Service Sunday: Amen to Action

Amen to Action is an annual meal packing event that brings thousands together on Black Friday to give back to their community. Founded by Reid Carpenter in 2017, Amen to Action got its start when Reid gathered a network of local leaders who shared one goal: to connect people of all faiths, create a platform of spirit and harmony, and help make a difference for the city of Pittsburgh’s hungry and less fortunate by packing a million meals.

At its start in 2017, Amen to Action partnered with Meals of Hope and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to bring more than 3,000 volunteers together to pack over one million meals, that were then distributed through the Pittsburgh Food Bank to more than 400 area food pantries and school programs.

For the third consecutive year, Amen to Action will again host thousands of volunteers at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on November 29 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. On a day that normally focuses on shopping, Amen to Action will break away from consumerism and instead shine a light on what really matters during the holiday season: giving back.

At last year’s event, Amen to Action volunteers packed 1,036,111 meals for Pittsburgh-area less fortunate, breaking the record for packing the most meals in one location (our own record from 2017). This year, Amen to Action hopes to break the record again!

How to Get Involved
Instead of spending the day shopping, Amen to Action invites you to come and truly make a difference in your community. To get involved, you can register to volunteer or donate on our website, our Facebook page, or our Twitter page.

Saturday Shopping

Happy weekend! Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend and doing something fun. I am headed to an event with Headspace today which I am very excited for. I’m glad I get to bring my fiancé along to this, too! Tonight we are having dinner with friends and tomorrow I have to do some work.

Lots of finds from this week and I can’t get enough. I just love when so many good things come out for the holidays. I love seeing all of the cute gift sets and festive outfits!

Easy Holiday Appetizers, Side Dishes, Dessert

Hey guys! It’s me, Callie! For those of you who don't know, I'm Sydney's younger sister. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina with my fiancé (pictured above) and our dog, Bean. I work in marketing and I am also planning a wedding! 

I’m here today to share some easy holiday recipes that you can bring along to any party or serve at your next event. Whether it's Friendsgiving or Christmas Eve, these work well for everything! These are all super simple recipes that anyone can do (even Sydney- she is not the chef in the family so that's why she has me writing this post!). These have been some fan favorites that I’ve made for my own friends. I’m going to show you two appetizers, two side dishes, and two desserts. The links to the original recipes are there as well! Let’s get on with the food!

Appetizers:

Bacon Crackers

Cream Cheese Stuffed Sweet Peppers 

Let’s start with some apps! These are some of the easiest things on my list. For the bacon crackers you just need to grab some Club Crackers, bacon and brown sugar. Then you spoon the sugar onto the crackers, wrap bacon around the cracker and bake. Voila! They do take 2 hours to cook though, so keep that in mind (but are WORTH IT). Everyone loves bacon so I can always count on these to impress people. 

For the peppers, you just have to cut the peppers in half and discard their the seeds and membranes, then mix all of the other ingredients like the cream cheese in a bowl to spoon in. You do have to put in a little extra effort to cook the bacon (more bacon yay!) and then BAM! You’re Emeril.

Sides:

Tarte Aux Moutarde

Colorful Brussel Sprouts

This is my favorite section! These will make you look like Julia Childs when really you made this in like 20 minutes. The Tarte Aux Moutarde sounds fancy, I know, but it’s not fancy to make. You grab your pre-bought store dough and layer all of the other ingredients on top and then you have a beautiful savory pie that looks like you slaved away all day. 

The colorful brussels are something even the most novice cooks can do. All you have to do is chop all of the veggies with agave, cinnamon, olive oil, and garlic powder. The last 5 minutes of roasting, add in the dried cranberries and pecans and you have the prettiest, most Instagram-worthy dish to show off. 

Desserts:

Oreo Thin Mints

Monkey Bread

Dessert is my middle name. Let me introduce you to a 3 ingredient dessert that will blow people's holiday minds. Take an Oreo apart and scrape off the cream. A true crime against humanity, I know. What kind of monster would do that? Well for this recipe you must sacrifice the delicious Oreo cream to up your dessert game. You just take the Oreo cookie and douse it in some melted chocolate but the trick is to put a few drops of peppermint extract in the chocolate to give it that thin mint taste. Bonus tip: for holiday flair add some crushed peppermints to the top. 

FYI no real monkeys were used in the making of monkey bread. This one's a crowd-pleaser that even your grandmother will love. In fact, our grammie has been making this for all of our holiday gatherings since we were born. It's a family favorite. You take buttermilk biscuit dough and chop it into small pieces and cover with a cinnamon butter mixture, toss it into a bundt cake pan and there you have it. A beautiful cake that looks straight out of your grandmothers cookbook. 

Most of being a good cook is just following a recipe! Just follow the few steps in these recipes and you’re already on your way to leveling up to be the next Ina Garten minus the oversized linen shirts.

