O'Christmas Tree

It is December! Christmas time in Minnesota is my favorite. The cold weather almost seems a little magical. How is your decorating and shopping coming along? Want to see a picture of our tree? Silly question, of course you do! Here she is in all her beauty:

When you have a small place, you make do. The tree is actually a rosemary tree from Trader Joe's and I am a bit obsessed. It fragrance's the whole room with a wonderful herbal scent and I am also excited to try cooking with fresh rosemary. Maybe look for a recipe using it in the coming week. Have a wonderful first weekend of December friends.

Loving the look of driftwood

So while I may be posting mostly recipes these days, because that is about all I have been creating lately, I still really, really, really love interior decorating. Most of the blogs I follow are about design in some capacity. These days it is a little hard to dream about homes due to where we live. Most of our stuff is in storage, so buying new stuff seems a little ridiculous. Plus in our small home these is not really room to add in many more accessories either. That doesn't stop a girl from dreaming though does it? Also if you feel compelled to purchase me anything on this list, I promise you I would find room for it in our abode :)

Here are a few inspiration pictures I have come across lately. Can you tell what has been on my mind?

All images from Apartment Therapy

Yup, driftwood has been on my mind. I really love how it adds texture and earthiness to a more modern design aesthetic. The second picture is good inspiration because I am sure it would be a fairly easy diy project, especially if you used a piece of driftwood found on a vacation to the beach. What a great way to remember the trip every time you hang your thick Minnesota winter parka. Here are a few pieces I found for sale and would love in my home:

Pottery Barn Teen Mirror

Ballard Design Votive

Crate and Barrel Side Table

All images are linked to the online store to purchase. Happy window shopping!

Pumpkin Curry

So I did it. For the last post of pumpkin week I used a fresh pumpkin that I cooked. That was the goal of this whole week anyway... to use seasonal produce. Last time I checked, cans were not quite seasonal. The recipe that pushed me outside the can was a Thai pumpkin curry with asparagus. It is so good!  Besides the extra work of cutting the thing up, it was pretty easy also. The inspiration for this recipe came from two places. My sister makes a great thai coconut curry with whatever veggies and protein she has around and a few years ago was kind enough to teach me the base recipe. The second inspiration, and the idea to use pumpkin, came from a dinner I ate at Mango Thai a year ago. That night I got the seasonal special which was a red curry served inside a large pumpkin. It was tasty and the presentation was over-the-top awesome. 

Since I was going to serve my curry to 6 people, the pumpkin presentation idea was ditched. No thanks to scooping out all those pumpkin guts :) This recipe consists of cubed pumpkin, asparagus, chicken thighs, coconut milk, shallots, garlic, and various seasonings. Served over rice it is a great main dish that went over really well. Here is what the dish looked like, mind you here in Minnesota it is dark by 5 making dinner food pictures terrible, and the recipe follows below. Enjoy, friends!

Pumpkin Asparagus Curry 

Ingredients:

2 cans of coconut milk

2lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into pieces

1 pumpkin cut into bite-sized cubes

1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed to used the top half only

3 shallots, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 Tbs cooking oil, I used coconut

3 Tbs red curry paste

2 Tbs fish sauce

1 lime, juiced

3 tsp firmly packed brown sugar

4 Tbs basil, chopped and saved for garnish

steamed rice for serving

Directions:

1. Bring a larger pot of water to a boil.

2. Peel the skin off a smaller, sweeter cooking pumpkin using a vegetable peeler. Then chop off the stemmed top and cut in half. Scoop out the insides and discard or save the seeds if you are into baking yourself a little snack later. Cut the halves into bite-sized pieces.

3. Add the pumpkin to the pot of boiling water for 7 minutes. For the last 2 minutes add the asparagus. Drain the veggies from the water and set aside.

4. In a wok or large pan heat the oil and cook the chicken until brown on both sides. This took me 6 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

5. In the wok or pan you used for the chicken cook the shallots and garlic for 2 minutes until they begin to turn translucent. Add the curry paste stirring for 20 seconds to bring out the fragrance. Add the coconut milk and bring to a boil. 

6. Add the remaining ingredients, including the veggies and chicken, to the pot and simmer on low until the pumpkin is tender and the chicken is cooked throughout. This took me about 15 more minutes. Right before serving add the chopped basil and stir for a minute or so.

7. Serve hot over rice.

Serves 6

Pumpkin Pancakes

So remember that cup of pumpkin puree you have leftover from making pumpkin bread earlier this week? Well if I was you, this is how I would use it up. These were a wonderful start to a chilly morning. Plus I got to add another recipe to my pumpkin heavy collection.

