baked. good.

A New Cookbook, A New Resolution

2012-01-05T11:59:00.003-06:00

My Christmas and New Year's blur of a week was amazing, albeit a bit stressful. We trekked our way up to Ohio to spend Christmas with my family, trekked back to Memphis, and the next day hopped on a jet plane to Mexico. To Mexico! We had both decided early on that this New Year's needed a bit more excitement (plus just relaxation), so to Mexico it was. Lots of money spent, lots of drinks consumed, and lots of wonderful food eaten, and all of it so, so worth it.

But I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year, which, incidentally, also involves Mexico. I had bookmarked this cookbook right when it came out (I've been following her blog now for over a year), and I'm so glad that I told my mom that I wanted it. Now, honestly, another cookbook is probably the last thing I need (seeing as I collect recipes almost daily and will never have time to get to all of them), but this one really seemed worthy of becoming part of my collection, mainly because I had no cookbook solely dedicated to Mexican/Tex-Mex cuisine. If you are curious about different peppers or spices used in Mexican dishes, or how to make your own salsa (or tortillas!), then take a look at this book. I haven't had time to try the recipes first hand (see above sentence), but I cannot wait. I'm thinking that I'll try my hand at making the Ruby Red Sweet Rolls this weekend. Anyone have the book, and tried the recipes yet?

And also, a resolution. (What is yours?) Our household's resolution this year is to be more conscious of how we consume - not just food, but the inevitable waste and garbage that is a by-product. I got a jump start on this goal last year by sewing us some every-day use fabric napkins, which has eliminated our use of the paper kind. We're now looking into starting a composting bin - I am especially fond of this design idea. I'm already saving scraps of vegetables for stock, but I think composting will really be a great way for us to make our environmental footprint a bit smaller. Every bit helps, right?

Edible Glitter

2011-12-13T12:07:00.003-06:00

If this doesn't put you in the Christmas mood, well, I'm not sure what would. These cupcakes (red velvet, with cream cheese frosting) were looking pretty ho-hum, and I needed to wow the recipients (well, not really. They were for my husband's classes, and, let's be honest...the kids would have been happy with them being plain. The glitter was really for ME). Sparkle on, cupcakes.

Source

Plum Tart

2011-10-05T11:36:00.001-05:00

When did fall get here? While I absolutely dread the coming winter, I do enjoy the slightly cooler temperatures, that smell in the air, the pumpkin lattes. But I always get a little flustered when a new season starts with regards to my clothes. Just when I feel like I've mastered my closet for summer (skirts! sandals! flats!), along comes fall to throw everything out of whack. I am still on the skinny jean phase (which probably means it's long gone out of fashion), but now I'm confused: can I wear other types of shoes with skinny jeans other than my flats? I know I can wear boots up over the jeans, but what are my other warm options? Low boots? ~~Flats with socks?~~ No. And sweaters? Do I need more of them? I always seem to forget how I made it through the last autumn (and winter) season and so I find myself panicking.

However. At least I always know what to bake. This plum tart is perfect for fall. Not only is it a cinch to throw together (it only dirties your food processor, and a cutting board for the plums. That's it. No, really), it pairs a crispy, just-sweet crust with tart, wrinkly-skinned plums. Simple enough for a weeknight, but also pretty for a dinner party if you paired it with some sweetened whipped cream.

Plum Tart
(originally found here, but tweaked)
1 cup flour

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp + scant 1/8 tsp salt (not quite 1/4 tsp salt total)*
1 large egg, lightly whisked
3 Tbsp. diced, unsalted butter
4 to 6 plums

1. Place rack in lower third of oven, and preheat to 375. Butter a 9" springform pan (mine was 10", which meant a little thinner crust, but I was ok with that).

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of your food processor, and pulse it a few times to combine. Add the egg and butter, and pulse until the dough is not quite the texture of cornmeal - it should be slightly clumpy and the butter should be cut up and distributed evenly throughout the dough.

3. Press the dough into the bottom of your greased pan and spread it to cover completely (but not up the sides!), using your fingers to lightly press down. Don't pack it too firmly.

4. Slice your plums either in halves or wedges, removing the pits. I placed my plums skin-side up, but you could place them cut-sides up as well. Arrange them however you please on top of your crust, pressing them slightly down into the dough.

5. Bake until the pastry is a light golden brown with slightly darker edges, about 25-30 minutes. Watch it carefully, as the original recipe called for 50 minutes (!) and I'm so glad I checked mine after 30, or else I would have had a burnt mess.

6. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes or so, then loosen the springform rim portion, and allow to cool completely.

*I prefer my baked goods to have a nice salt presence, so I upped the amount a bit. If you prefer to make it with less, then you can just stick 1/8 tsp salt total.

Challah

2011-10-02T13:36:00.001-05:00

Saturday was a waste. Friday night held in store some unexpected guests, delayed dinner plans, lots of imbibing, and staying up way too late (past midnight! We were crazy!), which led to a pretty useless me on Saturday. I used to be able to handle that sort of night, but not anymore. So, my best intentions and plans went out the window for Saturday (vacuuming? What?). I did manage to get myself out of the house and meet a dear friend for lunch, and on my lazy drive back home I was struck with the sudden urge to bake some bread. My headache was finally dissipating, the windows were down, and suddenly I had energy.

I had bookmarked this recipe last week, for I'm always on the look out for bread recipes that a) don't scare me and b) look like I could handle all of the steps and not screw it up. I was determined to BAKE. SOME. BREAD. (My desire to do this probably had a little bit to do with the fact that for the past two years, between farmer's market bread and my own baked bread during the winter, we have not had to eat store-bought bread at all, which is pretty impressive seeing as we eat lots of toast and sandwiches. Well, I neglected to fit baking into my schedule last week and suddenly we were forced to buy bread at the store. Horrors, I know. My husband is very, very spoiled.)

As you can see, I almost braided the loaf on the left the correct way; the loaf on the right was my attempt at making up my own braiding technique, which was obviously not the way to go. You can tell that I was doing this late at night - my energy spiked while I was mixing the dough in the late afternoon, but by evening I sort of took a nap and let the bread rest longer in the refrigerator, hence the less-than stellar nighttime iPhone pictures that I'm forcing you to look at now.

I also had a helper. He made sure that I did not drop the loaves as I pulled them out of the oven. Can't you see how hard he's concentrating?

A Wedding Cake

2011-09-27T14:24:00.008-05:00

I have to take a moment and brag on my sister. While I'm the sister that has the cooking and baking blog, but rarely, if ever, updates it with the things she's making, my sister is the actual one who should be showing off her skills. My little cousin (28!) got married this weekend and my sister was in charge of the cake. Seeing as this is her actual daily job, she accepted it without even blinking, even though it entailed making cake for almost 300 people (!).

To accomplish this, she made a separate "show" cake, which served as a center piece but was actually just a tower of styrofoam and icing, into which she cleverly hid a large slice of real cake for the bride and groom to cut. Waiting in the back room, already cut into serving pieces, were the actual, edible sheet cakes. (I had never heard of this before...am I the last one?)

She made three sheet cakes, each a different flavor: chocolate, white raspberry, and a pina colada/pineapple/tropical combination, since the newlyweds are honeymooning in Hawaii. Truth be told, that last one sounded absolutely terrible to me, but as always, my sister convinced me otherwise, and once I tasted it I knew she was right. Job well done!

Italian Meals, Revisited: Venice, part II

2011-07-21T17:47:00.027-05:00

So, third day in Venice. Our daily excursions consisted of the St. Mark's Basilica, Murano Island (which involved a scary water taxi ride), and the Accademia. But, let's get to the food, shall we?

Dinner, Night 3: Trattoria Da Bepi

Our first course: Pasta with olive oil and chili (me), and pasta with clams (my husband):

I ended up getting a small roasted pepper salad for my dinner because I was so full from the pasta, but my husband's meal really blew us away: cuttlefish pasta in ink! Look at it! It was the most beautiful and weird thing I had ever seen. I'm so happy that he ordered it, and even happier when he shared it with me. Amazing!

Dinner, Night 4: Our favorite, Ruga Rialto.

It's probably a sin to eat at the same place that you just visited the night before for appetizers, but guys. This place was so good. We didn't regret it one bit. Look at what we ate:

Appetizer plate consisting of: cud fish cream, calamari (again!), salmon, and squid. Divine.

First course (we split this): Spaghetti with clams (!)

My main: Grilled gilthead (the special that night).

My husband's meal: Grilled squid. Awesome.

Next up: Florence!

Mark Bittman's Blackberry Pie

2011-07-05T11:19:00.013-05:00

I get really excited when we get invited to our friend's D and T's house for the 4th. Not only do they have a gorgeous house in the middle of Midtown, they also have a swoon-worthy pool with slate deck surround, a lovely sitting area, unlimited wine supply, and a great bunch of friends who, when invited to their house, bring a dazzling array of food to share. This year someone brought crag legs. Someone else made homemade corn salad, homemade guac, and remoulade sauce. The host grilled kielbasa and steak, and whipped up a sweet tea vodka concoction to share. My husband made his famous potato salad and deviled eggs. And I declared, a few days prior, that I was going to make pie.

Now. I have made lots of sweets. Crumbles, grunts, pandowdies, etc. But never have I attempted a double crust pie. And let me tell you...drumroll...it's so easy. Yes, easy. Just roll your pie crust out either on one sheet or between two sheets of wax paper. Really, that's the trick. (I hope I am convincing you with my confidence to go out and try this for yourself, but I was a little timid!) But really, just go for it! And my real goal (aside from the main goal of wowing everyone with this awesome pie at a party where everyone brings great food) was to get stars cut into the top of my pie crust. Priorities, right? As you can see, I pretty much succeeded. Just cut shapes out of your final pie crust (before you drape it over the fruit, while it's still on a sheet of wax paper), and then pray and mutter under your breath as you carefully position the wax paper (crust side down) over your pie, and then pray again as you sloooooowly peel the wax paper off and hope you don't tear it and have to start over. See? Easy!

I used used the flaky pie crust recipe (doubled), and the blackberry pie recipe (recipe is similar) out of Bittman's How to Cook Everything book. I increase the tapioca by 1 tbsp, as he suggested, and the filling was perfectly juicy.

Italian Meals, Revisited: Venice

2011-06-23T16:38:00.030-05:00

Someone reminded me that I haven't been posting enough, and she's right. It's just that, well, between the jet lag (goodness, the jet lag!), having to catch up at work, and, really, just being lazy, I haven't made the time.

But no more! I wanted to share what we ate in Italy. I could post the other 700 pictures that I took during our trip, but seeing as this is a food blog, let's start there. Maybe I'll show some other pictures in future posts.

And don't worry, there aren't pictures of every meal. Breakfast usually consisted of a quick cappuccino and some little pastry (standing up of course! We were trying to be cheap), and lunch was sandwiches and, occasionally, Prosecco. However, since we splurged almost every night for a great dinner, I felt that I had to capture each and every one. I'll only show you the highlights of some of our favorite meals, so I can keep it short. I split these posts up by city, in hopes that these don't get too long.

Venice, Day 1: Dinner at Osteria da Alberto

Appetizer: Baby Octopus (seriously, I thought this was going to be calamari but was delighted when they brought this dish out):

First Course: Four Cheese Gnocchi...I'm still thinking about this dish. Gorgonzola, blue cheese, and a little bit of heaven and who knows what, but this was the lightest, most flavorful gnocchi I had ever had.

Other highlights of this meal: Wonderful house wine (which seemed to the case in about 90% of the restaurants that we tried), plus wonderful service. My husband had grilled sea bass for his main course, and I had crispy fried shrimp. Our server spoke minimal English, but we understood each other with hand gestures and pointing. All in all, a great meal.

Venice, Day 2: Cichetto/Pub Crawl

We had the Rick Steve's Italy 2010 book, and in it he suggests doing a "pub crawl", which consists of going to a few different restaurants in Venice where they serve "cichetto", or small snacks, usually between the hours of 5 and 7 pm. A lot of places are stand-up and drink only, which is pretty fun - you just point at what you want in the glass case, and they'll make you a plate of it. Italian small bites? Before we even have dinner? Sign me UP!

First stop: Osteria Bancorigo

Our waiter here didn't speak much English, but after I fumbled my way through saying "cichetto?" he understood. I motioned to just make us a plate of something, so he went to prepare us a plate while we enjoyed another glass of house wine. After only a few minutes, he came back with this:

It consisted of crab salad, crab puff pastry, chicken curry, a salad of octopus and eggplant, shrimp something or other, and something with sardines. Yummm!

Next stop: Al Merca

I didn't take any pictures here; it was a stand-up only place, and Rick Steves was right when he said that it was frequented by hip, young locals. I felt like a nerd already because we were obviously tourists, so I didn't want to make it any worse by taking pictures. We had a glass of house wine here and a few popettes - basically fried balls of spinach and meat. Pretty tasty.

Last stop: Antica Ostaria Ruga Rialto

This was, by far, our favorite little place. It's tucked into an alleyway, where old men play cards at tables that are shaded by lush planters overhead. It had a ton of charm and we were impressed from the beginning. It also helped that their cichetto spread looked amazing (calamari! something fried and covered in sesame seeds!). This was our plate that we received:

Wait, we still have to eat dinner? Remember that we started all of this around 5 pm, so it was close to 8:30 and while we had eaten a lot of snacks (plus more than a few glasses of Prosecco), we still wanted to grab a light dinner. So, we had dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria Nono Risorto, and of course got pizza:

It was wonderful, and the perfect end to a gluttonous evening. Next up...cuttlefish and more pasta!

A Trip, and Eggs in Buttery Sorrel Sauce

2011-05-25T12:48:00.002-05:00

In 4 days, we leave for Italy. (My heart just leapt out of my chest when I typed that. Seriously). I can't believe I get to say that, but it's true. Italy. For two weeks. Almost 15 days. Wait while I dance around a bit. [ ] Ok, done.

We are in the final stages of vacation planning; we've got everything booked, so now it's down to things like buying travel toiletries and trying to figure out how to pack for a two week trip when normally I try to pack at least ten outfits for a weekend getaway. You know. We have the dog sitter lined up, I think I'm emailed contact numbers to everyone that I know in case something goes wrong while we're away, and I have finally found the perfect leather bag for our daily adventures. We're sort of exhausted with all of this planning. As are the dogs, as you can see.

But last Sunday, after we had thrown a fairly large party the night before, I decided we were going to have an easy, casual, comforting breakfast. The kind that comes together effortlessly, in ten minutes or fewer, and makes a maximum of one dirty dish. I also had to use up a big bag of sorrel that we had from the farmer's market (I know, poor me, right? Who can say that they have access to sorrel? I had never even heard of it until a few weeks ago, and now I'm hooked). I had seen this post, which led me to this recipe, which pretty much led to breakfast nirvana. We both felt like we were eating in some cozy European cafe. Very timely, indeed.

If you don't have sorrel, you could easily swap in spinach. But the sorrel gives the dish a bright note of acidity, which balances oh so well with the creamy eggs.

Eggs Poached in Buttery Sorrel Sauce

2 fat scallion, trimmed

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 large bunch sorrel, stems removed

1/4 tsp kosher salt, more to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup of heavy cream

4 large eggs

Chili flakes or crushed red pepper

Flaky salt, for serving

Buttered toast, for serving

1. Thinly slice scallions, separating darker green parts for garnish.

2. In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add light green and white parts of scallion and sauté until wilted, 2 minutes. Add sorrel leaves, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until sorrel wilts and starts to break down, turning olive-green in color, about 3 minutes. Stir in cream and let simmer for 1 minute to thicken a bit.

3. Carefully crack eggs into skillet; they should fit in one layer. Lower heat to medium-low and sprinkle eggs with salt and pepper. Cover pan and let cook for 2 minutes, then turn off heat and let eggs rest, covered, until done to taste, about another 30 seconds for very runny yolks (the whites should cook through).

4. Carefully scoop eggs and sorrel sauce into two bowls. Season with chili and flaky salt; garnish with scallion greens. Serve with toast.

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

2011-03-30T10:27:00.011-05:00

Well, here I go, already going back on my word. This recipe isn't from my Bon Appetit magazines, but rather from the New York Times. However, it is from my huge cache of online recipes that I tend to collect, and I've had this recipe saved for over a year, so I'm proud of myself for that.

