March Snow Day

After spending most of last week sick on the couch, I was very much looking forward to getting back to work and out into the world. But it’s snowing – glorious, beautiful snow! Not to be deterred, I’ll still get …

Kitchen Porn: Moody Hues

Hey remember that time Refinery29 loved my Pinterest boards for their “country-rustic flavor“? Yeah, that was last year…kinda fun. Well, this rustic country aesthetic I like is getting a moody, wintery filter lately. I think the weather out has inspired me. …

Kitchen Porn: Mugs

It rained all last night. Maybe that’s why I slept like utter crap? As soon as the alarm went off, I rushed to the kitchen to fire up the stove to boil water for coffee. My Monday morning respite can …

Kitchen Porn: Mama Needs A Beach Vacation Edition

↬Apartment Therapy I’ve been traveling a bunch lately, and work has just been insane. It’s left me craving a vacation – and thank goodness I have one coming up. Fortuitously planned in conjunction with my 30th birthday no less. I …

This Weekend: Chocolate Crisps & Fuzzy Socks

via Martha Stewart

This week kicked my ass. Not that things were particularly busy, or any task remarkably difficult, but it was one of those weeks where my skin was a little too thin to be dealing with some of the people that came my way. Difficult people will always be difficult, and haters are always gonna hate, so this weekend I’m focusing on rebuilding some of that skin.

via Pinterest

My to do list for the weekend includes:

1. Make these dark chocolate cookie crisps.
2. Make something with blood oranges – it’s citrus season and I want to take full advantage of it!
3. Wear leggings, fuzzy socks and lay on the couch with some bourbon. Guilt free.
4. Clean my apartment. Because I’m incapable of enjoying or doing anything unless my space is completely clean.
5. Order Valentine’s day cards/flowers/gifts for all the special ladies in my life – single or coupled, I’m taking this opportunity to remind them of how much I love them.

What are you guys cooking and doing this weekend? If you have a blood orange recipe that you love, please share in the comments! I’m on the hunt!

via Design Sponge

 

Kitchen Porn: Outdoor Dining Edition

I’m a sucker for twinkle lights.

Don’t you think a smattering of twinkle lights on a patio, a roof deck, around a tree…just make an evening outside? I do.

And now that the heat is turned up, and I’ve surrendered myself to it, an evening by the grill and a picnic table in a flowy cotton dress with cucumber water in hand sounds pretty awesome.

I realized something after our scortcher of a weekend in DC: minus the humidity I’m really good with heat. Clearly my upbringing in Arizona helped with that.

It’s nearly August though, and Summer is zipping by us and I’m already worried that I haven’t enjoyed enough “Summer-ness.”

Not enough pool parties, sticky walks with lightning bugs and dewy glasses of wine on the roof. Between all that and some summer produce – insanely juicy tomatoes for example – I think I can squeeze in just enough Summer to make me happy.

Photo credit: 1. That Lucie Girl 2. Apartment Therapy 3. Welcome to Sweet Home Style 4. The Paris Apartment 5. Apartment Therapy

Kitchen Porn: Sick On The Couch Edition

Isn’t how it goes…you get back into working out, get yourself on a schedule that starts to feel good again, life starts to feel all nice and balanced…and then you get sick. That’s how it goes for me at least.

While I’ve spent the past week on my couch alternating between sleep and something that looks like awake, I’ve been watching the internet kitchen very carefully. Here’s what’s caught my eye and what I’ll be making:

New food friend Domenica Marchetti‘s book The Glorious Pasta of Italy is out and I’ll be making her spaghetti alla carbonara tonight for dinner.

How refreshing does this horchata with cinnamon and vanilla sound?

What rivals nutella shmeared on a slice of white bread? Um, this salted caramel spread!

Strawberry season is in full effect and I would very much like to make these strawberries & cream scones for breakfast one morning.

This time of year what’s strawberries without rhubarb? This rhubarb almond coffee cake will hit the spot.

I am a huge fan of polenta, but it’s such a winter dish! This grilled crispy grilled polenta recipe has endless possibilities for spicing it up and it gets me to the grill.

Speaking of the grill…how about these grilled mussels with herb butter!? Yep! Grilled!

I’m so excited to be better soon and enjoying the farmers markets and cooking some good food again. What have you guys been cooking lately? Anything noteworthy?

Photo credit: Desire To Inspire

Kitchen Porn: Welcome Back! Edition

Wow. Well. It’s been three weeks since I last posted. Needless to say I’ve been busy! I went to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) in Austin, Texas for work – and who am I kidding?! For play, too. I ate my freakin’ face off. It was great. Highlights included braised short ribs with sweetbreads, tempura fried rabbit hearts and perhaps the smoothest, most balanced manhattan I’ve ever had.

After Austin I stole off to Phoenix, Arizona for some time at home. Mostly to sleep and recoup from SXSW. The experience is super fun but also super intense and tiring. I slept and slept and slept. And hung out with my puppies. (They do not like having their picture taken.)

I returned to DC feeling fresh-ish but still pooped and with a ton of work (and expenses) to do! After a week of catching up I feel like I’m finally organized and all things are in order.

I have something like four amazing recipes and posts I want to share with you now. I’m looking at my schedule and…I feel a blogathon coming on this week some time. Zucchini walnut whoopie pies, spinach and onion strata, another @DarthGarry cooking challenge and a lean mean butchering session…all coming your way soon. I’m excited!

What have ya’ll been up to? Anything fun? Cooking anything spectacular?

This week I decided…

Waking up with the sun is so much better than waking up with the alarm clock!

What a week. I started a new job (same organization, just a new position). I decided waking up with the sun is way better than waking up with my alarm clock. I decided drinking a full glass of water before I get my day started pumps me up way more than a mug full of coffee. (No offense coffee, I still need you.) I decided to let my body be my guide and take my icky cough as a sign it’s not time to get back to running…yet.

I decided, after my making my mother’s meat sauce, that watching people smile as they eat my food might be better than hugs. Here’s some food I’m wishing I was making, thinking of making, or will be making for myself and others this weekend…

• This seasonal ingredient map from Epicurious is helping me survive the last doldrums of winter. I want color at my farmers market! Vibrancy! Energy! I want…less…cold!!
• The weekend has me very (I mean, very) excited about an overdue mani/pedi trip with My Charlotte. But I’m thinking some eggs in purgatory over potatoes and artichokes might be necessary too.
• If I can’t find some people to feed a dish that large I might fall back on making these ham and cheese palmiers – which, if I switch it up with prosciutto and Gruyère, will mimic my favorite morning snack from Dolcezza Gelato!
• Pasta with roasted cauliflower, chick peas and ricotta sounds like the easiest dinner ever. I think I’ll make that for Scott tonight.

What did you decide this week?

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

I wish I had a balcony like this to be sick on all weekend!

Ya know. A girl sends out a call (plea) for chicken soup and she gets not one, but two, responses! I spent the majority of the weekend sick, out of breath and coughing my way around my apartment. My cold medicine does a doosey on my appetite so by the time I finally realize it’s time to eat, it reaches near emergency levels. Cue the chicken soup! Twice this weekend I was rescued by folks who were kind enough to make me a batch of their best chicken soup. I felt the love…in more ways than one!

Thank you both! I’m already thinking of ways to pay it forward and back!

Photo: Home Sweet Home