I could never survive as a hipster

Happy New Year!

 

My night was just as wild as this guy's.

To start with, I met my BFFs for dinner.

 



In front of the Panera fireplace - stay classy, Baltimore.

We were done at like 8pm and were like....now what? So we did what all the cool kids do and got coffee at Panera to go with my newest dessert creation, billionaire bars.
 

 
Let's discuss. Those would be a layer of shortbread, a layer of homemade salted caramel (a new baking achievement for me!), a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, and a layer of chocolate ganache.
 

Yup.

 

The bars came at a price.

 

 

 

 

Burn blisters. They hurt.

 

They were well worth the pain, though. I'd do it again.
 
In 2014, we pledge to continue to spread whooty awareness.
 

 
After that, I hung out with two of my favorite teacher friends, Kristin and Sue. Pajamas were required.

Not a problem.

That's where things got crazy. I had two whole glasses of red vampire wine, and even topped the second one off.


As I mentioned, I completely sucked at my 2013 resolutions. There's an easy way to avoid that yucky feeling of failure a year from now - lower the bar.
 
May I present: my 2014 resolutions.
 
1. Floss
2. Go to Starbucks every day in January (more info to follow)
3. Skip meals to lose weight
 
I am NAILING this. I flossed and skipped breakfast this morning! Size zero here I come!
 
http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/a26fbe4c4eb17268e52993659eeff16f"> src="http://static.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1294087302493_9524251.png" alt="someecards.com - My New Year's resolution is to lose just enough weight so that my gut doesn't jiggle when I brush my teeth." />
 
Yeah that was a lie. I just slept through breakfast because we went to bed at like 3am. But I made breakfast food at noon, so I'm not sure where that leaves us.
 
It turns out I participated in What I Ate Wednesday, a stupid tradition where bloggers post everything they eat. I just accidentally joined in because I felt all my food was delicious enough to photograph.

 

 

Noon brunch - eggs, toast, and leftover Christmas ham (from Saturday, not actual xmas, I'm not gross)

For Christmas, my mom and stepfather gave me an AMAZING gift. This Starbucks mug with special powers. You can bring it to the bux (I used to work there, I can call it that) every single day in January and get ANY drink you want for free.

I finally tried the Chestnut Praline latte. It's only available in certain cities and that makes it elite and that makes it taste better (and it was already really good).

I love whipped cream so much.

I got the latte as my snack after a 7.1 mile run. I ended up my run at my friend Kristin's house to pick up my car (Eric came after work and took me home last night). I love literally running errands.

I broke in another lovely gift from my parents - our brand new cast iron skillet. Obviously, the first thing I had to make was cornbread. I'd also been craving my dad's jambalaya recipe (I guess if you want to get technical, Emeril invented it). Tell me that meal doesn't get the year started off right.

I used black rice (all we had on hand) which is why the jambalaya looks dark, but trust me it was fabulous.

I used a recipe from an actual cookbook for sour cream cornbread - I know, so 2006, right? It was kind of nice because I didn't have to keep wiping my hands to wake up my tablet. The cornbread was so good it didn't even need butter, and I'm not one to skimp on butter (see: above brunch, billionaire bar recipe, etc....).

 

Plus a billionaire bar. Or 12.

I have an important service announcement. I'm on book 2 a new dystopian/strong female heroine trilogy (listening on my runs) and I'm obsessed with it. I'm going to make a bold statement and say I might even like it better than Divergent. The first book is called Poison Study by Maria Snyder. 

I would never survive as a hipster because it's killing me that no one else I know has read any of them and I have no one to discuss it with. I want everyone to read it and Hollywood to make it into a movie. Yesterday. So let's all do ourselves (and also me) a favor in 2014 and get going on that. I'm not on the third one yet so if it's a Divergent type debacle I can't be held accountable. If anyone reading this has already read it, I'm going to need you to get in contact with me immediately.

I would like everyone to share their favorite Christmas gift (this year), and favorite New Year's Eve memory (any year). So far, nothing can beat my bed specs, and my favorite NYE memory is clearly eating bananas liberally.