Cookie Tour 2013

Last weekend we headed over to the hipster neighborhood of Lawerenceville in the city for their annual cookie tour. This is a great local event -the neighborhood stores all baked a ton of cookies and print out the recipes. Then as you walk from shop to shop and do your Christmas thing you get cookies!  It is a great local idea. 

We started out with a stop at the Roundabout Brewery where we tasted their newest drafts. It is a little craft brewery in town, relatively new to town. They do growler fills of whatever is seasonal. I had an awesome cranberry wheat. I admit I enjoy a good fruit ear but this was tart and delicious without being sweet or overpowering. I would totally drink it again. And again!  We also sampled the poor man's milk stout, which was tasty enough that we brought home a growler. 

We continued up to Upper Lawerenceville to check out the Wild Purveyors -a cool shop selling locally sourced grocery goods. We saw them on Andrew Zimmerman's Pittsburgh show a few weeks ago, so it was cool to actually check out the shop. 

The afternoon continued on with a mosey back to Lower Lawerenceville, stopping at several art galleries, crafty stores, florists, and the card store. The highlight of the trip was stopping at La Goumandine, the amazing French bakery on Butler Street. Everything in the cases looked like it came straight out of a boulangerie or patisserie from Paris. I picked up some baguette rolls for book club later this week and treated myself to an croissant aux amandes (almond croissant). Depspite the blustery snowy cold day in Pittsburgh I was taken back to our honeymoon in Paris before I even tasted it.  I can't wait to go back -I see us stopping there again to pick up some French sandwiches on baguettes before going up to the reservoir for some geocaching this spring. 

We finished up with a stop at Arsenal Cider House.  Arsenal is quickly becoming a Pittsburgh celebrity putting ciders on tap all over town. We sampled 5 different ciders and an orange blossom mead. The mead wasn't overly sweet and had a nice floral nose. They had ciders in Apple, blueberry, and raspberry. The Christmas spiced cider put anything you have had from Woodchuck to shame. David is heading back this weekend to pick up a growler of the Christmas Cider for over the holiday.  Get ready Kate!

This was a great opportunity to do two of my favorite things-eat cookies and shop local! Our walk up and down Butler gave us a3mile hike, making all the treats worth it!  Maybe if you are (un)lucky your gift came from the land of the hipsters!

Christmas 'round the world

Earlier this year (during the super gimpy period) we went into Oakland and visited the Cathedral of Learning -- a cathedral-like tower on Pitt's campus.  The Nationality Rooms are located int he Cathedral - rooms decorated up like in historical fashions from variuos countries around the world.  At Christmas they decorate the rooms in Christmas fashions of the various countries and have a free day and a market. 

Christmas in March!

It was a gorgeous day in central MS, so I decided to take advantage of it!! At Christmas my parents gave me a bike rack for my car. This afternoon I finally got the opportunity to put it on the car and use it. I decided to head over to the park for a little spin. No major disasters, the bike safely made it to the park and back without inflicting injuries on anyone other than me. I wasn't paying attention during my ride and accidentally left the flats and ventured into hill country. There was riding, there was walking, there was riding. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.

Time to enjoy this weather before it gets too gross. Hopefully there will be some more bike rides in the near future!

Cousins Christmas

Whilst in IL we had an old fashioned Jersey-Seng cousins Christmas party. We haven't had one of those parties in ages -- maybe since I was in H.S. I'm thinking the last time I saw Shari was in '97. Unfortunately Snow Miser was against us and brought many inches of snow to the greater Chicagoland area. Only a few cousins made it -- here is our documentation! It was great to catch up with Shari, Aunt Arlene and Uncle Steve, and Aunt Barb and Uncle Bob. Hopefully we can do this again soon peeps.

This picture was sponsored by the color brown.

TSO

While I was at home I went down to the Rosemont Horizon (it will never be the allstate to me) with Kate and Danielle to catch TransSiberian Orchestra. There will always be a place for rockers with hair of a certain length as they move into a slightly more responsible phase of their life.

