Design & Decor Blog

Have you gotten into the spirit? Everywhere I turn today, there are signs of Halloween, from the young children I passed this morning, standing in line for the school bus to the decorated offices at my workplace. It’s the perfect time for adults to release their inner child and have some fun. If you haven’t gotten in on the fun, it’s not too late to start! Here are four easy Halloween recipes that are sure to put you in the spirit of things. Try ‘em!

Recipe: Great pumpkin cookies
Recipe: Spiderweb sugar cookies
Recipe: Friendly ghosts
Recipe: I’Scream cake

Is it just me or is it hard to believe that Thanksgiving arrives this weekend? Well, ready or not, it’s coming and if you’re not quite ready, don’t fear. styleathome.com is your one-stop resource for fabulous Thanksgiving recipes and decor ideas. Here are a few I thought might help you pull of an easy but elegant Thanksgiving celebration:

1 Thanksgiving decor: Tips for planning the perfect holiday party
From decor and food to music and hostess gifts, entertaining expert Nik Manojlovich shares the secrets to a truly unforgettable Thanksgiving.

2 Recipe: Turkey with orange-herb basting sauce
This meal is sure to have your dinner guests asking for invitations for next year.

3 Recipe: Classic apple pie
Make your Thanksgiving feast a winner with this classic apple pie.

4 10 Thanksgiving decor accessories
Get your home ready for Thanksgiving with these 10 autumn home accessories.

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Flipping through the pages of Canadian Living’s Holiday Celebrations 2009, I realized I had started to drool. Just, you know, a little. Sure, it’s a little early to get into the holiday spirit but I admit, I like getting ideas early. And anyway, isn’t a Coconut Lime Pie Martini suitable anytime of year?

Canadian Living’s Holiday Celebrations 2009 hit newsstands on Monday (and is available for purchase online, too) and I thought you might want to take a sneak peek. Here’s what you’ll find inside:

Cool features:
A Dessert Martini Bar with 8 not-to-miss sweet martini recipes
Tastefully elegant tiny hors d’oeuvres: Mini Chicken Pot Pies
Cool vegetarian section: A sensational pan-global assortment of meatless morsels
AND a tasteful cocktail party menu on a budget

Holiday Celebrations 2009
Price: $5.95

The recipes that caught my eye:

September is a deliciously in-between time of year. It’s kind of warm, it’s kind of cool. You could just as easily get away with wearing a summer dress with a cardigan or your favourite pair of jeans with a t-shirt. Depending on the day, you may find yourself entertaining guests indoors or enjoying one of the year’s final al fresco meals. You just never know in September. Each day is like a little surprise. As we welcome the month, full of optimism and resolutions (there’s something about the back-to-school season that really feels like a new year, even more so than January 1, don’t you think?), check out our list of 10 things to do in September. What are you going to tackle? Me, I’m going to cut that clutter!
Image courtesy of Gap Interiors.

I’ve already had lunch but suddenly, I’m ravenous again …

Recipe: Flourless chocolate cake

Recipe: Mint and zucchini pasta

Recipe: Spinach, ricotta and dill pies

All recipes excerpted from No Time to Cook by Donna Hay. Copyright 2009 by Donna Hay. Excerpted with permission by HarperCollins. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Every day, it’s inevitable. Around 3pm in the afternoon, I start to crave sugar. I just seem to need an extra jolt to push me through to the end of the day. And today, the perfect match for my sweet tooth would most certainly be these lemon cupcakes.

Excerpted from Cupcake Kit: Recipes, Liners, and Decorating Tools for Making the Best Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans, this recipe is easy and makes a delightfully delicious sweet treat.

“Lemons are always in season and these lemon cupcakes are ready to party, to picnic, to lunch, or to take part in any happy occasion.

The yellow part of the lemon peel has a strong lemon flavor and is used to flavor the cupcake batter and frosting. Be sure to wash and dry lemons before grating the peel, and to grate only the colored part of the rind (the white pith under the rind is bitter). The cake flour used here adds an especially tender texture to these cupcakes. It can be found in the baking section of supermarkets.”

