My bartending style tends to run less towards the carefully measured, tried-and-true recipes and more towards the “What’s in my fridge right now?” trial-and-error method. I rarely use actual measures, because what is “good” depends on how many people are drinking, how liquored up they want to be, and how well they hold all that liquor.

That being said, I have a few favorite drinks that do really well in cold weather.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate:

This ain’t your grandma’s hot cocoa. (Or maybe it is…) I like to add a few drops (or shots) of Peppermint Schnapps to hot chocolate for an immediate warm-up. Make the cocoa with milk if you like it creamier.

Cinnamon Vanilla Cream:

One day my love of Starbucks and alcohol collided, and this drink was born. I just poured some Cinnamon Schnapps into my Vanilla Crème, and – voilà – an innocuous looking brew. Yes, I did keep it all in the Starbucks container. You can make your own Vanilla crème by warming up milk, adding a drop or two of vanilla extract, sugar to taste, and topping it off with whipped cream.

Hot (Spiked) Apple Cider:

First, you need to find some alcoholic apple cider. It’s probably somewhere between the beer and wine sections. Two bottles is a good amount to start with. On the stove, get it simmering with two cinnamon sticks, a tablespoon of cloves, a little bit of sugar and some nutmeg. What really makes it piping hot though, is the addition of either rum or apple brandy. Be generous, ladies – the apple cider has lost most of its alcoholic content in the heating process. Read More »

So I know you’re thinking: “How can you get anything for under $20 at a department store like Macy’s?”

I get it – sometimes I feel like I can’t even afford to breathe the air in that store and I am doomed to spend my life lusting for everything on the over-stuffed racks. But I’m here to tell you it’s not impossible.  Macy’s is all about the discounts and they always have a giant selection in the clearance racks. Most of the stuff is under $50 and a giant chunk of that is under $20! You just need to know where to look for ‘em.

Here are a few of my personal favorites right now. And, yes, a lot of this stuff can take you right into fall: Read More »

This week’s Best of College Candy!

Thursday, November 20th

Hottest Cover Guys…yum

People Magazine just came out with their Sexiest Man Alive issue. Here’s our list of the top 10 hottest cover guys.

Sexy Time: All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From A Porn Star

Nina Hartley is an extremely successful adult film star with 650 different video appearances under her belt. I asked her to give me some of her wise wisdom about sex, relationships, and everything in between.

Read More »

JC Penney may not be the same maven of style that is, say, Fifth Avenue, but they have recently rolled out with a few things that are definitely worth a second look. And a purchase. And some instant gratification from wearing it all right outta the store.

Their newest lines come from tons of fabulous, fashionable designers like, Nicole Miller and Ralph Lauren. They are trendy, good quality and easy on the wallet. I don’t know about you, but I’d take a $15 top over an $80 one any day. With prices like these, I can get triple the wardrobe!

Here are a few highlights from JCPenney’s newest collections. Click on the look to get the deets…and buy the item. Read More »

Sure, the weather is getting cooler, but there’s still plenty of time before you have to layer down jackets over sweatshirts over sweaters over thermals, and cover every other inch of your body in knit hats, gloves, and scarves. The air is crisp and has that cool, fall smell, but this will soon give way to biting cold, snot that freezes in your nostrils, and seeing your own breath.

Take advantage of the cool fall nights– they are more fun (and can be more romantic) than you think!

Have a bonfire

Summer bonfires make you sweat. Fall bonfires keep you warm without overheating. It’s the perfect time to gather your friends, cozy up around some flames, and reminisce about the “good old days”– like the time you got so drunk you passed out in your dorm stairwell (which may have been last weekend). If you’re still in the creepy Halloween mood, you can pull a “Summer Camp” and recite urban legends under the moon, or you can pass around a couple of forties and see where the story-telling gets you. Bonfires are a great way to set the mood in a group setting, so if you’ve been feeling shy around someone special, it’s the perfect opportunity to initiate something.

Go on a Hayride

Nothing screams “Autumn” like sitting on a bale of hay and being taken around a farm on a horse-drawn wagon. After being cooped up in stuffy lecture halls all day, a hayride is literally a breath of fresh air. If you’re feeling stressed from school, go on a clear night, sit back, relax, and be one with nature… and the twenty other people crammed into the cart! Besides, sharing a bale of hay on a cool night with a guy is a great excuse to snuggle up. Got energy to burn? Try a corn maze instead! Read More »

The leaves are changing color, Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner, and the frozen drinks of summer are slowly being replaced by hard apple cider.

But this doesn’t need to be the case! One of the creamiest, tastiest variations of the frozen mudslide is perfect for holiday parties…or simply to satisfy a simultaneous craving for booze and pumpkin pie.

