The Musings of a Working Mom

So every year I like to surprise my vegetarian husband and parents with a "special" meatless dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And every year I search and search and search through all of my cookbooks and online for the perfect "entertaining" meatless main dish.  Well this year I decided to try a savory bread pudding, especially since I just happen to have a pound of parsnips in the refrigerator.  This is a delicious recipe that I found on the Martha Stewart site and it was a cinch to prepare.  I love that you can make this dish up to a day ahead and it tastes just like you made it that day!  This is the perfect dish to entertain with and everyone, even meat eaters will like this dish.  This dish can be used as a main dish for your non-meat eating friends or as a side dish for your meat-eating friends.  Either way, this is a great dish to entertain with!  And another plus, this savory bread pudding tastes even better the next day!  Enjoy... Roasted-Parsnip

We are at the end of the year with 2012 almost behind us and 2013 right around the corner.  'Tis the season for gifting...and receiving.  This month's Birchbox theme is all about looking and feeling your best this holiday season.  Even the usually plain brown box that contains all of the awesome samples is dressed up and looking fancy for this month. Here are the samples included in this month's Birchbox: 1.   Cartier:  Baiser Vole de Parfume (full size, $100) - Make room on your vanity for this award-winning scent, a single-note composition of pure lily. 2.   Frownies:  Eye Gels (full size, $29.95) - Fight puffy dark circles with these innovative undereye patches, which are soaked with cactus-derived collagen and toning niacin. 3.   Number 4:  Clarifying Shampoo (full size, $32) - Gentle enough for everyday use, this unique cleanser has a low-suds formula that removes build-up without stripping hair of essential oils. 4.   theBalm cosmetics:  Hot Mama (full s

I fell in love with this palette last year when I spotted it at my Sephora right before the holidays.  I had to have this palette, especially since it has just about everything you need in one palette and with "good for you" ingredients, how can you go wrong?   I love Tarte and it's "Amazonian Clay infused" makeup.  This palette has 2 of their famous Amazonian Clay blushes, their Park Avenue Princess bronzer, and Amazonian Clay Shimmering highlighting powder in Champagne on the left side of the palette.  And as they claim, these Tarte Amazonian Clay infused blushes give you up to 12 hours of full-on pigmented color.   On the right side, there are 12 gorgeous Amazonian clay infused eye shadows in both matte and shimmering finishes -  shimmering platinum, shimmering sienna, matte chai tea, matte light pink, shimmering sage, shimmering citrine, shimmering steel blue, shimmering sunset gold, shimmering cocoa, shimmering smoke, matte coffee liquor, burnished br

I say it every month but it's true - the month flew right on by.  I can't believe that November is over and Christmas and New Years are right around the corner!!  Not to mention that my twins will turn 6 - what what??? Here are my favorites for the month of November: 1.   EcoTools Brush Set :  I purchased this set from CVS ages ago and they have been pushed to the back of my brush stash until recently.  I forgot how much I love these little brushes.  My favorite is the "smudge"brush - it's perfect for smudging out color or liner on the upper and lower lash line, as well as applying a highlight color to the inner tear duct area.  Quite honestly, all of these brushes are great and best of all, this is an inexpensive set - quality brushes for a drugstore price!  Not only can you use this set on a daily basis, but it's small enough to travel with. 2.   Blushes:  NYX Mosaic Powder Blush in Rosey and Tarte 12-hour Amazonian Clay Blush in Stellar.  Both of t

Well Tarte has done it again!!  They have put out another gorgeous holiday gift set which is part of the their "Baby It's Bold Outside" holiday collection .  I had originally resisted buying this set only because I have so many eye shadows and a lot of glosses but this set had so many awesome items and at $54, I couldn't resist!  This gift set has a little bit of everything it in - something for the eyes, cheeks, lips, face....and all packaged in a cute and usable gold and purple travel bag. This set has six eye shadow quads (for a total of 24 shadows) with a good mix of bold and neutral shades as well as shimmer and matte finishes.  Unfortunately, like most palettes, there are only a few mattes (4 in this set) and 20 shimmery shades.  I wish that Tarte had included more matte shadows to use for blending but we'll take what we can get.  And as always, the shadows are richly pigmented with great color payoff and they are easy to apply and blend out.  I love

The holidays are here and that means HOLIDAY PARTIES!!  That also means oodles of eating and drinking and countless hours spent in the gym trying to work them off.  Here's a great little article breaking down the calories in those holiday libations that I came across in the December 2012 issue of Everyday Food.  I hope that this little calorie guide helps you to keep those excess holiday LBS from making their way to your midsection!  Enjoy and Be Merry...

