I want candy, and lots of it. I was lucky enough to grow up in a complex of town houses, which meant mucho sweets come October 31st. Everything was close in proximity and it wasn’t unheard of to have 500+ kids stop by your house come Halloween night. So for me, well, it was all about quantity. It also wasn’t unheard of for there to be lingering Halloween candy come Easter. What kind of trick or treater were you as a kid?
{via ffffound}
+ Hoping these Apple Nachos find my face soon.
+ Why can’t my roof grow a forest?
+ Halloween dessert table, party of one!
+ Great article about chefs, their scars, and how they got them.
+ I love a good bow tie.
+ I automatically don’t like anyone who refuses this Halloween party invitation.
+ Pretty excited about these Pittsburgh tees.
+ Love this Halloween invitation download!
+ Helvetica + Cross-stitch = Awesome
+ A scratch-n-sniff print that smells like the moon!
+ This woman chronicled her life in fairground shooting gallery photos.
+ You should pick up a copy of Dick and Jane and Vampires for your favorite kiddo (or kiddo at heart).
+ Some ideas on what to do with the rest of October!
So, while I spend the majority of my time photographing cookies and spaghetti and bacon cinnamon rolls, I do venture out of the kitchen from time to time to take pictures of other delicious things. Like puppies. A little while back I was lucky enough to photograph this dynamic due of adorableness:
Can you STAND the cuteness???
Anyway, their owners are almost as sweet as they are, and on the day of our shoot they brought me a delicious box of Fat Witch Brownies. Which in case you haven’t had one, are the Most Delicious Brownies On Earth. And just for the record, the Fat Witch people have never heard of me, did not pay me either in brownies or anything else to say this, this is purely my own love and adoration speaking. This is why I was so excited to hear that the Fat Witch Bakery Cookbook had just been published, full of recipes for unbelievable brownies of every kind… I couldn’t get my hands on it fast enough. And now that I have a copy, let’s just say that there will be a steady stream of brownie making in my house, and I started out with the incredibly easy, amazingly scrumptious recipe for No-Bake S’mores Brownies.
That’s right… no bake. I had my doubts, but I promise you, it’s really true! You crush some graham crackers into tiny crumbs, and mix in some mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then you melt some butter with some beaten egg, sugar and vanilla, stirring over low heat until it thickens just a bit. Cool it down a little, then pour it over your graham cracker mixture. Toss in a few more chips and marshmallows. Mixmixmix. Now spoon the whole thing into a pan that you have lined with foil and pop the whole thing in the fridge. (I love using a fridge in place of an oven!) Thirty minutes later it will have set into a pan full of s’more brownie wonderfulness.
Fat Witch Cookbook! I have my eye on the Molasses Brownies next…
from Fat Witch Brownies Cookbook
• 10 graham crackers, crushed (about 2 1/4 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 3/4 cups chocolate chips
• 1 stick butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Line a 9 inch square pan with foil, leaving some hanging over the sides and grease the foil with butter.
2. Mix graham crumbs, 3/4 cup marshmallows and 1/2 cup chocolate chips together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter in small pot and stir in sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir over medium low heat until slightly thickened. Cool slightly.
4. Add sugar mixture to graham mixture and stir well. Fold in remaining marshmallows and chips.
5. Press mixture into pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove from pan using foil overhang, cut and serve.
photo Nicole Hill Gerulat
Most holidays I like to do a little something for friends. Sometimes it’s a goodie bag, others a handmade card. For Halloween I normally do your typical trick or treat candy packaged in a fun way. Last year I covered clean aluminum soup cans in decorative fall-looking papers and filled them, the cans could then be used for pens or whatever after the fact. (This isn’t exactly earth shattering, I realize.) I knew I wanted to venture into unknown territory this year and go old school with some caramel apples.I just didn’t know which recipe I’d be following until this gem came into my life. If mine end up looking half as photogenic I’ll consider it a success. {I’m also interested in these Peanut Butter Caramel Dipped Apples!}
More Halloween treats:
+ Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes
+ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles
+ Pumpkin Milkshakes
+ Halloween Petit Fours (for the professional orderers amongst you)
+ Pumpkin Spice Latte Martini
+ Candied Apple Cider
{via ffffound}
+ I’ve been munching on Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts over the past month, now I’m tempted to make my own (decidedly more healthy) version.
