Giveaway: Diamond Candles

I've got a really fun giveaway on the blog today. It's not food, but it is all natural and will make your house smell homey and delicious for weeks. It's a Diamond Candle! If you already know about Diamond Candles, feel free to skip to the end and enter the giveaway. If you're a newbie to these candles though, read on for some details.

Diamond Candles makes earth friendly, all natural, highly fragrant premium quality soy candles. But their candles come with a unique twist - every candle comes with a "ring reveal experience", meaning the candles each have a ring inside worth $10, $100, $1,000 or even $5,000.

When Diamond Candles contacted me a few weeks ago about trying one of their candles, I was definitely game. I'm a huge candle lover but don't like the sickly sweet or fake scent that many mainstream candles have, so was interested to see how their candles would stack up. I ordered the Cinnamon Roll scent since it seemed fall-ish, and couldn't wait to get it burning when it arrived in the mail.

There are a few things I love about these candles:

1. They smell really great. The Cinnamon Roll scent is sweet and warm without smelling sugary, and it's fragrant enough that you can smell it throughout the whole downstairs vs. just in the kitchen where I burn it.

2. It's super long-lasting. I've been burning it almost every day for a few weeks, and it's only about 2/3 of the way down.

It's also fun waiting for the ring to appear.

See the gold foil peaking out there? Once I got about halfway down I was able to pull the foil packet out with some tweezers and get to the unveiling.

One...

Two...

Three!

I don't think I scored one of the $5,000 rings, but I didn't expect to. ;) The ring I got had a heart shaped ruby and isn't really my style, but the experience was fun nonetheless.

They have tons of other styles - check out their Instagram feed or photo album for other ring reveals - so maybe yours will be just your taste!

How to Enter

Ok enough talk, time for the good stuff. To enter and win a Diamond Candle for yourself (any scent you like), click the link below and enter your info. You can win extra entries by Liking the Diamond Candles Facebook or Pinterest pages.

Enter HERE: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Earn extra entries here: Like the Facebook page, Follow them on Pinterest / pin a picture on Pinterest

The contest will be open for two weeks and will conclude on Sunday, Nov. 3. Leave me a comment letting me know you entered so I can cheer you on, and good luck!

**This giveaway is sponsored by Diamond Candles. As always, all opinions are my own.**

Foliage Pilgrim

Happy Columbus Day, everybody! Normally on this day I’d be making the drive back from my annual fall trip to Vermont, but I’m currently sitting at the airport waiting for my connecting flight to Indianapolis. I’ll be speaking at a PR conference there tomorrow and wanted to get in early today to enjoy some of the other sessions taking place this afternoon. That didn’t stop me from making the annual Columbus Day trip home, I just shifted things and went home Thurs-Sun instead. I just can’t pass up the chance to see the turning of the leaves each year.

Granted we were about a week late so the trees were past their prime, but they were still beautiful. Matt wasn’t able to come since he had soccer and school duties to attend to, so my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Justyn drove up with Riker and me. We had a blast, as always. We got a chance to see my dad, brother, SIL and nephew on Thursday night for dinner. How cute are these two little guys?

Cousin love. <3

The rest of the weekend was spent with my mom, stepdad Bruce, and grandma. Friday started with breakfast smoothies at home, lunch at our favorite spot, Positive Pie, and an afternoon hike up Owl’s Head mountain. We also took a drive out to a farm where my mom gets her fresh produce, and Riker adored seeing all the animals. He can say all their names now, and mimic their sounds. Cracks me up. You could pretty much call it the perfect Vermont day.

My mom made us a big turkey dinner for Friday evening which was waiting for us at home, so we ended the day with full plates of food and some fierce game playing – a family tradition at our house.

I tried to eat healthy most of the time while I was away, ordering salads for my entrees when eating out in VT and while on the road, and skipping the homemade pancakes and toast served up at breakfast.

…But I definitely indulged in some treats - craft beers, homemade apple and chocolate cream pies courtesy of Bruce the baker, and lunch appetizers of fried Brussels sprouts, panko pimento cheese balls and beer pretzels.

