embellishing the nest

I think I'm in heaven.

2011-08-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

This popped up on my Google Reader feed thanks to Never Turn Down A Cupcake and I'm definitely in love.

HEAVEN IN A JAR.

(I'll wait while you squeal with delight and plot your own attempt at the recipe.)

Peanut butter and Oreos??? My siblings and I would dip Oreos in peanut butter whenever my mom actually permitted Oreos in the house (which was not often).

Side note: My mom once tried to convince me that fruit leather was the same as a fruit roll-up. I was not fooled and have hated fruit leather ever since.

So this is the exact OPPOSITE of the fruit leather. Oreo-y, peanut buttery, rich deliciousness.

I can't wait to try it out!!!

Celebrating 20 years of love

2011-07-24T15:28:00.000-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, Steve and I flew to the Texas coast (and it was quite a traveling experience) to celebrate my mom and stepdad's 20th wedding anniversary.

And what a party weekend it was! They threw a fantastic party right on the beach and renewed their vows in front of their closest family and friends. I'm pretty sure Mom has already picked the photo of all of us on the beach as the Christmas card picture.

All of the photos from the evening were taken by Breanna Powers of Powerhouse Studios. She also shot my wedding, and I'm already dreaming up more life events so I can have more of her beautiful photos!

Hello old friend

2011-07-12T22:14:00.000-04:00

So...I took a blogging break. Not intentionally, but it just kind of slipped to the bottom of my to-do list. Work took over and things got a little busy and we had family in town and I had a really awful cold...but I'm back! And rarin' to go. Coming up this week: dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies for the DC State Fair bake sale and a chocolate cake for a visiting friend.

Here's a peek at what I've been up to over the last couple months.

My dad visited for a few days and created the beer suicide - a couple ounces of everything on tap. The orange slice for the Blue Moon mixed with the Guinness...I shudder.

I made dark chocolate brownies at a friend's request, and he gave me the most sincere, genuine hug ever.

Open-face egg sandwich with frisee, tomato, bacon and a sprinkle of parmesan. LOVE breakfast for dinner. It's been a favorite in our dinner rotation.

My dad and I tried Paul, and the pain au chocolat was fantastic. I was transported back to Paris (when Steve ate pain au chocolat at least twice a day every day we were there). My dad liked it so much he went back two more times during his visit.

Vanilla cupcakes filled with Merry Gourmet's lemon curd and topped with cream cheese frosting. Frosting turned out a bit thick, but the cupcakes disappeared quickly!

The First of Many Trips to Napa

2011-05-16T21:29:00.001-04:00

Steve and I went to Napa to celebrate our first anniversary and it was AMAZING. We've already discussed going back. Wonderful people, great food and fantastic wine. And best company ever!

Whole Spice at Oxbow Market was incredible. I'm already planning my first online order.

Steve kept going from table to table smelling the different rubs, curries, salts and spices. Spice overload.

Oxbow: home to C Casa and some of the most delicious and inventive tacos EVER. Can't wait to go back! C Casa - come to DC!

Our tasting at Cardinale was a perfect way to start the trip...fabulous wine and beautiful views of the valley.

We had dinner at Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Restaurant and sat next to this cute little piggy. I wanted to take him home!

For dinner at Ad Hoc: hanger steak with a mushroom ragu, fingerling potatoes and buttermilk onion rings. Food was good but sadly not as good as expected. Steak needed seasoning and salad was standard. Standouts: milk chocolate panna cotta, mushroom ragu and buttermilk onion rings.

Delicious pizzas (margherita and sausage/lemon/arugula) for dinner at Oenotri, right across the street from our hotel. Would love to go back and try more options there!

Amazing tomatillo and roasted poblano soup with creme fraiche and cilantro at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen.

Famed duck burger at Cindy's. So amazing I would fly back right now to eat one. Pretty please.

Beautiful bathroom at Darioush (most ridiculously overdone winery in Napa but so fun). Gorgeous turquoise tiles and beautiful mirrors!

The debate rages on about whether Thomas Keller's Bouchon was the best meal of the trip. We were so wrapped up in the meal (and talking with our neighboring table) that I forgot to to take pictures.

I DID snap a picture of the profiteroles at Bouchon. Steve decided that we'd have profiteroles there before we even left for Napa. SO worth it. Decadent, rich and absolutely dreamy.

Anniversary night in San Francisco!

Probably the single best dish of the trip (at the other best dinner) - Steve's braised black cod on foie gras-shiitake rice with charred bok choy at Baker and Banker. Heaven on a plate. We both agreed we could have eaten a plate of just the rice. (Side note: I got the braised duck with gnocchi, spring vegetables and ricotta salata. Quite delicious but definitely no foie gras rice.)

AMAZING trip. Can't wait to head back to Napa. Next time: The French Laundry.

One whole year!

2011-05-10T22:22:00.000-04:00

One year (and a few days) ago, this happened:

What a fantastic day. Celebrating our marriage with family and friends. Great food, wine and dancing. Fantastic and touching toasts. My brother doing the EXACT choreography from Indian Thriller on the dance floor. One of Steve's friends doing the worm on the dance floor. Steve getting mobbed by his groomsmen and friends on the dance floor. One of the bartenders getting fired for acting a bit too much like a guest (complete with photos). One of Steve's friends faceplanting off a ledge and staying out to party after the wedding. Going from bar to bar to try to find one that stayed open past 11 on a Saturday night (seriously, Riverwalk??). Finding out later that a few of our friends demolished a 100-piece McDonald's mcnugget box after the reception.

Yep. 100 nuggets. Split between 5 or 6 friends.

Best night of my life!

For Japan With Love

2011-03-17T21:37:00.000-04:00

I know I don't post every day, but I just had to participate in For Japan With Love. Put together by Utterly Engaged and Ever Ours to raise money for Japan disaster relief, it's a blogger day of silence.

The catastrophic situation in Japan has touched everyone, and here is an opportunity to contribute to helping families survive disasters. ShelterBox provides a tent for a family, survival equipment, etc. With an earthquake, a tsunami and a potential nuclear disaster, this is absolutely crucial.

Donate now to provide shelter to those affected by the disasters in Japan.

A swoon-worthy kitchen

2011-03-16T23:07:00.000-04:00

Wow. This kitchen is...wow.

(From I Want That Kitchen)

Definitely can't make a pot of my husband's family sauce in there. The whole kitchen would have red polka dots.

Slovenian Potica: FAIL

2011-03-13T20:48:00.000-04:00

My husband Steve is part Slovenian, and his grandmother used to make potica (pronounced puh-teetz-ah) when he was younger. He and his sister still rave about how good it was, so I decided to give it a shot this weekend.

The recipe seemed deceptively simple. So I followed the instructions exactly, not wanting to mess this childhood favorite up, and thought I was doing just fine.

Then the dough wouldn't rise.

I moved the dough from the warm laundry closet to the open oven door (with the oven on at 200) and that didn't even work.

Plan C (since Plan B was the oven door option) was to add newly flowered active dry yeast and incorporate it into the dough.

Thankfully Plan C worked. The dough doubled and I rolled it out into two loaves, filled with butter, honey, walnuts and cinnamon.

They had to rise again for an hour, so I went back to watching a movie. When I returned, they had practically filled a cookie sheet. One looked was shaped like a loaf and one looked like a big blob of goo (guess which one I rolled first - hah). After some finagling, I managed to wrangle the blob into a more appropriate shape. I was a little afraid it would keep growing and eat the other one, so I moved the nice loaf to another cookie sheet.

The left one is the somewhat-wrangled blob. I'm hoping for the next attempt the rolls will be a bit tighter. Either that or I need to get a bread pan and just shove the rolls in there.

The first one came out of the oven very, um, bronzed and had grown AGAIN. We sliced it and tried it...

Verdict? Definitely not Grandma's potica. It tasted okay, but the key seemed to be that the roll needed to be tighter so you get that true cinnamon swirl.

Oh well. Now I just have to figure out what to do with almost two whole loaves of potica.

My current obsession

2011-03-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

Ratatouille. Made from Thomas Keller's recipe found here.

Love love love love love, especially paired with a bit of mozzarella and a baguette.

Frying chicken at home

2011-03-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

I've never really been one for fried food. It's greasy, heavily breaded, and usually leaves me feeling like I've contributed to a future clogged artery.

When Steve said he wanted to make French fries at home for BaconFest 2011, I was fine with it - figuring they would turn out greasy and heavy. I figured I'd just let him eat them. So when I tried one of the golden, crispy, hot fries that he made, I was hooked.

Since then, we've made another batch of French fries and, as of last night, fried chicken.

We paired the chicken with a raspberry chipotle sauce that my mom sends me from Texas. I still haven't been able to find it in the DC area. (That sauce is like crack - we could eat it with just about anything. Seriously.)

We used Bobby Flay's recipe for the batter and it turned out amazing. I'll probably add more hot sauce to the brine and cayenne to the flour mixture next time - give it more of a kick.

Crispy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside...I'm hooked. Steve took it one step further and made a fried chicken sandwich using a potato bun, cream cheese, chicken and the raspberry chipotle sauce. And since every meal should have some kind of vegetable, we braised Swiss chard while the chicken was frying.

We're definitely making it again.

Charcutepalooza: February Challenge

2011-02-27T17:46:00.000-05:00

The February challenge for Charcutepalooza was bacon or pancetta. (Pancetta for the more adventurous, bacon for the apprentice level.)

I did actually complete the challenge by the Feb. 15 deadline, but my computer didn't make the journey with me - it died. So I wasn't able to post until now. I realize it's almost March and I should be brining something for the March challenge. Oh well.

I didn't want to go too crazy for February since it was my first Charcutepalooza challenge, so I went with the apprentice challenge: Bacon.

I stalked my Whole Foods meat counter to make sure they would have enough pork belly - in one piece - when I wanted to purchase it. Since that weekend was Super Bowl weekend, I was just crossing my fingers that no one was going to go gourmet with their parties and buy out the stock of pork belly.

Thankfully, they didn't. I came home with this lovely below - all four pounds of her.

I gave it a quick rub down with the mixture I had whipped up thanks to Michael Ruhlman's book. I hadn't been able to locate pink salt at the last minute (yes, I procrastinated), so I just used regular salt. And tried not to think about the botulism spores that could grow in the garlic throughout the week the pork belly would sit in the fridge.

By Tuesday I was still thinking about the botulism spores (read: having a panic attack about eating the bacon/giving the bacon away/killing someone).

I know Ruhlman had said it was unlikely to happen and that countless sources online said that cooking the bacon at a certain temperature would kill any botulism spores in it, but I couldn't help it.

I gave in to my neuroses. I plucked each and every piece of garlic off the pork belly before putting it back in the fridge.

So a few days after that, I pulled the pork belly out of the fridge and roasted it. (The apartment smelled SO GOOD.) I let it cool for awhile and then tried slicing it.

My friends, if you are doing this, do not immediately slice your bacon. It needs to be cold to get those traditional slices of bacon. (Believe me - I hacked up a couple inches of the pork belly before I got frustrated and stuck the whole thing in the freezer. It worked!) I left my pork belly in the freezer for about 45 minutes - it was nowhere close to freezing - and it made slicing so much easier.

That evening, Steve and I had BaconFest 2011.

My favorite part of the night was the first course: Braised Belgian endive with goat cheese, chopped bacon and topped with a lobster tail.

Second course was a BLT on toasted challah with a fried egg on top paired with homemade French fries. WOW. A classic - and it was phenomenal.

The third course was sweet and spicy bacon slathered in nutella courtesy of bell' alimento. SO good but I made the catastrophic mistake of putting the bacon on paper towels. It got stuck and I ended up picking bits of paper towel off the bacon as it cooled.

Here's the Belgian endive recipe (makes 2 servings):

2 Belgian endive, sliced lengthwise
2 strips bacon, chopped
crumbled goat cheese (amount depends on how much you love goat cheese!)
2 lobster tails, 3-4 ounces each
1 cup white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Preheat your oven to broil.

Fry the chopped bacon and set aside. Discard most of the fat left in the pan (or you can get rid of all of it, but where's the fun in that?).

