Day 3: What did I get myself into?

Today's post for the Best of 2009 Challenge is "What's an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious'd and reference throughout the year."

Really? I've been thinking about this one since I saw it two days ago and I still got nothing! I'm not much into the reading, unless you count celebrity gossip magazines and the occasional Cosmopolitan. Which, as you can probably tell, don't have the most fascinating reads.

I don't really want to pick anything from any of those magazines because who really cares about why Tiger cheated on his gorgeous wife with a girl from VH1's Tool Academy of all people or public places you've gotten caught doing the dirty?

(Although I'm very interested in all those things, no judgement.)

So, I'm going to tweak this little prompt here so that I can actually have something to post for it. Instead, I will be posting about my favorite magazine of this year and why.

This won't come to any surprise to those you know me in real life, but the magazine that I've discovered this year that I have to buy every month (serious, why don't I just got a subscription for crying out loud?) is Food Network Magazine.

(See, no surprise there...)

My favorite issue to date is definitely this months holiday issue. I've found myself with a whole lot of people that I want to do something nice for this holiday season, but I just simply can't afford to buy gifts of appreciation for everyone.

(Especially since I went a little bit overboard with the bf's present. And by a little bit I clearly mean A TON.)

The issue this month is full of cute little gifts to give people that are meaningful and not that expensive, especially if you already have a few of the pieces. One of my favorite gift ideas for bosses and co-workers are little jars that you by and layer with different ingredients depending on what food item you are giving them. The one I'm thinking about doing for people is the chunking chocolate chip christmas cookies. First you fill the jar with the dry ingredients like the flour, baking powder and sugar. Next you layer in cocoa powder, and then red and green M&M's, then white chocolate chips, then crushed cashews, then chocolate chunks, and then finally toasted coconut. The end result is a jar nicely layered with all of these goodies. Other things you can make are curried lentil soup, blue cornbread with pineapple, holiday panettone and spiced hot cocoa.

They also have an insert for 50 different holiday cookie recipes which I can not wait to try. There are a few recipes that I've already dog ears so that I remember to make them soon.

Anyways, back to the magazine. I know it makes me sound super nerdy and all "Susie Homemaker" but I can't help it. I can sit a flip through the recipes or search online for recipes or watch the channel all day long.

(Side note: We were having a discussion in my mental disorders class about eating disorders and I warning sign is that the individual is so obsessed with food that they only watch or read food related things. YIKES!)

Anyways, if you are looking for some good holiday recipes or cute food related holiday gifts I highly suggest that you pick up this issue!