I’m so excited to be sharing this with you today! I’ve been keeping it under my hat for weeks now!
The time has finally come for me to unveil what I’ve been busily working on all this time:
I HAVE A NEW BLOG!!!
For many, many months I toyed around with idea of narrowing my focus here on YinMom YangMom to strictly baking recipes, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on it. It seemed to go against the concept of our blog, which is meant to be about all aspects of motherhood. With the help of a a few good friends, I finally saw the light! Who’s to say a girl can’t have it all???
So now I’m authoring two blogs (!). All of my non-baking musings will continue to appear here on YinMom YangMom, while my most fabulousest desserts will have a new home….
So, without any further ado, I’m proud to announce the birth of my new baby:
It would mean so, so, so much to me if you’d click on over and have a peek at what I’ve created, with the help of my good friend Lisa of Sweet2Eat Baking. There is a brand new post there for you to drool over, along with some old favorites from YinMom YangMom.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together! Please give it a warm welcome with all the comments, Facebook Likes, Twitter Follows, and Subscriptions as you can muster!
Congratulations to Kesha Hansley Gooding, who is the winner of our Great Skin Giveaway with Sibu Beauty! You will get an email from us shortly with info on claiming your prize.
Thanks to all who participated, we’ve got another great giveaway coming up soon!
Before we get to the party, I’d like to just take a minute to thank everyone for hopping on over during the month of April, to party with me! I’m so very happy to have had the opportunity to make some new bloggy friends! I really enjoy looking at all of your gorgeous posts every week (and drooling, lol). Thank you all for the follows and likes! I will continue to visit you on your blogs and I hope you’ll do the same.
And big thank yous also go out to Lisa for allowing me to co-host. It’s truly been a pleasure!
It’s Sunday!
Welcome to Sugar & Slice Sunday Link Party
The only place where you can party on a Sunday and feel fresh on a Monday!
Subscribe to your host and co-host via the links above. If you’d like, you can also follow us on our social networking links too.
Link up to your dessert posts only, not the homepage. No giveaways please.
Place the button code (above) either on your specific linked post or on a specific link party page. Link the button back to http://www.sweet2eatbaking.com/
This is a party, let’s rock n’ roll folks! Spread the love by visiting other links, commenting and if you desire, pinning their creations on Pinterest.
I recently posted about self-forgiveness, which is something that has contributed greatly to any iota of mental “health” that I may be experiencing in this time of my life. I believe it’s truly something that is one of the keys to nirvana (or even just simple happiness and fulfillment).
Recently, I’ve learned that gratitude is possibly another one of those keys. With our unbelievably busy lives, rife with expectations, goals and failures, sometimes it’s really hard to feel grateful. It’s not even something that crosses our mind, let alone our to-do list.
So, knowing this, I decided to do a little experiment, and I decided to sit still, close my eyes, give my busy monkey mind permission to go play on the swingset, think of passing thoughts as passing clouds (that go unnoticed), and focus on the word gratitude. Say thank you, to myself, my home, my shoes, the sounds of passing cars, anything I was conscious of in that moment, but MOSTLY, thank you to ME, for being me, the me that got me here, the me that keeps me happy.
And you know what happened? I became overwhelmed with a feeling of euphoria.
I think these feelings are catching.
Please, if you have a chance, try this exersize. Maybe if we all do this every day, we’ll all see more magic happening all around us.
Well, folks, the countdown is really on now! And I’m not talking about the end of the world tomorrow; no, my friends, this is waaaaaaay bigger than that. I’m talking Christmas!
With Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, we end up getting a four-day weekend (word). But, it also cuts down on that little window of time you get for last minute gifts to coworkers, teachers, and all the other random people who you won’t be spending the holiday with, but who help make your life easier in countless ways, and who you want to acknowledge in some small way.
Today I want to share a quick, easy, recipe that you can make in big batches, bag or jar up into portions, and keep on hand for last minute gifts to all those special people. It’s about as simple as you can get, and so addictively delicious!
The spice mixture is totally adaptable, you can use any combo of sugar/salt/spice/herb, in whatever ratio will tickle your tastebuds. I personally, like a pretty even balance of salty and sweet, with a slight kick of smoke and heat, and a little herbal freshness and/or citrus punch. This blend has such a great Christmasy flavor! And cashews are my favorite kind of nut (actually legume, to be exact), but this works for any nut or mixture thereof. You can print or save my favorite recipe at the bottom of the post, but first, here’s the lowdown on how it goes together.
Begin by mincing two small sprigs-worth of rosemary leaves very finely, and combine them in a small bowl with brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, smoked paprika, ground clove, and the zest of one clementine. Next, give the egg white and water a little whisk, just to break it up a bit. Place the cashews in a large mixing bowl, pour the egg whites and spice mixture over, and toss to coat. Spread the whole business out on baking sheets, and bake for an hour and a half, stirring every 30 minutes, at 250 degrees. It’s that simple, ya’ll!
It makes a beautiful presentation in a little mason jar, tied up with pretty ribbon. I add a cupcake liner between the top and the ring thingy, to make it extra pretty. And a gift tag is always a nice touch.
Or you can just set them out in a dish for your Christmas guests to nibble on…
…or just shovel them into your own mouth by the fistful…
With less than two weeks (and counting!) left ’til the most cookie-centric holiday on the calendar, I’m sure all my baking peeps are knee-deep in flour, sugar, and butter right about now! So I’m spilling my best cookie baking secrets to you all, in the spirit of giving…
Almost every baking blog I visit has a post or a FAQ devoted to the subject, “How do you bake cookies that don’t spread all over the place in the oven, hold their pretty shape, and have nice, neat edges???” It was not too long ago that I was myself searching for the answer to this age-old cookier question. And when I want something, I do not rest until I’ve nailed it! After much research, and much experimentation, I’ve decided to put everything I’ve learned on this subject into one comprehensive post.
I haven’t posted anything about health in a while. When this blog started back in November, I was in the throws of having recently lost my job, and 6 days later, starting symptoms of thyroiditis.
Thyroiditis was dominating my thoughts at that time, and with good reason, it was causing a deafeningly-loud whooshing sound in my right ear. It was enough to drive a person mad, and I began clamoring for an answer to what was causing it, and more importantly, how to make it stop, IMMEDIATELY!
That began my journey, which eventually led me to read a book, and now I’m in a pretty good place with it all. It went away, for the most part. And it happened so gradually that I almost didn’t even notice.
Today I began to really think; out of all the things I tried (and I did a lot: working out, going sober, elimination diets, meditation, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage) what were the ones that really WORKED?
The answer? The most effective thing was to stop working on it. I pretty much just stopped thinking about it. I also worked hard on eliminating any negative feelings about anything. ANYTHING. So no worrying. No brooding. NO BLAMING (the key).
When a friend complains about work being boring, my first thought was to get annoyed at my job, because yes, it sucks sometimes! Instead I’d put a good spin on it and say, yes, work is a great place to catch up on your daydreaming and web surfing.
It just makes me feel lighter to laugh at the crap that sucks, which relaxes my muscles in my face and neck, which allows my ear to drain more freely (ew).
I also give some credit to my HerbaSway teas. There’s a lot of antioxidants in those, it’s gotta be helping.
I still drink wine, eat cheese, sometimes forget to eat, and drink coffee.
I do those things when I feel like it.
I don’t hold back if I don’t want to,
because I trust that my body will talk to me when it wants me to stop.
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
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