In the same pan, add the white wine and deglaze the pan. Bring the wine to a simmer and add the Belgian endive, flat side down. Allow the endive to brown a bit and then add the white wine vinegar and sugar. Let the mixture simmer for about 15 or 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, gently crack the lobster tails on the underside and add a bit of butter. Place shell side down on a roasting pan and broil for about 7 or 8 minutes.

Sprinkle the chopped bacon and goat cheese on the plate. When the Belgian endive is done, place on top of the bacon and goat cheese and drizzle the braising liquid over it. Remove the lobster tails from the shells and curl over the endive.

Charcutepalooza plans derailed

2011-02-25T09:02:00.000-05:00

So, my trusty six-year-old PowerBook died.

Or rather, I dropped it about a foot and the charger broke off inside the computer. Which meant there was no more charging the battery.

Not having a computer totally derailed my plans to post my bacon adventures (including an anxiety attack about botulism spores) - but they'll be up soon! My new MacBook Pro should be here today.

Stay tuned!

Charcutepalooza. What have I gotten myself into?

2011-02-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

So, after watching plenty of tweets go by about duck prosciutto and charcuterie and charcutepalooza, I decided to join the meat madness for 2011.

For more information on what Charcutepalooza is, head over to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen. She's got the rules and some pretty sweet prizes for the winner. Trip to France, anyone???

I wasn't sure if I could hack it with curing and salting my own bacon, duck prosciutto, etc. It's only recently that I've been excited about cooking and being in the kitchen. I love baking, but cooking is a whole other story. My parents can tell you stories about how I wasn't exactly in love with cooking when I had to (read: when they made us kids cook dinner). On those nights, dinner was usually mac and cheese or something like that. Mostly pasta, because it really only required the knowledge of how to boil water.

I think their goal was to get us engaged with cooking, but it definitely backfired for me. I dreaded those nights. A lot.

I digress.

So I signed up for Charcutepalooza. And tonight, I rubbed down four pounds of pork belly to make bacon for February's challenge. By this time next week, I should have some delicious bacon.

Well, I know I'll at least have bacon. We'll see whether it's delicious or not! Stay tuned!

Restaurant Week: Dinner at J&G Steakhouse

2011-01-23T12:20:00.000-05:00

Restaurant week, in my opinion, is a great time.

I try to go to a couple different restaurants each restaurant week - this month, it's J&G Steakhouse at the W and Adour at the St. Regis. (I also tried Zaytinya for lunch with some co-workers - long story short, it was delicious but not my favorite.)

So Steve and I went to J&G Steakhouse last Friday night. I'm already a fan of POV, the rooftop bar at the W - it has great views of the city and great cocktails.

I started with butternut squash soup (and so did Steve). It was fantastic - light and creamy with the taste of the squash without being too heavy (like a puree). Topped with a few cubes of squash and mushrooms (chanterelles maybe? I forgot to ask). Heavenly.

I have been dreaming of this soup since Friday night. Might also be because I'm sick and want soup. Either way - it's fantastic.

Next up for me was seared cod with a spicy scallion-chili sauce. Our waiter warned me that it was pretty spicy and I kind of brushed him off because I love spicy food (and a lot of times don't really believe people when they say it's spicy). But wow. It definitely had a lot of heat. The cod was perfectly cooked but the sauce definitely stole the show.

I didn't get a picture of Steve's braised short ribs with crispy potatoes and spinach. That disappeared pretty quickly. I did get a bite though - the meat was tender and juicy and practically fell apart. I want to recreate it at home sometime.

For dessert we both ordered the apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream. The apples were tart, the crumble on top added the perfect crunch, and the ice cream added just enough sweetness to counteract the green apples. I wish there had been a bit more ice cream, but all in all it was a great way to finish the evening. Definitely didn't get a picture of the crisp either...

The only downside to going to J&G during restaurant week was that they had a very restricted menu - two items for each course.

That said, my meal was fantastic and I'll definitely be going back to try the regular menu. I just hope they keep that soup on the menu!

Braised chicken, veggies and polenta

2011-01-13T22:15:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned that I'm in love with my Le Creuset dutch oven?

I love it. I really do. It was my favorite wedding present.

We hadn't braised anything in awhile, so we picked up some chicken thighs for a nice, cold winter night meal. (I will say that braising is the ONLY time I am a fan of chicken on the bone...bones gross me out. Can't help it.)

This was a joint effort - Steve took care of the braising and I made the polenta (really difficult, I know). I used America's Test Kitchen's recipe for basic parmesan polenta and added chopped bacon.

braised chicken and veggies
4 strips thick-cut bacon
4 chicken thighs
red wine (preferably dry, like a montepulciano)
1 shallot, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 cup of baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1 cup of red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup of white onion, chopped
1 cup of baby carrots
1 bag of spinach
olive oil

braising liquid
1 cup of beef broth
1/2 cup of red wine
1 heaping teaspoon of tomato paste
soy sauce to taste
red wine vinegar to taste
touch of worcestershire

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

We started by frying 4 strips of bacon in the dutch oven on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Adds a bit of fat to the pan (reserve the actual bacon strips for the polenta).

Steve took over from there and browned the chicken thighs in the bacon fat.

Be still my beating heart...even typing that made me hungry.

After browning the chicken, remove the chicken thighs and get rid of the excess bacon fat (unless you feel like keeping it for something else - I won't judge). Add enough red wine to cover the bottom of the dutch oven and deglaze the pan.

Since there will be wine left over, pour yourself a glass.

Add garlic and shallot and simmer. Allow wine to reduce by half. Add the vegetables and a dab of olive oil. Allow vegetables to sweat a bit.

Spread vegetables evenly around dutch oven and add chicken (veggies moved around enough so chicken can be touching the bottom). Pour in braising liquid and let simmer uncovered for five minutes or so. Put in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Serve over polenta and try not to go back for seconds. I dare you.

Chicken cheese enchiladas

2011-01-02T15:25:00.000-05:00

To counteract the gluttony of New Year's Eve, Steve and I decided to make chicken enchiladas on Saturday night.

Now, these enchiladas definitely did not help me get to the "eat healthy" part of my 2011 goals. But I figured it was the weekend, and every goal starts on Monday. Right?

Right.

So chicken enchiladas. I was feeling lazy and decided not to make the enchilada sauce (my grandmother would probably scold me if she knew - I'm not telling), so I bought a can at the store. Sorry Grandma. I didn't want to go on a tomatillo hunt all over Arlington.

I will say that these are not supposed to be as good as my grandmother's enchiladas. No enchiladas are! But, in a pinch (aka when you're craving Mexican food), they're pretty good! I will also say that there are no pictures because, well, BlackBerry just can't make ooey gooey cheesey enchiladas look delicious.

Here's what you need for the enchiladas:

2 chicken breasts
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese (the kind is up to you)
1 jalapeno, deseeded and chopped
chicken stock
6-8 tortillas (I used flour this time - corn is better! Flour tortillas make HUGE enchiladas.)
1 large can enchilada sauce

Heat a large pan on the stove at medium heat. Season chicken breast with salt and pepper, then drop them in the pan. Let them cook until they are almost done, then turn the heat down to low and add chicken stock. Steve used about a cup and a half or so...you just need enough to almost cover the chicken breasts. Cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so. Remove the chicken from the pan and shred. Steve added the leftover stock from the pan to the shredded chicken for extra juiciness.

Combine shredded chicken, 1 cup of cheese (add more if you like), sour cream and the chopped jalapeno in a mixing bowl.

If you're using flour tortillas, you probably don't need to warm them. Corn tortillas break easily, so warm them in the microwave for a few seconds before you roll the enchiladas. Spoon about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of the mixture into the tortilla and roll. Place in a 13x9 pan (seam down). Once you've filled your 13x9 (I only squeezed 7 enchiladas in mine), pour the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with the leftover cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

New Year's Eve dinner and some blog neglect

2011-01-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I've neglected this blog horribly - no posting for months! My goal for 2011 is to be better about sharing recipes, cooking attempts (and some failures) and restaurant adventures.

So to kick that off...here's what Steve and I attempted on New Year's Eve.

Instead of going out to a fancy schmancy restaurant like we have in the past (minibar and Oval Room were the last two), we figured we'd try our hand at cooking dinner ourselves. Steve got a little excited and wanted to do four courses, but I forgot to pick up cheese for the cheese course. Considered that a sign to dial it down a notch.

First course: seared foie gras with a red wine balsamic reduction.

The reduction was pretty easy...a bit of red wine, a bit of balsamic vinegar. We found a recipe that called for molasses as well, but we decided not to use it. While the liquids were reducing, we (ahem...Steve) seared the foie gras slices on a dry hot skillet for 50 seconds (or so) on each side. Drizzled the reduction over the slices and served with a couple slices of a baguette. It was fantastic - rich, velvety smooth and intensely flavorful.

Course two: filet mignon, mashed fingerling potatoes and green beans.

The filets were pretty easy to prepare - sprinkle a little salt and pepper on each side and then broil.

For the fingerlings, I quartered and boiled, and mashed them as you would with any other potato. Steve really wanted to try something new with the potatoes (after watching Chuck's Day Off on the Cooking Channel), so after mashing the potatoes, he transferred them to a medium saucepan and added a bit of chicken broth, butter and a touch of sour cream. He whisked it all together over low heat.

Those potatoes were life changing. Insanely delicious. I will never make mashed potatoes without chicken broth again. Best mashed potatoes ever. EVER.

Green beans can be fairly, um, standard fare, but we decided to spruce them up with a bit of a white wine, garlic and shallot. I sauteed the garlic and shallot in the white wine with a bit of butter for a couple minutes, and then added the beans. One of my biggest pet peeves is overcooked food (which is why I didn't like a lot of vegetables for a long time), but these beans turned out crunchy and perfect.

Course three would have been cheese...but at this point I was so full of rich food that I was secretly thanking the gods that I had forgotten cheese.

Course four: chocolate souffle with anglaise.

This was a bold move for me - for special dinners or events, I usually don't pick something I've never made before or have about a 99.9% chance of botching. But after a stellar chocolate souffle at DC Coast, I figured it was time to give it a try!

By some miracle, the souffle turned out perfectly. The anglaise turned out pretty well too - but there was way too much of it. I only used about half of it, and it still pooled at the bottom of the souffle. I'd use MUCH less next time.

I got some crackers to break open at midnight, but we ended up going through all eight of them. Quite a mess this morning...

Happy New Year!

These cookies will change your life.

2010-10-07T09:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, these are seriously the best cookies I've ever had.

Peanut butter and chocolate are great together, but these cookies take it to the next level.

Lindsay over at Love and Olive Oil posted this recipe a few days ago and I instantly knew it was jumping to the top of my list of things to make.

It combines this delicious mixture...

...with this...

...to become this (aka the best cookie dough ever).

That coookie dough could only get better with the addition of these...

If you haven't had a dark chocolate Reese's peanut butter cup yet, do yourself a favor and go get one. They are a.ma.zing. You will be addicted, but you won't be unhappy about it.

So all that becomes an even BETTER cookie dough - especially when you add bittersweet chocolate chips...

And then after a few minutes in the oven, you get this! Delicious, lovely, soft, incredibly addictive cookies.

I recommend making these cookies immediately. They definitely haven't helped my waistline but they really are the most perfect cookies ever.

Head over to Love and Olive Oil for the recipe.

My obsession with squash continues...

2010-10-05T19:08:00.000-04:00

Yup. I'm Carrie and I'm obsessed with fall squashes.

We had butternut AND acorn squash last week. And we had it again Monday night.

I just can't say no.

There was a tiny mishap with a butternut squash recipe back in college and since then I've been hesitant to do much with the fall vegetable. (It involved soup that should have used butternut squash as the base...but I couldn't find any so I used pumpkin. Such. A. Bad. Idea. One of my college roommates was wonderful and choked back a couple spoonfuls before she threw in the towel. Tasted like baby food.)

But that's neither here nor there.

For this round, we (and by we I mean Steve) chopped a white onion into wedges. I peeled the squash and cubed it, and then Steve tossed the veggies with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and herbs d' provence.

It was a team effort.

Side note: Butternut squashes are HUGE. Enormous. I tried to talk Steve into saving half for another dinner later this week, but he wouldn't hear it.

