I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog, twitter, or Facebook yet, but I really loved checking out all of the selections you guys made for your entries for The Limited gift card giveaway. I have some stylish readers! 
I was also impressed by all the non-bloggers who came out of lurking to enter. Hola!
Anywho, here are the two lucky winners of the gift cards…
From the blog, comment #49 was the lucky one:
And from Facebook, here’s the randomly selected comment:
Congrats to the winners and a HUGE thank you to The Limited and Michelle for hooking us up with these fantastic prizes! If you missed it, you can check out my photos of The Limited’s new boutique-style here and read my interview with The Limited CEO, Linda Heasley here.
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Here are some recent posts from The Chic Life, in case you missed them:
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And TCL recipes are hitting the web! Check out who’s baking/cooking TCL-style:
Have you made a TCL recipe recently? I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to leave a comment, send a message via my Contact page (click), or email me at thechiclife at gmail dot com.
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Thank you so much for reading and for your support! Happy holidays everyone! 
Tis the season of gift giving, and if you’re anything like me, you like to gift handmade goodies for the holidays. Even if you prefer to purchase your treats from a local store or bakery, this tutorial will work for you, as long as you plan to place them in a mason jar.
Here’s a super easy tutorial on how to festively decorate a mason jar for gift giving.
Mason jars are great for so many holiday gifts: cake/cookie/bread mixes, granola, BBQ sauce, jam/jellies, and the list goes on. This tutorial will work with any mason jar, no matter the contents. Fill it with your choice of treats!
Last year, i made some pretty traditional holiday treats – Cookies ‘N Cream Bark (click for bark recipe) and…
Pink Salted Chewy Caramel Candy (click for caramel recipe). I put a little of each treat into a mason jar so my gift recipients got the best of both worlds.
But, if you just google “mason jar homemade gifts” (or something similar), you’ll find plenty of other options and other ideas.
On to the tutorial!
This tutorial uses simple and affordable materials:
- Mason jars (almost the same price as, if not cheaper than, those cute tins at craft stores)
- Scrapbook paper
- Kitchen twine
- Fabric
The style is reminiscent of old-fashioned jam jars, so you’ve likely seen similar jars. This is just how I ended up decorating mine.
Using a large scrapbook shape puncher of choice (I just used circle-shaped tool), cut out cute scrapbook paper for your gift tags. If you don’t have a puncher, you can really cut any shape you like, even a square or rectangle.
Punch a hole in the top of the gift label.
Write down the contents of the jar on one side of the paper. If you made your jar contents, you may want to add the word “homemade” to your label. Also, maybe pay better attention than I did when I was paper shopping and get one that doesn’t have lines on the back. Oops. Moving on…
Cut a square out of some fun fabric. You want the square to be a little larger (by about 1 – 1 1/2 inches on each side) than the mouth of the jar. Some of the fabric will be covered by the top ring of the jar, so when you’re measuring, be sure to take that into account. My jar is medium sized, and my fabric is about a 5 inch square. For your first jar, just cut one square as your test square, screw on the top ring and see if you like how it looks. Adjust fabric size if needed.
With the silver, flat-disc-part of the top already on the jar, put the fabric on top of the covered mason jar.
Use your fingers to keep the fabric from shifting too much and screw the top ring over the fabric.
Tie on some kitchen twine.
Then tie on your label.
And that’s it! You’re done!
Happy holidays everyone!
Reader question: if you like making them, what do you put in mason jars for gift-giving? If you like receiving them, what’s the best mason jar gift you’ve received over the years?
Hubby has always been a fan of spicy foods, but I’ve only started getting into them since I started dating him. I blame my family for my delayed interest. My family prefers foods with very little heat at all. Not sure why, but that’s how they roll. It works, and I enjoy it, but I’m also having fun flirting with foods on the hot side.
Besides learning to like things spicier eats like more-than-one-star-spicy Thai food, wings, non-mild salsa, and chili, I’ve also really enjoyed the unusual combo of heat with chocolate. Have you seen some of the bars available these days?!
Enter Mexican Hot Chocolate Dough Balls. I took one of my dough ball recipes, converted it to a chocolate version and added cinnamon and cayenne pepper to give it some real kick.
I wasn’t sure at first how much cayenne to add, but like most great questions these days, the answer was just a quick google search away. I found this recipe by Martha Stewart, and since it had a similar dry ingredient amount to a doubled-version of my recipe, I used half her measurement, which ended up being a mere 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. Not too scary an amount, right? One batch later, and I knew I’d had success. A spicy-chocolate cookie – oh yes!
Mexican Hot Chocolate Dough Balls
These chocolate cookies have a spicy kick thanks to the simple addition of cayenne pepper. Add chocolate chips for extra richness. I bet a drizzle of melted chocolate syrup would be fun, too, and would make great presentation if you were entertaining with them.
