Spicy Cornbread for Chilly Snow Days

The "Big Freeze" is upon us in England right now.  We've had about a foot of snow and I love it!  My good friend Stuart from Australia is here visiting now, and before he arrived I thought I needed to make a little something to take the edge off the cold for him and his warm weather acclimated Aussie self.

Enter Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread muffins.  I was SO excited to find cornmeal in the grocery store last week - you hardly ever see it around here.  And thanks to those kind people at Total, I used their delicious Greek Yogurt in this recipe and it turned out perfectly.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 450 ml or 1 3/4 cup Total Greek Yogurt
• 50g melted butter*
• 65g plain flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt1 
• tbsp brown sugar
• 275g fine cornmeal
• 1 jar (about 100 grams) Old El Paso jalapeños - drained and chopped.
• 100 grams sharp cheddar, diced

Preheat oven to 200 C (300 F) In a large bowl, whisk 2 eggs, 450 ml Total Greek yogurt, and 50g melted butter.  In another bowl, sift dry ingredients together - 65g plain flour, 1tsp baking soda, 2 tsp salt, 275g cornmeal, and 1 tbsp brown sugar.  Fold in the jalapeños and cheddar.  Bake for about 15 minutes.

They are so delicious warm and perfect for a quick snack after a day of making snow angels and frolicking in the winter wonderland  They're the perfect comfort food and the cheddar/jalepeno combination is always one of my favorites.  Total Greek Yogurt kept the texture perfectly moist as well.  I would HIGHLY recommend you makes these... ummm right now!!  

The only thing I would do differently next time is to cook these in a small greased baking tin instead of in muffin cases.  They seemed to stick to the sides of the cases a little more than I would've liked.  

*I used salted butter accidentally and therefore added a tbsp of brown sugar to cut the saltiness, but I'm not sure this would be necessary if you used unsalted butter.  

All That Glitters is Gold

I know this is what you've all been waiting for...

The Glitter wall!!

How awesome is it?

I love it so much.  It's mesmerizing.  

When Nick picked up the can of Craig & Rose Gold Glitter Glaze 

I was worried my worst fears had been confirmed...

(that Nick has Elton John, homosexual tendencies...)

But this glitter is so pretty I don't care!

Even if it looks like we hired Tinkerbell as our interior designer!!

I tried to capture it in different lights for the full affect.  

My favorite is when there is just a dim light in the room. 

It makes the whole room feel like its glowing.

Do you want to glitter a wall in your house now?  I bet you do!

Here are a few tips from your resident glitter expert (me)

• The instructions said, use a foam roller.  I did not.  But I should have.  Follow directions!  I used a regular roller, and it turned out blotchy.
• Because no one wants blotchy glitter, if you screw this up like me use a paint brush in haphazard crisscross strokes to achieve a better all over glittery finish.
• If you're not lazy just use a brush for the whole wall.  This worked best.
• Test your glitter out in different lights and different times of day.  This will reveal patchiness where you need to add more glitter!

Do you love it?  I love it.

7 Days 7 Dos

Eeeek I have so much to share with you guys lately!  

I've been gettin REALLY busy so you'll probably be tired of my post overload in a minute!

I finished another Day Zero task last week!

Task : Don't wear my hair in a bun for a week straight.

Why: I have SO much hair.

Lately I've been wondering why I have so much 

if all I ever do is put it straight up into a bun.

It's actually a lot of work.

And I was trying to answer the question - 

Is it time to take the plunge and cut it all off again?

To start we have what Nick likes to call my "Princess Leia" look.

Though personally I think it is more of a Heidi (not the dog!) look.

For day 2 we have a lions mane look, 

with a hint of the Donald Trump comb over for good measure.

Day 3 is the old classic, some up some down.  

But at this point I look mostly downsie.

Day 4 is what my little sister called my "soiled housewife" look 

when we were skyping.

Nice.  It's very popular in England right now.  

Still not sure if I think it's cute or I look like a total goober.

Day 5 is a reoccurring some up some down theme,

 but my curls have been enhanced with an iron.  

Definitely a tried and true classic.

Day 6 is missing because I was slightly hung over and on a train all day.  

But it was a side braid - if you must know.

Lastly we have Day 7, a French braid finished off in a messy bun.

I can assure you it wasn't quite so messy at the start of the day.

Oh well!

I still can't decide whether the hair is here to stay,

But I do know that a haircut and some bangs need to be happening in my near future.

Possibly highlights.  

Eeek anyways one more task done!

And thanks to Nick for taking most of these pics.

I have a whole new respect for fashion bloggers who work with their bfs now!

H20 - vember Comes to a Close

Today is the last day of what I have been calling H20-vember.  

One of my Day Zero List goals was to drink ONLY water for a month.

Why would I put on such a stupid goal?

After a month sans kitchen, eating a bunch of crap and picking up habits from my juice drinking husband, my skin was BAD.  

Well not that bad, cuz I generally have alright skin, 

but as bad as it was in high school.

And pimples are NOT a good look for anybody, are they?

Secondly, how many stupid calories was I consuming 

from drinking orange juice and worse - the dreaded...

 tea with 2 sugars please??

Well I'll tell you it was far too many.

Hi, I'm Kelly and I'm a serial yo-yo dieter.  Truth.

Drinking only water for a month was part of my plan to start a small change in my diet, 

that was manageable and perhaps could help me establish more of a

lifestyle change than a "diet."

A way of eating that would leave me feeling 

happy, healthy, confident in my own skin,

and without the urge to do crazy fad diets.

So here is my skin now... courtesy of accidently zooming in while taking selfies yesterday....

For no makeup and no retouching it's pretty good if I do say so myself!  

I'll admit I made a few exceptions to my H20 - vember rules.

1. I could drink herbal tea as long as no milk or sugar was added.
2. I could drink alcohol at Ed and Keeley's wedding.
3. I could drink a glass of wine at our Thanksgiving feast.
4. I had one peppermint mocha, which was technically cheating, but I so needed it! 

So obviously, I wasn't perfect.  

But sometimes life isn't about being perfect.  

Baby steps can make big changes in the end.

What baby steps have you taken recently?

ps.  I have been using Lush products on my face recently, which are also making it fabulous.

Winter Wonderland Fun!

I had the most fabulous day today!

We've been getting a couple little taste testers of snow, 

but this morning we woke up to the real deal.

Luckily, (or unluckily) today was my first day of funemployment again

 after my 5 week stint of being temporarily employed, but to be honest, 

I couldn't have had a better day!

I bundled up and the Doodle and I had the most beautiful winter wonderland walk.  

Nick warned me not to bring my camera 

because I'd probably fall and drop it and break it.  

I told him I've never fallen in the woods and I just couldn't resist... 

I just had to share it with you!  

Note: I got bulldozed over by a huge boxer dog Heidi was playing with.  

I fell and I hit my head pretty hard, don't worry I'm fine, but karma is a bitch, no?

I'm sorry I always take pictures of my dog, but she is a pretty good model.  

And by good model I mean I've taught her to sit and stay....

The rest of the day I went back to my Martha Stewart ways.

 I've been cooking up a delicious storm.  More on that later.  

Also the carpet fitters came today, which means our house seems half livable!  

I've never been so excited about carpet in my life.  

And I painted the bedroom wall with glitter!!!  

I promise to share all these things soon.  Ahhhh the cliffhangers!

Hope your day was plenty fun too!