Saturday, June 30, 2012

rolling the rolls

Well, I've been on a bit of an eggroll kick lately. Obviously some fancy strange ones...

The one that started it all: bahn mi rolls with pickled carrots and cabbage, tofu and noodles, very refreshing. 


A brunch version, of course - scrambled eggs, tofu, greens and mushrooms


And the leftover roll - noodles, edamame, greens and tofu. 


all pan fried. no wonder i like these things.

xoxo

Thursday, June 28, 2012

food lately: happening now

I know I've been bad. Blame work and studying mostly. And helping the boy move. And going home to cali for a few days. Hmm, and speaking of traveling, I'm off to Savannah for the weekend so expect some goodness after that.

But in the meantime, I've been eating:

Fried eggs & toast

Nutella popsicles (nutella + milk)

Goat-cheddar cheese pasta with mushrooms & greens

watermelon beer (really delicious, just an after taste)

jerk black bean burgers

oh, and maybe a lot of caffeine, thanks evan.
these things don't study themselves, though i really wish they did...

also, currently listening to these cool fools. all of them, not just ho hey, though it's a winner too.

oh and you are need of a little bit of ridiculousness, read this (vital people, vital). 

stay out of trouble, and the heat this weekend. 
xoxo 

Friday, June 15, 2012

skirt from shirts

A while ago I saw this on pinterest. A pretty good idea to make a skirt from two old shirts...especially with stripes!

Lucky for me I happened to have two old long cotton tanks I wasn't into anymore.  It's pretty simple to do too. Just cut up two shirts into stripes, you only need to cut open one of the sides. 

Then sew the stripes together making sure to use the bottom hem of one shirt as the bottom of the skirt. 


Then pin around your dressform (or yourself) to the tightness you like. And sew the side edge.  


Trim and flip inside out and you have a brand new skirt.
Ta-da! 


xoxo

Thursday, June 14, 2012

maybe one of the bests

I found this recipe for Huevos Motulenos. It looked amazing, but a little on the tedious side.  But I was recently presented with the chance to try out an inspiration of it, due to some leftover empanada filling.

What I'm calling the plate of delicious starts by pan frying a tortila.  Then, in the same pan (no cleaning required) pan fry a sliced banana in some butter and a teaspoon of brown sugar, about 2 minutes per side.

With those steps done you can start assembling: On a plate, place the tortilla, and the banana slices like so.  Then spread some refried black beans on the tortilla:


Back to your frying pan (still uncleaned): I reheated my emanada filling which consisted of: soyrizo, sweet potatoes, corn, jalapenos, and some appropriate seasoning.  Once heated you can sprinkle this throughout the plate, and throw some cheese over those beans while you're around:


Finally, use that same dirty frying pan to fry up a beautiful egg and top it off: 


I'm being quite honest and free of exaggeration when I say this is absolutely one of the best things I've every made.  The perfect bite of course consists of a little bit of everything, like so:


So get cooking team!

xoxo

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Post Easter Fun

I know this is late, get over it. 


Post easter was spent doubling it up with the boys and ashley at the standard before madmen, drinking mystery beers for 2.50 and playing cranium.  it was a great end to a fabulous day. 


with some jems like these:
Jonathan's superheros & Casey's mad scientist

 

 But as promised, the recipes from Easter:

Menu:
Deviled Eggs
Roasted Turkey Breast, Caramelized Onion and Spinach Quiche
Black Eyed Peas, Biscuits, Roasted Asparagus, Potato Gratin, Citrus Salad
Lemon Cake

Recipes:
Quiche, adapted from Martha 
            Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 bag baby spinach
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
1 pie crust, prepared in dish
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
           Directions: 
In a skillet over medium-high heat, saute onions until caramelized. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with a rack set in the middle.  Add spinach to the skillet; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Saute until wilted. 
Put spinach-onion mixture in pie crust. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Pour egg mixture into crust. Bake until center is just set, 60 minutes. Let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Roasted Asparagus (the easiest and most delicious) 
            Ingredients:
Asparagus, salt, pepper, nutmeg (or any seasoning combo you like), olive oil
             Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Trim ends, place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with spices, roast for 5-7 minutes.

Deviled Eggs

            Ingredients:
8 eggs, 1/4 cup mayo, 1 T Dijon, 1/4 t cayenne, salt, pepper, and paprika
             Directions:
Hard boil eggs and peel.  slice in half and put yokes in a bowl with remaining ingredients.  Mix up and dollop into egg whites. Sprinkle with a little more paprika and serve them up.

Potato Gratin, adapted from Martha

            Ingredients:
Butter, 3 lbs potatoes in 1/8-in slices, 1 clove of garlic, 2 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1/2 cup Gruyere, shredded, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
             Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375. Butte a 2-qt baking dish and place a layer of potatoes in the dish. Sprinkle with cheese and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Repeat until the dish is near the top.  In a saucepan combine the cream, smashed garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and bring to a simmer.  Pour mixture over potatoes.  Cover dish with foil and bake until tender, about 40 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle with more cheese and make until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Citrus Salad
            Ingredients:
1 grapefruit, 1 orange, 1 lemon, Hazelnuts, Greens, olive oil, salt, pepper, honey, Dijon mustard
             Directions:
For the vinaigrette: zest and juice the lemon, whisk with the Dijon, honey, salt, pepper, and oil to taste
For the salad: toast the hazelnuts, segment the orange and grapefruit, wash the greens, mix it all up

Lemon Cake, adapted from Martha, of course

            Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temp; 2 1/2 cups floor, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda, 1 t salt, 1 T lemon zest, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 lg eggs and 3 egg yolks, 1/4 cup and juice of a lemon, 1 t vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 lemon, powdered sugar.
             Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.  In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and lemon zest. In the bowl of a standmixer, beat butter with sugar; add eggs and yolks, lemon juice, and vanilla. Alternate adding in buttermilk and flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter in pan and bake for 35 minutes.  Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Hope you enjoy some of these!

xoxo




Tuesday, June 12, 2012

sin in a jar


A while back I saw this recipe for salted chocolate carmel pretzel bark. And it is amazing. I halved the recipe and it gave me two big jars, but that didn't mean it lasted long.

Follow the awesome tutorial for step by steps but it is pretty foolproof:

Just lay out some pretzels on a baking sheet,


Make some caramel to drizzle over the pretzels and bake off...


Meanwhile, melt some chocolate, and then pour the chocolate over the warm gooey pretzels,
sprinkle with sea salt and you are good to go!

I warn you not to make it, it's just too good.

xoxo





Monday, June 11, 2012

hair organized

I saw this great tutorial from simply modern mom and decided it was a must do.  Finally a way to organize all those lovely headbands and fascinators.

They are super simple to make, just grab some think ribbon - mine is appropriately in Carolina blue - and make loops as shown below

 

and then pin in place and sew across each loop


One last step, sew on a d-ring for looping around a bar


I tested mine out before sewing it up, and it was a winner:


xoxo

Sunday, June 10, 2012

soo very far

Ashley had seen these postcards and wanted them, but we are poor grad students, so I made some.  The back is a template from the wonderful Martha, airmail inspired. I made the front with a free picture of the good ol'USA and put it all in a word document and printed it on card stock, double-sided. 


Then Ashbash sent me one over break, the cutest. 


xoxo