Yummy. All ready to go in the oven. We used red onion last time, and after trying both, I definitely prefer the red. Not quite so strong.

We roasted chicken quarters with it and they came out PERFECTLY. Steve has to handle that stuff though...I can't deal with bones. It grosses me out.

I don't care if that makes me a bad foodie. Just can't do it!

This is known as the "Good Lord I know I've said this a dozen times but I REALLY need to get a new camera" photo. Can't keep using the Bold for food pictures anymore.

Anyone have a good squash recipe I should try before I OD on them?

A taste of fall

2010-10-03T16:45:00.000-04:00

Fall is finally here!

Time for scarves and boots and curling up with tea and books and lighting a fire...and of course time for delicious food!

Last weekend Steve and I went to visit his family in Cleveland, and his parents' neighborhood has the cutest farmers market. And it is stuffed to the gills with all sorts of delicious fresh produce...corn, squash, lettuce, onions, apples, etc. We were on our way back to DC but couldn't resist picking up a gigantic butternut squash, an acorn squash and almost 2 dozen ears of corn (some for friends though...).

We tossed the butternut squash with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and then roasted it at 350 degrees with red onion wedges and a few sprigs of rosemary. It only took about 35 minutes in our oven and was SO DELICIOUS. As evidenced by the fact that there are no pictures. It disappeared. Fast.

A tip - peel the butternut squash. I didn't figure that out until halfway through. I'm a dummy.

Acorn squash was next, paired with a mustard-marinated pork loin.

It's just 2 tablespoons of mustard and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar mixed and then poured over the pork loin. Sprinkle a bit of rosemary on top and you're good to go.

The acorn squash recipe I used was not exactly healthy but was really delicious. Warning: It's practically a dessert.

Told you it wasn't healthy. That's 2 tablespoons of butter in each half with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

It really should fall under the dessert category. Next time I'd probably cut the amount of butter in half and add blackberries (my mom used to include blackberries - adds great flavor!).

Hope you're enjoying the cooler weather and changing leaves!

My tastebuds are demanding fall weather

2010-09-08T19:14:00.000-04:00

Summer has been horribly busy (with work and trips and general summer busy stuff), and I am definitely not the first person to say that he or she is SO ready for fall.

Apparently my tastebuds have decided it's time for fall too.

I really knew I was ready for fall when I eagerly jumped at the chance for a pumpkin spice latte with a coworker and felt the need to drag out the braising pan.

Even though it was approximately 97 degrees outside.

So here's hoping fall comes quickly!

Adventures in California Part I: Lunch at the Crow Bar

2010-08-15T20:26:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago, our friends Mike and Brittany got married in Los Angeles. It was beautiful and so fitting of their personalities and just wonderful. And a blast!

Since we had some time in Newport before checking into our hotel in downtown LA, Steve's friend Dave took us to the Crow Bar.

It so did not disappoint. We were all pretty hungry (and thirsty!) by the time we got to the restaurant, so we ordered pretty quickly. The restaurant isn't very big and it filled up pretty quickly after we got there.

(Ignore Dave's arm in the photo - I'm still taking photos on my BlackBerry because I can't commit to a camera. Hey Dave! Thanks for letting us stay at your apartment!)

I could definitely see us putting back a few pints at this bar. It looked so comfy and relaxed and unassuming...

So since we were all hungry, we ordered almost right away (well, right after ordering drinks). We knew that we were eating at Wurstkuche later that night (a sausage place that was awesome), so Steve and I didn't want to eat anything too heavy. We decided to split a flatbread and duck fat fries, and Dave ordered the fish and chips (which looked really delicious).

The flatbread had roasted roma tomatoes, creamy burrata and fresh basil on it...

That disappeared pretty quickly. I need to remind myself that flatbreads are thin and not like pizza. But this was crispy and the tomato/burrata/basil combo - always a good choice - was really flavorful and fresh.

To counteract all that healthy, fresh food, we devoured these.

This was my first foray into duck fat fries, and I'm a total convert. They were rich and salty and perfectly crispy. All fries should be like that. AND...they were paired with a white truffle aioli. And some sweet red sauce...but we didn't really eat that.

The white truffle aioli was the star of the whole meal for me. Steve thought it was a little rich and wasn't as obsessed with it as I was.

It got its own picture.

Yum. YUM.

After the fries and the flatbread, we realized that we were still a liiiiittle bit hungry. So we ordered the macaroni and cheese bites. They were paired with a spicy tomato sauce and disappeared REALLY fast...so quickly that I only got one picture.

The only problem we ran into at lunch was that our server disappeared once we asked for the check...for a long time. They ran our credit cards wrong and we practically had to hunt down our server to get him to correct it.

That part aside, our lunch at Crow Bar was great, and I would definitely fly back to LA for those fries. Maybe an airline will conveniently offer a cross-country ticket special?

Sigh. So glamorous.

2010-08-03T07:11:00.000-04:00

Can't we go back to the days of dressing up just because it's what you did? It'd be so wonderful.

(image via Audrey Hepburn Complex)

Not that I'd look like Audrey Hepburn every day, but I think it'd force me to get out of my pajamas on Saturdays.

My To Make List

2010-07-20T21:54:00.000-04:00

My "I really need to make this!" list is so long that I couldn't even begin to list it here. You would get very, very bored.

And then you'd leave and miss out on these delectable recipes!

So here's my "to make" list for the immediate future.

- Olga at Mango And Tomato's mediterranean vegetables and poached egg breakfast. Steve saw the picture as I was scrolling through Google Reader and made me stop so he could drool over the photo. I think this is in my REALLY immediate future if he has anything to do with it. What's not to love about potatoes with veggies and a poached egg?

(Lovely photo by Olga on Mango and Tomato)

In my opinion, poached eggs make everything better.

- My Baking Addiction's cheesecake. I can NOT wait to try this. I've never tried making a cheesecake in a water bath, so this should be an interesting endeavour. Hopefully it doesn't end with water all over the kitchen floor. But now I'm really craving cheesecake. Right this second.

- These cupcakes. An older recipe (from a 2008 post from Meet Me in the Kitchen) Really - cupcakes of any kind. I've been muttering and tweeting about how much I want cupcakes for the last week now, so it's time to do something about it. I listed that recipe, but I'm open to suggestions.

But those nutella ones need to be made immediately.

And then I will eat them all.

Except not. This whole "being healthy" and "avoiding sugar" kinda sucks.

- Last thing on the list is this:

Yep. Coq au Vin. I found a recipe in a Williams-Sonoma cookbook we got for the wedding and that's the next thing to come out of the dutch oven. Yummm....rooster (or chicken, whichever is easier to find).

We won't actually cook the rooster that ran around the resort grounds while we were on our honeymoon, even though Steve threatened to do it on more than one occasion.

What's on your to make list?

I need this kitchen.

2010-07-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

This is the perfect kitchen.

(House Beautiful photo via Habitually Chic)

Really.

Dark wood cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, marble countertops...bliss.

If I had a kitchen like this, I'd never leave it. It's perfection!

Honeymoon Gluttony: The Hydroponic Farm

2010-07-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

The hydroponic farm was definitely one of my favorite parts of the honeymoon.

We took a tour of the farm with Dr. Howard Resh, the manager of the farm and the organic gardens on the property.

(Photos from CuisinArt)

The greenhouse is 18,000 square feet and the humidity hits you like a brick wall when you walk in. With all the water (the farm has 2 ponds) and plants, it's really really really...REALLY humid and hot. It felt like it was 1000 degrees in there.

Thankfully they gave us water.

But you walk in and are immediately surrounded by vegetables. To the left, lettuce. Straight ahead, tomatoes. To the right, lettuce as far as you can see.

Dr. Resh explained how the farm works and gave us a quick rundown on hydroponic farming and then walked us through the rest of the farm. For more info on hydroponic farming, go here.

Although it was about 100 degrees and ridiculously humid inside, we stayed for about 40 minutes. Dr. Resh showed us the lettuce, peppers, tomatoes (and even let us taste the tomatoes!), herbs, microgreens, and cucumbers. Dr. Resh said that with hydroponic farming, since you aren't dependent on a growing season, vegetables and fruits grow quickly. REALLY fast. So quickly that they send tons and tons of fresh vegetables over to the resort for daily use. There were so many herbs that needed to be harvested and used that the spa (which is FANTASTIC, by the way) uses them in their scrubs and treatments. And the bars and restaurants are constantly coming up with different ways to use the fruits and veg. (We had a tomatotini one of the first nights at the resort...let's just say that tomatoes should only be included in bloody marys. Not martinis.)

Dr. Resh was a great tour guide for the farm, and it was awesome to see the resort growing its own food instead of bringing it in from one of the other islands.

I wish I had my own little hydroponic farm! The best part was that Dr. Resh said growing your own mini-version of a hydroponic farm is easy. I really wanted to come home and start our own little hydroponic garden for tomatoes or microgreens or something...but I got cold feet. The last tomato plant, affectionately nicknamed Junior, died after Steve and I went to the Florida Keys for a few days. And then the peace lily we had after that also, um, died of its own accord.

So I'm a little gunshy about raising plants.

Honeymoon Gluttony: The Cooking Class

2010-07-11T15:21:00.000-04:00

This is SO delayed...but here's another post on our fantastic food-filled honeymoon in Anguilla!

As part of our gourmet package at CuisinArt, we got to take a cooking class with Executive Chef Daniel Le Guenan. We had already gotten to interact with him a bit at the Chef's Table two nights before, but this was a much more one-on-one setting. Of course, I have no pictures because my stupid camera stopped working days earlier.

It was just me, Steve, another woman from the resort and Chef. I was actually really surprised that no one else was taking advantage of this great opportunity but was happy that we got him (almost) all to ourselves!

We started out with a quick explanation of what we were going to do - chop veggies, stuff chicken breasts, make a vegetable stock and a green pea soup, and end with a banana bread.

With the hydroponic farm just a quick walk across the resort driveway, we each had a huge bowl of fresh vegetables at our stations. Eggplants, plantains, red bell peppers, onions, garlic...yum. Beautiful beautiful veggies. More on the hydroponic farm in a future post (that will not take two months to produce, promise!).

So we chopped our veggies how Chef Daniel instructed us to - taking care to not cut the peppers the way most people do. According to Chef Daniel, you lose too much pepper by slicing the pepper in half and then popping the stem out. All you have to do is slice the pepper down the side as close to the stem as possible - then you get the most pepper.

After that, we combined our veggies and let them simmer for about half an hour with plenty of water and garlic on the stove. After about 30 minutes, he brought the stock to a boil.

While the stock was simmering, we sliced up our plantains into slender spears about 2-3 inches long. Chef Daniel showed us how to butterfly the chicken breasts we had in order to stuff them with the plantains. According to Chef Daniel, the best way to butterfly the chicken is to slice the breast vertically down the center about half an inch deep and then slowly peel back the layer of chicken, working your way to the left and then to the right. Although our knives weren't the sharpest (probably because they don't want to give super sharp knives to potentially inexperienced tourists), we made quick work of the chicken.

The most interesting part was cooking the chicken. We stuffed the chicken breasts with the plantain spears and then - surprisingly - rolled them using saran wrap. I had NO idea it was ok to use plastic wrap to cook the chicken, but it turned out really well! By the time we had finished stuffing and rolling the chicken in saran wrap, the vegetable stock was finishing its simmer. Once it was boiling, we dropped the little chicken rolls into the stock and put the lid on the pot.

(Note: Steve and I liked this idea so much that we tried it ourselves, making feta and basil-stuffed chicken breasts for lunch one day. Turned out great! Only difficult part is making sure the chicken is cooked, because once you unroll it, there's no way to return it to the pot for more time in the pot.)

Since the chicken needed to cook for a bit, we strolled over to the hydroponic garden and Chef Daniel gave us a rundown on how he worked with the farm's produce every morning to figure out a menu. Combined with fresh-from-the-boat seafood, he said the hydroponic farm was the most consistent and best produce on the island. Surprisingly, Anguilla is dry and not conducive to farming, so hydroponic farming is the best bet for fresh produce.

