Hot Tip #5: Holiday Edition

Hot Tip: When sprinkling holiday (or non-holiday) goodies...sprinkle while on a cookie sheet for sprinkle roll protection.

My MO for entertaining is easy, crowd pleasers. I frequently serve pigs in a blanket when we have large sports related gatherings and make a mean chicken fajita. Fancy? Nope. Do people love these things? Heck yes!

Anyhoo. One of my go to favorites is chocolate dipped pretzels. I do these all year long and vary the sprinkles with the season to add a Martha Stewart touch. My usual go to is pretzel rods which I pack up in a plastic container and take to various social events. Pretzel minis work too. One time, I got tropical and dipped banana chips.

The process is easy. Place waxed paper on cookie sheet or other baking sheet w/ edges.
Melt chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl.
Stir. Repeat as needed. (Don't do this in a bowl that's way bigger than the chocolate pile because then you lose a lot to the bowl wall.)
Dip desired snack as far as you'd like into melted chocolate.
Place on waxed paper to cool/harden.
After about 8 rod dips or 15 mini dips (depending on your speed), sprinkle chocolate with sprinkles. If you wait too long to sprinkle, they won't stick.

Personal holiday touch: varying chocolate types and putting chocolate pretzel mini twists in a chinese take out container to give people around the office.

Wishing I had a picture of one of my chocolate dipping sprees taking over my kitchen right now :(

Happy Holidays!

Hot Tip #4: Appropriate Oversharing

Confession: I started this blog to keep my occupied while unemployed. Since regaining employment (Yay!), I have let the blog suffer.

Anyways. You all hear about how networking is really important, but no really, it is. When I was first laid off, I sent an email to everyone I could think of in my area or with connections to my area pleading with them to send on my resume to anyone they could think of. I even had the Jewish West Palm Beach Grandmother network working overtime. My parents were constantly calling me with "Oh I talked to ______ female engineer and she said you should join SWE". After a few months of not leaving the house regularly, everything sounds like a good idea. Most professional organizations even give pity discounts to the unemployed. I started to substitute teach and found myself bringing up my unemployment and primary profession in any conversation that was mildly relevant. Finally, my friend from 2nd grade who I've never been super close to, referred me to my current position. She knew my boss and convinced her that I could handle the position.

If that doesn't convince you.....

My cousin and his wife for the same company. This spring, my cousin was relocated (for the second time) to Chicago. After people promised to help his wife find something in Chicago and didn't find anything, my cousin went off to his first day of work in Chicago leaving his wife and his adorable little girls behind. Upon being introduced to his new team, he ucharacteristically announced "Hey guys. My wife works for us too, but she's stuck in Seattle. If you want me to stay, she needs a job here too." Sure enough, someone in that meeting had heard of an opening that would fit her. They are now in the process of moving (all 4 of them) to Chicago. Pays to overshare!!

Hot Tip #3: If you need to drink more water, buy a toy!

One of my on-going personal goals is to drink more water. I was tracking my water through a food diary a year ago and never managed to get the smiley that came with 64 oz of consumption. I’ve indulged myself in bottled water binges. I drank Smart Water for a while and still love it. I was the girl in college who bought a new Nalgene bottle everytime she came up with a cute color combination and some awesome stickers. I still have almost all of them (pack rat!!). My bf had a similar problem but decided dehydration was just how it was going to be. I figured toys always get me excited about things, why not try this on someone else. I offered to buy him a water consumption “toy”. We went to our local camping supply store and he selected the Camelbak Better Bottle. It’s spill proof so not only do you not drip water down the front of your shirt all the time (who me?) but you can literally just let the thing roll around in your car full. It sort of seems like you’re drinking an adult sippy cup, but after the initial embarrassment, you realize how awesome it is. I went and got one myself a few weeks after I bought one for the bf (who is no longer dehydrated). I convinced my friend to just suck it up and stop spilling her nalgene at work. Most recently, I convinced my water-hating bff to get a cute little 16 oz one for law school. Even she’s a convert. So if you need to drink more water, buy yourself a new water bottle that will excite you enough to use it a lot. Look into the Camelbak ones, they’re FABULOUS.

-Bean

Hot Tip #2: Add Sparkling Water to Your Fruit Juice

Hot tip: To Cut calories and still enjoy soda taste: Add juice to sparkling water.

I have a mild soda addiction. A few years ago I discovered Izze Soda which is fruit juice with sparkling water. It tastes fantastic, but to put it in perspective: they sell it at Starbuck’s. So one day, I decided I could take matters into my own hands. I added No Sugar Added (read: lower-cal) Cranberry Pomegranate juice which is a little bitter on its own to Raspberry Lime Sparkling Poland Spring. For some reason the Poland spring sparkling water is the only component that I refuse to change. I just don’t like “seltzer water”. My favorite thing about this hot tip is that it’s very customizable and cost friendly. Bottle of juice: $3, Bottle of water: $1. Name brand competition: $2/serving. I recommend picking a strongly flavored juice since you are effectively watering down your juice. Mix and enjoy!!

-Bean

Hot Tip #1: Cleaning your Crocs

Hot Tip: Clean your crocs w/ a magic eraser. It doesn’t hurt the plastic and makes them look as good as new!

Like most of you out there, I used to make fun of plastic shoes. How ridiculous looking, I thought. When I was in the market for good, boat-friendly shoes, I discovered that Crocs are slip resistant, non-marking and they float! These are 3 important features to boat friendly shoes. I opted for the standard clogs so that they wouldn’t fly off the back of my feet. Anyways, I quickly fell in love. They were super squishy and comfortable. As the summer became fall and fall became winter, my regimen of flip flops and crocs became less and less adequate. I then discovered Mammoth Crocs. Anyways, these are my favorite non-sexy shoes to date. They are ridic comfortable AND you can wear them barefoot like their summer counterparts. People look at me funny cuz I wear fuzzy light blue shoes. So anyways, during their hibernation this past summer, they fell under my basement stairs. Through some eyelash batting, I managed to convince my bf to dig them out. To his dismay, there was all kinds of crap on them, possibly caused by the spray painting that was done down there. So I took them up to the bathroom for a good magic eraser scrubbing and now they look FABULOUS. Another good example of why the Magic Eraser was one of the best things to ever happen to the cleaning supplies aisle.