Project 365: Week 48

November 24 | Sometimes your BFF sends you the best wedding gift ever.

Happy Hour: Hazelnut Coffee Hot Toddy

It took me a while to get used to hot alcoholic drinks, but I'm coming around. 

I've always really liked hot tea, coffee, hot chocolate and chai, but as soon as you add liquor, I just lose interest.  I know, it doesn't make any sense.

Also, I don't like hazelnut flavored anything.  Yes, that means no Nutella.  So it really doesn't make any sense that I liked this drink.  It's hot, alcoholic and hazelnut flavored.  It defies all logic, because well, it was delicious.  

That being said, one drink will be plenty.  It's petty sweet, so it's more of an aprés ski type of beverage than a drink-a-pitcher cocktail (but who drinks a pitcher of hot toddies anyway?).

13 Holiday Sides, Appetizers, Desserts and Cocktails

I really don't like when people call Thanksgiving 'Turkey Day.'

Part of this is because I think we should just remember that we're supposed to be thankful tomorrow (and every day), but more importantly, it's really not about the turkey. 

It's about the pie.  And the sides.  And the cocktails.

If you're at a loss for what to bring to your in-laws' tomorrow...well, you're quite the procrastinator, but I applaud you for taking the 'it-will-all-work-out' mentality to heart!  Here are some last-minute sides, appetizer, cocktail and dessert ideas for you.*

And remember to have a happy Thanksgiving!

*Click on the pictures for the recipes.

1. Chestnut Mashed Potatoes

2. Sweet Potatoes au Gratin

3. Confetti Quinoa

4. Artichoke w/Lemon Rosemary Butter Sauce

5. Jalapeño Popper Dip

6. Baked Brie

7. Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

8. Apple Cider Moscow Mule

9. Cranberry Margaritas

10. Eggnog

11. Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

*Or try Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie or Sweet Potato Pie.

12. Cranberry Pecan Pie

13. Salted Caramel Apple Pie

*Or try Aunt Betsy's Apple Pie or Dutch Apple Pie.

365: Week 47

November 17 | Fun lights.

Spiced White Hot Chocolate

When my sisters and I were little, we spent a lot of time outside in the winter ice skating, building snowmen and sledding (or at least that's how I remember it).

It was the best.

We would play so hard that we'd get all sweaty in our snowsuits and enjoy every drop of it.  I remember coming in from the cold, wet and smelling gross.

I also remember my dad making us hot chocolate, but not the powdered stuff from the packets.  The good stuff! From the stove!

Made with real milk and Hershey's syrup.  We'd load it up with as many marshmallows as we could fit in our snowmen mugs and slurp it down.  After that, I assume we went back outside but again my memories are famously inaccurate - I get made fun of for it.  A lot.  (Apparently, I said that I remembered my own birth at one point...hey, maybe I did!)

Anyway, this spiced white hot chocolate is also 'the good stuff.'  Also from the stove.  This stuff has white chocolate instead of Hershey's syrup and some seasonal spices to get you pumped for winter and snow!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

I'm not the type of person to get super pumped about a salad.  That's not to say I don't like them, I just don't usually love them the way some people do.

What it really comes down to is that I like carbs.  The heavy, dense, complex ones.

Quite frankly, a meal just doesn't feel complete without at least 1 potato.  So a salad with a potato in it seemed like a pretty good compromise to me.

Add in some quinoa and you're practically a health food guru.

365: Week 46

November 10 | Peppered Ginger Hot Toddy.