My college roommates and I had been known to crush 2 dozen or so of these at a time. So it's only fair that I made the same homemade donuts for my new roommate. And what else are you supposed to do when it's finals week except eat food that's terrible for you.

All you need:

Heat up your oil until a wooden spoon placed in the oil produces little bubbles. Cut holes in your biscuits (I used a lid from a bottle) and place the rings and donut holes into the oil. Fry, flipping once, until golden brown. Plop them out onto a paper towel and prepare your toppings. I'm a fan of a simple cinnamon and sugar coating but melted chocolate and sprinkles are good too. Just coat your donuts in your topping of choice and you're done.

Super easy, super delicious, super bad for your upcoming New Year's resolution.

This past autumn our family got a really great surprise when a stray dog my parents had been feeding had a litter of puppies. Mama Dog was super skittish but somehow warmed up to us once she had her little ones and set up camp in our warm garage. Each of the four little puppies and Mama were adopted from the Angels of Assisi this past month, but not before I drained my camera battery snapping photos of them playing in the leaves.

Now if this didn't brighten your day, I don't know what will.

If you're reading this, I'm probably just now waking up from our yearly Christmas Eve seafood feast coma. I queued this post up last week because I wanted to share my cats in Christmas hats. So here you go.

I hope you enjoyed your christmas as much as these cats did....now get back to spending time with your family.

Last year my apartment exchanged little stocking stuffer gifts and it was one of the cutest things ever. Amy made everyone a hand-painted cat mug and homemade marshmallows. From then on I promised myself I would never put a store bought marshmallow in cocoa again. These will seriously change your life. They're not as quick and easy as the recipes I normally post but what else do you have to do while you wait for Santa to come except make marshmallows for your Christmas morning cocoa?

I made vanilla, peppermint, and chocolate guys.

I'll be sharing a sweeter use for the wonton wrappers soon!

When I say have the best dad ever, I really really mean it. I'm so lucky to have such a great role model in my life. He's always been super involved and active in my brother and I's lives. He is always putting work aside and bending over backwards to spend time with us. In elementary school he volunteered to drive a car full of kids to Denver for a field trip. We were almost an hour late back to school because he stopped at a diner to buy everyone in his car milkshakes. On that same trip he nearly kidnapped a kid from the front office who forgot his permission slip so he wouldn't miss out. He's always been that kind of guy and I'm so proud to be able to call him my dad.

I love you, Daddy.

As part of my week long Let's-Pretend-I-Don't-Have-Real-Work procrastination marathon leading up to finals week, Stephanie and I made Christmas cookies. Which turned into actually being neuroscience and statistics themed instead.... 

We used the following recipe for a simple vanilla cookie. For the chocolate ones we replaced 1/3 cup of flour with cocoa powder.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 cups flour [or 4 and 2/3 c flour + 1/3 cup cocoa powder for chocolate cookies]

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

1.  Cream together your butter and sugar.

2.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.

3.  Stir in flour (and cocoa powder if you're making a chocolate batch), baking powder, and salt.

4. Chill your dough until it's firm and easy to roll out. Roll out your dough and cut out your shapes. [Flour your cookie cutters and rolling surface so your dough doesn't stick!]

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.

We made a simple milk and powdered sugar icing (we added some more cocoa powder for the chocolate icing). Both dried smooth and shiny and super easy to decorate.

Of course I made a brain cookie.

We might not be the best cookie decorators but they were still super tasty.

We made two batches which ended up being about 3 dozen decent sized cookies. These are perfect to make for a holiday cookie exchange or to bribe your statistics professor to go easy on your final. 

Oh my god, I'm such a sucker for wrapping paper and pretty prints and bows and ribbons and bags. I love it almost as much as I love gift giving itself. Probably the worst thing about being a full-time, broke -ass student is not being able to afford gifts for everyone in my life over the holidays. I literally have a mental list of the perfect gifts for all my college roommates, Bentley's brother, my cats, Bentley's brother's girlfriend....like, ridiculous people. I keep this mental list all year long but then November rolls around and I realize I've been scooping my litter box every other day instead of daily in a vain attempt to put off buying cat litter. One day, I guess.

Another way I pinched pennies this year is by making my own wrapping paper. I had everything I needed lying around my house or in my craft box. I used craft paper and brown paper lunch bags printed with stamps I made out of carrots and potatoes. Here's how it turned out.

My family is exchanging gifts tonight and Bentley and I are having our Christmas later in the week before we leave for Virginia Beach. I love this time of year and I'm so stoked to be spending so much time with Bentley and my family.

I am absolutely smitten by this candy corn garland from The Prairie Cottage.

My friend picked up this adorable owl for me in a market in North Dakota but that little bat is from Yellow Bird, Yellow Beard. (The cats really like playing with that one)

But seriously, how cute are these little pumpkins from This Little Bird?

These straws from Go Against the Grain have already gotten some use. Bentley thought the paper straws were pretty neat too and didn't even use his so we could save it. Cute.

How great is Jennifer's spooky wreath? My only regret is not having a way to hang it on my front door for everyone to see.

Oh, and these adorable ghosties are on their way from England. I can't wait!

I had kind of wished that Bentley and I carved some pumpkins to decorate my place but I don't think anything could be as great as these sweet crafts. How is your place looking this Halloween?

This past Saturday was the perfect day to spend outside on a porch making some beer. A porter was Bentley's choice and it was super fun to brew with him! I really can't wait to spend more time together doing something so fun.

Step one is always to crack a beer. My last homebrew is long gone so we settled for some Brown Shugga and this awesome porter from Great Lakes. Beers in hand, we set to work.

Steeping the grain.

Adding the malt extract.

keepin' watch.

After the boil, and our wort had cooled, we checked the gravity. Science!

All beered out, we ended the night curled up on the couch with some homemade crab rangoons and bourbon with seltzer and ginger syrup. A day of beer and bourbon with my favorite person makes me one happy girl.

[p.s. aren't those paper straws adorable? Courtesy of Go Against the Grain.]