+ These velvet pumpkins are a luxe twist on Halloween decor.
+ A few more October desktop wallpapers 1, 2, 3
+ I want to visit this cafe that looks like it’s been flipped on its side.
+ Crazy about this modern crepe paper lantern project!
+ Knitted graffiti on a bridge in Australia.
+ I kill everything, including succulents, but I still want to make a terrarium.
+ What does your Facebook portrait say about you? (I’m possibly balding, among other things.)
+ In love with this raggedly striped bathroom.
+ I want to plan a road trip based around roadside motels.
+ Who doesn’t need a trapeze in their home?!
+ Have a writing deadline? Check out Write or Die.
+ I want to move into this beautiful gray space. Or at the least, paint my living room and main hallway.
I have to say that spring rolls were something that I never thought I would make, and I’m still not sure what possessed me. But one day I just woke up with a burning desire to make these, and I have to say that they were:
1. Delicious!!!
2. Super-easy to make.
3. Probably the best way to use up leftovers that I have ever run into.
Honestly, the hardest part of the whole thing is finding these.
These are technically called rice noodle wrappers, and when I say they are hard to find I actually don’t mean hard at all – they were in the first market I walked into. And if worst comes to worst, I know you can absolutely find them on Amazon, which is my go-to source for pretty much anything that I have trouble finding out in the real world. Anyway, the key to making these is to have all your ingredients organized before you start out. Any combination of things that feels good to you is fair game, but just to get you started, here are the combinations I went with: shredded cooked chicken, fresh parsley, shredded carrot and chopped mango. Chopped cooked shrimp, mint leaves and shredded carrot. Sliced avocado, basil leaves, cucumber cut into tiny strips, and shredded carrot.
So! Fill up a wide bowl with cold water, take one of the rice wrappers, and dunk it in the water until it is pliable (this will take less than a minute). Take it out and lay it on your work surface and then cover the bottom third with your choice of filling, leaving about a one inch border on the edge. Fold that bottom edge over the filling and roll it over once. Tuck in the sides and finish rolling until you have a nice tight roll. That’s it – you have made spring rolls!!
These are fabulous with whatever dipping sauce you like best – soy sauce, chili sauce, or make a wonderful peanut sauce by mixing up peanut butter, a little warm water and a little lime juice until you have the right consistency for dipping. Perfect for weekend snacking!!
Posted In Framed Friday, recipesIn my experiences people either love-love or hate-hate bread pudding. I stand firmly in the former camp, although I didn’t even try the gooey concoction until well into my 20s. My favorite is here in Oklahoma City, at a barbeque restaurant that used to house a speakeasy called The County Line. Their bread pudding is served up as a huge piece in a bowl, studded with raisins and covered in sugary whiskey sauce. The best part? There’s always leftovers for breakfast the next day. I recently came across some recipes that were savory versions of bread pudding that I’m anxious to try as well. {As always, click on the photo to go to the recipe.}
I am holding onto the last warm days of the season with all my might… I am in Complete Denial that the last day of summer recently came and went. And one of the ways I keep my little delusion going is by continuing to buy those big juicy locally grown tomatoes at our friendly neighborhood farmer’s market. I figure as long as the nights are still frost-free and the tomatoes are still around, Summer Still Lives!!
