Sipping & Seeing

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to co-host at my home a sip & see (post pregnancy baby shower) for a dear friend of mine.  The whole thing was lovely, the food was delicious, and snuggling with an adorable newborn was a welcomed treat. 

I take no credit for the amazing food and decor.  My only real work was getting the house and myself semi decent for a dozen ladies to enjoy their afternoon.  Amy T. and Summer Block, you gals are amazing and I will co-host (and eat all your goodies [Amy T. made FROM SCRATCH macarons!!] and appreciate your decor taste) alongside you anytime!

Giving thanks for leftovers

I know it's a little late for thanksgiving leftover recipes, but these were too good (and too easy!) not to share.

Crescent rolls make great savory pockets for leftover turkey, veggies, stuffing, etc. 
I chopped all the leftover goodies I had into little cubes.
Added a tablespoon of cream cheese to bind it all together.
Mixed it all up.
Spooned it onto the dough.
Folded away.
Brushed lightly with an egg wash.
Baked according to crescent roll instructions until golden brown.
Ate delicious "turkey pies" (as Miller called them) for the next few days!

For some sweet leftover crescent rolls goodies...
I mixed a tablespoon each of cream cheese and goat cheese
Spread the cheese mixture onto the rolled out crescent roll (pressing together the perforations).
Spread a top layer of leftover stirred cranberry sauces (homemade and canned).
Rolled up and cut into pinwheels.
Baked according to crescent roll instructions until golden brown.
These were gone in a matter of hours.  :)

I hope you had as many lovely leftover treats and memories as we did!

 

Octoberfesting

It may still be flip flop weather here in Southern California, but that's not stopping us from celebrating a great Autumn season.

How's your celebrating coming along?

Celebrate

Sunny breezes, sugar highs, and new sights to see. 
It was a busy weekend. 
A busy, wonderful weekend.

I do hope yours was just as sweet.

{Dying eggs}

{Painting cookies with food coloring}

{Finding treasures}

{New specs}

Superbowl snackery at its finest!

I've had a few new chocolate bark ideas rolling around in my head since Christmas.
One hope with these ideas is to create familiar desserts and translate them into bark form.  My first two endeavors were quite the success.

{Red Velvet Bark, Blueberry Streusel Bark}

 

Red Velvet Chocolate Bark: 

Melt together 1/2 a bag each of good quality white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips by microwaving and stirring in thirty second increments until smooth.

Stir in red food coloring a few drops at a time.  (About 6 in total.)  If the chocolate seizes up from adding the coloring, just stir and re-microwave the chocolate in ten second increments until it's at a smoother texture again.  (I'm sure there's a more professional chocolatier way to stop this or fix seizing chocolate, but I am lazy and this easy fix seems to work just fine for me.)

In another bowl melt one cup of white chocolate chips in 30 second increments until smooth.

Spread out the white/milk chocolate mix onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Drizzle melted white chocolate onto main chocolate.  Swirling into chocolate with a fork or toothpick, if desired.

Cool for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Break apart into bite size pieces.

Share and enjoy!

Blueberry Streusel Bark:

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Cut 3 tablespoons of butter into mix until it's at a good sandy texture.

Spread mixture evenly onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake until golden brown.  Stirring about halfway through.  (About 10-12 minutes total.)

Set aside to cool.

Melt good quality white chocolate chips, microwaving and stirring in 30 second increments until melted and smooth.

Spread onto parchment lined baking sheet.

Drizzle blueberry preserves or reduction if you have the time (I used Bonne Mamam Wild Blueberry Preserves.)  Swirling into chocolate with a fork or toothpick.

Sprinkle streusel topping and press into chocolate before it cools.

Cool for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Break into bite size pieces.

Share and enjoy!

{Miller liking it now.}

{Ivy liking it "later".}

I'm thinking about a tiramisu bark and/or a carrot cake bark next...
Any other ideas I should play with? Or any other ideas that you've made, had or seen?

