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RC

0 In food/ recipes

best buttermilk biscuits

Let me be clear, this is not meant to be braggy, but matter-of-fact. 

I make INCREDIBLE buttermilk biscuits. Tiny towers of fluffy layers, gorgeously golden. crackly crust on top, tender within. The perfect vehicle for everything from more butter to a whole breakfast sandwich, I spent a full winter perfecting them in college, and it shows. 

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0 In food/ recipes

my granny’s challah

This past year plus that we’ve spent at home, one of the things that has brought me peace is baking challah. I don’t pretend to be more observant than I am- I bake, often weekly, not always timed freshly for Shabbat, but for joy of cooking and eating, for cultural connection. And in many ways, my baking routine has become meditative for me.

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0 In decor/ holiday/ home

spooky mantel decor

Last Halloween, I mostly only decorated Asher’s room. If you’ll recall, I scored our mantel on marketplace just in time for Hanukkah last year.

So if we’re being technical, this was the mantel’s very first spooky season so I had a very valid excuse for getting excited. If I’m being totalllyyy honest, though, Asher and I were picking up prescriptions at Target while David was in the hospital. I swear I only was going to grab one thing, the garland, and the next thing I knew my cart was full.😬 A little decorating magic ensued…

I needed to do some organizing and more shopping and returning as I figured out our Halloween spooky garden party aesthetic, and then had to do some crafting and customizing myself. None of the bigger freaky floral arrangements that were in store worked in our space, so I made the perfect ones myself.

So happy with the way this all turned out… Cheers to all the fall festivities up ahead!

0 In family/ mothering/ toddler time

our sensory play setup

A whole lot of the questions I frequently get in my dms relate to one topic, Asher’s sensory play setup. It’s quickly grown into a basis for some of our most fun activities here at home, so I wanted to create a master post detailing what we have, and how we make it work for us.

 The sensory table is an ikea flisat, which works with the trofast bins in all their sizes. We also have this trofast storage unit in Asher’s closet (a fb marketplace score), and the interchangeable bin setup is really so useful for organization and toy rotation that I can’t help but keep up with it. 

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0 In food/ recipes

Coe classic sugar cookies

I was talking with my girlfriend Cassandra last week, who is also an immigrant, about where this trend of perfectly iced sugar cookies came from. It wasn’t a thing when we were kids, but now business has boomed and there are so many talented makers crafting the most beautiful cookies! I’m no artiste, so this post isn’t about those kind- if you are looking for artwork and perfection I can recommend my friend Jen in Los Angeles or learning through the World Cookie Summit.  These are easy, yummy sugar cookies, plain and simple.

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0 In food/ recipes

creamy cream cheese frosting

I’m breaking from my typical positive attitude to start this post with a complaint: I’ve tried so many other cream cheese frosting recipes, and I’m perpetually disappointed (I’m cringing just thinking of the flour fiasco I got up to on Ashe’s birthday this year. ) As I did on his birthday, I always wind up relying on my go-to cream cheese icing, and it’s past due time I shared it on here.

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0 In holiday/ shopping

gift guide: house and home

I really, truly love gift giving, despite my stance on limiting it. When I struggle with the perfect gift, it tends to be for those who seem to have everything, or people I don’t know intimately. And in both of these cases, I find myself deferring to gifts of edibles, family favorites, or decorative bits, so I’m sharing a house and home gift guide with y’all today!

I feel strongly about a stylish and serviceable apron- Hedley and Bennett are our family’s fave (I danced Ashe out at the apron factory), and this floral apron is so pretty too! I love giving a bit of spice as a gift- hot honey and Barron’s West Indian hot sauce are staples in our house, so they are ones I give over and over.  Other tried-and-true faves that would make such good gifts are this bamboo and straw cup (so many of you have already bought one and love it too!), a salt lamp, the coziest chenille pompom blanket, and these stacked personalized books. We have two sets, and I love the family version but really love the custom hanukkah one even more

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0 In decor/ family

hanukkah at home

Last year, I decorated our bar cart for Hanukkah, with fresh pine and glittery star garlands. I like a bar cart for a Hanukkah setup because it gives you space for presents below and open air for a menorah up top, and am doing something similar to this again this year. 

I’m always good for a rant about representation, and specifically how sparse and limited the stock of Hanukkah products can be. It’s doesn’t help that I’m picky about aesthetics on top of the fewish options, not gonna lie. But I’ve gotten good at finding the cute stuff out of the piles of kitsch, so I wanted to share some of my fave Hanukkah finds this year. 

Target has really stepped their game up over the last several years, and I love to see it. We’ve had this opalhouse hanukkiah for several years, and it’s such good quality. The dollar spot was full of good finds this year- these Hanukkah themed paint-with-water pages, adorable tea towels, and silicone mats to catch wax were all from there. I’m such a fan of the fabric menorah wall hanging– it’s in Asher’s room and I’m looking forward to helping him add a candle each night, and pulling it out again each year. I’ll do the same with these babublebar earrings for myself. I didn’t love most of the themed clothes on the market this year, but thought this shirt from the little girls’ section was cute, and so cheap- an XL fits me fine. I grabbed these precious olive & june hanukkah nail stickers at target, but then ordered a backup set from them directly. And how sweet is this little felt garland?

Hanukkah books are also a big part of our seasonal fun. Lots of our stash of Jewish culture books were gifted by PJ library, but  I’ve linked a bunch of our favorites here. 

If you’re gearing up for Hanukkah, I hope it’s filled with wonder and light.

love, Ravayna

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