Here is a simple, elegant and quick recipe to use especially during the holiday season.  I tried this appetizer at a holiday party a couple of years ago and I have loved it ever since.  The recipe is super easy to prepare but looks like a gourmet dish when arranged on a platter in a floral pattern.  Serve this appetizer at your next gathering and everyone will think that you are a gourmet chef!  Enjoy... Endive Spears with Stilton Cheese,  Toasted Pecans, and Sauteed Pears (original base recipe from FoodNetwork.com but tweaked by yours truly) Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Serves: 25 Spears Ingredients 3 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp sugar 2 pears, peeled and diced 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 cup Stilton cheese, crumbled (or any other blue cheese or soft cheese, like feta or goat) 25 endive spears (or more) 1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped, toasted 1 cup c

This beauty caught my eye while browsing the many aisles at the Sephora store.  I am talking about the Lorac Sweet Temptations Lip Gloss Collection.  This set has 6 "diamond-etched" lip glosses that are infused with antioxidants of Acai Berry, Pomegranate, Grape Seed and Vitamins C & E to help nourish and protect your lips.  The lip glosses are richly pigmented, sparkly and have a nice yet subtle sweet scent to them.  These glosses aren't too sticky which is awesome if you have long hair and hate having your hair drag along your lips and leave behind streaks of lip gloss across your cheek (you know what I'm talking about).  I love the packaging - with the rhinestones on the gold cap of the glass tubes...gorgeous and lush.  This is a gorgeous set of glosses with a good variety of nude pinks to berries to a warm red.  I would've like to see a nude brownish color but oh well, this is still a nice set of colors to work with in the fall and winter season. This

November is the month for giving...after all Thanksgiving falls at the end of this month.  That is the theme for this month's Birchbox - giving thanks, giving back, and of course giving treats.  Included in this month's box is also a holiday gift guide to help you find the perfect gift for those special people in your life.   Have you subscribed yet? This month's Birchbox contains: 1.   Curly Hair Solutions: Curl Keeper (Full size, $10) - Comb this light, water-based serum through wet hair to keep your curls shiny, defined, and frizz-free. 2.   Jouer: Fragrance Cornucopia (Full size, $42) - Make room for your new purse staple: This portable scent features a heady trio of gardenia, jasmine, and honeysuckle. 3.   ModelCo: FIBRE LASHXTEND Lengthening Mascara (Full size, $24) - Falsies without the fuss.  This innovative mascara uses tiny lash-extending fibers to give you a lengthy fringe. Tip: Rotate the wand inside the bottle to pick up the fibers. 4.   stila: a

Here is another awesome and much coveted gift set from one of my favorite brands - Tarte!  This set features 4 mini (0.1 oz) Amazonian Clay blushes.  The regular size blushes (0.2 oz) retail for $25 each but this set is $35 for 4 amazing blushes (well 3 blushes, 1 highlighter).  Actually one of the blushes could be used as a bronzer/contour powder...but either way, you get 4 awesome shades in an amazing formulation.  And I love that these shades are universally flattering.  In this set, you get the shade Angelic, which is described as shimmering champagne (shimmer); Fantastic, soft fuchsia (matte); Magic, pink coral (matte); and Stellar, shimmering nude (shimmer).  These shades do seem to be limited edition and not part of their regular collection so I would get your hands on them as soon as you can before they sell out! I do love these blushes - just like their full size counterparts they seem to adjust to your skin needs.  If you have dry skin, they help to moisturize your parche

October was such a busy month for me - planning 2 birthday parties (my father's surprise 70th and my son's 2nd birthday), my husband was out on business for 3 weeks, getting the kiddos ready for Halloween, Halloween parties at school...October truly flew on by.  But the leaves are falling and the air is getting crisper - Fall is finally here! As the seasons change, so do my skin needs and makeup routine. Here are my favorites for the moth of October: For makeup - I am loving the Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation .  This foundation is just as great as the original fluid Colorstay foundation.  The pigmentation is great - a little goes a long way.  I have found that the best way to apply this foundation is not with a brush or damp beauty blender, but rather with your fingers.  Somehow I don't know if it's the warmth of your fingers or what, but using your fingers to apply and blend out the foundation leaves a flawless finish just like using a brush or beauty blender.  

Well the holidays are right around the corner and that means...time to start thinking of the perfect gift to give to your family and friends.  Allow me to take the stress off of your shoulders - I have some great gift ideas for all of those beauty loving friends and family members in your life.   The first gift set that I have been loving is the Sephora Favorites In The Glow set. This is a great set of 9 of  Sephora’s bestselling complexion enhancers, including a selection of 3 blushes, 3 bronzers, and 3 luminizers.  They come in an array of different finishes from creams to powders to liquids. This set contains:  - 0.13 oz Benefit High Beam - 0.08 oz Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzing Powder - 0.17 oz Tarte Natural Cheek Stain in Flush - 0.07 oz Stila Convertible Color in Peony - 0.11 oz Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Splendor - 0.106 oz Lorac Perfectly Lit Oil-Free Luminizing Powder in Spotlight - 0.02 oz bareMinerals All Over Face Color in Pure Radiance

My youngest just turned 2 over the weekend and since his favorite show right now is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, we decided to have a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party.  I found a lot of great ideas on various sites and blogs, so here is what I came up with: A cute sturdy cardboard MM cupcake stand I purchased on Amazon for under $10 (the stand also came with the cupcake liners and Mickey toppers) I made sugar cookies using a MM cookie cutter, frosted with chocolate and vanilla frosting (on the left).  On the right - I took mini Oreo's and reg size Oreo's and "glued" them together with melted chocolate.  How cute!! The birthday boy with his Mickey Mouse hoodie on. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday banner that stands 6 feet tall!   Chocolate Oreo Mickey's in cute cupcake stands.  Cupcakes in the background. The birthday boy loving his balloon bouquet! This is one of my favorites - personalized chocolate bar that I purchased from iCandywrap