Sam Adams' Old Fezziwig Ale

Seeing that it is the most wonderful time of the year, I decided to have a festive brew this week, so I chose Sam Adams' Old Fezziwig Ale.

My Rating: 87

Alcohol Content: 5.6%

This beer is delicious and sweet, and receives a very high B+ from me. It pours a beautiful, almost garnet color and has a relatively thin, finger's width ivory head. This beer is made from several malts, including chocolate and caramel, which can slightly be detected on the palette. It smells wonderful, offering an immediate intrigue of orange, cinnamon, and other spices. Old Fezziwig sips warmly, (it is a winter warmer after all) and is a smooth delightful beer to sit back with on a cold winter night.

I have never seen Old Fezziwig Ale in a six pack - I believe that it is only available in the Sam Adam's Winter Seasonal 12-Pack, which will run you around $15.00. The 12-pack is well worth the money as it features numerous other delicious brews such as the tart Cranberry Lambic and the always classic Boston Lager.

Make Your Own Holiday Bags

As a relatively thrifty young woman, I am always looking for creative ways to save money. So this year, I decided to make my own bags for gifts on Christmas. I love to draw and color so it was really fun for me to hand craft these bags. It only took me a few minutes to make each, and they really added a nice personal touch to my gifts!

I bought a 12-pack of brown paper bags at target for $4.99 and then also some cute little gift tags. Then I whipped out my handy dandy crayola crayons and made very simple designs on the bags: stocking, snowman, holly, poinsettia, and so forth. The great thing also about making your own gift bags is that you can make them for any occasion or holiday and create something that is personal ad fun.

To add some extra depth to the drawings, I outlined them in sharpie marker so that they would really pop. Then, with sharpie in hand, I also add some jolly "good cheers" and "happy holidays" and such not.

This project was quick and made a nice, personalized and might I add, affordable, way of gift giving!

All I Want fo Christmas is...Sugar Cookies!

With the holidays in hand, I decided to bake and decorate sugar cookies with the girls I nanny. This dough came out PERFECT and created delicious cookies that were just crisp on the outside and still soft on the inside...Yum! I used Royal Icing and Gel Food Coloring for the frosting and we had a wonderful afternoon baking, decorating...and of course...eating!!

Sugar Cookies:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
  
• 2 tablespoon milk
• Powdered sugar (instead of flour for rolling out the dough)

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, place the sugar and butter together. Mix with a stand or a hand mixer until sugar is no longer loose.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of milk, vanilla and egg. Mix to combine.
   
4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the bowl.
5. Add second tablespoon of milk.
6. Depending on how warm your butter was, you may either have a very mealy mixture or a relatively smooth mixture.
7. Use you hands to gather mixture together and kneed gently into two separate disks. Don't over-kneed!!
8. Place each disk into wax paper and place in the refrigerator for AT LEAST 2 HOURS...You can leave it overnight if you like.
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
10. Take one disk of dough out of the refrigerator and sprinkle it, your rolling pin, and your rolling surface with powdered sugar.
11. Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes. Notice how we placed all of our cutters onto the dough first - this way, you can make sure to use your "dough space" to its maximum potential.

1. Place on a non-stick pan about 1 inch apart and place in the oven for approx. 7-10 minutes.
2. Repeat steps 10-12 for second disk.
3. Cool and enjoy, or frost!

Royal Icing:

• .375 cups of pasteurized egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Place egg whites and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until foamy.
2. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar at a low speed until mixed.
3. At a high speed, continue to mix until the frosting peaks (should take 5-7 minutes)
   

Straight No Chaser Brings Some "Christmas Cheers"

So, back in the good old days of college, I used to be in an a cappella group. I've always LOOOOVED this totally vocal style of music, and apparently, it's catching on in a major way!

For the holidays, the lovely boys of Straight No Chaser have put together a phenomenal CD featuring amazing and humorous Christmas medleys, while also adding swing, charm, and rich harmonies to those old holiday classics.

Song List:

1. The Christmas Can-Can
2. We Three Kings of Orient Are (Really awesome timing and delivery of words)
3. Christmas Time Is Here
4. Let It Snow
5. Donde Esta Santa Claus
6. Ill Be Home For Christmas (The heart melting harmonies you'd expect from 10 handsome young men)
7. Hey Santa!
8. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
9. Youre A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Features a fierce bass as the soloist! Very cool!)
10.O Holy Night
11.Santa Claus Is Back In Town
12.God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
13.Jingle Bells
14.Who Spiked The Eggnog?
15.The 12 Days Of Christmas (This is easily the BEST version of this song ever...mainly because it breaks into the Toto song, Africa...)


Check these guys out! If you need a burst of holiday spirit, the spunk and excitement offered by Straight No Chaser will no doubt make those sugar plums dance in your head!