Pursuing Domestic Goddess-ness

What's Baking? January: Snow Day!

2012-01-27T21:11:00.002-05:00

This month, Melissa of I Was Born to Cook chose a Snow Day baking them. Perfect! And even better, we finally did have some snow around here so I actually baked these on a snowy day.

All week leading up to the snowy day, I'd been eating scones. I don't often make scones- I love them, but I never seem to have just the right recipe. Well, I have to admit, the scones I was eating were from a batch I made last April- yes, last April. I froze half the dough in a log wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap. And by the end of the week when the dough log was nearing its end, I was very sad! Those were some delicious scones. But you know what's worse? I can't find the recipe anywhere. I swear it was from Joy the Baker, but I can't find it... ugh! So I had to get looking for a new recipe, because I was not about to stop my daily scone habit cold turkey. Especially when there was snow in the forecast. There's just something about sitting in our dining room, watching the snow fall from both sets of windows, while eating something warm and homey like a scone, that you just can't beat.

Fortunately, I have a relatively new cookbook with seemingly endless delicious-looking recipes. Roxanne gave me a copy of Flour for my birthday, and I'm loving her recipes. And oh look, she has scones. Let's try those.

Oatmeal Maple Scones
from Flour, by Joanne Chang

1.5 cups flour (I used half AP and half WW)
1.25 cups oats
1.5t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/4t salt
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/2 cup (or a little more) raisins
1 stick butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/3 fat free 1/2&1/2 (original called for heavy cream)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg

Sift together the flour, soda, powder, salt, oats, pecans and raisins. Toss the butter in, a few chunks at a time so it's not one huge lump, and beat until the butter is broken down a bit and in small chunks.

In a small bowl, whisk together the 1/2&1/2, maple syrup and egg. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the liquids and beat until the dough just comes together.

Scoop 1/3cup-sized scoops of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet (or wrap in plastic wrap and freeze), and bake at 350F for 40 minutes. Let cool, and when ready to serve, drizzle each with maple glaze.

Maple Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1.5T maple syrup
1T water

Whisk together.

I used this fancy raisin medley thing from BJ's, which was full of giant raisins of all sorts of colors. I do love raisins, and they were perfect in these scones. You'll notice there's no granulated or brown sugar in the recipe- all the sweetness comes from the maple syrup. As a result, they're just slightly sweet, and when you glaze them, they're perfect. I plan to make these again this weekend- snow or no snow!

I went to Vermont, and I tried on clothes

2012-01-24T10:04:00.005-05:00

So we went to VT this past weekend. We came for the Norwich Inn's Brewer's Weekend (super fun! Stay tuned for that post), and Clint stayed for a few days for work. But what did I do? I went shopping ;)

There is a nice little store in Manchester, VT, among all the outlets, called The 5 Seasons. It's a resort-y store, filled with Lilly, Vineyard Vines and other brands I'm less familiar with. It's an outlet. It's all past seasons of Lilly. And everything is at least 50% off.

But really, I think the best part is that it's past seasons Lilly- stuff you wanted but waited too long to get. Here's your chance!

To be honest, I'm on a shopping hiatus. No more clothes for me for a while, I hit my monthly limit (actually, if I were good, it'd be my 2-month limit) on January 3rd. But "going shopping" doesn't mean "buying", if you've been reading my blog you know it means going to a store and trying on every single thing in my size. And this shopping trip did not disappoint!

So here we go. Let's talk dresses and sizes and fit. In what order? Why, chronological. I have to follow my notes.
First of all, here's what you see when you walk upstairs (downstairs is all Judith Connelly or something, Jack Rogers shoes and Lilly stationary. I wanted the Lilly clothes)
drool. Am I right?

In no way does this properly convey the number of items I had in my dressing room. For one, the manager came up with all the other size 12 dresses she could find *after* this picture was taken, and I also had a 2nd round of tops and bottoms.

Now let's get to work.

Bowen, size 10. I'd need a 12 (it looks ok, but it's not actually zipped up all the way), but I didn't sufficiently love this. I'll stick with Sienna.
Kathleen, size L. I tried this on because I see it every so often on clearance. And... blah. Also, it doesn't look tight, but I couldn't actually bend over, it was weird.

Delia, size 10. Finally, I find one to try on! It's cute, I totally see why everyone's in love with Delia. EDIT: this is actually a Stephanie. So, either the tag was mislabeled (and I didn't read the tag on the navy one) or I was hallucinating..... either is possible, there were some erroneous tags.
But here's Delia in a 12, which actually fits.
Harper, L. I've never been a fan of Harper, I think it looks like a sack. It's a lovely dress, just... sack-like. I like it *more* than before since trying it on... but I won't actually get one.
EDIT: it's been brought to my attention that Harpers are in number sizes. And I vaguely remember the fabric tag saying 10, but the paper tag said L. Again, hallucinating or mislabeled tag! Sorry for the errors!
Lee Shift (Jubilee), 10. Too small, which surprised me- I'm a 10 in every other Jubilee dress I've ever tried on. But it's the buttons, I don't do well with button-down fronts. I don't love the high neck anwyay.
Sandra, 12. The manager brought this in to me, and it's very cute! I probably wouldn't have tried it on otherwise. I don't think it *quite* works on me, the ruffle is just TOO big and I don't need to draw attention to my shoulders. But the body of it was well cut. This is also one you can't get on yourself- there's a corset thing in the dress, and it's just impossible to hook without help.
Kiki, size 12. I continue to not love the shaping of the Kiki. Way to cut my body in half awkwardly, thanks! But hopefully this picture will convince my mom to stop telling me to buy this dress (she loves the print)
Charity shift, 12. Sorry for the terrible photo! I tried to check that each photo came out, but I guess I missed this one. Oh well, didn't love the dress that much anyway, it's very expensive compared to the other shifts. It has a very cool back though, the white collar goes around and runs down to a lower, straight back. Not low enough to need special undergarments, but not high like you might expect.
FAVORITE: Maci, size 12. I came so close to buying it. I hope I don't regret not getting it... I think they're even still holding it for me "just in case". But it was still $89 even after all their discounts, and... shopping hiatus!! But I might just give them a call next month and see if it's still around! I don't think Maci is the most flattering thing ever on me, but it's just so cute! And unlike anything else I have with that faux-wrap deal. I would probably buy it just to copy it. Love, love, love.
Hayden, L. One of the few I actually hated. SUPER low cut. I'm glad for the poor lighting because it hides how low-cut this is. I had to take several pictures before I had one I wasn't too embarrassed to share- that's not a good sign! I don't know if maybe I needed XL, but I think for the year this is from most things I needed M, so I can't imagine it's the size. Unless it's mismarked, of course.
Adrianna, L. aka sack. It'd be a cute cover up and I love the print, but as a dress? Not so much. This one was only $54, though.
FAVORITE OF FAVORITES: Fiesta, 10. omg it was so hard to leave this there. But $112! not happening! So sad. It was also tight in the shoulders, so I worry I need a 12- or worse, am between sizes. But I can take in a 12 a bit, if the shoulders fit. Oh and I would have matched my nook cover in this dress!
Wilma, 12. I probably shouldn't even share this photo, that's how much I disliked this one. But I can't do halters like this. If it was a V-neck with regular straps on the same waist/skirt, I'd love it. This 12 just barely fit, so it runs a little small.
Franco, 12. EW. I had about 4 inches of gap between the zipper halves. At that rate I'd need like an 18. Hate the Franco for making me feel fat.
Skylar, 10. This one fit but I don't love the skirt. I'm holding the zipper because it kept catching on the pocket and I decided I didn't care enough about fighting with it. Snap pic, move on!
Fitch, 10. Like! I need a 12 though, it was a hair small. I thought this might be too boxy but it had a good shape. Fitch it on my list!

Another favorite!! (not all-caps-favorite, but favorite). Ivy, size 10- and I need a 12. I also adore this print. I probably wouldn't have been able to resist taking this home if it'd fit. Simple, but nice shape, and one shoulder has a cute little tie- not to mention the cute trim on the hem!
Every so often, my dress-up "shopping" days allow me to cross something off my list. Namely, the tradewind capris. I have another photo that shows off the pants (size 10, apparently I need a 12) better, but I refuse to share it. They looked *bad*. This Heather tank (L) is bad, too. Bad, bad, bad.
Another bad photo, but it shows off bad clothes so it doesn't matter. Lenna top, 10, and Bermuda shorts, 12. I have 2 pairs of these bermudas, and apparently I do really need a 10. I need a 12 in Lenna but I didn't like the tie anyway, it was awkwardly placed.
Cissy, L. It's a Cissy. They're popular, but they just don't quite work on me.
Casey V neck top, XL. Yeah I really need an L- good to know! the V is extremely low, also good to know. I most likely will not be buying a Casey.
Roe top, 12. Fit perfectly. This is another I keep seeing online and going "ohhhh". It's definitely cute, although how old is too old for one-shoulder tops?
Susan, XL. Ick. And I don't think it's just because it was a size too large. it's like a waisted muumuu. Dresses like this make me wonder what they were thinking... awesome print though!
Worth shift, 8. Can you believe that I'd never before tried on a Worth? What a crime! Well, a Worth 10 is now on my list- not at the top, like Fiesta or Maci, but solidly in the middle. What a classic dress! And the mixtape print is super cute.
Whew! That was a lot of clothes. 2 hours of shopping. You have now seen every single thing I tried on (except for the Vineyard Vines dress that was super duper small- apparently I'm a 12 or 14 in VV.) So the big question.... what did I buy?!

haha I'm going to be mean and make you wait. I left all my purchases in the car and because it's gross and rainy out, I'll wait to go to the car until I actually *have* to go out there. I'll take photos tonight and post tomorrow :)

But if you're in VT, check this store out. The manager was really sweet and helpful, and while I don't love the prices (I think outlets should be more than 50% off), if you're desperate for a certain dress, they may have it and 50% is 50%. They have a clearance rack, which, in the past I've found great stuff on, but today it was mostly polos and pants, either ones I already have or not in my size. Stationary is all 20% off, and during this visit was Spring 2011's stuff.

Dresses to note- in case you're ISO something:
Pandamonium Worths, size 4
Jubilee Fitch Shifts, various sizes, 8 and smaller.
Bathing suits in pretty much every size in from this past summer and a few from the previous summer (limeade floaters, hotty pink bloomers)

Party food!

2012-01-19T22:52:00.002-05:00

One of the most fun parts of party planning (for me, at least), is planning the menu. What to serve? Fancy? Basic? Old favorites? New finds? And what to put it all on? You should see the lists I go through the week before a party. Savories, sweets and drinks in 3 sections of column A. Column B is the schedule- anything that can be made ahead and stored in the fridge will be. And you must make sure all the things to be baked the day of fit in the oven! Column C is plating. I have a thing for serving dishes, fortunately it's under control now, but back in the days of my 400sq ft condo and galley kitchen, it could get a little crazy.

For our recent party, I made a nice mix of old favorites and new finds. I had a mix of make-ahead dishes and freshly-baked deliciousness. What I did not have was a large amount of desserts- merely 4 kinds of sweets (sugar cookies, white chocolate chip ginger cookies (these are SO much better with white chocolate chips instead of dark/semisweet), crack brownies (caramel in the middle!) and jam bars), but what was out was hardly touched anyway. Nearly 2 weeks later, we're still eating sugar cookies, and I just finished off the crack brownies yesterday.

I don't have any pictures, but I can guarantee all of the following recipes is delicious!

The Make-Ahead Group
Onion Dip (quarter one medium onion (experiment with different kinds) and toss it in a food processor. Process until it's pureed, then add one 8oz block of low fat cream cheese, 1t of an herb blend (I like Penzey's Mural of Flavor, thanks to mom for recommending it!) and salt and pepper to taste. Process until smooth. ***let sit in refrigerator at least one day before serving*** (because this is raw onion we're talking about!) Serve with chips (I really like the Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato chips with this) or fresh veggies.

Fruit Compote- great with cheese!

Brie En Croute- an old staple, this appears at nearly every single party I'm involved with. Make ahead, wrap in foil/plastic wrap, and chill or freeze until it's time to bake.

The Freshly-Prepared Group

Roasted bacon-wrapped herbed chevre-stuffed pears- chevre, bacon. Could it get any better? I made half with bacon and half without. These are incredibly simple yet so delicious and elegant. They reheat beautifully! I used regular old d'Anjou pears.

Prosciutto-wrapped melon and fennel- it's exactly how it sounds. Prosciutto wrapped around spears of melon and/or fennel. I roasted the fennel at 400F for about 15 minutes before wrapping.

Other dishes on our table:
cheese platter (manchego, smoked gouda, chevre, sharp cheddar, bovine chevre, boursin)
maple-cider brined turkey breast (from Cooking Light, November 2011, but this link doesn't have the correct recipe- there should be maple syrup in the brine, not sugar)
hummus
assorted candies
spiced nuts

This party was the debut of the bacon-wrapped chevre-stuffed pears and the onion dip (cousin Rich's recipe), but you can be sure they'll appear again. Actually the pears might not even wait til a party, I might have them for dinner some random weekday night.

wamozart12 eats leftovers because she is too busy to cook

2012-01-16T18:47:00.004-05:00

We had a fabulous little afternoon party last weekend. I'd been wanting to have a party for a while, and the holidays seemed like a nice time to do it- I mean, the house is all decorated and festive, you can serve hot mulled cider with bourbon, and our street wasn't completely buried by snow the way it was last year. So we did it. We had a party. It was a post-holidays party, because seriously, things are busy during the holidays. No one even has time to go buy groceries until after New Year's. But at the same time, once New Years has come and gone, life is just dull. So we had a party the weekend after New Year's. With fabulous food. Of which I took not a single picture. But oh I have some good recipes to share.

And so we've been eating leftovers ever since. The only "cooking" I did was to turn the leftover turkey into a pie, and cook the the 2 pork tenderloins I marinaded but realized we had way too much food (even with 2 leaves in the table, all the cheese on the coffee table and the desserts on the buffet, there was no room for one more dish on the dining table). And the leftovers have been delicious. As we speak I'm waiting for some pizza dough to rise so we can use up the last of the pork in a chipotle pork bbq pizza. With smoked gouda. oooooh.

So what have I been doing if not cooking? Oh, so much.
I made gift bows (some say crazy, I say fun!)

some great drawstring travel pouches
X Marks the Spot silk pouch (only one available!)

3-piece travel set: small drawstring pouch, medium drawstring pouch, and suitcase handle cover.
2-piece travel set: small drawstring pouch and matching suitcase handle cover.

and both sets will be available in other fabrics soon!

small drawstring pouches

drawstring circle pouch

tooth fairy pillows

and because of course I should make some, aprons.
for adults

and for kids.

Not to mention the clothes I've been working on. For the most part, my clothes are by request only. I do have one dress listed which was meant for me, but it ended up being a tad too small. And because it came out so beautifully (seriously, how am I completely self-taught?! I must have absorbed my mom's quilting skillz, although even she won't attempt clothes since finishing home ec in high school) I hesitate to take it apart just to make it fit me, especially when I have plenty more of that fabric. So there's a 38in bust size 10-ish dress available. It's still unhemmed so that I can hem it to the buyer's height.

And then one dress order I'm still working on. Fortunately, my sewing room is nice and toasty, which makes me really want to stay in there all day during this frigid weather.

I started a facebook page for my shop- "like" me and be the first to hear about new items and special offers!

New Year Cheer sale results!

2012-01-09T23:08:00.003-05:00

Fashion show! Everything fits, yay! I expected this because I bought things I'd already tried on... but sometimes you never know!

Here are some pretty bad mirror photos... but you can see the clothes, and that's what matters. This is the only mirror in our house that gets enough light in the evening.

Ciara in red Standing Ovation.
I ordered a Large. People say she runs small, especially in the shoulders, but I actually found her true to size or even a hair large- and I do have broad shoulders. Maybe I'm just more used to things being tight in the shoulders? Well anyway, love, especially this shade of red, which is very tomato-y. Normally I stick to bright red or cranberry, so this is a fun change. Not quite sure how I'll wear this one yet- the Chorus Girl tunic I've been wearing with slim jeans and boots, but I don't know if I should try to mix it up a bit. $138 on sale for $39 :-D

Cassie slub top in Standing Ovation
and in Thrill of the Chaise
These were a hair smaller than the resort slub Cassie I have... unexpected. I'll have to be careful not to put these in the dryer EVER! But I love this top- I love the boatneck and the length- longer, but not too long. Unfortunately, they're not very warm for winter, so...
I tried pairing the standing ovation Cassie with the standing ovation Paley cardigan. I polled fellow Lilly lovers, and the general consensus was too much Standing
Ovation, although a couple people liked it! I like it, but I've been accused of being too matchy-matchy before. So... I wore this at home and next time I wear this Cassie and go out in public, I'll probably wear my 3/4 sleeve navy Paley or my long sleeve green Pierre. Of course, once it's spring the cardigan will be unnecessary.

The Addie, an impulse buy. $198 on sale for $39, of course I had to, right?
The print is On the Half Shell, which I like far better in person than on the website! It was very limey online and in person the turquoise is just as prominent. Addie runs small... I was surprised. I ordered a size up compared to other spring items, and it was small. The straps are also very long, but I often have that problem and it's an easy fix. So hopefully this'll be a little more flattering once I take care of those straps! I really like the empire waist construction, and hope to use this shift to inspire some of my own creations.

Blanca! The never-thought-I'd-get-that purchase! $268 on sale for $59
Blanca is very comfy. She's a silk jersey and fits TTS. She has a higher waist, kind of empire but not quite, which I was actually a little worried about, but it works. And pockets, hooray! The only issue is the cute little ruffle on the sleeves keeps flipping up... not a big deal, but it is kind of annoying to have to keep fixing it.

Joanie also arrived, and I planned to wear her to a meeting tonight, but I've had some health problems in the last couple weeks and the new meds are getting to me... sigh. So I skipped my meeting, and stayed in sweats.

And my Caye tankini and Surf's Up bottom also came and fit great! $78 on sale for $13 and $68 on sale for $9. But that photo's not going online. Everyone said size up, and I was an M in last year's swimsuit so I got L... and both were roomy. Not *too* roomy, but... a little roomy. I really liked the Caye top, it's a bit longer than most tankini tops, and kind of tunic-y and flared, so it is THE ideal swimsuit for a fat day. Seriously. Or for any legit weight gain. It's not pretty, but it's reality!

New Year Cheer!

2012-01-03T13:59:00.006-05:00

Today was a big polar opposites day.

To begin, I got up early (well not early, but quickly) to be at my computer for the 8am start time of the new Lilly Pulitzer Winter Sale! oh boy. It was thrilling, I tell you. I was giddy.

Then after that, I decided I needed to finally call up my doctor about my poor ear. I haven't been able to hear properly out of one ear for 8 days, but with dimetapp and later sudafed, it'd clear up for a bit and then be bad again the next morning. Today it was unbearable. But would you think they'd be able to help me make an appointment? No. The deal seems to be, you call up to make an appointment, and they send a note to the nurse's station that you want one, and you hang up and wait for the nurse to call. Really? Is that the best use of everyone's time? I'm sure the nurses have far more important things to do than call people. 2 hours, 5 phone calls and a conniption fit later, I finally have an appointment tonight at 7:30 (during knit night... ugh). Turns out the problem was that my particular PCP had left the practice, so even though I wasn't a new patient, I was a new patient. But they couldn't tell me that that was the problem. Whatever. And I still don't get why the nurses had to call me back to schedule.

Anyway, let's talk about the happy stuff: Lilly.

Now, everyone's hopeful that The Dreaded Email won't get passed around again, but you never know. But really, as long as I get the 2 things I bought within a couple minutes of the sale going live (and I think I should be able to get (knock on wood)) I'll be content.

First of all, let's talk about my list.

I have this top and love it. So obvs I need more.
I also LOVE the Blanca in Dress Rehearsal, which you may remember, but I never expected to actually get it- I'd seen it on sale for $94 but that was a little too much for today. It's on the theoretical list.

I also wanted a printed Elsa (any print!)
or a Vivi.
And I loved that Joanie and had almost bought it from Saks a couple weeks ago, but figured it'd be $80 or more.
So my realistic list yesterday was: a Cassie or two, an Elsa or Vivi if they're under $50.

Now, here's a little added drama: many of the Lilly stores started their sales at midnight last night. Oooh so the discussion of who's going to stay up til midnight (wait, you don't normally? what?) and wait for the sales to go up. Of course I did, and ooh what do I see, but a Joanie for $59 from The Pink Door Memphis! Oh that's doable. And free shipping? *snatch.

I poked around a bit more- found some tempting things: Rivia (you may remember from this shopping trip, and I actually got a navy one for Christmas that fit a lot better than this pink one), Wanda, bermuda shorts... but they weren't on my list! Ignore, ignore! I added some items to various carts from various stores, more for my own amusement of seeing what was left in the morning than any serious intentions of purchasing, and went to bed.

Now, 8am start time. summer sale 2010 it was 11am start time (when the site crashed at 11:02 or so), and last summer they didn't announce a start time but opened it up at 9. I liked 9. I liked 11 better, but 9 was fine. See, 8am isn't early, but now that I no longer set an alarm, not having any pressing issues to get me up early, 8am made me kind of anxious. Not to mention not going to bed til 2am! And then being too excited to sleep.... But of course I was so excited that I did actually get up early, and had a dream my alarm was going off 20 minutes before it was set to (that was weird!). I showered, dressed, got my contacts in and made coffee, all in time to sit down at my computer at 8:01.

And.... nothing. So there was a lot of facebook chatter.

I think it took about 15 or 20 minutes for the official sale to start. But oh, when it did, it was worth waiting for!!!

Cassies? Check. $19 each (down from $68), in Standing Ovation and Thrill of the Chaise.

Elsas? Vivis? Not so good- they only had solid Elsas (granted, for a good price!) and I don't recall seeing a Vivi. Oh well, not a big deal.

Let's check on the dresses. I'd already gotten the Joanie, so I figured I could go without another fall dress. You'll never believe it- the Blanca, originally $268 for $59. MUST HAVE. I seriously nearly spit my coffee out. A Blanca for only slightly more than I was prepared to pay for an Elsa is a very appropriate list shift. There were other good dresses, too- I would definitely have bought a Shauna or two if only they'd had my size, list or no list!

On to accessories- they had the Don't Be Koi necklace, which I recently have decided I must have. Sold out! Boo. And it was only $14. Bracelets, clutches... meh. Shoes? Good prices on the resort wedge that everyone loves, but... I can't justify shoes (ha, like I can justify clothes?). On a whim, I checked out swimwear. Who wants to buy swimwear in January?

Well, me, apparently.
Caye tankini top, $14, and matching surf's up bottom, $9. Um, you can't pass that up. You can't even get those prices at Target! Even though I now have bought 3 swimsuits in the past 10 months.... well come on, it'd be foolish not to grab this. I'm kind of wondering if I should have bought more. I mean, I do spend a good 3 weeks at the beach every year. Plus, I love this print- it's too bad I have no intentions of using my matching tote as a beach bag!

Men's? Boring- swim trunks and a pastel tie.

Bottoms? meh. Tradewind capris were $19 but not in my size. I wasn't overly impressed by the $29 shorts- especially since seeing stores last night listing Bermudas for $19 and Callahans for $17. Skirts? $29 and up, and I'm making a lot of my own skirts these days. Plus, not on my list!! The all-important list.

But then I went back to dresses and decided a $198 Addie shift in On the Half Shell marked down to $39 didn't need to be on the list to be purchaseable.

Then mom got on the phone. Poor mom! She has a terrible cold, so you know the last thing she needed was to be shopping online at 8am. But we had a nice (relatively short, comapred to the summer sale, at least!) phone conversation. She picked up the Shere cashmere wrap, which she'd wanted after seeing it in December, but waited too long to go back to buy it. Happily, she got it for quiiiite a bit less than at that store. Plus her $25 credit from receiving The Dreaded Email after the summer sale (haha her canceled item was a dress for me- so I think she really lucked out on that! I was disappointed though)

Online shopping on the phone with mom is fun. She likes to go through every page or every section and comment on all the dresses. Always when we start doing this I'm like, "come on, come on, don't waste time talking about a Franco that's only available in a 2!" but really, it's kind of nice to go through leisurely- she spots stuff I overlooked. So during this time, mom said, "oh there's that tunic I bought you, but in red"
"wow, that's a good price". And hmm, mom's right, $39 is kind of insane for that. Oh, and it's left in L..... mine! This makes up for not getting an Elsa or Vivi. And I'm a recent convert to this whole tunic-skinny jeans-high boots thing, so I do kind of need another tunic. (although in my case it's not skinny jeans- I still refuse to wear them. Slim cut jeans, please. They're different.)

And now I have to mention the other incredible deals. Honestly, it's a good thing many things weren't available in my size, or I would have had a VERY hard time choosing what to get and what to remove from my cart. Ricci shifts for $39. Murfees for $29. Bowens for $29 and $39. Worth shifts for $34. I thought the prices were good in August, but not nearly as good as these prices! It was a shopaholic's dream.

So in the end, mom got Shere, and I got:
Joanie Behind the Rope (good for DAR meetings)
Cassie Standing Ovation (J and I will match)
Cassie Thrill of the Chaise (Bird and I will match)
Blanca Dress Rehearsal (also my favorite fall print- finally I have something in it!!)
Addie On the Half Shell
Caye Tankini top and Surf's Up Bottom in Turquoise Kissue
Ciara tunic in red Standing Ovation

it's a lot, I admit it. But you know what? Half of that expense is paid for by a recent etsy order, and the other half by Christmas money. "Dear Grandma: thank you for buying me these clothes- especially because they're clothes you will love." Grandma appreciates Lilly- anything that's colorful and modest.

