A thank you note

Today I was so lucky as to open my mailbox and find a super-fabulous thank you note from my super-fantastic friends Ryan and Kim. I had seen them around before (the notes I mean, not Ryan and Kim, though yes I do see them at least once a week) and wanted some, and now that I've had the pleasure of receiving one, I totally need to buy a set and send them out into the big blue universe, one at a time.
They are a sort of mad-lib version of thank you notes, which I think is simply irresistible to anyone of my generation. A well-designed, nostalgic, slightly silly approach to good manners? And they wrap up into an envelope and everything? What more can I say?

Felt Fortunes

The February issue of Martha Stewart Living is full of ideas for Valentine's Day and so far, these are my favorite. It's true that, what with their being made out of felt, the joy of eating the cookie after reading the fortune is gone. However, these could be taken home and even filled with miniature candies, which is much harder with the cookie version. Plus, I suspect that they are much easier to make than the cookies.


However, I have made Martha's fortune cookies in the past and while they could be a little difficult, they were fun to make and pretty tasty. And, what with Chinese New Year coming up soon, maybe it's a good time to give them a go.
Either way, I sure do love being able to make up my own fortunes!

Crêpe-tastic

Image from flickr, ours weren't that pretty

Last night I had some friends over for a crêpe-tasty adventure. I vaguely remembered making crêpes at home, but I don't remember filling them with much. Last night we pulled out turkey, ham, goat cheese, swiss cheese (I was going to sautée some mushrooms but I totally forgot) for the savory and then bananas, strawberries, cinnamon apples, nutella, and powdered sugar for the sweet.
I used Julia Child's all-purpose recipe, taken from her book The Way to Cook

1 cup flour
2/3 cup each milk and cold water
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbs melted butter

She would, no doubt, have been horrified by my methods, but they are so much easier than hers and I wasn't exactly going for prime here, just plain tasty.
I put all of the ingredients in a blender and pulse until they are well mixed. Then I pour it in to a nonstick skillet, just enough to cover the bottom, and flip and serve. Ideally the crêpe should have a few brown spots, but should be nice and thin and pliable. Never mind the fact that i tend to make them on the thick side, or that I made a few crispy ones last night.
Mrs. Child recommends whisking the ingredients just so and allowing the batter to meld before cooking, and she also suggests clarifying the butter. Normally I am all for such a process, but last night I just wasn't in the mood and they were good enough. Especially when covered in nutella. Mmm good.

Balloon Animals

I saw this card when I was looking through the Pancake and Franks website the other day. They have some fantastic letterpress cards but I have to admit, I find their photography irritating on the whole. Don't worry kids, if you click for the enlargement, you can see the whole card and it's all in focus. What a treat.

Some random kid I found on flickr

In any case, this card reminded me of the magic of a balloon animal. Now, I've done a few minute's searching and have learned some very important things. Turns out balloons are dangerous. Who knew? Also, it turns out they can be difficult to blow up. No kidding. Third, turns out the peeps who make the animals are called balloon twisters. In case you're looking to hire one, Magical Balloon-dude Dale is apparently the man you need. I love it when people take quirky professions seriously (I know, I'm really one to talk).

The man himself, Magical Balloon-dude Dale

Seeing as not all of us are able to hire him for our corporate events, if you click here, he'll teach you the basics for free. He's a good man, that magical balloon-dude Dale.
Or you can just try a little wikiHow, their explanation of how to twist a balloon into dog seems clear enough even I could do it.

Snow & Graham Letterpress

I was looking around on the Greer Chicago website and saw these dinner invitations by Snow & Graham. I like the informality and spontaneity of asking somebody over for Sunday dinner while you are all standing around, well, sort of I do, but really who can resist a mailed invitation? Well, Sunday dinners will continue to be in-person or email invitations from me for the time being, but I do like a good letterpress invitation for the slightly more formal affairs.

