Cranberry & White Chocolate Scones

Sometimes people make decisions you don't agree with, and you either have to support them anyway or do everything you can to thwart their efforts. Because you know what's good for them.

My mom has decided to give up sugar.

Even during Christmas.

Even when I'm around.

Even if I kick and scream and make lots of cookies.

It has become clear that I can't talk her out of it. My only option is to negotiate narrowly acceptable foods and make them for her immediately, which is why these scones happened. Scones aren't high on my list of favorite baked goods, but if they'll work for my mom's new "alternative lifestyle" then I'll break out the dough scraper and get started.

This cranberry & white chocolate scone recipe only uses 1/4 cup of sugar, which is pretty impressive! The cranberries and white chocolate chips add more sweetness, and drizzling some melted white chocolate over them adds a nice touch. These would also be great with variations like lemon zest or cinnamon!


Cranberry and White Chocolate Scones
Recipe from Food.com

1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons half-and-half
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries or 1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (or pieces)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a bowl by hand or using an electric mixer, blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter.
3. Add the half and half, beaten egg, cranberries (I like the dried ones), and the white chocolate chips, and stir until the dough holds together.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 2 minutes.
5. Form into a 1/2-inch thick round, then cut the round into 8 wedges (you can also make two smaller rounds of smaller wedges, if you like).
6. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil, then transfer the wedges to the sheet.
7. Bake the scones at 400 degrees F for 14 minutes or until golden brown.

8. While they cool, melt leftover white chocolate chips in the microwave. Put melted chocolate in a zip-lock bag and use scissors to snip off one corner, making a small hole. Drizzle chocolate over scones.

DIY Boxwood Wreath

Merry Christmas, everyone! We've officially reached the point where Grinches can't say "it isn't even Thanksgiving yet" when complaining that we're starting Christmas too early.

Here's a really quick project to try if you're in the spirit! DIY boxwood wreaths. You can make them any size you want, and they're MUCH cheaper than buying from the store. I wish I could show you more of the process in photos, but I don't have a sidekick to take pictures while my hands are busy! If the instructions below aren't detailed enough, feel free to ask questions.

You will need:

• Boxwood sprigs - fresh or faux
• Wire - thick and thin! (You can also use a bent wire hanger as your frame)
• Wire Cutters
• Ribbon (optional) 

Instructions:

1. Cut your thicker wire to whatever size circle you want. Bend & shape it into a nice circle, or be fancy and try an oval or a heart. Secure the ends by wrapping them around each other.
2. Pick out your larger boxwood sprigs to use as the foundation. Lay them around your wire circle to see how you want them to be arranged.
3. Start attaching! Cut small pieces of your thinner wire (about 1 inch long) and use it to attach one end of your first boxwood sprig to the wreath. Repeat this along your sprig until it is fastened to the wreath in a curve (I fastened both ends & the middle of each sprig).
4. Repeat step 3 for each sprig until your whole wreath is covered. 
5. Look for blank spaces or areas where the wire is too visible and attach smaller sprigs to fill them in! You can add thicker pieces if you want a fuller wreath. 
6. Add a bow if that's your thing! Hopefully it is. I used a 1-inch cream colored satin ribbon and tied it into a simple bow with long "tails." Attach it by looping a piece of wire through the back of the bow (pictured below) and wrap it around the top of your wreath.

Push a piece of wire through the back of your bow.

Free iOS 7 iPhone Backgrounds

The new iPhone operating system came with a lot of visual changes that can be hard to maneuver. For many people, one of the most frustrating changes has been the zooming effect that happens when you try to set a photo as a background. That feature was intended to create a 3-D look and feel when you use the right type of picture with lots of depth (focused on an object in the foreground) or lots of texture.

I optimized these free backgrounds for iOS7 by adding extra space on each edge to account for the automatic zoom. You can still re-position them with your finger like you're used to! TIP: if the wiggly moving background is giving you motion sickness, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.

How to Download/Save

On your computer: click your favorite background to enlarge it. Right click on the full-sized picture & save.

On your phone: tap your favorite background to enlarge it. Touch & hold your finger on the full-size version until the option "Save to Camera Roll" appears.

I'm hoping to add more of these AND some holiday options soon! In all honesty, making iPhone wallpapers and other free downloads has become my new favorite thing to goof off with since I just learned how to make glitter & tinsel in Photoshop CS6. Yeah, you read that correctly! I CAN MAKE GLITTER! 