Pumpkin Pancakes
serves (5)

1 cup pumpkin puree
1 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 Tbs. oil (I used coconut)
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 cups flour
3 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. grated ginger
1/2 tsp. salt

How to:

1.Mix together the wet ingredients (first 5 ingredients) in large box. In separate bowl combine the dry ingredients and sift together. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just mixed.
2. Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium high heat. Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop the batter into the pan. Brown on both sides and you're done.

We ate ours with pumpkin butter (from Williams-Sonoma), and real maple syrup...YUM

The result... sorry for the picture quality

Pumpkin Week

As I was making a weekly menu plan a few days ago, I was attempting to incorporate more seasonally available ingredients into our meals. Sure I love my morning smoothie with frozen fruits, spinach, and greek yogurt, but I would love to start cooking with the fresh squash, asparagus, and pumpkins that I see in the produce section this time of year. Not only are certain produce items typically available for shorter buying periods but during that time they tend to taste better and are cheaper than their off-season. In order to challenge myself to buy more seasonal items, and to use them before they go bad, I thought I would pick one produce item a week to creates some meals around.

What food first you ask? If you know me, you probably know that I love pumpkins. Eating pumpkins, carving pumpkins, decorating with pumpkins, really you can't go wrong with any of these options in my opinion. Last fall, when my husband and I got married, we received many pumpkin themed gifts. Our relatives found out that one of Luke's pet names for me was pumpkin and now we are blessed with an abundance of sweet pumpkin decor. For one of my bridal showers a dear woman at church gifted me with a cookbook. On one page she covered the author's recipe with her own and I am so thankful she did because hers is now my very favorite quick bread recipe. This pumpkin bread is tasty and has been a hit with whatever group I have taken it to.

I was going to type this recipe out but how cute is the laminated card that she taped into my recipe book? She also changed the index to include her recipe. It makes me smile. Do yourself a favor and make this soon. This recipe makes 2 loaves or you could make half a recipe and save half the can of pumpkin for the next recipe in pumpkin week like I did...aren't you hooked now :) Ohh and I know I was supposed to be using new fresh produce but it was so much quicker to buy an organic can of pumpkin rather than roasting a fresh pumpkin, Maybe next year I will cook my own pumpkins rather than paint them.

Fall Love

Fall and summer are in a competition to win my heart. Right now there is no apparent winner. One of the best things about the fall are the foods we get to eat. Well... foods, beverages, sweaters, and scenery. I wish I could show you the beautiful foliage photos from the little bed and breakfast getaway that the husband and I took, however my phone got erased during a recent upgrade and there went the shots. Does anyone else find themselves only taking pictures on their phones these days?

This past weekend my husband's family and I went to this place:

It was so much fun but also a little bit of a zoo. It seemed like the majority of families from the western suburbs visited the orchard to take advantage of the wonderful weather. Later that evening some of us went to my brother and sister-in-law's place to make a seasonal beverage or two. This was the result:

Excuse the impromptu party supplies because this drink is yummy. If you want to make it just follow the recipe below to taste.

Spiked Apple Cider

1. Fill a cup with an ounce of light rum

2. Follow with a shot of brandy

3. Top with a fresh apple cider and tonic water

(I would guess a 2/3 cider to tonic ratio)

4. Garnish with sliced apples

5. Enjoy

Loving the Look of...

Faux bamboo chippendale chairs! That is what I find myself searching for on Craigslist more than I would care to admit. The lines and texture make the seats so beautiful. Also, painted they add an awesome pop of color to a room. With images like these, can you blame me for my desire to add a few of these chairs to my living space?

(Source: Decorpad)

(Source: Palmer Weiss)

(Source: Decorpad)

The last image is the work of Jonathan Adler and the cover of his book Happy Chic Color. He is pretty much amazing and his book is no exception. So where can you pick up a chair like these you may ask? Well Jonathan Adler also sells them for your convenience. 

The price might not be so convenient for most of us however.

Lots of design bloggers out there have had luck locating vintage versions of the chair from Ebay, estate sales, antique stores, and my personal favorite, Craigslist. Look at what I found on my local search:

(Source: Craigslist)

A set of five of these pretty chairs for just over what one from Mr. Adler would put you back. Yay! You can also find even better bargains for single chairs. Now I am off to dream up a space for these chairs.

Best Banana Bread

Yup, this is the best banana bread recipe, I am sure of it. The result is so moist, flavorful, and beautiful. Pretty too right?

The recipe came from this book. My sweet Mom and sister created it as a gift for one of my bridal showers. It contains all my family's favorite recipes along with some embarrassing pictures of us all eating. What a meaningful gift for a girl just starting to cook. I think the recipe originally came from a newspaper.

