The Silver Lining

Last Sunday Robyn hosted a few lovely ladies at her house for her annual cookie bake.  Christmas cookie baking holds a special place in my heart because it’s a tradition that all the women, grandma, aunts & cousins in my family have done every year for as long as I can remember.  We get together and stir, bake & decorate for hours on end in our matching Christmas aprons.  It’s almost guaranteed that of the dozens (and I’m talking DOZENS!) of different cookies we make there is always a bad batch.  For example, last year Kate used salt instead of sugar and then there are the occasional sugar cookie decorations that turn into phallic symbols because someone had too much Chardonnay.  Unfortunately, this year the cookie bake never took place – so I was thrilled to be able to participate at Robyn’s.  I decided, since I wasn’t under the supervision of my aunts & mom I better play it safe and bring ‘no bake’ cookies to the table.  Corn Flake Wreaths – they’re essentially rice crispy treats but with a jazzier cereal and green food coloring.

I went to work on my wreaths, they looked great!

 

 

I was sitting back admiring my work thinking, hmm, I wonder why my mom told me to bring that PAM spray….

I assisted some of the other ladies with their cookies, Robyn being sure to give me some new baking tips, such as measuring your ingredients exactly IS important.  We made a few favorites, thumb prints, peppermint fudge, gingerbread cookies, rolo pretzels, the list goes on.  At the end of the afternoon we went to divide and pack up our cookies to take home – here’s the part where ‘someone had a bad batch’.  My wreaths were STUCK to the wax paper!  We tried to put them outside, in the freezer, everything, we couldn’t get them off.  Remember the candy buttons that you used to eat off of the sheet of paper?  Yeah, it was just like that.  Oohhh, now I know why I brought that PAM!  Needless to say, we all went home without the Corn Flake Wreaths in our cookie tins.  Sad. 

I feel like this is starting to become a sob story (or 'SAAB story' - if you are a Shaw) of a blog about how pathetic I am at not only cooking but baking -  and ‘no-baking’ while we’re at it.  Seriously, I need to step up my game.

And then it appeared… The Silver Lining.

I came home from work on Tuesday to find a large, heavy box sitting on our front door step – the label on this box?  KITCHEN AID!!!!!!  Santa (aka. Mr & Mrs Benyo) sent us an early Christmas present and let me tell you it’s a thing of beauty!  It’s my New Year’s resolution to put that thing to use – so that next year’s cookie bake I look like a pro.  Thank you Benyo’s for The Silver Kitchen Aid Lining in our kitchen :)

Here are some pictures of the ladies @ the cookie bake and others from the weekend.  Friday we had game night @ Brittany’s, Saturday Nick & I celebrated our 2 year anniversary at Fruition (what I’d consider the best restaurant in Denver) and then Sunday after the cookie bake I met old high school friends Ryan Tures & Josh Flickinger downtown for some beers to commiserate the Bears loss to the Broncos.  

And my personal favorite... Moe batting the ornaments on the tree.

December

I can without a doubt say that this is one of my favorite times of the year.  I mean, what’s not to love?  A decked out house, snow, lights, parties, lots of excuses to eat & drink, celebrating baby Jesus with family and lets not leave out Christmas music! 

This weekend I had our first holiday party of the season @ the annual Wine & Cheese party hosted by Beth & Jenna.  Below are some pictures from the party (and evidence that my skin is severely deprived of the sun and/or bronzer).

Brit & I

The best friends a girl could ask for: Court, Brit & Kels

Brit & I again - we can't get enough of each other what can I say.

Emily & I

Katie, Court, Kels & I

Our lovely hostess Beth & Emily - two of my favorite Iowan's!

Beth & I

My other fav Iowans (even though they made the wrong choice in Iowa schools :)) Allie & Anna (she finally moved back from NYC!)

The night before that I checked out a new speakeasy that opened up in the Highlands, Williams & Graham, with Robyn and Phil.  Pretty authentic concept, you enter into what looks like a library and then are escorted thru a bookshelf into the bar.  I sipped on some pear & ginger beer concoction that our new bartender friend Sean was whipping up while debating whether to eat dinner there or move on to the next place – after seeing the menu consisted of Carmel corn, bacon beignets and pheasant I decided – move on.  We finished up the night @ Zengo, where they most definitely don't serve pheasant. 

What else do I love about December?  Nick & I’s anniversary!  We’ll celebrate 2 years on December 8^{th :)}