Adventure Time!

Midway through the semester we started getting cabin fever. Snow was starting to melt in Prince George, so my friends and I piled into my vehicle and we drove north to Crooked River Provincial Park with grand plans of have a campfire and hot dog roast.

Unfortunately we forgot that the northern location meant more snow.

A lot of waist deep snow.

Eventually we turned around before we even got to the campsite because Kristi and Alanna didn't put on proper footwear and they had cold feet.

Later during the week I went to lunch at Wasabi Sushi with M and D before they blasted off for their (very) belated honeymoon in Cuba. This was a struggle for me because chop sticks are definitely not my forte. 

Dad and I have a hard time taking good pictures together...

And the happy couple before they left me behind, making me the only member of the family still left in Canada, let alone the continent of North America. Not the best way to lead into exams!

Heavenly Cookies

Procrastination + a mid study sugar craving=THE BEST chocolate chip cookies around. It made almost three dozen cookies, so if y'all want to get hooked up with some Christmas baking, let me know.

You'll need:

2 and 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter/margarine

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 cap - fuls rum (or vanilla, your choice, I personally love rum)

2 eggs

3 cups chocolate chips (I used three different kinds in these cookies)

   

Oven needs to be preheated to 350°F.

Mix the flour and baking soda together in a small bowl and put aside.

Next, you'll want to throw the sugars and butter into a large mixing and beat until fluffy (ish).  

Next, you'll want to add your eggs, and the rum.  A little side note on the rum though: I realized that I didn't have any vanilla extract, so I googled substitutes for it.  Lo and behold, rum was one of the first things that came up. And I'm not sure about you, but we always have rum kicking around our apartment.  I'm sure vanilla would taste just as fine :)

After you've mixed all that together, you'll need to add the flour and once again, mix.  I like to add the flour slowly just so it all doesn't explode into a giant white cloud when the mixmaster first starts up.

Don't forget to lick the beaters once you're done!!!

Finally, stir in your chocolate chips of choice. I'm not the world's biggest fan of milk chocolate, so I used 1 cup white chocolate, 1 cup Reese chips, and 1 cup milk chocolate to avoid a chocolate overload.  It's all up to personal preference!

Spoon out on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper and cook for about 10 minutes.

And indulge in some serious soft, chewy goodness.  

Happy exam studying procrastination!!!

Gingerbread Boys

After the big Christmas party Friday night, a few people stuck around Saturday to decorate a passel of cookies that Kyla and I had whipped up.  I used my great - great - grandma Henkel's recipe (it's top secret, so I'm keeping it under wraps for now..shhh).  

But I'll give you a few hints as to what (not) to do when making the best gingerbread boys in the world.

First of all, make sure to SLOWLY bring all your sugar, lard, molasses and corn syrup to a boil. I had a couple chunky bits that hardened weird when it heated up really fast at the beginning.

When you add the eggs, make sure they're well beaten and then beat reallyreallyreally fast because you're pouring into a boiling syrupy mess that will cook the eggs almost as soon as you add them.

When it gets to hard to stir anymore flour in, roll up your sleeves and go to town with the kneading.

I made my dough the night before to save time when we actually wanted to decorate and left it in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately I forgot to take it out and let it come to room temperature so I was stuck with a very hard ball of dough when I wanted to start cooking.

The cardinal rule of baking: When one is lacking a proper rolling pin, one must make use of the nearest wine bottle *wink wink*.

Jare and Dave really got into the spirit of decorating.

The sugar cookie ladies.

Courtney whipped up a bunch of icing while Kyla did the heavy labour with the cookie creation.

Finally it was time to get down to business!

A few icing bag explosions later, and countless sprinkles ground into the carpet, we decorated probably close to 100 cookies in two hours! Quite the undertaking!

Notice the tacky Christmas sweater on Mr. Moose. He's very stylish.  

I'm back at the lake for a few days before my exams start, so I'll have some lovely pictures from around here for you all soon!

A Very Tacky Christmas 2.0

Friday night Courtney, Kyla and I undertook the big task of feeding around twenty of our (tipsy) friends. Normally this wouldn't have sounded like a terribly difficult task...but my apartment is not built for that many people. After busing down from the university, we scrambled to get all the food that people had brought down spread out buffet style.

Crowding into the living room, we feasted on our dinners in front of our TV fireplace.

Jas made amazing cake pops!

I wish I was able to get more pictures of the food, because there was so much there...meat balls, pizza rolls, mac and cheese bake, won tons with brie cheese and cranberries, deviled eggs, brownies, cookies, egg nog...but it was like vultures had descended on the apartment in place of my friends.

After dinner Caroline and Nicole organized a game that was a cross between Charades and Catch Phrase.

A tacky sweater party isn't complete without blinking reindeer antlers and an elf hat with your best friend. 

"SANTA?!?!?!"

 

Gradually people began to head home, leaving just the stragglers behind - in our kitchen! Were the couches in the living room not comfy enough?

And finally after a few too many Twisted Tea's and a bit too much spiked rum (er..I mean spiked eggnog) we called it a night and settled down for a long winters nap.  If this party was shindig was anything to go by, I'm guessing I'll have a permanent food baby for all of December.

I'm perfectly okay with that!