Hot Chocolate Affogato with Peppermint Ice Cream

Christmas is without a doubt my favorite time of year.  Thanksgiving is a close second, but no amount of stuffing or cranberry sauce can compare to the amount of enjoyment I get out of spending hours baking cookies, wrapping presents, putting up lights on my Christmas tree, and stressing over finding the perfect gift for every person on my list (I actually enjoy this kind of stress, somehow).  There's another kind of stress around this time of year though, one that I enjoy much, much less.  Sigh.  Yup, it's finals time.  

I got pretty lucky with finals this year though.  I only have one exam, and two final projects to work on.  My exam isn't until next Tuesday, and one of my projects is due later on tonight, so it's not too bad.  I definitely need to put in a lot of time to study for the exam, and my other project (not the one that's due tonight), is actually something that I'm really looking forward to working on.  I'm in a small seminar called, "Curating Architecture," and as part of the class, we get to work together to write articles organized around a central theme (this year, the theme is "public"), and then create a publication and an exhibition that stem off of our articles.  I'm one of the three people in charge of creating the publication layout and developing its graphic identity, and I'm secretly very excited to work on it.  Creating the mock layouts was really surprisingly fun, and I'm excited to see how the publication will look once it's finished!  But ANYWAY...

Regardless of how many things I need to do during these last 6 days or so at school, I will find the time to enjoy lots of holiday treats and traditions.  I went to Rockefeller Center last weekend (one of my favorite things to do), and am planning on baking up some holiday cookies to share with my friends and co-workers.  Holiday drinks are of course to be included in the next couple of days.  I've already had lots of hot apple cider, tried eggnog for the first time ever (and probably last time, it was just wayyy more sweet than I could handle), and had a few mugs of hot chocolate.  There's one more seasonal beverage that I'm sure I will make again to enjoy very soon though...hot chocolate affogato with peppermint ice cream.  

Woah.

Classic Pumpkin Pie

Alright.  It's time to be totally honest with you guys.  I really dislike pumpkin pie.  I'm being serious.  I have never ever liked it, and I don't think I ever will, although that could maybe change, eventually.  My dislike of pumpkin things in general has changed a lot in the past year, and ever singe I baked up a batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and a batch of miniature pumpkin doughnut muffins, my dislike of pumpkin-things started to fade away.  Pumpkin things could actually be tasty!  In fact, just writing about those miniature pumpkin doughnut muffins makes me wish I had a batch right now...they were really THAT good!  A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake muffins, which were also really delicious, and very, very, very shortly, I'll actually be posting another delicious pumpkin recipe!  I think I like pumpkin when it's baked into muffins or yeast breads, and pumpkin pancakes are actually pretty good too.  But pumpkin pie...that's a whole other story.  

I really just don't like it. 

I guess it's strange, then, that I'm posting a recipe for classic pumpkin pie.  But, given that Thanksgiving is only a couple of short days away, and that pumpkin pie is a popular favorite around this time of year, I figured I HAD to post a pumpkin pie recipe this time.  Also because my sister wouldn't stop nagging me about making a pumpkin pie.  My sister is the only person in my family who actually likes, no, LOVES, pumpkin pie, and she's always asking for pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving and the fall season.  Her pumpkin pie requests usually get denied, because no one else in my house is willing to eat the pie with her, but I figured that this time, I would give in, and make her a pumpkin pie.  

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a quick moment and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Hope it's full of good memories, good times with family and friends, and of course, really good Christmas cookies.

Happy Holidays!

-Nina 

Chocolate Roll with Peppermint Whipped Cream

Finally.  Finals are over.  Yessss.

I can't even tell you how nice it feels to actually be finished.  Winter break is always such a good time of the year, because there's actually no work to be done!  Unless it involves butter and sugar, of course.  I have so much free time on my hands now, access to a real kitchen, and lots of pretty plates and such.  It feels so nice to be back!!! I have tons of ideas to share with all of you, so I'm obviously going to keep myself busy in the kitchen baking, taking pretty pictures, and writing.  Sounds perfect.

It's a Halloween Party!

It's October 7th today.  That means Halloween is only 24 days away.  That's three and a half weeks.  There's no time to lose, Halloween Party planing needs to start NOW…or soonish I guess.  There's really no reason to put it off because #1, Halloween is quickly approaching, and #2…these Halloween treats are too cute to put off any longer.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I couldn't put this post off any longer.

When I went home last weekend, I had it set in my mind that I would make a batch of really great Halloween-inspired spiderweb cupcakes.  Something cute and simple that anyone could make.  I honestly hadn't really thought of making too many other Halloween things, but I knew that my spiderweb cupcakes would be great.  I enlisted the help of my mother, who is fantastic when it comes to all these sort of decorative/ seasonal type of things, and she wasn't too keen on the spiderweb idea.  At least she wasn't too keen on making only spiderwebs.  That's right.  I was going to make ONLY spiderweb cupcakes? That just wouldn't do.  My mom had so many great ideas, and I really couldn't say no to any of them, they were just too good!