A couple of days late...

...but never a dollar short, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas was fun times at the Jersey Household. Stockings will filled with fun and the 80's classic Real Genius. Gifts were given and much food was consumed! Kate and I played chef de cuisine and sous chef, bringing our style to the traditional dinner. Dad cooked a fab prime rib... Plus there was a brunch to die for -- carbohydrate fabulousness that kate, dad and i put together. Us kids were the superstars of 2009, bringing dad into 2005 with a new flatscreen monitor!

Christmas eve

Christmas eve was a fabulous affair! Traditions were held in so many ways, and I was reminded of how I do love Fox Lake in so many ways!

We picked dad up from the train station and hit the Domminicks -- because it just wouldn't make sense to have completed our shopping any earlier.

Much baking was done! Dad introduced us to potato chip cookies. K made Matthew some peanut butter cookies.

We prettied ourselves up for Midnight Mass. I forgot how much I love St. Bede's. Where else but here is it acceptable for an usher to wear a hawks jersey to Midnight Mass?!?!? Love it!!! I also enjoyed going to Midnight Mass at MIDNIGHT instead of the traditional Mississippi 8 PM Midnight Mass.

There was a Christmas Miracle -- Matthew shaved.

We did traditional pictures in front of the tree followed by the opening of the new jammies. I felt like an amazon woman. The 3 in. heels didn't hurt my case.


Sarah Clause came after church and gave the JG's their present. They took to it pretty quickly.

We still love it!

It snowed. A lot. Daisy bunny hopped. Madison scampered and shook her thang. It snowed more. Then it sleeted and rained. Cars slid around. It got cold. It got warm. It rained. It seems to be snowing again.

We love it anyways!!

Pet Wars II

There is a lot of gazing and adoringly looking into one another's eyes.

Pet Wars

The pets are slowly coming to a state of Mutually Assured Destruction..... The war isn't over, but there is some sort of Peace on Earth, just in time for Christmas.

Daisy and Smokey spend much of their days looking at one another from opposite sides of the baby gate. Madison thinks Smokey would be a great playmate if she would just come out and play. Smokey thinks these thugs should just go away and let her sleep. I consider it a testament to hope that we got them into the same room for a few minutes.

A long long drive

Welcome to the Jungle...

Sunday I loaded the car up with gifts, pillows, and dogs. We took the Loooooong drive to my parents. Kudos to Madison and Daisy -- they did an excellent job as road warriors!
The drive was pretty good... until Pesotum IL. The snow started to get rough and there were three wrecks in a .5 mile stretch. Traffic was pretty slow there.

I got to join up with one of my best friends from college, Nikki (from In the Nik of Time) for a quick dinner. We would have liked to have a little more time... but I had a bit more drive ahead of me. Seeing Nik reminded me of a December past in which we all met in STL for the annual Border War. Good Friends. Good Times.

Here is the first trip out into the snow at the Tolono rest stop on I-57....

Christmas, the finale!

Happy Boxing day to one and all! I hope Santa brought you lots and lots of goodies.

We celebrated Christmas up right in Vicksburg. Christmas eve mass was followed by falling asleep on the couch watching Love Actually (actually one of the better new Christmas movies).

On Christmas day I was awoken by a puppy wanting to let me know what day it was! About ten minutes later the phone rang, reminding me that I needed to get my butt out of bed - if everyone else had to be up - then so did I! We opened presents and I loaded up the fur family and we joined my friend Amanda and her family for a Christmas day extravaganza of watching the little one play with her princess palace, oogling the infant, and chilling out together. My puppies also enjoyed getting to play with the Young's greyhounds. Unfortunately, we have issues and getting 4 dogs to sit in one area for a group portrait is as likely as an avalanche in MS.

I want to thank everyone who invited me to spend Christmas with them - I treasure your kindness! Big thanks to my family and friends for all of their wonderful gifts.

