December IPSY Glam Bag Review

I always love makeup and beauty bags during holiday seasons. December's bag was no different! Come see!

English Laundry Signature scents
The only thing I don't like about these is that they leaked in transit and the whole bag smelled like it. A little bit of perfume isn't bad...but a half a bottle leaked? Yeah, thats stinky. Either way, seperated from the bag, they smell light, and fantastic. 

JCat - the BIG Lip Pencil
In the last few month's I've gotten an insane amount of lip crayons, pencils, and deep red lipsticks. I was bummed at first to see another lip pencil in my bag, until I tried it out and realized it wasn't a deep red, but a lighter, prettier red! I was so excited to wear it and it has been my holiday go-to look since!

POP Eyeshadow Palette
I adore these colors and was so excited to see them in a palette. These are the colors I aim for with my daily makeup for work and errands, so I was really excited to try out this palette this month!

Be a Bombshell Blush
While I usually don't wear blush, I've been wearing this for holiday parties, and I love it! I can't wait to try it out for date nights soon!

Starrily Bzzz Bzzz nail polish

I love this color combo. I ended up layering it with some gold underneath to create a fun look and got compliments for days about my mani. I just love this color combo!

If you love the products you see above and want to also sign up to get some goodies, check out this link and do it! You'll love it!

Jane's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

I have a co-worker who makes the BEST desserts in the world. She's also probably the skinniest person I know, which makes her dessert making quite ironic. She always knows which recipes are best for cookies, cakes and brownies, and when she brings some into work it gets chaotic because everyone knows, she makes the best. When I asked for her cookie recipe, I wasn't entirely sure she'd hand it over, but sure enough she did! Here it is folks, the best chocolate cookies in the world!

What you'll need:
8 oz semi sweet chocolate - chopped
4 tbs unsalted butter
2/3 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package semi sweet chocolate chunks

How to do it:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a microwave safe bowl, mix chopped chocolate and butter, 20 seconds at a time, stirring in between until almost melted. In a seperate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed and mix in melted chocolate. Then, add flour mixture. Finally add in the chocolate chunks.
3. Drop quarter sized amounts of dough onto baking sheets. Bake, until cookies are shiny and crackly (about 12 minutes, flipping halfway though), transfer to cooling racks to cool seperately. 

This will make about 17 cookies...and you'll only share about three of them.
Serve and enjoy!

Broiled Grapefruit

I had originally seen this as a pin on Pinterest, but it had no link to it. Bummed, I took to the internet to find out how to make these...after all, I had been given a few for the holidays and we need to use them up before they go bad. Come to find out, broiled grapefruit is very popular in the south, and very easy to make.
Here's how.

Cut your grapefruit in half (I did fourths because I was sharing with a toddler). Cover each half in 1 teaspoon of brown sugar. Place in the oven on broil and cook for 3-6 minutes.
Let cool, serve, and enjoy!

Crockpot Roasted Almonds

Nothing is better than a super-easy crockpot recipe! When everything else is hectic (or when holiday baking takes over your oven!), this recipe is great, plus its tasty! 

What you'll need:
3 cups almonds
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c water

How to do it:
In a crockpot, mix everything except for the water. Cook on low for 3 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. At the start of hour 4 add the water, stir well and cook for one more hour.
Remove from crockpot, lay out on a baking sheet and let cool. Break up any clumps or clusters that may form and enjoy!

Cheater Christmas Cookies

So, here's the backstory. In the process of planning for a cookie exchange for a Christmas party, I realized that I had put all my eggs in one basket that a stellar cookie recipe from a co-worker would make it to my home in time. Frantic, I whipped up this recipe.

Here's what you need:
2 rolls pillsbury sugar cookie dough
2-4 drops red food coloring

LOTS of sprinkles

How to do it:
Add food coloring and cookie dough to a bowl and mix well. Once mixed, lay out cookies on a cookie sheet and preheat the oven. Now, cover your cookies in as many sprinkles as possible!
Let cool on a cooling rack, serve and enjoy your cheater cookies! 

(No one has to know they're not homemade!)

Roasted Pecans

This year, for the holidays, I wanted to test out some new recipes! One of the recipes was roasted pecans, and I was excited to see how they would turn out.

The person I look to for food critique liked it (my husband) so that means I have to share it with you!

What you'll need:

1 cup nuts
1/2 cup maple syrup
5 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

How to do it:
Roast at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, stir, flip and return to oven for 15 more minutes.
Remove from baking sheet and let cool, then, enjoy!

Doritos Dinamita Chile Limon Crockpot Chicken

Wow! What a mouthful this recipe is.
With a popular as the Doritos Crockpot Chicken recipes are, I picked up a few new flavors of Doritos to try out the recipes. This one is not going to disappoint you, to say the least! 

We found Doritos Dinamita Chile Limon at NPS. I hadn't seen them at any of our local grocery stores, but my husband said that his work friends buy them at the Asian specialty stores or the Mexican grocery stores. I bought a 4oz bag, we really didn't need more than that. 

What you'll need:
2-3 chicken breasts (frozen)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 brick of cream cheese
1 handful of crushed Doritos

a "squirt" of lime juice (optional)

How to do it:
Mix all the ingredients in the crockpot, and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or high for 3-4 hours).
Stir occasionally, mixing in more Doritos as desired.
Once finished, place a layer of Doritos in the bottom of the bowl. Add mixture, then top with more crushed Doritos. Serve while still warm and enjoy!