Barky Bark

Confession- I'm not a good baker.
In fact I'm a pretty lousy, lazy and very impatient baker.
Which is why come holiday season (or any and all seasons I find justifiable for eating and sharing sweets), I always stick with my go to chocolate barks.  (No peppermint bark recipes here since my pregnancy with Miller permanently turned me off.  My stomach is literally knotting up as I type this.  YUCK!)

My photos may not as pretty as these ones from Poppytalk.  (Honestly?!  With toffee too?!  I wish I would have thought of that!)

But it is just as simple.
And it takes less than 5 minutes.
And I promise you just as delicious.

5 Easy Steps, Endless Possibilities
Melt good quality chocolate (double boiler or microwave for 30 second increments)
Stir in fixings
Spread out on parchment lined cookie sheet
Cool in fridge
Break into bite size pieces 

{The stand by crowd pleasers: semi sweet chocolate chips with crushed pretzels, white chocolate chips with crushed oreos}

What's your favorite holiday treat to share?

Don't mind if I do!

It's been too hot to bake. 

And before this blasted Los Angeles muggy heat moved in, I was on a strict no sweets diet plan.  The three weeks since Ivy's birth I've been able to indulge my sweet tooth with ice cream and limeades and fruit any time I want.  (Ha!  Take that, pregnancy related insulin resistance!)

Today has cooled a bit.  Not enough to swelter in our apartment with an oven on, but cooled enough for me to plan some future desserts (found via Pinterest) to stuff my face with.

What's your vote?

{Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars via The Girl Who Ate Everything}

{Cinnamon Roll Pancakes via Recipe Girl}

{Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies via Very Culinary originally from Picky Palate}

{Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread via With a Side of Sneakers}

{Strawberry Cream Pie via Sweet Fine Day}

Two'in it up

I had grand schemes.

Rustic jars with burlap and pebble tablescapes.  Papercut camping scenes throughout the food table.  Butcher paper ribbons streaming in the breeze.  Homemade mini pies.  Toilet paper roll binoculars.  Vintage sheets turned into tented sanctuaries.  S'more pops.

I had grand schemes.

Then I remembered that he's 2.  And I'm 9 months pregnant.  And everything doesn't need to look like it's out of a magazine or event planning blog.

Evan and I re-focused our tasks and made sure we had the basics for a great party - good food, cold beverages, shade from the heat, and plenty of room for lots of littles to run off all those sweets.

The day was perfect.

And I know Miller thought so as well.

 

Karen Carpenter just popped up on shuffle reminding me of TOMMY BOY

I'm drinking an iced coffee.
Miller's "sweeping" the floor with a foam sword and making monkey sounds.
It's almost noon and we're still in our pajamas.

So far 32 is shaping up to be a good year...

P.S. Do you think our dog, Heidi, and Miller can make me this cake before Evan gets home from work?

{Via Ohdeedoh}

P.P.S.  In all seriousness, each year gets better and better.  Challenges and hopes often dip and swirl, but with each new day I fall more and more in love with what the sunrise brings me.  

P.P.P.S.  Remember this birthday post from last year?  It's funny how so many things are exactly the same, and yet so completely new.  :)

Again, 

from all my heart, 

thank you for reading me.  

Thank you for inspiring me.

Po-Tay-Toe, Po-Ta-Toe

Evan opened the fridge and totally called out my procrastination the other night.  "Are you going to do anything with all these veggies from the CSA box we got a week and a half ago?" 

I quickly searched for a response to defend myself, but the truth was in his hands like a bouquet.  A bouquet of limp radishes, carrots and celery.  I shifted the uncomfortable mass that has become my body, wiped away a milk mustache and declared, "We're having potato salad for dinner.  Didn't I tell you?"


