Fall – Page 2

Turkey and Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

September 26, 2016

You know what is an awesome, unexpected addition to a grilled cheese? Apples! A little random, I know, but it is apple season after all. I’m not totally sure what inspired this sandwich, other than the abundance of apples at the grocery store and the brie in my fridge. I was just going to eat the apples and brie on their own, but why not put them in between some bread.

I made one version of this sandwich with brie and another, for my husband, with cheddar. If you don’t like brie or cheddar (um, you are crazy!), you can make this sandwich with any cheese that pairs well with cheese (Munster, white cheddar, Gouda, blue cheese).

The key to a good grilled cheese sandwich is butter. I like to make sure that my pan is heavily coated in butter before toasting the bread. I’m already eating a grilled cheese sandwich, why should I be worried about a few extra calories.

Once the bread is nice and warm, I layer on the cheese and other toppings, in this case apples and turkey. When the cheese starts so get a bit melted, I put the two sides together. To help the cheese along, I will sometimes cover the pan until the cheese starts to ooze out the sides.

This sandwich would also be excellent as a panini! Just be careful if you make it with brie, because that brie will be melted all over the place. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

So if you are looking to mix up your grilled cheese sandwich, add a few slices of apple. It adds a little bit of a crunch and some sweetness to balance the salty from the cheese. At the very least, I am pretty sure adding apple slices qualifies this sandwich as health food. That’s how it works right?

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

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Soft and Gooey Pumpkin Bars

September 21, 2016

It’s that time of the year. That time when Pumpkin Spice takes over the world. Frankly, its a little early for pumpkin spiced anything for me, but if it makes Fall come faster, then I will play along.

I’m kicking off this pumpkin season with these pumpkin bars. They were inspired by a Williams Sonoma Instagram post. I was hoping to find the recipe on their website, sadly the post was just promoting their pumpkin bar mix. Boo! So instead of giving up, I decided to reverse engineer the recipe from the ingredients in the mix. Which wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. Sure, it gave me the ingredient list, but not the measurements. Turns out, that’s kind of important.

After some trial and error, I think I came up with a pretty great pumpkin bar. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it’t like the perfect combination of pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie. Soft on the bottom, gooey on top.

The great thing about this recipe is that, while it is two layers, it is all baked at once. Also, it using a whole can of pumpkin puree. I don’t know about you but I hate it when I use a can of anything, only to have part of it left over.

It’s the little things in life.

I was actually a little disappointed when I first cut into them. I was aiming for a thicker, dryer bottom layer so that it was almost the crust to the pumpkin pie-like topping. But in the end, the bottom layer was a rich pumpkin cake, almost a pound cake, with a creamy pumpkin layer on top. After one bite, I was converted. Like I said above, it turned out to be the best of both a pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie.

To be sure, I brought them to Small Group to taste test. The verdict, two thumbs up! I love that my Small Group has basically become my recipe test group.

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

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Iced Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

November 23, 2015

I made these cute pastel orange and pink pumpkin sugar cookies for a friends baby shower last month. And since Thanksgiving is this week, thus ending “pumpkin” season, I thought it was about time I posted how I decorated these cute cookies!

I should also mention that these aren’t just any decorated sugar cookie. When I made the cookie dough, I tossed in a couple teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. I didn’t tell my friend about the added spice, but she was pleasantly surprised! She loved the flavor and it tied in with the decoration beautifully.

Even if you don’t want to decorate these cookies like pumpkins, I highly recommend adding pumpkin pie spice to cookie dough. Obviously there is no “pumpkin” flavor, but the spice combination is just so warm and cozy! It just taste like Fall and everything that is wonderful about Fall.

I started the decoration process by marking off the sections of the pumpkin with an edible ink marker. Then I piped 15-second consistency royal icing to form every other section, as you can see in the top section.

After the first sections crusted, which took about 30-45 minutes, I piped the sections in between. By allowing the sections to dry first, it ensure that the icing doesn’t run together and keeps each section slight separated.

