Cookie Exchange

Turns out that when you go away for Christmas and have to push a lot of stuff to the new year, you end up with a super busy January that does not allow for the usual hibernation. Here’s what was going on to kick off 2018:

  • Jenny hosted her 2nd annual Christmas Cookie Exchange on the first weekend in January, and you can see my haul pictured above. I won’t even mention my own cookie, but instead the small squares in the bottom centre. Those are Carmelitas made by Erin from How to Eat, from the book The Baker In Me by Daphna Rabinovitch. They were incredible! I borrowed the book from Jenny so expect to see them here sometime soon.
  • The next day was the Golden Globes, which were very early this year! I made our traditional feast of Beef Bourguignon, mashed potatoes, Cheddar-Corn Spoonbread (which which I felt redeemed by, since the recipe I tried last year didn’t work), and my “house salad” with apples and candied pecans. For dessert, I made this Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie, which was just okay for me. I’d rather have straight up Pecan Pie.
  • The following weekend we had our belated family Christmas, and I cooked up another feast for that! We had pulled pork & ‘slaw, mac & cheese, guac & chips and Butterscotch Pecan Meringue Torte by request of the birthday girl (my Mom).
  • I already blogged about these, but I had two super fun cake projects this month: Twins Gender Reveal Cakes for my friend at work, and a Unicorn Cake for my niece. Loved them both so much!
  • After about 4 years of going out for tacos and margaritas, our Book Club was inspired by this article, and so we’re now switching to Pizza Club/Book Club for 2018. First up was a classic, Pizzeria Libretto, and of course the pizza was delicious as always, but I need to write about the salad! They have this kale salad happening, where there is a thin layer of green goddess dressing spread on the plate, and then lightly dressed kale is placed on top, with toasted almonds. I need to a) have this again immediately b) figure out how to recreate it at home!

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • I don’t really know why I’m incapable of only reading one book in the month of January, but it seems to happen every year. This time it was Everything You Never Told Me, by Celeste Ng, which was a good read, but not nearly as amazing as her book Little Fires Everywhere which was my #1 of 2017.
  • Oscar Nominations are out, so I went to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri which seems to be a frontrunner. It was okay, but I find Woody Harrelson annoying in everything, and this movie just doesn’t know how to do nuance. You’re hit in the face with every “message” it wants you to learn. Don’t know if I recommend it. Kristine and I also saw I, Tonya, plus I saw Ladybird back before Christmas. Still lots to watch before the Oscars on March 4.
  • I went to my first Leafs Game ever! Not really that noteworthy since I don’t like hockey, but we got to go with work and sit in the box, so that was pretty baller. Not nearly as fun as a Raptors game though!

Flashback!