My friend Chris has a series on his blog about Friday Afternoon Cocktails. So we got together a few weeks ago to shoot an amazingly delicious cocktail, the Last Word. For the recipe  and a ton more photos, head on over to his blog (and tell me if you think I have a future career as a hand model).

(Also, go check out his new project Citygram, and support it on kickstarter).

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending an Herb Garden Workshop at Contigo put on by the Wellgro Co. Not only did I learn so much about what I was doing wrong with my plants and how to keep them alive, but I got to support students at Travis High School, meet lovely Austinites, and have a delicious lunch prepared by Chef Andrew Wiseheart at Contigo and some of the Travis High students. All around, an incredible 2 hours spent on a Saturday.

For a more in-depth look at the workshop, head over to this blog post from my friend Chris. He captured the event in such a wonderful way.

*all photos taken with iphone

I don’t know if I’ve ever made gingerbread cookies from scratch. Until today.

Also, I miss Christmas vacation. Remember when you were in school, all through college, thinking of being done with finals, ready for Christmas vacation? I miss that. So much. I would love a 2-3 week break with no work, no obligations. But I am so looking forward to spending next weekend with family. I am lucky in that I get to see my dad’s extended family on Christmas Eve (including my sweet 90 year-old grandma) and my mom’s family on Christmas Day. And I’ll go to midnight mass with my parents on Christmas Eve night. Just the three of us.

This is the first day this year I’ve felt the Christmas spirit. Yesterday afternoon I finished decorating my tree. And today I made gingerbread cookies while listening to Christmas music. It’s kinda like some shift has to happen. And with the weather being in the 70s and 80s most days here in Austin, that shift didn’t happen until I let myself realize there is just a little over a week until Christmas.

I also think the gingerbread cookies helped.

I put hearts on them. Because I’m cutsey like that.

Flour, lots of it.

Here’s the recipe I used for the cookies. Enjoy!

Sunday seems to be a good cookie-making day. Maybe it’s because I can make a batch and then send them to work with my boyfriend for him to share. We all know Mondays aren’t the best, so hopefully this makes it a little better for his coworkers.

I was flipping through the December issue of Bon Appetit on Saturday and came upon the holiday cookies section. The cookies that actually sounded the most fun to make were the ones featured on the cover. After realizing I had most of the ingredients, it seemed like those cookies were just asking to be made in my kitchen. So I decided to “Cook the Cover.”

Sunday morning I pulled up the recipe. Because this is one of those cookie recipes you need to prep for in advance. Not only do your butter and egg need to be at room temperature, but once you are finished creating the dough, it needs to sit in the freezer for 3 hours before baking. And the food photographer in me wanted to finish these cookies before it got dark out, so I could get some good photos.

So.. step 1. Start mixing up ingredients.

After all the ingredients are mixed, separate the dough into three sections to roll into logs to stick into the freezer.

Step 34 (or something)… decide to make own colored sugar. I didn’t have sanding sugar, so I pulled out some turbinado sugar to dye.

Roll the logs in the sugar after putting an egg wash on them. Then cut into slices to go into the oven.

Finished product! Yum. (I made some without the sugar exterior as well for those that may prefer a slightly less-sweet cookie, like me).

Make these cookies.

The Austin City Limits festival this year was filled with hot days, torrential downpours, great bands, lots of crowds, and food. I always get so excited about the food, especially because I find I work up an enormous appetite waiting for bands and walking around Zilker Park. There were so many things I wanted to have, but just never got around to. I wound up eating 3 lunches (1 for each day!) and then having snowcones.

You can’t take cameras with detachable lenses into ACL, so I would up just taking photos with my iphone. Here are some shots of the festival.. and the yummy food.

Yummy Chicken Banh Mi and Truffle Pomme Frites from Second Bar + Kitchen

Apparently rain makes people go crazy and just leave horse heads laying around

Steak Frit Sandwich from Between Your Buns. I left off the mayo.

Chi’Lantro Yumminess

iphone photos from this past weekend…