To give the pumpkin some additional dimension, I brushed some brown edible petal dust in the creases once the cookie was completely dry (I allowed it to dry overnight). This not only helped with dimension, but also gave the pumpkin a little bit more texture, which made it look a bit more realistic.

Then I piped on a stem with thicker, piping consistency brown royal icing using a star piping tip. I wanted the icing thick enough so that the groves from the star tip stayed in tact.

With green piping consistency royal icing, I piped on some vines and leaves. I used a leaf piping tip for the leaves, which are much easier than they look. With the points of the tip on the top and bottom, apply enough pressure on the piping bag to pipe a thick ribbon of icing, then release the pressure and pull the tip away quickly to create the point of the leaf. I hope that makes sense! Every time I make leaves, I do a couple practice tries before I pipe on the cookie.

These are great cookies to make if you are still getting comfortable decorating cookies with royal icing (like me!). It doesn’t require a lot of intricate piping. You can just pipe out some icing in the general shape and use a toothpick or scribe tool to help you form the exact shape you need.

I will definitely be making pumpkin cookies again next year for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or for any Fall get-together! People seemed to really love them, not just because they look like pumpkins but also because of the pumpkin pie spice flavor.

I used my Basic Sugar Cookie recipe and added 2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in with the flour mixture.

See my other cookie decoration posts here and here.

Happy baking!

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Thai Carrot Soup with Meatballs

November 18, 2015

Here we go, another soup recipe. I am on a roll, guys. This time it’s a carrot soup. Now, there is nothing sexy about carrot soup. Plain old carrot soup might as well be baby food. They are essentially the same thing – pureed carrots. But this soup…This is no plain ol’ carrot soup, its Thai carrot soup. It’s sweet, spicy, nutty, creamy, flavorful, and rich. Sexy, right?

In addition to the soup, I tossed in a few turkey meatballs spiced with lots of Thai-inspired spices like ginger, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, and chilies. Together is a complete meal that is surprisingly healthy!

The star of the show are these lovely carrots. I roasted them in the oven first before roughly chopping them and tossing them in a big pot with diced onions and chicken stock. If you wanted to make this soup vegetarian, substitute vegetable stock instead.

Once the soup stock came to a boil, I added a healthy scoop of peanut butter, a spoon full of coconut cream, and red chili paste. I then got out my hand dandy immersion blender [Side note: I have used this thing more in the last month than I have since we got it as a wedding gift 2 years ago] and blended everything together until almost smooth.

At this point I did a little taste test and added a bit of salt, pepper, and Sriracha. Normally I am not a spicy-food eater, but this soup definitely needs some spice to balance out the sweetness of the carrots.

The meatballs were very simple to make, and they came together so quickly I didn’t have time to take any pictures of them. Plus they get my hands so dirty, if I wanted to take pictures I would have gotten raw turkey meat all over my camera.

For the meatballs, I just mixed together the ground turkey, spices, and breadcrumbs, and formed them into ping-pong sized balls then baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Once everything was ready, I ladled the soup into a couple bowls then plopped a few meatballs right on top. I sprinkled a bit more Sriracha sauce on there for good measure along with some cilantro and green onions.

It is such a change for us since we don’t do that much Thai cooking and we really don’t do that many spicy meals. But I could not get enough of this soup. Even the Sriracha sauce wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I can see why people love the stuff so much.

I hope you give this soup a try even if Thai food isn’t your thing. The spice profile can be adjusted to suit your tastes, whether spicier or not so spicy. So you really have no excuse NOT to make it!

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Pear and Bacon Salad

November 16, 2015

There is nothing like a big healthy salad, topped with juicy, fresh pears and grapes and toasted pistachios. Then ditching the healthy part and throwing on a hefty portion of crispy bacon and goat cheese. Because just about everything is better with bacon and goat cheese….especially salads.

Since it is pear season, I have been picking up a couple at the grocery store every week hoping that they would inspire me to bake something with them. But instead they just sat there staring at me offering little inspiration. And before they get to squishy I would just eat them.

