friday five 2.0: holiday foods

TGIF!

We are ending the week with the Friday Five 2.0, hosted by Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy.

Be sure to link up with your own posts, and visit our hosts and other bloggers in the group!

With Thanksgiving in less than a week, I guess it’s appropriate to start thinking about holiday foods.

It’s funny – there are certain foods that I really equate with Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I don’t tend to make them the rest of the year. I’m not sure why that is, and it’s a little silly, but it’s just how I roll. Here are my top five favorites for the holiday season.

Cookies

For most of the year, I really don’t eat cookies. I love sweets, but cookies aren’t my jam. However, at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I spend days making a huge assortment of butter cookies, Russian teacakes, rum balls, chocolate chip cookies and a couple of others. For some reason, they taste much better to me than Oreos or other store-bought varieties, and I will go to town on them.

Egg Nog

With rum, whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon, a wee bit of egg nog is something I love to sip while decorating the Christmas tree. Even the lower fat versions are high in calories and unhealthy things, so I really only splurge on Christmas Eve. There is just something so delicious about the cold, creamy nog, and I can’t imagine a holiday without it.

Champagne

I say I like bubbles more than I actually like bubbles. For some reason a sip is always nice, but then I get a headache, so I only save it for very, very, VERY special occasions.

New Year’s Eve is perfect for a small flute of pink champagne – we ring in the New Year and celebrate Mr PugRunner’s birthday, one right after the other.

Cranberry Sauce

At Thanksgiving, we make homemade cranberry sauce. I do like the stuff from the can, but nothing is yummier than boiling fresh cranberries with water and sugar, straining them and letting them gel in the fridge.

When my mom cooks, she always makes extra so I can have it with leftovers for the next week. It’s hard to find cranberries throughout the rest of the year, so having cranberry sauce throughout the holidays is a special treat.

Cinnamon Rolls

I don’t touch cinnamon rolls throughout the rest of the year, but on Christmas morning… it’s game on. They are decadent and sweet, and the more icing the better, as far as I’m concerned. I especially love baking them, even though it’s a time-consuming process. The smell of yeast, butter and sugar is so comforting and just reminds me of the holidays.

Do you love any of these things?

What are your favorite holiday foods?