diy bacon mandles (aka. candles for men)

A few weeks ago, Caleb and I were trying to come up with creative White Elephant gift that we could make when he suddenly had the craving for... you guessed it, bacon. Which led to the brilliant idea of, why don't we make our Christmas gifts this year bacon related?

So I present to you, the Bacon "Mandle"! The product of a hungry man, several pounds of bacon, and the time pressures of trying to figure out a fun diy Christmas gift. It really does smell like bacon.

What you need:  bacon. more bacon. and then some bacon grease...

and candle wax, wicks, some glass jars, and pencils.

Instructions

1. Cut up your bacon into small pieces and start cooking away!
2. Tie your piece of wick to a pencil and balance it in the middle of your glass jar.
3. Drain you bacon and keep the grease.

4. Melt your candle wax (I used this method from our mason jar candle diy)

5. Pour your wax into your jars. Mix in approximately 1/3 of the size of your jar with bacon grease and throw in pieces of bacon as well.

6. Let cool, then cut off any excess wick. 

7. Enjoy the awesomeness that is your Bacon Mandle!

To make our bacon mandles more festive, I tied some Christmas string around the lid and also whipped up a tag in Photoshop to attach to our candles, which I've posted   =)  I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty awesome and made pretty popular gifts.

The Bacon Mandle:

candles for real men and women who love bacon.

made with real bacon and real love.

you're welcome.

p.s. ♥ clara 

Christmas baking: turtle bars

So here I am, more than halfway through December, about to start blogging about Christmas desserts.  Better a late than never, eh?

These turtle bars look beautiful on a plate of Christmas baking, and are a sure way to impress your friends, family, or maybe if even your boss! Ha!

Seriously, just look at those swirls.  I'm totally in love.  Plus, there's chocolate, pecans and caramel involved. Oh yum.

Turtle Bars

Bottom Layer:
1 cup Butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of flour
1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup pecans

Directions:
1)  In a medium bowl, mix together butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.
2)  Mix in flour and salt.
3) Grease a 9x13 pan and line with parchment (this makes removing and cutting your bars way easier).
5)  Dump your crumbs into the pan, spread out evenly, and press down gently.
6) Press pecans lightly into crust.
7) Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned.
8) Let cool, and prepare caramel.


Caramel:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 tbsp corn syrup

Directions:
1)  In a large saucepan stir together brown sugar, butter, sweetened condensed milk and corn syrup.
2)  Cook on medium-high heat stirring constantly.  Boil for 4 minutes.
3) Let stand 2 minutes, and then pour over crust.
4) Place in the fridge to set.


Chocolate layer:
1 1/2 cups Chocolate (good quality)
1/2 cup whipping cream

White chocolate:
1/2 cup  (about 4 oz) White Chocolate - good quality
2 tbsp whipping cream

Directions:
1) In a small sauce pan (or a double boiler), melt down your chocolate and cream, watching carefully to make sure it doesn't burn.  Melt your white chocolate and whipping cream at the same time.
2)  Pour chocolate over the caramel layer.  Smooth evenly.
3)  Drop spoonfuls of white chocolate over this layer, and then run a knife through it to make swirls.  Starting from the middle of the white chocolate and spiraling seemed to have good results.
*One tip about marbling is to stop early!  It's easy to overdo it, and then it just looks messy.
4) Pop it in your fridge to let it set, and you're ready to go!  We store ours in the fridge/freezer, otherwise they get a bit soft.

Your crumbs might be a bit crumbly when you dump them in your pan.  Don't panic, that's completely normal, just press them in gently and they'll be fine.

We placed our white chocolate on in 6 equally spaced blobs, and then used a butter knife to swirl them around.  Be careful not to go too deep and hit the caramel layer.

Happy baking!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

reunion in the cold cold north!

Belated birthday celebrations. Baked goods. Harry Potter. Food. More food. And then some more food with smoothies thrown in. Beautiful music. Late night talks. Hugs galore. Giggles that made our stomachs hurt. Cameras snapping. Braving cold weather. Red capes.

This about sums up Kelsey's visit to the cold cold north, called Edmonton, and our amazing reunion :) And just for you lovely people, I've included a sneak peek of our upcoming Little Red inspiration shoot at the very bottom of this post... I hope these photos make you as happy as they make me!

And last but not least, a sneak peek of what's coming to the blog soon!
You know you want to leave some love and comment on how ridiculously stunning Kels is... so go on, do it. Leave her some love =)

p.s. ♥ clara & kelsey

Christmas Baking: 2012 recap

Every year I think I'll be a little more on top of things, especially concerning the blog.  Alas, I haven't been able to blog any Christmas recipes yet!  To make up for it, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes from last year, which are some of my family's favorites.

          

 White chocolate peppermint bark               Toffee pretzel bark                              Rainbow bars

          

              Butter tarts                             Chocolate mint patty cookies                  North Pole cupcakes

Get ready for an explosion of Christmas baking coming at you in the next week!  My family's been baking up a storm, and I can't wait to share.

p.s.  ♥ kelsey