So, blood oranges. Have you ever had one? Me neither. I was at my local Kroger a few weeks ago and eureka, they had bags of them! I vaguely remembered that I had kept this recipe, so I snagged a bag immediately.

And I'll have to be honest, I was very unsure of this batter as followed the last step, which is to mix in 2/3 cup of olive oil. It seemed too greasy, too oily to ever bake up into something enjoyable.

But, oh, I was wrong. I'm sure you are familiar with dunking a really good piece of bread into a bowl of really great olive oil, right? And how the oil seems to just infuse the bread with a certain wholesomeness ? Well that's this bread. Add in the slight sweetness sugar, the welcome (but light) bitterness or the oranges, mixed with the zest, orange juice, and the tang from the buttermilk, and you've got yourself an amazing little loaf of cake. I've made it twice this week (!), and if I see any more bags of blood oranges, they are mine.

Go here for the recipe. And you can thank me later.

Homemade Irish Corned Beef and Vegetables

2011-03-21T09:20:00.011-05:00

For Christmas of 2007, my then-boyfriend's brother (now brother-in-law!) gifted us with a year's subscription to Bon Appetit. Oh, glory days! I poured over every month's magazine, ear-marked recipes that I swore that I'd make omg right now, and then promptly forgot about most of them. If you are a self-prescribed serial recipe collector (ahem, like me) you know how that goes.

Despite turning down my husband's offer to continue the Bon Appetit subscription, my recipe pile, whether gathered from online sources or other cookbooks, continued to grow. And grow. So, I've stopped buying cookbooks. I haven't stopped gathering recipes from online sources, but oh well. We all regress. But what I have done is pledge to go through each of my Bon Appetit magazines for that corresponding month, and work my way through the recipes.

In Bon Appetit's March of 2008 edition, they featured an article on brining and corning your own corned beef. I thought that was the perfect excuse to have people over and throw an Irish party*, even though most of us (ok, all of us) aren't even Irish or of Irish descent. Ah, details. Whatever. It was glorious! I made the Guiness mustard and the horseradish cream, and friends brought over rye bread, cheesecake, and wine. Oh, yeah, and beer, but barely anyone touched that. See, what did I tell you? We're not Irish.

Go here for the recipe. I followed it exactly, except I had no star anise for the bouquet garni, and honestly, I don't think anyone missed it.

*Is it bad that I invite people over so that I can have a great excuse to cook?

Shrimp, Spinach and Roasted Potato Omelets

2011-03-14T15:21:00.014-05:00

When we cook during the weekends, my husband and I like to play a little game. It's just like the segment on Hell's Kitchen where the judges rate the chefs' meals by listing the maximum price that they would pay for that particular meal in a restaurant. Let's play that game right now.

Are you ready? Let's go!

On Saturday night we decided to do Cajun shrimp with remoulade sauce, paired with baked spinach and roasted potatoes topped with horseradish-sour cream and chives. How much would we have paid for this meal in a restaurant? ......lots and lots. (Okay, I don't even want to put a price on it because I'm either going to say a really high number and you will say, "yeah right", and then if I list a low number you'll think, "well why would I want to make that?")

So, while that meal was absolutely fantastic, the best was yet to come. On Sunday, I already knew what to do with our leftovers. I was inspired by a fluffy omelet that I had at Cafe Eclectic a few weeks back, and I knew I had to try it. The description on the menu said it was made with beaten egg whites, so that's exactly what I did. Despite the previous late night and the surprising time change (I just thought winter would last forever. didn't you?), here I was in the kitchen on Sunday using my mixer and waking up the entire house.

But, oh. Was it worth it. The final dish? I'm sure you can guess, but here goes: Fluffy omelets with shrimp, spinach, and pototoes, topped with remoulade sauce and sour cream. How much would we pay for this? We said $12, not including sides. Not bad, eh? I've typed the recipes below so you can create your own meal. Dinner? Breakfast? Either! It all works for both!

Remoulade Sauce (from La Bouche Creole)

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup Creole mustard

2 tbsp horseradish

2/3 cup finely chopped onion

2/3 cup finely chopped celery

2 tbsp finely sliced green onions

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne

1 clove garlic, minced

Note: your food processor can make this recipe a LOT easier, trust me.

1) Mix all ingredients well and chill. Makes about 2-1/2 cups. Can be stored, refrigerated, for up to four days.

Roasted Potatoes with Horseradish-Sour Cream

2 lbs red potatoes, sliced 1/4" to 1/2" thick

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp rosemary, chopped

1-1/2 tbsp chives, chopped

salt

pepper

1/2 cup sour cream

1-2 tsp of horseradish (I think we used even more)

additional chopped chives for topping

1) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set your oven to 400 degrees.

2) Combine the olive oil, rosemary, chives, salt and pepper. Drizzle over potatoes and toss to coat.

3) Place the potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes until roasted and slightly crispy on the edges.

4) Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Top each slice with a small dollop of sour cream-horseradish mixture, and sprinkle with chives.

Baked Spinach

Fluffy Omelets (makes 2)

5 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

choice of fillings, coarsely chopped (ideally, your leftovers from the above)

1) Put your egg whites and pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, and beat on medium to medium-high speed until soft peaks begin to form (mine took about 3-5 minutes).

2) Meanwhile, lightly beat your yolks with a fork in separate bowl. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat.

3) To keep the eggs from separating, do this for each omelet at a time, instead of all at once: pour half of your yolks in a bowl, and half of the whites in as well. Beat to incorporate, then pour into your hot skillet. Let sit for about a minute, and then tilt the skillet from side to side, slightly lifting or scooting the cooked eggs to the side to allow the uncooked egg to run to the bottom of the hot skillet (does that make sense?) Do this several times until all of the raw egg has solidified.

4) Sprinkle your chopped filling ingredients on one half of your omelet. Cook for a few minutes, and then, moving quickly, slip a spatula under the naked half of your omelet and flip to cover your fillings. Cook for several more minutes. Be patient! If you are brave, and want to make sure that your fillings really get good and hot, you can flip it and cook on the other side for several more minutes.

5) Serve hot, topped with remoulade sauce and sour cream.

P.S. The picture above is from our honeymoon in New Orleans. I thought it was appropriate because a) these meals were very Cajun-influenced, and b) today is our second wedding anniversary. Love!

Almond Butter Biscotti

2011-02-09T09:03:00.010-06:00

It's February. Otherwise known as the longest and cruelest month. Look at our house! Memphis has had an unusual amount of snow this year. But, honestly, this winter hasn't been as bad for me as last winter, as far as that whole SAD thing goes. We've been making an effort to run (yes, run!) almost every night of the week, and I really think that has improved my mood 100%.

However, work has gotten really busy this past month; I put in 70 hours last week. 70 hours at work does not a good runner make, let me tell you. I fell off the wagon. While my husband dutifully suited up and took the dogs running in the cold each night, I was at work, bleary-eyed and tired from staring at my computer for 11+ hours. Eventually, everything came together and our team met our deadline, so when I arrived home one night last week (while it was still light outside!), I forced myself to run. It felt great.

But you're not here to read about that. You'd rather hear about what I baked after I ran. I baked biscotti. You see, a friend had me over for drinks the other night, and about half-way through the first bottle, she brought out almond butter and celery. The celery I couldn't have cared less about, but when you smear it with almond butter...now you're talking.

I thought about how I could incorporate almond butter into a recipe. And biscotti seemed to fit the bill. I took Mark Bittman's recipe and tweaked it a bit, replacing some of the butter with the almond butter, and used almond extract in place of vanilla.

Almond Butter Biscotti

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup almond butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2-1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt (I omitted this, since the almond butter was slightly salted)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Cream together the butters and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each one.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt (if using). Gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture until incorporated.

3. Butter and flour two baking sheets. Divide your dough in half, and form each one into a 2" wide log. Place each one on its own baking sheet.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the logs are golden and the top begins to crack slightly. Remove from oven, and reduce temperature to 250.

5. When the logs are cool enough to handle, slice each one on the diagonal into 1/2" wide strips, using a serrated knife. Place back on sheets and return to oven. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, turning once, until the biscotti are dried and golden.

6. Remove from oven, and allow to cool on the pan.

Hope you're staying warm! And P.S. Memphis is supposed to be mid-60's this entire week. Hallelujah.

Christmas!

2010-12-27T10:41:00.018-06:00

I never thought I'd say this, but I am glad to be out of the kitchen for awhile. I counted it all up, and between our holiday party two weekends ago and then hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our house, I've logged quite a few hours in the kitchen. However, seeing as a lot of it involved cooking with family, friends, wine and hot cider, I really can't complain, right?

For anyone who is keeping track, or really wants to know, here is a breakdown of everything I made these past two weeks (who am I kidding, I just wanted to type it out for myself so I can show off how much I actually did...I'm not ashamed to admit that).

The Christmas Party Menu

Pate de Campagne, served with pickles, dijon, and a baguette

Feta Salsa

Pork tenderloin with rosemary and garlic

Rosemary Roasted Cashews

Assorted cheese, sausage, and crackers

Hot Buttered Cider (from this article, but the recipe is not available online...if you want it, let me know...I patted myself on the back after deciding to make this, because everyone loved it)

Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

Baked Shrimp Scampi

Cranberry, Walnut, and Bleu Cheese Spinach Salad

Baguette

Christmas Dinner Menu

Rib Roast

Sauteed Asparagus

Mushrooms in Butter and Garlic

Carmelized Onions

Goat and Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese

Mark Bittman's Apple Raisin Bread Pudding

The monumental list of cookies that I decided to make for the holiday events

Chocolate Crinkles

Candy Cane Cookies (second recipe down)

Cranberry Thumbprints

Twice-Baked Shortbread

Orange-Scented Brownies with Cranberries, Pistachios, and Ginger

Molasses Ginger Cookies

Homemade Gifts

Loaves of honey-wheat sandwich bread

We also served homemade breakfasts on both days, consisting of buttermilk waffles, bacon, and a sweet roll pastry that my husband's family calls "stollen". This recipe confused me (while making the pastry, and also while eating it Christmas morning), because I knew it wasn't stollen...so after some internet sleuthing, I've figured that it's actually a recipe for Beigli. This is the closest recipe I could find online; it says it's a Polish recipe, but other sites I found say it's Hungarian (which my husband's family is, so that makes sense). Here are some other similar recipes that I found (a few of these use sour cream in the dough, so I'm interested in maybe trying those next year, as this year's roll turned out a bit dry...)

So.... whew! That's how our holidays went down. We were tired and exhausted after all of it, but loved every minute. Hope yours was just as wonderful and that you got everything that you wished for.

Turkeys...

2010-11-30T17:13:00.003-06:00

All in all, a pretty great way to spend Thanksgiving afternoon.*

Yes, those are almonds for the tails. And yes, we made that many. They make a pretty cute army, no?

These were inspired by Bakerella and her new book (of which my sister had a copy - of course). This design is very loosely based on her chick (for Easter), with a few tweaks here and there to make it into a turkey.

*And while I was sort of grossed out by these in the beginning (hello, do you know what the inside is? You bake a whole cake, and then you crumble it up and mix it with icing. So it sort of looks like already-chewed-up cake. Gag) I was surprised to find out that they are really good...remarkably good. Like....grab two, three more good. Imagine the inside of a truffle - sort of creamy, but not as gooey.

Belly Smackin' Good

2010-11-16T13:45:00.002-06:00

I must have this print for my kitchen.

P.S. How's your fall so far? Another food post coming soon!

Mojito Semifreddo

2010-08-16T13:40:00.020-05:00

I am going through a huge purging and organizing spree. I think I'm finally getting tired of the disconnect between our house and our storage methods. Yes, let me explain. Our house is generally pretty clean to the casual observer. We keep clutter to a bare minimum, our bed is always made, the sink is usually free of dirty dishes, and the heavy vacuuming that we have to do weekly has more to do with our dogs shedding than anything else. So in general, we're living in a decently clean house.

And you'll believe all of that, I'm sure, until you open up one of our closets. And then you'll see where we hide all of our - literally - dirty secrets. Ugh. Things stacked up haphazardly, coats stuffed up on shelves, random shoes tucked into nooks, stacks of books and CD's with no rhyme or reason - it's disorganization with a capital D.

I started getting really frustrated with our inefficient ways, and about a month ago decided to do something about it. So in addition to cleaning out closets, buying baskets, bins, and buckets so that everything has a place, I decided to tackle my frighteningly increasing amount of cookbooks and loose random recipes. As is the case with our closets and storage areas, I want the kitchen to more polished and put together. Like anything at this site.

So this meant I had to do some serious purging of the recipe mountain. Which is how I found today's recipe (wow, what a terribly long lead-in, huh?). I am only a little bit ashamed to admit that it's a Rachel Ray recipe, but even more ashamed to admit that I had not one, not two, but three of her magazines that I decided to pitch. The horrors!

But what's even more horrendous is the name of this recipe. "Frozen Mojito Cake-Tails." Get it? Yeah, I had to think awhile about that one. Sometimes, her cuteness really undermines her recipes. Usually she has some pretty nice flavor combinations, but most people can't get past her annoying, gimmecky shortcuts and naming conventions that she insists on using (EVOO, anyone?).

The original recipe called for pretzels cooked in butter as the crust (what. why?), another 2 sticks of butter, 2 packages of cream cheese, almost a cup and a half of sugar, and 2 cups of heavy cream. Whoa, nelly! She says it should serve 12, I say more like 48. Details, schmetails, right? I reduced all of the fats by half, I cut the sugar to just over 1/2 a cup, subbed in a graham cracker crust, and even with all of that reducing, it still made over 12 individual servings, plus some extra that I froze in a ramekin for midnight raids. The end result is a wonderfully light, creamy, and airy treat, with a fantastic minty-lime finish.

As you can see, I tweaked and changed this recipe a lot. Enough, in fact, that I feel justified in changing the name. Let's call these Mojito Semifreddo's, because, let's face it, we're grownups, not 14 year olds. My tweaked recipe is below. If you feel emboldened, super skinny, or just feel like quickly putting on a few extra pounds, then by all means go check out the original recipe here.

Mojito Semifreddo's

Crust:

1 stick butter, cut into 1" cubes

1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

Filling:

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup granulated sugar, depending on your desired sweetness level (I used 1/2 cup)

1 8-oz package cream cheese, at room temperature

Grated peel of 2 limes, plus the juice of those 2 limes (a little over 1/4 cup)

1 tablespoon white rum

2 tablespoon chopped fresh mint, plus more for garnish

1 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 silicone muffin cups. In a small saucepan over medium heat, slowly melt butter. Whisk the sugar and the graham cracker crumbs together, then add to the melted butter. Cook for about 2 minutes, letting the mixture heat through and get a nice nutty fragrance. Remove from heat.

2. Carefully pack about 1 tablespoon of the graham cracker mixture into each cup (I probably used 2 tablespoons for each one since I like a lot of crust). Place tin in oven, and bake for 8-12 minutes, or golden around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

3. Beat the cream cheese on medium speed for about 1 minute. Slowly beat in the sugar, and beat for another 2 minutes. Gradually mix in the lime peel, juice, rum, and mint.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold the cream into the cream cheese mixture.

5. Divide the mixture evenly among the cupcake molds and smooth the tops. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 8 hours, or overnight.

6. If you used silicone, good for you: just peel the silicone cup off of each one, then invert onto a plate, then flip it crust-side down. If you didn't use silicone, you may have a harder time removing them. I'd try her suggestion of using a wet knife and running it around the edges, then inverting onto a plate.

Cherry Brown Butter Bars

2010-08-05T10:16:00.003-05:00

I made these weeks ago, when I was still in the middle of my crazy cherry-buying mode. I'd see cherries in the grocery store and I would snatch them up frantically, like it was the last bag on earth, while everyone around me stared at me and wondered what's wrong with that girl? My mind would be racing with ideas of what to do with them - cherry pie? cobbler? something savory to pair with pork? - and then once I got home, I'd be so paralyzed with indecision, that I'd just let them sit for a day until I could make up my stubborn mind.

