When I was in Italy, photography was one of the great classes that I got to take. This time last year, I was working on my final photography assignment. I chose Christmas for the theme of my project. I thought I would share a few of my favorite ones with you. Most of these photos are in Florence and a few are in Venice.
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I hope you enjoy them.
Candy Cane Candles
It is that wonderful time of year again! It is getting colder, we have off from school and of course Christmas!
One of the problems that I find every year at this time is that I want to decorate my apartment to the fullest with lights, wreaths and scented candles to make it some kind of winter wonderland, but like most college kids, I go home for Christmas. I would not get to fully appreciate all of the decorations that I put up and they are expensive! Also logistically, I have nowhere extra to store decorations in my small apartment. So, each year I try to make something small, cheap and Christmas-y that I can put around the apartment to help boost the cheer and make it feel like the holidays until I get to my parent’s house.
This year it is candy cane candles. Relatively inexpensive at only $8 for all of the supplies for four of them and super cute when they are finished.
All you need is:
Four red taper candles. ( I bought them mine at Publix.)
Two packages of candy canes. ( 24 in each package.)
Red ribbon.
A glue gun.
Christmas Music!
And that’s it. Not much to it really. Sorry I did not take any photos of the process. I didn’t think about it until after they were already done.
Turn on the glue gun to give it time to get really hot. I found that it the candy would not stick to the candle when the glue gun was only hot enough to squeeze glue out. If you wait till the glue is hot enough to melt the candle wax, it makes the process go a little faster. Make a ring around the candle about a third of the way up the candle. You can use a paper clip or a piece of plastic, but I just used my nail. This leaves about two-thirds of the candle for you to burn and also so that the candle is not sitting on the table. Use the ring as a guide of where you are going to line up the end of the candy cane. I left the wrappers on the candy. You can take them off if you want, but it would leave marks on my wood table, so I decided against it. When you are gluing the canes around the ring, pay attention to keeping all of them at the same level. I am not going to lie, my first candle is really crooked!
It should take about 10 canes for each candle. If the last one doesn’t fit all the way into the space, I just tried to stuff it in as much as possible so that there was no empty spaces on the candle.
Once you have glued all the of the canes around the candle glue a ribbon around all of the canes. I added a bow to give it a little extra and Voila! You have yourself some decorations that you made yourself. And a good bonus, as Jon keeps on asking for, when you are done with the candles for the season, you can take them apart and eat the canes.
Also, If you do not celebrate Christmas but still want to make say Chanukah candles, they have blue and white candy canes! Be creative and have fun with it!
I hope that you enjoy making your candles!
What else do you do to make your house festive for cheap?
Happy Holidays!
Just a little homage to Florence. This time last year I was enjoying the beautiful fall in Italy.
Love
Stuffed Green Peppers
Stuffed Peppers is one of my favorites recipes to make because it is one of those meals that you can just stick all together, put in the oven, and go on your other activities. An hour later, Poof! A fabulous dinner. And of course, I feel good about myself for all the vegetables that I managed to put in one dish. One thing at our house is that we always have peppers in the house. Jon and I must eat around 4-6 peppers a week, putting them in everything. Fun fact, a green pepper is loaded with vitamin C, an entire days worth as well as vitamin A. As is it now fall, the green pepper is coming into its growing season, so they are big and juicy!
When I have baked peppers before, I usually do a simple beef, a few chopped carrots and rice, but I was out of carrots. So I stumbled upon this great recipe for halved peppers stuffed, Greek style on the Food Network. It was already getting late and I was getting hungry, so there was no way I was venturing to Publix to get the extra supplies that I needed. I ended up with a more “Italian Style” pepper than Greek, but it was great!
Here is a list of the items that you will need. Remember, it is always good to substitute or use other vegetables if you have those. Sometimes, you end up with a better result than the original recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Cook the rice until almost soft. I took it off a few minutes early. It will soften up some more when it bakes.
