Holiday Recap

The holidays kind of ran away with me this year, and I sort of failed on the photo documentation front.  But here are a few highlights of the season of festivities, in rough chronological order


Pie Night is the most wonderful time of the year.  It's a holiday the Spencer side of my family created to get us all together around Thanksgiving, since as we get old and add branches to the family tree, convening on actual Thanksgiving isn't as likely.  The rule of pie night: Eat Pie. To excess. This is not just any dessert night, this is PIE TIME. A celebration of flaky crust in a round tin with something delicious inside.  It speedily gained popularity amongst the Family Spencer and has become a favorite holiday for all.

Pie, glorious pie.

I brought a peanut butter cream cheese pie with ganache and raspberries , and a made-from-scratch mac&cheese pie. You heard me,  mac&cheese.  To all you skeptics, I will not-so-humbly say that it was much sought after and the first to be devoured.  If ever I can remember how I made it, I will post the recipe. You won't be disappointed.

Next up, The Grouch Who Stole Christmas.  Rusty performed in the Christmas show at the Off Broadway Theater as the eponymous character.  He was very hilarious indeed. Even in full Grouch regalia, he's still so handsome.

I wore my fan shirt to match. 

Finally, at least as far as the photos go anyway, the Christmas Eve feast at my parent's condo.  Last year for Christmas we kids bought Mom & Dad a date night gourmet cooking class.  They attended one specializing in Italian fare, and then recreated the meal using their newly acquired cooking prowess on Christmas Eve. I contributed the peanut butter brownies and the wassail. 

Dad had a lot more fun making this meal than I think he'd like to admit, for fear of getting regular cooking duty.

My wassail is the stuff dreams are made of. Rusty and I make it throughout the winter, it's such a delicious cold weather treat. 

My first ever Pinterest inspired creation. I saw them and knew they had to be mine.

Thus concludes what is surely the most boring blog post of all time. I will do better next holiday season.