My Whirlwind

of a time here in South Carolina is coming to a close.

It's been a truly spectacular Christmas with the family, but all good things must come to an end so that others can begin.

Tomorrow morning, I leave at the crack of dawn to return to the west coast.

Hope LA's warm and ready for me ;)

I've got so much to write about, but will leave you instead with random photos of recent happenings.

I'll be back at you from sunny SoCal...

For now, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays :)

Seein' Double

The veritable celebration of food and indulgence that is my trip home continues...

I finally got a southern classic and personal fav for breakfast yesterday:

**

Scrambled eggs and quick grits. Not instant, mind you... Cain't go wrong ;)

In fact, they were so good I had the same meal this morning,

**

**Photography side note: these 2 photos prove the insane difference between shooting in natural light and artificial. HOORAY for the sun!

which was quickly followed by breakfast part deux (no really, the plates were consumed about 30 minutes apart):

whole wheat pancakes with real maple syrup and butter

After a little downtime and online gift shopping- hello last minute- we headed to Columbia's first and only vegan resaurant, Lamb's Bread.

It's owned and run by a really sweet Jamaican-healer-vegan lady who makes everything herself.

I opted for a protein plate:

Meatless pepper steak (so spicy, so good), sweet potato souffle, kale and brown rice.

Try as I might to dig the kale, I'm just not into steamed or sauteed greens. I prefer my leaves raw and crunchy or juicified. Ah well, maybe one day....

After lunch, we went downtown, saw the lovely South Carolina state house and did a little more Christmas shopping

before stopping by a local deli to pick up a few hor d'oeuvres for tomorrow's annual Christmas Eve bash... somehow these ended up being ordered to go

  
Talk about double trouble....
                                                                                                                                                             

Godiva Chocolate Cake

                      Peanut Butter Pie

But man, it felt good to be bad.

One of the best things about having my little sister around?

I never have to worry about devouring the entire piece of cake alone ;)

Speaking of cake, you're probably wondering whatever happened with all that baking I mentioned the other day...

Well, a whole lot of yesterday was spent sifting through this:

my mom's never ending collection of cookbooks.

(for someone who claims to detest cooking, she sure has a lot of cookbooks... I'm not complaining!)

After a couple hours of searching, we finally decided upon our respective recipes.

Hers:

Rum balls

Nutty Fingers

Ice Box Cookies

Orange Pecan Cake

Divinity

Mine:

Hummingbird cake (for Christmas day festivities)

a take on Ashley's vegan chocolate graham crackers + royal icing

Reasons she's making more:

1. It's weird to cook outside of your own kitchen (especially when said kitchen's accoutrement lacks measuring spoons!!)

2. She's really good at the ice box cookie/ nutty finger thang (it's pretty much a Christmas tradition)

3. I'm on VACATION!

To kick off the baking extravaganza last night, mama gave divinity a go....

It didn't turn out quite right, so we're trying it again later this evening.

To give you an idea of just how off we were, the meringue-like candy's supposed to look like this.

Mmmmm... I smell the nutty fingers baking now.  

*Maddie's Southern Belle Tip of the Day: taste testing's essential when guests are coming over.

... I'm off to fulfill my daughterly duties ;)

Have you had any major flops in the kitchen so far this holiday season?

Break Out!

Maybe it's all the homemade cookies I've been eating...

Maybe it's the fact that I was forced to eat a pimento cheese sandwich on bona fide white bread for fear of going hungry yesterday...

Or maybe it's the, ahem, numerous cocktails I've been downing since reuniting with my joie de vivre family-

whatever it is, my skin has certainly seen better days. Break outs are happening and since I highly doubt anyone wants to see a close up of the new zits forming on my forehead and left cheek, you'll just have to take my word for it.

In an attempt to battle the onset before it gets out of control, I headed to Earthfare with the 'rents today to procure a little green juice

and spotted this genius idea upon entering the store:

.... I love that there are actual used "unhealthy" items in the container!!

I wish I had more food pictures to show you from the debutante ball last night-

but seeing as I was already having a hard enough time explaining to everyone at the table just how I could ever give up eating meat, I didn't really feel like going off on a tangent about why I photograph my food.

I will say that it was easier to have my pescetarian-eating needs met at the cotillion hall than my grandfather's house.