Oh and I just checked my email and Lilly will apparently be on Rue La La in 2 days?! No, it's too much! I definitely can't justify any purchase there.

And what now? Well, now we sit back and wait to see if The Dreaded Email pops up in my inbox. Half of me hopes it passes me over, half of me wouldn't mind if it did pop up- but not on those Cassies!!!

What's Baking? December: Brownies!

2011-12-27T11:26:00.002-05:00

December is National Brownie Month, so it seemed like a perfect choice for Nicole's theme. And what a great excuse to bake up a great batch!

Chocolate and I have a love/hate relationship. It's kind of weird. I get all "omg seriously?!" when someone says they don't like chocolate, but.... to be honest, I don't always like chocolate. I'd prefer to avoid chocolate cake. I can't stand chocolate ice cream (ugh, gross), and I'll only eat chocolate cookies if I have a cup of coffee in the other hand. But give me a chocolate bar and I'm all over it- I require my chocolate in its late-20th-century-American pure form. Or as a lovely hot drink.

But brownies are one of the few chocolatey baked goods I'll get that glazed look in my eyes for. They have to be nice, fudgy, gooey brownies. And nuts, please.

I've been late in baking my theme item for the past few months, so this month I started early early early. My choir performed a staged Boar's Head Festival on December 10th, and we always work together to put on a nice reception after the concert. Of course, I'm the first to sign up to bring food for the reception! So of course with that, and this month's theme, I just had to bring brownies. But not just any brownie: when we're talking reception, I aim to impress. So I took to tastespotting for inspiration.

I found a recipe for peppermint brownies. I've done the kind where you stick peppermint patties in the middle of the batter- they were good, but I unfortunately used splenda for the brownies- I say unfortunately because I despise splenda. If you like splenda, go ahead, sub it in. But I'd rather have no sugar than fake sugar in a baked good. This peppermint brownie concept was different, though- it had a layer of peppermint icing on top of the brownies, and then some chocolate ganache. Sounds good! But, wouldn't you know.... I used up all my peppermint extract last year on the millions of batches of peppermint bark I made, and forgot to buy more. So I bring you...

Cinnamon Brownies
based on tea for six's recipe

Brownies
12T (1.5 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4t salt
1t vanilla

Melt the butter and stir in the sugar- I did this all in the medium saucepan I used for melting the butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients and mix them in.

Important: line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray. Don't skip the parchment paper- it'll make it so much easier to ice the brownies later. Bake at 350F for 40-45 min, until they're set. Let cool in the pan.

Cinnamon icing

2 cups powdered sugar
1T water
3-4 drops of cinnamon oil (or go ahead and use your peppermint extract, 1t)
a few drops of red food coloring, for festiveness

Whisk all that together. Pour over the cooled but still in the pan brownies, and spread around with a spatula. It doesn't have to be perfect. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours (I chilled overnight)

Chocolate ganache
250g chocolate (chopped bittersweet, or semisweet chocolate chips, whatever you have)
1/2 cup cream (I used light cream)

Put chocolate in medium bowl. Heat cream over medium heat until it just starts to boil, then pour over chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes, then start to stir. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. Then pour over the iced brownies and spread around. Pop back in the fridge for a few hours to set the chocolate.

Then cut the brownies!

These were fab. Honestly I had some doubts about using cinnamon oil along with chocolate, but have you ever had those after dinner minty things that are a stick of flavored hard candy dipped in chocolate? They have them at some fancy restaurants. The red ones are cinnamon, and were always my favorite. These brownies taste like that.

Now I've fallen in love with the cinnamon oil and have started using it more- cinnamon sugar cookies, anyone?

One note about these brownies, however: they're a little messy! I was nervous about eating them in my fancy renaissance costume at the reception, although they were gone in an instant so I only ended up with the lopsided ones as I cut and plated them. The brownies themselves are a solid little fudgy cake, very nice for topping. I highly recommend these.

What's Baking? November: Savory Treats

2011-11-30T19:43:00.003-05:00

This month, Jey of the Jey of Cooking chose to have us all bake something savory. Originally I wanted to make some cheesey biscuits or crackers, or something with lots of herbs. But alas, I was only at home for about half of the month, so things got a little tricky. And on top of that, I am full-on in the Christmas rush for my etsy shop! Which is great, but it means I'm not cooking much... or at all.

But tonight! Tonight I decided to utilize all the leftover turkey my parents gave us. What to do, though? This year I got sick and didn't get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my entire family, and therefore missed Uncle Bob's chicken pie, which is the FAVORITE dish at Thanksgiving. Turkey? whatever. We go for the chicken pie. It's a huge tradition, and Uncle Bob's is amazing. So having missed that, I thought, I should try to make my own version! Huge success. This is my top recipe for leftover poultry.

Chicken Biscuit Pie
adapted from foodnetwork.com

Pie
2T unsalted butter
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
8 mushrooms, quartered
1/2t salt
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
herbs of your choice (I used 1T of a poultry seasoning blend from Stonewall Kitchens)
1/3 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
leftover chicken or turkey (original recipe calls for 4 cups, I used about 2 and it was enough)
freshly ground pepper

In a 9in oven-safe skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions and salt. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add the herbs and then the flour, and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for a few minutes, til thickened. Add the turkey/chicken, bring to a boil, and remove from heat. Now make the biscuits.

Biscuit topping
2 cups flour
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
1t sugar
6T butter (original recipe says 7)
3/4 cup milk

Whisk the dry ingredients together, then rub in the butter 2T at a time with your fingers. Stir in the milk, stirring until just barely combined. Place the biscuit dough on a floured board and knead for a few seconds, then roll out to a 10in circle, to fit over the chicken veggie mixture (or just break into single serving-sized pieces). Place the biscuits on top of the chicken/veggie mixture and bake at 425F for 40-50 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

This was delicious! It's pretty quick: baking it takes a little time, but it's quick and easy to put together. The biscuit top was light and fluffy but with a nice crust, and the chicken and gravy mixture was so flavorful with the herbs and pepper and veggies. I usually don't put mushrooms in chicken pot pie, but now I realize I really should!

Celebrating Lilly's Birthday!

2011-11-19T15:22:00.003-05:00

If I can't celebrate with Lilly herself, what better way to pay tribute to her than to go window shopping?

November 10th was a terribly rainy and dreary day in MA. I had a few etsy orders I needed to work on, but honestly, I couldn't bear the thought of sitting in a chilly, grey (especially because the walls are light blue and silver) room and watch the rain out the window all afternoon. Instead, I took a little drive over to E.A.Davis in Wellesley (which, actually, wasn't the smartest thing- the roads were terrible!) and played dress-up. I hope I don't start annoying the salespeople. Usually I don't ask for help, but they're very well-trained there and help you no. matter. what. Believe me, I'd love to have bought something, but the two items I loved most were of course the most expensive (by far). And so I'll wait. But hey, this way I have a wonderful Christmas list!

Let's start at the beginning.

I tried a mix of Fall 2011 and Resort 2011. I had a mental list of Resort I wanted to try, but sadly most of those items were not in the store, or just not available in my size.

First, I tried on Rebecca. I didn't care for Rebecca on the model, but in person I noticed it has a nice , slightly full 3/4 sleeve. It also has a zip up neck in back, which is interesting- very nice if you've done your hair/makeup before putting on your sweater! Despite my expression, I like Rebecca more than I expected, although I wish she weren't quite so long. I most likely won't purchase Rebecca unless she's at a great price, mostly because of that length. Otherwise she fits true to size.

Rebecca Sweater
cotton/nylon/silk blend, available in Island coral and Black. $128

Next, I grabbed the Resort 2011 Elsa. Now, I've heard the CDC (woven) Elsa fits differently than the cotton (knit) Elsa. But I was not aware that Fall 2011 and Resort 2011 CDC Elsas also fit completely differently. Here I am in Resort 2011 CDC Elsa, size L. She's pretty big.

So when the helpful saleslady happened by, I asked for a M.

Ah, MUCH better. With this top, I've jumped on the Elsa bandwagon. It's a great flowy, loose yet still pretty and stylish top. I don't even need to go into the awesome print, do I? I'm perpetually on the hunt for a pretty top that's not super low cut. A few years ago it was nearly impossible, the only non-low-cut tops I could find were crew necks (blah!), but now it's getting much easier.

But I also tried on a solid Fall 2011 Elsa. In a L.
Fall L and Resort M fit me about the same... hmm. Beware, girls! I mean ok, Fall 2011 is a little roomy, but nowhere near Resort L. Solid navy would be more useful, but that print is fab... such choices!!

Elsa, Resort in Snorkel Blue Greens with Envy, available in Navy Hot Hot Hot, Black Skip on it, and hotty pink Greens with Envy, for $158, Fall available in navy, black, white, hotty pink, lagoon green for $138.

Next, we have the Rivia Flounce top. I've seen this on other girls and decided I loved it, but ugh it runs big and I'm between sizes. Here I am in the L. But it's still adorable, and I just hope you aren't between sizes like I am!

Rivia Flounce Top
$68, Available online only in black, but at E.A. Davis in hotty pink and navy.
Cotton jersey

Next, the Mandy V neck t. I mostly just grabbed it for the sake of trying it, not because I particularly loved it. But I was very pleased with the results, possibly because Starry Blue Drama Queen is an awesome print. However, it runs small- here I am in an L.

Mandy V Neck T
$68
Cotton Slub

Here's one of the day's favorites! The Gwyn sweater, from Resort 2011! This is a cashmere sweater, a simple V neck style but with some lovely, subtle yarnover stitch details on the front and down the center of the back. She runs a tad small, unfortunately- since I usually wear a cami under sweaters to prevent against an itchy back. But oh, such luxury to wear... normally I get fussy and vain and skip things I'd have to go up a size for, but this one is worth it.

Gywn Cashmere Sweater
$228
in oh so many pastel colors!

Here's another Resort pick. It's one I really don't love. Like the Cassie, the Ritchie has received rave reviews everywhere. It's cut like Cassie, but with long sleeves with buttons on the ends. And... fits me like a smock. Blah! It runs true to size though, here I am in an L. I will not be buying it: however, this is a great print.

Ritchie
Available in Hotty Pink Let's Go Bananas, also in Hotty Pink Frilly Ferns. Silk/cotton jersey
$278

Let's get back to things I liked.

The Shailene is like a Shauna with prettier sleeves. She fits true to size or slightly big (I'm wearing a 12 and she's roomy). This is Black Dodies Coral Embroidery, and while coral-red and black aren't really my colors, I love love love the style. Having that ruffle at the sleeve and the V neck with contrasting stitching are lovely touches. I really hope Shailene pops up again!

Shailene, $298
in Black Dodies Coral Embroidery

Here's another I love! The Helena Sweater dress. I picked her up, expecting to dislike her, but oh, like the Jonah and Shauna, I love. And again, the ruffled cuff! Plus that ruffle on the bottom. I would love to pair this with a murfee, it's such a classic, stylish dress just begging for some great accessories. Sometimes you need something simple! She fits perfectly true to size, this is an L.

Helena Sweater Dress, $198
Merino Wool

Here's a Fall 2011 pick. Fiona! Fiona kind of fits like a Lulu; however, she's a knit. She fits true to size in the Fall 2011 sizing, although one small complaint: having a side zipper in a knit maybe isn't the best idea. Can you see the weird bump on my hip a little under my hand? That's the end of the zipper. I'm hoping maybe this particular one was stretched out. Regardless though, this has a great neckline and is shaped well. It's also available in brown and ivory colorblock, and navy and hotty pink colorblock, which would be my pick- since I already have a Heel Yeah dress!

Fiona
pictured in Heel Yeah Jacquard for $188, also available in colorblock for $178.
Heavy cotton jersey

New favorite! The Blayney Ruffle. Now, I've been after this dress in Let's Get Gingky (from Fall 2010), for a LONG time, but haven't had any luck finding it in my size. So this was the first properly-fitting Blayney I've ever tried on... and now I'm hunting even harder for one! This is a L, and I now know that I'm a M in the Fall 2010 version- so watch out! That's a huge (and potentially very frustrating) difference. Some say the ruffle isn't so great if you're busty, but personally, I like it. It may require a little sewing to keep the wrap-over neckline from gaping open, but that's a quick and simple fix. It's a very flattering cut, and it has pockets! Yay!
Blayney, $268
in Starry Blue Drama Queen and Bright Navy Bravissimo
silk/cotton knit

I've saved the best for last. This is Jeannette. I have no idea when Jeannette debuted, since I've never seen her before, and there was only the one of her. First shipment of Fall 2011, perhaps? Regardless, I didn't expect to love her when I picked her off the rack, but like so many things, oh I do! She is a lace dress with same-color lining, and a crepe-y trim on the ends of the cap sleeves and hem. She is simply cut, but very classic, elegant and flattering. And she has an unexpected low back (I won't show you, all the pictures were even more unflattering than normal). She has an exposed gold zipper, which I honestly don't care for, but whatever, I'll deal with it in this dress. This is at the top of my wish list. This is a size 12, she's a little roomy but very comfortably so.

Jeannette, $298
in Hotty Pink and Black

Hopefully some time in December E.A.Davis will get some more Resort 2011 so I can try on the TayTay, Adriana and Joy Tunic Dress. Until then, I'm scouring Ebay for Palm Beach fit pants, in any color, fabric, length. These pants fit as if they were made especially for me, and I'm in love with them. Good pants are so hard to find.

Traipsing down the CT Wine Trail

2011-11-10T10:25:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we had a freak snow storm. In our town, we got about 5 inches of very heavy, wet snow. Schools all over were canceled the next day, and many people were without power. We were lucky, we only lost our phone/dsl. The biggest problem with this storm was that fall had come kind of late, so most of the tree still had their leaves, which are excellent for collecting the heavy snow and weighing the poor tree down.

My parents, on the other hand, lost power for 9 days. So by day 7, they'd had it, and came to visit. And we decided to try a little section of the CT wine trail.

I'm going to give you my frank and honest opinions about these places. I would be happy visiting each one again. All of these were in the northeast section of the state, along I-395.

Holmberg Orchards, in Gales Ferry
Their tasting room is this adorable tiny little shed. If you need to use the restroom, I'd wait til your next stop. Sorry, but I just have to say that- you know if you're hitting several wineries in one day, you WILL have to make a pitstop at some point. Don't do it here. Anyway, the wines.
We tasted four wines: a pear, a peach, and 2 styles of ciders. The pear was good, the peach was actually very peachy yet not overly sweet like many peach wines are. But they both paled in comparison to their ciders. If you like a light, sweet cider, these are for you. The Russet Cider is similar to Magner's (an Irish cider that can be a little tricky to find, at least in New England), and the Cortland was a little sweeter, a little heavier. I looooved the Russet. Best part? $7.99 a bottle (750mL, wine bottle size)! Tastings were $6 each you get to keep the very cute glass (which we left in my parents' car... oh well)

Maugle Sierra, in Ledyard.
Oooh, add this one to my favorites list. Their wines aren't cheap ($18-24), and the tasting is $10 for 6 wines (you get to keep the glass), but the tasting room is open, airy and relaxing, their wines are good, the guy behind the tasting bar was so full of information about the wines, and! they serve fancy pizzas. I liked their white wines (House White - chardonnay with a splash of vidal; Sunset White, a very crisp vidal that I'd enjoy in the summer), their rose (St Croix) was very interesting (in a good way! the kind of wine you sip, make that posh wine connoisseur face and say "hmm" before you take another sip), but I really loved their reds. The House Red is a St Croix blended with Merlot. Of course I've forgotten what it really tastes like now, but when I tasted it I decided I'd buy a bottle. Then we got to the Sunset Red, a blend of St Croix and Cabernet Franc. Now, Cab Franc is currently my favorite red, and I'm also newly fond of St Croix, so then I changed my mind to decide I'd get a bottle of this. So finally we tried the St Croix, which is just as good as the previous, but without the Cab Franc flavor mixed in. Clint wanted to buy this one, but we ended up with the St Croix/Cab Franc, partly because it was cheaper, and party because he also really enjoyed it.

I'm definitely returning to Maugle Sierra, just to do a tasting and hang out.

Dalice Elizabeth, in Preston.
This was a cute little place, situated on a lovely lake. I'd love to come here in the summer and sit out on their patio. For $10 we tried the Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Sangiovese. I think by this time I was a little crocked, so I don't remember anything in particular about these wines, aside from really enjoying the Cab Franc and Sangiovese. I felt the Merlot was a little thin, not much body to it. Mostly I remembered encountering a group of women celebrating one of their birthdays, who all worked at a pub that's just opened a new location about 2 blocks from our house- this is exciting, we love walking to dinner. One nice touch is that the grandmother of the young guy manning the tasting room made all sorts of relishes, pickles and apple butter that are sold in the shop. Love that!

Heritage Trail, in Lisbon.
This was another cute place I'd like to return to. Their tasting room is a cafe, and they offer a cheese and wine pairing for 2 for $25. The wine-only tastings were $7, and we didn't buy any wine because on the tasting list they were outrageously expensive- $24-42 a bottle! That's insane. I'm hoping they were priced like that because it's a cafe, and those were the prices to order a bottle of wine for the table or something. Honestly, I didn't really care for any of their wines, they all tasted slightly thin and metallic, but the atmosphere was great. We were unfortunately in a hurry at this point so couldn't stay and enjoy- I'd especially loved to have done that wine and cheese pairing!

Sharpe Hill, in Pomfret.
We didn't get to a tasting, but I promise you, I will be back there. Their tasting room is a smallish room with a super high ceiling so it just has a great effect when you enter. They've decorated with all sorts of farmy old-timey things- I especially loved the 7 gurgling cod pitchers. The bathroom is kind of fascinating (the line is super long because everyone has to look around- the room is all shelves, with interesting knick knacks on the shelves), and the sink is made out of a solid piece of carved soapstone.
We didn't get to a tasting here because we had dinner reservations, and the tasting bar was closed by the time we finished eating. However! This was one of the best meals I've had in at least a month. I had lamb chops with mint jelly, sauteed brussels sprouts and some kind of boring-looking yet fabulous-tasting rice. I had the Red Seraph, a Chianti-style blend of St Croix and Cab Franc (no, I can't get away from that blend!), which was recommended for the lamb... and I can't really say if I ordered the wine for the lamb, or the lamb for the wine. They were both excellent.
Clint had the jerk chicken with some sort of delicious bbq sauce and mango salsa. He gave me his grilled bananas (:-D). Dad has steak delmonico which he practically inhaled, so I can only assume it was good. Mom had scallops that were prepared simply but perfectly. And we all had Princess Louise Birthday cake for dessert- a simple white cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry puree- the perfect ending.

And we have one more!

The following day, we visited Taylor Brook in Woodstock. Hands down, best wine tasting deal of the weekend- possibly in all the 20 wineries I've been to in CT thus far. For $6 you can taste all 13 wines. You can't keep the glass, but honestly I don't mind that- we have such a big wine glass collection from all our tastings that it's kind of a hindrance.
I won't go through all their wines- 13 is a lot (bring a DD or a picnic. Seriously. Clint and I shared a single tasting, and it was still quite a lot for me). I enjoyed them all, but particularly:
the Traminette, a sweet, light Gewurztraminer
the Cranberry Riesling, a Riseling base with fermented cranberries added. A dangerous drink, since it tastes so much like juice.
Autumn raspberry, a riesling with raspberry essence added
Raspberry Rendezvous, a raspberry dessert wine that's not overly sweet
the Merlot, which isn't listed on their website but is a nice, light, 100% CT grown Merlot grape wine (we bought a bottle).

it's nice there are so many wineries clumped together in some sections of the state, a winery tour is a lovely way to spend a sunny weekend day.

Another good clump you can knock off in a day is over in Litchfield County, the northwest section of CT. We visited CT Valley, Jerram, Land of Nod, Miranda, Sunset Meadow, and just barely missed Haight-Brown, all on one Saturday afternoon. It's too bad they all close at 5pm!

What's Baking? October: Fall Flavors

2011-10-28T12:18:00.004-04:00

I missed last month's What's Baking (family favorites), which was sad. So I was determined to do this month's, but I unfortunately haven't had time
to blog about it until the very last minute!

I went apple picking a few weeks ago, as I try to do every year. I picked a 1/2 bushel of apples, and I really think I need to get over there again before they close for the season and get another half bushel! One more apple pie or crisp and they'll all be gone. For this reason, I made something that would use fewer apples for What's Baking?.

Joy The Baker made a lovely apple coffee cake ring earlier this month. It has a yeasty dough and is filled with apples- kind of like cinnamon rolls with apples in a ring form. It looked lovely. And it tastes lovely! I used half whole wheat flour to be a little more whole-grainy, and instead of her streusel topping, I made a cream cheese icing. It's a great breakfast bread, it's appley and cinnamony but not overly sweet (unless you smother it in the icing, of course). One recipe makes two, and we've thoroughly enjoyed having this one around for twice as long ;)

The dough is a very different dough than I've worked with before- it's kind of like a cross between a yeast bread and a cake. It tastes like a bread, though!

Apple Coffee Cake Ring
recipe from Joy the Baker

For the dough:
1T active dry yeast
1/4cup warm water
6T sugar
1 and 1/2 stick butter, softened to room temperature
1t cardamom
1/2t salt
3 eggs
4.5 to 5 cups flour (I used half WW and half AP)
1 cup warm milk

In a small bowl, stir the yeast into the warm water and add a pinch of sugar. Let sit for 10-15 min for the yeast to wake up.
In a larger bowl (of your stand mixer, preferably), beat the butter, sugar, cardamom and salt together til creamy, about 3 min. Beat in the 3 eggs and 1 cup of flour. Stir til well combined, about 1-2 min. Add 2 more cups of flour, the warm milk and the yeast mixture, beat for another minute. Then add the rest of the flour and mix until you had a sticky dough. Knead for about 10 minutes (I kneaded with the mixer). Cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel and let rise in a warm place til doubled, about 1.5-2 hours.

Filling
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced into small pieces
2t lemon juice (optional, good for flavor and prevents apples from turning brown)
2T brown sugar
1t cinnamon
1/2t nutmeg
pinch of salt
1t cornstarch

To make the filling, mix all ingredients together. Set aside.

Back to the dough: it's risen now, so punch it down and divide in half. Spread out one half on your floured board and roll/stretch to a 10x14in (approx) rectangle. Sprinkle half of the filling mixture over the dough, and begin to roll the long side. Form into a horseshoe, and then using a sharp knife (or even scissors), cut the dough about 2/3 of the way through the roll. Do this every 2-3inches or so, and then spread the slices out to make the horseshoe into a circle. Place this on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, cover with a dishtowel and let rise for about 45min. Repeat with the other half of the dough. You can either bake the 2nd half or wrap the long roll in plastic wrap and freeze. If you freeze, let the cylinder thaw, then cut as for the first half, let rise, and bake.

Bake at 375F for about 40 min.

When cool, drizzle with cream cheese icing: 1T softened cream cheese, 1T milk and 1 cup powdered sugar.

Yum! Take this to the next brunch or tea party you're invited to.

New shoes!

2011-10-25T10:44:00.003-04:00

These are not the shoes you'd expect, but I love them just the same!

Over the weekend, my mom and I went to the Lilly Pulitzer Resort 2011 trunk show/preview at the Silkworm in West Hartford Center. Resort is lovely. However, I was confronted with sample sizes, which honestly kind of irks me. It's one thing to only bring one of each item in a variety of sizes, but bringing everything in S and 4 is kind of unfair. Is every single Lilly lover a size 4? I think not. Would it kill them to throw in a couple Ms, Ls, XLs, and XSs? Really? Especially when there were 3 Lana shirts in 2 different colors, all size S. What's the point of that?

This rant-let about sample sizes goes back to shopping around for bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses. With the entire country concerned about weight gain and obesity, you'd think they could throw in a few larger sizes- why bother making plus sizes dresses if you don't have the models available to try?

And I feel completely justified in complaining because for several years, I actually was the main sample size used in bridal shops, so I could buy the samples at the end of the season sale and only have to do minimal alterations to make them work. I'm not just whining because I couldn't zip anything up.

But anyway. I just had to get that out. Other than that, the resort stuff is lovely. They didn't have many of the prints I'd caught a glimpse of in the bootleg lookbook photos that got passed around, but I don't mind waiting for the whole shebang to pop up on the website.

Even more exciting than the resort preview was the sale on all Lilly in the store! You may remember back during the Endless Summer Sale, I'd almost bought a Jonah- but then canceled my order last minute. I was worried the Jonah wouldn't be flattering on me. Yes, I could return it, but then I wouldn't be able to replace it. I played it safe and bought a cardigan. Well, I've regretted not having the Jonah. Not knowing how it looks doesn't really lessen the regret, it makes me more regretful that I haven't even been able to find one in a store to try on.

Well the Silkworm changed all that!

She had one single Jonah in Heel Yeah. Only one size, only one print. And what do you know, it was my size! I tried on a number of things- unfortunately I had my small purse so no camera (hopefully the time for the iPhone 4 is near).

The Fannie fits like the Evie (still no picture of my Evie sorry, but I can tell you it's super flattering and lovely, highly recommend). However, the Fannie has a crew neck and rather wide shoulders, which are completely unflattering on me. I would only recommend this if you have narrow or sloping shoulders. The body is very flattering, with a classic higher waist and the contrasting color stripe is very well-placed. Fannie runs true to size.