Lately

Ski Sweater// Leggings// Uggs// Sunglasses

Fleece Pullover

It's time for another Lately and that means we are close to the weekend! This weekend, I am headed to an event with Headspace, a meditation app that I have used for years. It's so fun when events like this pop up because not much like this happens in Pittsburgh! I get extra excited when Pittsburgh gets some love and recognition from big brands!

Besides that, we have a LOT of things to do at the house. We got some things back from Framebridge which I'm super excited to hang and just other miscellaneous things that have been sitting on our to-do list for far too long. We also put up our Christmas tree! It's beautiful and was such a good deal. I have no shame in decorating early! We are hosting my sister's engagement party so we have been working overtime to get this house in order for the party in a few weeks.

This week has been great. On Monday, the weather was gorgeous and I didn't even need a coat. Then, Tuesday it snowed SO much and the temperatures plummeted. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, it was in the teens for temperature which is truly crazy for November in Pittsburgh. I am NOT here for it. But it looks like next week we will be back up to more seasonal weather, phew.

I've been working so hard on holiday content and it seems like you are all enjoying it, so I am glad the long hours are paying off! A fun post is scheduled for tomorrow and it will be totally different than anything I've ever posted before so stay tuned!


Wearing: Like a lot of places, it has been absolutely frigid the past few days. I have been wearing the warmest, coziest pieces I own. This ski sweater is my latest favorite thing. It has thermolite woven into the sweater making it lightweight but super warm. It runs big so size down. I am wearing a size XS. I'm wearing the sweater with these leggings which are my favorite. So buttery soft and thick. I have no shame wearing Ugg boots. I've worn them since high school and I might be their biggest fan. So darn comfortable and cozy. As you can see, red has been my thing lately. I've also been wearing this fleece pullover non-stop. I have it in green and get so much wear out of both. They're easy to wear lounging in leggings but also look cute with jeans.

Eating: I cannot get enough of Port Salut cheese. You can find it at Trader Joe's and most grocery stores. It is so good. It's kind of like brie but a little milder. If you have ever had Trader Joe's triple cream brie, it has a similar creamy texture to that! Highly recommend and since it's on the milder side, it would be a great crowd-pleasing cheese on a cheese board this holiday season. Also, those are Trader Joe's everything bu the bagel crackers and I am obsessed. They're so flavorful and pair so well with the port salut. 

Curtains (because so many have asked and they're currently $45)// Christmas Tree

Sale-ing: I just got this Christmas tree and it is on sale right now for $159 with free shipping. This past Monday, I went to a bunch of different stores that sell Christmas trees (like Home Depot, Target, etc.) and this tree was the least expensive and the nicest. I actually preferred it over a lot of other pricier trees. The branches are mixed and look decently real from far away. It's very full and there aren't any sparse areas. It doesn't look cheap and that was my biggest concern. We aren't getting a real tree because Henry would eat the fallen pine needles. We are still working on fluffing it out, going to add more lights (it's prelit, but I think it needs a strand or two more. And then going to add the rest of the ornaments. I'm a no-fuss kind of decorator when it comes to a tree. Classic ornaments with meaning collected over the years, some glass balls, strings of warm white lights, an angel up top and a nativity down below and that's it. My parents have always taken our tree down and put everything away and setting this all up on our own, I can already tell this is going to be a lot of effort to take down and store. Bless my parents for doing it all these years, haha!

Watching: We have been looking for a show to watch together for a while now and we finally started watching Jack Ryan. We love it!! It kind of reminds me of Homeland... kind of. 

Listening: This Selena x Justin mashup has been on replay for me all this week. Obsessed. 

Loving: Dudley Stephens is my biggest brand crush this season. I got their Brighton Boatneck in camel and cannot stop wearing it. I feel that it is really pretty and looks polished and yet you're basically wearing a fleece sweatshirt. It's nice to have these DS pieces on hand to throw over workout clothe after Orange Theory so I can look presentable out running errands. But it's also nice to have them on hand to wear out to dinner while also being very comfortable and warm. If you are looking for a high-quality clothing item to get for yourself or to gift this holiday season, this would be my #1 choice... well besides this faux fur vest, ha! Here's my blog post for sizing info.  

Wanting: All. The. Things. But in all seriousness- there is so much amazingness out right now and at the same time, I truly don't need any of this. But it's so fun to wish for and look at! I realllly love these black leather duck boots. They're like the 'city' version of a classic bean boot. 

Smelling: This candle smells like a cozy fireplace and you'd never guess it was only $10. The packaging is beautiful- I actually saw it in-store and this would make a cute hostess gift. 

Traveling: We aren't traveling anymore until December! Next up- Philadelphia for a wedding! 

Quoting: 'The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.'-Paulo Coelho // See more of my favorites, here.