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Gilt & Favorite Fall Finds

October 5, 2013 by Morgan

One of my favorite flash sites is Gilt. Simply put, their editors do an amazing job at curating really beautiful collections. I took a tour of their latest sales and found enough inspiration to put a board together for our soon-to-be renovated master bedroom (+ bath, more to come!). All from Serena & Lily – which also happens to be a favorite ‘look book’ (or ‘how can I recreate this’) catalog of mine. Serena & Lily on sale on Gilt? I’m there.

They’re also my go-to for wardrobe staples. Here are a few looks/items that are catching my eye this fall:

Not the cheapest flash sale out there but one that carries my favorite brands (you know, the ones that you save up for that practically last a lifetime and that you continue to pull out of the closet to wear year after year). True staples. Plus, they’re favorite brands marked down 30-70%.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all of the fantastic baby and toddler finds that I’ve scooped up over the past couple of years. These are the clothes and shoes that will easily earn a second life with Taylor (even if Liv wore the heck out of them the first time around). Here is what’s on sale right now:

Aden & Anais, Free People, White & Warren, Seychelles, NOM. Brands that I love but always wait until their clothing/shoes/house finds are discounted (and found on sites like Gilt). Sometimes they’re good deals, and sometimes they’re great deals (those grey cropped trousers are $7). Gilt pretty much has my fall wishlist covered. You can check them out here to get $25 off of your first purchase.

PS Gilt is an affiliate partner of this site.

Tips for Freezing Fruit

October 2, 2013 by Morgan

As a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about fresh fruit popsicles, I thought I might take a moment and share a little tip on freezing these yummy summer fruits before they’re gone. Freezing your own fresh fruit is usually a much cheaper alternative to purchasing frozen – and it means you can eat all of those sweet berries and stone fruits out of season without purchasing them out of season (which means they travel thousands of miles and aren’t nearly as good).

Our summer fruit is dwindling down in our weekly CSA box but favorites have been cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries, strawberries and peaches. We’ve been using those to make cantaloupe & basil fruit blends, summer tarts (or galettes), layered popsicles, smoothies or just eating them in the raw on a warm afternoon.

Freezing fruit so you don’t end up with a gobble-gook of a mess goes something like this…

1. Chop fruit into evenly sized pieces and place in a single layer on wax or parchment paper. Cover with another piece of wax/parchment paper and add another single layer of fruit. Stack as high as you wish.

2. Freeze for a few hours.

3. Now that each piece of fruit is individually frozen, shake your layered paper into freezer ziplock baggies.

4. Put back into the freezer for another day!

And when you’re ready to enjoy, your individually frozen bite-sized fruit pieces will be ready and waiting (no sledgehammer to separate fruit ice blocks required. usually).

PS More recipes and good eats ideas found here.

Good Eats: Homemade Fruit Popsicles

October 1, 2013 by Morgan

We are back to shorts weather here in San Diego. Fall arrived and the nights were finally a bit cooler – and then bam! out of no where another little heat spell swooped in. Might be temporary but it’s not totally unusual for our neck of the US. One summer we had no summer, the next year we had the longest summer (three seasons of heat?) known to man. Oh but the cold weather was a teaser anyhow. Our neighbors already have ghosts hanging from their trees!

Liv and I made these frozen treats a couple weeks back when we were really in that dog-days-of-summer mode, and since the weather has taken a turn, I thought I might share our fresh fruit popsicle adventure with you here. Maybe a recipe to stow away for next June?

It’s not really a recipe. More a sugar-free, fresh-fruit-only blend (this one is still my favorite – and would be sooo good as a popsicle) layered with more fruit blends until a perfect harmony is born.

I am a smoothie person, and while making said smoothie one afternoon it dawned on me that these smoothies would be excellent frozen.

And so after rifling through our frozen (and the last bit of fresh) fruit, Liv and I made three yummy ‘smoothies’ in our blender: strawberry, coconut cream (actually this guy came straight from a can, but we blended with coconut water for consistency) and watermelon. No sugar, just fruit and ice.

Chunks are a plus.

Frozen fruit chopped up into little tiny pieces and hand mixed in helped for the end look and taste.

Using a popsicle form from Ikea, I layered the different flavors for a striped effect. Fifteen-twenty minutes between each layer should make them firm enough to not melt into each other. Leftover straws cut down to size from Liv’s 1st birthday (wow! so long ago) worked as impromptu sticks.

Hey, they kind of remind me of Where’s Waldo!

The idea of making popsicles popped into my head after Liv made a batch with her Mimi earlier this summer while I was in the hospital with Taylor. One day after coming home I found several frozen dixie cups in my freezer and remembered what a brilliant and easy idea that is! If you don’t have a popsicle form, any ole paper cup will do. Thanks, Mimi.