This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen. I'd had it printed and bookmarked for an entire year, and I found it as I was flipping through all of my recipes, looking for ideas (which, at that point, I was really wishing for an electronic way to store my thousands of recipes...how easy it would have been to just do a digital search for "cherry"...yes, I need an iphone. Or a Kindle. Or something that will do that for me...any suggestions?).

Go ahead, make these. Your husband will think you're a goddess. Trust me. I think at one point, with his mouth full of a bite, he proclaimed that these were the best thing that I had ever made. Now that's saying something.

Seasonal Produce Calendar Search

2010-08-04T16:44:00.006-05:00

Help me out here, folks. In our household's quest to eat seasonably, I am on a mission to find a graphically awesome and helpful calendar, or poster, or letterpress something that I can hang in our kitchen. I want it to be a guide as to what's fresh when, but I also want it to look great, like the UK example above.

Anyone know where I can find something like that, that applies to the Southern part of the country? I've searched Etsy and found these calendars, but she doesn't have anything for my region (yet). I also want something more colorful, maybe slightly vintage-kitsch-country? I'm tempted to ask this Etsy graphic designer to commission one for me because I absolutely adore her style, but before I do that, I feel like there's got to be something out there that already exists...any ideas?

A Very Random P.S: When I typed the title of this post I was suddenly transported back to my 5th grade spelling bee, where I horrifically spelled the word "calendar" incorrectly, only to lose the competition and come in second place. So traumatizing!

This is not a food post

2010-07-13T10:43:00.005-05:00

This is a post asking for your help. See that little link in the upper left-hand column of my blog? The one that says "Vote for Tunica Humane Society"? Please click on that link and vote for that organization. You can vote once a day. They are in the running for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. They deserve it so much.

And here's why. My husband and I learned of this organization through a friend, and learned of their need for foster homes. They had one puppy in particular - a German Shepherd puppy - that we agreed to foster. On Saturday, while my husband finished up some jobs around the house, a friend and I drove down to Tunica to pick up little Ruby.

And you guys, the shelter doesn't even have a building. They don't even have an address. It is run by two of the sweetest ladies, who are working with nothing but their own money and volunteer time to keep this shelter running. They have upwards of 50 dogs, all in outdoor kennels. But I was immediately impressed by the cleanliness - these ladies and their volunteers are doing an amazing job with what they have, but they need a building. Sandy, the director, told us that during the winter, they had to tarp all of the kennels and they had to constantly keep switching out water bowls, as the water would freeze almost as soon as they put it out. And now, the dogs are having to sit out in this unbearable heat. The kennels all have roofs, so at least they are in the shade...but still.

The organization already has a building that they know they could buy and turn into a wonderful shelter, if only they could win this content. So please, vote! To convince you to vote, I've included a picture of our foster puppy, Ruby, getting a much-wanted belly rub from my husband. So please, vote!

Being Food Smart

2010-06-29T12:45:00.007-05:00

Each passing year, I find myself more and more inspired to eat locally, cook simply, and to be smart about our food and our meals. This change in me really started once I met my husband, and it really went into overdrive once we got married. All of a sudden, we were a family! A family that we have to keep healthy and happy! I wasn't my single self anymore, when a handful of cooked edamame and a grilled cheese sandwich was enough (although, to be honest, that's still one of my favorite snacks). I found myself beginning to cook and bake more, and before I knew it, I'd become a cooking crusader.

So, my to-do list this summer involved reading more about this subject. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was at the top of my list, and a few weeks ago I drove to our local library to pick it up.

Not quite a documentary, not quite a recipe book, her story tells of how their family moved to a farm and pledged to eat only local foods; either what they produced from their own hard work, or food that was produced by neighboring farmers. At times the book gets somewhat political, criticizing meat-processing methods and huge mega-corporations. She touches on Monsanto's frightening seed monopoly and how they are crippling the local farmers across the country with their lawsuits. Very similar to the documentary Food, Inc., she covers a wide range of food-related topics.

I find myself so incredibly passionate about this, but at the same time somewhat helpless. I would love to say that we're going to pack up our home tomorrow and move to a farm to live a sustainable life style, but I can't. So I try to do what is right for my family, and what I believe is right for our world. Eat local when possible, cook at home, don't waste, and support all of the wonderful farmers and growers in Memphis.

For more great links, check out Animal Vegetable Miracle's website.

And if you're interested in keeping a green and efficient kitchen, here is another great post by Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini.

Update: I've finished the book. And, honestly, the more I got into it, the more I became perturbed at her underlying tone of righteousness, especially towards the end. Countless times, I found myself scoffing; Kingsolver tends to lump all of America into one giant heap of unknowing and unthinking beings who will eat anything prepackaged and fast. She also flirts with hypocrisy, patting herself on the back for having an entire Thanksgiving meal comprised of things from their farm, only to indulge by buying a bag of cranberries from the store to "keep with holiday tradition." Give me a break.

I was also fairly annoyed with her obvious use of a thesaurus. At one point, she uses the word "comestible". Seriously? For those of you who aren't sure of what that means (because I didn't, although I could figure it out from the context), it means "articles of food; edibles". So...food.

So, I give this book 3 stars, for any one who cares. I at least enjoyed her facts that she had gathered about food production in the United States, and the short blurbs by her husband about various farming issues.

Chocolate Mint Chocolate Truffles

2010-06-23T09:21:00.018-05:00

Our decision to join a CSA for the summer was the best one we've ever made (aside from marrying each other, of course...haha...but no really, the CSA is a close second). Starting in May, we've been getting a bundle of goodies each Saturday from the local farmer's market. It's ranged from lettuces, chicory, braising greens, tomatoes...and now that summer is in full swing we've been getting more squash, wax beans, french beans, etc. Of course, we've also been given beets and radishes. Which we tried. And didn't like. But there you go, that's what a CSA is for...supporting local farmers, plus really figuring out what you do and don't like!

In addition, they usually they throw in a few sprigs of fresh herbs, including dill, parsley, oregano...and this week, they gave us chocolate mint. The guy filling up my bag at the farmer's market said rather casually, "Oh, and this is chocolate mint, and this is oregano..." but all I heard was the chocolate mint.

What is chocolate mint, you ask? Here is a great link. It smells like chocolate, and yes, mint. I'd say that it is similar to an Ande's mint - a very smooth, yet complex combination.

As soon as I got home, I knew what I was going to do with it. Yes, truffles. I could think of no better way to use this amazing herb than to steep it in heavy cream, then combine it with the richest chocolate I could find.

Chocolate Mint Chocolate Truffles

adapted from Joy of Cooking

12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1-1/4 cup heavy cream

8-10 good sized chocolate mint leaves, torn (regular mint would work here too - but reduce the amount; it's a bit stronger than the chocolate mint)

Coatings

sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

sifted confectioner's sugar

1. Set your chopped chocolate in a medium-sized glass mixing bowl.

2. Combine mint and cream in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and bring almost to a simmer, stirring constantly. Using a fine-meshed strainer set over a large bowl, strain the cream-mint mixture. Discard the mint.

3. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute, then stir slowly, thoroughly combining the chocolate and cream.

4. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Transfer to refrigerator and chill for 3-4 hours (or overnight, which is what I did).

5. Line a baking sheet with wax or parchment paper. Scoop out 3/4" diameter balls from your ganache mixture, rolling quickly between your hands. Warning: this will be messy. You will feel like your truffles will never be right and that they are melting all over the place, but don't worry what they look like just yet. Place your lumpy forms on the baking sheet, then chill for another 2 hours.

6. Set out your coating choices (I used both) in low shallow bowls, and line another baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the truffles from the fridge, and one by one, quickly roll them between your hands to improve their shape (there! now they look round! see, I told you not to worry). Gently drop them in the coating, then roll it around by tipping the bowl every which way until it's sufficiently covered. Carefully remove, and place on the clean baking sheet.

7. At this point, you can either refrigerate for a few weeks, or freeze them for up to 3 months. Or, put them in cute candy cups and serve! These make wonderful gifts.

Cherry Pandowdy

2010-06-21T09:58:00.025-05:00

Ordinarily, I love going to the grocery store. Is that weird? There is something about perusing the aisles, selecting our food for the week, putting it in the cart, and being able to bring it all home and put it away...there is something ridiculously satisfying there.

However, if I'm tired, and - even worse - hungry, then oh no. Watch out. This was the case yesterday. I went in to the office for a few hours on Sunday, and for some dumb reason I neglected to eat anything all day. I then went to the grocery store, and I didn't realize how tired and hungry I was until I found myself in the baking aisle, tiredly trying to decide if I really needed one of those dish sponges with the handle on it. And this was already after I'd thrown a melon baller and an onion-saver container in my cart. I then moseyed over to the shampoo aisle, where I think I spent a good 20 minutes testing out different scents until I found one that I liked. Just call me pokey! I finally woke up when I turned around and was startled to find an older gentleman right behind me. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not stalking you," he told me reassuringly. "I'm just trying to admire your beauty." Um, creepy old man, that's pretty much the same thing.

After that wake-up call, I made a bee-line for the check-out lane. But suddenly, I spotted cherries over in the produce department. Cherries. Yessssss. I excitedly grabbed a bag and threw it in my cart, looking over my shoulder the entire time for Mr. Stalker.

So I spent my late afternoon pitting cherries. Which is always better than being at work. Here's a trick to pitting cherries: use the blunt end of a bamboo skewer (or chopstick) to push the pit out. Easy!

And have you ever made a Pandowdy? I hadn't, either. I chose this recipe because I already had a pie crust in the freezer that I'd made a few months ago and was wanting to use it up. A pandowdy is basically an easier version of pie. As you can from my pictures, my pie crust ended up being torn into pieces and laid on top, because someone was tired and couldn't roll out her crust very well.

Cherry Pandowdy

adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

6 cups washed and pitted cherries (about 2 lbs cherries with pits)

sugar to taste, plus 2 tbsp

the juice of 1 lemon

butter for greasing the pan

1 recipe pie crust (Bittman recommends using his Sweetened Enriched pie crust, which uses 2 yolks and more sugar...I plan on doing that next time)

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the fruit with the sugar and lemon juice, and let sit for 5 minutes. Spread the fruit in the bottom of a greased 8" square or 9" round baking pan.

2. Roll out your pie crust, and carefully lay it over the fruit. Tuck in the corners and edges under the fruit. Brush the top of the crust with milk. Mix the remaining sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle on top.

3. Bake for about 30 minutes. At this point you can score the top in a "x" pattern, or push some of the crust down into the hot, bubbly fruit. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or so, until the crust is nice and browned.

4. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired. And why wouldn't you want to do that?

The Flavor Bible

2010-06-18T13:06:00.004-05:00

I've always been intrigued by new and exciting ingredients in baking, but now I'm to the point that I like to invent my own recipes, or take a recipe and doctor it to my liking. Are you there too? Do you read recipes and think, um, this would be so much better if I added x, y, and then topped it with z?If you are, then please buy this book.

It's not a cookbook. Rather, think of it like a giant thesaurus or reference guide, but for food. Basically, it tells you what goes with what. That's probably a terrible description, so here's an example. Tonight my husband and I are going to a (free!) and outdoor concert, so we've planned to take a picnic of wine, cheese, olives, and bread. The perfect dinner, huh? I think I could live on appetizers. You? So my husband came home with some Mahon cheese (boy I do love him). I looked up "Cheese, Mahon" in the Flavor Bible, and guess what goes with Mahon Cheese? Quince paste. Yeah, I had no idea either. But we'll go get some quince paste to try with the cheese, because this book has been compiled by countless chefs across the country weighing in on what, ideally, goes with what in the culinary world. We're not going to doubt their suggestions. So quince paste it is!

Pretty neat, huh? Have a great weekend! And if you're at the Levitt Shell tonight, we'll be there too...we'll be the couple in the blue folding chairs eating our weight in cheese and olives. Good times!

Lemon Basil Shortbread

2010-06-15T17:23:00.003-05:00

Well, it's definitely summer here in Memphis. Despite the above-100 degree heat index, the horrible humidity, and the constant level of sweat, I absolutely love it. I am even loving the mosquito bites all over my legs, because you know what? It means that it's not winter. If I start complaining about the heat in August, just remind me of this, ok?

You know what else is just fantastic about the summertime? When friends who own a lakehouse in Mississippi call us and invite us down for a weekend. Yes, please. Cruising around on a pontoon boat and lazily floating in the lake all day, then coming back, cleaning up, and making dinner together makes for very happy people.

I wanted to thank our hosts for their hospitality (and of course sweeten the deal so that they invite us in the future!), so I baked up these cookies. Our basil plant is not looking to good (do bugs like basil? They sure seem to like ours), so I thought I should put it to good use.

You can press the dough into a pan and score it into squares right after baking, or you can be like me and decide to cut them out with a biscuit cutter. Which, I will warn you, makes for a tad bit oversized cookies. No matter, though...they are pretty darn tasty, no matter what the size. These crumbly cookies are wonderful in the warm afternoon sun on the lake, or as we discovered, with your morning coffee, sitting on the deck of a cabin in the middle of the woods, overlooking the lake. Can we go back yet?

Lemon Basil Shortbread

2 cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4-5 leaves fresh basil, chiffonaded (you could definitely increase this if you want it to be more basil-y)
zest from one large lemon (again, you could increase this if you love lemon)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
4 cups flour

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter until smooth and creamy.
3. In a food processor, combine the granulated sugar, basil, lemon zest, and confectioner's sugar, using short pulses until everything is finely mixed.
4. Add the basil sugar mixture to the butter, and beat for another minute.
5. Gradually add one cup of flour at a time, mixing until just incorporated.
6. Press the dough into an ungreased cookies sheet. You can either a) use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to cut out the cookies and place the cookies on a clean, ungreased cookie sheet - and in this case you'll have to manipulate your scraps to get every last bit, or b) leave the dough uncut, and bake. This way, you can score the dough and cut them into squares right from the oven.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until they are a nice light golden color. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Icing (and sprinkles, of course)

2010-06-01T14:38:00.006-05:00

A friend and former coworker had her baby shower this weekend, and she asked if I'd make her cupcakes. Of course! I said. Her only request (she said it was really the baby requesting it, so cute) was some sort of vanilla frosting. The rest she left up to me.

So, chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting it was. But what I really wanted to share with you was the decorations. This is something I struggle with, now that I'm taking baking more seriously and am starting to do it on a commission-type basis. Making a great tasting cupcake and frosting is easy. Making a great tasting and attractive (read: professional-looking) cupcake is a bit more difficult.

Think about it. The last time you had homemade cupcakes - what did they look like? I'll be honest, and say that most of my desserts aren't picture-worthy. It's just that my audience (read: my husband, or loyal friends) doesn't really care what they look like, and it's the taste that matters, right?

So, all of this to say that I needed a way to make these cupcakes look good. Icing was an obvious option, but what else?

Enter chocolate and non-periels. I had an idea to do a big initial (A for the baby's last name), so I did my research and decided to use chocolate melting chips to draw out a scripted "A". You can usually find these at any craft of candy-making supply store (I found mine at Michael's).

So how did I do it? I found an A that I liked (font: Amazing Ruler), then printed out several versions of it until I had the correct size. I wanted to A to hang off the cupcake a tiny bit, but not look grossly out of proportion.

I then slipped my "A" template under a sheet of wax paper. To soften the chocolate, I put the chips in a ziploc bag, then microwaved it in 10 second intervals, massaging the bag after each one until the chips were completely melted. Then snip off a corner of the bag (a tiny corner, don't be like me and snip off too much - this equals lots of mess), and then trace over your initial onto the wax paper. Immediately sprinkle with non-periels, then transfer to the fridge for 5 minutes to allow to cool.

And now let's look at some of my rejects. While I knew all along that I wanted to use the small non-periels, I had some other types of sprinkles lying around, and wanted to try them out as well. First up, blue sanding sugar...

Eh, this was ok. Had I used white chocolate, I think the sugar would have popped more beautifully. The dark chocolate just hid the sprinkles too much.

Next up, silver sugar...

Again, not bad.

Here is a plain A with no decoration...

Boooooring.

How about large sprinkles?

Ha ha. No.

The winner?

Note to self: next time take a picture without the plate behind it. You can barely see it. Don't look too hard, it will make you dizzy!

The finished product...

