Taylor Allan Photography: November 2014

Five on Friday!

Its been a good long while since I've linked up with Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, but we're back! Here's whats been going on...

{one} Glazed: The last few Saturdays... well... I've been bad. We've been heading over to Glazed, just about a block from our loft, to snag the most delicious donuts. With flavors like Earl Gray Iced, Bourbon Glazed and a bacon donut you expect it to just be a gimmick. But NO. They bad boys are so doughy and flavorful. Yum... at least we're walking over, right?

{two} Arm Knit Blanket: I got a lot of questions about the arm knit blanket I made. I followed a tutorial from Simply Maggie. She made it so easy to arm knit, I've also made her arm knit scarf. I went with Red Heart Grande yarn in the color oatmeal. I needed ten size six, super bulky, balls of yarn. I doubled up my working yarn since I couldn't find anything as thick as she was using. Michaels is having a yarn sale, so if you want to arm knit your own blanket... now is the time!

{three} Christmas Crafts: I have watched some Christmas movies. Its okay, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I am getting very excited for the holidays, and my pintrest page is on overload!

{four} Maccaulay Culkin: He didn't die, but I did see him on Monday night! He sure has changed...

{five} Delayed Halloween Costume: I know its late, but I thought I would share my deer costume from Halloween :)

Hope you all have a swell weekend, and be on the lookout for good deals on Turkeys!

16Comments

, by Taylor Jeavons

In Christmas, Recipes

Recipe: Homemade Apple Cider

Hey y'all! Sorry I've been absent recently, we've been living without internet. It doesn't sound that bad, but after a day or two I was going pretty crazy. So to kill time I decided to make homemade apple cider and knit a blanket! First off, the blanket came out wonderfully! Since it was arm knit the holes are little bigger than a cable knit, but the overall look is beautiful! And, its extra special since it was made by hand!

And the apple cider came out wonderfully, it tasted best warm. The recipe does take a little time, but your house will smell amazing and you'll end up with some homemade cider. Apples and cinnamon, yum! The recipe I'm sharing is very basic, only four ingredients, but you can always add caramel or salt... or vodka, to make this to your liking!

What you need:

10 apples (I chose gala, but work with what you have)

1/2 cup sugar

4 tbsp ground cinnamon

4 tbsp ground allspice

Cube your apples, feel free to leave the skins on. Add them to a big pot and add enough water to cover the apples, about a gallon of water should do. Grab a coffee filter or cheesecloth and fill it with the spices, tie shut. Add you little spice bag to the water along with the sugar and bring it to a boil. Boil for one hour, uncovered. Bring down your heat to low and allow the cider to simmer for two more hours. Once your simmering is complete along the cider to cool.

Use a whisk or potato masher to mash up the apples while still in the liquid. Lay down a coffee filter or cheesecloth in your colander. Set this on top of a bowl and strain your apple mash. You can use an additional filter to squeeze out the juice from the mash as well.

And there you have it! Homemade apple cider, perfect for sharing at Thanksgiving.

4Comments

, by Taylor Jeavons

In Recipes,

Recipe: Bangin' Basic Broccoli

How do you prepare broccoli? I've always just thrown it into a stirfry and let it cook. But recently I've browsed a bit on pintrest and came across this basic way of cooking up broccoli. What I didn't expect, was the greatest tasting broccoli I've had outside Chinese food...

What you need:

2 cups of broccoli

2 tbsp olive oil

garlic salt

Preheat to 400°F. Cut your broccoli up and put it onto a cookie sheet. Add the olive oil and shake the cookie sheet back and forth. Top with garlic salt and bake for 20 minutes. Done!