Fannie Dress
in Pink Tomato (also available in navy/black and brown/ivory)
$198

The shop owner gave me a Connie... I don't love the Connie. I was probably wearing the wrong size, it was very tent-like- I think she runs big, consider sizing down. I think my issues are just personal preference though, and I recommend trying it on if you like it. I don't even like it on the models, to be honest.

Connie Sweater Dress
in Black High Seas Stripe (also available in True Navy High Seas Stripe, with pink stripes)
$198

I also tried on the Augusta, but unfortunately in a smaller size, since that's all there was. In previous years, it would have been close to fitting, but with the new sizing there was no hope- so I think she runs true to size, but I can't be absolutely sure. However! This is a lovely, lovely dress. The ruching at the hip is very flattering and comfortable. The only thing is... it's REALLY low-cut. Like, get a plunge bra for this one. I was really surprised, because it looks rather high on the model. Go figure.

Augusta Dress
in Bright Navy Bravissimo
$278

The Ciara tunic in Chorus Girls is lovely, but I have no idea how to wear a top like this! It really looked like I was trying to look nice on a fat day. It's huge around the hips (on me, at least). I considered trying the next size down, but then I think it would have been too restrictive up top. It may be that this just doesn't work on me, but I want to warn you all about the bagginess! So I'm not sure how Ciara runs- she might be a little large, she might be true to size and the cut just didn't work on me... I really don't know. I wish we'd had more time and I could have tried other sizes. I was disappointed, because this print is gorgeous, and I think it's only available in Ciara, Bowen, and the hated Eryn (I hate Eryn. I know many love it, but I despise this dress).

Ciara Tunic
in Chorus Girl (also available in Pink Tomato Standing Ovation)
$128

Finally, the Jonah in Heel Yeah :) I saved Jonah for last, because when I took it off the hanger, it looked just like Shauna, which looks like it might not work but then fits perfectly. Jonah is just the same! Jonah is basically the knit version of Shauna. Jonah is a hair roomy compared to other dresses from this season, which may be the goal of the style. It's obviously less structured than say, the Blanca or the Evie. My closet might just become overpopulated with Jonahs and Shaunas, that's how great they are. The construction of Jonah is subtle and flattering. There's a seam above the bust that goes across the entire front, and somehow shapes the dress perfectly. The buttons on the left shoulder are a lovely touch. And there are pocket! The only thing is it's one single, long, tube-like pocket, like on a sweatshirt, not two individual pockets. That's kind of weird, but not a big deal.

Jonah Dress
in Heel Yeah
$168

I wore Jonah last night to a meeting. I was worried the Heel Yeah print wouldn't be quite right for this meeting, a little too superficial-girly, but no one really recognized it as shoes, so now I love it even more. It's a perfect Lilly hotty pink on navy, one of the best color combinations this world has ever seen (oh, am I a little biased? hmm). I love that the buttons are pink, too! And I wore this sans sash- my figure doesn't do belted dresses (luckily the shop owner, who's about 5'10 and at most a size 2) is the same way, so we comiserated over our beltless-ness. I plan to pair the belt with jeans- I just got some gently-used Lilly jeans on ebay, and they fit all over except the waist is too big, My new White House Black Market jeans are the same, stupid things completely stretched out :( And I almost bought the next size up! yikes.

In other Lilly news, my etsy shop is up and has nearly all the inventory displayed that I plan it to have- I have Christmas stockings in 3, possibly 4, more prints to put up, and I'll get Christmas tree skirts in 2 other prints. So far I've made one sale and have 2 more in process. My goal is to be able to sew for the fun of it and be able to find homes for my products, as well as pay for the supplies :) I'm really loving making these Christmas stockings, but we're currently very traditional in our Christmas decorations, and as much as I want a very Lilly Christmas, it won't happen anytime soon. Maybe if we had a small side room that I could Lillify?

Bulgogi

2011-10-16T17:18:00.004-04:00

Isn't that a fun word? I love saying it.

We had beef bulgogi at the food and wine festival at Disney World a few weeks ago- I've been writing this post for over a week now, it's actually kind of embarrassing I can't get it done. But you know why? Inserting photos into blogger is a huge pain in the... you know. And the F&W post will have upwards of 30 photos. It's a daunting task.

I'm also lazy and have attention span issues lately. But that's neither here nor there. Also? I opened an etsy shop. Making things for my etsy shop takes up a lot of my time- but it's super fun so I usually don't care that I completely miss lunchtime and forget about making dinner until 9pm (which then means that we have cereal or sandwiches for dinner- until I got smart and made a huge batch of pulled pork and homemade grinder rolls, allowing dinner to be thrown together in about 10 minutes). Clint may not agree with the funness being worth eating at 10pm, but pulled pork heals all wounds.

Go see my etsy shop! Sorry, end of advertisement.

So let me quickly tell you about this pork bulgogi recipe I made.

It's not authentic, it's Martha Stewart. But inauthentic can still be delicious! (especially when it's Martha Stewart) It was lovely and easy and thinking about eating the leftovers 2 days later was particularly joyful. We served it with sushi rice for a super yum meal.

Pork Bulgogi
Recipe from Martha Stewart

4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2T sugar
1T sesame oil
2t crushed red pepper (I used 2t sriracha, use 1t if you don't want it really spicy)
2t ginger, freshly grated (I used ground ginger, I was lazy)
1/4t ground pepper
1lb pork tenderloin, very thinly sliced crosswise
1 onion, cut into 12 wedges
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips (my addition)
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

In a shallow pan, assemble the marinade: whisk together the garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, crushed red pepper/sriracha, ginger and pepper. Slice the pork very thinly across, and add to the marinade. Stir around to coat, cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 10-15 minutes (I left it on the counter to marinate).

Spray a large pan with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper and pork with marinade (in 2 batches if necessary), and stir fry until pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes. If cooking in batches, place on a plate while cooking the next batch, and when everything's done, add back the already-cooked back to warm back up. Serve over rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

This was such an easy dish, and is very flavorful. I cut corners by using ground ginger instead of fresh, but really, it was still great. 2t of sriracha makes it my ideal degree of hot- hot so you notice and after several bites you need some water, but not burn-your-mouth-immediately hot. Of course, we all have different preferences for spiciness, and Clint didn't think this was hot at all. The marinade makes a nice salty, sweet glaze. I plan to make this again.

German-inspired dinner

2011-10-12T12:37:00.001-04:00

For some reason, pork chops (except for stuffed pork chops) kind of remind me of German food. Perhaps because once upon a time, I hated pork and I didn't really like German food? Also, German restaurants were once almost the only place I ever saw pork- but we're talking back in the '80s, when food and restaurants were rather different than the are now.

Fortunately, by now I've had good German food (a matter of both going to different restaurants and one restaurant just being better), and I learned how to cook my own pork chops so they're not dry and leathery. And I therefore like to eat a lot of each.

We were trying to use up the pork in our freezer, so I was looking for pork recipes. Martha Stewart has these great themed slideshows, and I found the pork one. So many delicious-looking pork recipes! Because we had apples that needed to be used up, the pork chops with apple chutney immediately caught my eye. And wonder of wonders, it was pretty quick and easy.

You'd think that while being a housewife, "quick and easy" isn't really necessary anymore, but I have other things to take up my time... I'll share more info soon ;)
(most boring plating ever, right? I wish I'd at least put this on the blue plate)

Pork Chops with Apple Chutney
recipe from Martha Stewart

For the pork chops:
2T olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 boneless center-cut pork chops (1 1/4 pounds), cut 3/4 inch thick

For the apple chutney:
1T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely diced
4 green apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1t ground ginger
1/4t dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large oven-safe skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sear the pork, about 5min on each side. Then transfer to the oven and cook til the meat is 155F, about 5-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the chutney. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until it begins to turn translucent, about 5 min. Add the diced apple and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the vinegar, raisin, ginger, mustard and cayenne pepper, and cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Plate the pork chops and pour the chutney on top. Delicious with spaetzle!

Spaetzle. Oh god, I love spaetzle. Like, lovvvvvve. I think mostly because they have nutmeg and are sauteed in butter. Seriously, where can you go wrong sauteing anything in butter?!

I'm not sure where this recipe came from, I've been using it for years.

Spaetzle
serves 2

1/2 cup flour (AP or whole wheat, whichever)
1/2t salt
1/2t nutmeg
2T milk
1 egg
1t butter
thyme or chives, optional

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and nutmeg and make a well in the middle. In a separate small bowl, whisk together with a fork the milk and egg. Pour into the flour well and stir around with a fork, gradually incorporating everything. Let the dough rest for 15min.

Heat a large or medium saucepan of water to boil, then place the dough in a potato ricer or colander with large holes, and extrude the dough into the boiling water through whichever device you're using. Stir so the individual spaetzles don't clump up, and boil for about 4 minutes. Strain, rinse with cold water, and then heat the butter in a frying pan/skillet over medium-high heat and add the spaetzle. Saute for a few minutes, until it turns golden brown on the edges. Sprinkle in some herbs, if desired.

Honestly, you can't have pork chops without spaetzle. That's just plain silly.

Best Sandwich Bread EVER

2011-10-10T10:50:00.005-04:00

Last night I made some sloppy joes. Now, I don't really like sloppy joes (Clint does), but these were sloppy joes with a Vietnamese twist. And you can pretty much give any dish and Asian twist and I'll try it. But when we ate the sandwiches, what blew us away was not the sloppy joes (they were totally fine) but the sandwich bread. The sloppy joes recipe wanted to be put on French bread, and of course I didn't feel like going to the store, so you know me, I'll just make some. I googled "french bread recipe" and made the first recipe I found... which was ridiculously amazing. This is my new favorite sandwich bread. Forget your wonder bread, your healthy multi-grain bird seed bread, even your fancy artisan bakery bread. This is an easy-peasy bread recipe and only took me about 2.5 hours start to finish. I cannot wait to make a nice cuban using this bread, or maybe I'll get brave and make a french dip.

Best Sandwich Bread EVER
recipe from food.com
makes 3 grinder roll-sized loaves, each loaf good for 2 sandwiches

2 cups warm water
1T yeast
pinch of sugar
1t salt
1T oil (I used olive)
5-5.5 cups bread flour*

*I used King Arthur's First Clear flour, which is a high gluten flour used in Jewish rye. I'm not sure if it's as high gluten as bread flour, but it has a nice earthy taste to it, kind of like whole wheat flour. I used 4 cups of first clear and 1 cup of whole wheat, and the bread wasn't heavy like whole wheat, but had that kind of hint of flavor to it. I highly recommend the First Clear.

In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let sit for 10-15 minutes for the yeast to wake up. Stir in the salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour. Stir for about 2 minutes. Add 2 more cups of flour and knead for 10 minutes. Let sit in an oiled bowl until doubled, about 1-1.5hrs. Shape into long baguette-shaped loaves (I shaped into 2 loaves, next time I'll make 3 loaves), cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with water (liberally) and bake in a 375F preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown.

This bread is crusty without being rock-hard-crunchy, and super soft in the middle. It's still kind of chewy like french bread, not cottony like most grocery store sliced breads, and is my ideal sandwich roll texture. It's not so flavorful it takes away from a sandwich, but it tastes good on its own. You have to try this!!

Vietnamese Sloppy Joes, or Sloppy Baos
recipe modified from Martha Stewart

I halved the recipe, which would serve 4-5, and wanted to use onion instead of shallots

1-1.25lb ground beef (or sub in another ground meat if you like)
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1T chopped lemongrass (I used dried)
2T red curry paste
1 cup ketchup
1T fish sauce
10 basil leaves, minced
1t brown sugar
2T mustard
julienned green mango or green apple
sliced jalapenos
french bread

In a large skillet, brown the meat with the onion, garlic, lemongrass and curry paste. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the ketchup, fish sauce, half the basil, brown sugar and mustard. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the loaf of french bread lengthwise (like for a grinder/sub) and toast in the oven for about 5-8 minutes.

To assemble the sandwich, spread the sloppy joe mixture on the bottom half of the bread, arrange julienned mango/apple and sliced jalapenos on top, and top with the top half of the bread. Slice the grinder into individual-sized portions and enjoy!

I really only made this dish because we wanted to use up some ground beef in the freezer. Clint loves sloppy joes and used to eat them often before we got married. I kind of can't stand them. But like I said, I'll try almost anything with an asian twist. And.... these were ok. Clint had seconds, so you *know* he liked them. If you're a sloppy joe kind of person, you'll probably like these. And like I said before, the bread is amazing.

A Fashion Buffet, part 2 of Fall 2011

2011-09-24T10:35:00.002-04:00

This peek into Lilly Pulitzer Fall 2011 is from a few weeks ago, but I have been a busy little housewife as of late! You may or may not know that I am VERY involved in the DAR, and September is time to scramble around and get everything ready for fall. The only time of year that seems to be even busier for DAR is June, when I go to Continental Congress and take part in the committee that orders around the pages. It's awesome. And you can't appreciate this if you've never paged, but I get to SIT at this job. The committee I serve on is composed of several truly amazing women, and we have such fun together. It's always very sad when CC ends- although also kind of a relief.

So I've been busy with DAR, all while wearing Lilly. Later on I'll have to do a DAR-Lilly post, because I wear Lilly to DAR meetings and events at least half the time, and lately, almost all of the time. The only thing Lilly can't do is the banquets and evenings meetings, because Lilly does not make evening gowns. Maybe soon?

But anyway, part 2 of my fashion buffet. I went back to E.A. Davis and tried on more fall clothes. I bought not a single thing for myself, sadly, my trip was purely for research. This time I tried on things that eeeeeveryone's raving about. I agree with some of the raves.... but not all.

Love:

The Joanie
$168
in Bright Navy Behind the Rope

This dress is VERY cute. It's now on my list of "possibly buy". The cut looks kind of blah on the hanger, but it fits will once it's on. I'm in a L, and I found it fit perfectly. It's a heavier knit, so it'd do well going into late fall, maybe even winter with boots? Although I'm not great at pairing shoes. The only thing I didn't like is that it's pretty low-cut... although in this picture it doesn't look it.

(looking at this picture, I'm thinking I really need to buy this!)

Love:
The Adalie Wrap Dress
$188
in Skye Blue Thrill of the Chaise

I used to be so anti-wrap dresses, but then mom's friend Liz found a size L at TJM and got it for me. I couldn't really say no, right? Well, I adore it. Seriously, I'm surprised this thing is still holding up, that's how much I've worn it. I think the Adalie would be the same. I'm not in love with this print, but the color is perfect. This is also a knit, but a lighter knit than the Joanie. This dress was a more appropriate dress to try on that day, when I was wearing cropped jeans and a t shirt, the Joanie was *very* warm. I think Adalie runs a hair small, at least compared to the Joanie above. Here I'm also in a L, but it's a little tight. But that's the beauty of the wrap dress, right? Easy to loosen. I'd just need a safety pin for the top if it were looser, though. :-/

Everyone loves, but I don't:
The Cassie
$88
in Navy Dress Rehearsal (it's hard for me to avoid this print, I love it so)

Everyone loves this dress. People go nuts for it. They have several. I don't get it. It's a t shirt dress, it's shapeless and blah. Ok, obviously I don't have the body type for it, but that many people do?! I feel like I'm wearing a night gown. The only saving grace of this dress is the fabulous prints it comes in (like this one... but on lp.com it's also in Cameo White Thrill of the Chaise, and I've seen it in other prints too, as well as in solid colors) and the reasonable price. But... really? I couldn't wait to take it off.

This is also a L, so it runs maybe a hair roomy.

Love, adore, totally going to buy:
The Cassie top
$58 for solids, $64 for prints

I just wish I'd grabbed something other than navy to show off with my indigo jeans. Sorry! I'm wearing a L, same size as the dress, but I like the fit of this better, it's a bit smaller so doesn't hang like the other. I like the neckline: not low, but not a chokingly-high, unflattering (if you have my shoulders) crew neck. I do so love a boatneck.

I wish I'd bought this top, because a week or so after this research shopping trip, I got a pair of Kristen palm beach fit cropped pants from ebay (NWT, $12, yay!) and they just scream for a navy top. Do I have a navy top already in my wardrobe? Of course not. I'd never have something so versatile and useful. Sigh. I think I'll get this in navy and in a print... you know it'll be Dress Rehearsal. ;)

As you read this, I am on my way to Disney World, so while I'll get one last hurrah with my summer clothes (and blog about favorites so we can stow away ideas for next summer), it'll probably be a while before I get back to E.A. Davis. However... I know about one secret little Lilly shop that I plan to visit at least once, and possibly make a purchase- because I know about an even more secret discount. ;)

ps. in case you're wondering, the dress behind me in all the pictures is the Memsie in turquoise kissue. LOVE this one, I wish I'd given it a chance earlier. The only size they had was just a hair too small- it zipped, but didn't look good. I also tried on the Kiki, which I'd previously hated but that day changed my mind about... and again, not available in my size. ugh! Oh and the medium blue you see is the Conrad top. haha I hated this one so much I couldn't even bear to photograph it. It's another one people love!

Interview Outfit

2011-09-22T09:57:00.004-04:00

I hate choosing interview outfits. For an academic position, a suit is way too much- half the time, the person interviewing you will be in jeans. But you still need to look nice. For yesterday's interview, I was going to go with pants, a brightly colored top, and a navy jacket. But then it ended up being nearly 80 out so I'd have to go with summer pants. And I wasn't excited about my choices.

So Bird stepped in and said I should wear the Jonah. Unfortunately, I canceled my order for the Jonah during the ESS so that wasn't an option. I had a great apple green with small white flower print silk jersey wrap dress, but.... wrap dresses are often a little low-cut in front. Not appropriate for an interview!

In the end I went with the Ring Pop Evie. It was a little too dressy for an interview, but paired with my trusty navy jacket, it looked more suit-like- but a suit with a little pizzazz. Perfectly appropriate.

I wore my bronze kitten heels with giant bows on front- a surprising find from a little boutique in my dad's home town in South Dakota last summer. $20!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of me in the interview outfit: the interview didn't go all that well (and it's SO complicated, that's what really bugs me), and when I got back I was 15 minutes late for a meeting so I had to run.

This Evie comes in S-M-L sizes, and strangely enough, I found it a better fit than the other Evie that comes in number sizes. Weird, right? Normally I'm between M and L, but in this one I was a perfect L, and in the other Evie I'm between a 10 and 12. The new fall sizes run small, of course- not great for a girl's self esteem! Thanks a lot, Lilly. Ring Pop is a heavy knit fabric, lined in the bodice but not the skirt, and it's maybe a hair short on my 5'6 frame, but not overly short. The shape of the dress hits me at all the right spots, so it's comfortable and flattering. I appreciate the higher neckline. And it has pockets! Boy, I love a dress with pockets. I ended up doing a little shopping (mostly browsing) because I was early for my interview, and this dress worked great for that- especially after putting my car keys in my pocket and not having to fuss around in my giant Kate Spade purse while walking to my car.

I actually bought this Evie brand new on ebay. I think I may have bought it from someone who robbed a delivery truck, because a month after this dress was released, the seller sold it for $68. It was called "overstock of retail"... I'm not so sure I believe that. But I couldn't resist. I did wear this with some apprehension.

Wear it or sell it

2011-09-14T11:53:00.000-04:00

I have this dress that's been sitting in the back of my closet for years. I don't even know how long it's been in there. I'm pretty sure I lived in NH when I got it.

It's the Beacon colorblock navy dress. I got it from TJMaxx, back when we were juuuuust starting to see Lilly at TJM. Mom's friend Liz called her up one day and said "Carla!!! There's Lilly at the TJMaxx in Granby! I got a bunch of things for J and K [her high school aged daughters] and I put some stuff in Catherine's size on hold!!" Luckily I was coming home the next day, so mom and I ran over.

I got the Brielle and the Beacon, both were $59.99. They also had the Beacon in tan and cream (I do not wear tan, however- only as pants) in my size and I think they had some other, more interesting dress in a size I had no hope of fitting into.

Of course, I was still recovering from mono at this time, so I a very different size than I am now. We took both the Brielle and the Beacon. I did not love either, but I liked the sequins and neckline on the Brielle. And of course, mom's mantra: buy it if it's cheap, no matter what! Le sigh.

The Beacon was a size smaller than the Brielle (and technically the Beacon was my size and the Brielle one size up), but the Beacon was very roomy, while the Brielle was just kind of baggy. Eventually (last year), when I bought a dress on Rue La La that was too big and I needed it taken in, we took Brielle to Andrea, my most beloved seamstress. (small plug for her: she just opened a storefront on LaSalle Rd in West Hartford, CT. She's funny and kind of, as my mom would say, fresh, and she does lovely work. She's not cheap, but your expensive clothes deserve quality tailoring). Brielle does not actually nip in at the waist the way the picture above would have you believe, but thanks to Andrea, now mine does (a little). I love this as a winter dress- yes, it's sleeveless, but it's a rather heavy knit. I never, ever wear black dresses, but I wear this one, so conclude what you want from that.

But the Beacon? As I said, the Beacon was actually my size, and I had the Brielle taken in. Even so, the Beacon was just huge. It looked like maternity dresses from the 60s- you know, those big baggy muumuu-like things.
(side note: really? Is that what woman were really confined to while pregnant back then? Were Victorian mentalities, when women had to go into confinement lest they reveal anything that could hint at having had marital relations? I have a lot of complaints about maternity wear these days, but at least women don't have to hide the fact that they're growing a person)

Anyway. The Beacon fit me like the above picture. Needless to say, I did not wear the Beacon.

Until this summer, when I was looking through my closet for things to sell (both to make some extra money, and to make sure the hanging bar in my closet doesn't snap from the weight- this is a legitimate worry). I found the Beach, squished between a bunch of pants that don't fit and some skirts that would better suit a 22-year-old.

Do I sell it or keep it? It's hard for me to sell Lilly, especially Lilly that I could actually wear. Selling something I wore while skeletal in 2005 is easy because I know I'll never be that weight again (and if something happens and I am, hopefully my doctors will be a little more helpful and diagnose and fix me). But something I could actually wear? So I wore it.

Um yeah, I weigh more than I did when I bought it: it actually fits now. It's baggy, but it has a better silhouette now that I have more to fill it out. It's not the most flattering dress ever, but it's easy to wear- few dresses in my closet are easy to wear.

Now I just need to figure out what shoes other than McKims to pair with this dress to take me into fall. Like the Brielle, the Beacon is a very heavy knit, so the only thing to hold it back from colder weather would be that large cream-colored stripe. What do you all think, how late into fall will that work?

Also, I do love these solid and colorblock dresses that lend themselves rather well to a brightly colored printed murfee.

Results of the Endless Summer Sale

2011-09-12T09:25:00.003-04:00

I told you all about shopping the sale, but not the results!

In the end, I received a murfee, a tablecloth, the Finn in navy, the Jillie in sea blue, 2 shirts for Clint, and a white Caroline cardigan.

But in the end of the end, the only dress I got was the Jillie. The Finn runs VERY large. Like, wow. Lately in everything I'm a solid large (with the exception of some shirts). So of course I was rather certain I should purchase the Finn in large. Alas, no! It was enormous. You can imagine my incredulousness and disappointment. However, I was able to find a new home for it, and the buyer received it in time to wear for a work presentation and said it was absolutely perfect for that, so that makes me feel much, much better. I may keep my eyes peeled for a size medium in navy, or I may just let it go...

Now, the Jillie. While the Finn runs big, the Jillie runs small. What's up with that, Lilly? Unfortunately Lilly has this tendency, which means it's nearly necessary to go to stores and try things on in person. I ordered a 14 in the Jillie, thinking because of it's style and the incredible price ($39), that it could make an awesome formal maternity dress with only minor alterations (namely, the lining- easy peasy!). I ordered a 14 because everyone says you just get bigger up top during pregnancy. And when it came? It's just a hair big. Roomy, I'd say. However, I thought it'd look horrendous on non-pregnant me, and it actually looks kind of cute. The kind of cute you'd pair a pretty cardigan or shawl with, though, the silhouette is still pretty terrible on the average girl.

Clint's stuff? The Jeff half zip fits nicely, but the gulf stream polo is huge. They're the SAME SIZE. I'm so frustrated.

But even so, I still love my Lilly. I got the Caroline cardigan using the $25 credit they gave people with canceled orders (my mom got one too, she lost out on the tie she'd ordered Dad- Dad may be relieved that this happened) and I've already worn it twice (see previous post!). I mostly got it because I got the Cormick dress in white and I want more shoulder coverage for DAR events.

As for mom, she bought practically every single murfee they had (not really, but almost!), as well as McKims and Shelly Jellies. She likes the Shellys and the way she talked about the McKims, I think they'll grow on her. Of course she has to take 2 sizes smaller than me (UGH I got Dad's feet) so she can't just pass them on to me if she changes her mind. :( She has taken some of my shoes though, the ones I wore in middle school when I was one size smaller than I am now, haha.

And fortunately, Lilly at discount stores (that I go nuts for and by everything I find in my size) is slowing down- my credit card needs a break!

A Little Starstruck...

2011-09-12T00:22:00.003-04:00

Tonight we went to a They Might Be Giants concert. It was my first, Clint's 4th, and Ryan's 1000th (ok not really, but almost). After the concert (thoroughly enjoyable, despite the cold and damp of the outdoor venue), we stopped in at the Norwich Inn Pub for a beer. I had the Light Humor, a classic Belgian style witbier, which was quite good! I guess I'm finally turning into a beer drinker after all.

So we're chatting, we're laughing, and John Flansburgh from TMBG comes in the bar with his suitcase.... !!!! And asks if they have wifi and has a short conversation with the bartender. The bartender comes over to us (since we'd already told him we'd been to the TMBG concert and had chatted with owner about the concert) and says,

"That might be a giant, right?"

