Here We Come A Wassailing: My Favorite Christmas Albums

To be honest, most Christmas music makes me less than pleased. I've been known to use the phrase 'drive me to kill' in regard to "We Need A Little Christmas". However, I would like to focus on the good and talk about what Christmas music doesn't make me shudder. If you want the bad stuff, head on over to Everything Is Terrible, because they have it covered.

XO For The Holidays: Some classics, some new songs and all for free! You can download every album at the link, but my favorite is album II, which features Drew Grow's cover of "Tennessee Christmas". I'm actually pretty into these and will even listen to these in November.

Picture from Paste Magazine

Christmas in the Heart by Bob Dylan: Sometimes the holidays make me feel disoriented. When I want to whip that disorientation and confusion into a frenzy, I turn to Bob Dylan's Christmas album. Also, the cover reminds me of when the Russian couple were thrown to the wolves in My Antonia.

White Christmas by Bing Crosby: Ignoring the fact that this album contains several gold standards for many Christmas songs, this album contains both Christmas in Killarney and Mele Kalikimaka, which are two Christmas I really, really enjoy.

Snowed In by Hanson: Duh. Really. I listen to this in July. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) has been my favorite Christmas song since 1997. It isn't Christmas without Snowed In. As a bonus, the song I linked to is the soundtrack for an excellent Power Rangers montage. As a side note, if you go to Hanson's website, you can listen to all of Snowed In for free using their media player. Seriously, this one is good. Do it.

Hanson's Lemon Sugar Cookies

If you know me in real life, you probably know that I love Hanson. So, when they made lemon sugar cookies on their new Christmas special, it was obvious that I would be veganizing them and sharing the vegan recipe with the world and possibly using the cookies as gifts for my relatives. These have a fairly delicate lemon flavor, so load them up with lemon zest if you're into that. These may actually be my new favorite sugar cookies- sugar and lemon is a flavor combo I can never say no to.

Hanson's Lemon Sugar Cookies

• 3/4 cup Earth Balance, at room temperature, diced
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs worth of egg replacer (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 2 2/3 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
• Frosting pen (I used a Wilton Fondant Icing Writer)
• colored sugar or other decorations of your choice (I used India Sugar)

Cream the butter, then proceed to cream the sugar into the butter. Add in the egg replacer, vanilla extract, lemon rind and salt. Cream until blended. Gradually mix in the flour. At this point, you may need to add some liquid to the dough, as mine was a bit crumbly. Don't worry, a little moisture will solve that problem. Once mixed, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes- the longer the better.

Once the dough is chilled, it's time to cut 'em out! First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line some cookie trays with parchment paper. You'll want to roll your sugar cookies out, flouring (or powdered sugaring) both the dough and the rolling surface. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut your cookies out! Place on cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes. When they are done, decorate how you see fit. I made Hanson symbols and dinosaurs (not pictured). Enjoy.

A Soundtrack for Spices: Music I Cook To

Isaac Hanson's feet. Don't be too jealous.

I've noticed that when I cook without music, I clench my jaw hard enough to give myself a pretty phenomenal headache. To prevent this, here's my favorite music to mince to.

Hanson: I love Hanson. I have a shirt that says so. Their music is heavily influenced by the 60s, with a touch of gospel, all highlighted with flawless vocal harmonizing. I'll listen to anything by them, but I've really been into their latest album, Shout It Out, featuring “Thinking 'Bout Something”. As a side note, you can listen to all of their albums for free through their website. Current Favorite Jam: Thinking 'Bout Something (the video features Weird Al...really)

Robyn: There's nothing like dancing to Swedish pop while sauteing. I realize that my list is skewing more than a little 90's-centric, but I'm not talking about “Show Me Love”-era Robyn. I'm talking about “Cobrastyle” Robyn. Her latest albums are full of catchy dance music that is both powerful and fun. Current favorite jam: Dancing On My Own

Brandi Carlile: My friend Chelsea introduced me to Brandi Carlile and I'm so glad she did. Her music is a hybrid of old school country and some rock. Combine that with an incredible voice and Brandi Carlile can take me through my Sunday afternoon cooking to prepare for the week. Current Favorite Jam: Dying Day

Jonny Lang: Perhaps the best thing to ever come out of Fargo, Jonny Lang was a blues prodigy and started in the music business at quite a young age. Sometimes I just want a little bit of the blues while I do my cooking. Current Favorite Jam: Lie To Me (Actually, his official channel doesn't have very many videos, but this one's pretty great. Also, it was made in the 90s when he was 16, so don't judge that part)

100 Monkeys: This is Jackson Rathbone's band (yes, from Twilight) and they have several songs that tell little stories. There are few things I love more than story songs. No sparkles. You can listen to a bunch of their songs on their website as well. Current Favorite (non-story) Jam: Ugly Girl

The Pretty Reckless: Taylor Momsen's band sounds like Hole and Paramore had a baby and I love it. It's so over the top and ridiculous that you can't help but get into it. You go, 17 year old girl but you may want to put on some pants. Current favorite jam: Miss Nothing