After a few weeks of this routine, I started to think outside of my normal “baking” box and decided make a salad with the pears. While I love salads, they are normally outside of my cooking comfort zone – I never have the right toppings on hand to make a killer salad and they end up just disappointing me. Until now.

I added in some grapes to accompany the pear and then some salty and crispy bacon and creamy goat cheese. The bacon and goat cheese also helped win my husband over who doesn’t even look at a salad if it doesn’t have meat and cheese. I will admit that the bacon does make this salad a bit heartier and transitions this into a main dish from a side dish.

So this salad has juicy pears, crisp grapes, salty bacon, and creamy goat cheese. What else does it need? Crunchy pistachios!! I toasted the pistachios in the oven while I prepped the rest of the salad, then sprinkled them on tip at the end. Once they everything it tossed together, it balanced out the textures from the rest of the ingredients.

To dress the salad, I made a simple vinaigrette with a white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. I actually used a pear cranberry balsamic which was lovely, but any balsamic will do just fine. There are so many flavors going on in the salad, the dressing shouldn’t over power them.

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Healthy Creamy Tomato Soup

October 30, 2015

I continue my soup obsession (see here, here, and here) with this delicious bowl of tomato soup. This obsession is real, people. Vegetables need to be on alert…I may roast you and puree you and make you into a yummy soup. I’m looking at you Sweet Potato!

But really, to me tomato soup is one of the most comforting dishes during the Fall and Winter. Pair it with a cheesy grilled cheese sandwich and I’m in heaven. I prefer my tomato soup on the creamier side, which in most cases means adding heavy cream. Tasty, but not super healthy. To lighten this soup up but keep the creamy texture, I added in Greek yogurt before I pureed the soup. It added richness, balanced the tartness, all without adding fat.

To make this tomato soup extra flavorful, I roasted the tomatoes and garlic in the oven before adding them to the pot with sauteed onions. I love the flavor of roasted garlic! It takes away some of the bite that raw garlic can have.

Once everything gets added to the pot, the immersion blender makes it easy to puree. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can blend everything in a blender first then add it back to the pot to boil.

It’s that easy. Roast. Blend. Boil. Serve. Okay, there might be a few more steps in there, but not many!

For the sake of being healthy, I did forgo the aforementioned grilled cheese. But I did’t want to skip the cheese altogether. Instead I made little Parmesan crisps to serve on the side. These were so easy to make! Make little piles of shredded Parmesan on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Boom. Done!

Hope you make this recipe next time the weather just makes you want to stay inside and watch Netflix all day.

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Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats

October 26, 2015

Who is ready for Halloween? I sure am! Any excuse to eat lots and lots of candy, like candy corn! I know its not everyone’s favorite, but I don’t discriminate against anything with sugar in it. But even if you don’t like candy corn, you will still love these Rice Krispie treats because they only LOOK like candy corn. They don’t taste like them.

I wanted to make something fun yet simple for a Halloween party this weekend. I stroll through the candy aisle inspired this candy shaped version of the classic Rice Krispie treat. To make these tri-colored only required a little bit more effort. I started with the standard recipe you can find on the back of any Rice Krispie box. I then divided up the mixture into 3 equal portions and dyed 2 of the portions: 1 orange, 1 yellow.

I started with the un-dyed portion and formed into into a long log and placed in down the center of a baking dish. I then took the orange portion and spit it half, then spread it out on either side of the white portion. Then repeated that step with the yellow. Once I was happy with the proportions, I pressed everything together into one big section.

After letting the Rice Krispie Treats cool for about 30 minutes, I cut them down the center, lengthwise. Then cut on a diagonal everything 3 inches. I measured out 3 inch sections from end to end on either side. I then cut from the corner of one side to the 3 inch mark on the other, then kept cutting until I got 16 triangles.

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats-3

Hopefully that made sense. It took me a few attempts to figure out the best cutting method. I started trying to mark out the cuts with bakers twine. Then was going to attempt free hand. Ultimately I decided to use the candy corn to help me mark out exact measurements.

