Hectic Holidays Part II

Last night was just full-on busy. We are having a holiday party on Saturday and have been invited to various parties this week. We had to stagger our cooking schedule in order to attend the parties and make food for our own. So last night one of my roommates and I went to the store and bought the supplies for the our event on Saturday.

First, a few words about our local grocery store: We live near a Giant Grocery. We used to call it Ghetto Giant because it never had anything in stock and the produce was always bad or going bad. In the last couple of years, however, with competition from the local organic mega store, the Giant was forced to improve to compete in the neighborhood. It now boasts organic offerings, a few gourmet supplies, a very cheap fish counter and good prices. These improvements have attracted more clients. Our neighborhood is also quickly gentrifying with more and more people moving in every month. While the Giant has really improved in what it offers, it lacks the staff required to meet the demands of its customers. There are lines snaking through the aisles in the evenings every day of the week.

What should have been a quick run to the store to get supplies ended up being an hour and a half in the store, most of it waiting in line. But we did get what we needed.

Then it was time to get started on the food. My roommate, getting into the Christmas spirit, wanted to make cookies. I think her list included: sugar cookies, rum balls, pumpkin bars, peanut butter blossoms, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps and possible lemon bars. I, on the other hand, was making two cakes for an event of which I'll speak about in a later post.


As I mentioned before, I love my house and my housemates. When we got home from the store, intent on starting our different projects and thinking that dinner would consist of sandwiches or cookies, one of my other housemates was making dinner. She was busy with exams but took the time out to make a wonderful Mexican meal of lime and cilantro chicken, black beans, guacamole and salsa.

After sitting down to a civilized dinner with the rest of the house, my roommate and I continued on our mad baking spree. We called it quits at 12:30, having made 2 cakes, pumpkin bars, rum balls, and the dough for the sugar cookies. Tonight, I am making more truffles and finishing off the batches that made over the weekend. My roommate will be making more cookies. On top of this, we still have to make 400 egg rolls, macaroni and cheese and a pasta salad for our party on Saturday.