In a large bowl combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, onion, rice, egg, oregano, salt, paprika and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Half the peppers and take out all the seeds and extra white filling. I find it easiest to scrape it out with a spoon. Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9 by 13-inch dish. Fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Make sure that you stuff the meat into all the crack and crevices of the pepper and then make a dome with the meat. I just curved my hand over it while I was packing it.
Pour the tomatoes over the peppers and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese . Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer. Let it set for 5 minutes to cool down and bring back in some of the tomato juice.
Now it is time to enjoy. You can eat it out of the pepper like a bowl, or chop it all up so you can eat the pepper at the same time! For those who haven’t tried peppers or don’t like them, give them another try. They are sweet and crunchy and good for you. Unlike other peppers, they are not spicy!
I hope that you enjoy your peppers!
Yours,
On a side note, today is my Birthday!! So one of my upcoming posts will be the perfect birthday cake!
Today’s musical inspiration comes from:
Since the first day of Fall was a little over a week ago, and the Halloween decorations have officially decked the stores, I thought it was time to start fall cooking. One of my favorite fall past-times is caramel apples. I used to always wait and buy already-made apples, or buy the caramel cubes, melt them down and dip them in that.
This year I thought, why not make the caramel from scratch. I love making recipes from scratch and actually knowing what goes into it. It tastes better that way. I found great caramel recipe from cooks.com and then melted chocolate and drizzled it on top and rolled the apple in sugar sprinkles and M&M’s.
My friend Justin came over to help me make the caramel and keep me company while Jon was at work. I think he also really likes caramel and just wanted a sugar high. 
Here is what you are going to need.
Dip apples to coat holding over saucepan to drain. Place saucepan over heat to thin as needed. I like to only coat about half of the apple. Anything more than that and it is just too much caramel for me. Place apples stick side up on greased pan to cool.
Use a spoon and drizzle as much chocolate as you want on the side of your cooled apple. Before the chocolate can cool, dip the apple and roll it around in topping of your choice. I ended up mixing a few things into one bowl to save time and to get everything on there evenly. When you finish all the apples, stick them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to cool the chocolate.
And now they are ready to enjoy!! You can either bite into to or you can cut slices . I usually cut them into slices, it saves me from sugar, chocolate and caramel all over my face.I am loving this weather! So in tribute, here is an awesome song by Frank Sinatra.
Autumn in New York
I am making Caramel apples as we speak, so I’ll be posting the tutorial tomorrow.
Love,
Carly and I at the FAU V. Gators Game!
Hi everyone!
This is my first official post for my new blog. As a senior in college, it was about time for me to jump into blogging, but I have never really been able to get my head around it. So now, hopefully, I will be able to share a little about my life and all my tips and tricks for cooking!
Just a little about myself, I am a senior at the University of Florida, and a public relations major with a minor in leadership. I am the Director of Alpha PRoductions, a student-run PR firm in the college. Alpha is a constant learning experience and a very time-consuming position, but it is a huge passion for me to learn more about working in PR and to help other students (my account associates) do the same! While Alpha keeps my very busy, I hope to use this blog as an outlet for my stress and as a great way to track what I am cooking. I am an avid baker and although I don’t get to bake as often as I would like, it is a relaxer. I love to experiment with new recipes and ways to bake. I just got a new stand mixer, so the baking has never been easier!
The receiver of the majority of my baking is my awesome boyfriend Jon. Jon and I have been together for almost 5 years now and through the highs and the lows, he is the love on my life and my best friend. He is a cook and wants to become a professional chef, so sometimes it is quite a fight in the kitchen when we both want to cook. That being said, we always eat well at our apartment and I’m pretty sure our friends have a rotation schedule of who gets to come over for dinner.
I have amazing friends, who I am pretty sure I would have lost my mind somewhere around sophomore year if it wasn’t for their late night study sessions and ladies night parties!
Another thing you should know about me is that I am a complete night owl, ( It is currently 4:35 am.) so a lot of my writing, studying and baking happen during the odd hours when people are asleep.
Well, I think that is enough about me for now.
Love,
Up next, in honor of Autumn - Caramel Apples, Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Carving!
