Diamonds and Pearls

Being a girly-girl, I love all kinds of jewelry and I can never have enough, but my absolute favorites are diamonds and pearls. Diamonds are my birthstone, so it is very fitting. I wanted some sparkle for my wrist - check out my new bracelet, it was free!

The large beads and faux pearls came from an old broken necklace, the little swarovski beads are from one of those bracelets that were all the rage in the late 90s (at least they were on Long Island), and the little pearls were dangling from a pair of earrings that are beautiful but never got worn. I strung them up on some elastic string I had lying around and just knotted it 80 million times until I was pretty sure it wasn't going anywhere.

If you like handmade, unique jewelry, you HAVE to see what my aunt has in her etsy shop LaCocoBella. She makes the prettiest little pieces and everything is really affordable.

raspberry ice

travels in turquoise

 

criss cross quartz

Thanksgiving Trial #2

Dee from September the March made the suggestion of using Honey Butter with my Honey Cornbread Muffins.  Great Idea!

Last year I bought an acorn cookie cutter from Crate and Barrel because I thought it would be so cute to make acorn shaped butter pats.  I didn't get to do it last year, but I will this year!

I did some googling for honey butter recipes and I really like that Alton Brown's uses cinnamon and vanilla, too.  His recipe uses a whole pound of butter!!  Since I only need to do a trial run, I scaled the recipe down to 2 tbsp. butter, 3/4 tsp. honey, a pinch of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla.  Rather than busting out the handmixer, I whipped the ingredients by hand.  Make sure your butter is really soft before you whip it.

Plop the butter onto a sheet of parchment and flatten with another sheet on top.  Let it harden back up in the fridge.

After about an hour, you can cut out pats just like cookies.  I love the little flecks of cinnamon and it tastes so yummy.

When I make this for Thanksgiving,  I'll spread the butter out onto a rimmed cookie sheet and smooth with an offset spatula.

I'm linking up with Kimba@A Soft Place to Land:

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Sunday means it's time to bake, and even better when I have a birthday girl in need of cupcakes. After chocolate last week, I thought some cinnamon was needed.

May I present Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, courtesy of my icon, Ms. Stewart.

Start by sifting together all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Cream your butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time; then add your vanilla.

Since you asked, I use the Kitchenaid Architect 9-Speed Handmixer.  I bought this as a present to myself over the summer and I love it!  I'd love to have the standmixer when my kitchen has enough space to store it, but for now, this handmixer kicks butt!

To finish your batter, add the dry ingredients in thirds alternating with 1 1/4 cups milk.

Then fill your pans. The recipe says it yields 28 - I made 24 and had some batter left over.

Onto the Frosting!  Seven-Minute Frosting that is.  I didn't get any pictures of the process because it was pretty hands on the whole time.  In short, heat your sugar with water and corn syrup to 230 degrees.  At the same time, beat your egg whites and add in sugar.  As soon as the sugar mixture comes to 230 degrees, call for your husband to help you pour the hot sugar into the egg whites while you beat the whole time, phew!

I couldn't find the right size pastry tip at the store, so I improvised by using just the coupler and it worked great.  Each cupcake got a big "kiss" of frosting and then a dusting of cinnamon sugar with some bronze pearl dust added for some birthday sparkle :)

So pretty.  At work this morning, they got set up on the Cupcake Tree so we could sing happy birthday and enjoy our 10:30am treat.

Happy Birthday tomorrow, to my brother Jared.  I'm so proud of you for all the big gigs you are getting as a film editor!

I'm linking up with Kimba@A Soft Place to Land:

Thanksgiving Trial #1

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Now it's time to focus on Thanksgiving - yeay!!

My sister, Ashley, and I decided that we are going to ask our parents to make the turkey and we are going to do the rest.  Sides, desserts, table-scaping - the works!

In preparation for the big day, I'd like to test out some recipes and flesh out ideas for decorations before traveling to my parents house so that everything goes smoothly.

I made these Honey Cornbread Muffins to go with our dinner Friday night and they were delish.

These were easy and quick to make and could be done right before your family sits down to eat.  You could also make them ahead since cornbread keeps just fine for a few days.

Mmmm, I love my cornbread slathered in butter.