Month: December 2015

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Blood Orange Champagne Sparkler

Blood Orange Champagne Sparkler
Blood Orange Champagne Sparkler

Thanks to MeVee for sponsoring my live stream!

Have you seen those memes where someone jokes about having OCD because they organize their grocery list or evenly space their ornaments out on a Christmas tree? And have you seen the ensuing discussions about using the term OCD as a joke in this way? If you haven’t, it usually goes something like this:

Person 1: I’m so OCD! I have to color code my grocery list. LOL.
Person 2: Hey, that’s actually not OCD; OCD is a disorder that I have. Using the term as a joke makes people confused about what it really is, and less likely to take it seriously, and that bothers me.
Person 1: Ugh, everyone is so offended by everything these days! Lighten up! It was a joke. Relax!

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Eggnog Mousse Bars

Eggnog Mousse Bars
Eggnog Mousse Bars

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

I’m good at making mental lists of all the things I’m not doing well. I’m behind on responding to so many emails. I never feel like I’m doing enough for social justice. I don’t remember the last time I got my oil changed (sorry, Dad). These things are important and I need to work on them. But the other day I was stopped at a stoplight and for some reason, I started thinking about how many ways I’ve grown as a person. The list is longer and more encouraging than I thought.

During the holidays, every Instagram snap can inspire self-doubt. Everyone else’s tree is perfectly tinsel-tinged. Everyone else is having a spontaneous, rosy-cheeked snowball fight with their kids. Everyone else is baking, eating, laughing, dancing. Everyone else’s perfect pictures become your self-flagellation: why can’t you get it together? Why can’t you get in the spirit? Why can’t you just be happy? Instead of giving into that, though, let’s focus on how much better/stronger/healthier we are than we used to be. Here’s my list, but (and here’s the hard part) don’t use my list to JUDGE YOURSELF! Instead, make your own list, and add it in the comments.

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Gingerbread Cheesecake Bars with Orange Whipped Cream

Thanks to Philadelphia Cream Cheese for sponsoring this post!

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bars with Orange Whipped Cream

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bars with Orange Whipped Cream

Dear Gingerbread,

I’ve been thinking, and I think I need to apologize to you. I know that I haven’t always taken you seriously. I thought you were a stale, dry cookie recipe that any old store-bought graham cracker could beat in a taste test. You were good for sheetrocking gingerbread houses and that was about it.

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Bloody Caesar with Veggie Skewer

“Bloody
Bloody Caesar with Veggie Skewer

Thanks to Clamato® for sponsoring this recipe.

My first Bloody Mary was decidedly a pinkies-up affair. I was visiting my sister in Lexington, Kentucky, and so we did what Lexingtonians do and went to a horse race. If you’ve never been, imagine the atmosphere of a football game except very fancy. Instead of wearing jerseys and drinking beer, you wear hats and drink Bloody Marys. And circle horses in a tiny catalog and pretend you know what you’re doing. And lose money. But I digress.

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