February 4, 2011

Cocktail Time: Juice of a Few Flowers!

It’s Friday! What does that mean?? HAPPY HOUR!!! My buddy, Miss James just got a copy of Barefoot Contessa’s Back to Basics Cookbook and we’re trying to plan a few recipes to cook on the same night so we can do a virtual GIRL’S NIGHT. Totally sucks having cool peeps live so far away. I hate it! To start it off, I’ve made this cocktail for our Happy Hour. We can now ichat under the influence. The typing gets a little crappy, but oooh does the truth come out!

Let me tell you that this cocktail is TASTY. The first few sips are like WHOA. It’s a bit on the strong side, but if you exploit the sugar rim you’ll be just fine. It definitely balances out the alcohol and citrus TANG. After finishing the first drink, you’ll find the second one to be much smoother! We even did a little gin floater on top. Amazing. So won’t you make yourself a cocktail and have one with us?
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Photography, Uncategorized

February 4, 2011

365- Week 5

A food related photo every day til 2012. Here’s week 5:

35/365 SMOOOOOTHIE TIME!!!

around the home, Uncategorized

February 3, 2011

Organizing GIVEAWAY from Five Spoons!

I’m always marking up my cookbooks and when I look at them sitting on my bookshelf, it bothers me to see all the different pieces of paper sticking out. Tissues, magazine subscription postcards, cut up post-its and random bits of paper stick out of so many of my cookbooks. I can’t tell you how many bookmarks I’ve lost because there’s no sticky backing to the paper. Grrrrrr!

It’s time to make a stand. With the help of these little stickies from Five Spoons, I can now have piece of mind when I look at my bookshelf. I’m able to mark all of my favorite/tried & true recipes from each of my cookbooks. I love that.
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recipes

February 1, 2011

Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

These Vegan Thumbprint Cookies pair ridiculously well with my morning cappuccino & make a fantastic snack in the afternoon with some tea. They are like an energy bar in cookie form!

They’re a little dense, crunchy, and kinda buttery with all of the almonds in them. They’re a snap to make, totally kid-friendly (as long as there are no nut allergies in your household) and the recipe makes a ton! I definitely think I’ll make this WITH Cooper when he’s not prone to dumping flour all over the place (that may take a while). It’s no big deal if he eats the batter! The only problem I encountered was figuring out which one of the jams I liked most. I used blueberry jam (I made from scratch) as well as apricot & raspberry jam (from Trader Joe’s). I really liked the seedy raspberry ones; they were the prettiest. I did love the tang of the apricot too! I dunno! I can’t decide. Let me just take another sample…
CONTINUE READING

around the home, Uncategorized

January 30, 2011

Valentine’s Day Decor 2011

It’s raining today & we’re stuck indoors so I declared today CRAFT DAY! I finally cleared off my Winter mantle decoration. I liked how it didn’t SCREAM Christmas, so I kept it up longer than usual. While Casey & Cooper were playing with trains downstairs, I started cutting up a few hearts out of cute craft paper. I forgot how fun it was to make them when I was a kid! Totally brought me back!

recipes, Uncategorized

January 28, 2011

Kale Walnut Pesto Pasta

Sometimes I wonder if I would have liked kale when I was a kid. My mom made us spinach regularly and Swiss Chard on occasions but never kale. If I had kale chips, I’d have to assume I’d be into them. I have always been a sucker for crunchy things and I don’t think my kid palette would have discriminated. But then again I think I might have been horrified with the kale chip-in- teeth- situation. Oh god, imagine if that happened in high school! If I loved them as much as I do now, I’d be Tracy– that chick with the swamp teeth! I’d be standing alone at the school dance, the Cranberries would be playing and I’d be picking at my teeth waiting for some boy to ask me to dance. Gross…

I digress…So kale AS pesto. Sounds pretty neat huh? It is. With a little bit of lemon it’s bright green & lovely. With some toasted walnuts it’s smokey and nutty. With some olive oil and Parmesan cheese, it’s smooth and creamy. I fantasize about dipping some of my Killer Garlic Bread in some. I bet it would be an amazing sauce/base for a pizza… fantastic on a baked potato or in a bruschetta concoction. Don’t feel like going through the whole process of making pesto? Try this Pasta with Braised Kale recipe instead. But really, come on! It’s super easy.