You need:

*1 can of pumpkin pie filling

*vodka

*Bailey’s Irish Cream

*milk

*ice

*whipped cream

*cinnamon

*a blender

It’s so easy, yet you’re sure to impress all of your friends by introducing them to this festive autumn libation. Simply fill the blender with ice and pour in 2 oz each of vodka and Bailey’s. Add a heaping scoop of pumpkin pie filling, and fill the rest of the blender with milk. Blend it up and serve in a hurricane glass, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with cinnamon. It’s smooth, creamy, and tastes just like Thanksgiving dessert.

Delicious!

It’s rainy. It’s windy. You haven’t seen sunlight in days, you didn’t do so hot on today’s pop quiz, and you really don’t feel like reading about the Enlightenment for history class. What better way to beat the dreariness and procrastinate than by having a comedy movie marathon to boost your spirits and make you laugh?

When fall settles in and it’s not as much fun to walk through campus on a chilly, dismal day, grab a bunch of kids from your hall, pop some warm, buttery popcorn, and veg out in flannel pj’s and sweats. You’ll feel better, you’ll have fun, and best of all, these movies sure as hell beat anything that sprung from the Enlightenment! Read More »

My mom always told me that when things get rough, sometimes you have to “just be.” I never understood that, really; I’d just nod and agree and then go back to freaking out over whatever I was doing right beforehand. But you know, the more stuff you have to do, the more you realize that yeah, you do have to just be. Calm down. Chillax.

After a week filled with tests, papers, about five gallons of coffee, and way too much spiked apple cider (Quickie Recipe: Apple cider + apple brandy, varying the amount of brandy for the amount of drunk, is f*ckin’ delish), a few of my friends and I decided to be a bunch of kids. We hunted down a corn maze and got utterly lost in it, went to a pumpkin patch, and picked apples.

We didn’t do anything particularly stupid or sophomoric — unless you count getting in a fight with a 10-year-old over the existence of infinity. No, we just had fun. Fall is my favorite season, and I hadn’t properly enjoyed it in years ’til last weekend. The only thing missing was a hay ride…

This week was/is slightly worse, with a ten-page-paper that was due yesterday (that still isn’t done, shhh) and a psychology test tomorrow I haven’t really studied for. But this weekend, after dealing with trying to write a paper for an outrageously vague professor (who I think really only teaches because he a) likes to hear his voice b) likes to make students feel stupid) and studying for a test in a class I sometimes think I’d enjoy more if it weren’t for the tests, we’re doin’ it again. No, not the corn maze and pumpkin bit. But hey. Come on, you guys. You honestly mean to tell me that you wouldn’t go to FrightFest if given the chance? Read More »

Ah yes. The First Day Of Fall.

That’s what today is. Officially.

Someone figured it out a long time ago, just like they figured out the strange tradition of daylight savings (which, okay, had to do with crops a long time ago, but really just annoys the hell out of everyone now). While a lot of us are probably clawing at the windows in fear of the impending winter, fall remains my favorite time of the year. You can walk for miles and not get sweaty, apples and pumpkins are all around, and those cute neck scarves we’ve all been trying to wear all summer are finally appropriate.

If you heart fall as much as I do, you’ll probably agree with these Top 5 Reasons Fall is Fantastic.

5) No. More. Sweating: Remember when it was 80 degrees and you tried to walk down the sidewalk or across campus and by the time you got to where you needed to go, your hair was sticking to the back of your neck and your face was all red and your armpits were soaking through that BTS shirt? Well, fear the heat no longer, because now that fall has arrived you can jaunt across campus in a cute scarf, hat, or light coat and get to class feeling fresh-faced and sweat-free (unless you’re late and have to book it). Your feet will no longer slide around in mushy sandals — you can break out those boots and sneakers and not feel like your feet are suffocating. I hate sweating. I really, really hate it. So the idea of walking to work in a light jacket and not having to pack extra deodorant makes me smile from ear to ear. Read More »

It’s about this time of year that I start to get a little crazy. I start to get a little obsessive and over-indulgent. This is the time of year I start my annual hunt for all things orange. More specifically, I start looking for and eating every pumpkin-flavored food I can get my hands on.

This year, on the day Starbucks started serving their pumpkin spice latte (also known as the best day of the year), it was 88 degrees in Boston. Not exactly pumpkin-eating weather. But did that stop me from ordering a large steaming hot pumpkin spice latte and sipping it in the sun? Obviously not.

Don’t let the all too short pumpkin-eating season pass you by! Indulge. Just don’t indulge so much you start to turn orange. What? Trust me, it happens.

There is more to pumpkins than pumpkin pie:

Pumpkin Coffee: Of course there’s the classic pumpkin spice latte that almost every coffee shop (worth my business anyway) serves. But lots of coffee shops are also coming up with other pumpkin-flavored drinks. All are worth trying, but if you’re concerned with the calories and fat in a latte, just ask for a regular coffee with a little bit of the pumpkin-flavored syrup. It’s perfect when you just want a cup of coffee with a smidge of flavoring. And it’s usually much cheaper than ordering a latte too. Read More »