January 16, 2012

White Bean Soup w/ Crispy Prosciutto

Think of soup like your favorite old sweater. It’s warm & comforting and with different accessories and separates, you can create several different outfits out of your old standby. For the past two years I’ve been obsessed with white beans. I’ve made different variations of this soup with similar flavor profiles. There’s the Tuscan Ribollita that uses white beans, bread, kale & pancetta. There’s my favorite soup ever, Sausage White Bean Soup and most recently my mom’s Pasta Fagioli Soup that also uses sage, pancetta and white beans. Never have I made a soup that purees white beans so they make the base of a soup. This is also the first time I’ve baked prosciutto in the oven and created shards out of them! I liken these little adjustments to putting your sweater over a hot new dress and sealing the deal with a fabulously fancy red scarf.

When you puree white beans in soup, magic happens. It’s as if you added a cup of silky heavy cream…And those crispy Proscuitto shards? Scrumptious! I think most of them bypassed the soup and went directly into our mouths.

Hello White Bean Soup, you’re like an awesome new outfit in my repertoire.

around the home, my everyday life, Photography, Uncategorized

January 14, 2012

My Everyday Life: Week 2

This is what this past week looked like.

My favorite erranding outfit.

Uncategorized

January 13, 2012

I love lists, Friday!

I want a unitard. There, I said it.
10 words you mispronounce that make people think you’re an idiot. SHERBET!
Oooh! I can make Cooper look like Ryan Gosling now! Sweet.
The Joy of Books. What books do at night. (thanks Cheryl!)
Another gem & the SWEETEST anniversary gift. Fun to watch too!
The most perfect food EVER. Like…wow.
I totes wanna make my own glitter shoes.
50 things to stop doing forever. (thanks, Sabrina!)
Avery & Martha! Music to my ears!!
My hair could totally benefit from this DIY hair mask.
OOOOH a stripey DIY camera strap. Yes please!
YES! A new Wes Anderson movie. I can’t waaaaaaaaaait!
Blood Orange Sugar Scones. I’ll take 4, thankyouverymuch!
This made me laugh.

But wait, there’s more!

This week on the Episode #33 of Joy the Baker Podcast we’re talking about Juggling & Stalking. Joy’s dad got an iphone & I got truffle salt (uhhh).

Check out High Straightenence this week for Packing Tips & Tricks! You can see how I packed for our cruise!

out & about, Uncategorized

January 12, 2012

Disney Cruisin’ Part 1: The Food

The day after Christmas we went on a Disney Mexican Riviera Cruise for 7 days with Casey’s family (22 of us total!). My in-laws decided to take EVERYONE on the cruise. I never imagined that I would go on a Disney cruise! (thank you thank you Linda & Phil!). It was a blast!

Rather than inundate you with TONS of photos, I’m going to break it up into a few parts. Today I’ll be showing you the FOOD!

Can I tell you that I was a little scared about the food situation on the boat? I read reviews online that the food wasn’t that great. Someone said that it was like eating at Sizzler for a week. While I do like their cheesy toast, I have my standards! I feared I would miss my kitchen terribly. I kinda did but overall there were some great options.

recipes, Uncategorized

January 11, 2012

Potato Feta Gyros

I lived as a vegetarian for 2 1/2 years during my college career; it was the dorm food that sealed the deal. For the first year of my vegetarianism, I was more of a cheese-atarian. I lived in Oregon and it was Tillamook EVERYTHING. My roommate and I ate cheese, pizza, french fries, hummus and stir fry like there was no tomorrow. For a college student, it was all about convenience. Having our own fridge with our OWN food (not managed by parents) was really an exciting thing. That’s why I gained a Sophomore 15 (I managed to avoid it Freshman year due to the crappy food). I clearly needed help!

A few months ago during the busy holiday season, I had the opportunity to meet cookbook author/cool mom Pam Anderson & catch up with her daughter Maggy at a fabulous dinner for her latest cookbook, Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals: Recipes and Techniques for Part-Time and Full-Time Vegetarians. Let me tell you, these two are as good as it gets! I know that if they lived closer, Maggy & I would be tied at the hip. Both these fine ladies have a tremendous amount of love to give and their passion for food and helping others is downright contagious!

What I love Pam’s new cookbook is that it’s vegetarian home cooking in an easily digestible format. Pam covers many cooking basics and gives a tremendous amount of tricks & tips for the aspiring vegetarian cook. She’s basically teaching you how to cook without a book! Each recipe has Pam’s suggestions to change things up a bit. For example, there’s a bran muffin section where she shows you the muffin base and then lists add-ins & extras so you can build your own flavor profile. Her suggestions will keep your brain turning with ideas! I love it. Reading through this book is like having a cool mom teach you how to cook and fend for yourself in a vegetarian world. It would have made my college years as a vegetarian a BREEZE!

As a part time Vegetarian, I fell in love with this Potato Feta Gyro recipe. I made it earlier this week and boy was it incredibly satisfying and simple to execute. The mashed potatoes are flavor packed due to the feta & roasted garlic and the cucumber yogurt sauce is straight up ADDICTIVE. If only I had this recipe in college!

Here’s the deal!

I have an extra copy of this book that I want to give one to a lucky reader!

Please leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win!

Giveaway ends on Friday January 13th (ooh creepy!).

****CONTEST ENDED. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ENTERING!!!!******

recipes, Uncategorized

January 9, 2012

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Everyday between 2-3pm, my body craves chocolate cake. The cake I crave is not a cake that’s saturated in chocolate frosting. I’m talking about a dense/moist/slightly chewy chocolate cake with a few drizzles of chocolate frosting. When I’m not able to fulfill this craving (which is like all the time), my mind goes into daydreaming mode and I start to fantasize about a chocolate cake delivery service at my work and how wonderful it would be if there were ice cream sundae vendors at every street corner. Imagine that. That would be the life!

I also had this thought the other day: Has anyone ever put EAT MORE CHOCOLATE on their New Year’s Resolution list? Doubtful.

With a chocolaty dense bundt cake like this, I can’t see why that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Maybe I should give in to my chocolate cravings more often. Maybe then I could consider myself a chocolate lover.

around the home, my everyday life, Photography, Uncategorized

January 8, 2012

My Everyday Life: Week 1

A new year & a new photo project because I refuse to stop using my camera regularly! I’m going to call this series- My Everyday Life.

It’s not a photo everyday; it’s a collection of pictures from the week.

What you will see: moments of time, food, prettie things, details of the world around me & a few self portraits too! It’s like 365 food but with less food and more living.

Let the fun begin!

This is what this week looked like:

On a walk with my boys.