we took time out (collectively 3 hrs, to be exact) to watch some films and build them! The gingerbread house was for ages 3+ with some 120+ pieces and actually took longer to build than the little shop, which was for 6+ and had 240+ pieces. The age recommendations on those projects is absolute madness. If it takes two 23-year-olds a few hours to build them, then I highly doubt children could do it on their own. Also, 3-year-olds should not be playing with toys that have little pieces because I'm pretty sure that's still in the everything-goes-in-my-mouth stage of childhood. Someone made a comment which was so spot-on- "that's for the parents of the 3-year-old".. Precisely. 

Lastly, my roomies are babysitting their friend's puppy for a week while he goes back home for a wedding. It's an English bulldog named Titan who is only 6 months old. His proportions are so unbalanced it's almost comical. He trips over his own paws and falls forward because of his massive head! I love puppies but this guy seems like a handful and a half.