'Tis The Season!

She's baaaaack!

I’m alive people, honest I am! I’ve just been preoccupied with day-to-day craziness, trying to dodge the little black cloud that seems to be following me around. Now here we are in the thick of the holiday season . . . how the hell did that happen? The calendar says I should be shopping and tree-trimming and cookie baking . . . so far, I’ve managed only one of those 3:



This photo was taken with the camera on my new cell phone. I know people have been emailing cell phone photos for years now . . . but I just learned to do this last week. So I am once again armed with a photographic device and ready to document the holiday season in all its honey-glazed, sugar-plummed glory!

In fact, I attended my first Feast of Wintery Goodness last nite! My pals Liz and Jimbo hosted a Sunday nite shindig of epic culinary proportions. Liz is a great cook . . . someone who knows how to “simmer” or “baste” things, and how to make soup and pie crust from scratch. Everyone else brought a side dish to add to the feasting fun . . . my contribution was a salad (surprise!) . . .topped with almonds and cranberries. Basically, I combined bags of pre-packaged greens and toppings in a large bowl. Others were slightly more ambitious – Kevin made Sweet Potato Pie that could make baby angels weep with happiness, and Alison provided delightful baked turnips that made other root vegetables everywhere seethe with jealousy. Liz whipped up an amazing Pumpkin Soup, cornbread stuffing (who knew there was such a thing?! I always thought ‘cornbread stuffing’ was a Dickensian fantasy food like ‘figgy pudding’) and cornish game hens, followed by a sinfully yummy pecan pumpkin pie. There was not much conversing and plenty of chewing, the sign of a truly successful meal.

The evening also showed that you don’t need to have a fancy-ass, Martha-Stewart style table setting to have a perfectly legitimate and successful dinner party. Good food is still good even when it is cooked in disposable pans with Ikea tools and eaten off a plate in your lap while camped out on the sofa. I sometimes forget this when I survey my abysmally small and ill-equipped kitchen. Yes, it would be awesome to have a KitchenAid stand mixer or a counter to put it on – but these minor challenges need not hamper my culinary abilities forever! Back in the day, people prepared Christmas dinner for families of 12 on a woodstove. At the end of the day, its not about how tricked out your kitchen is, or how perfectly the table is set . . . its about good friends, good food, and the sharing of both.

So Much to Celebrate!

Yikes -- so its been a few weeks, huh? My bad, I know. My excuse for the lack of posting, while lame, is still legit. At first, I was super busy planning and executing a Halloween bash where I actually cooked food!! And then, after taking many photos of my culinary triumphs for blog-posting . . . I discovered that my camera battery charger has gone missing. So for now, you are going to get all the fun of my party updating without the awesome visuals. I apologize!

So those who know me know that Halloween is one of my top 3 favorite holidays. Seriously, what's not to love about dressing up, shoveling in free candy and scaring the shit out of your friends? These are favorite pastimes of mine any day of the year -- so the fact that there's an official holiday involving all 3 is amazing. This year, I decided to invite the posse over for some nibbles and drinks before heading up the street to our favorite dive / karaoke hangout for costumed karaoke insanity! My menu was pretty ambitious for a girl who never cooks, but I figured if it turned out disastrously I could simply pretend that I was trying to frighten them with terrible food on purpose.

Halloween Menu!

A variety of dips, chips and veggies, including a white bean dip recipe I pilfered from the girls at We Are Not Martha

Bruschetta made with fresh bread from the Copley Farmers Market

"Mummified Coconut Shrimp" . . . I cheated with this one and bought pre-made frozen coconut shrimp . . . I haven't quite worked my way up to frying seafood . . . yet.

Hellishly Hot Buffalo Chicken Fingers . . . Again, I bought frozen chicken fingers and some buffalo hot sauce -- nothing like some fried poultry to balance out an insane sugar high!

Sweet Potato Casserole! This was the dish I was most proud of -- made entirely from scratch for the first time ever -- and I had no leftovers!! A good sign!

Cornbread . . . made from a Trader Joe's mix, but it was yuuuummy nonetheless!

Salad with walnuts, cranberries and fresh farmer's market goat cheese . . . I forgot to put this out! So if anyone needs a log of fresh goat cheese, let me know.


Amy Sedaris' Original CUPCAKES!! . . . I have made these before, and I have to say this probably wasn't my best batch. That might be because I ran out of vanilla extract Thursday night at around midnight, so I had to put the batter in the fridge and leave it for the next day. Also, my $15 hand mixer from Target doesn't always do the best job of getting batter completely smooth . . . but even still, I loooove this cupcake recipe almost as much as I love Amy Sedaris (who inspired my Halloween costume!)

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies . . . these were also a homage to the girls over at We Are Not Martha . . . Chelsee brought me one a few weeks ago and I decided to attempt them myself! They didn't come out quite as fudgy as Chelsee's . . but for a first attempt, they weren't too bad.


This exercise in cooking for more than one person also showed just how miserably ill-equipped my kitchen is. Mama G, who I recruited to come be my emotional support during the party prep, was horrified by my lack of mixing bowls, counter space, etc. I also apparently only have one oven mitt, which makes taking a giant tray of brownies out of the oven really hard!! Hopefully I will get some kitchen tools for Christmas . . . and in the meantime, I need to get myself a new camera charger so I can share my photos with the world!

So the Season of Celebration is almost upon us! Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's -- oh my!! I will be working hard to strike a balance between maintaining my healthy lifestyle and improving my mad culinary skillz!

And finally, one more thing we should all be celebrating:



Hail to the Chief, people!!