One tip for making sharp cuts on your Rice Krispie treats is to spray your knife with a little oil or baking spray. It will ensure that none of the sticky marshmallow gets stuck and starts pulling apart all your hard work!

I hope you try this spirited version of Rice Krispie treats this Halloween or for any party you may have coming up in the next couple weeks. Candy corn is appropriate during all Fall.

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Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

October 19, 2015

I have officially reached that age (5 years ago) where I no longer want to be nor can I get away with anything “slutty” for Halloween. I also don’t really want to spend $50+ on a poorly made costume I will wear once. Now I would much rather pull some things out of my closet and throw together a Halloween costume with what I already have. Or at the very least, if I do buy something, it can be something that I will wear again the rest of the year.

So in that vain, I have rounded up a few costume ideas that can be made with pieces that a lot of us probably already have in our closet. Not only will these costumes not cost much (if any) money, but if you are in a pinch and need a costume at the last minute, you won’t have to run out to the store to find something!

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You could really be any of T. Swift’s characters from the Shake It Off video, but her main outfit could be so easily replicated. Black cropped pants, turtleneck, and flats, plus some side swept bangs and her signature red lips and you could easily pass as Miss Swift. I would definitely sport a blinged out microphone and don’t be afraid to bust out some of her signature moves!

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A scarecrow costume is little more than any outfit you might wear to the grocery store on the weekend. Just add some pieces of straw and maybe a little face paint to your ensemble of relaxed fit jeans, a flannel shirt, booties, and a floppy hap. If you want, you could add a post to your back and down your arms so you can really be outstanding in your field (scarecrow joke)!

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Mary Poppins is the best costume for work! Start with your normal work wardrobe: black skirt, heels, and white button down. Then throw on a black hat, button your shirt all the way up and tie a red ribbon under your collar. Don’t forget to grab an umbrella on your way out the door and carry your biggest bag possible.

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This farmer costume might be my favorite because I have been itching for an excuse to get a pair of overalls! Pair overalls (or any light wash jeans) with a plaid or chambray shirt and throw on a straw hat and you’ve got yourself a costume!

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If this post proves anything, it is that you can turn any of your plaid, flannel, or buffalo check shirts into a cute costume. The lumberjack costume is really easy to put together if you have a red/black buffalo shirt, dark jeans, and a beanie. Pick up a fake axe from the costume store and maybe paint on a beard and you will be the cutest lumberjack around.

Have you ever created a Halloween costume using just what you had on hand? What did you go as? I have a few more costume ideas in mind, so I may be posting another round up of costume ideas sometime between now and Halloween.

Butternut Squash Soup

October 16, 2015

My mom made butternut squash soup all the time when I was a teenager. At the time I didn’t totally appreciate it. It seemed too healthy! But now I definitely appreciate how creamy, healthy, savory, and satisfying a good butternut squash soup can be on a crisp Fall day!

Because it is so light, it is a great accompaniment to a hearty salad, cheese bread, or grilled meat. My husband and I made this a few nights ago and paired it with some juicy steak. We both couldn’t get enough, which is really saying something since my husband can be a pick eater. I was afraid he, like me at 16, would think it was just too healthy so there is no way it could be good. But he pretty much licked his bowl clean! I will take that as a vote of confidence in this recipe!

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Pumpkin Pie Dip

October 9, 2015

If you are attending any sort of gathering (football watch party, Halloween party, book club, girls night, etc) I have the recipe for you! This pumpkin pie dip is extremely easy and quick to make and uses a lot of items that you may already have in your fridge. I was looking for something to whip up for friends and this totally hit the spot!

This dip recipe only calls for a few ingredients: pumpkin puree, cream cheese, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. I bet you already have a few of those around already, don’t you!

