The Best Kind Of Recon Mission

About a month ago, my friend enlisted me for a recon mission. The best kind of recon mission. See, Kat, my friend, was planning a vineyard tour for her girlfriend's bachelorette party and asked me to scope it out with her. My answer FLEW out of mouth, "YES, YES I'll come with you to plan the route." So, on one sunny Saturday, we traveled north to three different vineyards. Our first stop was Saltwater Farm Vineyard. Then we headed to Jonathan Edwards Winery, and then Maugle Sierra Vineyard.  All of the vineyards were gorgeous and sort of perfect in different ways. And with everything in bloom I was just in HEAVEN. I didn't bring my SLR, but my trusty iPhone took some BEAUTIFUL pictures for ya. 

XO.

aren't i a class thang?

See, everything was in bloom, how gorgeous!?!

Chicaaggoooo!

My trip to Chicago was everything I wanted it to be and more. Leanne, Christina and I didn't do a whole lot in the way of touring the city, errr, or going of the house really. But it was wonderful, NO fantastic, no SIMPLY PERFECT.

Friday night Lea and I went to dinner--where I proceeded to drink a bottle of champagne BY MYSELF. It's been years since I've done that (what can I say? I'm not much of a drinker). Umm, needless to say, the next morning I WAS NOT feeling so hot. Leannster told me of her go-to cure for hangovers. FRESH JUICE.  Like she has a juicer, fresh juice. And let me tell you, that girl is onto something. 

Here's the miracle juice recipe for you:

5 or 6 carrots (can't remember)

1 thumb size piece of ginger, peeled

4 apples, washed, cored and cut into wedges

DONE!

Throw those suckers into a juicer and drink away your headache. Seriously, after I drank it, I instantly felt better. 

DELICIOUS!

OK, after we got my hangover out of the way, we decided to have ourselves a little cook-fest 2013. Christina couldn't partake since she was being all smart and junk at a TED Talk, but she did get to reap the benefits, so that's something.

I had been scoping out Joy's Feta Roasted Pepper Scone, and convinced Leannerita that we HAD to make it. Let the bread making begin. 

I have to say that I've never actually roasted my own red peppers. Now that might sound lazy, and let me tell you it is. Roasting red peppers is stupid. And no, it's not actually difficult but opening a jar is always easier than charring the crap out of a bunch of peppers on your stove. Case in point:

oh hey, that be me!!!

We survived the charring action and started working on the other ingredients. I'll be first to say it, the dough didn't look to hot. It was oddly lumpy but boy-o-boy was it delicious once baked. Yumm-o.

I always end up quoting Wayne's World, why does that always happen?!

If you fancy making your own, here's the deets.

From Joy The Baker

What you need:

- 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

- 1 large egg, beaten

- 1 3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

- 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers*

- heaping 1/2 cup coarsely crumbled feta cheese

- 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil

- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

*If you’re starting with fresh red bell pepper, it will need to be roasted and toasted first.  Turn a gas stovetop burner on to medium heat.  Place the entire pepper directly over the flame and allow to rest there until blackened and charred.  Use a pair of tongs to flip the pepper so that it can be browned on all sides.  Remove from the flame, cut in half (removing the top and seeds) and use a sharp knife to gently peel away the charred skin.  You can leave a bit of the charred skin in tact for a rustic look and taste.  Coarsely chop the pepper and set aside.

What you do: 

Preheat your oven to 425

Get your pan sorted, by buttering the crap out of it. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.

Add the cold butter and, using your fingers, quickly break the butter down into the dry ingredients.  Some bits of butter will be the size of small peas, others the size of oat flakes.

In a small bowl, beat together egg and buttermilk.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir. Be sure to really stir it together.

Dump onto floured surface and knead 8 to 9 times to bring together. I found the dough to be really wet at this point, so I added about 1/4 of a cup of flour, one tablespoon at a time. 

Put that dough boy into your prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Note that the bread is done when you insert a knife and it comes out clean (like a cake!)

Let it rest for 10 minutes (if you can wait that long) and enjoy!

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After we made the killer bread, we decided to make a few other items too (remember, I did say it was a cooking fest) but those yummtastic items will have to be discussed at another time since I'm tired and worked 12 hours today. I also want you to come back tomorrow too...see what I did there, I built suspense. muahahah.

XO. 

Me

Asparagus Tart

My friend Nicole had a baby shower this weekend (yey baby!) and I was tasked with making the oh-so-easy and oh-so-delicious asparagus tart. It's a combination of few of my favorite things: cheese, puff pastry and asparagus. Oh, ok, asparagus isn't really one of my favorite things. But cheese and puff pastry definitely are.

I followed my girl Martha's recipe.

