Holiday DIY

I've decided to make most of my gifts this year.
I'm pretty sure that I've said that for the last 2 years, but
this time I've already started putting my plan into motion.

My list of projects looks like this:
*Vanilla extract
*Lavender sugar
*Peanut butter cups
*Hot & sweet mustard
*Nutella
*Salted Caramels
*Candied Nuts
*Painted glass ornaments (with the paint on the inside!)
*Salt ornaments
*Sugar Scrub

I've already taken care of the vanilla extract and the lavender sugar,
next on my list to make is the sugar scrub and the salted caramels.
I'll be saving a lot of the food items til the week before Christmas
so that they last.

For good DIY ideas check out:
Pinterest
DesignSponge's No Buy Guide
The December Issue of Bon Appetit
The December Issue of Living
Sweet Paul

Are you making any gifts this year?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow. It is really Thanksgiving. Time has flown
by like I have never experienced before.  But here we are.

I have so much to be thankful for this year, an amazing new husband,
so many awesome friends/family, a job that enables me to do
what I want to be doing, the clean bill of health for a close friend,
not being harmed by mean ol' Sandy, waking up every morning,
enjoying the small pleasures in life, and having quality time with the people
that I love the most.

I feel like that's just the tip of the iceburg. What are you thankful for this year?
I hope that everyone spends it surrounded by family and/or friends and tons
of delicious food. <3

Happy Thanksgiving!!













source

Latest Obsessions

*Monday night is 50% off all wine bottles at Bourgeois Pig
and they have a variety of fondue!

*Seckle Pears
super tiny, extra delicious

*Pomegranate & Spruce candle from Paddywax
smells like Christmas!

*Tomorrow night (as soon as Thanksgiving ends)
 I can officially start listening to Christmas music!
(so nerdy, I know.)

*Homemade Spiced Cranberry Sauce
excellent on toast, with cheese, or on a sweet potato with greek yogurt

*Hospoda
Delicious Czech fare, nice wine list, mind blowing dessert.

Further Exploration: Flushing

Every time we go to Flushing it is a new and different experience.
Always some new place to try, new stores to visit, and it never
disappoints.  This time we visited Biang! which is the restaurant version
of Xian Famous foods which has all the noodle essentials that you'd
expect, plus some delightful (and not so delightful) extras.


First we have the spicy grilled quaile with "tiger vegetable" salad.
Good but the quaile was a little hard to eat because it's small and there
isn't an abundance of meat on it. The tiger vegetables were amazing.
I could eat that salad all the time.

Next we have the cold buckwheat noodles, and this by far was the
spiciest dish we had. But the noodles were a perfect texture,
and I kept eating despite the extreme heat. (sidenote: this is
where the tiger vegetables come in handy, after the spicy food)

This is our usual dish from Xian. The Mt Qi Pork Noodles.
It was ridiculously satisfying as always.  Moderately spicy.

This was my least favorite thing we ate, and it was all due to texture.
This is the grilled seitan, and it felt like i was chewing straight chicken skin.
Not my jam, at all.

This was an extra special treat, hot and sour lamb dumplings in soup.
The perfect umami feast. So many flavors, every taste is different.
Highly recommended.

The whole meal was a little over $30. which is pretty amazing
considering all the food we had and how full we were.
If you haven't made it out to Flushing yet I totally recommend it.
You can find awesome food for super cheap prices, and nothing
hits the spot in the cold weather like a huge bowl of hand pulled
noodles in spicy sauce.

Biang! Restaurant
41-10 Main St  Queens, NY 11355

The Sketchbook Project

The only thing that I've committed to lately is my new husband.
Otherwise, I've been hesitant to really dive in to any projects-
especially art related.  But yesterday (on the very last day)
I signed up for The Sketchbook Project, which is just
what I need to get the creative part of my brain moving.

I wasn't totally artless during all the wedding planning,
I actually started collaging again- which is probably my
most favorite medium.  I could sit for hours just flipping through
old National Geographics, looking for images that call out to me.
I even have a different pile of images that I love so much that I
couldn't bear to ever glue them.

 I'm getting sidetracked.
Back to the Project at hand.  In a few days I will be receiving my
official Sketchbook Project notebook, and I have 'til mid-January
to fill it and mail it back.  After that the book will go on tours,
and then eventually live at the Brooklyn Art Library-where anyone
can check it out.  It's a pretty awesome project and I'm excited to be
a part of it.  My friend Carly is also participating, and now that I think about it
she may have been the one who told me about it! So thank you, Carly!

I'll be posting sketchbook updates on here, so stay tuned!

Greenmarket Finds

I treated myself to a trip to the Union Square market
this morning.  It was magical as always, and there was
the bonus of seeing the holiday market being set up.
I look forward to getting lost in the maze of all the stalls,
and indulging in the hot chocolate from the truffle stand.
Just another reason to be excited for the Christmastime.

But back to the greenmarket. I stocked up on a few
things that I needed for the Boeuf Bourguignon Soup
and picked up a ton of other good stuff.  My digestive system
has been unhappy lately so I'm trying to appease it with
fresh produce.  I think it'll work.

1 head of cauliflower
1 heirloom tomato
3 apples
a small box of seckle pears
3 sprigs of thyme
parsley
3 carrots
raw honey
concord grapes
crimini mushrooms
arugula
1 quart of whole milk(not pictured)
1 pint of heavy cream (not pictured)
1lb of beef short ribs (not pictured)
1 slice of reuben bread (eaten)

All of that was $50

Latest Obsessions

*Twin Peaks complete series
got it last week and have been watching it since

*Llena eres de Gracia in Playa de Carmen
the husband got me the most awesome bag from there
and they make gaudy bathing suits fit for mermaids.

*My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss
I'm about halfway through and truly enjoying it.
Good story and good recipes.

*Planning for Christmas
ugh I know, I'm turning into that person. I'm always excited for Christmas
but for some reason this year the excitement came on earlier than usual.
I'm just looking forward to everything about the holidays this year.

*Post-wedding Detox
After over-indulging for nearly 2 1/2 weeks, it's time to be good
to my body again.  Time for a veggie overload.

*Big Bang Theory
At first I wasn't too sold on it, the extreme nerdiness kinda
freaked me out. But it grew on me and now I'm hooked.

Greenmarket Finds

In case you haven't noticed, it's basically winter now.
Snow is on the ground, the heat in our house came on,
and Christmas advertising is everywhere.

The greenmarket, thankfully, has not taken a full swing into winter
just yet. There are still ripe red tomatoes, pumpkins, and just today
I found cranberries!!! (Clearly, cooking seasonally allows you to
really get excited about the small things)

1 loaf of sourdough bread
1 doz eggs
red russian kale
brussels sprouts
cranberries
5 apples
3 heads of garlic
2 onions
1 fennel bulb
1 tomato
1 sugar pumpkin
beef short ribs (not pictured)
chicken leg and thigh (not pictured)

All of that was about $44

I plan on making:
pumpkin pie
boeuf bourguigon soup
fennel and citrus salads
chicken and dumplings or matzo ball soup w/ chicken
brussels sprout slaw (which was served at our wedding!)

Everything New

It's the end of an era.
Long story short I became unable to access
Captain's Log because of a password loss. Gone is my beloved
seaparty blog after I had been posting on it for 6 years.

But it is the season of change, I've got a new husband, new last name,
and big plans for the coming months.  I'm looking forward to blogging
regularly again and recording all of my adventures.