Crispy French Toast at Silk Road, Vdara Hotel in Vegas

2010-05-26T11:45:00.007-05:00

First of all, let me say how lucky I feel that I get to travel to Vegas for work (for free!). Not only did I get to see a ton of new and awesome design products at the trade show, but I was put up at the newest hotel and casino property on the strip. For those of you not familiar with it, City Center opened in December 2009, and is comprised of two hotels, a large spa, five or something restaurants, and a pretty neat casino.

But let's talk about my room. Or rather, let's just look at it.

{the dining area at the entry}

{living room...to the right, out the window, was the Bellagio...I could see the water show from my room}

{the bedroom...oh yes. pretty amazing.}

{the bathroom}

{my favorite part of the whole room...a tub that someone else had to clean}

Now let's talk about what I ate for breakfast my last day there. On our many trips in and out of the hotel during our stay, we kept passing by this venue called Silk Road that looked like a nightclub. Metallic wallcovering, bright pinks and purples in the furniture, funky carpet...completely trendy. So it came as a shock that this place was not a nightclub or bar, but a breakfast and lunch venue. What? Look at the picture below...can't you just hear the music blaring?

{silk road, a breakfast and lunch destination, masquerading as a bar}

So, aside from the misleading nightclubbish vibe, this place has some pretty good (and, well...sort of expensive) food. I sat down for breakfast (all by myself - don't you just cherish those moments? I do), and was asked if I wanted coffee. Of course, I said. The coffee turned out to be an entire french press of Illy (the best coffee on the planet, hands down), which cost me $12. Yeah, they don't tell you that before you order.

On to the food. I felt like something sweet, so I went for the Crispy French Toast, with carmelized apples, cinnamon custard, and cider reduction. Guys. This was so good. Go here and scroll down if you want to see a fuzzy picture (I was too hungry to snap one myself). The outside of the french toast was exactly what they said - crispy. And the inside? Warm and gooey and all yum. I guessed that the bread must have been coated in egg, then dipped in either sweet bread crumbs, or cornflakes, or something...I thought to myself, I must try to recreate this when I get home. Hmmmpf. Apparently this is not a new thing, judging from the results I got when I searched for something similar. There are no new ideas in this world, I tell you.

Nevertheless, I intend to make crispy french toast as soon as my schedule allows, perhaps tweak some recipes until I get a perfect result, and then I will post back here with my findings.

Up next...cupcakes for a baby shower! (Yay for baby A!)

Vegas, baby!

2010-05-18T15:11:00.003-05:00

I've had barely any time to bake lately. I hate that. I did, however, manage to fit in a very lovely banana bundt cake (recipe here) on Sunday, which my husband and I have been happily munching on all week.

But guess what? I'm leaving again. This time...to Vegas! However, this trip will be for work (boo).

I intend on fitting in as many culinary adventures as I can. Wednesday night we're dining at the S&W Steakhouse in the Wynn, and Thursday night we have reservations at Botero at Encore. Honestly, I'm not too thrilled about eating at two steakhouses in a row (I think I could easily be vegeterian if I had to), but hey, when you're dining on someone else's tab, you don't have much say (or room to complain), do you?

Last year (on my own dime!) I made it a point to check out the much-hyped Lotus of Siam, which was, by far, some of the best Thai food I've ever eaten. It's the type of place you wouldn't even dare to check out unless someone recommended it to you. It's located in this abandoned-looking strip mall, next to a worn-out-looking laundromat. It was fantastic.

Aside from the fancy casino eateries, any other hidden gems I should check out while I'm there?

Frontera Grill in Chicago

2010-05-12T09:42:00.008-05:00

Oh, Chicago. To say that I needed this vacation is an understatement. The main goal of this trip was to attend a friend's wedding on Saturday, but, seeing as I took a girlfriend with me, and we had no other plans other than going to the nuptials (my first Jewish wedding - it was amazing!), you can bet that we spent a good deal of our time shopping. And walking. And more shopping. Let's see, Filene's Basement (#1 AND #2...did you know there were two?)...check. Zara, H&M...check. All of Michigan Ave...check. You can see the trend, no?

And of course, we ate. Before we left, I made up a map of all the places I wanted to check out, and Frontera Grill was one of them. Do you watch Rick Bayless on PBS? You know the one, the chef who specializes in Mexican fare, the one who pronounces everything Spanish just right? Well, this is one of his four restaurants in town, and, having seen his shows and seen what he prepares, I was all about trying to get us a table there for Saturday morning brunch. I called on Wednesday to make a reservation, only to be informed that they were already booked up. Disappointed - but obviously not discouraged - we decided to walk by the restaurant on Saturday to see if there was any way we could get a table. And aha! They take walk-ins. So, here's my tip: show up around 10:25 am (they open at 10:30), and you should get a table, no problem.

So what did we eat? To start, and to celebrate our awesome vacation weekend, we ordered mimosas. Mimosas with fresh-squeezed orange juice and hibiscus-flavored water, to be exact. Mimosas with a $14 price tag (!). But so worth it.

And for my meal? I ordered the Sapitos, a "trio of Xalapa-style gorditas (corn masa cakes) in chipotle-black bean sauce, each with its own topping: scrambled eggs, grilled chicken, chorizo and plantains, with homemade crema and queso fresco." My darling friend Christy ordered the same thing, but Erin went crazy and ordered the Hot Cakes Indgenas, which were Iroquois white corn pancakes with whipped goat cheese and piloncillo-agave syrup. Yes, I asked her if I could have a bite, and yes...I sort of finished them off when she said she couldn't eat any more.

Well-priced (except for those mimosas!) and well worth it. Check it out if you're in Chicago!

Frontera Grill
445 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60610

Flower Baking Cups

2010-05-10T16:05:00.004-05:00

Aren't these adorable? I snagged some at Crate and Barrel during my trip to Chicago this past weekend.

A more substantial (and Chicago-related) post to come next!

Blackberry Key Lime Scones

2010-05-03T08:44:00.006-05:00

The grocery store closest to my house (a whole three minutes away, thank goodness) is not exactly known for being the nicest place to shop. So much so, that some Memphians like to call it "ghetto". Which, honestly, I have to laugh at. The place is just fine. I've shopped at much sketchier grocery stores (ok, Kroger's) in my hometown of Cincinnati (Over the Rhine, anyone?). So, rather than look at it like that, I tend to see my grocery store for what it truly is: a goldmine.

Let's start with the basics. It's never uncomfortably crowded. The produce is always in stock, and never out of, say, arugula. They've got the sweetest lady working at the floral department, who is so nice and went out of her way to special-order some rananculus for me. I mean, who does that?

But the deal was sealed when I found key lime juice in the product section. I wasn't expecting to find it here, as the store typically doesn't carry your more hard-to-find ingredients. But there it was, hanging out with the lemon juice. I was elated. I'm very easy to please, as you may imagine.

I was also thrilled when these scones turned out. I couldn't turn down the blackberries at the store, either, so the only logical solution was to make key lime blackberry scones, right? A little about these: my first attempt at incorporating the key lime juice was to combine it with the sugar before blending it in. As this didn't result in a strong key lime flavor (barely any at all), I decided to top them with a key lime sugar glaze. That did the trick.

Blackberry Key Lime Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
1tbsp key lime juice (you may want to add more, see my note above)
1/2 tsp salt (I used 3/4 tsp)
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes and chilled
1/2 to 3/4 cup blackberries (I had to cut some of mine in half they were so big, hence the purple stains!)
1 cup heavy cream

1/4 to 1/3 cup key lime juice
3-4 tbsp powdered sugar

1. Position your rack in the middle of the oven and set to 425 degrees.
2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. With a fork, mash together 1 tbsp key lime juice and sugar until well incorporated. Whisk the lime juice/sugar mixture into the flour mixture. Make sure that you really mix this in, as it's a bit clumpy and won't blend in as easily as dry sugar.
3. With a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently stir in your blackberries. Transfer to large bowl, and mix in the heavy cream with a spatula. Mix until it just comes together (now the dough will be very tacky/sticky).
4. Transfer dough to a dry surface and knead for 5-10 seconds. Press the dough into an 8 or 9" round pie plate, then cut the dough into 8-equally sized wedges. Use a sharp angular spatula to transfer to an ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake until scone tops are light brown, about 12-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10-15 minutes.
6. While the scones are baking, whisk together 1/4 to 1/3 cup key lime juice and the confectioner's sugar until it reaches a thin icing consistency (you may have to add more of either one or the other to get just the right texture and taste). Drizzle onto the slightly-cooled but still warm scones (to simplify your cleanup, just set the wire racks on a large dinner plate to catch all of the icing run off).

Enjoy!

OH! I forgot to mention that I'll be going to Chicago this weekend for a wedding/girl's vacation! I. Can't. Wait. With work and work and more work lately, this is a much-deserved break. All that to say - fellow foodies, what restaurants should we check out? How about any neat fabric/craft shops? Vintage stores? I think our goal for the entire weekend is to eat, relax, shop, and eat some more. Any suggestions, just leave it in the comments!

White Wedding Cake with Strawberry Cream Filling and Swiss Buttercream Icing

2010-04-26T12:59:00.008-05:00

So here it is...the project that I thought would be the end of me. (Side note: this post makes me regret not taking more photos while I was making and assembling this wedding cake, but you're lucky that I took this many).

You guys, I've never been more nervous. Well, maybe I was in school - it made me think of those late-night studio sessions, you know the ones where you stay up all night working on a project and then by the time you present it, you're so tired and exhausted and consumed and whatever that you think you've lost your mind.

This is how I felt. Did I eat that day? Nope. Did I talk to my husband at all? Nope - when he came into the kitchen to chat I had to brush him off, shoo him away with floured hands, I'm busy here. Did I stop at all, to enjoy the sunny day or to feed my animals? No, no, and no (don't worry, my lovely husband took care of them). All I could think about was cake. Getting this cake right and not messing it up.

I got up early that morning to start on my to-do list, which went something like this: make frosting, make strawberry filling, fill all three layers, ice all three layers, chill, re-ice all three layers with final coat, decorate, box up, drive to wedding site, deliver cake, make a big drink to celebrate. And this is exactly what happened - no real hitches or problems at all. Either I'm incredibly lucky, or my crazy planning actually paid off.

Some things I learned along the way include:
a) Strawberry freezer jam makes an excellent cake filling when blended with swiss buttercream.
b) Wax paper under the cake when you start icing the layers is essential. Once you have the wax paper in place, don't be shy with the icing.
c) Refrigerating the layers between icings will allow the buttercream to set up very nicely.
d) You will mess up. You will have places of icing that aren't smoothed to perfection. It's ok, they will probably cover it up with flowers anyway (they did)
e) You can make up the cake decorating pattern as you go. This is what I did (terrible, I know!). I played with different ridges in the icing until I liked what I saw. You can re-smooth icing quite a few times until you get it just right.
f) The scalloped shells at the base of the cake are really not my style, but they helped incredibly when it came time to hide the cardboard base at the bottom of each cake.
g) When actually delivering the wedding cake that you just spent the majority of the past two months thinking about, practicing on, and obsessing over, you will drive 20 miles per hour, highway or not. And you will sweat.
h) Don't ever be above purchasing pre-made fondant decorative flowers in case you need to hide a goof. I was so thankful that I did.
i) Don't really sweat the small stuff - most definitely, people will love what you did, and the bride won't even notice (or, in my case, show up a teeny bit inebriated). Yes, she did.

Some other details, in case you were wondering:
- Cake: White Cake, from Joy of Cooking
- Icing: Swiss Buttercream Icing, from Smitten Kitchen
- Filling: Strawberry freezer jam + icing + lots of red food coloring (if you don't do this, your filling will be a fleshy pale pink color. Not appetizing.)

Any other questions? Just ask!

Food, Inc.

2010-04-22T08:15:00.006-05:00

Awhile back, I spotted this post on Black Eiffel titled "Food Conscience". I read through it, and even commented on the post, saying how much I love when people bring these issues to light about our food and where it comes from. She highlighted several other movies about the issue, and also discussed some books that focus on natural and organic food, so I made sure to add them to my Amazon wish list, and then went about my day.

And that was it. Yes, I always cook from scratch and try to completely avoid anything that's pre-packaged or loaded with preservatives, but I never thought much more about it, until last night. Food, Inc was airing on PBS, and I sat, transfixed, for the whole thing. Have you seen it yet? I cried. A lot. It showed me what I was afraid to see, but deep down knew all along - that the path that our food takes to get to us is one big, convuluted trip, full of nightmarish scenes. Animals, human workers, and the environment are all being mistreated, abused, and disrespected, all in the name of fast, cheap, and quick eats. The statistics that the movie highlights are staggering.

It made me thankful that I can afford to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and organic foods, which, as one researcher mentions, is the whole problem with the system. Rates of obesity are directly linked to income level. This makes perfect sense - we've created a world where a hamburger from McDonald's costs less than a head of broccoli.

I could go on and on, but I'll just stop here and tell you that if you're at all interested in making a difference, or at the very least eating better, go rent this movie. You will learn a lot, it will make you sad (and may make you cry, like it did to me), but it will make you aware of what's going on with your food. It may even convince you to start eating locally, or at least only buy organic. And that's a great start.

Mini Cadbury Egg Cookies

2010-04-19T10:22:00.007-05:00

Wow, a little late with this post, eh? Easter candy? It's almost May, for crying out loud.

Well, that's what baking a wedding cake will do you to. It puts you a bit behind schedule. More on that in the next post.

I finished up that wedding cake on Saturday, and you'd think that I would be sick of baking. People, I went through almost 20 sticks of butter, almost as many eggs, and more sugar and flour than I care to think about. And yet, once all of the pressure was off, and my job was done, I thought, now I can bake for fun! Yes, I am weird.

A little bit about these Cadbury eggs - you know the kind, the ones that come in the purple bag. My sweet mother sent me two large bags of these right before Easter. I had called her a few days earlier, lamenting the fact that I couldn't seem to find them in Memphis (of course, I only checked at two Walgreen's, so my search was far from exhaustive). Thinking that I'd be without my favorite candy on Easter, she sent me some.

And some, well, is just too much. I reluctantly opened one bag, and I've almost eaten the whole thing. It's awful. The floodgates opened, and it was like all of a sudden that purple bag became a very strong magnet. I. Couldn't. Stop.

So I thought, why not put them in cookies? Brilliant! Don't, however, make my mistake of thinking that you can chop these buggers up in your food processor. Maybe it's possible, but when I turned mine on, it sounded like the blade was coming to bits and that it would explode at any moment. Really, it was horrific. Of course, my food processor is from the 1970's, so perhaps the newer models have stronger blades and motors. So I chopped them. By hand. Yes, I am weird.

Mini Cadbury Egg Cookies
8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (either dark or light is fine)
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup + 1 tbsp flour, loosely scooped
1-1/2 cups chopped mini cadbury eggs

1 - Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Have ready an ungreased cookie sheet.
2 - Beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Add in egg. Once egg is well blended, add salt and baking soda, beating well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Add the flour and stir (do not beat) until it is almost incorporated. Add the cadbury eggs, and still until the flour has all but disappeared.
3. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets, about one inch apart. Bake one sheet at a time on center rack for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden. The cookies should get pretty brown around the edges. Be careful not to let the bottoms get burned - keep an eye on them!
4. Remove from oven, and set the cookie sheet on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove from sheet, place on cooling rack, and allow to cool to room temperature.

Enjoy!

Almond Buttermilk Cake with Strawberry Coulis

2010-03-30T09:06:00.012-05:00

Like I said before, sometimes my priorities change. Those cinnamon rolls? Their 2 hour required rising time just didn't fit in with my schedule. Hmmpf.

But I still needed something to take up to my in-laws' house over the weekend. Thus, this cake was born. Somehow, all of the stars aligned, and I had everything that I needed to make this cake, plus the additions and changes that I wanted to make to the original recipe. The basic recipe comes from Clotilde Dusoulier's cookbook, Chocolate & Zucchini. I've made this cake probably a dozen times, and each time I mix it up do something different. It really is a fool-proof basic recipe (no creaming the butter! no dirtying your mixer bowl!), and you can dress it up however you see it. For my in-laws, I decided that almonds and strawberries would be the perfect combination.

