Over the Christmas holiday, Chris and I attended a dinner party over at our friend EW’s house. We decided to bring a bottle of wine and this bread. I know EW is a HUGE bread lover so I thought I’d bake him a loaf. In the past, I have baked him savory breads but he seemed to love beer bread more than others. I’m guessing it’s the dense texture and the crusty top.
Today is a special day. It marks my 15-year union with Chris. And I say union because we were together for 11 years before we got married. He’s the most loving, understanding, caring and giving man I know. And I feel so lucky to have him as my partner.
I love baking this time of the year. There are a lot of seasonal items during the Christmas holidays that you don’t see year-round. Gingerbread Twix is one of them. So if I’m bombarding you with all these sweets, my apologies!
Christmas is a week from now and wow, it sure sneaks up on you quickly. Is it me or do you notice how quickly 2013 is going by? When I had a full-time office job, the year never passed this quickly. Now that I’m a homemaker/blogger, the days go by in a blink of an eye. Anyway, I hope everyone has gotten their Christmas shopping done.
We are big eggnog people here. Drinking it straight with some brandy, not so much. But we use it for everything else, especially in our morning lattes. I personally love to bake with eggnog and Chris loves to eat it. We ♥ eggnog.
I discovered this recipe on the back of my dark chocolate and mint chips bag. It was so easy, I decided to go with it. I figured anything with swirls has to be impressive looking enough to give to friends and neighbors for the holiday. And it’s got the pretty dark brown and green swirls… see? Totally festive. I dig it.
Can you tell I’m a huge fan of crumbs? I can’t help it. I just want to add crumbs to all my muffins, bread and cakes! I’m finally starting my holiday baking. So for my first baking recipe, I thought I’d kick it off with something eggnog and something Kahlua! Yes, it’s a FANTASTIC combination if you haven’t tried it already. This is definitely a muffin you’ll want to have coffee with. It’s like peas and carrots, they go hand-in-hand. And a little dark chocolate can never hurt in a combination like this.
Around the Thanksgiving holiday time, it’s always the most chaotic time of the year. I have Chris’ birthday around that time, as well as my nephew and niece all a day or two apart from each other. This year for Chris’ birthday, we took a trip to Napa to celebrate. Then after the trip I had to prep for Thanksgiving. Last year we were in Mexico. We also moved into our new house so we didn’t really have our Thanksgiving dinner in our new home until this year. Having said all that, my blog took a backseat. Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I know we did. Our bellies were full!
In this household, we’re big coffee/crumb/streusel cake eaters. Actually, we love anything with crumb toppings. Muffins, bread, cakes. You name it, we love it. The more crumb the better! Cakes with layers and thick frosting, not so much. I love looking at them but eating them is another story, unless they’re *really* good and it has to be chocolate.
Hello friends! Chris and I got back from our road trip Wednesday night. It has been so busy and chaotic that I haven’t been able to post until today. I’m playing catch-up now so apologies if you haven’t heard from me. I can’t believe we’re in mid November already! Wasn’t Halloween not too long ago?! I feel like I didn’t get a chance to do as much pumpkin related recipes as I’d like this year.
uni homemaker 