When we got back, we pulled the chicken out, skimmed off the veggies and then dumped fresh peas into the pot to simmer for the pea soup. After that, we whipped together some banana bread (probably the least exciting bit of the class - banana bread is not difficult!).

Once everything was all ready, Chef Daniel booted us out of the kitchen with one last question - scallops or foie gras? He would put the finishing touches on the meal and then send it out to us at our table on the patio.

Steve and I, being the foie gras gluttons that we are, both jumped at the chance to indulge in rich, delicious liver. YUM.

Chef Daniel did not disappoint. We started with the pea soup, topped with a light creme fraiche and herbs (that, of course, two months later - I don't remember which ones). It was a tad bit bland and could have used a bit more flavor, but it was still yummy. Steve and I both agreed that the addition of ham or prosciutto or something savory would have kicked it up to being a really flavorful, excellent dish. However, it WAS served with a generous portion of seared foie gras, so I couldn't really complain THAT much.

For the main course, the chef sent out our plantain-stuffed chicken three ways - plain with microgreens, with vegetable stock and with a red pepper puree. I think the chicken itself needed more spice and flavor, but it was an overall good entree.

It was followed by our banana bread, topped with vanilla bean ice cream. Not terribly exciting or amazing, but it was a nice way to finish off our meal.

The cooking lesson was a great addition to our honeymoon and capped off our three days of true gluttony (with the chef's table two days prior and the tasting menu the day before). Chef Daniel was animated and very easy to talk with about cooking, different techniques, ideas and, much like my favorite French chef, had a great French accent.

I highly recommend the cooking class if anyone makes the jaunt down to Anguilla - even if you don't stay at CuisinArt! It was a lot of fun and great way to stay out of the blistering winds on the beach.

Delicious wine, delicious food...great night!

2010-06-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Lisa at Dining in DC, I lucked out and won tickets to Toast of the Town DC, a shindig thrown by Wine Enthusiast magazine.

Steve and I love love love wine (and love love love food), so we were both really excited to be able to go to the event. It was held at the National Building Museum, a gorgeous building near Chinatown. Steve and I joked that it would have been a great wedding or reception venue (take a look, any brides-to-be!). My BlackBerry photos hardly do it justice - it's just beautiful.

There were tons of people there already when we got there at 6:45 or so. We arbitrarily turned left at the doorway and made our first stop at the Aveniu tables - right by Sonoma's table.

Note: Since we tasted so many wines, there's no way I could document all of them. Plus I forgot a pen (stupidly) so I couldn't write them down (or juggle a BlackBerry and a wine glass). My favorite wines/tables are at the end - after all the food. :)

So. Sonoma. Their offering was a great taste of their housemade ham salad on a dill biscuit. The only down side was that the little sandwiches were TINY - barely bigger around than a quarter. They were still very delicious - creamy ham salad with just enough of the biscuit. I didn't see the salad on the restaurant's menu, so I'm glad we got a taste of it Friday night.

We moved on (tasting several wines in between) to Punk's Backyard Grill.

I actually saw someone walking away from their table with a plate and immediately made a beeline for it. And was SO happy I did - I was rewarded with a lovely little plate of duck confit salad - mixed greens, delicious duck confit, pickled grapes, manchego and a lemon vinaigrette and pinot noir reduction. I thought the manchego added a little too much salt (or maybe it was the lemony tang), but Steve argued the other way - that the pinot reduction made it too sweet. Either way - we both enjoyed the dish.

More wine (LOTS more wine). The people staffing the tables (both from the wineries or the distributors/importers) were pouring extra-large tasting pours. Really, they were glasses. I usually don't pour wine out while tasting (seems almost insulting to waste it), but I had to start doing it about an hour into the event. I just couldn't drink all of it!

Our next stop was the Ruth's Chris table. When we first walked up to the table, Steve wasn't that interested in it. I believe his exact words were, "It's a steakhouse. If it's not steak, I'm not eating it." Hah. They didn't have steak, but they did have a tasty, light crabtini - chunks of rich crab tossed in a vinaigrette and some remoulade. It was the perfect dish to pair with the New Zealand wines (especially the sauvignon blancs) at the next table. Steve eventually got his own little mini martini glass of crab - and liked it!

Our next stop was at Capital Grille's table and it was a definite favorite.

Sliced filet with cipollinis and roasted mushrooms. I mean, there's really no better combination than steak, mushrooms and onions, but this was absolutely delicious. The onions and mushrooms were so tender and juicy - the perfect complement to the filet, which was nice and medium rare. The only thing I would have appreciated was a knife - I ended up using Steve's fork (after he devoured his taste of the filet) to pull my slices apart into bites. I haven't been out to Tyson's to go to Capital Grille, but it's definitely on my summer list now.

After Capital Grille, we ventured to the other side of the room (because yes, we had only gone through half of the room). We didn't make it very far, though - we stopped at the first tasting table and ended up having a long conversation with one of the pourers. We started chatting about the wine (which was fabulous) but ended up talking about all kinds of stuff. He had some great stories about his younger days as a sommelier.

So after that detour, we headed over to the Morton's table.

Yumyumyumyumyum. Just looking at this picture makes me want to go back in time and grab another plate from their table. They were offering up filet mignon with a dollop of horseradish cream sauce and it. was. delicious. The filet (as you can see above) was cooked perfectly. Not too rare, not too well done. And the horseradish cream sauce was so tangy and spicy - went perfectly with the filet.

What goes better with good steak than a good dessert? Morton's also offered up a lovely little bite-size chocolate cake with a raspberry on top. It was perfect.

Hands down the best table of the evening.

Although...SEI's offerings were pretty awesome too. Not only did they serve up a delicious pseudo-ceviche with tuna, but they also had a wasabi cocktail.

It was almost the end of the night, so I don't remember all the components to the tuna, but it was fantastic. And it paired well with the wasabi cocktail - which, incidentally, didn't have any wasabi in it. It was made from ginger and habanero peppers. Tasted JUST like wasabi though.

I knew it was getting late when a woman leaned over and yelled, "Where'd you get that shot?" when I was tasting the cocktail. I don't know how long she lasted in her stilettos - they were reeeally tall and she was starting to wobble a bit. Then again...so was the rest of the crowd. Lots of wine + lots of people = tipsyness. There was a very loud crowd exiting the museum right as Steve and I were, and I think they had taken advantage of the tastings more than Steve and I had.

Our last stop was at Tonic Restaurant at Quigley's Pharmacy (a new-to-me restaurant). They had mini pulled pork sandwiches that, while not the best of the evening, were tasty and heavier - just what we needed at the end of the night. The pork almost had a smoky taste to it - reminded me of a barbecue place back in Texas!

We missed out on a few other places I would have liked to try, but it seemed like a fair amount of the food vendors closed up shop early...

Since I couldn't possibly post without mentioning our favorite wine tables, here goes:

Aveniu - Great sauvignon blanc and GREAT reserva pinot noir.
Carolina Wine Brands - The 2007 Reserva de Familia Carmenere was the favorite.
Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards - the BV Rutherford Cabernet was a knockout.
Moet Hennessy USA - the Newton 2007 Claret was truly amazing. A mix of Bordeaux varietals - my heaven. I would happily buy a case right now.

There were many many many more delicious wines, but documenting them all would have been impossible. The event was a blast and Steve and I both had a great time - can't wait for next year! I'd say we'll definitely be buying tickets, and I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys good wine, good food and good company to do the same!

Thanks again to Lisa and Dining in DC for the tickets!

Me? Really? I won something?

2010-06-10T19:49:00.000-04:00

I NEVER win anything. I can enter a bazillion (yes, a bazillion) contests and not win. That car that's being given away? Won't be me. Vacation for two to the Seychelles? Nada. Television at high school graduation afterparty? Nope.

That streak broke this past week. I had entered Dining in DC's drawing for tickets to Toast of the Town, a wine tasting and foodie event thrown by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. (For a rundown on all of the restaurants and vineyards/wine distributors that will be there, go here.)

(Graphic from Wine Enthusiast)

Lots of wine? And yummy food? How could I NOT enter??? And I actually won! The lovely Lisa at Dining in DC contacted me and another lucky winner on Monday. I was so stuck in the not-winning-anything rut that I actually had made plans for Friday night - thankfully, my friends are sweet enough to reschedule (thanks Lee!).

Steve has been researching and plotting his course through the event since that night. I'm pretty sure he's more excited than I am. He already knows where the wines he wants to try are located and where all of the stations with cheese are. I'm pretty sure that's all he needs to be happy the entire night.

So THANK YOU, Dining in DC and Lisa! I will be sure to report back about our evening...as long as I don't fall into a wine tasting haze by 9 pm. Which could happen.

Hopefully not.

Happy almost Friday everyone! What are your plans for the weekend? Cooking? Going out?

Have fun!

xo,
Carrie

My love for Donna Hay continues...

2010-06-07T21:06:00.001-04:00

It's no secret how much I adore Donna Hay. Just about everything she touches or creates turns to gold. Her magazine? Gorgeous. The styling is clean and simple and just beautiful.

Her cookbooks are the same way. I own four of them and want to buy more (even though people say to diversify your cookbook collection). Donna's recipes are simple and only moderately difficult to translate into US measurements (since she's Australian). Well, it's only moderately difficult if you're like me and you're not a math whiz.

But one of her recipes that I keep going back to and wanting to make more of is her fresh chilli sauce.

(Photo by Chris Court for Donna Hay magazine)

The sauce is really easy to make and Donna uses it in several recipes on her website.

Steve and I made it the first time a few months ago and loved it. We originally tried it with chicken quarters but that failed (and caused me to have an aversion to chicken quarters until just recently). But then we used the leftover sauce with steak and - bam! - perfect combination.

So this past weekend, we tried it again! But we adapted it from Donna's recipe...

Here's the adapted version:

4 long red chillies (peppers), chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 cup of cilantro leaves

1/3 cup fish sauce

1 cup lime juice

I deseeded the peppers to keep the sauce from being mouthonfire hot. Other than that - combine in a food processor and blend for a couple minutes or until everything is all mixed together. This is what you get:

Since we didn't use ginger or palm sugar (simply because we didn't have them), the sauce was a little on the limey (read: tangy) side. But it has a good amount of heat and packs a TON of flavor.

We marinated flank steak in the sauce for about half an hour and then just cooked it on the stovetop.

Forgive the flash and shiny metal bowl. Best spot for a photo? No.

But we love love love this sauce. So much so that we saved some of it and some of the flank steak and made it again tonight, with some shrimp, sauteed chard and brown rice.

So make the sauce! You won't be sorry!

Honeymoon Gluttony: The Tasting Menu

2010-06-05T11:07:00.002-04:00

After our chef's table experience, we were looking forward to trying some of the resort's other dishes. So we were excited about our reservation for the tasting menu (just one day after the chef's table - we were still full). After the chef's table experience the night before, Steve and I both felt like this:

(Photo from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

Let's just say that I'm REALLY sad that we didn't have a working camera at this point because the pictures would seriously speak louder than anything I can say.

The tasting menu was huge. HUGE. The three-course tasting menu turned into five courses of the biggest platters of food I've ever seen.

We started, so naively, with bread and olive oil with fresh basil from the hydroponic farm. The butter served with it was seriously salted...and heavenly. The kitchen also sent out a complimentary basket of fry bread with carrot and pumpkin dip. The dip was okay - a little too sweet for me though. Since we were hungry at that point, we gave in to snacking on that. We should have waited.

Course 1 looked innocent enough when we were presented with it. The server came out with a bowl of pumpkin soup for each of us. The soup had the most amazing goat cheese ravioli at the bottom of the bowl - I could have eaten a plate full of that. The goat cheese was creamy and sharp and the ravioli was perfectly cooked. Definitely adding goat cheese ravioli and pumpkin soup to my list of things to make.

Then they set the tray down in front of us and we realized that the soup wasn't the first course. It was one of FIVE small plates that comprised the first course. The other plates were as follows:

- Crayfish with a fresh salad and vegetables.
- Chicken dumpling with a mango sauce.
- Seared scallops with sweet potato mash.
- Tuna tartare wrapped in seaweed and rice tempura with a watermelon sauce.

