Building a gingerbread house from scratch has been on my Christmas bucket list for a few years now. I knew it was always a big time / energy commitment, and I think that's largely why I put it off for so long. I also always felt like it was something that only benefitted me, and so therefore - I didn't prioritize getting it done amongst allllll of the other things on my holiday to do list. But this year, after finishing baking my Christmas cookies FOUR DAYS EARLY (!!) - I decided: challenge accepted! It took me longer than I expected (pretty much a full week affair) - but I think it was worth every second. All those hours spent putting it together.. and with the year winding down - I guess that left my brain to wander down an introspective path quite a bit, haha! Here are 5 sweet (slightly cheesy) truths that I learned from building my first gingerbread house from scratch:
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On The Menu: Christmas Cookies 2017
Baking Christmas cookies has been one of my favorite things to do during the holiday season for as long as I can remember! (Probably since some time in elementary school when my mom started letting me use the oven, haha). I feel like every year, I try to challenge myself in some way to do better than the previous year. Usually, I am working on baking / decorating them up until the last possible minute before leaving the house for Christmas dinner.. but this year I finished FOUR whole days early! It's a Christmas miracle, LOL.
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Dessert Goals Dessert Fest
Last Saturday, I self-induced myself into a serious sugar coma at the Dessert Goals Dessert Fest! This is only the second year the sweet event has been organized - and I'm so glad I was able to snag tickets.
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Best of 2015 / Happy 2016!
HAPPY 2016!
Like everyone else on the planet rn, I'm taking a moment to look back on 2015 - I can't believe that it's over! It's crazy how fast time flies.. and naturally, it's a time to take a moment and reflect on "what was" and speculate "what will be."
Today, I wanted to quickly drop in and share some of my favorite posts from the year. 2015 was my first full year of blogging, and that's something I'm personally pretty proud of! While I may not have completed all of my 2015 resolutions (let's be real.. who has?), I'm glad that I stayed committed to regularly writing / creating blog posts. As I've mentioned before, a lot of time and energy goes into running a blog - and it's really nice to look back and see the year's content all in one place. These posts by no means cover every single thing that's happened to me in 2015, but I think they create a nice highlight reel:
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Candy Cane Christmas Cookies
Baking is one of my absolute favorite things to do around the holiday season. I always end up trying to make 70 different things, and it's my pride and joy to craft up the very best Christmas cookie platter that I can to bring over to my grandparents' house for dinner on Christmas day.
I was flipping through an old cookbook (Very Merry Cookie Party) I found the other day - and came across this recipe. I thought they were the perfect little festive cookies! The best part: no icing was involved to decorate - so it was very "fuss-free" and didn't require much skill to pull off at all. ;)
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Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie
Last Thanksgiving, I made a salted caramel apple pie for the first time ever (and it was amazing btw), but this year I wanted to try making something totally different! I decided to go with (druuumrooolll): brown butter pumpkin (!!!). I've never made a pumpkin pie before, but why not add brown butter to the mix as well? I meaaaaan, ya can't go wrong with b-r-o-w-n-b-u-t-t-e-r, amiright?
My go-to pie recipe book is the Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book (it's the same one I used for the salted caramel apple pie). Basically, it's the pie bible ... Everything sounds / looks amazing, and that's why I love challenging myself to make a new pie every chance I get!
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Naan Flatbread Pizza Recipe
Naan flatbread is one of my absolute favorite types of bread! It is so versatile and you can eat it in so many different ways. Today, I'm going to show you how I use it to make homemade pizza. :)
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New York / New Jersey Ice Cream Bucket List
Ice cream is by far my biggest summer guilty pleasure. I could literally probably eat my weight in it... ha. This summer in particular, I made it my mission to try as many different ice cream shops in my area (NJ / NY) as possible. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you are probably already aware of my ice cream obsession. I keep an ongoing "Ice Cream Bucket List" on my phone's notes app, and am constantly adding new places to try! I was able to uncover some of the best ice cream I've ever eaten this summer, and now I'm here to share the SCOOP with you! ;)
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Star Spangled Smoothie
One of the best parts about the 4th of July is the FOOD! I looooove making all sorts of red / white / and blue noms around this time of year, and this year I decided to concoct a "star spangled" RWB smoothie to go along with my DIY drink pinwheels! If you've been following along, you already know that I'm a liiiiiittle bit of a smoothie addict during summer. ;)
Originally, I intended for this guy to have 3 distinct layers... but when I tried pouring the layers, it gave me a bit more of a marbled look than a defined 3-layer drink. This probably has to do with the varying consistencies.. and the fact that I haven't perfected the consistency of each layer, but I actually don't mind the marbled look. I also forgot to freeze my fruit the night before, so granted my layers were probably a bit more watery / thin than preferable. Even though it didn't turn out looking quite as I had planned, it was still delicious!
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Honey Basil Pineapple Banana Smoothie
Summer = smoothie season! And since summer started on Sunday... 'tis the season! ;) My blender and I are *besties* during summatime -- and there is nothing more refreshing than a cold fruit smoothie to cool you down on a hot and sunny day! Plus, they're a great way to get vitamins and nutrients into your body (giving you a healthy boost of energy) - so you can't go wrong!
Yesterday, I was in the experimentin' mood and decided to add a few things that I don't normally throw in to my Monday morning breakfast smoothie. The first of these things was basil. We recently bought a basil plant, so I have been adding it into all sorts of things - and let me tell ya - fresh herbs are a TOTAL game changer. They add this irresistible layer of freshness to just about anything - and did not disappoint in this smoothie combo! The second thing I added was honey - because I knew honey / pineapple and honey / banana were great pairs. I suspected that when the 3 combined together, it would be nothing short of mAgiCaL. I also added a little bit of vanilla extract because, well, who doesn't love vanilla extract?! The end result was diviiiiiiiiine to say the least!
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