Classic Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Sometimes you have to face the fact that you were deprived of joy as a child. I recently discovered that I was deprived of chicken pot pie, which I now understand to be a tangible synonym for joy. If you only try one new recipe this season, make it this one.

Cooking is absolutely not my thing! Baking is my safe zone, but I needed to at least try something slightly more dinner-ish than mac 'n cheese. So after deciding that I should attempt to cook a real dinner, I stumbled into the world of savory pies. I can....bake pie....for dinner?! Sign this girl up! Chicken pot pie has always come to mind when I think of comfort food, but I honestly can't remember ever eating it as a kid. We were more of a chicken noodle soup family, and I didn't realize what I was missing out on until I moved to San Francisco and tried a pie from The Cravery. Love at first bite! This recipe holds up pretty well to theirs, I must say.

This chicken pot pie is perfect for fall and winter dinners in cold weather. The recipe is easy to adjust to your own taste, and you can make it family style or in individual servings. It's the best chicken pot pie recipe for non-cooks because it's SO easy!

Ingredients:

2            pre-made rolled pie crusts (I used Pillsbury) 
1/3         cup butter or margarine
1/3         cup chopped onion
2            cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3         cup all-purpose flour
1/2         teaspoon salt
1/4         teaspoon pepper
1 1/2      cups chicken broth
3            tablespoons cream of celery
1/2         cup milk
2 1/2      cups shredded cooked chicken (either bake it or buy a rotisserie chicken)
2            cups frozen mixed vegetables (I used frozen peas & carrots)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Take pie crust out of fridge to thaw. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Add garlic, stir for about 30 seconds or until it becomes fragrant. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened. Stir in cream of celery. Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat.

3. Unroll one pie crust and place it into an ungreased glass pie dish. Add your filling. Unroll the second crust and place dough over filling. Seal and crimp or flute edges. With a fork, poke holes in the top crust for ventilation. Make a fun design!

5. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover edge of crust with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Adapted from Betty Crocker's Classic Chicken Pot Pie.

Monster Mix - Halloween Snack Mix Recipe

Sometimes the excitement of holidays and all of their baking/crafting potential is just too much for my brain to handle. How many pumpkin spice donut recipes should I pin before actually deciding which ones to make? And what about the hundreds of apples I should be coring for pies, breads, and ciders? Where is the photographer who is supposed to take wonderful pictures of me wearing a flannel shirt and Hunter boots at the orchard? Where do I fit in the time to hand-craft 50 feet of bunting for my portico?! (I don't have a portico.)

No, not this time. Halloween can't run us down before the Christmas euphoria sets in. So drop the jack 'o lantern cookie cutter and do something so ridiculously easy that Geico would use it to advertise a caveman's ability.

This recipe is adapted from one that my favorite blogger, LittleBabyGarvin, shared in her October Love List. It's a sweet & salty Halloween snack mix straight out of a dream. Now I could tell you that this would make a great party recipe to share with others, but no. This is for you, brave holiday soldier.

These are pretty rough measurements because it's really up to your personal taste. If you hate candy corn with a passion, don't put it in there! Although you'd really be missing out because candy corn goes great with rosé... not that I'm hinting at anything here. 


Ingredients:
About 1 pound of white chocolate chips or candy melts
1 microwave bag of salted popcorn
1/2 cup of pretzel sticks
14 crushed Oreos
1/2 cup Halloween M&Ms
1/2 cup Reese's Pieces
1 cup candy corn

Instructions:
1. Line a shallow pan with foil. I used a cookie sheet, but recommend a jelly roll pan or 9x13.
2. Pop one bag of salted popcorn - not buttered! Spread it over the bottom of the pan.
3. Add pretzel sticks and crushed oreos. Try to distribute them evenly.
4. Melt about a pound of white chocolate in the microwave. I used 1.5 bags of Ghirardelli chips, but the original recipe calls for a pound of Wilton candy melts.
5. Pour a layer of melted chocolate over your popcorn, pretzels, and oreos. You should use most of the chocolate in this step, but not all of it. Mix it around with a spatula to make sure everything gets slightly coated.
6. Add M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, and candy corn. Drizzle the rest of the chocolate over this layer - not too much or you won't see the colors of the candy!
7. Put it in the fridge to set. Once the chocolate has hardened, break it all up into bite-sized pieces.

Congrats, you have Monster Mix! Eat it in large quantities by the handful. Enjoy!