Get the entire lemon cupcake recipe! Plus, check out our food section for more easy recipes.

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OK, I swear. This is my last Easter egg post. Well, for today anyway. It’s just that Easter, like Christmas, really lends itself to such beautiful decorating ideas and especially with spring in full swing, there’s something so refreshing about surrounding yourself with the pretty pastels that are so popular both for Easter and for spring. Well, Chris Job at Curbly shows us how to dye Easter eggs the natural way. Forget chemical dyes that stain your hands and do all sorts of other untold damages. Chris suggests turmeric, red onion skins and blueberries, among other things, to create a rainbow of colours and provides tips for creating a variety of effects like marbling and mottling and such. Anyway, you just have to watch the video to find out how to make these lovely, lovely eggs. And of course, I’ll remind you again: Don’t forget to try some of the easy Easter egg crafts we have on styleathome.com.

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This blog post is designed specifically to make you salivate. These Rice Krispie treats (pictured left) from The Crispery are available for order only in the U.S. (boo!) but they look so yummy, I had to share! They come in a variety of individual flavours like: Caramel and Marshmallow, Peanut Butter, Coconut and Chocolate Dipped Crispy to name a few. Mmmm! It’s not like my hometown of Toronto doesn’t have its own fair share of bakeries that make mouthwatering treats. This blogto.com blog post lists the best cupcakes in Toronto, for example. And Rice Krispie squares are easy enough to make at home (though The Crispery certainly adds an original twist to an old favourite!) If you’re interested in making your own squares at home, here are a few recipes from Canadian Living: Cocoa frosted Rice Krispies peanut squares, Rice Krispies fruit and nut granola bars.

Anyway, I’m just feeling mighty hungry now. If you’ve got an insatiable sweet tooth and are looking for more ideas, check out our Food & Entertaining section, full of easy recipes for delicious desserts! The weekend is the perfect time to try your hand at a new recipe.

Here are a few of my faves (pictured right):

Chocolate dream scone with mascarpone spread
Cranberry pistachio biscotti
Baby butter and jam sandwiches

One of the great things about Facebook, besides reconnecting with long lost friends (and maybe a few you’d rather have remained estranged from), is being able to check out your friends’ latest and greatest pictures. Thanks to Facebook, I’m able to stay in touch with friends in a way that we just didn’t seem to have time for before the rise of social networking. I can get instant updates on their travel plans, see every angle of their newborn’s smile and check out what they were up to on the weekend. It’s great fun and while nothing replaces the necessity of face-to-face contact over drinks, it’s a pretty decent alternative when you’re busy. Anyhow … all of this is by way of explanation for how I stumbled upon this fab new find! Whilst snooping, I mean … casually perusing a friend’s photos of a baby shower she’d recently attended, I spied the loveliest, cupcake-shaped cake adorning the buffet table. Love at first sight! Where, oh where did she get the pan to make this, I wondered? But I wondered only momentarily because, in perfect Facebook fashion, everything I needed to know was right there in the comments section with a list of retailers for curious gals like myself. So I hunted it down at Williams-Sonoma and now I’m sharing it with you. Drum roll, please! I give you … The Great Cupcake Pan!

Available at: Williams-Sonoma
Price: $36

I spent this weekend enjoying holiday cheer with my family. We put on some Christmas music (some of my favourites are Elvis Christmas Duets, Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong,  and Celine Dion’s These are Special Times) and set to the task of decorating the tree. It was a lovely festive afternoon of family and fun.

We also enjoyed a glass each of fresh and frothy homemade eggnog. I recently spent a weekend at Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, just outside of San Francisco (you can read a bit more about it here) and I visited the cooking school, where Kelsie Kerr, Cooking School Director, was whipping up delicious, delectable holiday eggnog.

I was inspired. While I didn’t get my hands on Kelsie’s recipe, I did find a few online and I whipped up a batch of this sweet treat for my family. Mmm! Here are a few for you to try, courtesy of eggnogrecipe.net.

Easy Eggnog
Diamond Eggnog Recipe
Traditional Eggnog Recipe
Coconut Eggnog Recipe
Chocolate Eggnog Recipe
Low Fat Eggnog