We (mostly one of us) decided we'd hang out and see if he came back. It took a while... but then the other owner came in and said one of the bandmembers wanted a manhattan charged to room XX and he'd be right down. !!

So waiting paid off. Mr Flansburgh is an excellent conversationalist with lots of interesting info about the music industry we'd never even thought of. And we got pictures :)
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to tell him how much I enjoyed seeing the knitting sock puppets during the show.

What I wore to the concert:
It was an outdoor concert, but a early-fall-warm to start, so I layered. I wore my cedar knit tank (purchased from Smart Bargains, came without the belt, but I wouldn't wear the belt anyway so I don't mind). I really like this top, it's stylish without being fussy, and it's cut to flare a bit so it's great if you're having a fat day (not that I was this particular time!). It's made of a silk blend jersey, so the only downside is you have to hand wash. I'm starting to mind that less and less. Also my Caroline cardigan (purchased from the Endless Summer Sale). I love the enamel buttons on this cardigan, which you can't see in this photo. This is a good, classic cardigan, very easy to wear. My only complaint is the sleeves are massively long.
Not shown was my Lilly fleece from last year's sale. I should get a new one, I wear that thing All The Time. I bought it on a whim, mostly because it was a really good price, but it's definitely one of my most useful purchases. I love things like that!
On my feet were my rose gold McKims, but man I wish I'd worn proper shoes, my feet were freezing by the time we got back to the hotel!
My cropped jeans were not Lilly jeans- I can never find any in my size!

Anniversary Dinner!

2011-09-06T21:07:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. How times flies, etc etc. We're following the traditional anniversary gifts, so this year was cotton.

Unfortunately, our anniversary fell on a work day (for Clint) and I had choir rehearsal, so we ended up having our nice dinner yesterday. But I did sew all day- with 100% cotton fabric and cotton/poly thread, so that totally counts, right?

So what does the little housewife make for her darling husband on their anniversary? Burgers.

Not just any burgers, no, no. These were burgers we saw on Bobby Flay and were completely captivated by. These are the burger to end all burger. Also, they're lamb. That's kind of celebratory, special-occasion, right?

Greek Patty Melts
Recipe from Bobby Flay's friend Miriam Garron

Parts:
Burgers
Muhammara sauce
Pizza crust
Cheese (we used gouda and chevre, Miriam said kasseri- fat chance I could find that)
Caramelized onions

For the pizza crust, use your own favorite recipe. Bobby and Miriam say to grill it, but I just baked it at 425F for the appropriate amount of time, stopping about 4min before it was done to top half with cheese.

Muhammara Sauce
1lb red bell peppers (3 peppers), charred under the broiler for 10 min, flipped, and another 10 min, then placed in a covered bowl to cool before peeling the charred skin off.
1-2 small hot red peppers, treated the same way (I omitted and added 1/2t chipotle powder)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1t cumin
salt to taste
1T maple syrup
1T pomegranate sherry vinegar
1T lemon juice
2t lemon zest

Miriam actually called for 1T pomegranate molasses and 1T sherry vinegar, but I don't have pomegranate molasses. I have tons of maple syrup, and I happened to have pomegranate sherry vinegar, thanks to a gift card to Whole Foods, when I just went and bought interesting things I wouldn't normally splurge on.

Place everything but lemon zest in a food processor and process. Stir in the lemon zest by hand. Salt to taste. Set aside. Easy peasy!

Burgers
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/3cup Greek yogurt (I used fat free sour cream)
2 clove garlic, minced
2t coriander
1/2t salt
1/2 paprika
1/4t allspice
1 and 1/4lb ground lamb (we used bison- Big Y had no lamb!)
Olive oil

Mix everything but the olive oil together with your hands (ewww) and form 4 large, flat patties. Brush both sides with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat, a few minutes per side, until done.

Now, we very unfortunately forgot the caramelized onions part. These are easy, they just take time. Slice 3 large onions (I like vidalia) into medium-thin slices and cook with a little olive oil over medium heat until they caramelize. These cook low and slow but it's worth it!

Assembly:
Cut the pizza crust into pieces slightly larger than the patties. Each burger gets one side with cheese and one without. Top the burger with the muhammara sauce and a big spoonful of caramelized onions. Enjoy!

New England Hurricanes

2011-08-27T20:50:00.005-04:00

We're about an hour from any coastline here (straight south is the Long Island Sound, straight east is cape cod, and southeast is Narragansett Bay), but we spent today preparing and then waiting for Hurricane Irene.

I'm no stranger to hurricanes, growing up in Hartford, CT, but it has been quite a while since we were worried about one. We didn't do all that much: all the outside stuff came in, we cleaned out the garage so my car could fit in it, we filled nalgene bottles with water, got out all flashlights and some candles, found the matches, but after that, we sat back and watched the weather channel. And waited.

And waited.

And then it was cocktail time. What better cocktail to have while waiting for the hurricane, than a hurricane?

New England Hurricane

serves 2

adapted from various websites, including wikipedia

1/2 cup dark rum

1/2 cup light rum

1/2 cup blueberry juice

1oz grenadine

2oz lime juice

Mix the ingredients together, pour over a highball glass (or Lilly Pulitzer tumbler) filled with ice. Enjoy, and hope that you've already battened down the hatches before cocktail time!

What's Baking? August: Celebrate Summer

2011-08-27T12:09:00.003-04:00

Our August What's Baking? theme was chosen by Jade from The Mess Pot. Celebrate Summer is baking with things that remind you of summer, or that are in season. So of course I had to choose one of my favorite summer fruits, peaches.

I went to Tougas Farm on Thursday to pick peaches, and I was surprised by how crowded it was! Especially on a Thursday! But perhaps part of it was everyone hurrying to do it before the hurricane comes and destroys what's left. I planned to pick a peck of peaches, because I'm not so thrilled about canning this summer (no reason), but when I got there I picked a half bushel.

I felt I needed to bake something for the hurricane (i.e. something to eat if we lose power), and Clint's not a huge peach fan but I wanted something he might eat, too. Normally it'd be a no-brainer to bake a peach pie (YUM) or cobbler (also YUM), but I just didn't feel like it. So I looked around, and found a recipe for peach upside-down cake. I'd never think to use peaches in this, but they take really well to this recipe. I was also very clever and cooked up more peaches before adding the cake batter so that I had to eat them (well ok, that wasn't so much planning ahead as the pan just happening to be too crowded), and I honestly think I'd do step 1 as a quick dessert over pound cake or ice cream some day. The caramel sauce from the peaches also soaks into the cake nicely and gives it a delicious flavor.

Peach and Cornmeal Upside-down Cake

from What's On My Plate

For the peach topping:

3 peaches, cut into wedges (12 wedges per peach) (I left the skin on)

3T butter

1/4 cup sugar

For the cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1t vanilla

1/2 cup cream (I used fat free 1/2&1/2)

3/4 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1t baking powder

3/4t salt

1t lavender (I skipped, couldn't find my lavender! I know I have some)

Step 1, for the peach topping:

in a 10in cast iron skillet (I used my Le Creuset braiser), melt the butter over medium heat. Sprinkle the sugar over, and stir around a bit and cook for 3min, until it starts to caramelize. Add the peaches and arrange in circles. I actually just dumped the peaches in, it was too hard with the spattering caramel when the cold peaches hit to arrange them, so I dumped them all in and then arranged them with the wooden spoon. Cook until they're soft, about 15min. Remove from heat.

Step 2, for the cake:

Cream together butter and sugar, for about 3 min, til fluffy. Then add eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and cream. Whisk together remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add in 2 batches to the cake batter.

Step 3, for assembly:

Drop spoonfuls of the cake batter over the peaches, then spread around with a spatula. Bake at 350F for... well, the original recipe said 20-22min. It took me about 40. Set the timer for 20 and keep checking.

Let the cake rest about 10 min, then run a knife along the edge, and invert on a serving plate.

Yum!

The New Black Friday

2011-08-24T11:29:00.002-04:00

I wasn't planning to post so much about Lilly this week, but it's been a very busy Lillyweek.

As I mentioned before, yesterday was the Endless Summer Sale that I'd been waiting for all year. Compared to last year's sale, this one started out much more smoothly- the site didn't crash, I didn't get my account frozen while trying to log back in during the site crash, ladies didn't post nasty messages about it on the Lilly facebook page (as if the people manning the facebook page are the code monkeys responsible for the site's less-than-stellar construction), and of course, the selection of sale items was incredible.

Enter TDE: The Dreaded Email.

The new site could handle all the shoppers, but the inventory wasn't updated as quickly as we shoppers would have hoped. Last night, many people were plagued with TDE. Even I got TDE. So, more nasty facebook posts and customer service emails and phone calls ensued.

To which I say,

Really? With all the problems we have in this world, global warming, rising fuel prices, and the old standbys, hunger and war, you're losing your head because you didn't get to buy a dress you wanted? I WISH that were my biggest problem.

Yes, I lost some stuff. I lost the Lulu

and the Stephanie

But you know what? They're dresses. Dresses are not absolutely necessary, especially ones you get on sale. They're exciting, definitely. Enjoyable, fun, lovely. But is a lost dress that you weren't charged for any worth really ripping a poor customer service rep a new one? Especially when everyone with a canceled order was given a free $25 off their next purchase?

Apparently I'm in the minority when I think not.

So Lilly Pulitzer, thank you for a very fun sale. Thank you for the new site, with its search by print option, that did not crash yesterday. Thank you for staying up all night the few days before to ensure that it would run smoothly. Most of all, thank you for the items we did get, for such low prices, and for offering such a huge variety.

I'm sad I lost those two dresses, but like I said, not the end of the world. There's still plenty to choose from! This morning I ended up ordering a Jonah in purple, perfect for fall, although I do have doubts about its fit

and I'm really considering a Dolly...

The biggest, most frantic day of the year.

2011-08-23T08:41:00.003-04:00

And the most exciting!

No, it's not the last shopping day before Christmas, it's the annual Lilly online end-of-summer sale!

Along with thousands of other Lilly fans across the country (continent? world?), I am (im)patiently waiting for the sale to open. It's a bit chilly today, so I threw on the fleece I bought in last year's sale- as a kind of good luck charm, you might

say.

Signature shops opened their sales at midnight last night, and I browsed all of them! I bought an orange crush Char top from The Pink Pelican, I already have two, so couldn't pass up another at half price, especially when it was only left in my size!

******

Oh my! I went to check lillypulitzer.com and the sale was live. In 10 minutes I found, digitally grabbed and bought:

A Finn in Navy, $188 down to $64

A Lulu, originally $198, down to $49!

A Murfee, originally $98 down to $34!

And a tablecloth for $49!- I didn't even know they made tablecloths!!

Fastest money I ever spent...

None of these items were on my wish list, but I never dreamed that particular Lulu or a Finn would show up at all, and the Murfees started at $34. So this is very exciting! Now back to my normal day...

UPDATE!!

I went back for another round. Well, actually, 2 more rounds, but one is full of presents so I won't share it yet.

Someone on relilly mentioned the incredible steal of the Jillie, which I'd overlooked. A huge bargain?! Must go back!

Jillie, Originally $328, now $39!

Don't laugh, but I got this as a potential maternity dress. Hey, for that price?! I really do think the only way this'll look good is if I'm actually pregnant.

Other great buys I ended up skipping included:

Adalie Wrap Dress for $49

Main Line jeans for $49

Jonah Dress for $49

A Fashion Buffet

2011-08-22T11:24:00.001-04:00

You know how when you go to a buffet at a restaurant, you pile up your plate with everything? It all looks so good, you just have to try each dish. And then you can't possibly eat it all, even half of it. That's what fall catalogs are like for me.

A few weeks ago, I went to E.A.Davis in Wellesley, MA. I was on my way to practice carillon at Wellesley College, my alma mater, and I just had to stop at one of my old favorite stores. As luck would have it, they were in the process of unpacking the new fall Lilly! Oh so exciting. I took armfuls of clothing into the dressing room. I tried them all on, and then I took armfuls more. And then I did it all again. I was in there so long, enjoying all the fun new prints and styles, that I completely forgot to feed the parking meter and got a ticket. oops! Luckily Wellesley's parking tickets are surprisingly low in price so it wasn't a huge deal, I mostly just felt stupid and irresponsible.

I tried on a number of dresses, but since I wasn't doing it for blogging purposes and solely for my own enjoyment, I can't remember each style I tried. Don't worry though, I'll go back again and keep better records!

Also, I didn't buy anything (well, anything of the fall line... I did buy a beautiful Shauna Embroidered, a dress I've been literally lusting after since it came out last spring, but I'm now regretting my purchase and am trying to sell it. Let me know if you're interested in a size 10 for $225!). This visit to the new fall styles was strictly for research purposes!

My absolute favorite for Fall 2011 is the Bianca ($268) (also called the Blanca on the same page, so I'm not sure which it really is).

This is a silk jersey, drapey necked, elbow-length sleeve dress with pockets. Pockets! Side note on pockets: when I was choosing bridesmaids' dresses for my wedding, the one we ended up with was an Ann Taylor dress (which I also bought for myself, haha). My girls were happy with it, and when they arrived, my friend M exclaimed over the pockets rather gleefully. And I thought to myself, oh M, seriously? But she's totally right. Pockets on a dress are so handy.

I've tried on the True Navy Dress Rehearsal print in this dress, and I declare that I'll buy it this season. Ideally I'll get it on sale, or when Lilly has a great GWP, but we'll see. It may depend on whether I get a job.

Now, dressing room photos are tricky. Most of the time, a dressing room is simply too small for a full-length photo, you just can't back up far enough. This time, having a big table in there (great for throwing clothes on, however) was the issue.

You can see some of the other goodies I pulled into the room. The Evie dress in pink tomato standing ovation is another lovely dress. ($188)
This version is woven cotton, but they also had a knit version in ring pop. ($188)

For whatever reason, I preferred the fit of the ring pop over standing ovation. Ring pop comes in SML and Standing Ovation in number sizes, and I found I was between sizes in standing ovation, but perfect in ring pop. How odd! Normally I'm between M and L and perfect in a number size. Ring pop will probably be more versatile for my wardrobe requirements, though, I need a lot of day dresses for DAR meetings.

I tried on a variety of knit tops, too. I unfortunately didn't love any of them. The Lexie ($40) is a very standard t shirt, a nice wardrobe staple with a good cut, if you're looking for that. I wasn't.

I love the boatneck t ($48) on the models, but I'm between sizes. Watch out for that! The woman helping me at the store says it's supposed to be a fitted shirt, but the M was extremely tight compared to the picture of the model, and the L was swimming on me. Bummer! I almost though the M was mislabeled as a S, or the L was really an XL.
And did I mention all these new fall styles were fresh out of the box? I was the first person to ever try them on- how often does that happen! It would have been so nice to buy one, like when you buy a new car that has 10 miles on it.

Also pictured on the dressing room table is a really interesting dress from spring (or summer? I can't keep it all straight!). I pulled it off the 40% off rack on a whim, thinking I'd hate it.

Blake, Originally $268, now on sale if you can find it in stock!

I actually liked it! Of course they only had it in a size larger than I'd need, and it still cost over $200, even on sale, but it was surprisingly pretty- and comfortable. I may put this on my to-find list...

Other popular dresses others are pointing me toward include:

The Adalie wrap dress, $158

The Cassie, $98
(but I'd think I'd prefer the Cassie top)

and the Claire, $258, which isn't new for 2011 but is still great for early fall.

I'm also on the hunt for a Blayney in Let's Get Gingky, although if I can't find one, I'll settle for one of the Fall 2011 prints!
I've found in at TJMaxx for $79.99 and recently on clearance for $59, but never in my size! Now that it's on clearance, I'm tempted to buy the wrong size and let my seamstress work her magic on it. It's a silk/cotton jersey, a fabric I'm afraid to work with myself.

Stay tuned for details from my next visit to the Lilly Buffet!

Let's change things up, shall we?

2011-08-20T15:38:00.005-04:00

You've probably noticed that wamozart12 isn't cooking very much these days. It's strange, but I'm just not. I'm not inspired like I used to be- but then, I used to have these ridiculous chunks of down-time at work when I'd browse tastespotting and get inspired, and now that I'm not working, I'm actually doing things instead of killing time until the instrument's free or the shipment arrives or my boss gives me 5 minutes to discuss those confusing results.

Also, I'm sick of photography. Some people love it, they love photographing things and checking out different angles and building lightboxes. I hate that. I don't have the patience to set up a home-made or ridiculously expensive storebought lightbox to photograph a dish, and my poor husband was getting tired of eating food that'd already grown cold and congealed because of how long it takes to get a good picture. And don't even start with me on camera tripods. Seriously? A food blog is about food, not photography. But I know good pictures are what it takes to make a good food blog (and I definitely tend towards the ones with pretty pictures...), and so I say I'm happy with blogging for my own personal benefit- this blog is better than a box of recipe cards.

So while I'm not cooking, I've been doing other things. I'm going to share more about my crafting (knitting and sewing), and because it's been my big obsession this summer, fashion.

Not just any fashion, no, no. I am not a stylish girl, I mostly dress for comfort. But I'm also not one to wear all black because it's "slimming" (it may be slimming, but I'll look like a zombie), or jeans all the time, and may the lord above strike me down if I ever go out in public in pajama pants (I mean come on, we're not in college!). So what do I wear?

I wear Lilly.

I've been introduced to a number of blogs by Lilly fans. Some girls like to gush about their newest purchases. Some wear Lilly for a special occasion and like to share pictures. Some try to incorporate as much Lillyness into their lives as they possibly can. Some even strive to wear Lilly every single day and make a huge deal of it.

.... to which I say, honey, I've been doing that for years.

So I decided to tell you about it. My goal is to do a wamozart12 wears lilly update once a week, and I'll tell you what I wore and why I like it. I'll warn you, though: I am a normal person, which means I sometimes wear the same outfit twice. Horror of horrors! I know. But bear with me.

Let's start with today. Today I went tag saling. This is a favorite hobby of mine, but I don't often do it because it requires getting up, showered, dressed, with makeup applied and coffee made, to get out of the house around 9am on a Saturday. That just isn't likely to happen regularly. But today I needed to mail a package, and the post office of course is only open until noon, so I was very pleased to be able to add in some tag sales after errands.

Tag saling is very casual, so you don't need to think about what to wear. It was pretty warm (mid-80s by the time I left), so shorts were a must. I chose my relatively new Resort Bermuda shorts in grean bean, which are probably my favorite bottoms this summer. But they're such a bright green, sometimes I'm not sure what to pair on top. Generally I go with a pink top (despite possibly looking like a watermelon, Lilly has made pink and green such a classic couple that of course it'll work), so today I went with my Michelle ruffled polo. As usual, I paired my rose gold McKims and my sunglasses (style name unknown!). I suppose to complete the outfit, I should have carried my Lilly tote, but I've been using my Coach signature daisy bag all summer, and I'm generally loathe to switch handbags more than once a month (that's how you lose things!).

Now, I won't always photograph myself in my outfits. To be honest, sometimes I just look a mess, and I don't want that all over the internet! I'd rather show you stock photos of items than show you a lousy photo of me wearing it, just for the sake of showing a photo of myself (right, M?). Today's photo.... isn't great, but I need to tell you about what I'm standing next to! And I didn't think quickly enough to get the photo before we brought it in.
See my awesome new antique sewing table?!??!?! Oh LOVE. I've been trying to hunt one of these down for the longest time! I even found a couple in Windsor in June, but they were in lousy condition and a little more than I wanted to spend, so I passed them by. I got this one for only $40 (thanks to my superior haggling skillz- ok honestly, the guy said he'd take $50, so I paused a few moments and said, how about $40? And he said, yeah sure.) In case you don't know, back in the day, foot-pedaled sewing machines (before electric sewing machines existed, so yes, this is old), were built into a table that had a big foot pedal on the bottom, and the foot pedal was attached to a wheel that had a belt that ran up to the wheel on the sewing machine itself. And when not in use the sewing machine would tuck down into the table, and that flap on the left would fold over the machine in its hole so you could do something else on the table surface. My mom has had a sewing table like this for many, many years. She put a big wooden cutting board over the sewing machine hole so the flap on the left can stay folded out as more working surface. I'm not happy with my sewing table (a bar-height small table from when Ames was going out of business), so I'm thrilled to have this. My 1951 sewing machine will fit in pretty nicely with the vintage- of course this table is older than 1951, but it'll go better than say a 1969 table, right?

The sewing machine itself looks like it's in decent condition. There's no belt, but the machine itself is beautiful. I'll have to get a nice close-up. It's all etched and filigreed and prettified. I may have my sewing machine guy take a look at it sometime and see if it'd be fixable. It'd be cool to work on a human-powered sewing machine!

My thoughts on my outfit:
I love the bermudas. I don't do short shorts, my figure just doesn't look right in them. I'm SO glad bermudas have come back in style, because there really were a few years when I wore capris and long pants all summer. I bought a pair of patterned Resort Bermudas in May when Lilly had a great GWP (gift with purchase) deal and my mom went in on an order with me, and when I found these 40% off from a The Pink Door Memphis' website, of course I had to get them! I'll buy more if I can (I'd really love the Daffies print)
I'm not thrilled with this polo. It's cut very large, so I ended up going down a size and it's still comfortably loose, but I'm still not sold on the ruffles. And I have issues with collared shirts, they're just not comfortable. You're probably wondering why I bought it: it was $15 on clearance at TJMaxx. How could I not?! Plus I definitely love this shade of pink.
I bought the McKim flipflops from Rue La La in June, as a birthday present to myself. What really happened is I went to the high school graduation of my mom's friend's daughter (who happens to have gone to my high school), and this school is a very Lilly-lovin' school. Lilly Pulitzer (nee McKim) went there, class of '49. Mom's friend was wearing these shoes, and I decided right then they'd be great for summer. They can go casual, or they can go a little dressy, and what an easy way to dress down a sundress, for picnics and things. So when that sale went live, I rushed right to those and snatched them up! Good thing I did too, because they didn't last.
The sunglasses are a few years old now, another TJM purchase. My mom's friend (the one I just mentioned) found them and offered them to me before her own daughter. Awesome! I love the shape (you'll probably see them on my face instead of my head later), although they're not quite dark enough. They also don't stay on my head as well as my Coach sunglasses do, which means they don't make a good headband. Well, they're sunglasses, they're not supposed to be a headband.

I have one other outfit I want to share. I wore it a couple days ago, and with summer nearing its end I'm not sure how many more opportunities I'll have to wear it!

On Thursday, my shopping day, I wore:
My Jarvey Skort
in fresh picked patch

with a simple scoop neck, short sleeved pink Lilly shirt.

The shirt was an ebay purchase that ended up being a little more than I wanted to spend (around $15) but I've worn it so much that I'm glad I got it.

The skort was an interesting purchase.

I recently learned that I live 20 miles from the TJMaxx HQ. The stores within 40miles of HQ are known to receive better merchandise than other stores... and once I learned this, it explained so much. My local TJM is a gold mine of Lilly. It's incredible! One day I started finding Vineyard Vines as well as Lilly, and so I of course had to text one of my Lilly/VV-lovin' friends about all the amazing stuff, and I began to hunt for her size and my size. In one of my hunts, I found a Jarvey in my size stuck in with the size 2s. !!! I thought at first it was shorts, but then noticed it was a skort. Ew, a skort? Skorts are for old ladies. They're like the mom jeans of summer. Once I tried it on, though, I realized I might be wrong, skorts might be ok. I got it for $29.99 and I can't tell you how many times I've worn it. My opinion of skorts is totally reversed, I love them! So I'm very glad I found this one. I'd also never wear such a short skirt, but if it's a skort it's totally fine!

Fresh picked patch was a pattern in a Lilly Loves Green series Lilly put out in 2010, along with cream fraiche, add lemon and fresh catch toile. I don't know about the commonness of hard-to-find-ness of any of these prints, but I'm kind of dying to get my hands on some of the cream fraiche. I actually pulled over (a little recklessly, oops) at a vintage shop once because I saw a very similar strawberry print dress displayed outside the store. It ended up being a Vested Gentress vintage sundress, not Lilly (and I totally would have bought it if it had more a more reasonable price), so I'm still looking for strawberries.

I have many, many more exciting Lilly adventures to tell about. Many of them involve me going to TJMaxx because frankly, what else is there for an unemployed girl to do with her time? I spend all morning checking email, job openings, talking to my recruiter, and the afternoon is left for knitting and netflix. And frankly, Sliders is getting weird. I need a new show. To me, Lilly implies happiness, cheerfulness, and pretty things. And those are all things everyone needs more of in their life.

My Love-Hate Relationship with Fish Tacos

2011-08-17T10:49:00.004-04:00

It's very easy to explain. Up until last week, I hated fish tacos. At first, I thought fish tacos were like normal tacos, with fish (i.e. a can of tuna) cooked up with the regular taco spices and cheese and tomatoes and lettuce. Can you blame me for thinking that's gross? Then I saw them on the food network once or twice, and saw that the add-ins were different, with lots of lime and cilantro. Well that's yummy, but then I thought the fish was like fish and chips fish, with a thick beer-battered breading. Still unappetizing.

