Tag: December

Weekend Things: December Nights

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Friday night at the Sie watching Christmas Vacation with an audience full of ugly sweaters and adult eggnog.  Saturday night at the Ogden watching Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats from the second row.  Sunday night at the Buell watching Buddy the Elf sing and dance.  This time of year is busy but in the best way possible ♥

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The Sie is running a holiday movie series and even though I sort of wanted to see A Muppet Christmas Carol, Christmas Vacation seemed more age appropriate so Friday night, we took ourselves out to a 9:30 PM showing like a couple of young fun people.  I love that part when Beverly D’Angelo says “what can I say except, it’s Christmas and we’re all in misery.”  Ha!

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Saturday, we took ourselves to dinner at Dos Santos, where Joey ate his “favorite salsa EVER,” I ate a carrot taco (I would!) and we took a shot with out waitress before walking over to the Ogden.  Doors opened at 8 but when we got there at 8:40 we were able to walk right to the front, meaning we were mere feet from the action!  I’ve never been so close.  This show was so incredibly fun and this band is a pure delight to watch.  If you ever have the chance to see them live, GO!

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Sunday night was set around our annual holiday show, starting with dinner at Euclid Hall and ending with Elf the Musical.  I think everyone (myself included!) dug Euclid and now that I’ve eaten their cheese curds, I can die happy.  It was the last performance for Elf so it was a full house, with lots of people dressed in elf costumes or beard ornaments or Cowboys ugly sweaters.  I guess that last one was just Joey 🙂

Besides these three incredible nights, this weekend involved hot yoga, rounding out our Christmas shopping, baking eggnog banana bread mini loaves and me visiting the baby AGAIN.  I can’t stop!  But in all fairness, I just wanted to bring my mom and sister over to meet him plus holding a baby makes all life’s worries disappear.

How was your weekend?!

Thanksgiving 2015 Recipe Review

Lauren1 Comment

Hello from the other side… of November.  Okay, that was dumb but what I’m really trying to say is that IT’S DECEMBER.  As in snow-outside-my-window, office-Christmas-tree-being-put-up (right now!), me-sending-psycho-“LET’S DO ALL THE HOLIDAY THINGS!!!”-texts-to-Joey December.  I officially declare this the month of feasting, holiday get together-ing and classy boozing.  So here’s all the recipes I used for Thanksgiving to get you inspired!

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Good Old American White Rolls

For whatever reason, I can never get stuff with yeast to rise, but I turned the oven to 200° for 5 minutes, then turned it off and stuck the dough inside and these rose perfectly.  They turned out just like a classic white dinner roll should.  Oh and they were HUGE.

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(Oh my god.  I just pulled that picture from a 2010 blog post, for real.)

The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole

I’ve made this every year for the past six years and it never disappoints.  I made it gluten free this year by subbing arrowroot powder for flour and yes, it did change the consistency/color of the sauce but I think I was the only one who noticed.  And look, I know that picture shows panko but just buy the fried onions in a can.  It’s so worth it this one time a year.

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Maple Garlic Whipped Sweet Potatoes

If you ask me, this was the best thing we made this year.  But if you ask my sister, it tasted like salami and if you ask Joey, it was too garlicky.  Psh, more leftovers for me!  P.S. Note those rolls again because: YUM.

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Pumpkin-Caramel Tart with Toasted-Hazelnut Crust

Uh serious yum.  Leave it to Bon Appétit to create an updated version of the good ol’ pumpkin pie.  I loved the subtle caramel flavor and I really loved that you could make this two days ahead.  And who knew it was that easy to make caramel sauce?  A dangerous discovery!

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New England Express

DING, DING, DING!  This was a crowd favorite!  Because A) The thyme syrup can be made ahead of time B) The rest can be mixed together in a matter of minutes and C) The rum is dangerously hard to detect.  We doubled the recipe and had no trouble drinking almost all of it.  Definite keeper.

Happy Wednesday!