[Friday Link Round-Up] Father's Day, Blog Marketing, Japanese Cheesecake, Kris Atomic

1. Such a cute little Father's Day idea. I, for one, am making my dad sugar-free chocolate chip cookies.

2. I'm loving the "21 Days to a Better Business Blog" Challenge on Blogging for Branding. 

3. I've never heard of Japanese cheesecake before, but you better believe I'm going to try it now. It looks so much lighter than American cheesecake, which I find cloyingly sweet and dense. Cheers to Green Cilantro for the recipe. 

4. I found a new favorite blogger and illustrator this week, Kris Atomic. Her work is so adorable and relatable. If I ever wrote a children's book, you better BELIEVE I'd be contacting her to illustrate it. Hmmm, new life plan? Hahah, I'm scatterbrained enough as it is without a book on my plate...

[Food + Drink] Homemade Holiday Gifts from the Kitch

Welcome to the final part of our sustainable, homemade holiday gifting series! Here are some of my favorite gifts to get (and give) for the holidays. 

My overall advice with this stuff is to always go with things that are easy to package, like cookies and barks and not cupcakes with buttercream frosting. In most cases, those just make a big ol' mess and then whoever gets the messy gift will be all pissed off at you as the new year rolls around, and who wants that?

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies with Pecans

Start with GOOD white chocolate

Add pecans and cranberries at the finish

Package in a cute recycled basket

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or smart balance
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon brandy or vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg and brandy.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar/butter mixture.
4. Mix in the chocolate, cranberries, and pecans. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Take them out while they are still a bit doughy for the best results. Otherwise they tend to get a bit dry and no one wants that!

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread (you can gift this right in the bread pan). This recipe adapted from Cooking Light. 

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar or Splenda

1/4 cup butter or Smart Balance

3 mashed bananas (the riper the better, but lessen the sugar if they're super ripe)

1 tbsp flax seeds

3 tbsp water

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir with a whisk.

3. Place sugar and butter in a bowl. Beat until well-blended. Add banana, flax, water, and yogurt and beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed JUST until moist. 

4. Microwave chocolate chips on High for 1 minute or until almost melted. Stir and let cool slightly. 

5. Add 1 cup of the batter to the chocolate and stir until combined. 

6. Spoon the chocolate batter alternately with the plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread pan. Swirl batters together with a knife.

7. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely. 

MORE AFTER THE BREAK!

[Scissors + Glue] Sustainable Holiday Gift Tags

Welcome to Part 2 of 3 of the sustainable, holiday gift-giving series! This installment offers some creative ways to add tags to all your gifts without lotsa waste. (Read Part 1 here)

Leftover felt. You've got to have some leftover felt from all your other crafting this season. I cut mine into ornament shapes, attached some fun ribbon with a hot glue gun, and glued a paper label onto the back. 

Construction Paper + Ribbon. Can't get any easier than this. This idea is from Martha Stewart, but you really don't need to print the clip art tags if you know how to use scissors and draw basic shapes. Don't be lazy.

Etsy shopping. Buy your tags from crafters (I especially like the vintage-y ones below as they can be used all year long) instead of Walgreens. Sorry, Walgreens. You know I love you.

 Clothespins. Absolutely genius, and you really don't have to use a stamp. A Sharpie could do the trick. Then just clip it onto the ribbon on the gift or anywhere else it fits. Below is from craftlog.

Stay tuned for the next installment, where I'll share some of my favorite homemade gifts from the kitch!

[Scissors + Glue] Sustainable Holiday Gift Packaging

Welcome to Part 1 of 3 in the series of sustainable, homemade holiday gifting! This installment is all about packaging your gifts with thrift store finds. (Read Part 2 here)

This Christmas, I plan to give a lot of my friends and co-workers gifts from my kitchen. This is not only because I'm totally broke, but also because I'm pretty awesome with an oven, measuring cups, and a mixer. I'm tired of buying people DVDs they lose or don't really want.

The problem for me is not thinking of unique recipes, but thinking of unique ways to package said recipes using sustainable materials. All that wasted wrapping paper and all those torn-up boxes really creep me out. 

I'm here to the rescue (as per usual) with some thrift store packaging finds.  

Baskets (I am adding my own ribbon to each basket like so)

Tins  + currogated cardbook makes the best mix-and-match packaging. See more details from Martha Stewart online. I don't recommend buying from the sites listed though. I think you're more resourceful than that.

Jars. This hot cocoa gift idea is from Sunset. Homemade granola, bark, etc. would also work great in recycled jars.

Refurbished bread pans + a little wrapping paper and ribbon. Check out this one on The Crafter's File Box. I found quite a few bread pans at my local thrift store. 

CD Sleeves. I LOVE this idea. And now all my co-workers can expect cookies for the holiday season. Check out this example from Intimate Weddings or this example from Martha Stewart.

There are TONS of other packaging finds at your local thrift store. I challenge you to use ALL recycled materials to package your gifts this year. You'll be rewarded with smug, self-satisfaction and the admiration of all your jealous (and now totally guilty) friends and relatives. 

[Friday Link Round-Up] Holiday Crafting, Craigslist Guilty Pleasures, Alexa Chung News

1. Hedgehog Clock and other gifts made of wood from Style-Files.

2. Re-discovered Nerve's Best of Craigslist. Lost 2 hours of life. 

3. Alexa Chung gets her own thrift shopping show. Just in time for me to steal all her clothes.

4. Adorable Christmas garland idea from The Crafting Chicks. 

[Things We Adore Sunday] Autumn Soup, Dessert Gifts, Giving Back

Since it's the Sunday following Thanksgiving, this particular week has been all about giving thanks for all the awesome shit that's going on in our lives (Amber lives + studies in London! I am actually employed this year! We launched this fabul-icious blog right here!) So this is also all about things I'm thankful exist. Such as...

Autumn Soups!
1: Black Bean and Roasted Vegetable Soup
2: Black Bean Soup from Vegan Epicurean
3: Chickpea, Tomato, and Barley Soup from Buff Chickpea
4: Turkey Noodle Soup from Bon Appetit 

People Magazine's Dessert Gift Guide. I was drooling over this.

And, last but never ever the least, giving back to the community! San Francisco has a wonderful site that connects the community with all kinds of non-profit volunteer opportunities. I'm planning a family project with my parents this year, and I'm calling it the "First Annual Jones Family Volunteer-athon." Or something more catchy. To start your own volunteer project (or to give up one afternoon to give back), check out HandsOn Bay Area.