Tonight, the hubs and I are hosting some of our friends for a holiday dinner party and game night. It will be casual, but, just for fun, I decided to set the table. I like how full and festive it looks with all the dishes, decor and the gift bag “place cards.” They also have a tasty holiday treat inside!
Guilty Pleasure Monday today was brunch with a friend at the Bongo Room. If you live in Chicago and are not familiar with the Bongo Room, you must go. Known for their indulgent breakfast items, this popular brunch spot recently opened their Andersonville location, where we ate today. I’ve been to the Wicker Park location before, and on the weekend the wait is normally about two hours during prime brunch time (and they do not take reservations). However at 1:00p.m. on a Monday, we had no problem. Because it was Guilty Pleasure Monday, I ordered the white chocolate caramel pretzel pancakes. Three huge-like bigger than my face-pancakes were delivered to the table. My friend had some kind if savory pork sandwich that he said was great. (Apparently he was not having guilty pleasure food). But back to my pancakes, pretzel filled and covered in caramel and white chocolate sauces, these pancakes were not the crazy sugar rush they could have been, which was a welcome surprise. They were nicely sweet and crunchy but not overly so. I managed to eat about one third of the plate. They were SO big. And SO yummy!
So bacon has become really popular. Like it’s everywhere. Or maybe it was always popular but now, due to social media crazes, it’s more acceptable for people with this obsession with meat to share it with the rest of the world. Regardless, you can now find bacon wrapped around other meats, on cupcakes, even made in to a edible salad bowl. Not to mention all the other products–bacon chapstick, bacon band aids, bacon purses–the list goes on and on.
Last night, I participated in this craze by trying bacon flavored vodka, called Bakon. In this picture, these women may be giving the thumbs up, but let me tell you, it was a thumbs down. It smelled terrible and tasted worse. The fun part about it was watching people’s reactions to trying it. I wish I had pictures of that! Dear Bacon Obsessed People, you have gone too far.
On holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, it will be hard for me to choose one fun thing to write about on this blog. I love the holidays (if that isn’t clear enough already) and try to enjoy them in so many ways. Here is a list of things I will do today that will be tremendously fun:
Here are some of things I’m thankful for–family (momdadmeaganbrittreddykalapadma nathanphilphiljrpriankastevegertjohnIIjohnIIIjohnIV(!)juliejenniderekcedrictanneralisonalexangel billtristangrandma), kindness, Chicago, Wild Bunch, Elphaba, theatre, blog readers, cinnamon, instagram, holiday decorations, baking, music, reality television, scarves, West Elm, philanthropy, photobooths, celebrity, How I Met Your Mother, UET, ACT, CST, CU, NMH, DIY, New York Giants, Lake Michigan, dog parks, other people’s babies, my iPhone, wordpress, health and FUN. (not the band, the purpose of this blog. ok also the band).
I don’t often use no bake dessert recipes, but a coworker brought this treat to our Fall party, and the result was so cute and delicious, I had to try it. I had fun making these adorable little acorns that took almost no time. They are part of my contribution (with pumpkin bars) to Thanksgiving tomorrow.
Acorns
1 package Nutter Butter Bites (smaller, circular version of the peanut shaped cookies)
1 package Hersey’s Kisses
chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and/or peanut butter chips
Melt some chocolate (I melted about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips). Dip the flat end of a Hersey’s Kiss in to the chocolate. Dip a chip (I used chocolate and butterscotch, but you could also use peanut butter, white chocolate, dark chocolate, etc.) into the excess chocolate on the kiss. Stick the kiss to one side of the cookie and center the chip on the other. Voila! Delicious acorn.
year of fun 