Thursday, December 23, 2010

Happy Holidays!!!

Such an eventful weekend coming up! But most certainly my favorite time of the year filled with family, friends, and food!! Here are 2 delicious dessert ideas that are sure to make guests wish they had saved more room!! They only use a few ingredients and everything can be found at any old grocery store!

Death by chocolate toffee trifle

I used this recipe. I made this just last night for my parents who came in for a pre-holiday dinner. Usually you would layer this in one of those big clear trifle dishes, but I didn't have one and the clear martini glasses are way cute!  Who doesn't love their own individual dessert!

Oreo Truffles

These are insane!! A coworker of mine brings them in every Christmas and we literally fight over them! Crazy addicting!! So for a holiday party I was attending this past Saturday I decided I would try to whip them up. My coworker gave me the recipe which was literally 6 lines long, so I figured how hard can it be? Well they were super easy and worth the time it took to dip them individually in white chocolate!

Ingredients:

1 package Oreos, 1 package cream cheese, 2 bags of white chocolate, Milk chocolate optional, or decorative sprinkles

Chop Oreos in a food processor till very fine, add cream cheese blend till it's a paste. Roll into 1 1/2" balls. Freeze for 15 min. Melt white chocolate and dip each ball individually using a fork and spatula to help you roll it around. Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper and let cool in fridge till chocolate is hardened. Drizzle with melted milk chocolate. DONE!

This isn't a dessert but it was probably the best bruschetta I've ever had!

Made by my Boyfriend who happens to be a wonderful Italian cook! I have no idea whats in it besides tomatoes, but it was delicious and also looked so beautiful! My parents were super impressed!

 

Some photos to get you in the Holiday spirits....

My hello kitty ornament John bought me...

Our first ornament...John picked it out :)

Sparkely red just for the Holidays!!!

And were off!!! To visit the parents all weekend!!!

Hope you all have a happy and lovely holiday filled with love and laughter and amazing friends, family, and food!!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

DIY winter headband...

Hello my lovely bloggers!!! I've been MIA this past week an a half. I decided to take a little break and focus my energies on work, and my health (don't worry I'm fine just trying to get into a better sleep cycle and work out pattern). I've taken a step back from social networking in general. I realized I need to have a balance between my human everyday interactions with friends, co-workers, and family, and my "cyber-life" (is that what we call it?) So for the next month or two I will be blogging much less, but I will be catching up on your all fantastic blogs of course. I hope all you lovelies can understand! Soo.... any-who, on to this weeks post....
I've been dying for a winter headband to cover my ears for the chilly weather we've been having here in NYC. I found one at Macys recently but the adorable bow was half ripped off and of course it was the last one! On my way home the thought popped in my head that I could probably make one myself with some of those stretchy headbands. Well I found these perfect terry cloth headbands (even better than the stretchy headbands because they are super warm) and with a sewing machine and a little creativity I was able to whip one up in less than a hr! So I've decided to share my DIY project with you!
What you need:
3 stretchy headbands
Needle and thread
Sewing Machine


Step one: Take two headbands and sandwich them together matching up the seams.

Step two: Sew the two head bands together about 1/8" away from edge


Step three: Take the 3rd headband and fold into a bow. This doesn't have to be perfect, any shape you like will work, even a little rosette. If you are making a bow, sew the sides down where you pin them.


Step Four: If you want your bow to be scrunched up in the middle use a needle and a thread and simply stitch and pull the thread as tight as you can without tearing the thread. There is no real technical way to do this so just continue until you've scrunched enough to your liking.


Step Five: Stitch the bow to the headband wherever you like. Since I'm a bit anal I had to make sure my seam was centered in the back and the bow was off to the right. I stitched my bow on using the hand method with a needle and thread but you can use a sewing machine, or whatever works for you.

THAT'S IT! Your all done!!! This was SO easy and such an affordable version of the sweater ones in a department store!! They also make great stocking stuffers!!!


Happy Sewing loves!!!