holiday help: give back by giving pie
Here at Shelterrific, we’ve learned that a great way to spur charitable contributions is to appeal to the cravings of the almighty sweet tooth. We’ve found two tasty options in Baking for Good and The Sweet Potato Project, and here’s a third to outfit that holiday spread: This year, Give Pie. An initiative of United States Charity Fundraising, Give Pie allows you to give back to the community in two ways: by signing up to sell pies, on your own or with a team, or by buying a pie yourself. The organization hopes to sell more than 10,000 pies in each location to aid a variety of local charities, including this year’s featured beneficiary, SkillsUSA. Visit GivePie.com to get involved or stop by United States Charity Fundraising to learn about local opportunities for giving back to your community this holiday season. – Sarah C.
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simple holiday décor that’s anything but cookie cutter
Ever since I saw an interior designer I know place a tin pig cookie cutter on top of a bulletin board as a whimsical wall decoration, I have looked for opportunities to steal the idea. (Thanks for the additional Flickr inspiration Interiors by Ivy, Purple house on pearl, Harthill south and Inspired by everything!) So, with cookie-making season upon us, I am looking for cutters that can double as décor, such as this Crate & Barrel autumn-themed set, this adorable vintage gingerbread couple and this sweet 3†sheep for $1. It’s not just a frugal idea, it’s also a yummy one! –Ginny F.
post off: how do you take your cranberry sauce?
As a kid, my favorite part of Thanksgiving was the cranberry sauce. I was morbidly afraid of the stuffing (I mean really, what was in there?!) and stuck to a safe plate strategy that tended to be very biscuit-heavy. But the cranberry sauce was what I looked forward to most. Thanksgiving is the only time we eat it, and I was enamored with everything about it: the color, the taste, the sugar content and perhaps best of all, the way my mom could get it to slide out of the can and onto a plate in one glorious can-shaped piece of jelly heaven. I was mesmerized. (And, by this logic, you’d think I also liked Spam, but let’s not get crazy). We were a jellied cranberry sauce house, and my allegiance was firmly in that camp, so you can imagine my surprise when we ate at a neighbor’s one year and they served a whole berry sauce. You’d have sworn someone put a plate of prickly brambles in front of me to eat. I was horrified. Since then I’ve come to embrace both varieties, but when I have a choice, still relish the dichotomy of sliding a slick knife through a can-shaped piece of awesome and serving it on our best china. Serious Eats put the store-bought brands to the taste test and crowned a winner in both camps, but let’s get to the heart of it: When it comes to cranberry sauce, which team are you on? Jellied? Or whole berry? – Sarah C.
Need more store-bought recommendations? Stop by Serious Eats for the turkey gravy and stuffing taste tests as well!
steal these ideas: holiday décor hacks from cb2
CB2 has to be the coolest store on the planet: Not only do they make affordable, modern, well-designed furniture, but they also allow their stylists to get creative with their products for catalog staging. And cooler still, they often post how-tos for these crafty hacks on their blog, In the Loop. The blog is brimming with tutorials from their most recent edition, like the minimalist snowball wreath shown above. I think the idea to use a ladder as an impromptu tannenbaum is really fun, (and I’ve heard it’s a Kinderclausen tradition). And for folks who don’t have room for a tree in it’s entirety, or just need a high-impact item over the dining room table, this branch chandelier is a striking and inexpensive way to go. Check out the site for more ambitious holiday tutorials, as well as great inside tips from the folks behind the cool. –Megan B.
real life test kitchen: grandma b.’s rosemary nut rolls
This recipe has a bit of a backstory: The first holiday season that my husband (then boyfriend) spent together, my mother-in-law-to-be made us a HUGE batch of his favorite cookies. These cookies, or “nut rolls”, made from a recipe she got from her mother-in-law, were delicate, buttery, and yeasty, and filled with a not-too-sweet ground walnut filling. After one bite, I was hooked. Next time I saw the M.I.L, I made a point of asking for the recipe, thinking she would be excited to share it with her son’s new love. She said sure, but that it would be a while before she had time to type it up. So I waited. Almost a full year. And I asked again, with a similar response. So I kinda gave up on them, and hoped that someday, I would earn the right to the recipe. As luck would have it, I was reading through one of my favorite cookbooks, the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and stumbled upon a recipe which sounded EXACTLY like what these “nut rolls of mystery” tasted like. So I made the recipe — in the book entitled “Sugar Horns”, and lo and behold, they were the same. Victory! Over the years, I’ve made these so many times that I’ve kind of evolved them into my own thing, subbing out the walnuts for pecans, and adding finely chopped fresh rosemary to enhance the almost-savory quality of these lovelies. They are incredibly good right out of the oven, warm, with a hot cup of coffee and keep beautifully if sealed well. They look beautiful too, and one batch makes so many that they are a great choice for holiday gift giving and potlucks. Hopefully the recipe will become a closely guarded family heirloom for you, too! –Megan B. Click for Grandma B.’s Rosemary Nut Rolls! (more…)
