Tag Archives: Holidays

Weekend wellness & holiday craziness

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Hello, loves. Well, this weekend flew by – can’t believe it’s Monday already. This weekend I got to hang out with the lovely Becki at Fighting for Wellness – the perks of living in a blogger-filled city! Becki hosted an Arbonne wellness workshop – her friend Margaret is a consultant for the company, which makes everything from anti-aging facial products to protein powder. I had a great time, and learned a lot about their company and the products they sell.

 

Just a heads up – I am in not associated with Arbonne, I am not endorsing it, have not been provided any products to review (though I did get some free samples which you normally get at the workshop – blogger or not), and have most-certainly not been compensated for it. Check out their stuff if you’re intrigued. I walked away with a small purchase of some vanilla protein powder packets – just to try, I’m not big into that stuff, but it was yummy – and some samples of their RE9 anti-aging skin care line, which I ripped into (literally) this morning. We also tried their scrub – which smelled really good, fit chews, their chocolate protein power, energy fizz sticks and their antioxidant immunity booster. It was great to see Becki again – we originally met through the Healthy Living Boston Bloggers group and a bunch of us met up at Zuzu in the Cambridge in October – to sit around with some ladies (and Joe!) and discuss everything from wellness to wine…oh and homemade peanut butter bars. Yum! Anyone else out there tried Arbonne products? Thoughts? Aside from that, I got a lot of my holiday shopping donnnne ! photo 2 Woo. Saturday my roommate and I sprinted through the Natick mall to try and knock out as much shopping as possible. …this is probably the first time in a while that I’m not scrambling last minute to grab gifts – even if I’ve known what I’m getting people all season long. The mall was packed, and the parking garages were anxiety-inducing buuut it was worth it. I walked away with some good deals, a smaller bank account and a Crumbs cupcake… yum. We’ll just pretend it had no calories. Hah …and we then spent Sunday trekking around the city (hopefully burning off said cupcake!), finishing up some shopping and enjoying the beautiful weather. photo 1 I love the holidays in the city, the trees in both the Common and Faneuil were lit up – and Boston peeps, has there always been the giant menorah in Copley?? I don’t remember it, but I love it. Now, if we could just get rid of this rain. Hope everyone’s week is off to a good start!

A turkey trot down memory lane

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I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving – I know we’re almost a week out now…

… but Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday…and no, as much as I love food – it’s not about the food. I know I’ve talked about it before – Thanksgiving is pretty much the only holiday that isn’t about the “gimmes” (aside from – hey, gimme some cheese, please) – it’s just about hanging out with your family and eating a killer meal.  

 The fact that Thanksgiving gets trampled by Christmas commercials (I think I said “NO!” out loud at the first Christmas-themed ad I saw in November) or Black Friday madness is just kinda sad to me.

 Okay, off my soap box.

 This year, everyone in my family seemed extra pumped for the time off and for our time together – it’s way too rare. Plans were being tossed around weeks in advance…

  • Charcoal Weber roasted turkey! – yes!
  • Copious amounts of beer? – yes!
  • Hanging out at the local bar (in addition to the beer in the fridge, of course)? – yes!
  • Our first annual croquet tourney? – yes… I’ll probably suck…but yes!
  • Bond…James Bond…marathons on SyFy? – yes!
  • Football game after football game? – yes!
  • Getting the entire family together to see Skyfall? – yes!

 I knew I wanted to make something…but it had to be able to survive a 6-8 hour car ride. So I searched and searched…and finally settled on Jenna’s Walnut Potato Rolls with Honey Butter.

 Had I ever made bread from scratch before? No. Did working with yeast scare the crap out of me? Yes. But what’s the worst that could happen…they’re awful? I’m in.

I started the process on Tuesday night (I’m glad I did…our house gets cold so it took extra time for the dough to rise)…and finished it on Wednesday morning. Was it worth it? Yep.

Our apartment smelled soo, soo good Wednesday morning as I worked from home.

 Eventually, my mom, brother and I piled in the car, and headed to upstate NY… the car ride, which normally takes 6 hours, took 8…but it was so worth it.

For Turkey Day, my cousin roasted the turkey – with this awesome rub he brought from North Carolina – on the Weber…and it was amazing. We spend the day outside – it was sixty degrees! – enjoying the sunshine.

On top of the turkey, we had just about every side dish under the sun. No shame.

Over the course of just couple days, we ticked off everything on our “to-do” list…including some random adventures…like a round of golf and some wine and vodka tasting.

Oh, the trip also included some quality bonding time…

Did I overindulge on Thanksgiving? Definitely. Do I regret it? Not one bit.

What’d you do for Thanksgiving? Do you run a race? Travel? Stay put? Any special dishes that you bring?

Mama, May I?

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My goodness – it’s been quite a while. …I know, I know – I start every.single.post. in pretty much the same manner, as of late.

While I might not be blogging as often – the blogosphere is not far from my mind…and food is – most definitely – not far from my mouth.

I had been resisting the urge to get into the *holiday* spirit…I always feel bad for Thanksgiving…it’s that middle child – and between Halloween and Christmas, the kings of the “gimme, gimme” holidays, it often gets overlooked.

Not by me. I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving! Dare I say it is my favorite one?

  • One. Any holiday based on consuming copious amounts of comfort food is A-okay in my book.
  • Two. I love spending time with my family – catching up, watching football and just been bums.
  • …and Three. It’s just great to be with family – solely for the reason that you want to be together…no gift giving/receiving…it’s based on being selfless..not selfish.

My tree and decorations won’t be up until December – but I don’t think that Thanksgiving would mind if I love on some holiday flavors…like eggnog…and gingerbread.

Speaking of gingerbread…. I’ve had my eye on Mama Pea’s Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls …. Basically, all of her little cookie concoctions have been on my “to make ASAP” list…and the gingerbread-y flavors of the pumpkin molasses cookies finally got me baking.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls

adapted from Mama Pea

Makes 24  30 dough balls — I used a Tablespoon to scoop & got 30 cookies out of this batch

  • 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 c. unbleached organic flour  – I used regular all-purpose
  • 1 T. ginger
  • 2 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. baking powder
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/3 c. vegan margarine (i.e. Earth Balance) — I used margarine…but it wasn’t vegan
  • 2/3 c. canned pumpkin
  • 2/3 c. organic sugar + additional 1/4 c. for rolling – I used what I had left of natural sugar and then the rest – just plain ole granulated sugar
  • 1/4 c. molasses

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
  • Using an electric or stand mixer, cream together margarine, pumpkin, 2/3 c. sugar and molasses.
  • Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients, mixing until a dough comes together.
  • Chill dough for 30 minutes or more. When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees and pour remaining sugar into a shallow bowl.
  • Scoop dough into balls and roll until smooth.
  • Roll each ball sugar until completely covered.
  • Transfer dough to a cookie sheet and continue until sheet is filled.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should be set, but still a bit doughy. (I needed the full 10)
  • Allow cookies to cool on the pan for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Loved these. 

My favorite part of these lil’ beauties is definitely the texture…doughy but still light and fluffy.

I might play with the amount of molasses in these the next time I make them…they’re great as is – but I’m a huge fan of that molasses/gingerbread flavor and wouldn’t mind punching it up maybe a notch or two.

However – if you’re craving gingerbread…

go.

make these.

now.