I'M CUTTING OUT SUGAR!... starting tomorrow.

I've had this brilliant idea to cut out refined sugars from my diet. As I'm writing this, though, I'm eating a bowl of icecream and last night I took it upon myself to make meringue cookies. This "reformed diet" idea may need to wait for a bit. I think healthy eating is something I'm definitely going to start incorporating into my life more, but I sat down with the February edition of Southern Living Magazine only to stop myself on the first page when I saw a recipe for cotton candy meringues! Making these little sweets was the best and worst decision of the week.

To make these, you'll need:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. white vinegar
1&1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
OPTIONAL food coloring

To start:
1. Pre-heat oven to 250 F. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
2. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together, then gradually beat the mixture into the egg yolks.
3. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the vinegar and vanilla into the egg white mixture.
4. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment, place dollops of the mixture. I chose to pipe mine out with a bag and Wilton's 1M piping tip.
5. Bake for an 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, but leave the pan in for 1&1/2 hours. The meringues will be good up to five days in an airtight container.

I separated my batter into three different bowls and added food coloring to them. In one bowl, 2 drops red & 1 drop blue. In the second bowl, I added 2 blue, 1 green and 1 yellow. In the last bowl, i added 2 red and 2 yellow.  I didn't fully fold in the coloring so it was a little stripey! I layered the different colored mixtures in the piping bag so they would come out all swirly and pretty!

These would be really nice to serve at a wedding or baby shower. You can add practically any flavoring or coloring. They are just so fun. They look really sweet and dainty and taste similar to Lucky Charms marshmallows. If you're having less sugar (starting tomorrow,) like I am, I highly recommend that you binge a little on these first!

Peace and love. XXX.

This Post is Brought to You by Gingerbread

To all the people who say gingerbread is for Christmas time only, I say gingerbread knows no bounds.  Here's the recipe:

2 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 cup softened butter
4 tbsp. molasses 
1 large egg
1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, cream the butter, egg, molasses and sugar until smooth. 
3. Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture 1/3 at a time.
4. On a clean, dry surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut out your shapes.
5. Transfer the shapes to the baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes. 

I like to frost mine with white chocolate ganache (white chocolate melted with heavy cream,) but you can frost them with anything or leave them naked. What's especially fun is wrapping up these little beauties! I found this precious wax paper at Michael's craft store that I used with washi tape from Target. If you're feeling like you need to get a Texas shaped cookie cutter (and you should feel that way,) you can find that here.

If you're a home fragrance kind of person World Market is the place to go. I went there the other day and upon seeing incense and candles, I was throwing my money at it like it had no value to me. I had to remind myself that I didn't need 16 candles or 12 packages of incense.  I bought a Moroccan Spice candle along with some Frangipani (plumeria) and Herb de Provence incense. When I first started using incense I had no idea what I was doing and I don't want you to be in the same boat.

First, you'll need an incense holder; they're fireproof and keep ashes from getting all over surfaces. There's a small hole at the end of the holder for the incense to go into. Light the incense at the thick end of the stick and let it burn for a few seconds. Blow out the flame and the incense should be glowing. It's simple to do and and just really calming.

Gingerbread and incense is not a traditional pairing, it's also not a bad one.

Peace and love. XXX.