Of all of them, I think the scallops, tuna tartare and pumpkin soup were our favorites. The chicken dumpling seemed a little out of place and the crayfish, while good, didn't beat out the others. The tuna tartare was fantastic - you could taste how fresh the fish was. And the tempura added that extra little crunch. The scallops, of course, were delicious. They were seared in butter (what could be better?) and had this beautiful golden glaze on them. While I don't normally go for mashed sweet potatoes, these accompanied the scallops perfectly - a bit of sweet flavor to go with the fat, tender scallops.

Our next course was sage sorbet made with sage grown in the hydroponic farm. Again, it was strong and I couldn't finish it (like the ice and armangac at the chef's table). But it was still good.

Course 3 was like the first one - five small plates as follows:

- Pea and mushroom risotto.
- Rack of lamb with gnocchi.
- Beef with bearnaise and French potatoes.
- Tuna with a stir fry and sweet pepper puree.
- Mahi mahi with a sesame crust and braised sweet potatoes.

Of all of these, we both really liked the risotto. Steve really liked the lamb and I agreed - it was seasoned and grilled perfectly - nice and tender, very flavorful and not overcooked. Overcooked lamb is the worst. Everything else tasted good and cooked well, but nothing really captured us.

At this point, we were so far beyond full. Stuffed. Wanted to lay down for awhile. I was eyeing the lounge chairs over by the pool and starting to feel like Violet Beauregarde again.

But we thought dessert would probably be just one or two things, so we finished course 3 and moved on to course 4.

Wrong again! Course 4 was just like the rest. A bunch of smaller dessert-type items.

- Creme brulee
- Raspberry hibiscus sorbet
- Strawberry macarons
- Mint and ginger sorbet
- Madeleines
- Strawberry sorbet with some sort of jelly
- Gazpacho of basil
- Mango puree

I was so full that I tried a couple bites of things (the creme brulee, the mango puree, the sorbets) and that was it for me. I was dunzo. Could. Not. Eat. Any. More. Which was SO disappointing because the dessert tray was really really beautiful.

So when they brought out yet another plate of desserts (a small plate), I was really surprised. It was just a couple small bites - chocolate malted balls on a strip of chocolate, etc. I can't even remember what else was on the plate (which is horrible!). I was in a food coma.

All in all, the food was good. A few standouts that we want to try to make at home. I don't mean to paint the tasting menu in a negative light at ALL. We were just stuffed! Again!

More to come on our cooking class with Chef Daniel and our trip to Sandy Ground...

Honeymoon Gluttony: The Sunset Catamaran Cruise and The Chef's Table

2010-06-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

Since Steve and I booked our honeymoon with the "gourmet" package at CuisinArt, our trip came with a really yummy continental breakfast (delivered to the room every morning!), a reservation at the chef's table, a reservation for the chef's tasting menu at one of the resort's restaurants, a cooking lesson with the head chef and a sunset catamaran cruise.

Well, the catamaran cruise and the chef's table were only scheduled one day a week and they happened to be on the same day. So we readied ourselves for the busiest day of the trip so far (because it required us to actually go somewhere besides the beach and look presentable).

The wind had really picked up on our side of the island late Tuesday, so the waves in the bay were looking a little more, um, menacing than usual on Wednesday. We found out later that the resort had actually cancelled the cruise but then decided to give it a go anyway (bad decision, concierge!). I don't want to go into too much detail, but needless to say - 42-foot catamaran + 12-foot waves = feeling like I was going to die. We likened it to waves from The Perfect Storm. You could see them coming but there wasn't anything you could do to avoid them.

(Image from The Perfect Storm)

Ok, so it wasn't really that bad. But it was still really choppy, and I was shaking by the end of it and I'm pretty sure I was on the verge of breaking Steve's hand. Thankfully once we turned back toward the resort it was smooth...which led to 3 of the 6 of us feeling seasick and wanting to hurry along home. No one ate the appetizers or drank the champagne, wine or beer that the resort had put on board for us. Sad.

So Steve and I were worried at that point about whether we'd be ready to eat and drink at the chef's table 30 minutes after getting off the boat ride from hell. Since we had gotten drenched on the boat, we had to race back to the hotel room and shower (for that whole looking presentable thing). Felt much better after that.

Good thing. Because what was supposed to just be a six-course meal turned into an eight-course meal. Usually when you have multi-course meals, the courses tend to be smaller. Not on Anguilla, apparently. Three of the courses the chef served were normal entree size. And the wine pairings? Not smaller pours. Full glasses of wine.

Course 1 was a Spiced Ginger Rum and Blood Orange Martini. Not my favorite - they lined the rim of the glass with cinnamon and sugar and it evoked memories of pumpkin pie. And I wasn't crazy either - another girl said that too. Steve liked his though.

Course 2 was a small serving (thank goodness) of creamy potato puree topped with caviar and fresh microgreens. Really really yummy. Steve thought the puree should have been creamier and not quite as lumpy, but I thought it was delicious. The puree was a perfect bed for the very slight salty flavor of the caviar.

Course 3 was a roasted sea scallop salad with vegetables and tomato sauce and ohmygosh was this amazing. This was the first of the entree-sized portions and I would have been so happy if that had been it. The scallops were beautifully golden and plump and the vegetables (being from the hydroponic farm) were so fresh and delicious. The sommelier paired this course with a sauvignon blanc - one that Steve and I had already had on several occasions at the hotel bar. Nice and crisp and perfect for serving with seafood.

Course 4 was a palate cleanser - ice and armagnac. I thought it was waaaaay too heavy on the armagnac, but most of the other people loved it. Steve ate all of his. Mine melted in its little bowl. At this point, although, I was already starting to feel slightly full.

Course 5 was by far the best. It was Anguillian-style roasted whole snapper on a bed of risotto with cherry tomatoes. This one was the most universal crowd pleaser and multiple people kept wanting to ask for the recipe (I was lucky enough to get it at our cooking lesson two days later). The snapper was so tender and delicious. It was basted in its own juices and fish stock and roasted with vegetables. Home freaking run. And the risotto was made with the leftover juices and stock. Amazing. This course was paired with a white rioja - a little on the heavier side, perfect for the heavier dish.

Side note: Everyone was pretty much stuffed and getting slightly tipsy at this point. Did that stop anyone? Of course not.

Course 6 was a duck breast pot au feu served with szechuan pepper and vegetable tempura. The duck was my least favorite thing of the evening - there just wasn't anything special about it. The broth, however, was like nectar from the gods. It had little szechuan flowers that many people, including Steve, ate and then regretted later - lots of stinging lips at the table. This one came with a gigondas red wine - really delicious. The broth and the wine battled it out for my favorite part of the course.

Course 7 was a dark chocolate coconut bar served with a mango puree and chopped pistachios. At this point, I was beyond stuffed. So I only tried the chocolate coconut bar. The coconut-chocolate pairing was a good balance, but it had some ice cream in it and that was the killer for me. Too heavy. Steve devoured his though, and he's not even a big coconut person.

Course 8 was the dessert that was actually listed on the menu. Because no, the coconut bar was NOT on the menu. It was one of the extra courses. But course 8 was a strawberry tiramisu and it was ENORMOUS. It was served with an espuma of red berries, which was almost like a berry foam around the tiramisu. The dessert was good and tasted REALLY fresh, but at that point most people were really slowing down. On top of that, the wine paired with this course was a sauternes - dessert wine (obviously). I'm not a dessert wine person, so I handed mine over to Steve. Plus at that point I was fairly tipsy from all the other wine.

As we were finishing dessert, Chef Daniel sat down at the table with us and chatted, which was fun. Got to ask him all sorts of questions about cooking and his past and all that. I was at the other end of the table, so I didn't get to hear everything that went on. Plus I was in a food coma.

Overall, an awesome experience. Food was delicious and I can't wait to try making the snapper and risotto. More on that recipe later!

Honeymoon Gluttony: The beach bar

2010-06-03T18:48:00.000-04:00

For our honeymoon, Steve picked the CuisinArt Resort and Spa on the island of Anguilla.

Anguilla is a gorgeous, teeny tiny island that thankfully hasn't been overdeveloped or taken over by the big names (Westin, Ritz, etc.). In fact, a new resort just opened up on the island - Viceroy - and the locals were commenting that it was "too fancy" for Anguilla. I'm sure it's beautiful though. I certainly wouldn't turn it down.

The island is REALLY laid back. Even at the nicer restaurants, you can wear jeans. And NO ONE pays attention to time, which was nice (even though it would come back to bite us. More on that later.).

Anyway, back to the food.

For the first few days, we were total beach bums. Laid out on the beach, walked on the beach, ate at the beach and drank at the beach. The beach bar is a little round bar - wait for it - on the beach. It has a little deck with tables set up and a grill where the chef prepares the food for the bar.

Since we wanted to take advantage of the local food, we ate there almost exclusively for the first four days of the trip. The beach bar's specialty was skewers that were grilled (right in front of you) and served with a fresh salad. (Side note: I will be posting on the hydroponic farm later - but when I say fresh, I really mean fresh. Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, herbs - they're all picked the day you eat it. Amazing. And you can really taste the difference.)

(Photo for CuisinArt)

So Steve and I tried every single one of the skewers throughout those first few days.

They had tuna, lamb with rosemary, chicken, lobster with cherry tomatoes, shrimp with basil, beef with peppers and then a vegetable skewer. Of all of them, the tuna was my favorite. It's hard to resist fresh tuna that was delivered straight from the boat that day! Steve loved the lamb...it was really delicious.

The skewers also came with chips and a sundried tomato and olive dip. I'm pretty sure Steve could have just scarfed down the dip without the chips - every time it was brought out for us, he commented on how much he loved it and wanted to make it at home. We asked them what was in it and - surprise! It's just sundried tomatoes, olives, olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. I'd probably take the salt down a bit since the olives are salty enough, but it was GOOD. And it'd probably keep well (although it wouldn't last long in my fridge).

At night, the beach bar served more standard fare for dinner. We ate there a couple times and it definitely did not disappoint. Each time we started with caprese salad - it was impossible to resist. The tomatoes were so fresh and the mozzarella was so yummy and the basil pesto they put on top was heaven. I commented more than once that I could have just eaten a giant plate of that. So. Good. I got the mahi mahi every time and we agreed that it was the best dish they had. It came with either rice and peas (standard island sides) or a baked potato served with the most delicious fresh sour cream ever. Steve tried the snapper with rice and peas the first visit (which was really yummy) and grilled chicken with the baked potato for the second visit. All of the food was grilled or prepared about 10 feet away at the edge of the deck.

The other beach bar plus? Bartender Sam. He was super friendly and was fun to talk to while we were eating lunch (read: Steve scarfing down the sundried tomato dip) or getting a drink. And the drinks were AWESOME. Favorite? The frozen mojito. The mint came from the hydroponic farm and Sam used real cane sugar. I had never thought to make a frozen mojito, but I'm definitely trying it now!

Honeymoon gluttony posts on the chef's table, the catamaran trip, the tasting menu and Sandy Ground coming soon...

This summer's restaurant to-do list

2010-05-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

Since Steve and I aren't really going anywhere this summer (except to celebrate Mike and Britt's wedding, chronicled here), I've decided that this will be the summer of eating.

And consequently, the summer of the gym.

But mostly of eating.

I keep a running list of all the restaurants that have been suggested or I've read about or just walked past and wanted to try. So here goes (in no particular order) - all the places I'm trying to hit by the time it gets cold!

Kushi
Ted's Bulletin
Ray's the Classics
Rasika
Restaurant Eve
Policy
Posto
Cafe Saint-Ex (I hear brunch is awesome!)
Mendocino Grille
Eatonville
Birch & Barley
Corduroy
Vidalia
Bangkok Joe's
2 Amys
Komi
Westend Bistro
Tabard Inn
Againn
Marvin

Did I miss any that you think should be on the list? Tell me! When I'm not cooking this summer (more to come on that later), I want to be trying new restaurants!

I'm Julia Child...sort of.

2010-05-23T16:20:00.007-04:00

Since this is an easier post to write up (I'm having serious issues trying to edit my honeymoon posts. Cannot. Stop. Writing.), I'm doing this instead of the 6 bazillion posts I've drafted on the honeymoon food. Preview: YUM. Food was awesome.

