Hot Stuff-ed

Our next cooking adventure? Stuffed peppers—easy and simple! You can use anything you have in your kitchen. We opted for whole grain rice, a blend of shredded Mexican cheese, mushrooms, onions, garlic powder and pepper. It was simple and delish!

Steps: Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare bell peppers (remove and discard the tops, seeds and guts), make rice, stir all the ingredients in a bowl, scoop into peppers, top with cheese, place on cooking sheet/pan, bake for 1 hour and voilà! You can use tomato sauce or salsa for added moisture and flavor, which you add to the mix, and spread on top of peppers every 15 minutes in the oven.

The dish makes for a great evening delight.

Green Jeanne Lanvin

In the last year, H&M has been improving its quality, and subsequently increasing its prices. One of these efforts is the seasonal designer collaboration. The recent collection, launched November 23, is that of Lanvin.

"I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public," stated Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin. 

Don't bother heading to an H&M to snag a look from an H&M designer collaboration unless you arrive early in the morning on the launch date...or so I was told. While perusing the H&M racks on Thursday, Dec. 2, I spotted many Lanvin collection dresses. Either H&M has solved the problem of selling out with an increase in inventory or the collection has been poorly received.

Some Lanvin frocks were gorgeous--with soft, voluptuous ruffles--but with a price point in the one hundreds and two hundreds, I would rather purchase a quality piece, that I can trust, elsewhere than risk a pricey buy at H&M.