Super Simple Sugar Cookies

Last year was the first year I really got into baking. I used to make cookies and rice crispy squares as gifts to hand out to family and friends but most of that was assisted by my mom.

So around this time last year, I had my house decorated and I was in the mood to bake. I borrowed my mom’s kitchen aid mixer (and only returned it when I got my own for Christmas (such an awesome present, thanks Mom and Dad!) and went nuts. I found this sugar cookie recipe which I have made tons since then.

The great thing about it is you don’t have to refrigerate the dough!

I also love that they’re so versatile. You can eat them plain, sprinkled with a  bit of sugar before baking, with plain icing, with icing and sprinkles or my own personal favourite, substitute peppermint extract for vanilla in the icing and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top. So delicious and festive!

I don't have a picture of mine when I baked them, but I do have a picture of an empty plate next to the boys who devoured them:

Super Simple Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Sugar Cookie Icing

Ingredients

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Happy baking!

xoxo,

T

Christmas Traditions

It's nearly December which means that basically the Christmas season is already in full swing around here. I thought I'd do a post on all my favourite Christmas traditions and activities. I love hearing about other people's traditions as well because sometimes it gives you new ideas on how to make the season even more special. Also because sometimes it's hard to incorporate things you loved about Christmas as a child into adulthood. I'm one of those people that always wants everything to be perfect at Christmas and that sorta stopped working for me a few years ago. Now I just try to have as much fun as possible, no matter what happens.


This is what I have coming up in the Christmas fun department:

• Tomorrow (Sunday) is our third annual chocolate making day with my mother and sister in law. It started out with just us three and we've expanded it with my mom, sister, brother's wife and now my sister's future mother-in-law. The more the merrier when it comes to ladies and chocolate! 

• We always go to my grandparents house a few days before Christmas. Half of the grand-kids celebrate Christmas and half of them celebrate Hanukkah so it's fun to get together.  Plus my Grandma always makes au gratin potatoes, yum! 

• My girlfriend always throws a cookie exchange, and that's always one of my favourite things because it's girl time which everyone knows I love. We eat, share cookies, and watch a Christmas movie, which is somehow always Elf. 

• One of my favourite things to do this time of year is Christmas dates with my husband. One year, we went up Grouse mountain and I saw REAL reindeer which was the highlight of the evening for me! We also love to go for walks and look at all the Christmas lights. I think this year we'll go to the Christmas train, I haven't been in a few years.

• I have always made a gingerbread house as long as I can remember. Years ago, they were hilariously bad. I remember one year we actually used some kind of glue because we couldn't get the pieces to stick together. Now they make the kits so easy but it's still so fun. My husband and I like to split the house down the middle and each decorate half and see whose is better. Many of the candies get eaten in the process of course.

• Christmas Eve is my absolute favourite day of the year because it's the most exciting. One of the best traditions I've always had is getting new PJ'S on Christmas Eve. This is way more exciting now than when I was a kid, few things are more awesome as an adult than brand new PJS. As we all moved out and got married/engaged, we started doing this tradition on our own. Leigh did an excellent job last year.

 There are many other little traditions I have and I love adding new ones each year.  To me, this season is about embracing the joy in life and appreciating the little things, like watching your favourite childhood Christmas specials and shows.
I absolutely love spending time with family on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and of course the lead up to Christmas. I'm looking forward to it even more because my nephew ill be turning 2 soon and I think he'll be so much fun to buy for this year! 
I will be posting more about my Christmas adventures in December! I'd love to know: What are your favourite traditions?

For now, time for some hot chocolate and a Christmas movie on TV! 


xoxo,
T

Thanksgiving!

I just got home from my first American Thanksgiving, which seems to be very similar to Canadian Thanksgiving, other than the fact we listened to Christmas music and all of the Christmas decorations were up. Which was awesome. I am so glad it's the weekend!
Here are some pictures from our celebration:

That's all for now, I am so sleepy..must be the turkey!

xoxo,

T

Coca-Cola Christmas Commercials!!

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! I am actually celebrating American Thanksgiving this year with dinner with my husband's family as his mom spent a chunk of her childhood in California. I love how American Thanksgiving is so much closer to Christmas.

Anyways, I was putting the lights on the tree and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (obsession with New York continues) and a Brand New Coca-Cola Commercial came on! I love it!!

I don't generally drink Coke although it is so good even though it's so bad for you. The Coke commericals always stir up that excited little kid feeling in me and make me so excited for Christmas! The Santa they use is my absolute favourite version of Santa!

So here you go, two new Coke Commercials (the snowglobe one is my favourite!)

This one with the trucks was always my favourite growing up.

 

PS If you want more, there are tons on YouTube! Enjoy!

xoxo,

T

Serendipity 3 Frrrozen Hot Chocolate Recipe!

This is the first year I’ve ever been working in downtown Vancouver at Christmas time. I am loving it so far, it’s so festive! When I get off the Skytrain at Royal Centre, I’m greeted by gorgeous garland hanging every few feet and a giant sparkling tree. I’ve noticed more and more decorations popping up and with the freeeezing temperatures it definitely feels like Christmas is on it’s way.

All of the city decorations make me think of New York. I haven’t been yet, but it’s one of my dreams to go there in December. When I do get there, one of the first stops I’m going to make is Serependipity 3.

I have a bit of an obsession with this place, for never having set foot in it. I remember first seeing it in the movie Serependipity, with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a fun movie to watch! Anyways, they go to Serendipity 3 in the movie.

Fast forward a few years later and the restaurants famous dessert called Frrrozen Hot Chocolate is featured on Oprah. You can buy the mix for the dessert online, a thought which hadn’t occurred to me to try doing. I was more focused on the place than the dessert.

