Homemade Cashew Honey Brittle ~ Perfect for Gift Giving!

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items. 

I am pleased to tell you all that I will be starting a new blog series! I have partnered with Golden Blossom Honey to bring you a fun recipe that features their delicious organic and all natural honey every Friday!

Not only do I love to receive food gifts for the holidays, I love to give them too! Homemade treats always go over well with the recipients, so I have been narrowing down my selections on what I want to include in the goodie gift boxes this year. I am a huge fan of peanut brittle, so I could not resist trying this Cashew Honey Brittle Recipe from the candy and nuts section of their recipe collection!

Made with just 3 simple ingredients, you are going to have a delicious snack that can be whipped up quickly and easily. Pop it in a cute tin or a cone shaped treat sack tied with a tulle or a ribbon, it is the perfect homemade treat for gift giving!

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews
1/2 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring, about 5 minutes or until cashews are golden.

Pour mixture onto a piece of aluminum foil and allow to cool completely.

When cooled, break the brittle into pieces and store chilled in an airtight container. Will keep for 2 weeks.

Yields: 1 cup

*I modified the directions a bit when making my batch. The honey needs to reach hard ball stage (250 degrees to 266 degrees F), so I brought the mixture to a rolling boil over medium heat and stirred constantly with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes. If the honey starts to get too deep in color, remove it because it is coming close to burning. I then poured the mixture over waxed paper lightly spritzed with cooking spray, and let it cool until hardened. 

You can find this recipe, and many other tasty honey recipes on the Golden Blossom Honey website. 

Do you like to give and receive food gifts for the holidays? If so, what's your favorite?

Grandma Janell's Baked Beans

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I've been doing a lot of thinking about holidays of past, and my grandma is where my thoughts have landed mostly. My grandma was a giver. She lived her life helping others. She had a strong love for Jesus, and I think she tried to follow in His footsteps to the best of her ability. There aren't too many childhood memories that I have that don't involve my Grandma Janell, and when she passed away a few years ago, many people would tell me that they thought she was THEIR grandma when they were little because she was always doing for them too! She never slowed down. When she wasn't babysitting us kids, she was teaching the Sunday School class or tearing up the rummage sales trying to find good deals for needy people. She drove the JJR bus to transport handicapped children to and from school. I would ride along with her some days and I remember the special needs children always laughing and having a great time on the way to school. I once asked her what "JJR" stood for, and she said "Jolly Joy Ride!" Something tells me she was pulling my leg, but I like to think JJR can't stand for anything better, because she definitely made those rides full of joy for the kids!

Grandma always hosted Thanksgiving dinner, and for most families, the turkey is the star of the show. But for us, we always looked forward to her baked beans! When she got older and hosting was too much for her, my mom took over Thanksgiving duties and always made sure the baked beans were front and center of the meal. Over the years we have invited many friends to our holiday dinners and the first thing they always ask is "Is your mom making those beans!?" They are kind of famous around these parts :)

Stuffing my face, but still gotta stick close to the big bowl of baked beans!

Cleaning up, with a little baked bean belly poking out :)

We are going to be guests at my in-laws for Thanksgiving this year, so I'll be bringing along a side of Grandma Janell's baked beans. Not only to get my bean fix, but to feel grandma is there is spirit, celebrating the holiday with us too.

Grandma Janell's Baked Beans Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cans Campbell's Pork & Beans, drained
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
8 slices bacon, cut in half

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl combine all ingredients.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 ½ hours.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Does your family have any recipes that have been passed down through the generations?  

Get Holi-Dazzled This Holiday Season with SinfulColors!

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was provided. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.  


It's the season of all things glitter and shine! We are gearing up to deck our halls with boughs of holly and trim our tree in tinsel and lights, but what's more fun is getting ourselves holiday ready so we can wow and dazzle the crowds at the festive gatherings! We hunt for the perfect outfit, get our hair and skin party ready, but it's important to get a completely pulled together look by not overlooking all of the details. Adding a pop of colors to your nails adds the perfect touch to your outfit and ups your mistletoe appeal!

Most of us are spending a lot of our free money to treat others this holiday season, but SinfulColors wants to get you Holi-Dazzled without breaking the bank! New for winter 2014, SinfulColors is offering 22 affordable and radiant shades of nail color. Dreamy shades and illuminating textures mean there is something for everyone!