But back to Julia Child. I'll admit it - I'm a movie nerd, and after watching Julie and Julia on the flight to Europe last fall, I was determined to make boeuf bourguignon.

(Columbia Pictures)

Not because I thought it would be an amazing meal or the best thing I've ever had - just because it would be a kitchen triumph. And my parents will tell you that only a few short years ago, I could barely boil water for pasta. (The reality is that I could do more than that, but they don't acknowledge it. Ugh.)

So when we got our Le Creuset French oven from Steve's relatives as a wedding gift, I was ecstatic. It's a beautiful rosy red color and it makes me want to cook and cook and cook. (Photo from Le Creuset's Web site because my camera is still on the fritz.)
I digress.

Again.

Our friends had given us rides both to and from the airport - 45 minutes each way - for our honeymoon flights, so we wanted to cook them dinner as a thank you. We figured boeuf bourguignon would be a great way to thank them AND break in our French oven.

We found Julia's recipe online, along with side recipes for sauteed mushrooms and brown-braised onions. I love that her recipes all have little suggestions like, "This should be paired with a wine like a Chianti" or "This recipe is traditionally served with potatoes but you can use" x or y or whatever. So the boeuf bourguignon recipe suggested the onions and mushrooms and we happily went along with it.

The recipe seems to have this stigma of being difficult to make, but it really wasn't. It's just very specific and has lots of steps. Four minutes of simmering. Four minutes in the oven, uncovered. Flour, toss, salt and pepper, toss. And on and on and on. But it was SO worth it.

I would DEFINITELY have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go. And give yourself (depending on how your oven cooks) a few hours. It can always be reheated. I had planned to reheat leftovers on Sunday, but there weren't any. That's a good sign, right?

So we took care of all the little steps and then put it in the oven to do the simmering for a couple hours. We just had one tiny glitch - I forgot to add the beef stock and went to take a shower. Steve knocked and said, "Um, did you want to use this beef stock?" and I shrieked and yelled at him to get out and hurry up and add it before it cooked much longer. I guess my sister gave me a metal case with this print on it for a reason.)

(Marigold's)

The onions, braised in beef stock and butter (of course - it's Julia Child), were freaking awesome. Perfectly tender and just oozing deliciousness. They were golden brown and I'm pretty sure we all could have eaten about 40 little pearl onions. The mushrooms were the same way - sauteed in butter and so rich and velvety and flavorful. How could they not be? They were cooked in butter.

Right before dinner, I whipped up one of my favorite go-to dessert recipes and threw it in the oven. I made Donna Hay's individual flourless chocolate cakes. They only have six ingredients - eggs, butter, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, almond meal and sugar - and are SO easy to make. And always taste amazing. We had leftovers and were pleasantly surprised that they stored well overnight. Not that they'll last much longer.

But dinner overall was a total success. No leftovers and we devoured a whole baguette sopping up the broth from the French oven. I'll definitely be making this recipe again. And maybe I'll branch out and make some more of Julia's stuff!

Take that, parents! Next time you come in town, I'm going to cook you under the table!

That was quite a weekend...

2010-05-04T18:58:00.009-04:00

So, Future Husband and I tied the knot this past weekend.

So now he's just Husband! Or maybe I can just call him Steve...since that's his name and all.

But it was an AMAZING weekend. Exhausting but amazing. We started the "weekend" by getting into San Antonio around midnight on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning commenced the gorging on Mexican food...particularly by Steve. I think he ate tacos for every other meal while we were there. Oh, and we got our marriage license that morning too. And then we lounged around, picked up tuxes and did all that kind of stuff. And then some of my grandmother's friends threw me a kitchen shower - I got three new cookbooks, cutting boards, muffin tins (which anyone who reads this blog knows I am SO EXCITED ABOUT) and all kinds of kitchen goodies. Steve and I are totally kitted out in the kitchen department. (Lamps, on the other hand? Art on the walls? Not so much. We're working on that.)

Thursday was insanity, between picking up friends at the airport (and more tacos), dinner and going out, NBA playoff games...busy day. Friday was more of the same with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner thrown in.

Saturday, however, was bliss. We both hung out with our respective friends, I drank champagne and Steve drank beer (and ate more tacos), and then we met up at the venue to do pictures. Seeing Steve all dressed up in his tux finally made it all very real. And the room looked AMAZING. Our rentals guy/florist did a truly amazing job.

And so did the caterer! SO many people came up and said that the food was far better than they expected - especially for wedding food. We started with roasted chicken wrapped in bacon with jalapenos and brie and apple berry chutney on baguette. After those yummy appetizers (which I barely even got to try!), we all sat down and started with a mixed green salad with asparagus, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and a basil pesto vinaigrette. I could have eaten a whole plate of just that. So. Delicious. For the main course we had beef tenderloin with a cabernet demi glace, shrimp in a lemon butter garlic sauce, mashed potatoes and a roasted tomato, stuffed with spinach and feta and resting on a bed of julienned summer squash.

The cakes were amazing too. Since Steve is big on wine, the groom's cake was a combination of his favorite things - chocolate and wine. Hmmm...that sounds suspiciously like some of MY favorite things too... His cake was dark chocolate with a layer of raspberry coulis and a dark chocolate buttercream frosting. And on top of it was another layer of cake cut into the shape of a wine bottle with a 1982 Chateau Margaux label on it. So perfect for Steve! The wedding cake was beautiful - white with green ribbon around the base of each tier (which was also polka dotted with bits of frosting). The cake itself was four tiers of vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream frosting. Needless to say...neither one lasted very long. I know some people didn't even get any cake. At all.

Heaven on a plate. I had previously told my coordinator that I could not be bothered during dinner and that she was supposed to run interference so I could actually sit down and enjoy that wonderful meal. Thankfully - I got to! And so did Steve.

I wish I had pictures, but I'm hoping to post a few of those soon.

Everyone danced and partied and had a great time at the wedding...maybe a little too much. One guy faceplanted off a three-foot ledge into some asphalt (resulting in a nasty-looking cut that he apparently couldn't feel...), one girl chipped her tooth on a champagne flute and our bartender got fired that night for drinking with guests, leaving the bar unattended and basically being...well...a bad bartender. I know a lot of people liked him, but dude! You know it's against the rules to drink on the job!

Oh well. Everyone had a great time and that was the main goal. Get hitched - check. Throw a freaking awesome party - check. Get guests drunk and out on the dance floor - check.

All in all, a success!

I'll leave you with a few quotes from that night.

"How old are you?"
"Fourteen."
"Oh. Awkward."

"You're hot. Want to come out with us tonight?"
"No. I'm not 21."

"I have a man crush on your brother."

"I want to adopt your parents."

Can't wait to see what the next wedding comes up with...check out www.bowiebride.com for a sneak peek! We'll be heading to LA in July to celebrate with Britt and Mike!

Cooking with Calphalon

2010-04-25T12:52:00.000-04:00

Again, this is not an advertisement for Calphalon. But seriously - their Unison pots and pans are amazing. Simply AMAZING. I'm spoiled forever.

Since we decided this weekend would be our "stay in and get the apartment in order and relax before the wedding" weekend, we did a bit of cooking.

Friday night (which was the box unpacking, laundry and Calphalon night), we made breakfast for dinner. Except we ended up drinking Pimm's, beers, rose and a great pinot noir...so dinner was at 10 pm and a little buzzed. Just a little.

Future Husband made an egg scramble and I had a go at making a fancy version of egg in a frame.

Does anyone remember egg in a frame? My dad used to make it for me when I was a little kid and it sounded really good on Friday night. Especially because we had some parmesan and cheddar cheese left from other meals. So I thought I'd make egg in a frame the normal way - in the pan - and then sprinkle some shredded parm and cheddar on it and toss it under the broiler for a little bit.

Epic fail. The whole point of egg in a frame is to combine the bread/toast with a sunny side up egg. Apparently I cooked it too long in the pan and the time under the broiler cooked the yolk completely through. I even called my dad (and had my little sister wake him up) to make sure I was cooking it in the pan correctly. Sorry, Dad. Next time, can you just come cook this for me? Great. Thanks.

So Friday night was kind of a bust. Saturday held a lot of promise though! We had fajitas for lunch (so super easy to make and we already had the fajita fixin's) and Future Husband had beef marinating in the fridge.

Our goal for the night was to make steak frites. The steak wasn't an issue - Future Husband is a pro at cooking beef. The frites, however, were a challenge. We don't have a deep fryer and didn't know if we could get a true, crispy fry from pan-frying. We could not. But they still tasted really really good. Fried potatoes always do!

Future Husband had made garlic butter on Friday night for his eggs, so we used the rest of it for the frites. Plus more garlic to fry with them.

I got tasked with handling the fries, so Future Husband told me to slice them like McDonald's fries. Done.

He chopped the additional garlic and insisted that I take an "artsy" photo of the garlic with his knife. This also goes to show why I need Photoshop...and a dSLR. But the other photos without flash were just too dark. I think Future Husband just wanted to show off his fancy shun kaji knife, which I'm pretty sure he loves more than me.

So in the end they turned out like this...

Not crispy, but browned and delicious. Yum yum yum.

End result of the evening was this delectable meal...which Future Husband plated.

And now I'm going to the gym. For the next 3 days.

Happy Sunday!

Carrie

This is not an advertisement.

2010-04-25T12:23:00.000-04:00

This weekend was a big weekend. We didn't go out or host a party or anything like that, but it was big nonetheless.

We sorted out the wedding gifts that had been piling up in the corners of the living room and unpacked all of the boxes of dinnerware, glassware and pots and pans.

Ohhh the pots and pans. Calphalon, I love you.

With that set came a colander (which apparently, according to the pamphlet, can double as a fruit bowl. Thanks for the heads-up, Calphalon.) and a dutch oven. They were bonus items. With the dutch oven came a Calphalon spoon and a lovely kitchen towel. I'm sold on the kitchen towels...our Williams-Sonoma ones are not as absorbent.

Future Husband (who I guess will just be Husband after Saturday? hmmm) got to unpack all the boxes. So this:

became this:

You can also see how lovely our kitchen is. I like to think of it as retro chic. Hah.

We eventually got everything put away and piled up our old pots and pans (at the bottom right of the photo) to take to Goodwill (a harrowing experience at best - don't people know how to drive?).

We also cleaned, did laundry, started packing and hung art/photos up. Which was good, because I was starting to believe that the photos would be leaning against the walls in their selected locations forever.

Two red canvases for the guest bathroom...

Two framed photographs by Steven L. Miller Photography. He's a local photographer who travels all over and has a stand at the Courthouse antiques market every Saturday. I would happily fill all of my frames with his work.

I also found out that my dream of adding French style to our apartment (which is, for the most part, pretty classic and a little modern - clean lines, lots of natural colors and white, dark wood, etc.) may come true! We got a Restoration Hardware advert in the mail on Saturday and Future Husband (gasp) actually found things in it that he liked! I was surprised, as he had always seemed a little hesitant when I talked of decorating in a French/Provence style.

He even liked the linen pillow covers with patterns from French burlap sacks, which I have been lusting after since seeing them appear countless times in the design blogs I follow. So we decided we'll get one of these...

(Photo from Restoration Hardware)

He also liked these chairs, but we don't really have the space in our current apartment. So I guess we just need to buy a house in Provence and then I can decorate to my heart's content.

We should probably work on owning a house in Virginia first. Sigh.

(Photo from Restoration Hardware)

So it was a productive weekend...and I figured I'd post about apartment endeavours first and then our cooking endeavours...which were also fun this weekend!

xo,
Carrie

This whole "getting married" thing

2010-04-23T09:15:00.000-04:00

It has taken over my life. Which isn't bad! It has just meant that I haven't really had the time (or energy or ability to keep my eyes open past 7:30 pm like a grandma) to post more frequently on the blog.

However! Things are slowing down and are pretty much confirmed with wedding stuff, so Future Husband and I are starting to have more free time. For about 3 days. And then we'll be off to Texas for the wedding (and more trying to keep our eyes open past 7:30 pm).

