Nine Favorite Things. - Half Baked Harvest

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Happiest fall! Today is the official first day of fall, and after spending the week in New York, I’m ready. The temperatures in New York are still pretty warm, but the leaves are turning pretty shades of yellow by the day. It makes me so excited to be coming back in October. I hope the leaves will all be the perfect shades of yellow and orange. I can’t wait!

Rewinding a bit, the last few days spent in New York were great. This trip into the city was with our advertising company, Raptive. To give you some insight on the business side of things, one of our main sources of revenue here at HBH is the ads you see on the website. Raptive manages those ads, among other things. They are an incredibly hands-on, well-informed company. They are very involved in our business, helping us with email, SEO, AI, and even Pinterest.

The panels I’ve been speaking on have been about AI. Raptive started the “Keep it Real Campaign” to try to preserve the human spirit of the internet and stop Google from reprinting creator content on onto their search pages. Big tech companies are using our content without permission or compensation to build AI tools that compete with us. You can read more about the campaign here if this interests you. I’ve been honored to be a part of these panels and have learned so much from other creators as well.

I was back-to-back this entire trip, but it really was an amazing one. I loved speaking on these panels. We hope to continue raising awareness for an issue that will greatly affect so many of us if we don’t grasp it better.

My trip started out magically. We had a press dinnerÂ with Snif to launch our Apple Cider Candle. We held the dinner at The Waverly Inn, one of the city’s coziest spots. If you have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. I fell in love with the space the moment I stepped inside. And the food was amazing too. It was such a special night filled with wonderful friends and media. I can’t wait for those who ordered the candle to receive it! The 8-ounce candle is sold out but will be restocked soon! You can preorder it now or pick up a 4-wick candle (50 oz). I will say the 4-wick is so special and looks stunning on a table.

Day 2 in New York was spent in meetings. Then, straight into an advertising dinner with the Raptive teams. It was very business-esk yet nice. We went to MedÃ¼za, and the Mediterranean menu was so delicious. Everything we ordered came out wonderful. The highlight for me was the tzatzikiÂ and warm pita.

Days 3 and 4 were spent speaking on panels, then a yummy dinner at Gramercy Tavern. Coincidentally, this is where we also had our Snif Apple Cider Candle press dinner this week! I get why both chose this tavern!

And that’s about it for this week…enjoy the first week of Fall!

1. Things iâm loving, wanting, and excited to try.

ordering nowâ¦the Best Advent Calendars and Best Beauty Advent Calendars to start shopping now. These are so fun! I love an advent calendar.

traveling…Fall Is the Best Time to Visit New England – for a Gilmore Girls fall!

everything in my cart (low)â¦so many fall selects from Zara. Love this basic knit fitted cardigan and matching mini skirt. They’ve also got a great buttoned knit polo, and zippered jacket. Or this is a very cute cropped jacket.

Lastly, I love their suede kitten heels and kitten heeled ankle boots. I would style them with this ruffled dress.

And I’m restocking my J.Crew cashmere crewneck sweaters, and this one is so good. I also love all the new J.Crew fall arrivals. They do such a good job with their knits! And I thought their fall catalog was super cute too!

listening toâ¦Kourtney Kardashian Barker Gets Real About Boundaries, Her Personal Life, Therapy, Parenting, & Building The Lemme Empire With Simon Huck. Our SnifÂ candles got a little shout-out toward the end of this!

recommending…this Coach Carryall Bag. A perfect semi-affordable designer bag that’s great for fall and will last you a lifetime. I love this bag, and especially in this beautiful maple shade.

lovingâ¦this hood scarf for my mom. I know she would love this and get so much wear out of it. How cozy!

shoppingâ¦The Best Places to Shop Vintage Online. My favorites areÂ Vestiaire Collective,Â Fashionphile, and What Goes Around Comes Around.

wanting…brown bags for fall. Love these!

following…Floral design by Molly Ford. Pretty florals in NYC!

everything in my cart (beauty)â¦I’ve heard great things about this Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask from Biodance. Have you tried it. On a similar note, IÂ love the Shani DardenÂ Triple Acid Signature Peel. I just restocked this; it’s such an awesome at-home facial.

Also restocking the Josie Maran Whipped Argan Oil Refillable Firming Body Butter Jar and the Mutha Body Butter (my tried and true favorite). And I’ve yet to try this OSEA Cleansing Body Polish, but I’d like to.

dreaming of goingâ¦Lake Garda and staying at the stunning Cape of Senses, a 5-star hotel at Lake Garda. A magical Italian vacation.Â

cooking/baking…The 60 Most Popular Fall Recipes of 2024.

everything in my cart (high)â¦really excited about the new KhaiteÂ Zoe Patchwork Tote.

listening to…Nish Samantray, Husband and Co-Founder of Arrae: How We Operate Arrae, Hiring and Team Building, Retailers, and More. If you’re starting your own brand or currently running your own brand, this is a highly informative episode.

followingâ¦this âSave the Dayâ Trend. A wellness trend I can actually get behind. A few of my “save the day ideas”. A fresh bouquet of flowers, lighting candles at 6pm, making holiday Pinterest boards (so fun, I really love doing this!), calling mom, and online shopping.

shoppingâ¦All the New Trader Joeâs Fall Items. I want to recreate the mini pumpkin spice sheet cake. So cute! Also, I love how excited everyone at Trader Joe’s is for fall!

reading…Apple Picking Guide. I just love a great honeycrisp apple.

2. It’s Fall – all the pumpkin recipes to make.

Fluffy Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Spiced Pumpkin Maple Latte

Cream Cheese Swirled Cinnamon Pumpkin Butter Bread

6 Ingredient Spiced Pumpkin Butter

Spicy Bourbon Pumpkin Smash

Pumpkin Beer Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Brown Butter Pumpkin Tortellini Alla Vodka

Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

3. Amazon Home For Fall.Â

even more HalloweenÂ

While in New York this week, I received the very first copy of Quick & Cozy! I can’t believe we’re less than two months from the publication date of November 19th! I’m so excited to share this cookbook with you all!

I want to share some reasons why this book is so special to me.

Let me take you along on the process of creating cookbook #4, Quick and Cozy.

March 31st 2024

I was so excited. I flew to New York ready to work with a team to bring the cookbook to life. With all of my cookbooks, I create the content, write the headnotes and recipes, test the recipes, source the props, and then photograph them all!

Most people work with a team to create an entire book (there’s usually a recipe developer, food stylist, prop stylist, and photographer). Until then, I’d never worked with a team other than my book editor (she edits the book). The plan was to shoot all the recipes in the studio over three weeks. For the first time, I would have a team helping me. They would be sourcing the props, doing the grocery shopping, cooking the recipes, and cleaning up after the shoot. My job would be styling and photographing the recipes.

I was so organized and ready to create the most beautiful cookbook. I was excited to try something new!

Day one and only in studio – Bushwick/Ridgewood

As things often go in life, this did not go as planned. My first and only full day on set was one of my worst nightmares. I was so out of my zone, out of my creative space. Nothing was working; my photos had no sparkle, no magic, and everyone on set knew it. This was not for me;Â I needed to be the one cooking the dishes and beÂ more involved in the process. I needed to do it all, just as I’ve always done. I also needed to get these photos done ASAP. But I also needed the help; we were already so behind! The publisher needs the photos many months prior to the pub date (often a year), and we were now at April 1!

Spring in New York.

The only choice I had was obvious: I needed to get home. I had three weeks to photograph all 125+ recipes if I wanted this book to be released this year! A fall publishing date was so important to me. This is my favorite time of year and my favorite recipes to share!!

This was an impossible task, and everyone around me doubted I could really get it done with no help at all. My family was traveling and not planning to be home for a whole month, so I was on my own.

But I was so determined.

Something inside me knew I could do it. I had to do it.

I flew home and surrounded myself with flowers to stay upbeat during the cold rain/snow filled Colorado spring days.

And I got to work.

Cooking, cleaning, shooting, writing. It all had to happen. I was tired.

But somehow, I did it, and I created a cookbook I am so excited to share with you all!! I put all my energy into this cookbook, and it’s so good. It has my best recipes and photos yet. I’m so happy I buckled down and was able to get it done.

Quick trips helped inspire me. This was the 1st lifestyle shoot for the book (which I worked with a team to create because these are photos with me in them!).