The new collection includes hot metallics, glitter flakes, gushes of gold, sea shades swashed with silver, opalescent twists in red and green and the most coveted shades of blue- from cerulean to indigo to cobalt. Add in a powerful purple, the snowiest white and perfect reds, the colors are all sure to boost your holiday spirit!

SinfulColors Holiday 2014 collection is currently available exclusively at Walgreens. They make the perfect stocking stuffer, and at $1.99 per bottle, they are affordable enough to keep you and your friends dazzling all season long!

Which of the SinfulColors holiday shades is your favorite?

Universal Studios Photo Connect

Last week I talked about how much we loved the PhotoPass package that Disney offered, and when we heard that Universal Studios had their own photo pass package, Universal Photo Connect, we decided to buy one of those too. We bought the 3 day unlimited download pass, which ran $60. We thought if it was anything like Disney, we were getting a great deal. Sadly, where Disney beyond excels at what they offer, the Photo Connect completely lacks.

We were used to V.I.P. treatment at Disney, finding photographers all throughout the park to take our photo. Universal had no photographers to take photos throughout the park, with the exception of one that we found near Hogwarts. What you do get is photos on each of the rides (only those that have cameras to take your photo while you are on the ride) and a few special opps that you can only get when you buy the package, like E.T. and The Simpsons.

 

 

I am clearly not enjoying myself as much as the rest of my family on this ride ;)

While Jason doesn't look thrilled here, this is our most favorite ride at Universal Studios.

Honestly, we don't care much about ride photos, but since my daughter loves Harry Potter, we were happy that we were able to get a family photo and a ride photo of the new Escape From Gringotts ride.

The photos that we did get, we loved. But I paid $60 for roughly 40 photos over a 2 day Universal Studios trip. I paid $150 for a Disney PhotoPass and got over 600 Disney photos over a 3 day period. At Disney you scan your magic band and your photos automatically load to your account. With the Universal Photo Connect, you have to have your photo ticket scanned, then you have to hunt down a kiosk to edit and load your photos to your account, which was very time consuming, and not every kiosk employee was knowledgeable on how to load or edit the photos, so we would have to hunt down another kiosk to find someone who knew what they were doing.

If the price were cut in half, at $30 or so, I would recommend Universal's Photo Connect. However, if we return to Universal Studios, we won't be shelling out another $60 for the Photo Connect package. To us, the limited photos, lack of photographers, and time wasted did not make it worth the cost.

Have you tried Photo Connect? Did you have a better experience than we did?

Bring a Touch of Warmth to Your Home with Old Factory Candles #oldfactory

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. 


When the temperatures drop, the wind is whipping, and daylight fades sooner, I love to add a touch of warmth and light to my home by lighting candles. There's just something soothing about the glow of a candle, and comforting scents always calm and relax me. I am always on the hunt for premium candles that give off a hearty scent and burn for long periods of time, so when I came across Old Factory Candles, I knew they had exactly what I was looking for.

Old Factory Candles are made with natural soy wax, which I prefer over regular wax candles because they burn clean, even, and don't emit a ton of smoke into the home. The self-trimming cotton wick lights quickly, and since it is self-trimming, I don't have to hunt down clippers each time I light them.

The candles come in a set of 3 2 ounce jars, which burn for 20 hours! You'll get 3 different scents in each set, which are all matched perfectly to compliment each other. There were many options to choose from, but even with snow on the ground now, I am still longing for the crisp scents of fall, so I chose Fall Harvest.

The Fall Harvest set comes with delicious scents of Pumpkin Spice, Cranberry, and Autumn Leaves. As soon as I took the lids off the jars, the scents just poured out. I do have an open concept home, so the candles do not give as much scent as I would like, but it is recommended to burn 2 of the candles in open concept spaces to get desired fragrance through those areas. I do need to burn 2 in my living room, however, when I light them in my bedroom and bathroom, the scent is amazing with just 1.

In addition to the Fall Harvest, they have an incredible lineup of other yummy scents:

Fresh & Clean               Man Cave
• Lemongrass                  • Straight Razor
• Olive Blossom              • Leather
• Fresh Linen                   • Mahogany         

 Coffee Shop                  New Born Baby
• Coffee Bean                  • Baby Powder
• Hazelnut                        • Baby Shampoo
• Chai Tea                        • First Blanket

High As A Kite               Winter Wonderland
• Cannabis                        • Hot Cocoa
• Incense                           • Roasted Chestnut
• Bag O' Cookies              • First Snow

Happy Holidays               Vacation
• Christmas Tree               • Sea Breeze
• Candy Cane                    • Hawaiian Lei
• Gingerbread                    • Awapuhi

Spa Day                            50 Shades           
• Cucumber                       • Leather
• Lemongrass                    • Jasmine Bubbles
• Green Tean                     • Vanilla Sex

                       Romance
                       • Rose Petals
                       • Champagne
                       • Dark Chocolate

Each candle is hand poured, and what I really like is that they are a USA made product. The jars are modern, and can go with any room decor. Customer service is fabulous too, with a 100% no-hassle refund if you are not fully satisfied with your purchase!