Last weekend I had the opportunity to break in my muffin pan. A family friend of Future Husband graciously gave it to us (read: me) as a wedding shower gift (along with her cookbook and a brownie pan - all commercial baking quality) and I'd been itching to try it out since then. I'd even solicited recipes from the foodies on Twitter and got some great recipes - applesauce muffins from former coworker and fellow Mizzou grad Addie Broyles (an awesome Austin food blogger!), cheesecake in muffin form and cherry tomato cornbread muffins from Mango & Tomato.....the list goes on. And Future Husband found a few recipes he wanted to try too.

And while those recipes are first on my list of stuff to make after the wedding, when I saw this recipe I had to try it immediately. And I knew my fellow snackers last weekend would love love love these...

(Photo from Instructables)

Yum. Car bomb cupcakes. Need I say more? Guinness cupcake + Jameson ganache (trust me, it's good) + Bailey's frosting = very sweet but AMAZING. They disappeared. Quickly.

That may or may not have happened because everyone was slightly, um, inebriated. But still. They disappeared nonetheless. (Note: They are not for kids. Really. Some of the alcohol doesn't cook off.)

They're not too difficult to make - just have a lot of steps. Instructables (where I got the recipe) takes you step by step for each component. Each part of the recipe was easy and I ended up breaking it up throughout the evening...made the cupcakes before dinner, let them cool. Made the ganache and frosting while Future Husband was cleaning up after dinner. Actually put the cupcakes together the next day.

My next task in the kitchen is MUCH more daunting than just breaking in my muffin tin. We just got this:

(Photo: Le Creuset)

Be still my beating heart. Future Husband and I are so excited about this we can hardly sit still. We talked about what to make in it at 6:10 this morning. So. Amazing. Definitely displaying it prominently in the kitchen. It's so beautiful! How could you not?

But I think we've decided that the first recipe should be boeuf bourguignon. After watching Julie & Julia, I'm apprehensive (but don't really plan on falling asleep on the couch while it cooks, so I should be fine). But it seems like the perfect way to welcome Le Creuset to our home! Plus...yum.

So now I just need to find a good, tried-and-true recipe.

My slightly unhealthy kitchen design obsession

2010-04-01T22:15:00.000-04:00

I have an obsession with kitchens. Perhaps it's because our apartment building is rather old and hasn't really been updated at all. I'm pretty sure our dishwasher is from 1982. And I can't change the yellowed cabinetry (probably using vinyl), the tile (probably vinyl as well) and the lighting (yikes! it's awful). So I think I obsess over beautiful kitchens, large and small, because I dream of the day I get to create a kitchen that I really love.

Here are some gorgeous kitchens that I'm saving for the day Future Husband and I do a kitchen remodel (no doubt about it - there'll be a remodel when we buy a house).

(photo via Tracy at Comfort and Luxury)

Love love love the white marble counters with black cabinets. And the backsplash behind the stove! Classic and won't ever go out of style (unless beautiful white marble suddenly becomes a design faux pas...on that day I might cry a little tear...). Comfort and Luxury is definitely a favorite blog. I wish I had a fireplace so I could actually do something from Tracy's last post.

(photo by Eric Roth for New Old House Magazine)

Words cannot express how much I love Steve and Brooke Giannetti's kitchen. Brooke blogs on Velvet & Linen and their home is BEAUTIFUL. While in Chagrin Falls this past weekend, I spotted some vintagey luggage in a French boutique and instantly thought of her posts on the luggage in their house. As frequent travellers, I think I can get Future Husband on board with the luggage-as-decoration idea. Maybe.

(image via Department of the Interior, who got it from Pretty Lovely)

I liked this kitchen so much I sent it to Future Husband when it came up on my Google Reader (thanks to Jenn at Department of the Interior, whose blog I love). Clean lines, lots of open counter space...I figured he would like it since there wasn't a lot of crap on the counters. I think he's even bothered by me keeping the KitchenAid mixer out on the counter. He's definitely not one for clutter. But I digress. I think I'm really drawn to the black cabinets and white counters - really like that right now. Am already deciding that I'll need to save my pennies for white marble countertops.

I couldn't find my favorite favorite favorite kitchen...if anyone knows who posted it, I'd love to have a link. It's a beautiful kitchen with a big island that has white tile extending probably 7 feet or so up the wall and then a yellow imperial trellis pattern above that. Gorgeous super high ceilings. And (of course, if I remember correctly since I can't find the photo) white marble counters with black cabinetry. The big attention-grabber for me was the separate bar area - Future Husband would LOVE that. But alas, I cannot find it.

Anyway...will try to be better about posting. And I'm still looking for that last kitchen photo, dammit.

Happy almost Friday!

xo,
Carrie :)

Catching up on the last few weeks...

2010-03-18T21:41:00.001-04:00

So I have been a horribly delinquent blogger. I haven't really felt like it recently - but until about a week ago, I didn't really feel like doing much of anything! Work has been dreary, it's been cold and winter has been taking its toll.

But thankfully, spring is here! And everything is right with the world. Well, work is still dreary. But at least it's sunny and warm outside!

Wedding plans are humming along. There are still a few things left to do - specifically, centerpieces and table decor. I've picked it all out and sent my flower preferences, but I haven't seen a mock-up yet. It's making my little type A brain go slightly crazy. Other than that, Future Husband and I have been trying to pick out our first dance song. Do we go classic with something like Sinatra, Bennett or Armstrong? Or do we go a little more recent and do something like James Taylor? OR do we go cheeky and funny like the Backstreet Boys? In reality...I know we won't do the Backstreet Boys. But part of me is really tempted to do that.

I got a great email from Andrea Drexelius, the woman behind French Basketeer. I've posted before about her amazing bags - they're handmade in Morocco or Madagascar and are GORGEOUS. I had originally ordered this beautiful mango Cap Ferrat bag (that will be perfect for the honeymoon), but turns out it's out of stock until June or so.

So Andrea graciously offered to swap it out for any of the other bags she carries. But I just had to have the same style bag, so I'm getting it in fuschia instead.

Love love love love it. It'll be perfect for summer! If anyone needs a summer bag, I highly recommend Andrea's bags!

In other news, our new pillows are here! Elizabeth (Lilybethgoodies) on Etsy had some beautiful green damask pillows for sale but I had wanted them in a lumbar shape instead of regular 18x18. She was wonderful and customized the pillows for us and got them to us really quick. And they are beautiful! Now if only Pottery Barn had the 12x24 pillows in stock in Clarendon... Here's Elizabeth's shop on Etsy.

(Photo by Elizabeth)

In kitchen news, we've been baking and cooking up a storm. Among the things that have come out of the kitchen:

1. Pot roast. YUM. Mix a little cream of mushroom soup and some red wine (the more the better) plus a couple other ingredients and you've got yourself a DELICIOUS roast. And great leftovers.

2. Red wine marinated flank steak. Red wine + steak = always a good combination.

3. Donna Hay's sticky black pepper pork (and sticky black pepper chicken - basically the same recipe on chicken). Super easy and all ingredients are easily found in your pantry.

4. Donna Hay's pork with horseradish cream sauce. Really delicious summery sauce that you could use for anything...Future Husband used leftover sauce on his roast beef sandwich with some Nancy's Camembert.

5. Muddy dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate glaze and raspberry coulis. Soooooo wonderful. I spread a layer of the coulis in between two layers of cake. But instead of making two full layers, I just took my trusty Chef Tony (thanks Dad!) bread knife and sliced the cake horizontally. Very proud of myself! That's the first time I'd done that. And I'm just getting started. With the help of Bakerella, Noshings, TastyKitchen and a few new kitchen tools (like muffin tins, cookie sheets, spatulas, and maybe a new bowl for the mixer), this is the summer of baking!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying spring!

xo,

Carrie

Mmmmm...delicious

2010-03-02T17:38:00.000-05:00

Lord help me.

With two months to go before the wedding, I should not be eating like this. My first dress fitting is four days away and I will be on a beach in 68 days. I'm sure I'll reflect like a mirror (from all those cold winter days when the sun didn't even deign to come out) and regret the days when I curled up with wine instead of going to the gym.

Oh well.

Anyway, there have been some seriously delicious meals coming out of my kitchen (thanks in part to Future Husband, who rescues me from any kitchen crisis).

I'm on a big Pioneer Woman kick - she is amazing! Her blog is hilarious and she always has sinfully delicious-looking recipes on it. So I tried a couple last weekend, and boy did they turn out good.

(Photo by the Pioneer Woman herself - Ree Drummond)

1. Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin. And ohmygosh were they perfect. Full of cream and whole milk and cheese and DELICIOUSNESS. I highly recommend making them and eating them as soon as possible. You won't regret it. Two friends saw that I was making them and ALSO made them this weekend. Heavenly.

(Photo by Ree again)

2. Key Lime Pie. Sorta. This pie was gone within 48 hours of it being made. SO easy to make and nice and tart. I think this was part of my "I'm drinking white wine and eating summery foods" binge this past weekend. Ready for summer much? Yes.

I also did actually make the raspberry and ginger cheesecake from Donna Hay's most recent issue, but it called for gelatin and that was my downfall. Future Husband and I ended up combing through our slices of cheesecake for big chunks of unflavored, gelatinous goo. Nasty.

Donna's thai chilli sauce was awesome - really flavorful and just the right amount of spice to use over chicken, as a marinade, etc. We (well...Future Husband) marinated flank steak in it overnight and it was to die for. I could have eaten a whole cow marinated in that sauce. If Donna posts the recipe on her Web site, I'll post a link to it here. It's really easy to make and SO worth it. The only downside is the fish sauce - smells horrible.

Really really gross.

But worth it for that sauce.

I'm making another one of Donna's recipes for dinner tonight. Future Husband loves pork (as he told me last night when I said I wanted a teacup pig and he threatened to cure it and eat it - horrible, horrible man) and so I'm making sticky black pepper pork. YUM.

(Photo by Wiliam Meppem for Donna Hay)

Here's the recipe for anyone who wants it!

Sticky Black Pepper Pork

Hopefully my camera will be fixed soon (once I actually remember to take it in to be fixed) and I can actually start posting my own photos instead of pilfering photos off other Web sites.

Happy Tuesday!

Carrie

Mea culpa

2010-02-18T21:08:00.000-05:00

Mea culpa, mea culpa. That recipe WAS in my Donna Hay magazine - I just hadn't flipped far enough. Endless teasing from Future Husband (who was wonderful enough to try and alter that photo in photoshop so we could read what the dessert was called and find the recipe on the Donna Hay web site).

Sorry, sorry, sorry, FH. You are the best! And I am an idiot.

Why don't you like the things I like???

2010-02-18T20:44:00.000-05:00

Future Husband has a few foods that he doesn't really like. I, however, love a few of them (or all of them). Here are a few:

Pineapple
Mango
Papaya
Passionfruit
Grapefruit
Coconut (noticing a tropical fruit theme here?)
Eggplant
Overdoses of cilantro
Clementines

I just got the summer Donna Hay magazine and EVERYTHING in it makes me crave summer. The recipes (nectarine and amaretti tarts, granita, pork tacos, horseradish mayonnaise, etc etc etc...), the photos (Cook Islands!), the articles (50 easy and fast recipes, which the magazine does every year)...everything.

This glimpse of deliciousness is only on the Web site or in the Australian version of the magazine. Cause it certainly wasn't in the one that showed up at my door today! But it looks scrumptious.

(Donna Hay magazine)

Maybe it's just the gusty winds and 35-degree weather we've been having, but it seriously needs to be summer. Now. Not just so I can make yummy, summer-y dishes and desserts, but also so my ears and nose can survive the walks back and forth between my office and the metro station without getting frostbite.

Meanwhile, I'll be having a winter BBQ soon. Grilled chicken, maybe that nectarine and amaretti tart (the photo looked so delicious that I wanted to eat the paper and I'm pretty sure Future Husband wanted to do the same thing for the quick and easy pork recipes listed in the magazine). If I can find nectarines, that is.

And I have to find someone who will eat things off the list above with me. Because I found an eggplant, ricotta and basil pasta recipe that is begging to be made!

S'now joke...