Roasted Root Vegetable Potato Salad

• Cut, with skin on (what turns out to be about 3 cups) of your choice of potato (I think I used yukon gold) into about 1" cubes or quarters.  
• Add potatoes to a pot of boiling water for about 8 mins until they are "al dente".  Remove from water.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
• Chop veggies (radishes, carrots, celery) into even sized cuts.  (Radishes, in half and sliced about 1/4" thick.  Carrots about 1/4" thick.  Celery about 1/2" thick.)
• Spread veggies (not potatoes yet) onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix veggies around to get an even coated layer. 
• Spread al dente potatoes evenly onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Drizzle with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix around to get an even coated layer.
• Roast veggies and potatoes for about 20 minutes.  Occasionally rotating sheets or stirring around to distribute roasting.  When done, potatoes and veggies should still have a subtle firmness, but roasty and tender at the same time.
• Let cool completely.
• Meanwhile, mix 1/3 cup mayo (or more if you like), 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.  
• Once potatoes and veggies are cooled toss them into a bowl with the dressing (adding more or less depending on your tastes).
• Enjoy!

We threw a few spoonfuls on some romaine lettuce and topped it off with a crumbled hard boiled egg.  DEE-LISH.

Nothing says summertime like a potato covered in a mayonaise based dressing.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Minis

One of the greatest gifts our friends and families blessed us with after coming home from the hospital with Miller was to organize and treat us to meals and snacks for those first few weeks of acclimating to a new baby.

Every other day we'd get an email or phone call from someone ready to know what time they could deliver the goods.  Sometimes they stayed and shared a meal with us.  Sometimes they stayed just long enough to smile at Miller and do our piles of dirty dishes.  It was all so so SO heavenly.

Although I still owe one of two families that just had a new baby a foodie stock up (and don't even try to say "it's not necessary" because "it's so happening anyway", you know who you are...), I did manage to visit my dear friend, Erin, last week with some of my personal favorite food goodies.

I may have also just wanted to visit her to coo at her beautiful new baby.

{I forget how tiny newborns really are... and how they don't tell you "NO" every time you need to them to put on clothes.}

Instead of a full meal, I brought Erin and her husband a variety of fresh fruits as well as a dozen mini quiches which could be frozen and popped in the microwave for a quick breakfast, snack, power boost, etc.

{These cooling buddies have spinach, corn, tomatoes and zucchinis}

I used a friend's family quiche recipe (which I don't know if I have the liberty to share on here, but it is VERY similar to this one here from epicurious- which can easily be modified to suit your own cheese/meat/veggie likes or fridge inventories).

I rolled out some store bought pie crusts, cut them into square-esque shapes, molded them into buttered muffin pans and spooned out the quiche mixture goodness.  (Some recipes call for you to bake a pie crust a bit before you add the egg mixture.  Instead, I just made sure to turn the oven down a tad and let them cook for a few minutes longer.  Eyeballing and covering with foil if necessary.)

After they had cooled awhile in the muffin pans, I slid a knife around the mini quiches and popped them out to cool completely before bagging them up (with a square of parchment in between each one) into a double sealed freezer bag.

When a snack craving hits, all the new parents need to do is pop one (or two... or six) into the microwave for about a minute and VIOLA! something other than a nutri-grain bar and a bowl of cheez-its for a 3pm (or 3am) food emergency.

Of course I doubled the recipe and had to make a large quiche for my own family too.  When in Rome, right?  Or rather when I'm surrounded by cheese and pie crust, right?

What do you have cooking up for your long weekend?

I am equally glad and surprised that Friday is here already.  Where did this week go??? 

On top of working and daily life, I've managed to squeeze in hours (HOURS!) of much (MUCH!) needed napping.  (I'm starting to think Miller slips me roofies every morning so he can get extra Disney Junior tv time.)

A million projects (nesting, crafting and otherwise) began this week, but not finished.  Stay tuned next week.  I promise some goodies will be done. 

Speaking of napping, I hear a certain someone who is supposed to be "relaxing" in his big bed playing with blocks...

I hope you appreciate your weekend.  I hope you appreciate "relaxing" as much as I do.  :)

Monday Motivators

KALE CHIPS!!!  Our family finds anything labeled "chip" irresistible.  It's a good thing too because these are actually quite delicious and quite addicting and quite full of vitamins.