What you need:

- 1 sheet of puff pastry thawed (I thawed mine in the fridge the night before!)
- 2c gruyere cheese (or swiss if you're in a pinch)
- 1 1/2 lb of asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
- 1 tb good olive oil
- Salt and pepper

What you do:

Preheat your fantabulous oven to a whopping 400F

Roll out puff pastry to make a 11"x16" rectangle (mine was smaller)



Trim away excess puff pastry to make a purdy rectangle

With a pairing knife, score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle. And then prick center of puff-pastry with a fork (like a bake potato!)

Put into oven (on a parchment lined baking sheet) and cook for 10-15 (or until lightly golden).

Ok, now that your puff gorgeousness is in the oven, grate your cheese/trim your asparagus. 

Lay your cheese onto baked puff pastry and arrange your asparagus on top

Drizzle top with olive oil. Season with salt-n-peper.

Should look something like this! Pop it into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes (or until asparagus is tender!)

I would suggest checking it at the 18 min mark--cause puff pastry burns easy.

Enjoy as an appetizer, light dinner, or a snack!

XO.

Cooking Your Way Into The Hearts Of Many

I'm not against baking your way into the hearts of others. In fact, I relish in baking my way into the hearts of others. And with Valentine's Day coming on up, what's a better way to show your love than a massive batch of home made cookies? Answer: there is no better way. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart:

What you need:

• - 3 c old-fashioned rolled oats

• - 1 c all-purpose flour 
• - 1 ts fine sea salt

• - 1/4 ts baking soda

• - 3/4 c unsalted butter, room temperature

• - 1 c packed light brown sugar

• - 1/2 c granulated sugar

• - 1/4 c maple syrup

• - 1 egg

• - 1 1/2 ts vanilla extract
• - 1 c chocolate chip cookies

What you do:

Preheat that oven to 350 F

In a large bow mix together your rolled oats, flour, salt and baking soda. Set that sucker aside.

 

In your mixer, cream your sugar and butter. Add egg, maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix, mix, mix.

Slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet. Fold in your chocolate chips.

It should look something like this:

The dough tastes amazing, not that I tried any or anything. 

Use your scooper to create uniform little dough balls 

Bake for 11 minutes. You have to rotate the cookies half way through so that they don't burn. 

Let them cool and then watch them disappear!!!

Enjoy!

The Heiress

Last weekend, my girlfriends and I went to see The Heiress. But before we did that, we went to The Smith for some dinner and well deserved drinks (hey, it was Friday after all).  It started to snow when we got into the city, which only made the night more cozy or should I say hilarious.  We couldn't get a cab after dinner and had to walk the 10+ avenue blocks to the theater. And I may or may not have slipped. Woopsss.

The show itself was a smidge depressing (I don't want to spoil it for anyone), but the cast was superb (ahem, Dan Stevens)!  And the set was bad ass. It didn't change throughout the show so they really went all out. Think fancy rugs, furniture, everything.  Well, without further adieu, here is my little visual recap for ya.

I have to say, I really enjoy my little weekend recap posts--so I hope you like them, cause they're here to stay!

sometimes champagne makes you do mid-dinner dances

 

Me and Dan (and a not-so-street-legal picture of the set)

XO.

To Burlington We Go

Ryan and I headed up to Vermont this past weekend to see some friends, tour Burlington, snowboard and just hang out. I had never been to Burlington before and I have to say that it's adorable. The Church Street area is filled with a combination of local shops and chain stores. AND it had at least two used book stores, which makes it just about perfect in my book (ha, ha). And, in a lucky turn of events, our friends Gina and Walter were in VT too! In true tourist style, we visited the Ben and Jerry's factory. Best part of the tour was DEFINITELY the free sample at the end. Butterscotch ice cream with butterscotch candy, umm YES! We had so much fun and I can't wait to see Lake Champlain in the summer (that's right Noah & Emily, I just invited myself...muhaha). 

SoNo Market Place

On Friday night, my friend Kat and I went to the SoNo Market Place and I have to say if I were reincarnated into a physical place it would be that place. It's a collection of little shops located in a ADORABLE setting. They have an assortment of homemade goodies, almost like a physical Etsy store or something. They even have a bar! My mind was blown. I can't wait to go back!!!

{This little awesome, Hungarian woman HAND MAKES these decorative eggs! They are unreal!}

{Olive Oil Tasting}

{Reminds me of a log cabin}

{These Nothin' But bars are amazeballs! Totally delicious!}

A Weekend

For us workin' folks, weekends are something precious.  A time to take care of life's duties, a time for yourself. I didn't do a whole lot this past weekend, but boy was it glorious. It included an {un-pictured} girls night out, a trip to New Haven, and lots of FOOD! My weekend also included some of this too....

{a afternoon nap}

{Christmas decorating}

{lots of coffee drinking}

{a trip to New Haven's Meatball House}

{out of focus pictures}