Cranberry Rosemary Chicken

Looking for a yummy recipe to make this Christmas? Try this yummy cranberry and rosemary chicken! It's super easy to make and so tasty. 

Ingredients:
Marinade

1 orange

1/3 cup frozen or fresh cranberries
2 tablespoons avocado oil
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup white wine

Chicken

 Thigh/leg quarters 

1 Tablespoon avocado oil 

Salt

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Directions:

Place all marinade ingredients in the blender and blend. Place chicken in a bag and pour marinade over chicken. Marinate 30 minutes to overnight. Place chicken and marinade in a 9x3 baking dish, scrape marinade off of the chicken, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Add rosemary sprigs, and bake at 375 until meat reaches 165F. Turn on the broiler and broil for 5 minutes or until skin is golden and crispy. 

Want to read some more articles? Check these out!

How To Make Marshmallow Snowmen

There is nothing we like better on a cold winter night than hot cocoa- except maybe hot cocoa with marshmallow snowmen. These are so easy to make and are so fun on top of your drink! 

Ingredients:

White Chocolate
Candy Cane
Sprinkles
Marshmallows

Directions:

Melt white chocolate, add a dab to either end of one marshmallow. Place another marshmallow on either end and place in the refrigerator until chocolate hardens. Using a knife make a small slit in the middle marshmallow on either side. Break up candy cane. Insert pieces of the candy cane into the slits, you can dip them in white chocolate and then insert them if they don't want to stay. Make two tiny eye slits in the top marshmallow, insert a black sprinkle into each hole. Cut another hole for a nose and place a piece of candy cane in the hole.

Want to read some more articles? Check these out!

Fairy Tale Christmas Bedroom

It's always a fun challenge to add touches of Christmas to the bedrooms! The fairytale-themed bedroom is especially fun. This year we went with a fairy tale themed tree and beautiful wreath on the bed. 

We went with a simple rose garland over the bed, it's more summery but I like the feel it has On the bed we went with these soft creamy arm pillows we picked up at Walmart. We also placed a simple green wreath with a big red bow on it.

We placed a small tree on the window seat with fairytale-themed ornaments (you can find some in our Shop) and strands of imitation pearls.

I love this stag we picked up at Big Lots, it reminds me of Narnia and is the perfect addition to the room.

 Want to read some more articles? Check these out!

Cozy Christmas Family Room

We are so behind on getting our Christmas decor on the blog, it's been so cloudy and dark here that all my pictures come out depressingly gray. Thankfully today we got sunshine and the Cottage felt so cozy! So we decide to shoot the living room this morning. I really love how it has come together this year. 

I have kind of an obsession with these cone trees, they are so cute! We have broken mirror one, glittery ones and coffee filter ones here and there in our living room.

Over our mantel we placed these thrift store mirrors we picked up a few years back and a cotton wreath. I think it gives this spot an old fashion Christmas Carol / Christmas past feel. To add to that look we stacked antique books, that we've picked up at estate sales and yard sales over the years. Books are a fun way to add a splash of color and age to a space. We have everything from a volume of Edgar Allan Poe to a very worn copy of Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens and very old school books. We also placed our vintage silver candlesticks here and there too and to that old fashion feel. For an extra touch, we also used these adorable faux children's pull toys that we picked up at Kroger a few weeks ago.

We switched our Ikea couch covers to white, for a crisper feel and added pops of cream to the couch with throw pillows. I like how it pulls the colors from our stockings out into the room.

We waited a really long time to get our real tree this year, by the time we got to Lowes the choices were few and far between and so we ended up with a bit of a scrawny tree (but Brianna was happy because it was taller than her). We usually don't get this kind but they were completely sold out of our favorite so this guy was the winner. We decided to do something crazy and flock our tree! We've done little trees for our porch and some smaller things but never anything this size. Four bottles of flocking later we were satisfied with its appearance. After letting it dry overnight we got her decked out in lights and clear, white and silver ornaments- oh and tinsel of course. We also used a galvanized bucket we picked up at Lowes last year and distressed with chalk paint for a tree collar.
 

And of course, no photo shoot would be the same without getting the pups in on the fun!

Want to read some more articles? Check these out!

Cranberry Cream Cheese Christmas Bread

We wiped up this yummy bread last night after we got in from flocking our Christmas tree and Christmas shopping. This recipe is sooooo good and really easy to make. It's not too sweet, with tart juicy cranberries. It's perfect for all your Christmas get-togethers!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup raw sugar
2 Cups organic all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon nonaluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoons Himalayan salt
2 Cups fresh or fozen cranberries

1 Cup grass-fed butter softened
1 8 Ounce package cream cheese

4 pastured eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla

Directions:

In a standup mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth, add vanilla and sugar. Add eggs one at a time mixing well in between. In a separate bowl mix, flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Fold in cranberries with a spoon. Divide evenly between 2 3 1/2 x 8 bread pans. Preheat the oven to 350, bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Want to read some more articles? Check these out!

Simple Christmas Tablescape

Christmas is always a big deal here at the Cottage, every year it's a little different but we always enjoy the challenge. For many years Grandma Cottage hands we in every aspect of our decorating, she loved this time of year with her whole heart. I miss her guiding hand and input every Christmas that rolls around without her, but I think she would approve of this table design from last year.

We went with a beautiful burgundy table runner, cotton garland, fresh greenery from the yard, star china plates and vintage chargers. This look is super easy to put together and feels so cozy! 

Using fresh greenery from your yard is a great way to keep your decorating budget under control. For this look, we used a big crock we picked up at Burkes last year and a cute little tree from Grandma Cottage's collection in the center of the table. To either side, we placed these cute cone trees, and then laid the fresh greenery to either side of the crock and around the cone trees. We litterally just layered it, nothing fancy. Around that, we wove cotton garland [you can find some in our shop HERE].

We used some small Christmas ornaments that matched our table runner and twine to make napkin rings. I love how it pops against our white plates and dark chargers.

Under the chargers we used these adorable flour sack placemats we picked up at Walmart a while back, I'm really impressed with some of the decor pieces they have been getting -like the plates we are using this year!

Mismatched chairs are a great way to get that farmhouse feel around the table- or if you just have lots of guests and need more seating. Yes, we totally do that. I think imperfect can often be the most beautiful!

Want to read some more articles? Check these out!