We Made Pepsi’s Absurd Colachup, AKA Cola-Infused Ketchup

The recipe for Taylor Swift's chai cookies is fairly straightforward. All you need to do is measure out and combine every ingredient into a large bowl and mix it all together! After chilling the dough for an hour or so, you'll be ready to roll it into balls before baking in the oven. All in all, making the chai cookies took me under an hour – so this could make for a great weeknight baking project, or a weekend activity to beat a cold-weather slump. I've made them several times for friends' parties!

Ingredients For Taylor Swift's Chai Sugar Cookies

• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil, since I didn’t have any vegetable oil)
• ½ cup white sugar, plus more for topping
• ½ cup powdered sugar, plus more for the icing
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 chai tea bag, plus more for the icing

How To Make The Taylor Swift Chai Cookies

1. Set your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.
2. While the oven warms, beat the butter in a large bowl. After it gets fluffy, add the vegetable oil.
3. Add the sugar, powdered sugar, egg, and vanilla.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and the chai tea to the bowl, and mix.
5. Chill the dough for about an hour.
6. Pour a small amount of white sugar onto a plate, for rolling the cookie dough in.
7. Roll the dough into 12 balls using your hands, covering each one in the white sugar before placing them on your cookie sheet.
8. Bake for “9ish” minutes. I ended up baking them for 10.
9. While the cookies are baking, make your chai icing – mix together a small amount (I used about ½ cup) of powdered sugar and half of a chai tea bag. Adding a capful of milk at a time, stir together until you reach your desired icing consistency.
10. When the cookies are done and completely cool, cover the tops with the chai icing. Then you’re ready to dig in!

Recipe notes:

• For step 1, pro tip: use the wrapper from your butter to grease your cookie sheet!
• For step 2, I used an electric hand mixer to beat the butter – much less physical work on the baker’s part.
• For step 4, I found that mixing with a fork helped incorporate the mixture really well. I then used a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl that I missed.
• For step 5, I didn’t end up chilling the dough, but the cookies turned out just fine!
• For step 8, Taylor’s recipe says to bake for 9 minutes, but I found I had to bake mine a little longer, around 12 minutes. This might be because I baked them at a higher altitude here in Colorado!

Voila! Now you can treat yourself like Taylor Swift would! Happy baking!

Ingredients for No-Bake Apple Pie Bites

• 1 cup cashew butter
• 5 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup unflavored protein powder
• 1/2 cup dried apples, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh Honeycrisp apples, finely chopped

How To Make No-Bake Apple Pie Bites

1. Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, except for the freshly chopped apples. The mixture will be quite thick, so feel free to use your hands to get it mixed well together.

2. Scoop out the bites using a cookie scooper (about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons) and roll in the fresh chopped apple bits. Then roll the bite to form an evenly curved ball shape. Set aside on parchment paper and repeat with the remaining dough.

These apple pie bites are ready to eat as is, or you can place them in the refrigerator to firm them up a bit. The perfect fall energy snack!

When's the best time to do holiday shopping?

The best time to do holiday shopping really all depends on your personal shopping goals. Do you want to get a jump on items you know will sell out soon? Do you want to save the most money possible? Do you want to focus on handmade, personalized gifts? These factors will undoubtedly influence your holiday shopping schedule.

Shopping early can be advantageous for all of the aforementioned goals. A lot of retailers start promoting their holiday products early on, giving you ample time to snatch up that limited-time lip kit or fancy water bottle you’ve been eyeing way before the holidays.

Plus, some of the best deals for holiday shopping happen ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – in 2023, Experian observed a surge in early spending in October, thanks to early discounts, a trend likely to continue in 2024.

Finally, shopping early can be especially helpful if your plan is to focus on handmade or personalized gifts, giving the artisan you buy from (or yourself, if you’re DIY-ing your gifts) plenty of time to craft the item with love and care.