Poker night

One of my proudest childhood memories dates back to a rainy day in 1990. We were stuck inside during recess and somebody had a pack of cards. Next thing you know I was named poker champion of our 5th grade class. If I could put that on my resume, I would.
My love of competition and emasculation has only grown and here I am, eighteen years later, smarting because the boys won't let me play. So what's a girl to do but host her own game and make it ladies only? Well, that of course with the goal of eventually challenging those little male chauvinists to a tournament and taking every last one of their pennies, nickels and dimes.
In any case, if I were to throw a lavish girl's poker night, it just might include the following:


Yes, I'm aware of the fact that the visors are meant for the dealers, but shouldn't we all have some of the fun? I mean c'mon, that mannequin is having a blast! That one is available for $6 on Amazon, which seems to be a pretty good price, for the sturdier variety anyway.


This one here is a little cheaper at $4 (okay okay, so I'm rounding the prices up. I just won't type out $3.95), also from Amazon. Plus, it has the snazzy top thingy.

I would definitely want some chocolate cigars. These have schmancy gold wrappers and come from A Bountiful Harvest, $35 for 24. They claim to be Belgian chocolate, so they may be worth a chance. I like Belgian chocolate.



Of course, these are probably my favorite. I mean, fake tobacco leaf foil totally beats gold foil out of the water, though the actual chocolate may not be as good. They are $14 for a box of 12.


Then there's the bubble-gum route. Granted, they say it's a girl, but it's a girls night so why not? And yes, the probably make some plain ones. These run $15 for a 24 count box.

As for beverages, bottled rootbeer is at the top of the list. I found this marvy review of the different rootbeers out there, Boylan's topped their list


However, I can't deny that the Sprecher's bottles are mighty nice and isn't it all about the appearance of evil at a party like this?


And then there should always be some apple juice on the rocks

Image from istockphoto.com

Okay so that's actually Scotch, but you get the idea.

Throw in some mixed nuts, cheap sandwiches, and bowls of pretzels and I think you've got a party.

Oh, and don't forget the poker.

Apple Crisp

I am a big fan of apple crisp, but I hardly ever make it a) because I like it so much and really I shouldn't have it around, and b) I was nervous about trying a bad recipe and being severely disappointed. Never fear, with Emeril Lagasse over there on food network, I knew I could take a chance. So, I threw together his recipe, which, by the way, is mighty simple, and I ended up with a rather delicious dessert to accompany the shepherd's pie.
As a side note, I made it in a round casserole dish and was left with a superfluity of topping. Perhaps next time I'll give it more surface area because I sure am a sucker for crumbly bits. Oh, and I used golden delicious apples and I think they worked out quite well.
p.s. (which is different from a side note, of course) I served it with vanilla ice cream and seeing as it was positively frigid here and my freezer is still "freezing" at about fifty degrees, I thought I'd stick the little Haagen Daazs outside on my window ledge. I've seen it work in movies so I thought I had a chance, but no dice. On the other hand, melted ice cream really isn't half bad on apple crisp.

Shepherd's Pie

Seeing as it was so freezing cold yesterday, I decided to make a warm and cozy shepherd's pie for my dinner guests. As usual, food network had a recipe that looked delicious, and lo and behold, it was. I'd even call it easy and low stress.

Isabella Beeton

Long before Martha Stewart there was Isabella Beeton.
Published serially from 1859-1861 and then in book form in 1861, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management has yet to go out of print.

Her preface begins, "I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it. What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways."
While Mrs. Beeton wrote some of the entries herself, the majority of the book was a compilation of recipes, apparently over 900 pages of them, each of which was tested by Mrs. Beeton and her maid before it received the honor of inclusion, and general house keeping wisdom, including advice on managing everyone from butlers to teething babies, guides on how to recognize and treat the chicken pox, and thoughts on how to properly pay a visit of condolence.
An interesting bit of trivia: I understand that it is in this book that we first see recipes formatted as we know them now.
Also interesting to me is that Mrs. Beeton began working on this book when she was just twenty-one, and that she actually died at twenty-eight, shortly after the birth of her fourth child.
I'm always fascinated to hear what fantastic feats people have accomplished at my age.

