Ask Mavis: A Cool Ted Talk, The Best Christmas Cookie Recipes, How to Print Recipes and More!

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:

Bits and Bobs for November: Hi! I’m a member of a Wellness program where I work and one of the items I am specifically in charge of is hosting (showing) a TED talk(s) on a monthly basis and facilitating a discussion afterwards around the talk shown. Ironically, the talk shown yesterday was about a 75 year old happiness study.

One of the results of the study was that strong relationships are a big component of happiness, health, and wellness. Based on your, and Mrs. HB, blog posts, it sounds like you have a strong relationship with her. It happened to strike me with this post more than others as a strong relationship does not necessarily mean a “we agree on everything” relationship.

In any case, if you’re interested, this is the TED talk. It’s about 13 minutes. Also, I agree with the spinach. Cut the damn spinach. But that’s probably part of a strong relationship. Feeling comfortable enough with the other person to agree to disagree. Or at least communicate it somehow.

~Julie

Julie! I loved this Ted Talk thank you for sharing. 🙂

I’m not a super experienced gardener but I do still have some fall crops coming in. I’m getting worried about frost. Is there a way to protect my plants or are they just goners when it gets too cold? Sorry for what is probably a super novice question!

Thanks,
Anna

Not a novice question at all. Frost can be tricky even as an experienced gardener. Luckily, there are so many things you can do to baby and protect your plants from vicious frost! 🙂 I wrote a whole post on it: Protecting Plants From Frost. Check it out and hopefully you’ll be able to glean enough info to keep your plants warm and your garden season extended a bit!

Hi! Just found your site and signed up for your newsletter! Sounds FUN! I wanted to print a recipe but it had multiple photos along with it. I guess I am not experienced enough (and have an old computer I wrestle with regularly) that I couldn’t leave them Off the recipe when printing. If it’s my inexperience that prevents me from leaving the photos off, would you clue me in?

Thanks! Donna

Printing printer friendly recipes from the site is easier than you may think! There is a green PRINT tab at the bottom of each post. You can chose to print as a PDF, or remove the images in the recipe to make it more printer friendly. Sometimes the remove images is found in a drop down menu for print sizes but it should always give you the option to take them out! Or you go old school and copy and paste it into a Word doc. Not simple and I know it’s an extra step, but it will cut down on wasted ink.

Hi Mavis! I’m doing a sweets night with my girlfriends this year before Christmas so we can get together and make a bunch of cookies and treats. We’re on the hunt for some good recipes for Christmas plates. Can you help a girl out?

~Sammy

Oh can I ever. I have so many awesome recipes that work great for Christmas goody plates. I’d start with this post that has 25 Christmas Cookie Recipes That Will Knock Your Stockings Off, and then you can browse the hundreds of cookie recipes I have over here in my full list of cookie recipes. I hope that helps and enjoy your cookie party. Sounds like a blast!

Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis