All posts filed under: Etna BnB

unbeweavable.

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These weaving weirlos. An unbeweavable weaving brunch party with my ladies! We had snacks for creative energies – a bagel bar, a cheese plate, and a French toast bake, plus mimosas! And we had yarn play time! Yarn in all the colors…because I’m a hoarder, er, yarn enthusiast. Custom made looms and tools, and these awesome Get it Girl keychains laser beamed by my friend Laura. I loved sharing some creative time with my ladies. Beauties made by beauties! 😉 I imagine this will be the first in a series of skill shares. A little birdie whispered that amigurumi is next! Can’t wait! How do you craft time with your peoples? Share your fun creative tales below.

mississippi mud pie.

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My 2018 goal: bake a new-to-me recipe at least once a month. January’s bake wasn’t good enough to share (I made pomelo bars, and though they looked nice and had good textures, they turned out super bitter. :P), but February’s bake was soooo good. My friend and I made Mississippi Mud Pie! Look. At. This. Our favorite pie is chocolate mousse and I’m all about a chocolate cookie crust. So my friend found a Cook’s Country recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie for us to try. The recipe came annotated with technique tips and recommendations for specific products to use. So good. This recipe was a recipe of firsts. It called for Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafers which are like thinner, wider, and less sweet Oreos without the filling. I had never heard of them and now I am a fan. We used them to make the crust (left) and the cookie crumble (right). While the crust baked, we prepped the next layer – a fudgy brownie. I had never made brownies form scratch before (Ghirardelli double …

you make heart skip a (sweet pickled) beet.

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You guys. The Valentine puns. 😘 Here’s a love day gift idea and activity: a sweet pickled beets kit! Preserved is amazing and they make it less scary to get into pickling and preserving via classes, the bounty of supplies in their shop, and these fun kits! The sweet pickled beets kit came with a recipe, a pickling jar, and a container of Preserved / Oaktown Spice Shop Sweet Pickling Spice. Oh my gosh, the spice mix smells so good! The process was simple. Boil the beets, peel and cut them. Fill the jar with beets and optional onions. Boil the pickling spice with apple cider vinegar, water, salt, and sugar, then pour into the jar. Seal and wait. The recipe recommends you wait at least one week before tasting your beets. Hubby and I ended up waiting three weeks (we both got sick and couldn’t taste anything for a bit…). Worth the wait, y’all! These were so easy to make and we’ve got the ingredients to make these again a few more times. The taste: sweet! …

hey hotcakes. 

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Mini pancake breakfast time! Last week I got to spend some QT with my sis, bro-in-law, niece, and nephews. And since it was the weekend before Valentine’s Day, we thought we would treat ourselves and have sweets for breakfast! We made a Martha pancake recipe, with blueberry and chocolate renditions. We tripled the recipe. We probably had enough pancakes to feed 8-10 for breakfast; we fed seven, and had plenty leftover for snacking on later in the day. Adult tip to keeping pancakes warm while cooking the rest of your batch: keep them in the oven at 200F. (I feel so grown up!) While we were cooking up pancakes, my nephew and niece personalized each place setting with a handwritten place card and custom chocolate chip or blueberry plate art. We laid out all the toppings: blueberries, bananas, strawberries, almonds, chocolate chips, granola (current fave: Love Crunch with dark chocolate and coconut slivers), syrup, and whipped cream. We had bevvies of choice: guava juice, apple juice, coffee, and tea. Dig in! My niece ‘won’ the pancake challenge …

bagels and barongs.

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The day after our wedding we hosted a brunch at our place. The biggest thank yous to my Ladies for helping me pull off brunch the day after our wedding! Decor Talk about reuse and maximizing resources. We decorated with things we already had. We had plenty of flower arrangements to both give away to guests and to decorate brunch. Bestie calligraphy-ed a chalkboard for guests to draw and write messages. The golden Erin + Jay garland was from my office bridal shower, and we’re totally taking it out for all anniversaries. The tissue paper accordion garland pictured above I had been saving for a special occasion. After wedding brunch seemed special enough! I also had our Instax camera (the one I bought with contest winnings) out so people could snap some pictures. Food The spread had all the goodies. I like to say brunch was sponsored by Whole Foods because I used my prize monies from a photo contest. On wedding day, I went shopping with Husband and Bestie in our wedding best. Forrealsies. I went in my gown! I wish I had a picture …

frittata!

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I love making frittatas. They are so simple to make and you can pretty much add whatever you find in your fridge. These ingredients are, by far, my favorite combination. Sweet peppers, basil, parsley, tomato,                                                           kalamata olives, onions, and goat cheese. I like to make frittatas when we have company or when we’ll have a busy week ahead – it reheats well! I also love making individual mini frittatas in ramekins, mostly because ramekins are adorable. This recipe makes one eight-inch round frittata or eight mini ramekin frittatas. Preheat your oven to 350F. Dice one medium onion and slice up some sweet peppers. Sauté in olive oil on medium heat until onions are translucent, ~eight minutes. In a bowl, crack eight eggs and beat. Mix in six ounces of crumbled goat cheese, a handful kalamata olives, chopped, and some basil leaves, julienned. Add a dash pepper. Grease your baking vesicle(s) (I used …

a pot of gold.

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It’s almost St. Patrick’s day, and whether you’re throwing a celebration or not, here is a super simple snack you can feel good about sharing with company or eating all by yourself. — Popcorn with homemade flavor dust. First up: Nutritional Yeast Popcorn None of that weird powdered cheese business, just that weird flakey yeast business. Nutritional yeast is all natural, great for the lactose intolerant, and tastes like cheese with a slight nuttiness. Pop your popcorn on the stove or with a popcorn machine. Toss with melted butter and sprinkle with nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. It’s that easy. As a general rule of thumb use: 1/2 c popcorn kernels 4 tbsp unsweetened butter, melted 1/2 c nutritional yeast s & p to taste If nutritional yeast isn’t your style, go through your spice rack and pull out some of your favorite flavors. I mixed up some taco seasoning. Use the same recipe as above, but replace the nutritional yeast with 1/2 c taco spice. Taco seasoning: 1 tbsp chili powder, 1/4 tspn garlic powder, 1/4 …

food presents.

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Food presents make some of the best presents! My cubicle neighbor gave me some homemade chutney this week. I immediately opened it up and inhaled. It smelled so fresh, and she mentioned it would be very spicy. I couldn’t wait to prepare a meal to be complimented by the chutney. That night I grilled some white fish, seasoned lightly with with onion power, salt, and pepper; sautéed broccolini (from the farmers market food truck!) with turmeric, coriander, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper; and steamed some quinoa. I topped it off with the beautiful bright green cilantro chutney. The intense flavors of garlic and the subtle apple cider vinegar gave the chutney a perfect balance of sweet and salty. The spice – just right! It was enough to surprise your taste buds and then make you want more of it. It was so good, the fiancé went back for seconds, and then finished my plate. I suppose I will need to start placing orders with my co-worker. Feature a favorite condiment below, and by favorite I mean so-good-you-want-to-drink-it-straight. 

plate it.

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I’m currently in love with serving salads on rectangular plates. The fiancé, Jason, purchased a couple of these plates for my birthday last year and I had been using them for my craft set ups. Now that my winter shows are over, these plates are back in the kitchen. Oh, what fun! Since we had been traveling, we decided to have a quiet New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day back in our apartment. We cooked some nice meals together and served them up on our fancy plates. What do you think? Restaurant quality? Almost? For New Year’s Eve dinner we had potato bean soup, warm kale salad with a sweet onion balsamic dressing, and brandy milk punch. The potato bean soup recipe came from The Vegan Road., except ours wasn’t vegan because we added beef broth. Some other substitutions: celery seed instead of celery, Italian spices instead of Italian sausage, and dried beans instead of canned (If you do it this way, make sure to cook the beans first, then add the potatoes for the …