Well, this past weekend my girls and I went to Maine for a long weekend, and at The Front Porch (warning: their website plays music) on Shore Rd in Ogunquit, I saw fish tacos. I was debating getting a lobster roll, or the caprese stack (although honestly, when in Maine, one must get seafood), and then I saw the fish tacos. When the waiter came, I ordered them. I don't know what made me do that; it might have been the sangria. Anyway, they came and they were ridiculous. The fish was perfectly cooked with a very, very light and thin crust of cornmeal and deliciousness (probably just the perfect ratio of salt:pepper:cornmeal) and the slaw was super limey with just enough cilantro, and there was this crazy chipotle aioli, the kind of thing that makes your eyes water and your nose run from the spice, but is still SO GOOD you can't stop smearing it all over the taco. All at once I couldn't believe I'd EVER hated fish tacos. Seriously? What was wrong with me?!

Side note: everything we had at the Front Porch was crazy good, especially the drinks. Going to Ogunquit? Stop in there for dinner. Many thanks to my cousin Rich for recommending it!

So I came home, I got the urge to cook, and the first thing I had the urge for was fish tacos. Mine weren't as good as at the Front Porch, but I'm still ready to make them again tonight!

Fish Tacos
serves 4-6
composed of:
fried fish
lime cilantro slaw
corn and bean salad
tortillas

Fried Fish
no recipe, I made it up as I went

1lb of tilapia (3 filets)
1/4 cup cornmeal
salt
1/4t cumin
1/4t chipotle powder
oil, for frying

Whisk together the cornmeal, salt and spices. Pat the fish mostly dry, cut into strips (I got 4 per filet) then dredge in the cornmeal mixture. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, and fry 1-2 min on each side, until the cornmeal crust is crispy and the fish is opaque and flaky. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel-lined plate to soak up the excess oil.

Lime Cilantro Slaw
adapted from Cory Anthony's recipe

1/2 head purple cabbage, sliced as thinly as possible
1/2 head white cabbage, sliced as thinly as possible
1 carrot, grated
2T chopped cilantro
1-2T lime juice
dash of salt
1/2t chipotle powder

Mix all that together. Voila!

Corn and Bean Salsa
adapted from My Baking Addiction

3T balsamic vinegar
2t olive oil
1/2t salt
1/2t sugar
1/2t ground black pepper
1/2t cumin
1/2t chipotle powder
1/2t thyme
1/2t oregano
2T chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained (I used kidney)
2 cups corn kernels
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced (I actually used 2t dried chopped jalapeno)

Whisk together the first ingredients through the oregano in a small bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to a larger bowl, stir/toss to combine, and then add in the liquids and stir/toss to coat evenly.

I made two versions, I made this without the beans, and then took half of it and added back the beans. Someone in our house doesn't like beans.

To assemble the fish tacos, place 2 pieces of fish in the middle of a tortilla, top with the corn salsa and the slaw, and enjoy. As you can see from my picture, I seriously overstuff my tacos.

Next time, I think I'll make some sort of chipotle mayo/aioli. I'm on the hunt for a good recipe.

ps. all the produce except the carrot was brought to you by my local farmer's market!

A new recipe for an old favorite

2011-08-15T11:18:00.000-04:00

I would like to share my new favorite recipe for sangria.

Add sliced peaches.

Enjoy until you start moving unpredictably.

(you might think I'm kidding, but I'm kind of not.)

Sugar cookies for a hot day!

2011-07-31T18:47:00.004-04:00

Remember these cookies from last year?
Bird made them for me for my 30th birthday bash. I LOVED these cookies, they were unlike any plain ol' vanilla sugar cookie I'd ever had. Soft, purely delicious, thick and frosted. Amazing! They weren't greasy or crumbly or crunchy like so many sugar cookies can be. Well, because she is who she is, she immediately shared the recipe. It only took me 13 months, but I made some for myself!

Oh yes, and I have the same cookie cutters (thanks to my mom!), which is kind of why I absolutely had to make this recipe.

I volunteered at an Ice Cream Social and Craft Fair last weekend, and among other things, I signed up to bring goodies for the bake sale table. Last year I made some fancy cookie that didn't sell very well, so this year I decided to appeal to the kids. What kid wouldn't want a brightly colored, elephant or monkey-shaped cookie? Of course, I had to bake these during the heat wave (it was 98F and we do not have AC) so there was no way I'd frost these. I wrapped up 2 cookies in sandwich baggies and priced them at $1 each.... and only 4 baggies sold. I think this bake sale table isn't really worth it, honestly. But the palm trees were saved for our family party later that day, and were a huge hit! I guess I should go after the adults, not the kids.

Sugar Cookies
recipe from Alton Brown (the man knows what he's talking about!)
one recipe makes about 2 dozen 3 inch cookies, I recommend making 2 batches because 1. they're delicious, and 2. I've never seen a cookie keep so well- you can save these babies!

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1T milk
1t vanilla or other flavoring (if you want, not in the original recipe)
3-3.5 cups of flour
3/4t baking soda
1/4t salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling out the dough

Beat the butter and sugar together for a until minutes until nice and fluffy. Beat in the egg and milk and flavoring. Sift together 3 cups of flour with the soda and salt, and add in 2 batches to the butter/sugar mixture. If the dough is really really soft (it was for me, perhaps because it was so amazingly hot in the kitchen), add a little more flour. Add food coloring if you'd like (I use gel food coloring). Pat dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.

Sprinkle powdered sugar generously over your rolling surface, rolling pin and the cookie dough. Roll out the dough to 1/4in, cut with Lilly Pulitzer cookie cutters (or, you know, other cookie cutters- but seriously, wouldn't you rather have palm tree cookies?) and bake in your preheated-to-375F oven for anywhere between 8 and 14 min. Alton says 7-9 min but I needed almost 15 for the big elephants. Cook until they're just starting to turn golden brown on the edges. These are still good a bit overdone, but you want them just barely done.

As I said, I made these during the heat wave. I made the dough on Thursday night, when it'd cooled down to a balmy 85F, then I planned to get up early on Friday to roll out the dough and also make sorbet when it was still relatively cool. Well, it was already nearly 90 when I got up, so I scrapped the sorbet idea (I've learned my ice cream maker is useless in 85F+ weather), and the cookie dough was very difficult to roll out! I could only roll out each disk once, then it had to go back in the fridge because the dough was too soft! But let me tell you, even though it took about 3 hours with all the re-refrigerating I had to do, it was entirely worth the effort! These are my new favorite cookies ever.

Oh and like I said, it was hot, so I didn't bother frosting them! Next time I'll take a hint from Bird and do some pretty swirly decorations with royal icing.

Some new design

2011-07-31T18:18:00.002-04:00

I'm blatantly copying Bird's idea. But hopefully she won't mind!

What's Baking? July: Bake Local

2011-07-25T12:13:00.003-04:00

This month's What's Baking? theme was chosen by Lindsey, and is Bake Local- bake anything from your local area! I decided to use cherries. Tougas Farm has recently started producing cherries, so I jumped at the chance to go cherry picking! I've never done this before, so I was really surprised by how many cherries grow on each branch of a cherry tree! It was a perfect day for fruit picking of any sort (warm but not too hot, partly cloud, plus I was under a mesh canopy that provided a little more shade), so I went slowly and enjoyed myself.

I only got 7.8lbs of cherries- I'd have liked to pick more, but they were not cheap, so I did not want to take any chances of not using up all the cherries in time- plus the cherry field is cash-only, and the girl only has so much cash on her at a given time (birthday money, haha!)

I made many things with these cherries, including a classic cherry pie and cherry hand pies for a picnic,

but for the bake along I like to go with something different: cherry foccacia.

Cherry Foccacia
from Martha Stewart Living, July 2011

Martha had a big spread on sour cherries in the July issue, and she made some really different things, things you'd never think to put cherries in/on. I was using Bing cherries, not sour, but I like all cherries so I didn't care. This was my first attempt at foccacia, and while it didn't turn out exactly like bakery foccacia, it's still delicious and worth the time and effort. It's not hard, you just have several risings to deal with.

2 and 3/4 cup warm water
1t active dry yeast
1.5lbs (4.5-5cups) bread flour
1-2t salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2T fresh rosemary (I used dried)
1.5-2 cups cherries, pitted and halved

In a large bowl (say, of your stand mixer), combine the water, yeast and flour. Mix just until combined (dough will be very sticky) and let rest for about 20 min. Add the salt and mix, then knead for about 5 min. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1.5-2hrs.

On a floured board (just enough flour so it doesn't stick, and the dough might be really, really sticky), knead the dough just a bit, then flatten out into a square/rectangle-ish shape. Fold the top third down towards you, then the bottom third up away from you. Pat to get the air bubbles out, and the 2 flaps should overlap. Then do the right side third, then the left side third, and pat. Place in a floured bowl, cover and let rest for an hour. Then repeat the folding process again, and let rest for another hour.

In a rimmed 13x17 baking sheet, pour the oil and spread around. Stretch out the dough a bit and place it in the pan, working it to reach all the edges (this is tedious and can take awhile- it won't stick to the pan because the pan is oiled, of course, so you just have to coax it to stretch out).

Heat the oven to 450F, and let the dough rest for 15-20 min.

Finally, place the cherries on the top of the dough (I did some skin-side down, and some skin-side up, whatever you like), and press them in gently. Sprinkle with some coarse (kosher or sea) salt and the rosemary. Bake at 450F for 30-40 min, turning around halfway through.

Once the bread is done, let it cool in the pan for just a few minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. Drizzle the top of the bread with the olive oil from the pan.

Go on a picnic and bring the foccacia to share with all your friends. :)

An All-American Breakfast

2011-07-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

While my parents, Clint and I were in Washington, DC the week before the 4th of July, they all went to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington (without me- I was too busy). They brought me gifts because I couldn't go with them, and of course, the gifts were all food-based.

At Mount Vernon, they all visited the Grist Mill, which still produces stone-ground cornmeal. They sell it in cotton sacks, as well as honey produced there. (They also visited the distillery, but I didn't get any whiskey! boo.) Included with the sack of cornmeal they brought back for me was a sheet of recipes and history.

Nelly Custis, George Washington's granddaughter, was raised at Mount Vernon, and shared interesting information: "He [meaning George] rose before sunrise, always wrote or read until 7 in the summer or half past 7 in winter. His breakfast was then ready- he ate three small mush cakes (Indian meal) swimming in butter and honey, drank three cups of tea without cream..." Her recipe for mush cakes, also known as hoe cakes, was included on this sheet, and so once I returned (exhausted) from this trip, I decided to try them.

Hoe cakes make a very humble-looking but hearty breakfast, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed these. Below is my take on the modern adaptation of Nelly Custis' recipe, since the recipe given would "easily feed a school class". That's not so helpful in my little house- plus, I only got 2lbs of the corn meal.

Note: if you don't have corn meal ground at the Mount Vernon grist meal, that's ok. I personally like Quaker or whatever you can find in the bulk section.

Original recipe, to feed a large group:
8 and 3/4 cups corn meal
1 and 1/4t yeast
1 egg
warm water
pinch of salt
Butter or other oil/shortening to cook in
Honey for serving

In a large bowl/container, combine 4 cups of cornmeal with the yeast, and enough warm water to get to the consistency of a thin pancake batter (this is pretty flexible). Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight. The next day, gradually add the remaining cornmeal, the egg and enough warm water to get to thin pancake consistency again. Cover and let sit for 15-20 min.

Fry spoonfuls of batter in a greased frying pan, and serve with butter and honey (or jam, maple syrup, etc)

My adaptation, to feed one person with leftovers (heated up for lunch ;) ):
Part 1:
2 cups of cornmeal
1/2t yeast
warm water
Combine those in a bowl, using enough water to get to thin pancake batter consistency, cover and let sit on the counter overnight.

Part 2:
half of the mixture from part 1 (put the remaining part in the fridge and use within a few days)
1 cup cornmeal
1 egg or half of 1 egg
warm water
pinch of salt

Combine the part 2 ingredients, with enough warm water to get to thin pancake batter consistency again, and let sit while you heat up the frying pan (if you're using the second half of the refrigerated part 1 mixture, let it sit at room temp for a bit before adding the other ingredients). I found either butter or non-stick spray works well. Fry up 2-3T batter, and serve with honey (or maple syrup, jam, etc).

1 egg may be more than this needs, but I figure, egg is protein and healthy, and I didn't feel like tossing half a perfectly good egg. Clint did complain these were too eggy, though, so it's up to you and your love or lack of love for eggs.

If you're not familiar with hoe cakes or cornmeal mush, these pancakes are much denser than regular flour pancakes, but they have that nice corn flavor. They're a bit bitter from having no sugar in them, which is why I do recommend serving them with honey or something sweet. These make a nice, hearty breakfast that I'd really enjoy on a chilly fall morning- and depending on how you fry and serve, they're lower in fat than other breakfast foods!

A Successful Strawberry Season

2011-07-18T20:50:00.003-04:00

(unlike last year)

And it seems like it's been a year since I last posted. Insert some lame excuses here- I really have none. Travel interfered with posting and cooking, but I've been back for a couple weeks now. Really, the problem is that unemployment sucks.

Regardless, back in June I went strawberry picking twice (since I'm a loser without a job, I can.) and I made some tasty things with them- only one of which I've mentioned.

I don't want to bother going into a lot of detail about my strawberry fun now that strawberry season is long over and it won't really help you anyway, but let me share my success with sorbets. I've tried sorbet once before, but I neglected to consider how different some berries are compared to each other while making the sorbet, and ended up with more of a bluish granita studded with whole blueberries. A bit odd, but tasty. Fortunately, when trying strawberry sorbet for the first time, I went with a real strawberry sorbet recipe, with excellent results.

Strawberry Basil Sorbet
recipe from The Nifty Foodie

1.5lb fresh, hulled strawberries
1 cup +2T sugar
1.5T lemon juice
pinch of salt
handful (around 1/4 cup) fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

Slice the strawberries and toss with 2T sugar. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour, turning occasionally. Then combine in a food processor with the remaining sugar and other ingredients, process until pureed.

Pour into your ice cream maker and follow its instructions. Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet
based on a combination of the above recipe and this recipe from the LA Times

2 fat or 3 regular stalks of rhubarb, diced (about 6 oz)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water, plus 1T or so more
1lb hulled strawberries
2T cup sugar
1t lemon juice

In a small saucepan, stir together the rhubarb, 1/2 cup sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 20 min. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp. Meanwhile, toss the strawberries with the remaining sugar and let sit for about 30-45 min, stirring occasionally. Combine rhubarb mixture, strawberry mixture and lemon juice in a food processor, puree, then pour into your ice cream maker and follow the instructions.

These sorbets were very popular in our house, and didn't last long. I like my fruit desserts to be not so sweet so you can really taste the fresh fruit, and these were perfect. I'm definitely planning on using the 13lbs of frozen strawberries in the chest freezer for more sorbet later, as well as the remainder of last year's peaches.

What's Baking? June: Layer Cakes

2011-06-23T11:45:00.003-04:00

This month's What's Baking? theme is layer cakes, chosen by Heather. It's perfect timing for me, since I had a couple birthday cakes to bake! For my own birthday, I baked a strawberry cake, using allllll the strawberries I'd picked the week before. For Clint's birthday, I made a red velvet cake- my very first one! Usually I leave the red velvet to him, but it was his birthday so I had to give it a try.

Before I tell you about my cakes, though, let me show you the view from where I'm blogging.

Jealous?

Strawberry Cake
from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Note: the blogger's comments on this cake mention that it's nearly impossible to find a strawberry cake recipe from scratch. Clint looked at that and scoffed, but it's true. I had 13lbs of strawberries at my disposal, but the only recipes I could find involved adding strawberry jello to a box of cake mix. Seriously? Not for my birthday! So I was pleased to find this recipe. It's a hardier cake, not super sweet but I think it would make great cupcakes. It also has a nice, natural pink color. Not neon pink, like strawberry jello.

Also, I cut this recipe in half to make 3 6in layers. You can find the original recipe, for 8in pans, in the link above.

Ingredients:
6T cup strawberry puree (slice strawberries, toss with a bit of sugar and let sit for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Then puree. Use the puree for the cake and the frosting)
2T milk
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup + 2T cake flour
3/4 cup + 2T sugar
dash of salt
2t baking powder
6T butter, softened

In a small bowl, whisk together the puree, milk, eggs and vanilla.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat in the butter at low speed, and mix until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Stir in the liquids til combined.

Divide the batter among 3 6 inch cake pans. Bake at 350F for 25-35 minutes (the original recipe, in 8 inch pans, said to bake 25min, but it took 35 min for me. Sometimes I really wonder about my oven- maybe I need a second thermometer to make sure the first is right).

Let the cakes cool in the pans, then remove. Frost each layer with strawberry buttercream and top with sliced strawberries, then add the next layer and repeat, etc.

I used Martha's strawberry buttercream. I don't want to tell you about mine, since it totally failed- even though I've made this recipe many, many times before. :-/

A week later, we had Clint's birthday cake

Montclair Martha's Red Velvet Cake
from Martha Stewart

1 and 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
3T cocoa powder (I used dutch process, Clint normally uses Hershey's)
1 and 1/2 t baking powder
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1t vanilla
pinch of salt
red food coloring (I used gel)
3T warm water
1 cup buttermilk
1t baking soda
1T white vinegar

Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder (otherwise you'll get big lumps of powdery cocoa, not so fun).

Cream together the butter and sugar, and beat for 15 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, salt and food coloring. Now alternate adding the sifted flour/etc with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour. Finally, in a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda, then add to the batter.

Divide among 2 8 inch cake pans and bake at 350F for 25-35 min. Cool in pans, then remove.

Frosting
Suzi-Q Filling/Ermine Frosting (my mom's had this recipe so long she doesn't know where it came from).
Note: Clint, the resident red velvet expert, insists that this frosting is the only appropriate frosting for red velvet. He calls it "red velvet cake frosting", since this is the only thing he's ever had it on. I recently discovered its more-or-less official name is "Ermine Frosting", but I grew up knowing it as "Suzi-Q Filling". I've only seen this frosting on chocolate cake, and it's kind of the only way I want my chocolate cake. It's totally unsuitable for piping, but oh well.

5T flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
pinch of salt
1t vanilla

In a small saucepan, cook the milk and flour, whisking often, until it's thick like paste. Let cool.

Beat the butter, shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Add the flour/milk paste, salt and vanilla. Beat until fluffy (or my mom's direction: "beat like hell".)

The cake is frosted very simply: 2 layers of cake with this frosting in between the layers and all over the outside of the cake. Simple and classic!

This is a great red velvet cake. It's not Clint's mom's recipe (which is for a 9x13 pan and I wasn't in the mood for math when it came time to bake this, and obviously it had to be a layer cake this time), but the texture was lovely.

wamozart12 sews

2011-05-25T09:19:00.004-04:00

That's right friends: she cooks, she knits, she sews! And sewing is the reason why I not only have not been cooking, but why I'm 2 weeks behind on my tv (luckily my DVR still has room to save all the shows I'm not watching, even while it accumulates more)

Sit down, let me tell you a tale.

One day in late April, I was reading the one and only fashion blog I read, What I Wore. If you haven't heard of it, it's a recap of what a 20-something former New Yorker/now Indiana-an wears each day, with her thoughts, reasonings, and sources for all her clothes and the way she pairs them. She has a very fun style, and her pictures (all taken by her husband), are very classic and fun to look through. I am by no means a fashion anything (maybe bordering nightmare from time to time), but I like seeing what she wears.

On that fateful day in late April, I was catching up on my blogs, and Jessica wore this lovely pink plaid dress that is just totally me- so I was very eager to see where she bought it. Lo and behold, she made it. What!? So then I got thinking....

(necessary tangent): in early March, mom and I went outlet shopping. The Garnet Hill store we happened by was in the process of closing, and all their stuff was an extra 50% off. If you're anything like me, the words "Garnet Hill" make you think of this.

Long story short (we were there for well over an hour, our shopping buddies quickly shook their heads in completely non-understanding exasperation and went on to the next store), we bought 5 Lilly Pulitzer duvet covers for the fabric. Mom calculated that a king size duvet has about 21 yards of fabric. Lilly no longer sells fabric, but when she did, it was $20 for 1 yd. These duvets were $52 each.

(the blue pineapple print- totally my shade of blue, right?)

Now, mom, being the avid quilter she is, of course automatically thought of these lovely huge pieces of fabric as quilt backings, or to be used as large squares in the quilt pattern. I thought the same thing, but I have to admit, the idea of taking some of the fabric to my seamstress and having her copy a Lilly dress I already had in pink was right up there, too.

And then Jessica posted her dress.

So I got to thinking. I mean, hey, I'm a good quilter. I've only ever sewn straight line seams, but I've won ribbons for my quilts (VT Quilt Festival as a junior, Big E as a junior and as an adult amateur, and Cornish Fair as an adult amateur), I'm a star at matching points (because I'm so fussy and willing to rip out seams if they're not perfect), and I have a decent amount of experience with fabric and thread and sewing machines.

So I went to Joann's and bought some patterns. People suggested that Jessica's dress was somewhat ambitious, and I should start with an easier project. And I should start with a project using a cheap fabric, not my prized Lilly fabric. So I did. I bought 6 yards of white on white that'd be useful for quilting if the garment thing bombed terribly, 3 patterns (1 easy top, 1 easy dress, and Jessica's dress, Simplicity 2444), and I tried it out.

That evening, I had a simple, white sleeveless top. (Simplicity 2593) Side seams, shoulder seams, a gathered neckline, and binding around all the raw edges. It was simple, it was successful, it was fun.

Then I made a white dress. (Butterick 4443)
(please excuse my awkward pose (using the timer on my camera was kind of frustrating, and of course I'd decide I simply must photograph myself when I don't have anyone to help) and my crazy frizzy summer hair)

This dress has a lined bodice and a zipper. I did the zipper all by myself- it was kind of a pain but it came out quite well in the end! It's not the most perfect fit, but hey- I've bought $100 dresses that fit worse than this. (the shoulders puff up because they're still pinned, I haven't actually gotten to the hand-sewn bits of this yet)

Then someone said that Joann's had all their Butterick patterns on sale for $1.99 each. So I made a top. (Butterick 5450)

I'm very fond of this top. That day I bought this pattern at Joann's, I also bought fabric to line the white dress. I fully intended to finish the dress when I got home that Thursday, but I couldn't stop myself from playing with these stripes. This top also has a lined bodice. It's very comfortable to wear. I plan to make the dress version, with a few tweaks that I noticed would have improved the fit on this top, but I won't go back and remake the top. It's good enough as is.

And another top. (Butterick 5485)

This doesn't have a zipper yet because I don't have a blue zipper. But it was my favorite top to make so far, I think because the lining in the bodice is sewn down as you go- no hand sewing at the very end on this top!

I'm on a roll. I am the crazy sewing lady. Because my sewing machine and table live in the guest room and I have a strict no-tv-in-the-bedrooms policy (although it'd be in our bedroom and not the guest room anyway), I don't watch tv anymore. I don't knit anymore, I don't cook, I just sew.

I'm still deciding what to make next.... I think the dress version of the blue striped top, with a pale blue fabric. I'm still not entirely sure I'm ready for Jessica's dress and my Lilly fabric. Or else one of these...

(Butterick 5490, possibly with a brown floral cotton)
(Butterick 5603, not sure what fabric)

My mom generously gave me a whole stack of fabric that she thought would look great as a garment, so I can't even tell you how much material I have to work with!

And Simplicity patterns are 5 for $5 at Joann's this weekend. :)

What's Baking? May: Baking for Mother's Day

2011-05-24T09:29:00.002-04:00

This month's What's Baking? theme was chosen by Cara to celebrate Mother's Day. (one nice thing about that is it meant I baked early and didn't have to rush to blog about it!) Originally I wasn't going to bake anything for Mother's Day. We always celebrate it, but this year we left for a week in Disney World at 6:45am the following morning- it was kind of a hectic weekend! Add in the wine tasting fundraiser for my choir 2 days before and.... yeah, I was kind of a basket case.

But then Cara chose the theme, so I decided I did have time to bake, and I would bake something for my mom. (and I'd make a huge batch, since I'd signed up to bring food to the wine tasting)

Mom loves almond. I'm not really sure what her favorite almond sweet is, because she seems to love them all. Add some almond extract and she raves. Give her a can of marzipan and she'll eat it with a spoon. She loves those soft almond cookies from Italian bakeries- and back in the day, I went through a cake-hating phase (a result of too many bakery cakes, I'm really picky about my cake and frosting) and so for my birthday cake each June, my step grandfather would give me a 5lb box of Italian cookies from the Italian bakery a couple blocks from his house. I had my favorites- anything with jelly, and once those were gone, those little thing lace cookies sandwiched around chocolate. I generally ignored the almond ones- ideal for mom! (I also would then hide the cookies away, since there'd be 12 people in the house around the time of my birthday party, and 10 of them would do anything for these cookies. My hiding places never worked all that well.)

But these days, I've changed my mind about almond. Now, this is both good and bad for my mom: I'm more likely to eat up the Italian almond cookies that long ago would be left to her, but on the other hand, I'm also more likely to make almond-flavored goodies.

Like these cookies. These were near the back of the May 2011 Bon Appetit as the "Prep School" feature. I'm not sure what they're really called- in the article they're "Rainbow cookies", but aren't they also called "Italian Flag cookies"? Because they're always red, white and green. Well either way, I saw these and they looked really cute. I loved that they were totally different in ingredients and construction to any other cookie I've made.

And then I noticed they used a can and a half of almond paste. What, these are almond flavored?! I totally never noticed that in the bakery version.

