This is a very quick hello from far away!! I’m busy eating incredible coconut curries and soaking up the humid South Indian sun, so I must keep this short.

While I’m finding it hard to imagine snow and christmas lights right now, I still wanted to share my collection of festive goodies.

What’s that I hear? I think there is a tender coconut with a straw in it calling my name. I must be off!

Have an eggnog for me, okay? Continue Reading »

I am leaving in the morning on a big trip to India. I’m pretty seriously excited. My fiancé’s sister is getting married. I get to go to a big Indian wedding, and eat Indian food three times a day (more if my pants are stretchy enough), and hang out with some wonderful people. In the sun!

Okay, backing up a bit, yes, I said fiancé. Can’t say it yet without blushing and smiling foolishly ear-to-ear. And squealing a bit. And hopping a few times. EEE! But that now I’ve said it once, I’m reverting back to boyfriend.

So moving on. These lovely sugar cookies are rolled in cinnamon sugar and then baked. The outcome is sparkly, crinkly, lightly spiced cookies that are perfectly chewy and quite magical.
Simple, but wonderful. Continue Reading »

I can get you excited about Christmas now, right? Because it’s been in full swing for me for weeks.

I’m talking egg nog in my coffee and rum in my egg nog.

A marathon of holiday movies and a playlist of five-hundred Christmas songs being played on a loop. Non stop. From the moment I wake up till the moment I go to bed. I’m surprised my Hindu (i.e. completely befuddled by this out-of-control Christmas thing) boyfriend has yet to “accidentally” drop my ipod in the toilet.

All that to say, it is finally almost appropriate to start being publicly excited about Christmas. I think you should celebrate the first day of December by baking fudgy cookies with candy canes on top.

Continue Reading »

Okay, I know most of y’all are all amped up about turkey right now, and cookies aren’t a priority. But I’m sure by the weekend your priorities will shift. So I’m sharing these now, before I dash of to New York City for the weekend (!!!) to take in the Thanksgiving day parade, followed by Black Friday.

I realize that I have demonstrated difficulty handling store lineups, and big crowds make me want to rock in the fetal position with crazy eyes, humming loudly to myself. But Black Friday in NYC still seems like a good idea to me…

Continue Reading »

I was planning on making ice cream for my book club this week.

See, I have this habit of sometimes not reading the book. Then, overcome with horrible guilt and shame, I bring yummy food to distract from this major book club transgression.

I have observed that the crowd’s attention is very easily drawn from book to food. So far this strategy is working for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading. I enjoy discussing. I appreciate being given a reason to read a book every month.

If the book club were made up of people who generally only wanted to read happy books that made them clap and cry happy tears and have dreams about puppies and rainbows, my book-finishing success rate would be dramatically increased. Continue Reading »