Did you know that a cup of buttermilk is a perfectly suitable substitute for a cup of yogurt? Well, now you do. Feel free to use either one in this recipe. I've posted the recipe below, with my changes in italics. Enjoy!

Yogurt (or Buttermilk) Cake

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (I used 1 cup buttermilk, well shaken)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract (or almond extract)

1 tbsp light or amber rum

1-2/3 cup all purpose flour ((I used 2/3 cup almond flour, and 1 cup all purpose flour)

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Good pinch of fine sea salt (I used scant 1/4 tsp regular salt)

Strawberry Coulis (recipe below)

1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides and bottom of a 10-inch springform pan (or cake pan). Line the bottom with parchment paper if the pan is not springform.

2 - Whisk together the yogurt (or buttermilk) and the sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla, oil, and rum, and whisk thoroughly.

3 - In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Pour the flour mixture into the yogurt/buttermilk mixture, and whisk until just combined.

4 - Pour batter into the prepared cake pan (I poured half of the batter into the pan, drizzled the strawberry coulis on top, and then poured the remaining batter into the pan - this will result in a marbled effect when it bakes up), and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen. Unclasp the sides of the springform pan (if using). If not, flip the cake onto a plate and flip it back onto the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

5 - Optional step: I dusted my cake with confectioner's sugar, and topped it with slivered, toasted almonds.

Strawberry Coulis
1 cup strawberries, washed and hulled
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar (or to taste - I had to add about 3 tbsp)

Place strawberries and sugar in food processor and process until smooth.

Things on my list...

2010-03-22T12:50:00.004-05:00

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First of all, what a wonderful weekend. I made that jam I was waxing poetic about last Friday. And boy oh boy, I don't know what it is, but seeing all of those filled jars lined up on my counter makes me so happy. It must be some sort of nurturing/mothering thing deep down inside me, but I love knowing that we have fresh homemade jam at our complete and utter disposal, just waiting in the freezer to be devoured. I failed, however, to start on the next wedding cake round. I was distracted by the warm weather, and the friends that came over on Friday, the gin that we drank...the enchiladas that we ate...

Oh, things on my list. Right. Here, in no particular order, are the things that I would rather be making, than sitting in my office cube right now.

- These homemade cinnamon rolls. We are visiting my in-laws this weekend, and I plan to surprise them by making these on Saturday morning, and I can't wait. They won't know what hit them.

- This waffle-falafel. What? This makes me almost as happy as that jam. We eat falafel and hummus probably once a month or so from this place, and it's so so good that I've never considered making my own. Now I'm tempted...

So...what is on your list of things to make? It's ok if your list changes hourly. Mine does.

Double duty strawberry jam

2010-03-19T09:02:00.001-05:00

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I never thought I'd be interested in jam and canning and whatnot, but somewhere along the way I became an adult, and relish the thought of preserving all of the good summer produce into something that I can enjoy year round. And when I say summer produce, I really just mean strawberries. I don't know if it's because I used to pick strawberries with my grandmother every summer and have very fond memories of that, but strawberries are my true (fruit) love. And right now they are in season. Go to the store and buy some now. Seriously. I stood in our kitchen last night, eating strawberry after strawberry, and didn't even notice that I had polished off the whole package. Eh, there are worse things to be gorging yourself on, right?

So my weekend plans involve, you guessed it, strawberries. Strawberry jam on Saturday, then a test run for that wedding cake commission on Sunday, using the strawberry jam mixed with a little buttercream as the filling. I. Can't. Wait.

Oh, and since I already pledged that this is a food blog ONLY, I'll only post a link to these adorable baby shoes that I also plan to make this weekend. A dear couple that we know just successfully adopted a baby boy, and I cannot think of a better reason to make these shoes. Loafers! Who knew.

What are your weekend plans?

Adorable wedding favors...

2010-03-18T12:00:00.002-05:00

Here. For my next wedding baking commission, I will definitely suggest these to the bride-to-be. I'm dying to make them, but my current bride-to-be already has her wedding favors. Anyone want me to make these for their wedding day? Please?

Milestones...

2010-03-15T09:04:00.004-05:00

Today marks our one-year wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it. We celebrated this weekend and it was absolutely lovely. Late night romantic dinner on Saturday, brunch and jazz on Sunday...it was perfect. Turns out, I love being married.

Another milestone (for me) is that this marks my 201st post on my blog! (I somehow missed the big 200)...so what does that mean? That finally, after 200+ posts, I think I've finally discovered my true self, and that is as a baker. I tried for a long time to make this a design blog, a wedding blog (which it was, and served its purpose well), and a crafting blog (which it may still be that from time to time). I am finally ok with it not being all of those things, and instead to focus on my true passion - baking and cooking.

For the first time over the weekend, I completed my first bakery order. It was for a bridal shower, and I showed up with 3+ dozen mini cupcakes - half of them were chocolate cupcakes with two kinds of ganache (whipped AND poured) and topped with strawberries, and the other half were simple white cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting.

The night before, I really thought I was going to rip my hair out and/or go crazy, as the ganache wasn't doing what I wanted AND I had to make a mad dash to the grocery store for sugar (um, that was a first - I NEVER run out of sugar). But you know what? When I finally delivered them, set them up on my three-tiered cake stand, and stepped back, I was so incredibly proud of myself. I had managed to create something that not only tasted wonderful, but looked beautiful.

So here's to beautiful, beautiful milestones. And knowing exactly what you want to do in life. I'm still figuring it all out, but I feel like I'm one step closer.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-03-09T08:49:00.011-06:00

This post redeems me. Although I actually made these cupcakes before I made the doomed garlic cupcakes, I still feel like it makes up for my egregious error. Right?

Anyway. Last weekend sometime I thought to myself, I would like some carrot cupcakes now. Isn't that weird? Does anyone else just get these serious cravings?

So I found a good recipe, bought all of the ingredients...and then didn't make them until a week later. So much for instant gratification. Apparently my cravings tend to go away if I ignore them. Who knew?

But a bridal shower on Saturday prompted me to action, so I made these. And they were goooood. The recipe called for raisins and walnuts, which I thought was a little much. I know it's probably a traditional carrot cake recipe, but I just didn't want all of that interrupting the moist, smooth batter, so I left them out. Feel free to add them if that's your sort of thing.

This cream cheese frosting recipe called for an entire box (yes, that's 16 oz.) of confectioner's sugar. Unless you're wanting to send all of your friends into diabetic shock, I'd suggest cutting back on that significantly (you'll see my modified recipe below). I only used about a cup, and it was perfectly sweet. Not too much, not too little, while still letting the cream cheese flavor come through. Because really, that's the real star of this frosting...

Carrot Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt (I used a bit more...of course)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 large eggs (room temp)

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups grated carrots (about 4 of them)

1/2 cup dark raisins (optional)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line 18 muffin cups with liners

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a small bowl.

3. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil and milk on medium speed until light and thick (I did this by hand, and it worked fine)

4. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture, beating until just blended. Stir in the vanilla, carrots, raisins, and walnuts until just blended.

5. Spoon the batter into the liners, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Remove them from the pan, and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

(1) 8 oz package cream cheese, at room temp

1/2 stick butter, at room temp

1-2 cups of confectioner's sugar, to taste

2-3 tbsp milk

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until light and fluffy.

2. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar and the milk, beating well until everything is well incorporated.

3. Add more milk if the consistency is too thick (mine never got too thick at all, and so I only ended up using 2 tbsp milk).

4. Frost your cupcakes.

Note: Keep frosted cupcakes and any remaining frosting in the refrigerator. This will keep the cream cheese frosting safe to consume, plus it just comes in handy when you need a spoonful of a little something cool and sweet. Not that I do that! Of course not.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Bittersweet Chocolate Strawberry Ganache

2010-03-08T10:58:00.007-06:00

I have a lesson for you. Are you ready for it? Let me take you back to Saturday night, where I was being a wonderful wife and making my husband dinner. I had settled on this recipe for Baked Shrimp Scampi by Ezra Pound Cake, and I was going all out for it, and we were both excited to try it. So excited, in fact, that I broke out the knife and actually chopped up fresh garlic for the occasion. See, we usually get lazy and use the bottled kind, which is really sad, but it happens.

So anyway, the garlic. I chopped that garlic, I made the dish, it baked up quickly, and everyone was happy.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. Remember my wedding cake project? The wedding has been pushed back to April 20-something, so in the meantime I've been tasked with also baking cute cupcakes for the bridal shower. (This getting paid to do what I love thing - it's sort of nice!). Her wedding colors are red and black, so I figured what better combo than chocolate and strawberries, right? The recipe involves baking up a simple (and oh-so-tender and moist) chocolate cupcake, then filling them with a strawberry chocolate ganache, then topping them with ganache and a buttercream icing. Wow, right?

So I baked those puppies, making them into mini cupcakes instead of regular sized. Cute, right? I'm already on a roll. I chop up the chocolate, chop up the strawberries, heat the cream, and make two batches of ganache: one with strawberries (the filling), and one without (the topping).

I stuck the strawberry ganache in the fridge to let it thicken, and after I had removed the insides of each and every cupcake (which is a lot when you make minis), I took it back out of the fridge. I did a taste-test, and...what? What is that weird tangy flavor in the strawberry ganache? Hmm, it's not really strong, but definitely there. What...what the?

Guys. It was garlic. Garlic strawberry ganache. I had inadvertently chopped up the strawberries on the same cutting board that I used for the garlic on Saturday. Can you say gross and just...gross? Lesson: Keep your garlic/veggie cutting board separate from everything else. Yuck. I was so upset, I almost threw out the whole batch. But for some reason I soldiered on, and finished filling and icing the cupcakes, convinced that the subtle garlic flavor would somehow dissipate within the cupcake.

My husband says that he can barely taste it, and that no one looking for it would ever notice. I don't believe him. So, needless to say, my co-workers did NOT get to eat these. I was too embarassed to bring them to work.

All of this to say that the recipe was absolutely amazing, and I'll share with you soon. When I get it right, that is. But to redeem myself until then, I've got another post for you, sharing a recipe for carrot cupcakes that I also made this weekend. Really, we were up to our eyeballs in cupcakes. Which, really, isn't all that bad at all. That post is coming next!

Yay...

2010-03-04T14:36:00.003-06:00

I just signed up for the summer CSA with our local farm. I've never done this before, and until yesterday, I had no idea that one was so close to me. They even deliver to the Memphis Farmer's Market! I'm so so so excited. I love to cook and bake, and I think this will really help me move past my comfort zone, both with cooking techniques and with trying new foods.

It runs from May through August, and just a sampling of what I'll get is: strawberries, heirloom lettuces, swiss chard, kale, radishes, Asian greens, Italian chicories and endives, mint, oregano, English shelling peas, sugar snaps, and more...plus weekly gifts from the farm, including homemade jams, canned heirloom tomatoes, local honey, and baked goods!

To find your local CSA, go here.

Orange Bread

2010-03-01T08:59:00.009-06:00

So, I woke up on Sunday with a weird, subtle ringing in my ear, and a headache. As the day progressed, it turned into a sensitivity to light and any quick turns of my head immediately made me feel dizzy. My husband suggested that maybe I was experiencing a migraine. Me? I've never had a migraine! Why would I start to get them now, at 28?

Needless to say, Sunday was almost a complete waste. I managed to dizzily go grocery shopping, and then all I could do was sit on our porch, in the sun, and watch my husband work in the yard.

Maybe it was the sun, or the passing of time, but either way, whatever it was was gone by late afternoon, which meant that I could actually get up and do something without feeling nauseous. Oh,the glory! That meant that I got to do what I was looking forward to all weekend: to make this bread. Maybe it was thoughts of the citrusy zest, butter, sugar, and cinnamon that made me feel more like myself. All I know is that the smell of this baking in my oven somehow, somehow, just made everything feel great*. If you need any sort of pick-me-up, I would prescribe this bread. Go visit Simply Recipes for the details and full recipe.

*Or maybe it's because today is the first day of March! Not officially the start of spring, but we're almost there!

Clutch...Done!

2010-02-25T11:21:00.003-06:00

This clutch took me awhile to complete. But I'll tell you what - it's my best one yet. I'm so happy with the result. It's made from a wool skirt. See those ruffles? That is the satin lining of said skirt. I lurve it.

And look at these photos! Not professional quality by any means, but way better than previous ones that I've posted on here. I've discovered that our upstairs room is a natural light box, in that the light bounces just right off of the light-colored walls to give me that elusive ambient light that (I think) is crucial to getting a good shot. Yay!

Bad cookie

2010-02-24T14:36:00.002-06:00

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I'm eating a bad cookie* right now, and I'm really mad about it. I'm at work, hating work, stressed out, and what do I do? I reach for the too-hard, plastic-wrapped cookie that came in my boxed lunch (yay for office food, huh?), and I start to eat it.

I know it's bad. But I can't stop eating it. Damn you, stress.

So to prevent any of you out there from making my mistake, please, please for the love of god go check out these recipes and make one of them ASAP. That way, when stress attacks, you won't succumb to bad cookies. The horrors!

Our Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Smitten Kitchen

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie s, by Bake or Break

The Last Chocolate Chip Cookie, by Not Without Salt

Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Chocolate & Zucchini

OR, for the ultimate stress relief:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake, by Peabody (she and I, we're on the same track here)

*Ok, so the inside was sort of moist and not that bad. But overall, I could do much better.

Moroccan Chicken Pot Pie

2010-02-12T09:23:00.010-06:00

Guys. This weekend was so good. Our plans to have a low-key Valentine's meal on Saturday turned into a surprise dinner party, as my husband had secretly invited over two very good friends (friends that, I might add, brought lobster to accompany our already glamorous meal of scallops and glazed carrots - do we have great friends or what?).

I'm still talking about that meal. My husband's best bud is a chef at the Ritz in St. Louis, and went along with the surprise by supplying my husband with a recipe for lobster and scallops with a citrus beurre blanc sauce, with glazed carrots and red bliss potatoes. Drool. I really need to share that carrot recipe with you, because, as someone who has never really been thrilled about carrots, I would eat carrots every day if they always tasted that good.

But instead, I brought you a recipe for Moroccan Chicken Pot Pie, from a December version of Bon Appetit. I made this cozy, hearty dish on Friday night, knowing full well that it's an extremely yummy meal, but also was going to be quite humble when compared to our dinner plans the following evening. And I was ok with that, because, well...this pot pie is just really good.

One note: make sure you splurge for the golden raisins. They make all the difference.

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Morrocan Chicken Pot Pie

Bon Appetit, December 2007

1-1/2 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut up into 1 inch cubes

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 lemon

3 tbls butter

1 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 cup imported green olives, pitted, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup golden raisins

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 refrigerated pie crust (I made my own, because I'm weird like that...recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix chicken cubes with paprika, cumin, and cinnamon in large bowl to coat. Sprinke chicken generously with salt and pepper. Cut lemon in half; remove seeds. Using a small spoon, scoop out enough pulp and juice from between membranes to measure 2 tablespoons. Add to chicken mixture; stir to blend.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, olives, and raisins. Saute until onion is almost tender, about 4 minutes. Add chicken mixture and stir 1 minute. Sprinkle flour over; stir 1 minute. Add broth and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Transfer filling to 9-inch diameter deep-dish glass pie dish.

Place pie crust over dish and seal dough edges to rim of dish. Using small paring knife, cut several slits in pie crust. Bake pot pie until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling thickly, about 20 minutes.

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My mother-in law's No Fail Pie Crust

(makes two)

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1 tblp white vinegar

Blend flour, salt, baking powder, and shortening with a pastry cutter until pea-sized pieces form. Beat one egg in a cup and add vinegar. Add enough cold water to egg mixture to equal 3/8 cup. Add egg mixture to flour mixture by hand. Divide dough into two equal portions.

You can either roll it out between wax paper and use it now, or gather it up into a flattened disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and store in the freezer for later.

Marble Tops

2010-02-09T13:07:00.005-06:00

On Saturday we grabbed some coffee and headed to the Common Market antique store located in downtown Memphis. As the fairly new owners of a victorian house, our goal is to restore it as accurately as possible, so we love going antiquing. As we were walking into the store, my husband (who had been there before) warned me of two things: to take my jacket, and prepare to be overwhelmed.

