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Christmas Tree Tips

For those that have tried the plastic replica for your annual holiday tree for the sake of convenience, no amount of pine tree essential oils can make up for the real deal. And though they require some needle clean-up and occasional hydration, having a real Christmas tree is worth it in the end. But if youre at a pre-cut tree farm, you might be wondering how to pick the right tree. Below, weve decided to help you demystify that process with a few standard tips. Christmas Tree Tips Measure + Visualize The old adage of measuring twice and cutting once is important when finding the right tree. Make sure you use an accurate tape measure to gauge floor to ceiling room. Its just as important to account for your tree stand and where youre going to put it. How much room does that corner by your couch allow? Are you going to have the space to rearrange? Know both the width and the height, give yourself a little wiggle room in what you take home to be safe, and pre-stage the general shape that would complement your living room best. Checking Freshness Most tree farms or lots will shake the needles loose for looks. But checking for a loss of needles isnt always the best way to know how fresh your ideal tree may be. For certain types of pines, a freshly picked needle should snap in halfand not bendif its newer. On most trees, weight can also be indicative of freshness. Once a tree is cut, it stops producing sap and uses up whats left in the wood. The less sap, the lighter the tree. While it can be harder to compare each tree against its healthier average, the trunk of the tree and the needles should still be somewhat sticky in sap. If youre still stumped, you can usually tip a lot worker to help you find a tree that will last you longer. Other Helpful Tips When youve settled on a tree, youll want to cut one inch of the trunk off to make it easier for the tree to absorb the water in your stand. You might want to bring your stand with you to make sure it will fit what youre planning to buy. Once youve made the fresh cut, you should get the tree into water as soon as you can to prevent it from scabbing over. On top of keeping the tree hydrated, keeping it out of direct sunlight or away from the warm vent drafts can help it stay fresher for longer.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Cold weather raises its clarion call to piping hot and cozy warm drinks like a bright bat signal against a dark grey cloud. And though this neck of the woods has its fair share of drive-thru coffee shops with your favorite hot chocolate guilty pleasure, nothing really beats the taste of making it at home. Whether youve tried making it before, or are new to homemade cocoa altogether, weve decided to make a list of two differentbut oh so deliciousways to make it yourself this month. Homemade Hot Chocolate Good Eats Hot Cocoa Mr. Brown is known for his commitment to intellectually sound cooking. But just because hes smart doesnt mean he lacks effective straightforwardness and simplicity in his recipes. Heres what youll need to make it: - 2 cups of powdered sugar - 1 cup of dutch-processed cocoa - 2 cups of powdered milk - 1 teaspoon of salt - 2 teaspoons of cornstarch - A pinch of cayenne pepper to taste - Hot water All youll need to do to is take the above ingredientsminus the hot waterand place them in a mixing bowl for storage. Then, simply heat approximately 4 to 6 cups of water or milk on the stove to boil. Fill up your mug halfway with the cocoa and the other half with the milk or water, stir, and voila. Your leftover sealed cocoa mix should store in your cupboards just fine. The Kitchns Hot Cocoa Mix The Kitchn has a similar list of ingredients as we listed above, but theyve added their own twist. But this one involves chopping up little bits of bittersweet chocolate along with the cocoa powder. Heres what their recipe looks like for cocoa mix: - 3 ounces bittersweet chocolateat least 60% or greater - 1/2 cup unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder - 1/2 cup coconut sugar or turbinado sugar - 3 tablespoons powdered milk - 1/8 teaspoon sea salt You can bring this recipe to life on the stove the same way as above. Just make sure you chop up the chocolate before you mix it together and pour your hot water or milk of choice on top. It stores just fine in an air-tight container.

Getting More Sleep This Thanksgiving

Holidays and three-day weekends usually bring with it more than just a promise of foodbut a time to relax and catch up on all the hours of sleep in your rest savings account. Whether youre spending time with family, or planning on driving or flying out of town, all that excess time can slip by before you know where it went. It can be just as hard to power down after watching football games on TV or a rally of catch-up conversations, despite all the tryptophan in your holiday turkey. But fear not! With our tips below, youll be able to sleep like a champ. Thanksgiving Sleeping Tips Sleeping Apps While keeping your phone by your side doesnt seem so conducive to sleep, using apps that help you monitor your sleep can be a great way to get more sleep. There are even apps built to help you adjust from jet lag with a personalized plan, and apps that use hypnosis to help you fall asleep. Wed recommend taking a good look at this list (http://www.inc.com/julie-strickland/sleep-app-to-help-you-get-more-sleep.html). Food + Alcohol While its easy to graze on leftovers or an extra slice of pie, try to lay off food for at least three hours before you head to bed. All the extra digestion can make it harder to fall asleep. Alcohol presents similar problems by raising your core body temperature, which can make it easier to wake up at nightand harder to fall back asleep. Shower + Power Down Though a sustained high body temperature can make it harder to fall asleep, taking a warm showerand the cooling off that happens aftercan help to stimulate drowsiness. We would also recommend turning off anything thats bright, like phones or TV screens, at least an hour before you jump into bed. Opening up windows in the dark room can also make it easier to stay asleep.

Storing Thanksgiving Leftovers, part 2

Thanksgiving dinner can take a couple weeks of preparation. With everything from picking out the perfect recipes for family and friends, and the hours of work that goes into bringing it all to the table, you deserve to get as much out of any leftovers you can. But sometimes, some of your best dishes might live a shorter shelf life than they otherwise would. For every dish, theres a better way to keep it fresher for longer. Whether tradition or where youre storing it in the fridge limits the longevity of your leftovers, weve outlined a few ways you can keep the life in your leftovers a little longer below. Thanksgiving Leftover Tips Stuffing + Mashed Potatoes Theres often the temptation to store leftover turkey with its main course compatriotsstuffing and mashed potatoes. But that can lead to cross-contamination, loss of flavor, and a whole mess of other problems. Instead, store separatelylike individually wrapped slices of piein a shallow container. If possible, wed recommend not stacking tupperware. That ensures colder air can circulate on all sides, cutting down on the window for bacteria to spread and spoil your food. You can easily heat stuffing a mashed potatoes back up by fluffing your leftovers, dotting it with some melted butter, and warming it up in tin foil or a baking pan for fifteen to twenty minutes at 350 F. These microwave tips can also come in handy. Cranberry Sauce + Gravy Both can easily be stored in heavy duty ziploc bags or air-tight containers. Gravy can keep even longer by freezing it into blocks with an ice cube tray. Wed just recommend spraying or coating the ice cub tray in cooking oil so its easier to pop them out once theyre frozen. You can free up your ice cube tray by keeping them in a plastic bag in the freezer once they reach that point. Cranberry sauce can keep in the fridge for up to two weeks, in part because of its high acidity. But again, avoid stacking whenever possible. That will help it cool on all sidesand stay that way.

Storing Thanksgiving Leftovers

Thanksgiving dinner can take a couple weeks of preparation. With everything from picking out the perfect recipes for family and friends, and the hours of work that goes into bringing it all to the table, you deserve to get as much out of any leftovers you can. But sometimes, some of your best dishes might live a shorter shelf life than they otherwise would. For every dish, theres a better way to keep it fresher for longer. Whether tradition or where youre storing it in the fridge limits the longevity of your leftovers, weve outlined a few ways you can keep the life in your leftovers a little longer below. Thanksgiving Leftover Tips Pie Whether you picked up something from the store at the last minute, or blew the dust off a classic family recipe, few things are as sweet as leftover pie on a roomier stomach the next day. Whether youve having a slice with your morning coffee, or after dinner, the best way to keep it from going bad is to cut up whats left into individual slices. You should then either cover each slice in either saran wrap or an air-tight container. This will help the pie retain its moisture better. Slicing it up will also help it to cool faster, which helps prevent bacteria from spoiling the food too soon . If youre storing it for longer than a week, wed recommend freezing it until youre ready to eat. Turkey Thanksgiving leftovers just arent really leftovers without the preservation of your most prized tender turkey. But for them to make it to your sandwiches or soups this week and next, youll want to first cut up the rest of the meat in lieu of storing it on the bonewhich can be an open invitation to bacteria. This is a great tutorial for carving a turkey the right way . Its also a good idea to store the meat in more shallow containers. The more shallow the container, the less room there is for heat to gather. That means the meat will cool quicker, leaving less chance for bacteria to get in and ruin things.

Thanksgiving Travel Tips

Whether youre getting there by air or land, traveling over the holidays is usually ripe with traffic and unexpected delays. For those that havent taken a longer road trip to see family or friends in a while, fear can set in early about making the wrong preparations. Even our trusted routes can become busier over time. So what do you do then? Googles navigation app has gleaned some helpful tips from over two years of traffic trends they see in the collective data in twenty-one U.S. cities. Below, well highlight what we learned from those findings that were published in a blog post a year ago. Google Thanksgiving Travel Tips Avoid Wednesdays According to them, hump day tends to have some of the worst trafficand that lines up with most wanting to get to their destination one day earlier. If your work schedule permits, its better to leave two days before the holiday. But if you do have to travel, theyve found that the bigger rush usually lines up with rush hourbetween 3PM and 5PM. Wed recommend leaving well before 2PM or after 7PM to bypass the molasses-slow traffic. Thanksgiving Day Believe it or not, our hallowed day of turkey tends to be the best day to travel. Because traffic happens more the day before, the major highways and roads should be mostly traffic-freeexcept for those making last minute runs to the store. Google just recommends avoiding traveling during the peak hours between 12PM and 2PM. Sunday Departure Last but not least, they recommend heading back home after the long holiday weekend on Sunday instead of Saturday. For those that do travel on Saturday, you can expect up to forty percent more traffic than youd experience if you can wait another day. Using this information, along with traffic updates from your favorite navigation app or your GPS, youll be able to get to your destination a little fasterand a lot less stressed.