Adapted from my Sugar Cookie Dough Ball recipe with spice inspiration from this recipe by Martha Stewart
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus at least an additional 20 minutes for the chill/scoop method (chill time) or at least 1 hour for the scoop/freeze method (freeze time)
Bake time: 10-14 minutes
Yield: Makes about 16 cookies depending on scoop size
*Vegan options listed below*
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want your cookies – 1/4 is pretty spicy)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 stick butter, softened/room-temp (or use vegan substitute)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg (or flaxseed-egg)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or use vegan chocolate/carob chip substitute)
Directions (Scoop then freeze method):
- Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt, baking powder, baking soda.
- In a medium bowl, mix sugar and butter. (I used a handheld mixer, but you could probably just use a whisk). Add egg and vanilla and mix till combined.
- Mix wet into the dry. Note: it will appear there is not enough liquid for the amount of dry ingredients, but continue mixing. It will form into a dough, it will just be a firm dough. See tips on this post (click) for combining. Careful to not overmix. I’ve found pressing the back of a firm, medium/large spatula into the dough seems to work well.
- Stir in chocolate chips, if using.
- Use a small sorbet scoop to scoop out dough into small mounds. Spread evenly on a baking sheet, leaving roughly 2-3 inches between each ball. Freeze for at least 30 minutes, though 1 hour is better if you can wait that long. I like to bake half of the dough balls after freezing them for between 1 hour and overnight and save the rest to bake off later at my convenience.
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake balls for 10-11 minutes, depending on how set you want your centers. If you use egg, and you’re paranoid like me, you can use a meat thermometer to ensure the centers of the balls are at least 160 degrees F, which many web sites say is the safe temp to eat eggs.
- Let your dough balls cool to room temperature.
- Enjoy!
Optional Preparation (Chill then scoop):
- Follow above directions through step #5.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes before using a small sorbet scoop to scoop out dough into small mounds. Roll each mound into a ball and spread evenly on a baking sheet, leaving roughly 2-3 inches between each ball.
- Bake balls for 10-14 minutes, depending on how set you want your centers. If you use egg, and you’re paranoid like me, you can use a meat thermometer to ensure the centers of the balls are at least 160 degrees F, which many web sites say is the safe temp to eat eggs.
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Other recipes you may like:
Sweet, chocolatey, and yes…spicy! Try these out this holiday season to freshen up your cookie line up. Happy baking!
We enjoyed a slow morning with family the day after Thanksgiving. No Black Friday shopping for us.
Rose had pancakes, bacon, and coffee waiting for us when we woke up.
And she even made me some of her special oregano elixir since I’m feeling a cold coming on.
{Heidy, Mario, Sis, Rose, me, Ben}
We bid adieu to the family, and a smaller group of the young crowd headed out for our favorite Atlanta tradition – dim sum.
{Leo, Lindsay, and Sis}
We trekked over to the Oriental Pearl (where Sis and I went somewhat recently) in search of dumplings and other deliciousness. The last time I came here with cousins, a few years ago, the restaurant had converted from the amazing dim sum restaurant to a run-of-the-mill buffet. We were so sad to think our tradition had disappeared. It wasn’t until Sis and I made our trip to the OP in May that we discovered the dim sum was back in action! Hazzah!
The restaurant was far less busy and had a smaller selection since it was a weekday, but the carts were swinging by within just a couple minutes, and they proved to have most of our favorites.
We quickly snapped up some har gow, steamed BBQ pork buns, and shui mei.
We got one of the long shrimp dumplings (and a beef one – not pictured).
Crispy shrimp balls.
Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce.
Love their plates by the way!
Baked BBQ pork buns.
With a plate full of my favorite eats, I was one happy eater.
So was Leo.
And sis and I tried a new dessert – a sort of mango jello-type dessert with evaporated milk poured on top.
(I believe this is a photo from a dim sum trip from the early ninties – and do you recognize the girl to the far right?! )
As I mentioned earlier, we made many trips to visit our cousins over the years. Each trip ended with a family trip to the Oriental Pearl for dim sum.
The adults were busy this trip, so the new dim sum crew held down the tradition for this adventure. It’s interesting to think about the transition that is already under way – from the old crew to the new crew. And it’s fun to think about this table being filled in a few years with our children, who will be the next future dim sum crew!
sometimes the food is the best because of the context
The trip reminded me of something Anthony Bourdain said in that show I saw recently. When asked about finding the best food, Anthony said that sometimes the food is the best because of the context. He’s so right! I mean, the food at the Oriental Pearl is delicious, but what makes it so special is the company, the familiarity, and the sentimentality of the experience. We’ve been eating at the Oriental Pearl for about 20 years now, and I hope we get to enjoy at least 20 more years together.