And he was completely right. It's a huge old warehouse (not heated!), full of everything (and I mean everything) you could ever imagine from old antique homes. I'm not talking about antique furniture, although there was some of that there. I'm talking whole fireplace mantels. Exterior dentalwork. Columns. Transom windows. There was even a victorian staircase you could buy (for only $10,000). In the basement there were hundreds of old pocket/sliding and front doors, countless claw foot tubs, and old commodes (I was racking my brain for who would want to buy those, but who knows?). Not to mention the hundreds of bins of antique doorknob sets (we found a set that matches our house's knobs - they go for $150 per door!), door hinges, plumbing fixture handles...you could spend weeks in there and not see everything.

I should have taken more pictures, but honestly I was so cold that my hands wouldn't stop shaking. But I did snap the above pictures of two (two!) hand-carved marble vanity tops that we're seriously considering buying. We have grand plans to redo our master bathroom, and how pretty these would be! We would have matching but separate sinks! And isn't that every married couple's dream?

But look at that crack! Obviously it's been repaired, but now the crack sealer has yellowed. Does anyone have an ideas about lightening that up? Is that possible? If I could figure out a way to lighten up that crack to be closer to the grey veining, I'd buy them in a heartbeat. So, help! Any ideas?

Ruffle Clutch

2010-02-08T08:55:00.002-06:00

{custom order progress...}

Another snow day in Memphis! Of course, I still made it to work, but 90% of the office did not. Thus this post. :) I can't work when no one is here, right?

As promised, here are shots of the clutch that I'm working on. Of course (of course!) I ran out of black thread yesterday and had to give up mid-ruffle, but you can see the front is almost done. My customer picked out the interior fabric, which I ordered here. It's Climbing Lantern Pods in turquoise, by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller.

Assuming that Memphis will clear the roads enough for me to venture out past the Parkways, I'll hopefully be able to get some more thread tonight. (fingers crossed)

Custom Order

2010-02-05T14:23:00.006-06:00

{prototype purse, by moi}

Way back in December I had a custom order request for a purse through my Etsy shop (which I've seriously neglected lately). Of course, it happened right when we were moving into our new house, so I informed the customer that it would take awhile for things to get back to normal and for me to finish it up. You know how awesome she was? She said to not even worry about rushing it, because she doesn't need it until April.

It will be very similar to the one pictured above (my original prototype), but with different exterior fabric, a custom lining, and much better ruffles. I've perfected how to ruffle that silk and attach it without any edges or stitching exposed (hence the tiny fraying you can see). Final pictures to come...

Liberty of London...for Target

2010-02-03T08:54:00.006-06:00

Wow, this is pretty exciting. I've posted before about how much I love their fabric.

But part of me is disappointed that now it will become so...mainstream. Sort of like the Orla Kiely collection. For awhile there it was everywhere, and that signature pattern was really starting to irritate me.

However, I think I'd get over it if they offered this (pictured above) at Target. So beautiful.

Adorable!

2010-02-02T08:50:00.001-06:00

Gasp! I must have these.

Ruth's Pumpkin Bread

2010-02-01T10:13:00.005-06:00

We had quite the weather weekend here in Memphis. Ice! Snow! Sleet! Stock up on milk and bread now! We were sent home from work around 11 am on Friday, so I found myself at home, with my husband (he teaches, so of course he had the day off), with no plans. So the weekend turned into a feast of sorts. We always plan our weekends around our meals, so with all of this time to ourselves, and neither one of us feeling up to doing responsible things (clean? why?), we mapped out our gastronomic weekend.

First, I made scones (I deviated and added apples and cinnamon, and a tad more salt = perfect). Then for Friday night dinner we had gourmet pizza at our local trattoria (man do I love our neighborhood). To continue the Italian theme, Saturday night we decided to immerse ourselves completely in Italy by making L's grandmother's "famous" spaghetti sauce, along with salad, fresh bread and olive oil, and followed by panna cotta by yours truly (another post for later, I promise!).

I also had grand plans to make tea cakes, as we received this when we got married and I still haven't had a chance to use it. But ultimately, pumpkin bread won out on Sunday afternoon. A little background: L's father got this recipe from his dear secretary of twenty-something years, and passed it on to us. I was fortunate to have met Ruth last summer, and she is sweet as can be. Can I say that one day, I hope to be a Ruth to someone else? The idea of someone else using my recipe and having it bring them happiness...gosh, what a great feeling.

(Yes, yes, this uses shortening. I know! Shortening scares me too, but don't try to sub butter here. The shortening just gives this recipe a softness, a real tender crumb that I don't think butter could without adding any butter flavor. But if you try it with butter, let me know your results!)

Ruth's Pumpkin Bread

yield: 2 9 x 5 loaves

1 cup shortening

2-1/2" cups sugar

3 eggs

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two 9x5 loaf pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour the parchment.

2. Thoroughly combine shortening, sugar, and eggs in large bowl. Add pumpkin, mixing until smooth (there will still be lumps of shortening, but that's ok - as long as they are about pea-sized).

3. Sift together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, mixing until just combined.

4. Fill the loaf pans equally, spreading the batter smooth on top. To eliminate any bubbles, hold each pan about 5 inches above your counter and then drop it flat. Repeat if necessary.

5. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (mine always takes the full 60 minutes, but start checking around the 50 minute mark just in case). Let cool on a baking rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pans (use your parchment as a sling, and lift out loaves straight up and out of the pan - does that make sense?), and let cool on the rack completely.

This bread freezes and travels really well (I mail this to my in-laws, who live about 350 miles away, almost monthly, and have heard no complaints).

First Round...

2010-01-26T08:48:00.008-06:00

...done! Let me tell you, I was incredibly proud of myself, and quite defensive of this square of cake. My husband wanted to dig right in, and I wanted to scream, "Noooo!" You know how it is - you spend so much time on this project, you hate to see it cut to pieces and devoured in seconds. But I couldn't stop him, he's just too cute.

The verdict? Overall, it was extremely good. The lemon curd was a total hit. The buttercream icing was just right - light and buttery, and it went on like a dream. The cake was a teeny bit dense (which I actually prefer, but maybe it's too dense for a wedding cake?). I used the white cake recipe from Joy of Cooking. So I think I need to test out other recipes to see how they perform. Any suggestions? According to my husband, it needed more lemon curd filling, so next time I'll bump that up to 1-1/2 times the amount I used last night.

Round two...coming soon!

Lemon Curd

2010-01-25T12:06:00.002-06:00

{source}

So, I finally dug in this weekend and began practicing the wedding cake. I did my research, found the recipes that I wanted to try, bought the right pans, and got to work. A few hours later, I had two very lovely square cake layers, and an amazing lemon curd. Since I haven't made the icing yet (swiss buttercream icing, from here), I plan on assembling the whole thing tonight. Beware, my coworkers. You will be my first taste-testers tomorrow. I apologize in advance for sabotaging any sort of diet you had going.

But guys, here's the thing. What I was most leary of was making the lemon curd, which, looking back, was completely silly. Lemon curd is so easy! Trust me. It came together in, oh, maybe 5 minutes. The flavors all mingle and mix, and before you know it you have a glorious bowl of lemony, creamy goodness.

Lemon Curd

From Joy of Cooking

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup strained fresh lemon juice

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, diced

Whisk together the first three ingredients in a medium stainless saucepan until light in color. Add the lemon juice and butter. Cook, whisking, over medium heat until the butter is melted. Whisk constantly until the mixture is thickened and simmers gently for a few seconds. Using a spatula, scrape the filling into a medium-mesh sieve set over a bowl and strain the filling into the bowl. Stir in the vanilla.

Let cool, cover, and refrigerate to thicken. This keeps, refrigerated, for about a week.

Sugar Cookies

2010-01-22T14:03:00.016-06:00

So I’ve just agreed to bake a wedding cake. I’ve been given the go-ahead (and the money!) to start, and what do I do? I decide to make cookies last night. In my defense, I’m not meeting with the bride-to-be until this weekend, so there’s not much I can do until I know exactly what sort of flavors she wants, final sizes, etc. So it made complete sense to just relax last night and make something simple and sweet that we could have with a glass of milk before bed.

The dough came together easily, even with the chilling time involved. A bit of the batter may have found its way into my mouth, and honestly? I was rather underwhelmed with the taste. They tasted like…any old sugar cookie. Where was the flavor of that Bailey’s Irish Cream? I was expecting something a little more exciting. And when they came out of the oven, I still wasn’t too impressed (although I was excited about the silver sanding sugar that I rolled them in…those cookies were sparkly!).

BUT! Once they cooled, I discovered that they had developed the most lovely crispy exterior, while the inside was super soft and moist. So if you’re looking for a solid, buttery, lovely sugar cookie, here you have it.

--------------------------------------------------------

Crispy Soft Sugar Cookies
Yield: 28-30 cookies

2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ - 1 tsp salt (original recipe called for ½ tsp, but I always think cookies are better with more salt)

1/2C white sugar
1/2C dark brown sugar
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla
1 tsp bailey's irish cream

Makes around 28-30 cookies.

1. Preheat to 375, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Melt butter in the microwave until melted (alternatively you could do this in a saucepan on the stove, which would give you a more browned-butter flavor). Whisk in the sugars. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

4. Once butter-sugar mixture is cooled, add egg, vanilla and bailey's, and whisk thoroughly. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated, then chill until firm (I stuck mine in the fridge for 15 minutes or so).

5. Roll dough into 1 to 1-1/2” sized balls, roll them in decorative sugar (if desired), and place them 2” apart on parchment-lined baking sheet. These will spread quite a bit, so give them room!

6. Bake for about 11 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking time. Remove from oven when edges are a light golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack.

Grilled Romaine

2010-01-18T11:03:00.004-06:00

I don’t know about you, but my weekend was fantabulous. The weather here in Memphis was absolutely wonderful (but anything is wonderful when compared to the single digits we’ve had recently). I walked to yoga class on Saturday, the house got cleaned to Janis Joplin’s Pearl, and we topped the warmish weekend off by having flat iron steak and a grilled romaine salad. Some muffins were baked during the weekend, along with some cookies I made last Friday that are still hanging around the kitchen, but those just seem insignificant when compared to our steak and salad.

Can I tell you about this salad? Grilled romaine salad with homemade green goddess dressing, mandarin oranges, and toasted almonds. There. I said it. With my husband’s teriyaki-marinated flat iron steak, it was amazing. We cook quite a lot, and there are only a handful of meals that I store in my memory as “I want to repeat this ASAP”. And this is one of them. I wanted to take a picture, but I wanted to eat it more, so sorry! No pic.

I used the book Simply Salads for the salad recipe (including the homemade dressing). The author, Jennifer Chandler, just happens to also be a Memphian, and by some sheer twist of luck (for us!) ended up giving a lunch presentation in tandem with a furniture manufacturer at our office about a year ago. We all received a signed copy of her book as a parting gift. It features about 100 recipes for salad, including meat, seafood, vegetable, and fruit-based salad, and is a wonderful inspiration for when the weather gets warmer (soon, I hope!), and all you want is a cool, refreshing salad. I highly recommend it.

Only this

2010-01-15T12:45:00.004-06:00

Please go donate to the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. If you can't decide to donate or not, watch this video. It may just change your mind.

I was going to post about cookies that I made last night, and how I have decided to take on the wedding cake project...but now all of that just seems really trivial.

So donate, help in any way you can, and be thankful for everything you have.

Can I do it?

2010-01-13T08:54:00.001-06:00

{source}

See that cake? Think I can make it (or something similar) for a February 27 wedding? Should I do it? Am I COMPLETELY CRAZY?

I’ve been approached by a coworker and asked if I’d be interested in making this cake for his nephew’s wedding. He knows how much I bake (my colleagues simultaneously curse and praise me when I bring in treats that I’ve baked the night before) so he thought I’d be interested. And I AM interested. But am I being completely naïve to think that I can pull this off? Baking a regular old cake is one thing…doing a wedding cake to feed 40 people is, I think, an entirely different matter.

I may start practicing this weekend. I’ll update here on any successes, failures, or breakdowns that I may have. I’m inspired by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, who did this very same thing (and has some excellent wedding cake expertise here).

Anyone else done this before? Any tips? Advice? Nay-sayers?

Classic Bread Pudding

2010-01-11T17:27:00.005-06:00

{source}

I finally saw Julie and Julia over the holiday break. I really enjoyed it, if only for the idea behind it; I thought some of the writing wasn’t all that great. However, I did truly love the scene where she had a heart-wrenching day at work, and she came home and told her husband why she loves to bake: because it’s just truly satisfying – no, comforting - to know that when you put x amount of flour with y amount of butter and sugar, you always get z. Of course, I know I’m not quoting that exactly right, and I'm probably not even getting the scene entirely right, but you get the point. It's all about making sense out of chaos, even if it's in your own kitchen. After a long day at work, where the projects that I work on are not really at all under my control, it's just so lovely to come home and make something that is all my own, where I'm in complete command of the whole shebang.

And you know what else is satisfying? Being able to come across a recipe, saying to yourself, “Ooh, I’d like to make that right now,” and then realizing that you really can make that right now because you just happen to have all of the ingredients on hand. Magic, I tell you!

This bread pudding and me, we were meant to be. I just happened to have some almost-stale baguettes left over from this place, and the angels sang.
-----------------------------
Bread Pudding
from Joy of Cooking

Butter for greasing the baking dish
12 to 16 ounces white bread, stale but not hard, crusts removed, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole or low-fat milk

Whipped cream, milk, or heavy or light cream

1. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. Spread the bread cubes in the prepared baking dish. If using the raisins, scatter them over the top.
2. Thoroughly whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk in the milk. Pour this mixture over the bread and let stand for 30 minutes, periodically pressing the bread down with a spatula to help it absorb the liquid. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
3. Bake in a water bath for 55-60 minutes, or until puffed and firm in the center. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold with the whipped cream, milk, or cream.
4. The pudding can be made several days ahead. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate. To reheat, bake for 15 minutes in a 325°F oven. (a microwave will also do in a pinch, if you just need to heat up a small square for yourself after dinner...like I do (oh, heaven!), since my husband doesn't like bread pudding).

Wedding Inspired

2010-01-07T08:38:00.003-06:00

As this spunky gal put it here, I'm sort of over wedding blogs. Or talk of anything wedding, really. It's been almost 10 months since we said our I Do's, and I haven't looked back since. I haven't even made our wedding album yet. I quite enjoy being married, and I don't miss the wedding planning/decision making/pressure one bit. I still have quite a bit of wedding blogs on my reader, but I usually ignore them. It just doesn't really interested me anymore.

But every now and then I see something wedding-related that I just have to post because it's just so beautiful. First, I came across this pendant today. Wow.

{curve pendant by shine labs}

And then I saw Elizabeth's Dye's latest collections. Double wow.

{photo property of Elizabeth Dye}

{photo property of Elizabeth Dye}...look at the bottom of that dress! Gorgeous.

I absolutely loved my wedding dress, but if I had to do it all over again, one of these would surely be my inspiration.

NYE Recap

2010-01-05T12:54:00.003-06:00

You know what really gets you motivated to unpack, clean, organize, and just prepare your new house only two weeks after moving in? Hosting a dinner party on New Year's Eve for six, that's what!

{our dining room, ready for the party!}

{my grandmother's Russell Wright set, plus our silver goblets...and remember these?)

{appetizers, my favorite part of any meal}

What was on the menu? For starters we had a great cheese plate (smoked Gouda! Camambert with mushrooms!) that Christy brought, along with her infamous deviled eggs and red peppers. I also made feta salsa, rosemary cashews, and put out a simple vegetable platter.

For dinner? A light berry, walnut, and goat cheese salad (thanks, Colby!), polenta with leeks and mushrooms on the side, and rib roast as the main event. Before everyone arrived, I took a very European stroll down the street to our neighborhood coffeeshop/bakery and came back with two crusty baguettes to accompany the meal. And for dessert? Bittersweet chocolate pear cake.

How was your New Year's Eve?