Simply whisk together all the ingredients and transfer to a bowl and serve a long with your favorite cookie. I definitely prefer Graham crackers for a dip like this because they are sweet but not too sweet and they don’t upstage the dip.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Spice Macarons

October 5, 2015

I’m going to be honest…I don’t LOVE pumpkin flavored foods. Pumpkin spice lattes are not my thing and I avoid pumpkin pie like the plague. But everyone else seems to love pumpkin so much, and it is the ultimate Fall flavor, so every Fall I try some new pumpkin recipes thinking that maybe THIS will be the year I finally get what all the hype is about.

Well these macarons are helping me get there. The macaron itself is just vanilla flavored, but the filling is this subtle cream cheese based filling with a bit of pumpkin puree and a generous about of pumpkin pie spice. The resulting macaron has just a hint of the pumpkin flavor that is complimented by the cream cheese and spice flavors and the vanilla cookies.

As I have mentioned before in other macaron posts (chocolate hazelnut, cake batter), macrons are tricky! Which is why I don’t try to do too much with the cookie part and save the all flavor for the filling. But if you want even more pumpkin spice flavor, feel free to mix in some pumpkin pie spice to the batter before you pipe them.

If you have never made macarons, do not be intimidated! There are lots of youtube videos and instructional blog posts that will help you master the art!

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Pumpkin Vase

September 30, 2015

Do you love carving pumpkins, but a jack-o-lantern doesn’t really fit your home aesthetic? Or are you looking for a beautiful centerpiece for your Thanksgiving dinner or Fall gathering? Well I’ve got you covered! Enter, the pumpkin vase! So much easier than a jack-o-lantern and even more beautiful.

I picked up a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a flower stand in Uptown (if you follow me on Snapchat, you have probably seen it). The bouquet was full of deep purples, oranges, reds, and yellows. It was gorgeous and the perfect shades for Fall. I thought that to make it even more perfect for the season, it should go inside of a pumpkin.

I found a pumpkin at the supermarket that would be tall enough to fit a jar and then picked up a $5 pumpkin carving kit. A toothpick, serrated kitchen knife, and a spoon could also do the trick.

I scored the top of the pumpkin in the shape of the jar, then used the knife to cut out the whole. I scraped out all the insides, just like I would a jack-o-lantern, then to keep it fresher longer, I sprayed the inside with mixtures of water and white vinegar (1:1).

I then arranged the flowers how I wanted them in the jar, and placed the jar inside. It was really that easy. The whole project took less than an episode of ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, including frequent stops because I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. [Side note: if you have Netflix and haven’t seen HTGAWM, you really should watch it! The whole first season is on Netflix and it is so easy to binge on, if that’s your thing.]

So pretty, right? It was such a nice decoration to have to get me in the season for Fall. And the perfect project for a really gloomy Saturday.

If I were hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, I would definitely make this as a centerpiece. And you could carve out smaller pumpkin vases in mini pumpkins and stick a single flower in them. That would be so stinking cute!!

Would you try this project?

Salted Caramel Apple Bars

September 28, 2015

If I could recommend one Fall activity, it would be apple picking! We went a couple years ago, and it was so much fun to be up in the mountains, surrounded by apple trees, and picking your own apples. The downside (which is hardly a bad thing), is that you will have tons and tons of apples and no idea what to do with them!

Well here’s an idea! Salted caramel apple bars! They taste like apple pie with a hint of salty-sweet caramel. And by that I mean, DELICIOUS!

The recipe is essentially a blondie recipe with apples baked in and caramel sauce swirled into the batter.

The result, as I mentioned, is a lot like apple pie! But, if you are anything like me, you like the crust more than the apple part of the apple pie. So these bars have just the right amount of apple for me.

And if want even more caramel sauce, just drizzle any left over caramel over the top. You can’t go wrong with extra caramel.

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Pumpkin Spice Granola

October 16, 2014

Because it’s October, and the leaves are starting to change and fall to the ground. Because Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner. Because I can’t get enough of Fall and never want Winter to come.

Because of all that, I am adding pumpkin spice to everything. First cookies. Now granola. I can’t tell you when or where it will end.