Famous Banana Bread (that's what it's called)

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt

1 cup mashed browned bananas

2 1/4 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

optional chocolate chips or chopped walnuts ( none for me, I like this bread simple)

In a large mixing bowl blend butter and sugar well. I do this for the entire time I get the rest of the ingredients prepped and ready. Continue mixing, adding eggs one at a time, then buttermilk, then bananas. Mix the flour, soda, and salt in a small bowl, add to mixer bowl, blending thoroughly. Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour or so, until a toothpick comes out clean. This freezes well: wrap in foil, seal in plastic bag. Also makes good muffins.

I hope you enjoy this and really do test the bread to make sure it is finished cooking. My first time trying this recipe last week I didn't and it was still raw in the middle but I had already removed the loaf from the baking pan. It collapsed. I had a little temper tantrum, went to bed, and cleaned it up in the morning. Sad. 

Happy Independence Day

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” -Albert Einstein

These are the very patriotic flowers Luke picked up at the farmers market yesterday for the brunch we hosted. It is amazing what flowers do for my spirits. Happy Fourth of July.

Patriotic Pops

It is toasty here in the Twin Cities. No complaints from me because I was wearing a sweatshirt last week, so bring on summer. My white legs were wondering if they would see the sun at all this season. To be prepared for the heat, Luke and I went to Target to buy a fan. Fans these days are high tech! The one Luke picked out has a remote control and timer. Who knew we were suffering with plain fans all these years? Near the checkout was the summer clearance section. Look what I picked up:

Yup these things remind me of my childhood. We would just fill them with plain orange juice and freeze away. Luke remembered not liking them. Being the competitive person I am, I decided to make the most awesome popsicles ever and prove him wrong. I love you hunny :)

This may very well be the ugliest photo on my blog. Reality is sometimes deceptively ugly. These are my trusty magic bullet cups containing the delicious smoothie popsicle ingredients. 

Layered popsicles! Yum. Healthy too.

To create these pops, I used a mixed bag of Trader Joe's frozen berries. The top layer is strawberries and raspberries with a little lemon juice for tang. I blended that with a bit of juice to make the mixture smooth. I filled the molds up a third of the way full and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Next up is the sorta white layer made of banana, frozen pineapple, and milk. They are mixed in the magic bullet and then poured in the mold filling half of the remaining empty space. The final layer is blueberries and blackberries. The colors of our flag are red, white, and purple right? It turned out pretty close to blue at least, next time I will add more blueberries and less blackberries. The final layer was added after the white layer had been in the freezer firming up for 30 minutes. These are sooo good and a perfect cooling snack on a hot day. In my case today, it was a delicious breakfast treat.

Have a wonderful, safe, and fun holiday weekend friends. What treats will you be eating to celebrate?

Tufted Beauties

If you like eclectic home decor you have probably viewed the online Lonny magazine. If not, visit as soon as possible please. It is so inspiring. The current issue has a feature showcasing the work of designer Angie Hranowsky. She is amazing. Her story is also inspiring to me because she was not trained as an interior designer when she got her start. She decorated her own home and everyone who saw it thought she was a decorator for a living.  Metropolitan Home featured her house and soon she became one of the most sought-after decorators in South Carolina.

This photograph of Angie's work in this month's issue of Lonny reinforced my love of all sofas tufted. Seriously, I love!

Look at that beautifully layered room and that gorgeous sofa.

So I started my own hunt for my imaginary living room with my matching imaginary large budget. Tufted sofas seem to be hot right now as it appears most furniture design sites carry a line of the sofas.

Here is a beautifully unique deep sapphire leather sofa from Anthropologie. The price however might be beyond even what my imaginary budget allows but imagine what a statement it would make in a room. 

This lovely linen number is from Restoration Hardware. Swoon. So pretty. So at a loss of words.

Here is a pretty little settee from West Elm. West Elm really has been killing it design wise lately.Compared to the previous pieces this clean-lined settee is affordable. 

Great design is not out of reach for those who can not or chose not to spend thousands on a single piece of furniture. By now you probably know of my love of craigslist. What a great place to find vintage pieces that add so much visual interest to a room. Here is a lovely blue velvet tufted settee found today on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Craigslist. How beautiful is that. Maybe our next apartment should have two living rooms because I just finished decorating ours but I love this piece.

Enjoy your weekend and be inspired by the beauty around you.

Strawberries for Stella

Last night we went to visit our new niece Stella Joy at home for the first time. Luke has been obsessing over her since Wednesday when she was born. It has not been uncommon for me to hear, "I wonder what Stella is doing right now", or "can you believe how cute Stella is?". Well I wanted to bring a little something over and hadn't planned ahead enough to have grocery shopped for a meal. What did I decide to bring? Strawberry summer cake. The recipe is from one of my favorite food bloggers, Smitten Kitchen. Click on the link to get her recipe and admire her beautiful writing. It turned out wonderfully and I can't wait to make it again with whatever fruit looks the best at the farmers market this summer. It really is a great base recipe and SO easy to make. Take it from me, baking and I don't get along so great. Here is a picture of how my cake turned out.