P.S. I'm posting my pictures, unadulterated from here on out (no filters, no feeble attempt at lightening them in photoshop), until I can either a) figure out how to work my camera so none of that is really necessary, or b) I realize my camera is just cruddy and that I need to buy a new one. Camera pros: what's wrong? I shot these on the manual setting, no flash, high shutter speed (is that right?) since I figured it was best with the natural light coming in the window (not the last shot, of course). I put the macro setting on for the closeup. But blah! So grainy and just yucky looking. Wanna help me out? I'm starting to think I need to take a class.

Tuscany

2009-12-14T13:14:00.009-06:00

{currently my only picture of our new kitchen, because I think it's funny...this is a decal (wallcovering sticker?) of a scene in Tuscany (I think). The seller's realtor described it on the realty website as "adding great character...shows lots of depth". Which totally sold us, you know? We needed no other reason to buy than this mural right here. So this is where we have breakfast every morning. Isn't it just picturesque? Sadly, this will be the first thing to go when we start on the kitchen renovation...}

I spend a lot of my time thinking about baking and cooking, so you'd think when Christmas comes around I'd be thrilled to have the opportunity to bake things and give them out as gifts. A baker's dream! But I find myself paralyzed by indecision. This is a huge test, right? I have to find the best cookies and treats to make. There just seem to be lots of just ok cookie recipes out there, and I just don't want to mess with anything that's mediocre.

That's why I love food blogs (see also: my left sidebar of ones that I follow). Food blogs are like cookbooks, but infinitely better! What's not to love about a medium that allows people from all over to comment on the correct procedure for, say, making creme brulee? It's so fascinating to me. I've also recently discovered AskMe, specifically the posts tagged food and beverage. Great tips and tricks to be discovered there.

I've muddled through several of these blogs and posts, and found a few recipes that I have decided to give as gifts this year. I wanted to give a variety of things, so I searched for nut recipes, truffle recipes, as well as cookies, of course. So here they are (and thanks to their respective blog owners for doing all the dirty work to distinguish between so-so and so good).

chocolate carmel crack(ers)
lemon cornmeal shortbread cookies
pepita brittle
rosemary butter cookies
rum balls
twice-baked shortbread (note: this would be, most definitely, my choice for a last meal if I were ever presented with that question. Just a big platter of these and a glass of milk, and I would die happy)
sugar and spice nuts

What are you making for (edible) Christmas gifts this year?

Twilight...

2009-12-07T13:23:00.007-06:00

No, not that. (Tangent: I have not read any of these books, nor have I seen the movie. Does it live up to its hype?). More like we've been in sort of a twilight zone. See, we spent the whole weekend moving. Into this!

If you read my blog at all, I posted a few times over the summer about us finding a house and making an offer on it, only for it to fall through. That happened twice. One lovely commenter reassuringly said that, "Don't worry, third time's the charm!" Well, what do you know, she was right. This time everything worked out, and now we've ended up with the house of our dreams. Seriously. It was built in 1907, has 14' ceilings, and has pretty much all of the trappings and amazing character of a late Victorian home. It has all the room that we'll ever need, and we love it.

And the kitchen! The kitchen, people, is what I've always wanted. Our previous kitchen left much to be desired. The new kitchen is still full of unpacked boxes, and it's killing me that I haven't been able to fully use it yet (Christmas cookies, anyone?). I'm dying to bake or cook something. Anything. Now I actually have the room to make anything that I want! 10 dozen cupcakes? No problem! I've got more counterspace than I know what to do with! Can you tell that I'm thrilled? I am entertaining the idea of turning this blog into more of a cooking blog, starting from the very first thing that I make in our new kitchen...

Anyway, back to our twilight zone. Otherwise known as moving an entire house full of stuff to another house. I counted, and I've moved almost 15 times since I turned 18. I'm 28, so that means I've moved 15 times in 10 years. And even then, with all of that moving under my belt, I still forgot how painful the whole process is. Sort of like childbirth? I don't know. All I know is that by the end of Saturday, straddling both worlds by having half of our belongings at one house and the other half at the other house, I broke down in tears because all I wanted to do was go to the store to buy detergent. Detergent. For some reason I felt that everything would be made alright and the new house would feel like home if only I could get my hands on some detergent and do some laundry. My husband just wanted to shower and go grab dinner, and I was so exhausted and emotional that I just started crying, that all I needed was some detergent. "We can't go out to dinner! We have to make this new house clean and good and ours," I sobbed to him. God love that man, I'm sure he thought I was going crazy. He convinced me that basic hygiene and eating a meal were more crucial at that point than washing a load of laundry. And of course, he was right.

But the boxes! And the bags! The funny thing was, we had packed the whole week prior, and thought we had made decent progress; we would only need our friends to help with the big furniture. But then we realized we hadn't packed up the pantry. Oh, and what about the refrigerator? The freezer? Oh my gosh, the upstairs den. It was never ending.

But despite the stress and the exhausting days, it's all worth it. We're so excited. It's a new start. :) Stay tuned for more pictures...and maybe the start of a brand new cooking blog!

Oh, Etsy

2009-11-18T14:36:00.003-06:00

{lotus bowls, from seasidevintage}

...spending money, that is. But I bought these little bowls, from this neat little vintage shop on Etsy. I inherited bowls just like these (only larger) from my grandmother, and I adore them. We use them daily, and while it makes me a bit nervous since it does increase the odds that we'll lose one to clumsiness (oops, I did that already), I love that we use them so much. Grandma Betty would be so proud. I think I'll use these cute bowls for sauces and spices.

So, yeah, I shouldn't be spending any money. We've had a big thing happen (a good thing!), and soon we will going through a huge change (no, Stephanie, it's not a baby) - and don't get me wrong, we totally planned for this event and have done an excellent job of figuring out finances and such. So I'm not going to let myself feel guilty, because these bowls are adorable. We just don't really need them. (who am I kidding, yes I did, that's why I hit "buy" as soon as I saw them)

Our home

2009-11-03T13:07:00.006-06:00

I'm such a bad blogger. And by bad, I don't mean infrequent, which of course I'm that as well. I mean that I'm just not consistent. I follow other blogs that are amazingly inspiring and creative and witty, but all of them are consistent. Some focus on cooking, some feature weddings, others focus strictly on design. And even the ones that touch on a bit of everything somehow manage to make it all work seamlessly, either with graphics or layout, or even the writing style. I feel like my blog is a clumsy hodge-podge of whatever.

But whatever. I think my biggest problem is that I am just lazy and rarely take photographs. Which, I think, is a pretty crucial element to a successful blogger (not counting, of course, blogs that focus mainly on written content).

So I'm going to work on making this blog more consistent. Ha, even as I type that sentence I feel myself saying, "No you won't. You have too many interests to just focus on one. Go ahead and post whatever you want, who cares if you're blog isn't slick and awesome."

So here goes. I wanted to share what I've been up to...do you want to know? This weekend we celebrated my birthday (the big 2-8, woop woop) with a lovely dinner here, another dinner at home with friends and wine and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters, and a surprise gift from my husband - a gorgeous antique necklace (pictures to come...see second paragraph).

And I wanted to share our pretty little home. See those pumpkins? My husband carved them. Yes, he's the greatest.

{I am definitely the more anal-retentive person in this relationship...I would have had to scrub those pen marks off before putting it out on the porch, but they didn't bother my husband one bit.}

A different kind of wedding...

2009-10-27T14:26:00.003-05:00

{photo by featherlove photography}

This, to me, is the best idea for a wedding. Get everyone together under the guise of celebrating your engagement, and then walk out in the most beautiful wedding gown and get married! This would eliminate all of the stress and bickering that tend to revolve around wedding planning. Everyone would be relaxed and at their best, which is what we all want for our weddings, right?

Obviously, even her friends had no idea. How wonderful.

Cake. And more.

2009-10-12T13:19:00.015-05:00

{image by Rachel Ray}

Every year my husband makes chicken paprikash for his birthday (well, ok, I help him!). Before I met him, I had never heard of chicken paprikash (or chicken paprika), but once introduced, I quickly fell in love (with him and the recipe!).

~For the Chicken Paprikash~

Take 4-5 lbs of chicken parts (breasts will not work, you want bone-in pieces so you get more flavor), and brown them in a bit of butter, then add chopped onion to the dish. Let it all simmer for a bit, then add salt, pepper, a bunch of Hungarian paprika, and 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water, and let it stew some more.
Meanwhile, mix up 3 cups flour, 3 eggs (beaten), 1/2 cup water and 1 tsp salt into a sticky dough. Flatten the dough on a plate, cut into bite sized pieces, then drop them in salted boiling water. Let these boil while the chicken is simmering.
Now here's where it gets really good, and by good I mean fattening. Remove the browned and (hopefully by now) tender chicken pieces and set aside on another plate. Now you've got a skillet full of oniony liquidy goodness. Add 1 pint of sour cream to this liquid. Yes, I said 1 pint. 16 whole ounces. Go ahead, do it. Heat it thoroughly, stirring as you go. Don't let it boil! At this point you basically want to crawl into the skillet and bathe in the stuff, it smells that good.
Your dumplings should be ready at this point, so go ahead and drain them, rinse under cold water, and return to the big pot you boiled them in. Add the chicken pieces and the sour cream liquid mixture to the pot as well, and heat over low, stirring constantly, to allow all of the flavors blend. This is a critical step - you want the dumplings to absorb the sour cream liquid. Trust me. Ladle into big bowls and serve immediately (although it keeps really well in the fridge and actually tastes better the longer it sits).

I looked around a bit - this and this are the closest recipes that I can find to my husband's family's recipe (which is what we used). If you're looking for a fantastic comfort food, this is definitely it. Creamy, hot, filling, and just wonderful.

~Caramel Apple Cake~

And this is his favorite cake, the one I made for him on a whim two years ago. It's not made like a traditional cake - you actually beat the softened butter in with the flour and baking powder. I thought it was strange, but it turned out so well that I stopped questioning it. Please try it - it won't disappoint. It's a perfect fall treat - and the apple layer in the center takes this cake from really really good to perfectly amazing.

2-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 sticks (1 pound) plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 crisp apples (about 1 pound), such as gala, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup store-bought caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350°. Generously grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Using an electric mixer, combine the flour, 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar, the baking powder and salt. Mix in 2 sticks butter at low speed until the mixture is crumbly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, 1/2 cup cream, applesauce and vanilla. Mix into the flour-butter mixture at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to release the layers, invert onto the rack and let cool completely.

In a medium skillet, melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add the apple slices and remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar and cook, stirring often, until the apples are tender and the juice is syrupy, about 15 minutes. Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons cream and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 2 sticks butter and the confectioners' sugar until light and creamy. With the mixer on low, slowly mix in the caramel sauce.

Place 1 cake layer on a cake plate; spread the apple filling evenly on top, then cover with the remaining cake layer. Using an offset spatula or butter knife, cover the top and sides of the cake with the caramel frosting, swirling the top to make a decorative pattern.

...Oh, yeah and I HATE BLOGGER AND THIS FORMATTING. Sheesh, is it too much to ask for user-friendly (and consistent?) formatting applications? I have edited this post about six times and each time it saves differently. (shaking angry fist at blogger)

Thorn Crown Chapel

2009-10-12T10:56:00.002-05:00

Isn't it beautiful? We stopped by this on our way out of Eureka Springs last weekend. And boy, I'm glad we did.

Eureka!

2009-10-12T10:20:00.005-05:00

Well, I was on a great kick for awhile, creating and a'posting like crazy. And then it all stopped. My sewing ceased, the house got a bit dirty, and I didn’t cook anything worth mentioning for two weeks. Why?

We took a little trip here.

Eureka Springs, that is! We had a few family birthdays to celebrate in early October, so we all converged on this little town and spent 24 precious hours discovering it. Thanks to Liz over at Mabel’s House (a blog I read often, which is how I found out that she is enchanted with this little town and knows quite a bit about the area), we were pointed in the right directions and ended up eating at some fabulous establishments. We stayed here, lunched here, and…drum roll…had the most exquisite dinner here. In fact, that was the highlight of our trip, and we’ve already discussed visiting next year and staying there instead of the Crescent Hotel (sorry, Crescent, but you just didn’t live up to the hype. Your rooms were a bit lacking, and your customer service was less than stellar).

But the town is just charming, with cozy antique shops, art galleries, and more. It's a great combination of mountain atmosphere with an almost European feel, with the small winding streets and very old structures (many were built in the late 1800's). The weather held out for us, and stayed at a brisk but sunny 55 degrees the entire weekend. Just warm enough to do some shopping during the day, then made for a perfect fall evening with the family, filled with wine and really good food.

On the way out, we stopped at an amazing chapel, which I feel deserves its own post. More to follow!

I've been featured!

2009-10-01T08:32:00.006-05:00

What a humbling experience! See her sweet post here.

And she has a very cute Etsy shop! I particularly love this necklace.

Check out her other offerings here.

Men's Shirt Refashion

2009-09-29T13:22:00.003-05:00

A few weekends ago, on a lazy Sunday morning, I picked up a men's shirt at a local yard sale. We actually knew the people having the yard sale, so it was slightly weird to be buying our friend's shirt, but I quickly got over it. The shirt cost me $2, it's a great gingham print, and I was determined to refashion it into a cute top for myself. I started on it last night (sorry, no pictures yet), and I've removed the sleeves, cut out a lot of the bulk so that it's more fitted, and added front darts.

And then I found this post! First of all, I love her blog - she's so completely inspiring. Second - yay, I was trying to figure out how to puff/pleat the sleeves, and she covers that as well. And third - she has an Etsy shop!

If all goes well, I will look like this when I'm done:

{image property of My Mama Made It}

(haha, well, not that slim, but hopefully my top will be that cute!)

Want...

2009-09-25T15:47:00.002-05:00

{diane skirt from olio united}

&

{grape back seam tights from isobelandcleo}

New in the shop!

2009-09-22T13:08:00.002-05:00

Available here!

Craft Fair Results? Fantastic!

2009-09-21T12:41:00.003-05:00

Success! What a great time we had at the festival! We had record attendance, the weather held out (a few sprinkles, but nothing to chase the crowd away), and in general had a great day. Finally, I can show you what I've been working on!

First, though, check out the bunting in action:

And now...my inventory! First up, I had quite a few pairs of earrings out on display...

{look, this year I finally remembered to bring a mirror!}

And...drum roll...my clutches! These were a huge hit.

My husband also contributed to our inventory...he built cornhole sets, and I sewed all of the bags. As you can see, there were quite a bit. In fact, my sewing machine jammed up on the very last one the night before the festival.

So, I'll FINALLY be updating my Etsy shop with my remaining inventory. I got lots of requests for different sized clutches, custom colors, etc., so be sure to check back often if you are looking for something in particular. I had one girl request a custom clutch for her wedding day (!), which was very flattering.

Check out my (until now, seriously neglected) Etsy shop here!

Two days left and counting...and bunting!

2009-09-17T13:09:00.007-05:00

...until the Cooper Young Festival! We're so ready. I've got a pretty good inventory of handmade earrings and clutches. Those clutches were almost the death of me, I tell you. I made most of them out of vintage skirts. They are adorable, if I do say so myself, and I'm very proud of them (but at times, I really wanted to throw my sewing machine out the window). But really, they are great. I'm so excited to see people's reactions to them! (note to self: post pics here eventually).

Oh! And my husband made cornhole sets. No, dirty minds, it's not what you're thinking. Go here if you've never heard of it. So, in addition to sewing clutches, I was also tasked with sewing 72 corn-filled bags. Yes, that's right...72. I'm surprised my fingers aren't bleeding.

So in the midst of all this, I was thinking about how to decorate our booth to draw people in. You know, displays, banners...I thought - ah! I'll do bunting flags. Goodness gracious, I'm seeing it all over the place. My first plan was to get my scraps of fabric and sew them into cute flags. Of course, good intentions, but...I barely have time to finish my inventory, let alone devote time to sewing decorations. So! Thank goodness I have and know how to use Photoshop. If you can't sew flags, then design some that LOOK like sewn fabric! Genius.

And I've always wanted to post tutorials and freebies and stuff here, but I haven't really had a reason or opportunity until now...so if for some reason you need a bunting PDF, go ahead and download them here and here. (Assuming that I linked it correctly). I'm not saying these are the most awesome flags ever, but in a pinch (last-minute baby shower? forgotten birthday party?) they will do just fine. They're formatted to be 11x17, so you can just print, fold in half, and voila, you've got cute 2-sided flags. Let me know how you use them!

