Fact: I am a big, nerdy Disney lover and a reluctant, but big fan of Once Upon a Time.



If you also watch Once Upon a Time then you’re likely aware that season 3 premieres tonight. Peter Pan is my favorite book, movie and play within and outside of Disney so I’ve been freaking out over the sneak peeks!



It’s clearly going to be a visually stunning storyline!

Per my usual, I wanted to incorporate food into this fun. It seemed fitting that I should plan some really delicious Once Upon a Time inspired treats to feature this week. Here’s a peek at a few things to come:

Cinnamon Hot Chocolate – Snow White Chili – Apple Turnovers

In other very timely news, e.l.f. has released their 2013 Disney Villains Look Books.

All four sets are available exclusively at Walgreens for $9.99.

The Look Books this year feature The Evil Queen, Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella De Vil. My favorite princess/villain combo is Snow White and the Evil Queen so that was the set I went for.



The Look Book comes with:

• Lengthening and Defining Mascara
• Black Eyeliner Pencil
• Black Liquid Liner
• Eyeshadow Brush
• Eyeshadow Primer
• Lip Color
• A Six Shadow Palette (Huntsman, Jealously, Majesty, Witch, Vanity, and Dark Magic)

One thing I love about cool nights is warm drinks. I really enjoy sipping sweet and spicy chai after dinner, but the caffeine definitely keeps me up. To combat this I started drinking caffeine free Rooibos Chai. I dress it up with warm milk, spices and vanilla to make it extra cozy!

Warm Chai for Fall Nights
Ingredients:

• 1 rooibos chai tea bag (or any caffeine free chai)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon sweetener
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

This is my 100th post! I made this celebratory picture just now in my true form. No make up retouches, no cute cat distractions. You know….to show how real I am.

I’ve had such a great time coming into my own here. To all those who have ever commented (ever!), I really truly appreciate you with all my heart. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts on my little musings and recipes. And if you’ve never commented, I still love you! Thank you for reading.

Since this blog is proof that my mind is always on food, I present you with another recipe adapted from The Winnie the Pooh Cookbook: Easy Biscoff Honee Buns. These are crazy easy and adaptable. The original recipe calls for nuts, but I was in a mood and decided that crushed up Biscoff cookies was (at that moment) more desirable. It was a good choice.



Easy Biscoff Honee Buns
Adapted from Easy Honey Buns from The Winnie the Pooh Cookbook
Ingredients: 

• 1 package of frozen or refrigerated dinner rolls (or make your own – about 16oz worth)
• 2 biscoff cookies, crushed (or 2 tablespoons chopped nuts)
• 2 tablespoons Bee Free Honee or agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk

“It’s very, very funny,
‘Cos I know I had some honey;
‘Cos it had a label on, 
  Saying HUNNY.” – Winnie the Pooh

My husband and I are big biscuit lovers. While we try not to polish off a batch in a day, our attempts are often futile. However, things get a little safer when butternut squash is in season. I replace most of the fat in my biscuits with roasted and pureed squash. This makes them lower in fat and provides a delicate sweet depth of flavor. Obviously these are in regular rotation for Fall breakfasts.

Butternut Squash Biscuits
Adapted from Cream Biscuits in the Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup butternut squash puree (instructions below)
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread
• 3/4 cup non-dairy milk 

1. Preheat your oven to 400. In a medium bowl combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.
2. Add the squash puree and Earth Balance to the flour mixture. Cut them in with your fingers or a pastry cutter until they are the size of peas.
3. Take 1 tablespoon of milk out of the 3/4 cup and set aside. Pour the rest of the milk over the flour and stir gently with a spatula until it comes together.
4. Pour the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead it a few times until it’s not super sticky. Roll it out to 3/4″ thick and cut out your biscuits. Repeat until you’re out of dough.
5. Brush the biscuits with the remaining tablespoon of milk. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the tops are golden.

Butternut Squash Puree
1. Preheat your oven to 350. Peel your butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut the flesh into 1 inch cubes. In heavy-bottomed skillet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper bake for 25-30 minutes until soft. After cooling for about ten minutes, transfer the squash to a food processor and puree.