Summer goodness.

This morning I went for a walk around Lake Calhoun with my mother-in-law. It is the place to be in the twin cities on the weekend and now I know that Monday mornings are hopping too. It was a good start to this hot and humid day we will be having. I came back hungry and craving something cool. Ever since last Sunday, I have been craving black bean and corn salsa. We had an impromptu dinner party for 12 or so friends and I think this dip was a bigger hit than the main dish. That was awesome but it meant no leftovers for me. Since I had all the ingredients on hand here goes:

Mix together a can of drained black beans, a can of drained corn, 1/4 of a finely diced red onion, and one diced red pepper.

Next mix together the tasty ingredients that give this salsa some flavor. Add the juice of one lime, a dash of sea salt, 1 Tbs red wine vinegar, 1 tsp of olive oil, and some cumin and chili powder. Sorry I didn't measure the amounts of the spices out. I just give it a healthy shake and measure it by taste.

Mix the deliciousness up. I chopped up a green onion and sprinkled it on top for a little extra color.

Serve the dip with tortilla chips. My family makes this into a salad by adding green peppers and cooked couscous. It is perfect for summer. 

Enjoy friends.

apothecary chest turned television stand

We had been looking for a television stand for a LONG time. Is six months a LONG time? It feels like it because our t.v. was sitting on one of our dinning room chairs prior to this project. Some challenges I had in picking out a piece to fill this spot was the fact that it needed to fit into a corner, I didn't want espresso brown because we have an entire wall of bookshelves in this color, and I didn't want laminates. Picky, I know, I know.

The solution was to turn to my decorating pal Craigslist for a unique piece. Bingo, I think I found it. Here she is:

 I knew right away that I wanted to add a little color to the piece because we live in an apartment with lovely beige walls. The first step was sanding the entire piece. Since I don't have a power sander this step took a bit of time. Next up was priming the piece. Last summer my brother and I painted a bookshelf that we had made. It took forever with a brush. This time I went the spray painting route and  am so pleased with the results.

 After it was primed it was time for some color. Since the spray priming worked so well, the color coat was spray paint as well. Montana Gold for this girl. It is sold at Dick Blick here in the twin cities and their color selection is amazing. At the big box home construction stores the colors were pretty limited to primary colors. So drum roll please, here is the final result and in its permanent home.

I am happy. It was fun. Win win.
Happy Memorial Day weekend friends.

Twin Cities Interior Design Spotlight

Caitlin Wilson, Sarah Richardson, Jonathan Adler, Celerie Kemble, are just a few of the interior designers that I love. Today I realized that I don't think I know a single Minnesota based interior designer. That must change. Support local talent.

So today I went on a web hunting mission and I bring you  Molaia Design

I really like their bright, casual, and modern aesthetic. They seem to do great renovations on attainable homes. The first bathroom renovation is my favorite. Good job Molaia Design. 

 

Fancy Pants Breakfast

We eat a lot of pancakes. I probably whip up a batch at least twice a week. The mister could eat them every day I think but I was getting a little bored of them. The other day I decided to make crepes instead and have dessert for breakfast. Such a good decision. Yum. I used the Joy Of Cooking recipe and combined it with a few others I found on allrecipes. Thats why I like cooking rather than baking. Cooking I can change things around and break all the rule but in baking you must be precise and follow the recipe. How boring.
Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons of butter
1 dash of vanilla if making sweet crepe fillings, omit for savory

Directions:
1. Whisk together all ingredients besides the flour. Once blended add in the flour and whisk some more.
2. Heat a lightly oiled fry pan over medium heat.
3. Scoop the batter onto the pan using about 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the pan evenly.
4.Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes per side so that it starts getting a light brown. Serve hot with your choice of fillings.

I added chocolate chips at the end so they would melt in the crepe

Every thing tastes better with strawberries and whipped cream.

Funny for the Day

The Luker and I spent this past weekend in Dallas. We went for a counseling conference but also made plenty of time to eat yummy steaks, take naps, and attend a Rangers game. So fun. Catching up on my blogs today I came across this post by Buzzfeed. Enjoy.

Rainy Day Dreaming

It is gray here in Minneapolis today. Also it is raining. The final kicker is that my little iPhone weather app shows potential snow on Wednesday and Sunday. Ugh! All I want to do is drink coffee today and take a nap. Here are the mugs I wish I could be drinking out of to brighten my spirits.

Monogram Anthropologie Mugs

Lenox Chip Mug

Kate Spade Mug

West Elm Mug

Do you have a favorite mug? I think my pick from the choices above is the Kate Spade mug. It just feels so springy and feminine. That and I don't think the husband will be taking it to work like the rest of our mugs. Be filled with joy today friends because that does not rest in our circumstances or weather.