Well anyway, Mom loved them. I loved them. I'm sure the fact that we finished the batch of them 2 weeks ago is why I'm finally losing weight. These are NOT healthy cookies, but they are delicious, and in my mind, worth the calories. (just skip that side of spaghetti at dinner)

Rainbow Cookies
from Bon Appetit, May 2011, page 154
originally from Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi of Torrisi's Italian Specialties in NYC

Their cookies were red, green and white, I made mine in colors my mom would like: blue, white and purple. (And people were a little scared of the brightly colored layers, I don't really know why. I guess the general public isn't used to the vivid colors gel coloring will give.)

2 cups (yes, 4 sticks. I know.) butter, room temp, cut into 1T pieces
6 eggs, separated
1 and 1/3 cups of sugar, divided
12oz almond paste (not marzipan- I can find both available in the baking aisle at the grocery store, 8oz cans are in the $5-6 range for me- these are not cheap cookies, either)
2 and 3/4 cups plus 1T flour
1/2t salt
gel food colorings
3/4 cup marmalade, warmed and strained (you want the liquid part)
4-6oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped and melted

**3 13x9 baking dishes, preferably metal** If you don't have 3, you'll have to bake in batches. That's what I did.

Note: this recipe requires 2 days to prepare

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line the baking pans with foil and let the foil overhang the edge (for easy removal). Spray generously with nonstick spray.

2. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add 1/3 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

3. Beat the almond paste and remaining 1 cup sugar until incorporated (it'll be kind of sandy), 4-5 min with a stand mixer. Increase speed and gradually beat in the 4 sticks of butter. Beat until fluffy.

4. Beat the egg yolks into the almond/butter mixture, then flour and salt. Fold in the egg whites in 2 additions.

5. Divide batter into 3 equal portions (I weighed). Add your desired food colorings to each. Spread each colored batter in one prepared baking pan. Bake 9-15 min (recipe said 9-11, I needed more like 15-18), rotating halfway through, until just begin to turn golden on the edges. Let cool in pans.

6. Layering: spread (I used a brush, an offset spatula would work ok, too) half the marmalade liquid over the color cake you want on the bottom. Using the foil, lift the next layer out of the oven and invert on top of the bottom layer. Peel off the foil and spread that next layer with the remaining marmalade. Lift the third layer out of the pan and invert onto the 2nd layer- leave the foil on this time. Place the 3 stacked cakes on a slightly large cookie sheet/jelly roll pan and place another cookie sheet/jelly roll pan on top and weight it down with some cans. Refrigerate overnight. This is to smoosh the three layers together so they won't separate when you cut.

(I weighed the cakes down with the fridge items that normally live on the shelf where I put the cookies sheets/cookie layers, thus saving space in the fridge :) )

6.2: yes, you really do want to weight it down overnight.

7. The next morning, bring the cookie layers out on the counter. Remove the top cookie sheet and that top layer of foil, and spread with half the melted chocolate (I melted in the microwave at 15-30 sec intervals). Place back in the fridge for about 30 min to harden. Remove the cookie layers again, invert onto that top cookie sheet and peel the foil off the bottom layer. Spread the remaining chocolate on the bottom, and put back in the fridge to harden.

8. Cut the cookies. I used a long straight knife to cut. First trim the edges (these are the ugly bits you get to eat right away!) and them cut strips about 1.5-2in wide. Then cut each row into cookie slices, ideally about 1/2in wide. The recipe says you should be able to get 96 cookies. I probably did.

I would have also loved to coat each side of the cookie strips with chocolate, but I didn't have time. that would mean that each individual cookie would have the 4 thinner sides coated with chocolate, which would be prettier.

I also had a problem with some of the cookies separating after cutting them. It wasn't too bad, but I wonder if that was in a corner not weighted down well enough.

All in all, these were delicious, and very fun to make- not quick by any means, but definitely worth the wait. They have a nice almond flavor that's apparent but not overpowering (like those soft Italian almond cookies can be) and the texture is very different- soft, but much denser than even a pound cake. My next batch will be pink, white and green for my birthday.

wamozart12 gets healthy!

2011-05-23T23:13:00.004-04:00

Alternate title: wamozart12 lost 3lbs after not losing anything for months and can't stop raving about it!

What's my secret, you ask? An hour a day on the elliptical. Yeah, I bet you wish I had some awesome secret, but no, it's just exercise.

I'm also eating healthier. I don't calorie count anymore because limiting and depriving myself just makes me bitter and short-tempered. I'm baking less, and yes, I really do miss cookies, and trying to eat more vegetables.

All in all, this is just me making excuses for not updating my blog- because I haven't really been cooking much. But here was a nice, quick, healthy dinner. I'm not sure where the pictures went, but it wasn't the prettiest dinner anyway!

Hoisin-Ginger-Glazed Shrimp Skewers

adapted from Everyday Food, June 2011

raw, thawed shrimp, shells removed but tails left on

1 zucchini, cut into disks

sugar snap peas

2 small onions, peeled and quartered

bamboo skewers, soaked in water

1/4 cup hoisin

1T soy sauce

1T rice vinegar

1T freshly grated ginger

Mix the last four ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.

Put everything else on skewers (I like to have skewers contain all one item, so that they cook properly- i.e. shrimp cook much faster than onions). Brush with the sauce and grill, either on a proper grill or a grill pan. Grill till done (shrimp are about 4 min, until they're pink, and the veggies will take longer).

Serve with some brown rice or plain rice noodles. Mmm, healthy! Also quite delicious, this recipe will definitely pop up a few times on my table this summer.

Maple roasted sweet potatoes

2011-05-20T16:49:00.000-04:00

One night, I went into the kitchen to make dinner. I was planning to make simple baked sweet potatoes (which I love topped with ricotta, but this particular night they'd just be plain) and lo and behold, Claire Robinson was making a 5 ingredient fix of sweet potatoes. Perfect! She pureed hers, but I left mine in cubes. They were ridiculously good, each of us had 2 servings.

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Claire Robinson
Serves 4, unless you really love maple and sweet potatoes, then serves 2.

2 sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and diced (1/2inch cubes)
4T maple syrup, divided (3T and 1T)
3T olive oil
salt and pepper to season
1 large onion, cut into thin slices
1T butter

Toss the cubed sweet potatoes with 3T maple syrup, 2T olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a foil-lined (for easy clean-up) baking sheet and bake at 400F for about 45 minutes. Toss them gently around a bit every so often to keep them from sticking to the foil.

Meanwhile, place the remaining 1T olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook for a few minutes, until the onion begins to soften. Add the remaining 1T maple syrup to help speed up the caramelization and cook a few minutes more (about 10 min total).

Serve the sweet potatoes topped with the onions.

I think we may have found a new favorite method of preparing sweet potatoes.

Claire's way was to puree the sweet potatoes after they come out of the oven with half the onions, and then top with the remaining onions, but I like the roasty edges of the potato cubes. Plus I hate washing my food processor.

Pate that's not scary

2011-05-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

People are definitely pretty leery of pate. "ew liver gross!" But my friends, I must say (as a recent convert myself), pate can be delicious. (thanks to M and R for ordering that charcuterie board at Russell Tavern in Harvard Square and showing me how delicious and not scary pate and rillettes are.)

So for those of you who still shy away from anything involving liver, here's a pate recipe. And guess what, it's vegan. Totally not scary, full of normal ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

I found this recipe in Jane Green's newest novel, Promises to Keep. I was totally surprised when at the end of chapter one, in which this certain almond cake is mentioned over and over again, in a way that kind of seemed odd, there was a recipe for that same almond cake. Each chapter had a recipe- what a pleasant surprise!

This recipe was made by a vegan and devoured by her dog. All the characters were greatly disappointed because the pate was so delicious- so obviously I had to try it.

Mushroom and Walnut Pate
recipe provided by Jane Green

2 cups dried mushrooms, soaked for a while and water drained and discarded
1 cup fresh mushroom (I used baby bellas)
2 onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2T olive oil
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 and 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3T tahini
2T hoisin
3T tamari soy sauce (I used plain soy sauce, my grocery store is somewhat limited)
1t dried oregano
1/2t dried sage

In a large frying pan, saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms with the olive oil for 7-8 minutes over medium heat. Let cool slightly, then puree in a food processor, along with the parsley and walnuts.

Place in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, cover and refrigerate overnight. Season with salt and pepper as desired (I found it needed no salt, and I added a few grinds of black pepper).

Serve cool or at room temperature with plain crackers or sliced baguette.

When I brought this to our wine tasting, I made a sign- it looks suspiciously like liver pate, and I didn't want people to get scared off. Plus I thought any vegan/vegetarian guests might enjoy having something they knew would work with their diet. My pate ended up being one of the most popular dishes!

More ham!

2011-05-15T17:08:00.000-04:00

These biscuits used to be one of my cocktail party staples. They're quick and easy, and delicious. But alas, after a while every one of my friends had had them, and while they were still popular, I wanted to branch out.

This past weekend my choir held a wine tasting and silent auction party thing as their annual fundraiser, and as usual, I volunteered to make food. Once the time came to actually make the food, I had way more on my plate than I expected (my final project for my teaching class was due the same day). And since I had all that ham, I pulled out this old favorite- there's nothing like a familiar easy recipe when you're already stretched too thin.

Ham and Cheese biscuits
adapted from Giada

2 cups flour
1T baking powder
1t baking soda
1/2 t salt
6T butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup diced ham
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used swiss, gruyere would be great)

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in the butter and beat until the mixture resembles a coarse meal (using the food processor for these 2 steps is probably the easiest- but again, I really hate washing my food processor, so I just use my stand mixer). In a bowl (same bowl if you're using your mixer, or switch to a bowl if you've been using your food processor), add in the buttermilk, ham and cheese and mix until just combined-don't overmix!

Roll out dough to 1/2in thick and cut with a round cookie cutter (mine was about 1.5in in diameter). Bake at 425F for 10-12 min, until just golden brown. Best served warm.

So at the choir wine tasting these weren't the most popular thing.... but they were accidentally placed on the dessert table, which may have been part of the problem. I think Clint could have happily eaten the whole plate.

Spiced Poached Apples

2011-05-13T16:59:00.000-04:00

Tonight's dessert is brought to you by Dorie Greenspan.

I made dinner one night instead of going out. At the time, we didn't have much in the way of desserts, aside from leftover Easter candy (somehow, sitting at the dining table after slaving away to make dinner, and eating half a hollow chocolate bunny didn't seem to fit), so I decided to flip through the dessert section of Around my French Table.

This poached apple recipe was pretty easy, and as desserts go, pretty healthy. Yes, it's full of sugar, but there's no fat at all, and the start is a piece of fruit. I dressed it up by adding 1/2lb of kumquats I'd purchase a few weeks ago and had no idea how to use- since we were going away a few days after this, I decided I'd better use them up now rather than risk letting them go back while I was gone.

Clint said this was too sweet for him, but I really enjoyed it. I can't decide if I like it better hot or cold, though- which means it might be a nice dessert for a hot summer evening.

Dorie's Poached Apples
from Around my French Table, page 396

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup sugar (maybe reduce this to 3T)
3 cups water
zest and juice from 1/2 orange (cut the zest into long strips)
zest and juice from 1/2 lemon (cut the zest into long strips)
3 pieces star anise
1 cinnamon stick (2in long)
vanilla bean (I used 1/2t vanilla paste)
3 medium apples or pears, peeled, cored and cut in half

In a medium saucepan, combine the honey, sugar, water, orange, lemon, anise and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes. Add the apples and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 min, until the fruit can be pierced easily with a knife- check its progress as it goes, different varieties of apples/pears may cook more quickly.

Remove the fruit once it's done, and boil the syrup for 10 min more. Pour the syrup over the fruit and let cool. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.

I think I'd love this with a small slice of spiced pound cake or angel food cake.

Ham!

2011-05-09T16:33:00.001-04:00

Have you ever seen the Iron Chef: America Battle Ham episode? The way the chairman's nephew says "ham!" is hilarious. "Haa-aaa-aaaammm!" There's no way I can convey it in text, but the title of this post imitates him.

Like most people, we had an abundance of ham after Easter. So of course I had to figure out what to do with it. My biggest success was chicken cordon bleu.

Chicken cordon bleu and I have a long, lovely history together. In middle school, when Pace opened up in our area (later becoming Sam's Club), we went and marveled at the sheer quantity of random groceries. My 13 year old self indulged in Barber's frozen prepared chicken cordon bleu, and took much joy in popping one in the oven on night my parents made my most hated meal, stuffed bell peppers.

In the past few years, I've indulged in these here and there, but once I had my cousin Rich's chicken cordon bleu (doused in an amazing (and amazingly fattening) bechamel sauce I couldn't really go back to the Barber ones.

Well, we had ham, we had frozen chicken, and we just happened to have swiss cheese. Obviously I had to make chicken cordon bleu.

Chicken Cordon Bleu
adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe

4 chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally and pounded to flatten a bit.
4 slices of ham (prosciutto would be good, too), each cut in half
about 1/2 cup grated swiss cheese
2T flour
1/2 cup panko
1/2t thyme
1t olive oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Beat the egg in a bowl, set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, panko, thyme, olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Place a piece of ham on top of each chicken breast. Sprinkle as much swiss cheese as you like on top of the ham. Roll up the chicken, and secure each roulade with a toothpick.

Dunk each roulade in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture. Place in the baking pan, and bake for 45 min, until chicken is fully cooked.

These are really good, even as leftovers. I think I may try to bring more ham into my kitchen, just so I can make these again.

Derby Day!

2011-05-07T17:10:00.003-04:00

Since my Kentucky trip, I have a new appreciation for the Kentucky Derby, a day that the rest of my family looks forward to all spring. This year, not only do I plan on watching, but I have to drink a mint julep (or two!) to celebrate. But being a relatively new recruit, and a very new bourbon drinker, I am by no means an expert on the famed mint julep.

So I made up my own.

The Lazy Girl's Mint Julep
a wamozart12 original
serves 4

Ingredients:
1/2 cup bourbon
3-4T simple syrup
1 peppermint tea bag
shaved ice
sprigs of mint, for garnish

Tear open the tea bag and dump the leaves into a bowl. Add the bourbon. Let steep for a while- 20 minutes is pretty good.
Strain off the leaves and add simple syrup to taste.

Fill 4 old fashioned glasses (unless you're fancy and own a julep cup) with crushed or shaved ice. Pour 1oz (2T) of liquid into each glass. Garnish with mint.

You wouldn't think a peppermint tea bag would have anything to do with bourbon. But you'd be mistaken. This was a total half-assed attempt at a drink, and Clint and I were both pleasantly surprised by the results- enough to blog about it!

Happy Derby Day!

Take-out at home, II

2011-05-02T09:18:00.001-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I have had my share of Japanese take out. Once I grew up enough to realize fast food wasn't really good food, I started requesting take out from the nearby Japanese restaurant. My parents and I would usually order 2 dinners to share among the three of us, each dinner came with a salad, shrimp and veggie tempura, a potato dumpling and the entree. Usually we'd order one beef negimaki and one chicken teriyaki. For 2 adults and one teenaged girl with a healthy appetite, it was plenty of food, and it was always delicious.

Since I started liking sushi, I usually ignore the cooked entrees at Japanese restaurants- or else we're there for a hibachi meal. I haven't had beef negimaki for a long, long time, but when I was rooting around in the freezer one day (actually, looking for ground turkey for those asian-inspired turkey meatballs, and failing at that), I discovered we had a pound of flank steak. Somehow, I thought of beef negimaki.

I added my own spin- mostly based on the ingredients we had. I wrapped the beef around blanched asparagus instead of scallions. The results were good. The results were even better the second time I made this and use both scallions and asparagus.

Beef Negimaki
recipe adapted from Gourmet, found via epicurious.com.

1lb flank steak
6 asparagus stalks
6 scallions
1/4 cup mirin
2T white wine
2T rice vinegar
3T soy sauce
2t sugar

Blanche the asparagus and scallions: bring water in a medium saucepan to a boil, and add the asparagus. Boil, covered, for 3 minutes, then add the scallions and boil for 2 minutes. Drain the water and set the veggies aside.

Prepare the meat: thinly slice the steak- very thinly! Cut long strips of meat, against the grain. Then line them all up on the cutting board, cover with plastic wrap, and pound with a meat mallet to very, very thin, about 1/16 in thick. (Note: the first time, I was lazy and ignored this step- don't!! The meat won't cook if it's too thick. Better to pound the meat now than have to unroll it later and recook it.)

In a shallow dish (pie dish works nicely), combine the rest of the ingredients (mirin, wine, vinegar, soy sauce and sugar) and whisk together.

Line up some beef strips on your board, enough that when the strips go side-to-side, there are enough lined up, up and down, that the asparagus and scallions will lay down (up and down direction) on beef and not board. Roll each piece of beef around 2 asparagus stalks and 2 scallions, and secure each piece with a toothpick. What you're left with kind of looks like a kebab of beef on asparagus/scallion. Repeat with the rest of the beef and veggies, then place each of this "kebabs" in the dish with the marinade. Marinade for 20 minutes, turning every few minutes or spooning the marinade over the kebabs.

Spray a large frying pan with non-stick spray and heat to medium-high heat. Remove the beef "kebabs" from the marinade and let drip off, then add them to the pan and cook for 3-4 min on each side, until they're cooked through and have a nice sear on them. Place on a clean cutting board and cut through the veggies between the individual pieces of meat, so you have individual rolls (the same way maki sushi are cut). Now pour the marinade into the hot frying pan, and cook for a few minutes, until the sauce is thick and syrupy.

Serve the negimaki with the sauce drizzled over them. Serve with sushi rice.

These are quick, and the sauce is strangely addictive. I've modified it to suit my own pantry, if you actually have sake on hand, use 1/4 cup sake in place of the rice vinegar and white wine. I'm sure the flavor is changed, but my version is still delicious.

The other part I loved about all our Japanese take out was the salad dressing. I'm not sure if this is a traditional thing, or some Americanized take on Japanese flavors, but whatever Japanese restaurant you go to, there's always some sort of delicious gingery salad dressing. I was fortunate enough to find a copycat version of the Benihana salad dressing, which is the restaurant that started it all for me. It was my absolute favorite restaurant. Imagine- a 4 year old wamozart, ordering her Japanese meal in Japanese- thanks to my dad and all his business trips- and using chopsticks without the rubber band and rolled-up paper all the other kids need. (by now I've completely forgotten all the Japanese dad taught me, but I'm sure he still remembers some of the more common words. I'm also less good with chopsticks lately, which is embarassing). I miss Benihana, and I'm glad there are so many other great Japanese restaurants around. (I'm also kind of glad I have that golden childhood memory and I can't go to Benihana as an adult and possibly spoil the memory.)

Benihana Copycat Salad Dressing
adapted from the secret recipe blog

1/2 cup minced onion
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2T water
2T ginger, minced
2T celery, minced
2T ketchup
2T soy sauce
2t sugar
2t lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil

Place all the ingredients except the oil in a blender. Blend until pureed. Drizzle in the oil while the blender's running. Store in the fridge!

The first time I made this, I omitted the celery- I didn't have any. This was a big mistake! Something about the celery really mellows out the onion and garlic flavors, and without the celery, the onion's just too strong. I'm surprised by how much better it was once I added the celery.

This is the kind of dressing I'll make in large batches and keep on hand. We're eating much more salad because of this dressing!

Meatballs, hold the spaghetti

2011-04-30T16:36:00.000-04:00

I don't keep this a secret, but people are still shocked when I say I don't like pasta. I just don't. If it's filled with delicious cheesey goodness then I'll eat it, but otherwise I pass it up if I have other options.

Therefore, the only meatballs I've ever really had are these tiny things on toothpicks. Or the giant bags of frozen Swedish meatballs from Ikea. The meatball is largely ignored in my kitchen. But a few months ago, Martha Stewart had a show all about meatballs. And my eyes were opened to the variety of the meatball: it's not just for spaghetti!

I found this recipe on tastespotting, after having forgotten completely about the MS show. Now I remember, and I have make these buffalo chicken meatballs next.

Asian-inspired turkey meatballs
from Gina's Skinny Recipes (look at that, healthy and delicious!)

1/4 cup panko crumbs
1-1/4 ground turkey (I used chicken and ground it myself in the food processor)
1 egg
1T freshly grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2t salt
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
2 scallions, chopped
2T soy sauce
2t sesame oil

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together with your hands (icky, but it's the best way). Form about 3T of meat into balls, and place on a *rimmed*, parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 15-20 min.

Dipping Sauce

4T soy sauce
2t sesame oil
2T fresh lime juice
2T water
1 scallion, chopped

Mix all the ingredients together. Serve with the meatballs.

I never realized how simple meatballs are to make. A little messy, yes, but quick to throw together, quick to cook, and these were ridiculously good. Served with some steamed asparagus and rice, this is a great weeknight meal.

What makes a scone a scone?

2011-04-28T14:48:00.000-04:00

A while ago, I told Clint I wanted to make scones for breakfast. I don't know why I wanted scones, but I did. He liked this idea, he was going to go shovel the previous day's 6 inches of snow to make room for us to actually get into our cars (oh so helpful- now that we have 5-6 ft high heaps of snow on either side of our driveway, it's very important to shovel a couple feet on either side of the car- I forgot this.), and would enjoy a fresh scone when he came back inside.

But before he went out, he asked me "what makes a scone a scone?"

I said, "well, it's..... um..." Yeah, no idea. Shame, foodie, shame!

So let's find out.

According to Wikipedia, a scone is " a small British quickbread (or cake if recipe includes sugar) of Scottish origin.... They are usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent."

Ok, so it's a biscuit. But... it's not a biscuit, it's so much more.

Dorie Greenspan (my new hero) says: "[Scones] are made in a manner similar to biscuits and, in fact, share biscuits' buttery-layered texture, but their name, their shape, and the fact that they're served with tea rather than gravy, lift them to the level of fancier fare."

Well, I guess... maybe British scones. In my mind, a scone usually has fruit in it, and always has more fat than a biscuit- although I'd had some scones that are pretty close to a buttermilk biscuit- and is crumbly when you break it open.

Anyway, whatever a scone really is, I wanted one. A nice, crumbly, fluffy scone. I looked around online, I found a lot of lovely recipes (including one that had 3 sticks of butter for 8 scones, yikes), and I settled on this one, from Joy the Baker. I trust Joy the Baker, so when she said these were the best scones, I believed her. And she was right.

These scones have oatmeal, which I usually don't really care for in a scone- because of my first scone recipe, found in 2001, which produced rock-hard gritty, crumbly triangles with a decent oaty flavor, but honestly sit like a brick in your stomach. They were the opposite of fluffy. So I always equate oaty scones with a solid brick. But Clint likes oats, and I try to consider his likes/dislikes when cooking (the more he heats, the less I eat and therefore need to exercise), so I decided to give an oaty recipe a go. I was really pleasantly surprised when these oat scones had a lovely oatmeal cookie flavor (I added vanilla) and a lovely soft, light texture. Also, there's no need to put clotted cream or jam on these, they have plenty of flavor without any toppings (lower calorie bonus! Not that these are good for people watching what they eat (such as me), unless they're looking for a small indulgence.)

Oatmeal Raspberry Scones
from Joy the Baker
oh oh what's this? They're a Dorie Greenspan recipe. See, I told you- my new hero (she claimed my undying loyalty and affection at her fougasse recipe)

Makes 12 scones

1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk, cold (or 1/2 cup milk + 1.5t vinegar and let that sit for a few minutes)
1t vanilla (my addition)
1 cup AP flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour (my alteration)
1 1/3 cups oats
1/3 cup suar
1T baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
1/4t nutmeg
1/2t cinnamon (my addition)
10T butter, grated
3/4 frozen raspberries (or any fruit, really)

Note on the butter: I discovered this by accident: freezing your butter makes it much easier to grate. I had to go into the freezer for the backup butter (we but 8lbs at a time at BJs, so most of it goes in the freezer until I need it). I grated (large holes on the box grater) 5T from each of 2 sticks, which meant there was no chance of grating my hand.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and vanilla, set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flours through spices), then add the butter and smush it around with your fingers to get a crumbly texture. Add the wet ingredients, stir with a fork to combine. Toss in the berries. Knead the dough a few times on a board, then form into 12 balls, about 1/4 cup each. (I formed 6 balls and then the remaining dough into a log, which I wrapped in plastic wrap and froze to bake another day- scones don't keep that well, they're much better fresh).

Place balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, until they're golden brown.

They're best while warm, you can also heat up day-old scones for a few minutes in the oven. Serve alone or topped with clotted cream or cream cheese and/or jam.

Dessert in a hurry

2011-04-27T14:36:00.000-04:00

Do you ever get invited to a last minute dinner party and need something to bring? Or throw a dinner party yourself, and completely forget about dessert? Here's the dessert for you.

As I mentioned the other day, Clint and I had our own Easter this year. But... we didn't really want to be alone, so I called up my cousin R, who lives here in town, and he was nice enough to invite us to dinner with them. It was all pretty last-minute, and I had some bread to bring along, but an hour and a half before we were expected, I decided I should bring dessert- partly because I always bring dessert when we go there. But what to make?

Normally my favorite go-to quick dessert is Swedish Jam Squares (probably not really Swedish), which consist of a cookie crust made from a boxed cake mix, jam spread on top and drizzled with a confestioner's sugar/milk glaze. They're good, but not Easter-dinner-good.

So I made an almond tart. It took about 15 minutes from getting the ingredients out to getting it in the oven, and almost an hour to bake- plenty of time to get dressed!

Almond-Marmalade Tart
adapted from The Family Kitchen

Shortbread crust:
2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2t salt

Filling:
approx 2-3oz marzipan (make your own, or use canned), approximately 2-3oz
1/4 cup orange marmalade, or other fruit preserves/jam of your choice

Make the crust. Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the flour and salt. It'll be pretty crumbly. Pour half the crust into a greased tart pan (with removable bottom) and pat down.