Gallup reported in 2023 that one in four shoppers start shopping as early as September, a trend likely to continue in 2024 – so you might already be embarking on your shopping spree!

If right now is just still too darn early for you to start holiday shopping, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the best times to shop since so many retailers offer their largest discounts of the entire year. Plus, the late November-early December timeline can feel a bit more appropriate for the gifting season opposed to late October-early November, when everyone’s still recovering from Halloween.

The only thing to consider during this time is the shipping timelines for the items you purchase – but most retailers will typically advise their specific shipping schedules, so you don’t risk your goodies arriving late.

Where should I shop for gifts?

You have three main options when it comes to where to shop for holiday gifts: online, in-store, and via our amazing gift guides. Of course, each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

Shopping in-store offers a tangible experience: the opportunity to hold specific items in your hands and gauge exactly what they’ll be like when you give them as a gift. The pitfall with shopping in-person is that it typically requires a commute and journeys through potentially very busy malls and shopping strips, which can add to the already-stressful holiday experience.

In-store shopping can be more physically exhausting, but it’s all about preference! Sometimes strolling through the stores that get all dolled up for Christmas is the best part of the season.

Per Google, 65% of those planning to shop for the holidays say they will shop online more. Shopping for gifts online can be super helpful since you can centralize your findings in your browser’s bookmark tab or via virtual cart(s). Plus, shopping online can pose more opportunities for saving some money: lots of retailers typically offer discount codes for online users, especially if you sign up for their digital marketing channels (like email and text) and make a purchase.

Shopping online isn’t just shopping, either. The internet can be a stellar research tool to help you vet whether certain products are worth it, where they can be bought, and when they’ll be available. In fact, Google reported that more than half of U.S. holiday shoppers who went into a store last year say they looked up product reviews online and/or located an item in-store by checking it online.

Last but not least, scrolling gift guides has to be our favorite place to shop for gifts – and not just because we write and publish them.

At their very core, gift guides help streamline the holiday shopping process, alleviating the stress that bubbles up when you’re wondering what the heck to shop for in the first place. Our gift guides are backed by real people, real experiences, and real opinions from our editorial team. We only promote products that we really love and believe in, oftentimes ones we’ve tested and reviewed ourselves.

We have gift guides for just about everyone on your list, with more on the way! Check ‘em out:

• Gifts for Him
• Gifts for Her
• Gifts for Foodies
• DIY + Handmade Gifts
• White Elephant Gifts
• Gift Sets

What are the best kinds of gifts to give?

The best kinds of gifts to give are thoughtful gifts that consider the giftee’s interests, wants, and needs. These gifts can be sentimental, practical, or both simultaneously. What matters most in a gift is that it’ll be meaningful to them past just the holiday season, whether it’s helping them get through daily tasks, reminding them of a memorable trip or event, or giving them small doses of joy.

“Shoppers are increasingly looking for personalized and unique gifts that reflect the recipient's personality and interests,” says Mia Anderson, Owner of ChicSew. “With the rise of online shopping, many consumers are opting for curated gift boxes or experiences that add a special touch.”

Gift boxes, personalized items, books of interest, self-care goodies, and even gift cards can all be thoughtful gifts depending on the recipient. If you have no clue what your giftee is into, it’s not a bad idea to ask them what they want the most!

“My idea of a great gift is something that is in tandem with the recipient's interest and offers something new to the person, be it learning a new skill, enjoying a calming activity, or simply spending quality time with the family,” says Alfred Christ, Sales Manager & Marketer at Robotime. “This season, we encourage shoppers to shift their focus on quality and the memories their gifts will create and not just merely material aspects.”

When is Black Friday?

Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, Black Friday lands on November 29.

When is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is typcally the Monday after Thanksgiving. This year, Cyber Monday will land on December 2. Oftentimes, retailers and brands extend their online offers through the week (coined Cyber Week) after the event. Salesforce reported that 67% of shoppers in 2024 plan on shopping during Cyber Week!