Mistakes I've made v.3

This one, well, this one is still so uncomfortable for me that I have a hard time talking about it. Let's just say, as a bit of a preface, that my teenage years were difficult. I know, I know, whose weren't? But still, just keep that in mind and don't judge too harshly please.
So it was my sixteenth birthday, which means that it was 1996 and in the midst of the great Austen obsession (Persuasion, 1995; Pride and Prejudice, 1995; Sense and Sensibility, 1995; Emma, 1996; Emma, 1996 (no, that is not a typo, there were two); and Mansfield Park, 1999; even Wishbone took her on with Furst Impressions, 1996 and Pup Fiction, 1998) and you have to understand how much I love Jane Austen's novels. Also, I had somewhat recently attended a wealthier friend's extravaganza of a birthday ball for which her fifty closest friends were to come in costume, were given pseudonyms and dance cards, and were served an elegant dinner.
And so I thought it would be a great idea to have a little picnic, like the one on Box Hill in the novel Emma.

Emma, 1996 (Miramax)

And here is where the mistakes begin.
1) I did not scout a picnic location, in part because I did not get my drivers license until that morning, but still. Bad idea. We ended up in the middle of the hilly grounds near UCLA and kept getting interrupted by students which wouldn't have been so bad had it not been for the fact that...
2) I asked everybody to come in costume. Why? I don't know. I had yet to discover that I myself do not much care for dressing up. I didn't think through the fact that just about nobody had a suitable dress on hand. They were dears and did their best, but still.
3) I used some language on the invitation that just about nobody understood. I don't remember what it was, but at least one term was antiquated enough that my guests had to call for an explanation.
4) I think I must have had some grand picture in my head of how it was all going to go and I daresay I had no idea what it would take to pull it off and all I know is that I was disappointed with the results and felt terribly guilty because of the kindness of my parents and my guests in putting up with me, and then my still not being happy about it.

So what have I taken away from this experience? Next time I want to go on a picnic, I'll find a fancy basket and fill it with tasty things and head down to the park in my jeans and sit myself down on an old blanket, reveling in the fact that it is 2008, and that there is no need to pretend otherwise.

Isn't this one great? It's the Highlander from Berry Patch Picnic Baskets

A toast...

On this freezing Friday night I'd like to raise my Milano and salute the greatest disappearing host of all time, Gatsby himself.

Pick a New Proboscis

Not only did I neglect to post about plastic champagne flutes before Megan's wedding (or was it the light-up shot glasses she regretted not knowing about as she planned her reception?), I completely forgot to order these in time for her bridal shower back in October, in spite of the fact that she specifically requested them. Uh, sorry Megan.
In any case, they are super fantastic enough to warrant buying a few to stash away to be ready for the next party. I mean, who doesn't want to try on a new nose with each glass of punch? Spoonsisters.com will sell you 24 for $9.95, which I would just like to point out is a lot cheaper than the going rate for rhinoplasty.

Plastic Champagne Flutes

I know these aren't exactly the epitome of chic and sophistication, but I think I will always have a soft spot in my heart for plastic champagne glasses. It's hard to argue with $26.11 for 100. And honestly, aren't they just hilarious? For crying out loud, you can take the bottom off!

Unless you don't want to, in which case I'd recommend buying these instead. They come ten for $7.

Which is great, but let's not forget coolbarstuff, a site that sells glow drinkware and lighted cups such as these:

A glowing champagne flute, how groovy is that?

This one cracks me up. It is advertised as a liquid-activated shot glass, good for 300 hours of fun. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it supposedly lights up when you pour in your drink and turns off when it's gone.
I (heart) technology.