Just Received...

2009-09-11T08:25:00.003-05:00

...these in the mail yesterday! I bought them here.

I love them! I was skeptical about them at first, but I figured, hey, they're on sale, and I need to try new styles. They fit perfectly and are very comfortable.

I definitely think they would look best with a cute dress. Maybe something plum colored? Any ideas?

The Beauty Shop.

2009-09-10T13:02:00.003-05:00

A sales rep stopped by our office today and generously dropped off boxed lunches for all of us interiors girls. Usually when someone mentions a boxed lunch we all groan, because (I know, I know, it's a free lunch!) it usually involves a lackluster sandwich, fruit salad that is comprised of one strawberry and 15 gross melon pieces, and, if you're lucky, a cookie that is half-way edible (and not nearly worth spending your calories on).

But these! I had to take a picture. My coworkers think I'm nuts.

See that? That little pink thing? It's a foam curler. Used as a napkin ring/utensil holder. Is that not adorable?

These lovely lunches came from The Beauty Shop, which is a local Midtown eatery. It's in a space that used to be an actual beauty shop and hair salon in the 1960's. It's rumored that Priscilla Presley used to go there to get her hair done. Awesome.

But if you're ever in Memphis, check it out. The hair drying stations are still there, and have been reconfigured as seating arrangements and booths. The hair sinks have been incorporated into the back bar. It's got a really neat, trendy/retro vibe, which is helped by the mismatched chairs, tables, and even drinking glasses. It's quirky and fun. And the food is a-mazing. I'm eating my boxed lunch right now, which consists of a wonderful BLTA (avocado, if you were wondering), with homemade chips and a cute chocolate cupcake.

{image property of The Beauty Shop}

...and I know I've been busy at work - and doing nothing but work - when I start to post about what happens in the office...I need a few days off I think.

Let's Try Again.

2009-09-04T12:09:00.003-05:00

Well, we didn't want that big kitchen, anyway. Phooey.

Our realtor is out of town this weekend, which is probably a blessing. We'll be forced to take a break from house hunting. Instead, I think we'll focus on a) sleeping in, b) sewing (for me!), and c) cooking. This and this are on my list of things to make this weekend. Happy Labor Day!

Mrs. Dalloway

2009-09-03T13:03:00.003-05:00

My husband is an AP English teacher and avid reader, and I love when he buys me books. He just recently ordered this for me, telling me that he thought I'd "really love it." I so adore when he recommends books for me to try, because he's always spot on about what will grab my attention.

{P.S. Don't you just love the cover design?}
{P.S.S. If you haven't heard of Daedalus books, go check it out. You can find some amazing deals on brand-new books!}

Essay on Marriage.

2009-09-02T08:45:00.005-05:00

An interesting (and inspiring, to me) take on marriage here. I only hope that I could be that strong.

{in this boat together, by weathergirlshop}

Skirt.

2009-08-31T13:02:00.003-05:00

Preparing for this has me busy, busy, busy. When I'm not working or fixing dinner or walking dogs or cleaning or helping a friend with her wedding stuff (!), or whatever, I'm sewing. But I'm super excited. Our booth is going to be awesome. We've already invited a ton of friends to come and have a beer with us, so I suspect that we'll have visitors all day long, ha.

Anyway, when the demands of building up inventory for the booth are gone, I want to sew myself some clothing. Specifically, this skirt.

{marie skirt, by burdastyle...find it here} Sigh...if only I could look that stunning!

The best way to spend Sunday afternoon...

2009-08-31T10:07:00.002-05:00

...is taking our pups to the nearby baseball fields. They're usually empty on the weekends, so we let our kids off the leash and let them run free. As you can see in the pictures, my husband's dog (well, really OUR dog, but his before we met) is trained really well, and will play fetch indefinitely. But my dog Zoe...well, she tends to get a bit distracted...

{really, he could do this all day...Cicero the dog, that is.}

{isn't Cicero a good dog?}

{my dog Zoe, taking a break...just like her momma}

{this is the best picture from the afternoon...Cicero is off to the left, fetching a ball...Zoe got distracted and decided to run to the right...i love how her little back legs are up in the air...she looks so happy...and in her own world}

{hot and tired after a great afternoon at the ballpark}

Other Tiny Kitchens

2009-08-21T11:57:00.003-05:00

I'm on a kitchen kick today. After posting about my small kitchen, I thought I'd show some other images of other really tiny kitchens. Seeing some of these photos makes me thankful for the room we do have! I love seeing other people's kitchens and how they deal with small spaces. Each one is so unique.

{making this home}

{savan}

{jaredhales}

{gregorylee}

{kusine}...I love the color!

Our itty bitty kitchen.

2009-08-21T08:35:00.003-05:00

Ok, I just had to post pictures of our incredibly small kitchen. And I mean small. Two people cannot work in this kitchen without bumping into each other. Trust me, we know. It's very frustrating.

{ignore the messiness...this is before we moved in...}

{yep, there's our washer and dryer. Smack dab in the middle of our kitchen. Can you say inconvenient?}

Just to give you an idea, I was standing with my back to the other wall in order to get these shots. So there is no room on the other side of the kitchen, either.

And while I complain a lot about this space (and more so now that we are looking at buying another house and I get to see better - and much bigger! - kitchens), we somehow make it work. It makes me think of this post by Smitten Kitchen, where she details ways on how to max out your tiny kitchen. I read through it, and we do every single thing that she suggests. I have to advocate for her point about not keeping anything on your countertops. My mother came to visit and was shocked that we didn't have our toaster, or our coffee maker, or any other appliance out on the countertop. Of course, her kitchen is huge, so she has the luxury of being able to do that. We don't, so we make sure to keep the countertops free of any space-hogging items. The only thing we keep out is our knife block, since we use that daily.

Anyone else have an itty bitty kitchen? Or have other useful tips about how to make one work?

Weekend Plans.

2009-08-21T08:11:00.002-05:00

Unless you were dying to see pictures of my cubicle at work, there was nothing this week that was particularly blog-worthy. And thankfully, we don't have many plans this weekend - cleaning the house, mowing the yard, and continuing my secret sewing project.

We're having some dear friends over for dinner on Saturday. And in addition to being wonderful friends, they just also happen to be our realtors. So...we'll be discussing this, and our offer that we're going to make on it on Monday. (squeal!) (p.s. sorry for the small pictures, but I took these from the realty site...apparently they don't believe in offering quality images)

{front door}

{the kitchen! Seriously, people. I need to post a picture of our current kitchen, and you'll understand why I'm completely in love with this one. The space! It's huge!}

Can you imagine what I could do in this kitchen? I mean, we cook a lot now, and we do it in an area that is less than 5' x 5'. No joke. Our washer and dryer are in our kitchen, so you can imagine how cramped it is.

Cooking all weekend.

2009-08-17T12:00:00.002-05:00

Boy oh boy, some weekends I just get in the mood to cook. This weekend was that weekend. Of course, I took no pictures of all of the loveliness that came out of our kitchen, but here is a list of links to what we made...

Shrimp and cactus soft tacos (yes, cactus!), with recipes sort of adapted from here and here (this is a great recipe that not only tells you how to prepare cactus, but also includes a recipe for cilantro oil...and yes, I plan on making that soon).

We topped these amazing tacos with this fresh corn and avocado salsa, from the Pioneer Woman.

On Saturday, I got up and made blackberry yogurt muffins, recipe adapted from here. I, of course, had to use blackberries instead of strawberries. We've got tons of blackberries in the freezer from our blackberry picking adventure.

Saturday night we went out to eat with friends, so no recipe there. Um, and Sunday we went out for brunch. Ok, so we didn't cook the whole weekend. But on Sunday, my husband made grouper (he is wonderful!) with caesar salad, and we topped the grouper with the aforementioned leftover corn salsa. No recipe to share for the grouper, he just sort of made it up - but you'd never know it. It was absolutely heavenly.

Did anyone else just have a crazy cooking spree, or was it just us?

Sewing. And a train case!

2009-08-13T08:31:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted anything about what I've been working on lately, mainly because when I get home at night, after we've walked the dogs for an hour and then have had dinner, it's almost dark - which does not make for good pictures. But I will assure you that it involves a LOT of sewing. Pictures to come soon!

And up until this point, I've been keeping all of my sewing supplies in a plastic bag. Yes, that's right, a plastic bag. Isn't that sad? I just keep acquiring supplies, and I just didn't have anything to store them in. I know, you're thinking, "Really? You didn't have a box, or something?". Ok, maybe I was just lazy.

But the other night, I discovered that the lid of my box of pins had come off, and oh, lots of pins in the bottom of a plastic bag is not good. Especially when some of the pins managed to fall through the teensy hole in the bottom. Now I had pins all over the floor. Blah.

So I solved my problem. I bought this. I'm so excited to get it. I had seen tons of these vintage train cases all over the place, and I thought it would make a perfect sewing box.

Go check out Flying Ace's shop here. She has lots of other wonderful vintage items (and just listed yesterday, another train case!).

Blackberry picking!

2009-08-12T11:55:00.003-05:00

Remember when I was all excited to go pick strawberries? Well, that never happened. Things came up, I forgot, and I completely missed strawberry season.

But a few weekends ago we took a lovely trip up to Dale Hollow Lake in middle Tennessee. A friend of ours has a family cabin up there, and he offers it to us every year. Lucky us! And there just happens to be a pick-your-own berry farm just a few miles up the road. I think I was more excited about picking berries than going swimming in the lake (but don't tell my husband - he's a water baby, he is).

Of course, I made a fool of myself, being the city girl that I am and having no idea about seasons and such. I proudly exclaimed to the farmer that we were there to pick raspberries, since that's what was out on the sign. He smugly informed me that we had missed raspberry season by a few weeks. But before I could get upset about missing yet another berry season, he told us that the blackberries were in full swing. So blackberries it was!

{there is my husband in the foreground...look how dilligently he's picking those things!}

When we got back home, I made a huge batch of this jam. I love knowing that I have a freezer full of homemade jam made from berries that we picked ourselves. That probably makes me weird, but I don't care.

Rejected...

2009-08-11T10:21:00.003-05:00

Well, I don't think I was responsible for jinxing the whole thing, but this fell through. So, no new house yet. But we're keeping our heads up. We'll find something that is just right for us (or, perhaps, the owners will change their minds after sitting on the market for awhile!).

Either way, here's a shop that cheered me up when I came across it. Truly stunning vintage (and in some cases, antique) finds by andfoundfurnishings. I'd like to think that once we do find the house, we can fill it with items like these.

{all images property of andfoundfurnishings}

Modern cross-stitch by WallWork

2009-08-07T13:29:00.003-05:00

Adorable cross stitch here. I just saw that she offers a custom monogram...what a great idea for a housewarming gift, or for a new baby!

{all images property of wallwork}

...busy...

2009-08-06T13:24:00.002-05:00

So we've been busy. Busy with calculating our finances. Trying to figure out our incomes versus our expenses. It's a sobering experience, I'll tell you that much (and I'm sure you already knew that). It reminds me of the time, three years ago, when I had to buy a new (well, new to me) car. I had some idea of what I could afford, but once we broke everything down, I had very much overestimated my earnings and what I could actually afford. It was heartbreaking.

I don't want to post a link, because for some reason I feel like I may jinx the whole thing, but I will post a picture from the real estate site. We're trying to make this ours.

Figs wrapped in bacon.

2009-07-27T15:56:00.002-05:00

{fresh figs, by velocipede}

On our honeymoon in New Orleans, we were served the loveliest of appetizers at the Marigny Brasserie. Warm figs, wrapped in bacon, then topped with bleu cheese. Or, at least I think it was bleu cheese. I obviously didn't even care enough to pay any attention, they were so good. I think we almost fought for the last one.

So, we replicated that appetizer this weekend. We had another couple over for dinner on Saturday, and these figs - boy, they were a hit. I was going to be all fancy and draft up a recipe, but seriously, these are easy. We are lucky to have a fig tree in our neighborhood - we walk by it every night on our hour-long strolls, and we had been plotting to borrow some figs as soon as they became ripe.

It's so simple. Use ripe figs (you can tell - they are very soft, but still supple). Instead of wrapping an entire piece of bacon on each one, we sliced up stips of bacon into 2" long pieces, then tooth-picked it into each fig. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 20 minutes (it will take awhile for the bacon to get to that perfect crispy but-not-too-crispy stage). Right out of the oven, drop a small piece of bleu cheese (or feta? I think you could use lots of different kinds of cheese) right on top of the hot bacon. The heat will sort of melt it in place. Then serve! It's so easy, yet so impressive. Our guests were delighted (and can't stop talking about how good they were).

$10 Wedding Dress.

2009-07-27T12:44:00.003-05:00

Pretty neat. Would you do this for your wedding? Like some of the commenters have already said, I think I'd have to add a lining. It works on the model, but she is very thin and doesn't have any curves or bulges to hide! What do you think?

{video by Threadbanger}

Ann Sacks Tile.

2009-07-27T09:07:00.003-05:00

I have to say, some aspects of my job are pretty neat. We get to see the newest design products, and I am always amazed at how the designs mimic things that are current in fashion, art, graphics, etc. Granted, I think interior design products may be a bit behind the fashion train, but they are pretty close.

I came across these mosaic tiles from Ann Sacks while I was searching for a mosaic tile for a specific project. A lot of these tiles incorporate the geometric/trellis/herringbone pattern that I've been seeing a lot lately in fashion. But get ready to take out a loan for these - they aren't cheap.

For economic options (at only $70 per square foot!), try these.

{herringbone}

{kilim}

{interlocking oval}

For you big spenders, try these options. Starting at only (ONLY!) $132 per square foot.

{ocheydan}

{peacock} I think this one is my favorite.

{champagne}

{quince tree} Can you imagine a whole wall of this? Stunning.

{circle square}

{interlocking square}

All images are property of Ann Sacks, and all of these tiles and additional information can be found here.

Best wedding entrance. Ever.

2009-07-24T14:15:00.004-05:00

This makes so much sense! Why wouldn't you dance your way up the aisle on the best day of your life?

{Even though I'm sure they meant this to be entertaining, I also found it very touching - for some reason I sort of got teary-eyed at the end! What's wrong with me? I guess I just love weddings.}

Pretty Ditty's Adorable Lampshade Tutorial

2009-07-22T13:00:00.004-05:00

Check out this inspiring blog that I somehow stumbled upon today. This gal is pretty talented - she's got an Etsy shop, fabric shop, and a very lovely blog.

And look at this tutorial! I never would have thought of this. So creative!

{before}

{after!}

{...all images property of pretty ditty}

Smitten Kitchen's Best Birthday Cake.

2009-07-20T11:39:00.010-05:00

Once I saw this post over at Smitten Kitchen, I knew had to steal Deb's recipe and try it this weekend for mom's 60's birthday celebration (side note: sure, I've never met Deb, but I still like to call her by her first name like we're friends. Because I would love nothing more than to meet this gal. She seems funny, smart, and pretty good in the kitchen to boot. Hi Deb! Be my friend!...just kidding). Anyway, my parents and my sister drove down from Ohio to spend the weekend with us, and to mark my mom's birthday, and of course this called for a layer cake. From scratch. With homemade icing. Oh yeah.

If you make this recipe, don't even bother to think about how many calories are in this. Tw0 and a quarter cups of sour cream, and 15 ounces of chocolate - just in the icing. But it is totally worth it. I refrigerated the iced cake until we were ready to eat it, and my only regret is that I didn't leave it out to sit a bit longer. The cake was good, but the flavor was muted a bit due to the refrigeration. I think the buttery yellow cake flavor would have been more pronounced at room temperature. I am pretty sure that the refrigeration was necessary because of the sour cream in the icing - do any bakers out there want to weigh in?

P.S. Did you notice how I even stole Deb's sprinkle look? (I know my pictures are terrible, but you can see the sprinkles there on top). I wasn't planning on it, but part of my parent's and sister's visit involved a quick trip here, which I wasn't even aware was in Memphis. It's a crazy small bake supply shop, and I found it because I knew my sister would want to go there, since she's graduating in December as a pastry chef and wanted to check out any Memphis bake supply places. They had these sprinkles there, and I couldn't resist.