Thursday, April 29, 2010

Cupcake Number 5



Check out this website. Hurry. Its full of super creative cupcake recipes that make me feel the need to lick my computer screen. The savory scones look pretty good as well.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Finger food


Funny and a potentially cute/conversation starting hostess gift? The idea is there, I wonder if they really work!
From CB2

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Wild rumpus






Armelle via Black eiffel. Check out the invites. Too cute!!

Weathered ledge


Love this ledge from Pottery Barn. It looks substantial enough to make a statement or create a focal point for a room as well as store/display candles/photos etc.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Saturday supper at home





From Saturday evening, the full menu:

Butter Lettuce and Sun-dried Tomatoes
with cucumbers, country croutons and mustard vinaigrette

with wild mushrooms

Peppercorn Crusted Beef Tenderloin
with a side of broccolini and mozzarella

Fresh Berry Shortcake
with organic whipped cream

I used pickle jars to make the flowers the right height for talking over and our guests did a great job of keeping us entertained all night.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Pasta 101




We made our own pasta for a dinner party on Saturday. Making the pasta is time consuming, but fun and we were so excited when those noodles started rolling out of the machine! We made the actual dough on Friday night to save us some time the day of the party. We served our pasta with the wild mushroom sauce from Ad Hoc at Home.

Fresh Egg Pasta Dough
(Serves 4 as entree, 8 as appetizer or side)
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup semolina
3 eggs
2 tbsp water

Dough
Place Flour and Semolina in bowl
Form a reservoir in middle or flour and semolina
Add eggs and water to reservoir
Mix gradually, taking flour and semolina from sides of reservoir
When mixed, remove from bowl and place on lightly floured surface
Knead for 2 minutes, until dough forms smooth ball
Wrap in plastic and rest for 20 minutes or refrigerate if using the next day

Pasta
Flatten dough ball and cut into 3 roughly equal pieces
Take first piece and cover remaining 2
Flatten until 1/2 inch thick or less
Roll through a pasta maker on largest setting, repeat until smooth
Change setting 1 smaller and roll through again
Repeat until using smallest desired setting
At this point, you can change your pasta maker attachment to a noodle cutter or just the noodles yourself
Nest finished noodles with flour and cover with parchment paper
To cook: Boil salted water and cook pasta until tender, about 2 minutes. Serve at once with favorite sauce












Friday, April 16, 2010

Friday flowers

From the little flower school in red hook, brooklyn. Its still my dream to go there and learn how make this kind of gorgeousness happen. The ingredients here: ecchevaria, jasmine, hyacinths, ranunculus, kangaroo paw, eucalyptus, dogwood, astrantia, muscari, and fritillaria.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

New summer notecards

I made this set last week as a birthday gift. Looking at them makes me feel like summer is just around the corner...!

Monday, April 12, 2010

... and more yum

I came home on sunday night after a fabulous weekend with my girlfriends to find my cute husband with cupcake from bakin' & eggs waiting for me. Aw.

Yum




I was in a major rush making some cupcakes a couple of weeks ago and ran into William Sonoma hoping they would have the solution, but a little disappointed that I was going frosting out of a jar. I got the dark chocolate version of the ad hoc frosting and will never ever disparage packaged frosting again. I might never actually make frosting again. Yum. And wow. The cupcakes came out great (I use the white cake recipe from the joy of cooking) but my favorite part was eating the rest of the frosting out of the jar with a spoon. Well, one night I scooped it out with animal crackers, but just mostly used a spoon the rest of the time.



Friday, April 9, 2010

Friday Flowers


Pretty. and I love the patterned table number. from Once Wed.
Have a lovely weekend!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Glass bottles


These photos are from the house of a photographer and newlywed who bought the bottles at a flea market for wedding decor and reused them in their house as a focal point. Love both the wedding idea and the re-use! I can just picture them in the center of a table at a wedding, randomly filled with wild flowers and interspersed with twinkling tealights. From Design*Sponge.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Its pouring


And these boots are pretty hot stuff for a rainy day. Hunter at Saks.