I came across this fabulous recipe while trolling through the Dining section of The New York Times, and was sucked in by the name of his original recipe: Robiola-Stuffed Tomatoes. Huh? As it turns out, robiola is the name of a delicious cheese that I had never heard of or tasted before, and they actually had it at my local wonderful supermarket. It seems like it is a pretty close cousin to Brie and Camembert – soft and creamily scrumptious – and so if you can’t track it down either one of those would be a perfectly fine substitute. So here’s the deal: you cut the top off of a couple of perfect tomatoes, scoop out the insides, sprinkle them with salt and turn them over a paper towel to drain while you do the rest.
The rest is this: mash up some robiola or brie with some gorgonzola cheese and some butter. (No, this is not your typical dietetic tomato salad recipe.) Toss in some paprika and a little vodka. Go back to the tomato insides that you scooped out and chopped them up and mix them in too. Now, this is where the original recipe for the filling ends, and it was perfectly fine that way. HOWEVER… you can take this an awesome step further by mixing in any of the following: Cooked orzo. Toasted homemade bread crumbs. Cooked white rice. Etc. Because life is better with carbs. Now turn your tomato shells right side up, stuff them with the filling, and sprinkle the whole thing with chopped parsley and a little fresh ground pepper. You are now looking at the world’s best tomato salad… it makes a lovely weekend lunch, or a great, dramatic side dish for those last grilled chicken or steak dinners of the early fall season.
adapted from Recipes From an Italian Summer, by the editors of Phaidon Press
original New York Times article here
4 large ripe tomatoes
Kosher salt to taste
3½ ounces robiola, Brie or Camembert cheese, rind removed, diced
2 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ teaspoon mild paprika
4 chives, finely diced
2 tablespoons vodka
1 cup orzo, rice or toasted bread crumbs, optional
1. Halve the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds and some of the flesh. Sprinkle the shells with kosher salt and turn them upside down on paper towels to drain for 30 minutes.
2. Place the cheeses and butter in a bowl, season sparingly with salt and aggressively with pepper, and beat until smooth.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
4. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture. Place on serving dish until ready to serve. Serves 4.
Posted In Framed Friday, recipesEveryone seems to be going on apple picking excursions these past few weekends and I have to admit, I’m sort of jealous. First, there is a shortage (RE: not even one) of orchards in Oklahoma. Second, I really took that sort of thing for granted in Pennsylvania. Third, I want a reason to dress up cute and carry a basket full of fruit. Oh well, sigh, for now these apple recipes will have to be enough it looks like. {As always, click on the image to be taken to the recipe.}
I know that when it comes to raw fish, the world divides into two distinct camps. There is the “I love it SO much I could eat it every day” camp. That is the one I live in. Then there is the “Get away from me with that raw fish” camp, and that is the one that my teenager lives in. And while it is possible every once in a blue moon to get someone to cross from the teenager’s camp to mine (I did it with my Southern husband but it was before we were married and for all I know it was one of his sneaky dating techniques), I’m not even gonna try. All you anti-sushi people out there? I love you anyway, and I will be back soon with something that is completely cooked.
In the meantime, however, we must discuss the tuna tartare recipe from my current favorite cookbook, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES. This is an amazingly quick, easy and (if you are pro-raw fish) spectacularly delicious little number. You need to get sushi-grade tuna, which I promise is not hard… go to wherever you usually buy your fresh fish and ask. You chop it up in tiny little pieces and mix it up with chopped tomato, scallions, some ginger and sesame oil and rice vinegar, and then scoop it out onto sliced cucumber rounds.
It obviously makes a fabulous, dramatic appetizer for whatever fun weekend party you are planning, but the sushi-loving southern husband and I actually had it for dinner one Friday night recently and were deliriously happy. Raw-fishing-eating people that we are. Recipe below, and next post I will return you to your regularly scheduled cooked food.
adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites
8 ounces sushi-grade tuna, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 sliced scallions, white and green parts
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon grated, peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
1 seedless cucumber, sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch thick rounds
1. Place the tuna, scallions, cilantro, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl and mix gently until well-blended.
2. Arrange the cucumber slices on a large serving tray and pile a generous tablespoon of the tuna mixture on each cucumber slice. Serve immediately.