As much as I like to receive candles as gifts, I like to give them too, and Old Factory Candle sets make the perfect holiday gift. You can purchase a set for gifting, or pick up one for yourself through Amazon.

Win It!

One lucky Theresa's Mixed Nuts reader is going to win a set of Old Factory Candles! Giveaway is open to residents of the US, 18+. NO PO Boxes will be accepted. The giveaway will run through 12/5/2014. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning email or a new winner will be selected.

**All entries are verified. Please make sure you are following all task guidelines you claim entries for. Failure to do so will result in your entries being removed from the form.

Entry-Form

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Spongebob 12 Years Later

12 years later. The kid aged, but Spongebob hasn't. I wonder if he's had work done ;)

Apple Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Last month, in the height of pumpkin flavored everything, I was craving some pumpkin muffins. I wanted something with a little extra oomph though, and since apples were on sale, I decided to combine the two and bake up these Apple Pumpkin Walnut Muffins. When they came out, I immediately thought "These taste like Thanksgiving!" So, instead of traditional dinner rolls, we will be serving up these muffins at our Thanksgiving dinner this year. They are so moist, delicious, and make the house smell amazing while they are baking. They are definitely my new favorite muffin!

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup pumpkin puree (not whole pumpkin/pumpkin pie filling)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup peeled, cored chopped apple (any sweet apple will do)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line muffin pan with greased muffin liners.

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and cloves. 

• In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil apple, walnuts and vanilla.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring to combine until just moistened. Pour the filling into the muffin cups until they are 3/4 full.

• Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.

• Cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve.

What is your favorite kind of muffin? Do you serve muffins or dinner rolls for Thanksgiving?

Disney's Magic Shots

It's clear, Disney has their stuff together. The first time we visited, we were really impressed that they had photographers stationed all over the park so everyone in your group could be included in photos. Most often, you are going to find an extra employee standing there offering to take a photo with your own camera too, which was an awesome touch for those who don't want to buy the picture packages. We did opt to buy the package though, and stopped often to have our photo taken all over the parks. At one stop the photographer had the girls look down into their hands and make a shocked face. We couldn't figure out what that was about, and assumed he was off his rocker and we were going to have one stupid looking photo when we got home. To our surprise, it was the opposite. "OMG! He added Tinkerbell into their hands!" was what we said when we saw the photo. We loved it so much, that on our next visit we made it a point to ask for "Magic Shots". For those going to the Food and Wine Festival, sorry to disappoint. It's not some awesome alcoholic drink wrapped up in a shot glass. Instead, you get some fun character special effects added into your photos. Here are some of our favorites from last month's trip:

Which Magic Shot do you like best?

SOL REPUBLIC PUNK ~ Give the Gift of Music This Holiday!

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was provided. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items. 


6 weeks until Christmas! Can you believe it?! Where did this year go? I normally have most of my holiday shopping done by now, but I have completely lagged this year and haven't bought a thing. Yikes! Shopping used to be easy when we had young kids in our family to buy for, but those little buggers keep growing up on me, so trips to the toy store just doesn't cut it anymore. I have a lot of preteens and teenagers in my family, and as we know, they can be quite picky on what gifts they like. Thankfully, most of them have accounts on wishlist websites, so I can log in to get a general idea of what they want. It's no surprise tablets and phones are at the top of the lists, and music related items like mp3 players and CD's ranked high up there too. But what good is playing music if you don't have a quality speaker to listen to it on?

People are always on the go, and nowadays we want compact and lightweight products we can take with us without much hassle. The SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker deck is the perfect option for music lovers who want to enjoy clear, quality sound wrapped up in a small, easy to transport speaker.

The SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker weighs about a pound and fits easily in the palm of your hand, but don't let the size fool you! For such a small device, it packs a huge punch where sound is concerned! I have been a huge SOL REPUBLIC fan for quite some time, owning several pairs of their headphones and deck speakers, and once again, they haven't failed to impress me with this portable speaker. 

SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker features:

• Powerful Sound

• 8 Hour Battery Life

• Pairs Easily with Most Bluetooth Devices

• Plays Music Wirelessly Up To 60 Feet Away

• Water, Dirt and Shock Resistant

• Attaches to Bike or Camera Mount with 1/4 inch Threaded Mount

 

I like how simple it is to operate too. There are just a few buttons, so even technology challenged people, like myself, can easily operate it. I also love the rubbery outer shell material because it makes for easy gripping. 

My daughter and her boyfriend are huge music lovers, and if she isn't practicing guitar at his house, then they are at our house researching new bands online or dancing around to some old favorites. They got a kick out of listening to their music on the SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker, dancing around all over the yard while the speaker was tucked away in his back jean pocket.

My daughter may have claimed the PUNK speaker for herself, but when she isn't using it, I have been known to swipe it to give my iPad volume a boost. I like to catch up on shows while cooking in the kitchen, and the volume on my iPad just isn't loud enough to compete with kitchen noises and the occasional kid who comes in begging for a cookie. It pairs up seamlessly with my iPad, and gives the volume a significant boost, so I am not straining to hear my shows over every day noises like I normally do.

If you are looking to wow that music lover in your life this holiday, I highly recommend the SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker, which can be bought in several fun colors at Best Buy. 

If your music lover needs a new pair of in-ear headphones, I suggest you check out the SOL REPUBLIC RELAYS. I also own a pair of those and use them almost every day! The sound quality is quite impressive! Just what we have come to expect from SOL REPUBLIC.

 

Either way, that special music lover is going to be thrilled with the gift of music, and you'll never get tired of saying "You're Welcome."

If you would like to learn more about the PUNK wireless speaker, check out the SOL REPUBLIC website.

WIN IT!

One lucky Theresa's Mixed Nuts reader is going to win a SOL REPUBLIC PUNK wireless speaker! Giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada, 18+. NO PO Boxes will be accepted. The giveaway will run through 11/29/2014. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning email or a new winner will be selected.

**All entries are verified. Please make sure you are following all task guidelines you claim entries for. Failure to do so will result in your entries being removed from the form.

Entry-Form

Where do you like to listen to music?

Update! Veet Infini'Silk 7th Treatment

*Disclosure- I received a product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was provided. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items. 


*Updated on 6/23/15- I want to come in here and do another update as many Google hits come to this page looking for reviews. I have had the Veet Infini'Silk for over a year now. I want to state that I did see pretty good results with use for the first 9 months. I did stop using the device for 3 months and saw my hair return to its normal growth rate that it did before I got the product. I would NOT say it gives permanent results as promised. Where I did see a reduction in hair growth on my legs while using the Infini'Silk, I never saw any reduction in the armpit area. At this point, I would probably not recommend purchasing the Veet Infini'Silk. For the current selling price, it really isn't worth it for the small results you receive.


First, I want to say thank you to everyone who entered the Veet Infini'Silk giveaway. With over 5,000 entries, it was the most successful giveaway I have hosted on Theresa's Mixed Nuts yet! Congratulations to Sonya M. who was randomly selected as the winner! Your prize has been shipped. I hope you enjoy!

As promised, I want to do a quick update on my experience with the Veet Infini'Silk so far. If you haven't caught my previous reviews, you can find them HERE and HERE. 

I have recently completed treatment 7, and as expected, am seeing further reduction in hair growth. I am roughly at 3 days between shaves, and at this point, I am only feeling stubble in areas where hair tends to grow a little faster, like the ankles and inner sides of my calves. While that is growing in every 2 to 3 days, the growth area has really thinned out and I am seeing the 70% in hair reduction that was stated on the Veet Infini'Silk owners manual. For the past month, I have not seen or felt any any hair growth on the back of my calves, upper legs, and knee area, though I am still swiping my razor over that area anyway every 3 days when I need to shave the other areas that still have hair growth. With continued use, I am confident I am going to achieve the desired results that Veet says I should receive by using the Infini'Silk.

The Veet Infini'Silk is currently available to U.S. residents and can be purchased on the Veet Infini'Silk website. You can also purchase Veet Infini'Silk Light-Based IPL Hair Removal System on Amazon  

I didn't put together a holiday gift guide this year, but if I did, I would definitely recommend the Veet Infini'Silk. It would make a wonderful holiday gift for your loved one, or even yourself!

How often do you have to remove unwanted body hair? Do you think the Veet Infni'Silk would save you time and money over your current hair removal methods?