2010-02-09T20:44:00.001-05:00

So, we've been snowed in for about 5 days - going on our third day off of work (well, three and a half if you include the 4-hour early dismissal on Friday). Every night has been like the night before Christmas - open? Closed? Open? Closed? We monitored all kinds of web sites (some that crashed)...OPM was a trending topic on Twitter and the OPM site that published the status of the federal government consistently crashed throughout each evening. And finding out that we were closed and that we had yet another snow day was like we had just won Oscars (or a million dollars).

Break out the bubbly...we're closed again!

So we celebrated with a little champagne and a little butter cake frosted with buttercream frosting. YUM.

Nothing better than buttercream frosting. That's what we're using for our wedding cake and after the little tastes I got of it back in October and just now, I am REALLY confident in our decision to go buttercream. So so so delicious. And so easy to make! I made Donna Hay's butter cream frosting - and here's the recipe.

Donna Hay's buttercream frosting

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces of softened butter

Combine in a mixer and go to town! Of course, slather it on a cooled cake and then refrigerate until it's set. I was too impatient to do that, so my frosting was a little liquidy and not set (but still tasted good).

I've burned through all of the butter, milk, eggs and sugar in the apartment, and we're almost out of flour too. Things are getting desperate! Thankfully, Future Husband found milk at the market...

Meanwhile, I've been working my way through my list of things to do so I keep on some sort of a routine...sort of. I've done some wedding stuff, some apartment stuff and I've definitely been lazy. I think I've read to the end of the internet and back again. Google Reader has been my lifesaver these last few days...that and the pictures the WashPo has been posting online from "Snowmageddon." Have to say it - I'm REALLY lucky to live in an apartment building. We didn't shovel anything, didn't lose power, didn't have to drive anywhere to get groceries...

However - metro did fail us at the height of the snowstorm. We went to dinner at a couple friends' apartment and stayed long past the announced metro closing time (which was four hours earlier than normal). So what did we do? We walked the two miles home - mostly in the road since there weren't any cars out and we couldn't even tell where the sidewalks were. Totally worth it for the company and delicious dinner!

On a sad note...my camera didn't fare so well in the winter weather and is now dead. So all of the photos I'm taking now are on my BlackBerry. NOT the best quality.

Hope everyone else in the DC area has been faring OK (and warmly!) in the snowstorms...and if you're NOT around here, enjoy your normal weather!

Things I'm Coveting Right Now...

2010-02-05T16:40:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. You're not supposed to covet anything. With that said, here we go...

1. My new West Elm vases. Simple, white, clean lines...right up my alley (and thankfully up Future Husband's too). They were on sale online (AND had free shipping to boot) so we got 3 of them. Well, one of them is an icy blue. The color was too pretty to resist. We got the "egg" (the little egg-shaped one in the bottom left of the photo) in white and the blue. And then we got the one directly to the right of it that's more of a traditional vase shape. To round out the white vase trio, I think we'll get the jug - the one behind the two we already purchased.

(West Elm image)

2. Google Reader. What's better than one site that can deliver all of your favorite blogs' posts??? I can't get enough. It's like I'm on apartment decorating crack. I'm sure it'll only get worse when Future Husband and I actually buy a townhouse or house house. Then we'll throw paint, light fixtures, appliances (oh, how I ache for a subzero freezer and giant washer and dryer) and all that into the mix. But Google Reader is seriously amazing. Only down side? I don't get to stumble upon other wonderful blogs quite as much while perusing my current favorites.

3. Decor de Provence's house. Nothing is more heavenly than a beautiful home filled with all shades of greens and blues and anywhere in between. And in such an understated, harmonious way. Normally when someone picks a color to decorate with, you see a giant turquoise wall or bright rug. Instead, Decor de Provence brought it into her house with tile, chairs in the kitchen, a chest in the entryway...it's perfect. My ideal way to bring such beautiful colors into a home. Decor de Provence, want to come decorate my apartment? Go to her blog or to House of Turquoise, which posted pictures of Desiree's lovely lovely home.

4. Blogs - from everywhere. Design*Sponge, Decor8, DC by Design, My Notting Hill, Absolutely Beautiful Things, Belgian Pearls, Decor de Provence, Architect Design, Cote de Texas, Pretty Lovely Things, Bakerella, Mommy Wants Vodka, The Bowie Bride, The Hard G, One Hungry Chef...the list goes on and on. I would link them all but I'm feeling lazy right now. Could be the Maker's neat that I'm drinking right now since Future Husband and I got let out of work early due to the impending apocalyptic snow storm.

5. Ever since Cote de Texas did a French Basketeer rolling basket giveaway (which I was woefully too late for), I have SERIOUSLY been jonesing for one of the French bags made by the same company. Here's Cote de Texas' post on the basket. And here is a picture of the bag I have been hemming and hawing about purchasing for the last couple weeks.

(French Basketeer image)

How wonderful would it be to take to the farmers' market on Saturday mornings, run errands with and just use as a great accessory??? Sigh. The reason I'm resisting the urge to whip out my credit card is because it's been pulled out quite a lot for the new apartment and is feeling a bit abused. So I'll refrain from purchasing that beautiful bag...maybe until the honeymoon. Or until tomorrow (because now it's on my mind again).

Happy Friday to all and, if you're on the eastern side of the US, stay home and stay warm! The snowpocalypse has begun!

Carrie :)

Things are coming together!

2010-02-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

So now that things have kind of settled down I can finally post pictures of the new apartment. While taking these pictures, I've discovered that not only do I need a digital SLR but also Photoshop. Like whoa. I'd love to be able to even out my photos and calm them down a bit (my camera's flash can be a bit overzealous...). But one thing at a time. Digital SLR can wait (I guess).

But on to the photos! We'll start with the living room...

Empty...

With stuff!

Those bookshelves were quite a project to organize and put together and I'm still not satisfied with their organization. They could be better. Maybe when the DVDs go to the soon-to-be-purchased media console. This is how they ended up:

We'll eventually replace the mismatched sofas with matching Buchanan sofas from Pottery Barn...

(Pottery Barn photo)

The media console will go on the far wall (that is so horrifically stark white and glaringly empty right now). The slipper chair will probably have to find a new home, but we'll see.

Dining room time! This is it empty...

And with furniture...

Current plan is to hang this mirror on that wall...

(West Elm image)

From the dining room/living room area, you can wander out the door to the patio...

The green planter was home to a beautiful peace lily that winter killed (or I did because I'm a bad plant mom and forgot to water it and/or bring it in from the cold. Doesn't bode well for my children.). Future Husband and I are going to try to stain an Ikea kitchen cart we have and weatherproof it so we can use it as an outdoor bar/serving area. Who knows if it'll work or not! But I think we're going to shoot for an outdoor living room-type area on the uncovered portion of the patio - maybe a bench, a couple chairs and a coffee table.

Moving on to the kitchen...

To the right, there's a small-ish breakfast area. We're putting a kitchen buffet/hutch combination in there but it leaves an awkward space...really too small for a 2-person breakfast table, but too big to just leave empty. Don't really know what to do with it.

Guest bedroom/office is up next...

The desk will go where all those lovely neat piles of stuff are (it's on backorder until March...ugh).

I'll save master bedroom pictures until we get our bedroom furniture in from Crate and Barrel...right now it looks like a college student's house (mattress and box spring on the floor and TV/cable box cords everywhere).

I'm always open to decorating/design ideas, so let me know if you have any suggestions! :)

Happy almost Friday!

And we're back!

2010-02-03T15:29:00.000-05:00

So, thanks to the Comcast, Future Husband and I have been offline for three days now. Only basic cable (which was not horrible). But no internet. No sharing of photos. No progress reports on the new apartment. No Facebook or checking the weather in the morning. Or reading CNN. It was awful!

But we're back! The technician came out today to set everything straight and by the grace of God, we have internet again.

So I'll post pictures of the new place (in all its messy glory) tonight!

HGTV...or not.

2010-01-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

Ew. Future Husband and I took a break from piling everything we own in the living room and ended up watching HGTV. And it really makes me wonder...who are the people working on this show??? We started out watching Jamie Durie...which was actually interesting. He's good. But then we started watching this. HORRIBLE! Basically, Colour Confidential revamps a certain room or scheme within a house and the owners will occasionally guide the color selection. But ew. People are designers/stylists for a reason. Because they're good at what they do. If someone volunteers for a show, it's usually because they can't do it themselves or don't want to. But this show doesn't help! I know I veer towards neutrals and splashes of color and that not everyone is the same, but this show veers toward VERY bold colors that didn't really mesh well (brick red and yellow) - and the people on the show weren't really sure of it all either. All in all, people should NOT be taking color advice from the show and trying to implement it themselves.

Maybe it was just those couple shows that we watched. I'd give it another shot. But I'm very wary.

Off to dismantle the bed. Only a couple more days of mess and then we'll be settled in the new apartment!

New apartment

2010-01-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

FYI - I'll have pictures of the empty apartment on Sunday so all of you design gurus can help me accessorize the place. We've got a lot of stuff already, but I'd love help figuring out ways to personalize the apartment. Almost everything is neutral, so I think it needs a little splash of color. If Future Husband had it his way, everything would be white. But I think the apartment needs a little more than that. :)

Here's the floor plan, courtesy of the Archstone Courthouse building web site:

The balcony on the right extends a LOT farther...just doesn't show on the floorplan. We're open to ideas!

Yummies amidst the mess

2010-01-29T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I've contemplated starting a blog for awhile now...I even had a couple while I was in college. One for studying abroad, one that amounted to all of 3 posts (usually about school). But now that I'm getting married (almost 3 months exactly from today!), moving into a new apartment and starting a new chapter of my life, I figured this was as good as any time to start a blog and really keep it up.

Status of my life: As I said, I'm getting married in three months. To my best friend and the best man I've ever met. He's wonderful - hilariously witty, way smarter than me, kind and...well...jolly. He's always laughing and teasing me (which I need) and reminds me to calm down (in a nice, non-antagonizing way) when I'm being crazy or moody. AND - he cooks, cleans and does laundry. All in all, he's the perfect man!

Also - we're moving this weekend. So our apartment looks like this:

So while Future Husband was taking all the stuff off the bookshelves and getting everything ready to move, I made a favorite dinner - French onion soup and toasted cheese sandwiches. YUM. Except I didn't let the onions really and truly brown so the taste wasn't quite as deep and rich as it usually is. Toasted cheese sandwiches turned out well though. They're made of a mix of dijon mustard, sour cream and cheddar cheese and, as Future Husband said, "I could eat five of them." Here are the onions pre-soup:

And here's the soup simmering and almost done:

Delicious. Except not as delicious as it usually is. Future Husband still thought it was good combined with the toasted cheese sandwiches, as evidenced by this expression:

So the soup wasn't horrible. :) And it was the least I could do while Future Husband dismantled the living room. For fun, though, before he came into the kitchen to eat (since the dining table is covered in stuff from the bookshelves), I styled the sandwich and soup a la Donna Hay, whose recipes I used. I LOVE her. She's amazing. I own four of her cookbooks and can't find anything wrong with them (except sometimes the Australian names for things...that can be perplexing).

To top it all off, I made "thank you" cheesecake brownies (also from one of Donna's books) for our leasing agent and for Future Husband's groomsman, who is helping us move all of our stuff on Sunday. They were pretty good. And we polished off the little bit of muddy chocolate cake (also Donna) from last week. Needless to say, our bodies are oversugared and will not be ready for heavy lifting soon. Here are the brownies in production:

I've made it my goal to start baking more - I love it. But I'm trying to shed a few pounds, I'll be baking, trying a bit of what I bake and then dispersing it between work and our friends. I'll take requests, so if any of you out there want something specific, let me know! Otherwise, I'll probably be working my way through Donna's dessert book and her entertaining books. Everything I've had of hers (except my failed attempt at butternut squash soup, which my college roommate choked down so as not to immediately hurt my feelings) has been wonderful and gotten rave reviews.

Along with baking more, I've made it a goal to really and truly decorate our new apartment. I want it to feel more like a home since we'll probably be there for two or three years. I'll have a post on my decorating inspirations later - probably next week after the move. And I'll need plenty of advice and ideas, so if anyone wants to offer suggestions, I'm open!

Until then, happy Friday everyone!