Shower Invitations

Apparently I never posted a photo of the invitations I made for Megan's bridal shower, so here it is. I printed the majority of them on the cream, but there wasn't enough of that so I bought some gold to supplement. I would have done them all on gold but it was too stinking expensive. I bought the paper and envelopes at Kate's Paperie and was pretty well pleased with it.
Next time I do this, I will hopefully have learned how to use Photoshop. I tell you, it was a royal pain to do that in Word.
Now, why that photo insists on being sideways is beyond me, but I am too tired to figure it out right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Mistakes I've made v.2

Struggling to remove the giblets from my first turkey, ca. 1998

Another mistake that hearkens back to my freshman year of college is one that hounds me to this day: never being able to thaw a bird in time for roasting. It doesn't matter what kind of fowl, be it turkey, pheasant, chicken, or whatever else I've tried, I always end up using the last-resort quick-thaw methods - the safe ones - as I am madly preparing a large dinner. You can find some of these tips here, at the USDA site.

Mistakes I've made v.1

So once upon a time I was an ignorant but enthusiastic little freshman at college. The dorms in which I lived were apartment-style, meaning I had a kitchen. I've never understood the urge to share a room with one other girl, a bathroom with fifty, and a common room with hundreds. And not have a kitchen? No thanks.
Anyway, I had a kitchen and four lovely roommates and there we all were, anxious to make the best of our college years. So what did I do almost as soon as I'd unpacked? I invited my twenty closest friends over for dinner. I'd known them all what, a couple of weeks?
I decided to make something easy and super tasty, in other words, spaghetti. I have a sauce recipe that comes from an Italian family with whom my mother's parents shared a duplex back in the forties or fifties. Along with the sauce, of course, I had to cook a whole lot of pasta. A whole lot. I borrowed the biggest pot I could find and dumped in who knows how many noodles. I was very careful to stir all the way down to the bottom, the last thing I wanted to do was make a mess out of this little event. I stirred and stirred, they cooked and cooked. And, of course, the troops were already assembled, and dinner was late as usual.
Then what do you know, but something started stinking up the room in a burned sort of fashion. I thought, oh no, that can't possibly be my noodles, I am doing such a good job stirring all the way to the bottom! I thought it was high time for them to be done so I pulled one out, tasted it, and nearly tossed my cookies. It was only moments before the water turned that murky, full of burned stuff shade of brown, and the stench was nigh unto overpowering.
Yes, we had to take the huge pot out to the dumpsters in the back and we had to start all over with the pasta, just in smaller batches this time. I made a rollicking good impression on all of my new friends, and I don't think the pot ever recovered.

Spaghetti Sauce

Brown together:
2lbs hamburger (I like to use turkey)
1 good-sized onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic

Mix together in a sauce pan:
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
2 small cans tomato paste
1/3 cup sugar
a little salt
more pepper
more basil

add meat to sauce mix and let simmer

Dish gloves

Any hostess of means too constricted to employ a behind-the-scenes staff can attest to the fact that the dishes pile up at an amazing rate and that they are all there, lying in wait for the last guest to depart and for the bedraggled hostess extraordinaire to limp into the kitchen and make them all clean, shiny and new. I swear, they get dirtier by the minute.
And so what better way to face the unfaceable task of dish washing than to pull on a lovely pair of sturdy gloves? Now, I am currently the proud owner and user of some lovely bright pink gloves, but they are getting old so I thought I'd give the old interweb a go and see if I could find any suitable replacements. I thought it might be nice to have some brightly colored gloves with clean graphics on them. You know, something pleasing but simple. I don't know, like stripes or big polka dots.
And all I could find were these:

Dish gloves from Neiman Marcus

Oh dear no.

So I'm back to looking at another pink pair, but this time with the significant improvement of cotton lining and a leak-stopping cuff.

Casabella dish gloves via Chef Central

Sandy Hill in Vogue

The December issue of Vogue magazine included a profile of hostess extraordinaire Sandy Hill. I knew nothing about her before I read the article and while I have read many a scathing account of her since, I have to say that I give props to anybody who can throw a Dead Poets party and convince all how-ever-many of her closest friends to show up in character. I've come to learn that I am not an enthusiast to dressing up myself, but it always amuses me to see others do it, and I sure would be impressed if everybody at such a party could actually quote their poet.