Happy Christmas Eve

The packages have all arrived.

Presents are wrapped with care.

And I continue to battle with my bouts of domesticy.

Thus, I bring you, Christmas Cookies in the Kitchen.

I think I enjoy baking a little more than is good for me.

Tonight we'll be enjoying midnight mass at 8 PM (lol) and a traditional snack dinner Jersey-style (toasted raviolis) and the official opening of the first present (new pj's for opening gifts on Christmas morn)!

Tree Time

Finally. I know you have been waiting for ages... Friday night we got down with putting the tree up and putting a few things on it. Check it out. I got lazy. No ornaments. Just lights and ribbons. It works better this year since we have issues wtih the dogs enjoying using the tree as a scratching post.

Trans Siberian Orchestra

I'm not sure why they are Trans Siberian.. but they are cool. Wednesday night I wound up getting invited to join my friends Alissa and J.R., Alissa's mom, and their friends Rae, Riley, and Jennifer for the TSO show in Jackson. Mucho Gracias go out to Team Armstrong for hooking me up with a ticket. We were in Row 4! I could feel the heat from the stage! And I could see the icky long haired guitar man mouthing the words 'you are so fine' and 'you are sexy' at the middle aged women all around us. Fabulous. Yes, I know now what former hair band members are doing to make ends meet...

Turducken, more Christmas fun

Saturday night was Turducken part III. For those who aren't aware it is a southern 'delicacy' in which a turkey is stuffed with a duck is stuffed with a chicken. lots of stuffing and dresing is involved too! It is amazing! This was the third year that Sandy and Jeff did the Turducken thing. All of the food was amazing, not just the main course. Major kudos go out to ALL involved, especially Sandy, Jeff, Rob, and Todd for the amazing main course. Thanks to Rob and Todd for providing us with a great location at the lobby. Check out Sandy's blog for some more details regarding the history of the event and the birds themelves.


I brought Neely mac and cheese. It was amazing. Cheese, Potato chips, and Bacon. How can you go wrong? The pan was empty by the middle of the night. Luckily, I made a second, small pan or myself :-) Here are the directions, although I don't actually measure things :-)

6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups milk, warm
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dash hot sauce
Dash Worcestershire sauce
3 cups shredded Cheddar
1 pound cavatappi pasta, cooked al dente
1 cup crushed potato chips
5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for topping

1. Heat oven to 350 to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large saucepot over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in the warmed milk and bring to a boil, continue to whisk constantly. The mixture will thicken as the heat increases. Continue to stir while adding the dry mustard, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Stir in the 3 cups of Cheddar until it melts.
3. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and add to a 3 quart casserole dish.
4. Sprinkle the chips, bacon and Parmesan on top and bake for 35 minutes.

Work meets Christmas

We had our Christmas luncheon at work. Gotta love APB. We know how to do it up right. All of the food was great, and the fried turkeys were devine. I love the fact that we fry turkeys. I had never had one like that until moving down south. I definitely reccomend it. My contribution to lunch was a simple fall salad - spring mix with pecans, dried cranberries, apples, and apricots. Yum.

The gag gift exchange is one of the best parts of the holiday festivities. We pull names and do a little gift. I pulled my friend Mariely. She is the newest of the engineers, and quite fun. She also works on the 1st floor while the rest of us girls are on the 3rd floor. I gave her a 'girls guide to surviving the 1st floor' - including a rhinestone cup hotline to the 3rd floor, chocolate and tissues, a hunting vest and 'doe in rut' so she can fit in with the boys, and a stick to beat some sense into their heads.

There were lots of other gifts! Griffin pulled my name. He gave me a DVD for me to learn from to help me acclimate to the south a little more - "Girls Gone Grabbing" - it isn't dirty like it sounds. It is girls going hand grabbing for catfish. Some people would be upset - I found it hilarous!!!

It was great to see the latest crop of APB babies as well as our friend Webb. A fun time was had by all - and not a single gift was mean spirited!