DIY Gifts: Chalkboard Mason Jars

Christmas just plain rocks. That's how I feel about it. If there is one thing I like, it's Christmas. Because CRAFTS, because FOOD, because FREE STUFF. How could anyone not like that?!

Oh yeah, because it's stressful, time-consuming, and expensive.

Today's craft is here to save you from all that nonsense. I made these as quick & easy Christmas gifts for my coworkers, but they'd be great for any age and any occasion! The best part of this DIY project is that your total costs come out to roughly:

$2 per person!

These jars are cute and functional with the chalkboard "label" painted on so friends & family can reuse them for storage purposes (pencils, coffee creamer, fingernail clippings, I don't care), but they will absolutely love the cake-in-a-mug mix that you fill it with! 

The 3-2-1 Cake Mix

Making the cake mix is the easiest thing you will ever do. Buy one box of Angel Food cake mix (this should be a "just add water" mix, like Betty Crocker's) and another box of whatever flavor cake mix your little holiday heart desires. I used chocolate because they why on Earth wouldn't I? Pour the dry mixes into a bowl and mix them up - JUST the dry mix - do not add any ingredients.

The Chalkboard Jars

Start off by using your blue tape to make the shapes you want to paint on each jar. I wanted to make this as easy as possible by painting squares, but you could definitely spice these up with different designs. Stripes could be fun, too!

Once that's done, paint a thin base layer onto the jar and make sure to let it dry completely, about an hour. You'll need to repeat this a few times until you're happy with it - I painted four layers to get the results I wanted. After painting your final layer, let the jars sit overnight so the paint can cure and become chalkboardy. That's a word, right? Ta-da, your jars are done! Fill them with the cake mix and any add-ins you choose, like M&Ms or crushed candy canes. 

Obviously you'll need to provide people with instructions for the mix, unless they really like a good riddle. The instructions will be at the bottom of this post. I typed up the recipe on Microsoft Word and printed out 12 copies on one page. Then, I cut them out and glued them onto some scrapbook paper I had laying around and tied them around each jar. To make sure everyone could use the chalkboard aspect of their gift, I taped a piece of chalk to the top of each jar. I'm pretty in love with how they turned out!

3-2-1 Cake Instructions

In a mug, mix 3 tablespoons dry mix with 2 tablespoons water. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Add any toppings, and enjoy!

The Not-Too-Crazy Detox

When people tell me they're on a strict, long-term diet I get completely mixed feelings. Example: the paleo diet. If a person tells me they are on the paleo diet, my first thought is always "this person is either clinically insane or has never been to the Cheesecake Factory," and my second thought is generally "that's really impressive, I want to try that!" .....until reality kicks in. I cannot even commit to watching The Mindy Project two weeks in a row, let alone change my entire diet permanently. I've always been curious about the benefits of detoxing, eating clean, and hitting "reset" on your system, but it all seemed too extreme!

Until now, every juice cleanse I read about or saw on Pinterest had some absurd requirement involved that would turn me off every time. Most of them sounded close to starvation while the others sounded like medical experiments without pay. This detox, however, is not too crazy.

Dr. Oz's 3-Day Detox Cleanse

End each day with a detox bath:

While hot water is running, pour 2 cups lavender epsom salt into bath.

Water should be at a comfortable temperature, but hot enough to trigger sweat.

Soak for about 15 minutes.

Benefits:

After doing this detox, my skin feels absolutely amazing and my complexion is glowing. My metabolism is running at lightspeed, I have more energy (without caffeine or sugar), and - drumroll please....

It eliminated that annoying last layer of fat over my lower abs. 

Seriously! Every girl's dream.

Going three full days without eating any solid food will also show you how much eating you do just because you want something to nibble on. You'll find yourself completely full and still wanting chips just because they're crunchy, and then you'll cut that habit out!

Tips:

1. These recipes make a LOT to drink- you will actually find yourself full before you finish them, but make sure you drink the whole thing each time.

2. DRINK WATER. Drink it all day long. Be sure to have at least two cups after each detox bath to avoid dehydration. I probably had about 15 cups per day.
3. Don't forget to sweat! During a detox, make sure to do light cardio each day. Breaking a sweat is what will release those icky toxins.

3. Make your smoothies ahead of time. They will store perfectly fine in a sealed container in the fridge. 

4. Use your coconut oil as lotion after each bath. It is solid in the jar but will melt with your body heat.

Give this a try! Feel free to ask any questions, and let me know how it goes!