Speaking of food indulgences- owning the SILVER SPOON again after losing it a few years ago.  Man, oh man, this is an amazing cookbook.  (Thank you, Mother's Day Barnes & Noble giftcard!)

Kristen EM-EFFING Wiig (Who wants to babysit so Evan and I can go see BRIDESMAIDS??)

A ton of new stuff I'll be adding to the shop later this week.

Belly hiccups

Not spilling the beans early on great birthday surprises.

Not losing our cool when this becomes a standard eating in restaurants moment:

{Not everyone liked Umami Burger}

Monday Motivators

I'm swimming in deeper waters again this week to appreciate another close to my heart motivator...  I promise, shallow, cute, mundane bits will be appreciated in the future too.  :)

I've shared many times before how grateful, blessed and proud I am to be friends with and even related to (by blood and marriage) so many awesome quality people.  What I'm even more grateful, blessed and proud of is that throughout the years of friendship I've had with so many of these awesome ladies and gents, we've been able to watch each other "grow up".

Careers.
Relationships.
Families.
We are all changing.  Shifting.  Moving forward on different paths.

And although we are each living lives so separate from the other, I trust our friendship,
whether its one of many years or of many months
or whether its one that spends time together many times a week or meets after many months apart,
keeps us bond,
grounded,
committed,
appreciated,
validated
and sincerely loved.

Evan has a weak spot when it comes to watching movies or television.  Never fail, whenever a character enters a room filled with people and there's a great sense of pride and excitement and love to see that character, Evan's eyes tear up and he's lost in that moment.  My eyes tear up and I'm lost in that moment.  (Finale of "Lost", end of RUDY, etc)

"We are all really glad you are here."

I am really glad you are all here.   
Thanks for being my friend.


*P.S.  Here's the banana split I attempted to finish to motivate you this week too

{Dewar's}

I may have oil splatters on my new shirt, but that soup was delish and a hit with the pickiest of non-veggie eaters

Most nights I make dinner and I think the same three things:

"Miller, you are going to eat the same food we are eating"
"Miller, you are going to love it."
"Miller, you are not giving me any sh#@ about it."

Most nights this positive thinking works.
Especially if I define "most nights" as the "nights we order pizza."

Most other nights we give in, watch a perfectly awesome plate of roasted chicken and potatoes get cold, and heat up a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal instead.
Most nights this positive thinking works.

Tonight, a very non-pizza night, I made a creamy asparagus soup.
Tonight, Miller ate all of it.
Tonight, I told him it was dip for his toast.

Whatever works, right?

Saute (on medium heat) 1 chopped white onion and about 2 store bundles of asparagus (cut into half inch pieces) into 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil until the onions and asparagus get soft (about 5-8 mins).
Stir in 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme. Salt and pepper (liberally).
Add 3 cups of whatever broth/water combination you choose.  Let simmer for about 15 mins.  Then turn down heat to low.
If you own an immersion blender, this is the part where you blend away.  If you're like me you scoop out all the solid bits and blend them together (in batches) in your tiny food processor.
Slowly stir in 1 1/2 cups of whatever cream/milk combination you choose.
Simmer for another 5 mins.
Slowly stir in 1 cup of instant mashed potato flakes to thicken soup.
Simmer for another 5 mins (or until your toddler throws himself on the floor and through crocodile tears begs to eat) and then ladle yourself a warm bowl of toast dipping goodness.


P.S. Anybody know any good tricks to get olive oil spots out of shirts???

Baby Sprinkles

Baby showers are always a treat.
Even more of a treat if it's good friend.
Even more and more of a treat if you get to help host. (Along with my other great friends- {also named} Amy and {also named} Summer.)

{Crafting intensity;  book filled with future notes, memories or advice for the baby boy}

{Puffball animal mobile}

{Enjoying delicious food and great company. (Thank you Amy T. and Summer St. P. for these two great pictures!)}

Summer, I hope you enjoyed your day as much as we all enjoyed celebrating the upcoming arrival of your little boy!