Roll the marzipan into a thin circle slightly smaller than the tart pan. Place on top of the crust in the pan. Spread the marmalade/jam on top of the marzipan. Pour the remaining crust on top of the marmalade and pat down. Decorate the top: brush with an egg wash with sprinkle with sliced almonds, or dollop some marmalade on, or thin out some marmalade with water and brush over the top.

Bake at 325F for 50-60 min, until the edges are golden brown. Let cool, then remove from tart pan. Serve at room temperature.

This dessert is like a wedge of cookie, but dressed up. The crust is a little sweet and a little salty, and compliments the sweet marzipan and marmalade nicely. It was a big hit! I imagine this will be requested again.

Note: the original recipe called for an egg, but never mentioned adding it so I forgot about it. maybe that's why my crust was so crumbly- but it still works. Also, the original recipe says to chill the crust an hour before putting it in the pan, but that didn't really work with my "dessert in a hurry" requirement the other night.

What's Baking? April: Spring Baking

2011-04-25T12:15:00.003-04:00

Our What's Baking? theme for April was Spring baking, hosted by Leanne of The Martin Family.

When I think of spring foods, I immediately think of Easter. Yes, it's a religious holiday, but to me it's more of the official start of spring than March 21st- especially when Easter is later in the year, and it's actually warm out and flowers are blooming. Easter is the first day I break out a brightly-colored sundress and sandals- even if it's freezing that day. Luckily, it was close to 70F this year, and I was actually warm!

Our Easter plans this year were affected by the flu and travel plans. Fortunately, we were innocent bystanders of all that, but it meant we spent Easter on our own. For me, this was a first time thing, so I scrambled around over a period of two days to try to make our Easter Sunday special. This mostly meant gathering some supplies for Easter baskets and making a nice breakfast.

Because we began Lent with Swedish Semlor on Shrove Tuesday, I decided to end the season with a Swedish Easter bread. This bread was pretty straightforward, but delicious, and I added my own little twist to make it even more delicious. It's not the fanciest Easter treat you'll ever see, but it's just as tasty.

Swedish Easter Bread
recipe found on cooks.com
Makes 2 braided loaves

1 cup milk (I used skim)
4T (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1t cardamom
1/4 cup warm water
1T active dry yeast
1/2t salt
3.5-4 cups flour
1 egg for an egg wash
Optional: 4-6T marzipan (make your own, or buy a can. I used a can)

Scald the milk. Remove from heat and stir in butter, and then sugar and cardamom. Let cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, wake up the yeast in the 1/4cup of warm water (I added a sprinkle of sugar as well).

In a large bowl (or your stand mixer bowl), combine the milk mixture, yeast, salt and 3 cups of flour. Stir until combined, and add more flour as needed to produce a sticky dough. Knead for about 5min, in your mixer or by hand.

Let rise in a warm place, in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel, for about 2 hours.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. Divide each half into 3, and roll each piece into a long snake to braid the dough. Here is where you'll add the marzipan. I tried two methods.

Method 1: start to braid the dough, and after you fold each piece over, stick a small bit of marzipan on the dough that will be covered by the next strand of dough. Keep doing that until it's all braided.

Method 2: Roll each of the dough pieces into a very fat, short snake, and make a long trough down the middle of each snake. Roll bits of marzipan into very skinny snakes, and place in the trough in the dough snake. Pinch the dough over the marzipan and roll out into a longer, skinnier dough snake. Braid that as normal.

Place the braids on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or a dishtowel, and let rise another hour or so. Make an egg wash by beating the egg with 1-2T water, and brush over the braids. Bake for 30-40 min at 350F, until the bread starts to brown.

This bread is delicious fresh from the oven, or if eaten the next day I like to lightly toast it. It's delicious without the marizpan, but the marzipan definitely adds a sweet little surprise.

Overall I think I prefer method 2, it gets small bits of marzipan distributed more evenly through the bread.

Branching out: cocktails

2011-04-20T22:22:00.004-04:00

I recently returned from a trip to Kentucky. I went with my parents, who've been begging me to take this trip with them for a few years now. Since I'm unemployed, I certainly have time on my hands... so I happily agreed.

It was an awesome trip.

I don't talk all that much about alcohol on this blog, because I'm a wine drinker. What can you say about wine, aside from recommending wineries or specific kinds? I drink a lot of local wine, so my recs won't go very far for most of my readers. And I don't really cook with wine, I like drinking it too much.

Hard alcohol lends itself better to recipes. Yes, there are a number of delicious cocktails using wine, but I don't get too creative- again, I focus on the wine, not the mixer (with the exception of sangria). I'm pleased to say after my Kentucky trip, not only do I think Kentucky is lovely and want to go back, but....

I like bourbon.

I can't wait to tell my grandma, she'll be ecstatic. She's a serious Maker's Mark drinker.

We visited Lexington and Loretto, KY, for the annual Redheads and Thoroughbreds weekend with the folks from Maker's Mark. These people know how to organize an event! We had special seats at the Keeneland Racetrack on Friday to watch 10 horse races, including the 23d annual Maker's Mark Mile (I bet on horse #4, Workin With Hops, and won almost $5, woohoo!!!). In the evening was a huge (albeit terribly wet, the weather didn't cooperate) party in downtown Lexington, and Saturday was a huge, fun- and bourbon-filled day at the distillery in Loretto. Unfortunately, this is the last year for the annual party, but I still hope to go back and visit the distillery again- I think I might enjoy it more with fewer people around.

Well anyway, so the point is: I finally started to like bourbon. I've been surrounded by bourbon all my life, but everyone in my family drinks it straight- with something expensive like MM, you probably should. But I can't, it's just too alcoholy. While visiting a friend in Nashville, I was introduced to the oh-so-delicious Jack and Ginger (Jack Daniels in ginger ale), and after purchasing a fairly cheap bottle of whisky to have on hand for a friend, I made a similar drink at home once in a while. While in KY this past week, I had 2 delicious cocktails. (I'd planned to drink mint juleps all weekend long, but alas, some sort of localized mint shortage destroyed those plans!) At Keeneland, the special cocktail of the day was Maker's Mark, citrus liqueur and ginger ale. Very tasty! I have no idea about the ratios, though. At the distillery in Loretto, we were offered Spiced Apple Collinses, which were lovely. And oh look, they shared the recipe:

Spiced Apple Collins
recipe from Maker's Mark

2 parts Maker's Mark
1 1/2 parts Thatcher's spiced apple liqueur
1/2 part sour mix
splash of club soda

Mix and serve over ice.

The only problem was, I'd never heard of Thatcher's. The people mixing and serving the drinks were all "oh you know, Thatcher's!" Well, no, I don't really know. I've never seen this stuff- not that I've ever looked, but still. If you've heard of it, do you think it's a regional delicacy?

So when I got home, I of course had a great stash of Marker's Mark- because I dipped my own bottles. How awesome was that? Borderline legen-wait for it-dary. Ha. It was a lot of fun, and not hard at all.

Once back in MA, I wanted this spiced apple collins. But.... no Thatcher's. So I made up my own thing.

I don't know what to call it.

2T Maker's Mark
2T ginger brandy (I used Arrow, the cheap stuff ;) )
4T seltzer/club soda
1/2T lemon juice

Mix it all, serve over ice. Yum!

It's not exactly the same, but it's good.

After perusing our new "Kentucky Bourbon" cookbook, I decided I'd also like to try a Presbyterian. Apparently this was my paternal grandmother's drink, so I was a little pleased it caught my eye. Grandma B drank it with gin, though, and I'm pretty sure I'll never, ever be a gin drinker.

Presbyterian (from Kentucky Bourbon, linked above)
3T Maker's Mark
4T club soda
4T ginger ale
lemon peel

Place ice in a highball glass, pour the bourbon over the ice. Add the club soda and ginger ale, then twist the lemon peel and rub it around the rim of the glass and put the lemon peel in the drink.

This is also good- although to be honest, I just added a squirt of lemon juice and skipped all the stuff about the peel.

I also tried kind of a makeshift old-fashioned, which is kind of my maternal grandmother's sacred drink. But the bitters make it, well, a little bitter.

Old Fashioned
(from Kentucky Bourbon, linked above)

1/2t sugar
2-3 dashes bitters
splash water
orange slice
maraschino cherry
5T Maker's Mark

Add the sugar and bitters to an old fashioned glass. Add the water, orange and cherry and muddle. Fill with ice, and pour the MM in, in 3 equal parts, and stir after each addition (I don't know why you don't just dump it all in- maybe that's why I wasn't in love with this drink, I dumped it all at once).

Now I should end with saying that I only have one cocktail photo to share because 1. I didn't think to photograph our cocktails at the distillery, and 2. bourbon in an old fashioned glass with other stuff... pretty much all looks the same. Maraschino cherry here, slice of lemon peel there.... not much difference.

I made these drinks carefully. Please enjoy them that way.

Norwegian desserts

2011-04-14T13:21:00.001-04:00

The last What's Baking? theme was baking from your heritage, so I spent a lot of time hunting down some appropriate recipes. I originally thought I'd bake something from my Norwegian heritage, but as I said in my post, I didn't really grow up eating Norwegian food, so I didn't feel that was quite right for me.

That's not to say I don't eat Norwegian food now... thanks partly to the Norway Pavilion in Epcot. I found this recipe for rice pudding, which is served there, and it's delicious. We all know I love rice pudding. I also got to use one of my newest refrigerator staples, roasted strawberries.

Norwegian Rice Pudding
from Disney World, recipe from allears.net, which shares many delicious Disney recipes
(I made a 1/4 recipe, since I'd be the only one eating it)

1/2 cup short grain white rice (I used jasmine, it was all I had)
dash of salt
3/4 cup water
1 cup milk (I used skim)

1/2 cup heavy cream
1T sugar
1/2 t vanilla

In a medium saucepan, bring the rice, salt and water to boil, and cook for 15 minutes, uncovered. Reduce heat to a simmer, add milk, and cook for 30 minutes, covered. Remove from heat and chill.

This part is best done fresh before serving: whip the cream until almost fluffy, whip in sugar and vanilla. Gently fold in whipped cream to rice mixture. Chill.

Serve cool, topped with roasted strawberries.

(If you think you might only go through one serving of this rice pudding a day, and making the whipped cream fresh each time might not work... I won't say anything if you get a can of whipped cream. But get Cabot whipped cream, or Hood light whipped cream, those are the best options)

Roasted strawberries
(this is a great thing to do with slightly old, bruised strawberries that aren't so pretty for eating fresh, or if you have a ton of strawberries and don't want to freeze or make jam)

Strawberries (as many as you have)
sugar (approx 2T per lb of strawberries)
lemon juice (approx 2T per lb of strawberries)

Hull and slice strawberries (in quarters or slices, whatever). Place in a baking dish and toss with sugar and lemon juice. Roast at 250F for about 2 hours. Let cool slightly, and store in the refrigerator.

Makes a lovely topping for: waffles, pancakes, ice cream, rice pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.

Take-out at home

2011-04-12T13:01:00.001-04:00

I see a lot of posts here and there, sharing recipes for Chinese take out and how it's just as good and just as fast. I have to say, I really can't stand American Chinese food. Korean food, on the other hand... yeah, I could definitely do well with my own recipe for bibimbob (still looking!). So when I came across this recipe for scallion pancakes on tastespotting (which are called "Chinese pancakes", but they look just like the Korean pancakes I've had from the Korean restaurant or homemade by Korean friends, and I've never seen scallion pancakes on the menu at a Chinese restaurant- perhaps because I haven't been to one in several years), I started to understand everyone's excitement over homemade Chinese takeout.

These pancakes are nice and easy, and while they're not exactly what I'm used to, they're still very good. They reheat pretty well wrapped in foil in the oven.

Scallion Pancakes
from globetrotter diaries

2 -2.5 cups flour
1 cup hot water
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
salt
vegetable oil

Place 2 cups flour in a bowl and make a well. Pour the hot water into the well and incorporate more and more flour as you stir in circles. Transfer to a floured board and knead, adding more flour if necessary for kneading. Knead for a few minutes, then cover with a damp towel and let rest at least 30 min.

Roll dough into a log and divide into 6 even pieces. Roll out each into a flat circle. Brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and scallions. Now roll the pancake back up into a snake (like rolling up a poster) and wind the snake into a coil. Roll that out again with a rolling pin, and that's what you'll cook. (if you need pictures, globetrotter diaries has good ones of this process)

Repeat this process with each of the dough balls.

Heat a large frying pan or griddle over medium high heat and cook the pancakes for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce for pancakes
a wamozart12 interpretation

1/4 cup soy sauce
1T rice vinegar (or white)
1T finely chopped scallion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Dash of sugar
sriracha (as much or little as you like, I used about 1t)
1t sesame oil

Mix all ingredients together, and use for dipping pancakes in.

Spring canning

2011-04-10T12:30:00.002-04:00

Marmalade!

A few years ago, I went to a friend's housewarming party. Her mom had helped her out with preparing the menu, and one of the items was her mom's homemade orange marmalade with chevre on toast. It was one of those apps you remember for years to come.

This same friend gave me a huge jar of the same marmalade as a bridal shower gift, which I tried to make last for months (I did pretty well) and almost always ate with chevre. More recently, her mom had a cooking question, and to thank me for her help, she shared her marmalade recipe. It's Ina's!

So I sent Clint off to the store for some oranges. And lemons, this recipe uses both.

Before you start (I don't want you to have the same timing issue that I did), here's the schedule for the marmalade.
1. cut the oranges. Do some other stuff and let them sit overnight.
2. the next day, simmer them for 2 hours. Then boil 30 min and can.

Finally, when you get to the part where you fill the jars... well, you might not want to scrape the pot very well. I licked the wooden spoon, the ladle, the funnel, and the pot. Then I opened one of the jars and starting eating warm marmalade with a soup spoon.

Ina's friend Anna's Orange Marmalade
courtesy my friend's mom, recipe found here and in Ina's cookbook Barefoot Contessa at Home

4 navel oranges
2 lemons
8 cups of sugar
water

Slice the oranges and lemons thinly (preferably with a mandoline, it's much easier). Put all the sliced fruit and juices into a large stainless steel pot with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from heat and stir in the sugar until it's dissolved. Cover the pot and let sit at room temperature until the next day.

The next day, return the pot to heat and simmer over very low heat for 2 hours (it should just barely bubble). Stir every so often.

Sterilize some jars and lids, either in the dishwasher on high temp wash or in boiling water (lids should be sterilized in simmering water, the rubber coating on the lids isn't as sturdy).

Increase the heat to medium and boil gently for 30 minutes, stirring *frequently*. Once the marmalade reaches 220F (or it solidifies when dropped on a refrigerated plate), start ladling into jars. Wipe the rims with a clean damp paper towel, and top with lids. Either process in a boiling water processor for longer term storage, or let cool to room temperature and store in the fridge (I chose the second option).

Makes 3-4 pints.

Fish en papillote

2011-04-07T13:48:00.000-04:00

This recipe is supposed to be salmon, but we had some cod to use up, and it turned out great. So sub in almost any fish you want!

The goal for this dinner with something healthy and relatively quick. Check, and check (with one make-ahead step). Oh, and it's very tasty.

Honey-soy fish en papillote
adapted from Tastes of Home

This recipe uses Yuen Chen Thick Sauce. I have no idea what that is, and our sad little ethnic aisle at the grocery store wasn't much help (they don't even always carry fish sauce) but with the help of google, I figured out how to make my own. I found it kind of amusing. Warning: it's a very aromatic sauce to cook, but even though it's a little fishy, I didn't find it unpleasant. Just... intriguing.

Homemade thick sauce
(I can't remember where I got this recipe)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fish sauce

In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and water and cook until it's caramel-colored. Slowly pour in the fish sauce- it will bubble up wildly, but swirl the pan and it'll calm down. Cook until it's thick, a few minutes.

Let cool a bit, and store in a sealed container in the fridge (I couldn't find any info on storage, so I just keep it in the fridge).

For the sauce for the fish:
2T thick sauce
2T honey
1T soy sauce
splash of sake (I used mirin- not exactly right, but it's what I had)

Whisk the sauce together.

For the rest of the dish:
4 6oz salmon steaks, or other fish
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 stalks scallions, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T fresh ginger, grated
2 shallots, finely diced
1/2 head of bok choy, roughly chopped

Tear off 4 pieces of tinfoil, each about 3x the size of each piece of fish. If you want, spray with nonstick spray of brush with oil (I didn't, it was fine). Place a piece of fish on each foil and brush generously with the sauce. Bring up the sides of the foil so it's like a cup/bowl and the sauce doesn't spill everywhere. Divide all the sliced veggies (leek, scallion, garlic, ginger, shallot, bok choy) among the 4 pieces of fish and pile up on top of the fish. Divide the remaining sauce and pour over each piece of fish/pile of veggies. Add an additional splash of sake to each of the 4 fish/veggie piles, and wrap up the foil, completely sealing the foil package except for a small steam hole in each. Line them up on a baking sheet (rimmed is best, just in case) and bake at 350F for 15-20 min, depending on the thickness of the fish.

Serve the foil packages on each plate for each person to unwrap, or transfer the fish and veggies to each plate yourself. We served with rice flavored with a little soy sauce and ginger.

What's Baking? March: Baking from your heritage

2011-03-29T13:45:00.002-04:00

This month our What's Baking? theme is to bake something from our heritage. Amanda of Our Italian Kitchen was inspired by St. Patrick's Day when she chose our theme.
I love this idea, and I thought quite a bit about what I might bake. I thought about a German apple streudel, or a Norwegian cardamom bread (and then I made some Norwegian rice pudding after browsing a bit). But to me, baking from your heritage means more of baking something you grew up with than baking something traditional in the country your ancestors came from. While my dad grew up with some traditional Norwegian dishes, I didn't. I grew up with traditional New England fare.

So I'm going with my Yankee heritage. My entire mother's mother's side of the family has been in Connecticut since the 1600s, so I think that counts.
I made Joe Frogger cookies. These cookies are very humble, totally not fancy. They get dry and hard, and that's how I like them- they're perfect for dunking in coffee. They're a good cookie when you're starving and can't wait for dinner but don't want anything really rich or sweet. They kind of remind me of Kedem biscuits, in that they're just a nice, plain cookie to munch on. You can buy them at the Publick House in Sturbridge, MA, and their recipe is actually what I used. I grew up eating my mother's molasses cookies, which are almost the same as Joe Froggers, but I don't have her recipe. Legend has it that mom's cookies are from a recipe that's been in our family since the 1600s. She's explained to me that back then, our people were very frugal, so our family's recipes had either fat or eggs, but never both. The frugality makes sense to me, but our people were farmers, so I've never really understood not being able to use butter and eggs. But our people were tobacco farmers (did you know tobacco is a huge industry in the Connecticut River Valley? We grow shade tobacco, which is used as the outer layer on cigars) so while I'm pretty sure they had chickens and fresh eggs, maybe they didn't have such easy access to dairy products. And the Joe Frogger recipe I've used also has no eggs... so maybe mom's right.

Joe Frogger Cookies
from The Book of New New England Cookery, by Judith and Evan Jones, given to me by a friend several years ago

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1t salt
1 cup dark molasses
6T water
2T rum
4.5 cups flour (I added 1/2 cup)
1t baking soda
1 and 1/2t ginger
1/2t cloves
1/2t nutmeg
1/4t allspice

Cream the shortening and sugar together, then stir in the salt, molasses, water and rum (it'll look kind of curdled, this is fine.) In a separate bowl, mix/sift the flour, baking soda and spices together, then stir it into the shortening/sugar mixture.

Chill the dough thoroughly (this is important, it's pretty soft). Generously flour a board and roll out the dough to 1/4inch thick, then cut into the traditional large circles. Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes.

These cookies become pretty dry and hard after a couple days, and then they're perfect for dunking in coffee or tea.

Funny-looking Bread

2011-03-21T13:55:00.004-04:00

I had the urge bake bread last week- and we happened to be running low on bread, anyway, so the timing was right. I didn't search for a recipe, I just made it up as I went. And as luck would have it (maybe karma owes me after being indisposed for 3 weeks- first my fall, then a horrible cold-turned-sinus infection), this bread turned out perfect. It was light and a little chewy, not dry at all, and had a great flavor. However, when I pulled it out of the oven, it looked like a manatee. It was pretty bizarre. I'm just sorry I was unable to get a picture before we'd already eaten half the loaf.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread
a wamozart12 original

2 cups of warm water (about 95-100F)
1 heaping T active dry yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
8T brown sugar, divided
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2-1t salt
3-3.5 cups all purpose flour

2T butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
3t cinnamon

In your large bread bowl (stand mixer bowl for me), dissolve 2T brown sugar in the water and sprinkle the yeast over. Let that sit for 10-15 min for the yeast to wake up.

Whisk in the remaining 6T brown sugar and the oil. Add the whole wheat flour, one cup at a time, then the salt. Stir in 2 cups of the all purpose flour, then switch to your dough hook and add one more cup of flour. Start kneading and add more flour if you need it. The dough should be a little sticky, not dry at all. Knead for about 10 minutes in your stand mixer or slightly less time by hand. Cover the bowl with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, until doubled (about 2hrs).

Punch down the dough and knead for a few seconds on a floured board. Roll it out to a large rectangle. Brush the melted butter over the dough. Whisk the brown sugar and cinnamon together and spread evenly over the butter. (I basically did what Alton does for his cinnamon rolls for this part, only my rectangle was wider and not as long). Roll up the dough, rolling along the long side. Place on a baking sheet and cover with a clean towel/plastic wrap and let rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 400F. Bake bread (you can do an egg wash if you like, I didn't) for 30 min at 400F, then reduce heat to 350F and bake another 20 minutes. Cool at least 15 minutes before eating, if you can wait that long!

This is delicious fresh from the oven, toasted with a little butter, and as french toast. The loaf is huge but it hasn't lasted us very long!

Baby Shower Card Tutorial

2011-03-18T10:58:00.004-04:00

I made this awesome baby shower card for my friend for her shower in January, and I had a lot of requests to show how I did it! I was inspired by a pop-up crib card on Etsy, so I figured out how to do it myself.

Materials:
White cardstock (for the crib, or whatever color you want)
2 pieces of paper/cardstock for the card itself and the inner lining part
Small square/rectangle of paper for the window
Ribbons for the curtains
Craft knife (I have a Martha Stewart one from Michael's)
Cutting mat (I use my fabric cutting mats)
Sharp pencil
Low-temp glue gun (you can use double sided tape, Elmer's or a glue stick, but believe me, this is much easier. They're only a few dollars from Joann's, etc, and work well with paper. I don't recommend a hot glue gun for paper)
For decorations in the room: paper punches, ability to draw, etc, whatever you'd like.

First, the crib.
I'll see if I can figure out how to make a downloadable/printable pdf template, but for now...
The crib is 4in x 9in. Eventually it'll be a 4-sided structure with legs. All of the legs are 1.25 in long. The end legs are single legs (since it folds around) and are 3/8in wide each, the other 3 legs are double legs and are 3/4 in wide. When you fold it, it'll make sense.
(if you click on the above photo, it'll enlarge and you can see my hand-written dimensions)

Trace all that out with a sharp pencil using very light lines, (same with this one, click to enlarge and be able to read my handwriting)
and then using a ruler and a craft knife, cut it out.

Now make the creases. I like my scoring board (Martha Stewart from Michael's), but before I had this, I liked to trace the line on the paper, butt a thin ruler up against that, and then bring the paper up against the ruler and then fold it over and slide the ruler down the fold to make it a really good crease. This works pretty well and reduces the special tools you need.

So the crib is cut out and folded. Is it folded correctly? I like the long edge to be on the left-hand side of the card, and you want the edges of the crib to meet in the fold of the card itself (otherwise it won't hold together), so refold if you need to.

Once you're sure it's folded the right way, flip it over and trace on the lines to cut out the bars of the crib. I like to trace on the lines so I know I'm cutting straight lines.

The bars are 3/16in thick and are 1/2 up from the bottom of the crib (the bottom not counting the legs) and 3/8 in down from the top.
On the short sides, I start 3/16 in from the edge and begin to trace lines every 3/16 in.
On the long sides, I start 5/16 in in from the edge.
Every other space between the lines is cut away, starting at the first block and ending at the last block. Mark the ones to be removed so you remember.

Now cut all the vertical bar lines you just drew with your craft knife.

Now remove every other block by cutting on the horiztontal lines at the top and bottom. Remember to only cut the blocks that you marked! Otherwise you'll end up with big holes instead of bars. This is why I mark the ones to be removed.

Ok, now the hard part's done, and we can have fun with decorating.

I like to add some bedding inside the crib.

My bedding is 1.5in wide by 9in long. Remember how you'll view the crib once it's glued in, though. You'll be able to see all of the inside and half of the outside (since 2 sides will be glued to the card). So 4.5 in of that bedding strip should be two-sided. Either use 2-sided paper or glue a 4.5x1.5 in strip back-to-back with one half of the 9x1.5in strip. Score these to fit snugly inside the crib before you glue them (a glue stick is sufficient here, or you can use the lo-temp glue gun).

When scoring, line everything up so you score in the correct dimensions. Also, where the edges of the bedding meets isn't as important as for the crib, since the bedding will be glued to the crib anyway- but it's still easier to have the edges meet at the corner of the card.