This week was super busy. We started by turning our dining room into an office. I resisted the idea for so long because our home has a very specific look. The last thing I wanted to do was disrupt our groove with a big ole ugly office. The office had to be beautiful or it wasn’t happening. I spent hours combing through Ikea’s website to come up with a plan. We shopped, my husband built, and in the end we love it. It’s spacious, beautiful, and adds to our home’s aesthetic. Plus its nice not sharing our bedroom with work!



Now I can eat breakfast on my desk:



And pet my cat as I work:



Other than enjoying our new office, we really just relaxed into our routine.

I listened to this on repeat:



I think it was a hint for me to make him more French food. Can do!

While we’re already enjoying Fall foods, we’re going enjoy these last few days of Summer (even though it will be hot here for another two months). We’re prepping for one more Summer BBQ at the end of the week, and after that we’ll be ready to Actually Officially welcome Fall. Can’t wait!

We’re two games into the college football season (about an hour away from the third) and my team is really really struggling. USC fans are used to their team playing exceptionally well so there’s like this feeling of crisis going on at our local game watches. We lost the game last week to kind of a silly team, and morale is low low low. 

• 2 oversized t-shirts
• scissors
• rulers or measuring tape

1. Cut the hem off of the bottom of the first shirt and set it aside for later. Cut off the sleeves and set them aside as well.  

2. Starting from the bottom of the shirt up to the cut off sleezes, cut 1 1/2″ strips short ways so that you get 10-12 long loops. Stretch the loops out to get them to curl in on themselves. Wrap each loop around your fingers to make ringlets. Set the ringlets aside. 

3 . Take your reserved hem and cut it into 5″ strips. These will be used to tie the ringlets together. 

4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 with the other shirt. I was able to get about 20 ringlets and 19 hem strips between the two shirts.  

5. Use the hem strips to tie the ringlets into a long chain.  

6. YEAH SCARF!

My husband and I have very full schedules and often look longingly at convenience foods for quick meal options. We very rarely give in because we know that anything we cook from scratch is going to be a lot yummier and healthier than anything packaged. Still though…sometimes…..the ease.

I’m so excited to share this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Chex Mix! Chex Mix is quintessential Fall food for me so making a cinnamon apple version was a no-brainer.

As always, we had such a busy week. 

Last Sunday I threw my Mother a 50th birthday party. I worked day and night for weeks on this party. Everything from wine labels, to wine charms to coffee cups were personalized.



Look at these little chocolate chip cookie shooters! There was a carafe of almond milk next to them for all shooting and dunking needs. Too cute.



I spent the rest of the week cleaning up and catching up at work while my husband went back to school (he teaches!). I always prefer to have him home with me, but going back to work re-introduced us to our Fall schedule. It’s nice to get back in the groove of things.

When Friday hit we went to dinner with my family at Phara’s where we sat outside in the gorgeous outdoor gazebo. It was really hot, but also charming. These are our “hot, but charming” faces. I don’t know how to look into cameras.



On Saturday night we went to the USC game watch. The game watch was amazing as always, but my Trojans are killing me. They may be struggling, but they’re still my team and my spirit lives on. I pulled some over-sized USC t-shirts out of our closet and made myself a scarf for the next game.



Fight On, don’t Cry On! Crafts are the perfect way to keep from crying over football. 

I’ll post the how-to for this type of scarf this week. It took 30 minutes, provided a new accessory, and made room in my closet. Best craft ever!

XOHV

I take pumpkins very seriously in the Fall. Pumpkin beer, pumpkin candles, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkins around my house, pumpkins on my porch, pumpkins 4 life! When I found this Toaster Pastry Press on super clearance a few weeks ago, I knew that I had to use it to make pumpkin pop tarts. I just had to. 

These are so good and are the perfect introduction to this year’s Fall baking. The crust is buttery and flakey while the filling is creamy and warmly kissed with brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger. The whole thing is topped with a sweet glaze consisting of Fall’s best spices. They are kitschy enough to be fun while sophisticated enough be enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee.

Pumpkins, I’ve missed you.




Homemade Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts
Ingredients:
Crust:
Adapted from Ina’s Perfect Pie Crust

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread
• 1/3 cup Earth Balance Natural Shortening 
• 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 heaping cup pureed pure pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

• pinch nutmeg

• non-dairy milk

1. Combine the powdered sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Slowly drizzle in the milk until it reaches a thick and syrupy consistency.

7. Carefully spread the glaze over the tops of your tarts. Allow them to completely harden before storing.