Particularly on Saturday, when my mom and Bruce took Riker out for a kids day and left me, Amanda and Justyn to ourselves for an adults day. Justyn had never been home with us before and had thus never done the Food Tour of Waterbury, so of course that was on the agenda. But we started things off with a down-to-the-wire hunt for the infamous Heady Topper beer to bring home for friends (and FOUND it! The last six 4-packs in the whole state) and a trip to Stowe Mountain to ride the Alpine Slide down the ski slopes.

Amanda and I haven’t ridden the slide since we were kids and it was really fun - and beautiful during the fall.

Afternoon activities included visiting Cold Hollow CiderMill, Cabot Cheese (new flavor alert - Everything Bagel!), Lake Champlain Chocolates and Ben & Jerry’s, sampling goodies and purchasing treats to take home along the way. We stopped for lunch at my other favorite pub, Prohibition Pig, followed by a little happy hour at Arvad’s down the street.

It was a great, great day. And as much as I love spending time with my little guy, it really is nice to have a grownup day once in a while too.  I enjoyed getting to hang out with Amanda and Justyn without having a toddler pulling on my leg yelling “MOM!” every 10 seconds. ;)

We were up early and headed home yesterday so we could be back at a reasonable hour, and after watching the (amazing) Patriots game I got to unpacking and re-packing and getting ready for my achingly early 4 am alarm clock. Needless to say, I’m hurting for caffeine right now. Better go grab a cup before boarding my next flight.

See you after Indianapolis! (P.S. For more weekend trips, check out my Instagram feed.)

Parmesan Cauliflower Soup with Kale Chips

Our ridiculous little heat wave of 80 degree weather is finally over. It's time for fall, time for boots, time for SOUP!

When I was little, my mom used to make this creamy cauliflower soup that I just adored. When I mention it these days she says she doesn't remember making it, and doesn't really like cauliflower soup, so thinks I'm making things up. Um, no. I remember. I remember it being creamy, cheesy and delicious and always asking for it.

So now that fall is here and I'm starting to make soups again, cauliflower soup was one of the first that popped into my head. I picked up a head of cauliflower at the grocery store last week along with a bunch of kale to eat on the side, but didn't really have a plan for how to recreate the soup from my childhood.

Thankfully, after just throwing some things together in a pot after work last night and tweaking a bit as I went along, it came out perfectly. It was silky smooth, full of flavor and actually quite hearty. Matt and Riker both loved it and we devoured almost the whole pot. It's also low in carbs, made without cream and can be made in about 30 minutes - bonus!

So you might be wondering about the addition of kale chips on top. Well, with such a smooth and creamy soup I like to have something crunchy. But since we try to eat low carb during the week (meaning no crackers to crush on top or bread to dunk) and I felt we needed a green veggie (you know my feelings on kale), crispy kale chips sounded like a great idea. And they were. They were salty, super crunchy and were great crumbled on top (where they simultaneously stayed crunchy and got chewy as they seeped into the soup), as well as eaten on the side.

These things are majorly addicting.

Parmesan Cauliflower Soup with Kale Chips

Serves 3-4

Ingredients - Soup
1 head cauliflower, cut in large chunks
3 cups water
2 cubes vegetable bouillon
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. pepper
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Ingredients - Kale Chips
6-7 large kale leaves, washed and torn into big pieces
Olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Directions - Soup
Put the chopped cauliflower and 1/2 cup water in a stock pot; cover and bring to a boil, and cook over medium heat until cauliflower is fork tender, about 10-15 minutes.

Add bouillon, salt, pepper and remaining water. Stir to combine, then puree with an immersion blender (alternatively, puree in a blender). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add milk, cheddar and parmesan, and simmer on low another 10 minutes until cheese is melted and flavors are combined. Top with kale chips and serve.

Kale Chips
Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil, and lay the kale on top. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Massage gently until kale is completely covered with oil.

Bake for 10 minutes. Then flip and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Remove and serve immediately.