Last year, my mom found out about Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and had me order some off Amazon. I can’t really recommend doing this, somehow the shipping costs more than the actual mix.  

I think the first time we all had it was on Christmas Eve at my parent’s house, but from that first sip I was hooked. It is freaking AMAZING!! It’s basically a powdered mix that you mix with milk and ice and it has 14 different types of chocolate in it. Now it's our special thing, if we have a special event or just a crappy day, we make it. And we drink it out of red wine glasses because we're classy like that. Actually, I drink all of my frozen drinks out of red wine glasses because they're impossible to spill. Unlike Margarita glasses, as we found out from my birthday celebration!

This is seriously one of my favourite things on the planet and naturally I’m starting to panic because I am almost out of mix. I searched it online and found it on Oprah’s website. Thank you Oprah!

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate Recipe

Ingredients

                             6 pieces (1/2-ounce) chocolate , a variety of your favorites

                             2 teaspoons store-bought hot chocolate mix  

                             1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

                             1 1/2 cups milk

                             3 cups ice

                             Whipped cream

                             Chocolate shavings

Directions

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar. Stir until completely melted. Remove from heat and slowly add ½ cup of milk until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the room-temperature chocolate mixture and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!

xoxo,

T

I Love Christmasy Activities!

I really don't have a lot to say today, but I'm not skipping a post when I only have a week left.

The past two days have been almost hilariously bad. Of course it's -12 when I'm getting on the Skytrain, which may not be cold for some places but it's freaking cold for Vancouver.

This morning the train takes an extra fifteen minutes to show up and when it does, it's PACKED with people. Then I finally get to work after being smushed in a Skytrain and my hair literally bursts out of it's hair elastic so I had funny hair for the rest of the day. Then there was some problem with the Skytrain on the way home and it took FOREVER to home because it kept stopping for long periods at each stop. Not huge problems in the grand scheme of things obviously but annoying! UGH!!

Anyways, this evening was fun. I went with my mother-in-law (who is just as Christmas crazy as me) to an event at Coquitlam Centre called Unwrapped. I had never been for this event before, although I'd heard about it.

Basically, the mall was closed for regular people but open to those who bought tickets, which were $10 and went to a charity called SHARE. It was actually really fun! We got there super early but there was already a line up, so we just waited inside Starbucks until the lineup had died down. We got drink and food tickets, and there were appetizer/food areas set up all outside the mall and a few wine tasting sections. Many of the stores had specials like 20,30,40 even 50% off the entire store which was awesome, I really didn't think they'd have such good sales! They had some exciting prizes they draw later so maybe I'll win something, who knows?

I think I'll definitely go next year, it really got me feeling the Christmas spirit and I got some good ideas for Christmas gifts. Although next year it would be much better go prepared with a list!

That's all I have for today, hopefully Wednesday is a little more...calm!

xoxo,

T

Just For Fun: My Dream Life

After writing a to do list on Sunday night, I don’t recommend curling up on the couch for “just a few minutes” because sometimes you wake up two hours later and you still have to do everything on your list.

Anyways, for today’s post:

My favorite thing to do when I am bored or a little down is picture winning the lottery. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those people that thinks that my life would be fixed if only I could get a huge amount of money. Did you know that they’ve done studies on lottery winners and almost all of them return to their original state of happiness 5 years after receiving the money?

Money doesn’t buy happiness, that’s for sure. I know happiness for me comes from having fun and having good relationships with my husband, friends and family.

I like to think about winning the lottery because it would open up a giant world of possibilities that other wise might not ever happen. I also like to think about it because it makes me realize what I’m craving in my life or what I enjoy doing the most. I usually do this on the Skytrain or in the car with Leigh.

I decided it would be fun to post what I would do if I won the lottery, like the big jackpot lottery. Now, please note that I DO have a list of what I would buy/do for the people I love, but I’m not posting it here because then they would know, and if I ever do win the lottery it won’t be a surprise for them. So this is just what I would do for Leigh and I. Obviously I would donate a huge chunk to charities also. So after I did all that selfless stuff, I would:

• Buy our dream house. Yes, I have it picked out and if I ever do win the lottery, I’m going there with a blank check and saying “I’d like to live here, how much do you want?” I’m not sure if the house has a pool, because I don’t have the nerve to knock on the door and ask. So I’d build one because my dream is to have a giant party house where people are always over having fun and I can be an awesome hostess and wear a cute apron while I feed people delicious food that I made myself because I had the time to.
  
• I would also build a gym in my dream house with a TV because I get so damn bored doing cardio.  Then I’d hire a personal trainer to come every day and kick my ass.
  
• I’d also build a library with a fireplace (obviously) and a HUGE closet with a dressing table because I’ve always wanted one of those. In my giant closet I would have a lot of sparkly clothes, because I am seriously loving sparkles right now.

• For Leigh, I would build him a “Man Cave” in our dream house. I think every man should have a Man Cave, and technically he does have one but it doesn’t have a door which kind of defeats the purpose.  

• I would also start a business each for Leigh and I because I think that would be the best way to escape the statistic of those who return to the same level of happiness. To have an opportunity to go to work at something you’re passionate about every day definitely would increase happiness, or at least fulfillment. I know exactly what Leigh would want to do, given the opportunity but I’m undecided as always. I do think it would be fun to have a Christmas store though. Why not?

• I'd also buy Leigh a truck and I would drive some kind of hybrid SUV.

I know this is a little bit of a silly exercise, but it's just fun but I find it lifts my spirits and reminds me that life is full of possibilities and not all of them are a lottery win away. See, I can save for a house, get some sparkly shoes (ok, maybe not Louboutins, but still) and just work out without a personal trainer's butt kicking (sigh. so much harder) and work my way closer and closer to my dream life.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

xoxo,
T