And granola it just wonderful in and of itself. Even without the pumpkin spice. You can have it for breakfast with milk or yogurt. As a snack on its own. Or over a creamy bowl of ice cream. Pumpkin spice granola just makes that much better.

If for some reason you don’t like granola or pumpkin spice, just make a batch of this granola and give it to a friend. While it slowly bakes, it will fill your home with the wonderfully warm scent of Fall.

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Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles

October 13, 2014

It has been a while since I have been in the kitchen baking….but it felt so good to be back! And since the leaves are starting to change and pumpkin stands are popping up everywhere, I decided to jump on the seasonal pumpkin bandwagon.

While browsing Target’s candy aisle for goodies for a Fall themed care package for some girlfriends, I ran across some Pumpkin Spice Hersey Kisses. This isn’t really my type of candy – I am a classic Kiss girl – but I knew they would be an excellent addition to some cookies!

I started with a snickerdoodle cookie recipe, but instead of just cinnamon and sugar, I rolled the cookie dough in pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, all spice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) and sugar.

After baking the cookies for about 10 minutes, I immediately pulled them out of the oven and pressed a Kiss into the top of the soft cookie. Because these Kisses aren’t as dense and actually have a soft filling, they don’t keep their Kiss-like shape, and sort of melt down into a thumbprint.

And once they come out of the oven, your kitchen will smell like Fall!

Is there anything better?

If you can’t get your hands on a bag of the Pumpkin Spice Kisses, you can just skip that step. The snickerdoodles on their own with that extra spice are delicious! Plus, they are the softest, fluffiest, and crumbliest cookies I have ever made. Simply wonderful!

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September Beauty Buys

October 1, 2014

First of all, can I just say, I can’t believe it’s October!! I probably say that about every month, but seriously….the year is almost over.

But it’s probably good that September is over. I spent a lot of time in Sephora, Ulta, and the beauty aisle of Target. I’m not quite sure why, but I bought a lot of beauty products last month. It might be because we are moving into Fall, so I needed to replace some of my Summer stand-by’s. But either way, I wanted to share with you some of my recent beauty purchases.

Two of my favorite products of the bunch are the NYX Cream Blush in Boho Chic and the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light. I prefer cream blushes no matter the season since they work into the skin to look so natural. This NYX blush is a beautiful color and the formula is really nice. Some cream blushes just sit on top of the skin, but this one really blends in beautifully. As for the Hourglass powder, I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said, but it is a miracle worker. I use this powder to set my under eye area. It doesn’t cake up my make up and just provides a subtle highlight.

My next two favorite buys are the Mac Pro Longwear Foundation (NC 20) and Concealer (NC15). I love my current favorite Mac foundation, Face and Body (N2), but am looking for something with a bit more coverage for Fall. The Pro Longwear is the perfect solution. It provides medium to full coverage and doesn’t dry out my skin. The concealer is just as great. It provides great coverage without creasing too much. I got mine in a shade lighter to highlight my under eye area and to act as a bit of a highlighter when contouring.

A couple other things I bought this past month were Sephora’s version of a Beauty Blender, the new Si perfume roller ball, and Covergirl Lash Blast Length mascara. I am actually not too fond of the Sephora Beauty Sponge. I bought it because I wanted to try a cheaper version of the Beauty Blender (I have had to throw away my third one because of mold!!), and that is exactly what I got. It is very dense, so it doesn’t have the same kind of bounce as the BB. And I don’t think it blends makeup as nicely.

One that I am very fond of is the Giorgio Armani Si Rollerball! I love the vanilla-based fragrance. It is warm and sweet and perfect for Fall. I don’t wear a lot of fragrance, so this is perfect for me. It’s not too overpowering, plus the roller ball makes it easy to apply without over-doing it.

I can also say the same for the Covergirl Lash Blast Length mascara. I have a very VERY similar YSL mascara last year, which was much more expensive. I am all about finding a cheaper alternative that is just as good, if not better. The Covergirl Lash Blast is the perfect every day mascara. Provides a little extra length while still looking natural.

So, what were some of your favorite beauty purchases last month?