Now attach the bedding to the crib! Use the glue gun for this step. Clint taught me a good trick for this sort of thing: line up the folds to get everything put together straight, then fold down one flap and glue, then the next flap, etc. Things stay together better this way than if you were to just glue the whole crib and try to plop down the bedding on top and have it line up perfectly. Fold each crease again after you glue each of the four sections, to make sure it's still lined up right.

The crib will be pretty stiff after you've glued the bedding on, just refold.

Before gluing the crib to the card, decorate the card.
The paper for the card is 10x7in, scored down the middle (at 5in) (or just buy a 5x7 card). You could make a smaller card, but you'll need to reduce the size of the crib.
I've added a window to the left-hand side of the card (1.5x2in rectangle with some ribbon lo-temp glue gun glued to the rectangle, folded over the top and glued to secure, then tied with thread near the bottom), 2 bunches of mickey balloons (mickey punches glued down with regular glue and black ink lines). On the first version of this card, I made a banner of penants out of equilateral triangles and a lo-temp glue gun glued-on string. You can really do anything you'd like, ask the mom-to-be how they've decorated the nursery and use the actual room as inspiration.

To attach the crib to the card, stand up the inner lining card and nestle the crib in. Hold the the crib in place and lay the card down. Now flatten the card, still holding that left-hand inner section that'll be glued, and then hold down the next section to the left, lifting the section to be glued slightly. And glue the crib (or the edge of the card, either way). Lay the crib down and press while the glue sets- this is why I'm using the lo-temp glue gun, because it'll set in a few seconds and you don't have to devise some elaborate way to secure the pieces together while they dry and wait hours for it to be completely dry and ready for the next step.

Ok, now glue the other section of the crib to be glued to the card,
line up the card and press the two together. Voila!
The last step it to glue the inner card to the outer.

This is totally optional, you can just use a card. But if you want to use a decorative punch outn the inner card and have another color show through, you will need the outer card. I like using one cardstock and one paper for the pair, either one can be the inner or outer. If you use 2 pieces of cardstock, it gets pretty heavy- not a problem, but be aware of that. And you may want to trim off any excess outer/inner cards so they line up exactly.

And then decorate the front of the card however you'd like. I went simple with this one and just used a stripe of cute blue prams.

There you have it, how to make your own pop-up crib card. It's not a speedy process, but once you figure it out you can get an assembly line going and it won't take too long. I'll let you know how long my third card takes, after I've figured out all the measurements and don't have to stop to photograph the steps and blog each step as I go.

A vote for Mexican

2011-03-14T16:32:00.004-04:00

I recently asked Clint to vote for what we'd have for dinner. He seemed pretty stumped, so I made it easy: pick an ethnicity and pick a meat, I'll pick the recipe.

He chose Mexican and chicken, and I chose this Veracruzana-inspired chicken dish from a Light Mexican cookbook I bought in Disney World several years ago (and have never used... I do that too often).

It was good, and relatively easy. The next day, however, I did something I don't often do: I transformed the leftovers into a new dish. Normally I'm perfectly happy with leftovers, but we ran out of brown basmati rice, and chicken served over plain rice doesn't really inspire me, anyway. And I really like pairing corn with Mexican flavors.

So first, Veracruzana-style Chicken Stew with Prunes (or in my case, figs)

The next day, the chicken was shredded from the bone, mixed with its sauce, and made into Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread (which, incidentally, is now my favorite cornbread recipe, I love how soft and moist it is).

Stewed Chicken with Chipotles and Figs
adapted from Mexican Light, by Martha Rose Shulman

My changes were based on the ingredients I had and my desire not to go to the store again.
Note: this recipe has you make fresh chicken stock to use, which is unnecessary for me, since I make it so often, but I wasn't sure how else to cook the chicken if I skipped boiling it and generating stock. So, extra stock. The only downside is this way I didn't have enough time to chill it to skim the fat off the top like I normally would.

2 quarts water
3 lbs of bone-in chicken (I used 4 thighs and 2 split breasts, skin removed)
10 dried Black Mission figs (or 8 pitted prunes)
4 garlic cloves, 2 of them set aside and 2 of them unpeeled and toasted in a frying pan
1 medium onion, cut in half
2lbs tomatoes, halved and roasted (or 28oz of canned tomatoes, drained)
1T canned chipotles in adobo
freshly ground black pepper
pinch ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1T oil

First, roast the tomatoes and onion. Line a cookie sheet with foil and place the tomatoes and one onion half on the foil. Set the broiler to high, and broil for a few minutes, flip each tomato and the onion over, and broil for a few more minutes, until they're all lightly charred. Side aside. (If you're using canned tomatoes, just broil the onion alone)

Toast the garlic (this is optional): place the 2 unpeeled cloves in a frying pan and let them toast for a few minutes, moving them around occasionally. Let cool and then peel.

Begin the chicken stock. Place the water, the other onion half, 4 figs and the chicken in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain 2.5 cups of the stock (or not...) and set the rest aside (later on, transfer it to tupperware, chill and skim the fat off the top, and use the stock for something else). Also fish out the figs/prunes and have them ready for the next step.

Transfer the roasted tomatoes (or use the drained canned tomatoes), roasted onion half, the toasted garlic, the chipotles, black pepper, cloves, and the figs from the chicken stock to a blender and puree.

Heat the oil in a large pot/dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it's hot, transfer the tomato puree into the pot and stir for about 5 minutes, until it's thickened slightly. Add 1/2 cup of the strained stock and some salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Then add the chicken from the stock, the remaining figs/prunes, the cinnamon stick and the remaining strained stock and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.

Serve chicken and the sauce over rice (rice that can be cooked using the chicken stock you just made... if you need ideas for how to use that stock).

This dish is different from what I think of when I think "Mexican", but different in a surprising and good way. I'd just add more chipotles next time.

Leftover Remix: Stewed chicken with chipotles and figs turned into corn spoonbread.
Inspired by Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread

Leftover chicken from the above recipe: I used 1 breast and 2 thighs, but next time I'd add at least another thigh
Cornbread:
2 cups milk
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs, separated
1 cup of corn kernels, frozen, fresh or canned (drained)

Shred the chicken with two forks (or your hands) and stir together with the sauce. Place in a layer in an 8x8 baking dish.

Make the cornbread:

In your stand mixer, start to beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk until it starts to bubble, then add the cornmeal (if you forget and add them to the saucepan together, that's ok). Cook, stirring continually, until it thickens (a few minutes). Remove from heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and temper them into the milk mixture and stir in the corn. Gently fold in the egg whites and any extra spices you like (I just use salt because the chicken sauce has enough flavor). Pour the cornmeal mixture over the chicken in the pan, and bake at 350F for about 50-60 minutes, until the cornbread is cooked through.

Serve with some chopped cilantro.

I love this dish, I use it pretty often with shredded chicken (which usually only happens when I make crockpot chicken stock and save the chicken meat for something else). I also plan to turn the last 2 thighs from the stewed chicken recipe into a quesadilla, but that's less exciting than corn spoonbread.

Starve a cold, feed a fever

2011-03-12T15:14:00.004-05:00

or... is it feed a cold, starve a fever?

Well, how 'bout I just eat.

When I'm sick (as I am now, sadly), the only thing I really want is pudding. Pudding is tasty, it's soothing on a sore throat, and it's what my mom always used to make me when I was sick as a kid, so it's nostalgic. Mom's recipe is very quick and easy, but tastes so much better than anything in a plastic cup or a little box, which means that a sick person can handle making it.

This time around, I just happened to have a surplus of milk and eggs that I needed to use the day before I got sick, so, having no idea how knocked out I'd be the next day, I decided I wanted some fancy custard. When I needed something cold and soothing the next day, I was very pleased with my pudding decision.

Creme Caramel
from Cooking Light, October 2008

I halved the recipe.

for the custard:
2 cups 2% milk
1t vanilla paste, 2t vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean (I went with the paste)
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
dash of salt
1T heavy cream

for the caramel:
1/2 cup sugar
2T water

For the custard:
Preheat oven to 225F.
In a medium saucepan, combine milk and vanilla and cook over medium heat until tiny bubbles just start to form around the edges. Meanwhile, beat eggs together with 1/3 cup sugar and salt. Once the milk is ready, remove from heat and whisk in a 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the eggs, then another 1/2 cup and a third 1/2 cup- this is tempering the eggs, making sure they don't scramble when you add the hot milk to them. Add the entire milk mixture to the eggs and whisk until well combined. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a small saucepan, combine the water and 1/2 cup sugar. Stir while the sugar dissolves, then cook over medium-high heat without stirring, until the sugar turns a caramel-y brown.

Spray 5 6oz ramekins (or whatever you have, note the the cooking time will change with larger ramekins) with non-stick cooking spray, arrange on a cookie sheet, and divide the caramel among each dish. Now divide the custard among each cup, and transfer (carefully!) to the oven. Bake at 225F for 2 hours, until they're set. Let the custards cool at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.

To serve, run a knife along the edge of the ramekin to loosen the custard, and invert on a plate.

This was my first success with creme caramel. I tried it once before, and it was a huge fail- probably because I was too impatient to let it chill overnight and it fell apart when I tried to get the custard out of the dish. I also added chipotle, which I liked, but Clint didn't... at all. So I'm sticking with this Cooking Light recipe! It's so nice and light and soothing on my poor throat, and delicious for non-sick people.

Mardi Gras!

2011-03-08T13:40:00.000-05:00

Some people want New Orleans cuisine for Mardi Gras, but in our household, with Clint's love of Scandinavia and my actual connection to Scandinavian traditions (as loose as that connection may be), we go for Swedish cuisine.

Worcester is home to a number of excellent eateries. One of our more recent discoveries (sad for our taste buds, good for our waistlines) is the Crown Bakery on Gold Star Blvd. The Crown is a Swedish bakery, specializing in all the deliciousness any bakery can provide, but also in a few Scandinavian delicacies. One of these is Semla Buns, or Semlor. Semlor are a traditional/stereotypical Swedish cardamom roll filled with almond paste and whipped cream, and are eaten on Semmeldagen. (I hear another common filling is strawberry)
You can see that Semlor aren't the only things we came away with, I couldn't resist a half dozen cardamom rolls.

Mood-improving cookies

2011-03-01T11:00:00.004-05:00

Well, friends, since my time of "extended vacation" has begun, I have had more than my fair share of misfortunes. Come on karma, I got laid off, I have no income anymore, and you have to continue to screw me over? Not cool.

Yesterday I was on my way to pilates when I slipped on a short flight of icy steps and fell, hitting each step on the way down. The result is a very sore tailbone. I can't bend over, I can sit on exactly one chair in our house (which is an improvement over yesterday! small victories), and walking is slow and painful. The only thing I can do is go up the stairs. All of this makes me very bitter.

What's worse is that I have so many big things going on this week: a paper due in class today (I totally half-assed writing it yesterday because I was in so much pain, but fortunately it's just a first draft), choir tonight with solo auditions (I certainly can't cough, so can I sing?) and the biggest of all, a breakfast-through-dinner job interview, an hour and 20 minutes away, in two days. I'll walk around campus, sit for 30 minute intervals with various faculty members in their offices, and give an hour-long seminar. I'm scared. I'm scared that I'll be in such pain from trying to sit normally that I'll just break down in the seminar, and I'm worried that if I stock up on painkillers, the fidget-inducing side effect will start in at an unfortunate moment.

So needless to say, I'm in a pretty bad mood. Fortunately, my mom made a new confection I shall call "crack brownies", which do make me feel better. I also discovered a relatively easy but beautiful and delicious cookie recipe that I have made twice since finding it 5 days ago. Mom needs to email me the crack brownie recipe so I can share it here, but let me tell you about these cookies.

These are praline cookies, they are Martha Stewart's Aunt Mary Dillon's Praline Cookies. The cookie base is a very simple and straightforward sugar cookie recipe that I will likely make without the topping. You'll want to slightly underbake them so that they remain chewy in the middle. The topping is very easy, and takes well to whatever nut you have on hand- it doesn't have to be pecans! (note: that's PEE-can, not peh-CAHN. I'm from Connecticut) I found these cookies last week when I was still on the hunt for a new cookie recipe (part 2 of the search that ended in coffee cake). They were included in one of the Martha Stewart cookie slide shows, which are a nice way to quickly view a number of recipes.

Praline Cookies
from Martha Stewart

Cookie:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1t vanilla
1 and 2/3 cup flour
1.5t baking powder
1/2t salt

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla and beat for a few minutes, until that's nice and fluffy.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter mixture, stirring until combined.

Form small balls (I preferred about 1t of dough) and place on a cookie sheet, with space in between (they'll spread out while baking). Bake at 350F for about 10-12 minutes, until they're just turning golden brown on the edges, and look done but are slightly soft when you touch them. Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then on a rack. Top with praline topping when cool.

Praline Topping
1/2 cup cream (I haven't yet tried my favorite fat free 1/2&1/2 here, but I probably will)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 and 1/2 cups nuts, chopped (Martha says pecans, I have tried walnuts and hazelnuts- or use a mix!)

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and then boil (a nice rolling boil) for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and whisk in powdered sugar and stir until combined and no lump remains (you can dump it in for sift it in, I'd recommend sifting but dumping is ok, you'll just have to stir more because of the lumps) and stir in the nuts. Drop teaspoonfuls on cookies immediately. If the topping hardens before you've done all the cookies, place back over the burner and stir until the praline melts again.

You'll have leftover praline, which you can drop on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and let harden. This makes a very addictive sugary snack- just try not to eat too many at once, like I did :-/

What's Baking? February: Baked with Love

2011-02-24T16:52:00.005-05:00

Dunne is hosting our February What's Baking? challenge, and she chose a theme of "baked with love": bake something appropriate to serve on Valentine's Day.

Well, in our house, Valentine's Day coincided with both of us jump-starting our workouts and trying to eat a little healthier. Fortunately, I had recently seen a gluten-free, low-fat chocolate cookie on the Martha Stewart Show (warning: this link takes you to the video, which will start playing automatically), and I just had to try it!

I omitted the chocolate chunks. The cookies are chocolatey enough, and with the goal of a healthy/er cookie, there's no need for extra chocolate (and ok, yes, I know there's fat in the nuts, but that's healthy fat, and you can use fewer nuts. No comment on the amount of sugar, it's still a cookie, after all). Any nut you have on hand would be great in these. I also had a kind of funny mishap- the second time I made these, I made them from memory and accidentally used one less egg white. You know what? The cookies were totally fine (Clint said better). So don't sweat it if you only have 3 egg whites, go for it.
Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart

3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa (or you can use regular baking cocoa, but these really are chocolatey-er and better with Dutch process)
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups hazelnuts (or nuts of your choice)
4 (or 3) egg whites (3 makes a crisper cookie, 4 makes them nice and chewy. I prefer 4, Clint prefers 3)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes. Cool them slightly, then chop roughly.

Sift together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. (I rarely sift, but I recommend it with cocoa, which tends to stay in chunks (like the movie Dune is in your chocolately drink.), although once baked, you won't notice them very much). Stir in the egg whites and chopped nuts.

Drop by tablespoonful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 20-25 minutes, until the cookie tops look dry and are cracked.

Gotta bake... a coffee cake

2011-02-23T14:02:00.003-05:00

I had this crazy idea that once I was unemployed, I'd have all sorts of free time for cooking, organizing, blogging, crafting.... instead, I had an identity crisis. Well, not exactly, but I just don't really know how to structure my day and include everything I should be doing. I've been knitting a lot, and emptying out all the stuff I've had stored on the DVR for months. But cleaning? Organizing? Even cooking? With the exception of some very failed granola bars (sigh), nothing. A full week of being a lazy bum. I did, however, exercise daily (go me!), so it wasn't a complete loss.

Yesterday I snapped out of it... a little. Today was better. But yesterday I decided I required cookies. I browsed, I perused, I found things I'd like but Clint wouldn't, I found things Clint would eat but I wasn't thrilled with... then I found a coffee cake. Not a cookie, but tasty.

And today I've gotten off my lazy butt (finally) and begun to work on the seminar I'll give at a job interview next week. I'm off to a rough start, but hopefully once I settle back in to seminar-preparing it'll be smooth going.

Note: I've never made a coffee cake. Crazy, right? No one in my family has ever made one (that I've tasted, at least). I used to get so excited when someone brought in a slice of a plain vanilla cake with a cinnamony, sugary walnut swirl in the middle, it was such a rare treat. There's no reason I can't make one myself! I'm glad to have fixed that little problem.

Maple Coffee Cake
taken from Miss in the Kitchen

(part of the reason this caught my eye on tastespotting, aside from that beautiful nutty swirl, is because Miss has photographed her coffee cake slice on my mother's every day china. Have you ever seen that china before? No? Me either. I love little coincidences like this!)

Cinnamony Sugary Walnuty Swirl
1/2 cup flour
2T butter, softened
1t cinnamon
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 and 1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, butter and cinnamon until it's crumbly. Stir in the nuts and syrup, and set aside.

Cake
2 cups flour
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1/2t salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1 cup nonfat yogurt or sour cream (I used half greek yogurt and half sour cream; the original recipe suggested vanilla yogurt, which I think would be interesting (in a good way))

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar, add in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla and beat until well-combined and a little fluffy (a few minutes). Add in half the flour, then the yogurt, then the rest of the flour. The batter will be pretty thick.

Grease a bundt pan. Pour in half the batter, spread in an even layer. On top of that, spread the maple walnut mixture in an even layer, and top with the remaining batter. Spreading everything evenly is kind of a pain, just to warn you.

Bake in a 350F oven for 35-40 min. Cool about 10 min before removing from the pan.

This cake has a lovely texture, it's not super soft like other coffee cakes, but has a hearty yet fluffy texture. The cake itself isn't super sweet, so it might be nice with a simple sugar/milk glaze if the maple walnut filling isn't enough.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T17:13:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a very exciting day for me. Not only is it Valentine's Day (which means wearing lots of red, my heart socks, going out to dinner), but today is the day I am laid off.

That's right, I'm unemployed. This is the big life change I've been alluding to for a while.

I have decided to call my unemployment "extended vacation." I am taking time for myself, to rest, to recuperate, to regain my confidence and feelings of self-worth that have been destroyed by my job. I have tried to keep it secret and only tell my very closest friends and my parents, but dear god, I hated my job.

And the economic mess our country is in actually turned things in my favor and caused my lab to lose funding, forcing me out.

Now that I'm to be unemployed, our finances will be tricky, but I think I'll be happy. We've agreed that scrimping and saving is worth getting me out of my misery. I expect to cook more budget meals over the next few months. I also stocked up on yarn while I still had a paycheck, to tide me over the next few months. :)

To celebrate such an exciting and long-awaited day (I've been counting down the days since before Christmas), I wanted to make a dessert. Of course, there are so many lovely recipes floating around in the ether, so I made Clint tell me what he wanted. We're going out to dinner, so I wanted something simple but tasty, to snack on over the next few days. He said either nutella blondies or something with berries.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes
(you'll hear about those chocolate cookies later this week)
These cupcakes are more of an assembly/flavor combination suggestion than a new recipe. I've mentioned the frosting and cake recipes before, and I continue to use them often because they're so good!

Vanilla Cupcakes,
Magnolia Bakery's recipe, via Martha Stewart

2 sticks of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1t vanilla
1cup milk
2-3/4 cups AP flour
2-1/4t baking powder
1/4t salt

Cream the butter and sugar (beat a few minutes), add eggs and beat after each, until it's well-combined. Whisk the dry ingredients together and then add about 1/3 of that to the mixture, then about half the milk. Add more flour, the rest of the milk, the rest of the flour. After each addition, beat only until just barely combined, don't overbeat.

Preheat oven to 350F, and fill cupcake tins with liners or mini cupcake tins with liners about 2/3 full with batter (minis get about 1T). Bake about 20 min for regular cupcakes, 15 min for minis.

Makes 1 dozen regular + 3 dozen mini cupcakes.

Raspberry Filling

Some frozen raspberries (3/4 cup or so)

In a small saucepan, cook the raspberries for a few minutes, until they're saucy. Cool. (I didn't bother straining, but if the seeds bother you, strain).

Boiled Lemon Frosting
from coconut&lime

I recommend making a half batch. I only wish I could remember that before I start!

For a full batch:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
4 egg whites
pinch of salt

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice and zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches soft ball stage (about 230F).

Meanwhile, starting beating the egg whites and salt in a stand mixer on high. Beat until soft peaks form.

Pour the hot sugar in a steady stream into the egg whites while the mixer is on low. Once the sugar is all in, turn it up to medium-high and beat for 5-6 minutes. Frost cool cupcakes (I used an offset spatula, not a piping bag or anything)

Assembly:
Normally when I fill cupcakes, I use a piping bag with a medium-sized round tip and inject the cupcakes. With a fruit filling, I thought that might not work, so I went with the other method, cutting out a cone of cupcakes and replacing it. This method is tedious and annoying and I do not prefer it. However, it worked well with the raspberry filling.

Once the cupcakes are cool, cut a cone out of the top of the cupcake with a sharp knife, so there's a well- don't get rid of the cone, though. Spoon about 1t raspberry filling into the well, and place the cone back on top. Don't add so much filling that it squirts out everywhere when you push the cupcake cone back in. Then frost as normal- the frosting will hide the ugly gash in the cupcake.

It just adds an extra step, compared to the injection method, but it works well for this.

Happy Nutella Day!

2011-02-05T09:32:00.000-05:00

Yay it's Nutella Day! Don't you love it? Go open your jar of nutella and scoop of a big spoonful for a big nutella toast with me!

Or, you know, make something with it.
First, visit the World Nutella Day website for a round-up of all this year nutella recipe entries. I have plenty of nutella leftover, so I'm very eager for some inspiration. Also visit Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso for additional nutella-related excitement.

I'd go on and on about how much I love nutella, and how tasty it is, but I'm too eager to get to my recipe. I will say, though, that my grandmother is a recent nutella convert, which is great. She'd never heard of it before (I feel terrible I never baked her anything with nutella), but she currently has an Estonian caretaker who lives on nutella, so now the whole household is crazy over it. Rightly so, of course.

This year on World Nutella Day, I'm enjoying Nutella Rice Pudding. I was inspired by a mocha rice pudding I saw on taste spotting, and while I didn't want to put coffee in mine on that particular day (a snowy day, when the roads were so bad I'd already decided to leave work asap), I liked the idea of chocolate... and I had two and a half jars of nutella at home.

Nutella Rice Pudding
a wamozart12 original

1.5 cups of milk (I used skim)
1 cup fat free 1/2&1/2 (or you can use 2.5 cups of whatever dairy product you prefer, this produced a very thick and creamy pudding)
2T sugar
1/3 cup arborio rice
1t vanilla
1T cocoa powder
1/4 cup nutella

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 1/2&1/2, sugar, rice and vanilla. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 40 minutes, until it has thickened and the rice is soft. Stir occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder and nutella. Cool.

Enjoy hot, warm, cold, plain or with a dollop of just barely sweetened whipped cream, or just eat it straight from the saucepan. I can't decide the best temperature: it's such a comfort food when warm, but the nutella flavor definitely deepens when it's chilled. It has a wonderfully thick texture, not runny at all. I love it. This is now my go-to rice pudding recipe- I'm sure I'll be enjoying it much more often! (fortunately, Clint doesn't like rice pudding, so I don't have to share :-D )

Here's a round up of this year's nutella recipes:
Nutella Banana Swirl Bread
Nutella Brownies
and I never blogged about these, but they're good (omg especially dunked in coffee): Nutella Cookies
I wasn't as well-organized as last year.

Nutella Banana Bread

2011-02-04T16:27:00.003-05:00

Ah, nutella day. It’s such an exciting time of the year!

[Note: pictures coming soon!]

Today’s nutella installment is more of a good idea than a new recipe. It’s a nice way to jazz up your favorite banana bread recipe.

My mom makes banana bread pretty often, because it’s a great way to use up old bananas. I used to have bananas on hand much more often (now I only have bananas in winter, to try to avoid a fruit fly infestation in the warmer months) and I, too, made banana bread practically every other week. But when you make something so often like that, you tend to get sick of it. Maybe that’s just me. But these days I usually give away all my banana bread. I’ll eat it fresh from the oven, but then I can’t wait to get rid of it!

Adding a swirl of nutella will help with that, I think. I already know that bananas and nutella are a wonderful combination. Here, the banana bread isn’t all that sweet, so once you get to the bite of nutella swirl, its super-sweetness is more satisfying than cloying.

Note: this isn’t my standard banana bread recipe, but I liked that it used 1/3 cup of yogurt- I have a giant container of nonfat plain greek yogurt that I’ve been struggling to use up, so I was very glad to have another use for it. You don’t have to use this recipe, you can use your own favorite. This one’s good, too.

Banana Bread with Nutella Swirl

adapted from The Family Kitchen

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1/2-3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2, if you want it sweeter, use 3/4)

3 brown/spotty bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1t vanilla

1/3 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream or buttermilk)

1 cup AP flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1t baking soda

1/2t salt

1/3-1/2 cup nutella, slightly softened

Cream the butter and sugar until it’s sandy (it won't get too fluffy). Beat in the bananas, eggs, vanilla and yogurt.

Sift together the flours, soda and salt, and stir into the wet mixture.

Grease a loaf pan and fill with about half the batter. Spread the nutella over the batter, then add the remaining batter.

Bake at 350F for 1hr 10min.

It smells delicious, starting about 20 minutes into baking :)

Next time I make this, instead of spreading the nutella in a single layer just before baking, I’d rather fold it into the bowl of the batter to get more of a distribution. I wouldn’t mix so that it’s fully incorporated, but just so that it’s found more throughout the dough than in the single layer. Or perhaps there should be 3 layers of batter and 2 layers of nutella.