S'more brownies

Image courtesy of foodnetwork.com

To go along with Sunday's stuffed shells, I made foodnetwork's S'more brownies. I can't think that I have ever made brownies from scratch. Let's face it, there are so many other desserts I'd rather have than brownies. I admit to having used boxed mixes in a dessert pinch, but the effort of making them by scratch has never seemed worth it to me in the past.
However, on Sunday I decided that I ought to at least give it a try, especially as it turns out that a surprising number of folks out there actually prefer chocolate-based desserts to the fruity kind which is really beyond me, but there's no accounting for people's tastes.
So point being, I decided to branch out and try these brownies. Maybe it is my flavor prejudice, but I really didn't think they were that great. Plus, once the marshmallows started to cool, it became something of a feat to actually eat the silly things. On the other hand, the brownie itself was properly fudgey, maybe it just needs some other flavor accents.

Sausage and eggplant-stuffed shells

Tonight I had a few friends over for Sunday dinner and the other day as I was at the gym trying to decide what to make, a commercial came on for Olive Garden, showing their new lasagna rollatini which, by the way, sure isn't a real word, not even in Italian. Anyway, I thought it looked pretty tasty but as soon as I saw the Olive Garden logo I knew I'd never eat it and that made me a little sad. A nanosecond passed and then I realized, by golly, I'd just make it myself. But better.

Olive Garden's Lasagna Rollatini with Sausage

So I came home and looked around a little and my old friend Emeril Lagasse over at foodnetwork came through for me. Check out his recipe for sausage and eggplant-stuffed shells in a tomato-basil cream sauce. They are absolutely delicious.
Now, if I had more than one skillet and one sauce pan, I'm sure it would have taken only the, wait a second, does he really think I can do all that in fifteen minutes? So maybe I think he's overestimating my capabilities there. In any case, it took stinking forever but it was well worth the trouble. I cooked twenty shells (he recommends about eighteen) and I had lots of leftover stuffing, which doesn't bother me in the least, but there you have it. I also think his cook times are a little short, especially for the eggplant, but maybe, just maybe, his pots, pans, and range are higher quality and therefore more efficient than mine. Anyway, I'd allow a little extra time for each step, but I promise it's totally worth it.
I'd post a picture of the finished product but it isn't that pretty to begin with, and I'm still a horrid food photographer. So maybe next time.

Mini gift baskets

I don't quite remember who gave me the basket on the left, and I'm only mostly sure it held Easter candies. The basket on the right held strands of red glass beads and was a birthday present from a friend. I think I've had each of these little baskets knocking around my tiny apartment for at least a year, but I haven't been able to part with them just yet. I love how each person embellished the basket in the smallest of ways, with the twining vine and the attentive little faun, making them unique and memorable.

Cocktail baubles

Whenever it is that I throw my virgin cocktail party, I intend to wear the perfect little black dress and a lovely, if not slightly insane, cocktail ring. Oh, and the highest black heels I own. In any case, I was scrolling through the new arrivals at J.Crew and these caught my eye as having potential

Cabochon Bouquet Cocktail Ring, also available in green and blue

Crystal Sunburst Cocktail Ring

A house of order

One of my coworkers got this book for Christmas and, knowing that I am mildly obsessed with all things Martha Stewart, she brought it in. I firmly believe in having a clean and orderly house, especially if you are having guests, but I admit to falling short of my own standards more often than I'd like. In any case, I was thrilled as I flipped through this book and it is definitely on my list now. We all like to live in clean, organized homes, don't we? And most of us need a little help and instruction, right? Ah Martha, running to the rescue yet again.

So it's 2008.

Image from someecards, a superfab site

I'm not much of one for making resolutions, and really I always feel much more inspired to change and start over in the fall, but here we are on January 1st so I might as well solidfy a goal of mine that I've been knocking about for a while. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I want to be ready when my guests arrive and I want to be able to sit down with them and enjoy their company. All too often I end up in the kitchen while my guests piddle about for way longer than they should have to, waiting for dinner, and then even after we sit down I am constantly jumping up and running back to the kitchen to fetch this or to fix that. It has simply got to stop.
And so, if I were the resolving kind of girl, I would hereby resolve to be a better prepared, more present hostess.
Wish me luck.