Being the full blown Southern carnivore and host that my mother's father is, as soon as we arrived at his house yesterday, lunch was offered.

On the menu: hot dogs, local barbeque, hamburger pizza and bologna for sandwiches.

"Okay," I'm thinking, "I just had a heaping bowl of protein/flax/banana-filled oats for breakfast before leaving home...

I bet that'll hold me over until cotillion later tonight."

Wrong.

While everyone else munched away on their lunches,

I really started to fiend for some sustenance.

When homemade pimento cheese was mentioned, I knew it had to happen. Against every fiber in my nonwhite bread-eatin' body, I gave in... I figured one time wasn't going to kill me and, as my mom said, "When in Rome..."

Besides: eating white bread when you have to is exponentially better than going hungry.

This brings me to my fascination with eating alongside non-vegetarians last night. While no one in my immediate family (including my boyfriend, Alex) is a vegetarian or vegan, I think they've all gotten pretty used to the fact that my eating habits are different from theirs.

But justifying those choices to my Southern extended family proved to be quite an interesting feat.

I plan to write an entire post about my thoughts and reflections on this when I return to LA.

Today my parents and I enjoyed a lovely winter lunch of 3 bean chili, bread and cheddar cheese

+ salad

After lunch, my dad and I headed out to the dead looking yard

to rake some leaves

for the outdoor winter solstice gathering we hosted earlier tonight.

At 6:40 pm Eastern time, winter officially rolled in... we greeted it with community candle lighting around a bon fire, along with a ritual in which each of us wrote negative thoughts/feelings/problems in our lives on small pieces of paper and threw them into the fire as a sort of "release" for the impending year.

Quite liberating, I must say...

Alright, I'm off to eat a cookie and spend some time by the fire.. It's nice to be home.

Stay tuned for mucho baking tomorrow- can't wait to see what's in store!

Special

... is probably the best word to describe these cookies. 

And I'm not talking about of the kind of "special" that marks a milestone (though being back home in South Carolina after 2 years of Christmas in LA might count).

The "special" I'm referring to here is more due to the fact that when I set out to make real Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies in my parents' kitchen, I discovered they didn't own one measuring spoon.

That's right: no tablespoon, teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon- nothin'!

My mind was boggled, but I completed the task nonetheless.

Using a full size working oven also took some getting used to...

The final product wasn't half bad... though I almost forgot to add the eggs since I was so busy reminiscing with my sister over a bowl of half done cookie dough whilst listening to Janet Jackson tunes on a mixed CD from our high school days.

Not only did these puppies contain genuine butter,

I also added some crushed peppermint to the top for a little holiday flare.

(Mortar and Pestle: new #1 on my holiday wish list)

Earlier today, the whole fam enjoyed breakfast at a Columbia classic:

The Gourmet Shop.

While they're known for their chicken salad and my old favorite was a near perfect turkey pesto sandwich on homemade baguette, they also make to die for salads with authentic vinaigrette,

croissant + raspberry rhubarb preserves,

And coffee...

Oh, the coffee.

Post-breakfast, we roamed aimlessly about the retail side of the shop

"Died and gone to a heaven where everything's so close, yet so far" is more like it.

After a day full of errand running and eventual lunch of leftover brown rice and lentils + sauteed broccoli,

we made our way out into the arctic blast 38 degree temps to find a Christmas tree,

came home and got to untangling the never ending supply of lights...

It's so funny: I always took the amount of Christmas decorations my parents had for granted. It wasn't until Alex and I started shopping for our own supply that I realized just how expensive they are, and how many years it takes to build up a vast and varied collection... T'was quite delightful digging through boxes upon boxes of accumulated memories this evening.

A couple of snacks along the way served as great ornament-hanging fuel

And before we knew it, the tree was up

and dinner was decided upon.

Keepin' it simple, we chose pasta.

Since I'm not a fan of red sauce (call me crazy), I dipped out to the grocery store for a few staples (almond milk, bananas and cinnamon) and picked up this cheap fix:

to add to a lovely dinner of togetherness, laughs and carbs.

                                                                                                                                      

Trust me when I say: this was the most normal shot of the sister I could capture. And believe me, I tried ;)

After dinner, we hung out while the cookies baked,

then finally called it a night.

Rest is essential, as tomorrow night is the big debutante ball.

Tuxes, champagne and true Southern charm await.