SATC = Fabulous!!

I must be a true fan and my boyfriend must be a saint because he went with me to see Sex and the City last night at midnight!! It was fabulous! Definitely worth the feeling of being completely sleep deprived this morning! I won't give away any spoilers...that's why I went to see it last night before all the spoilers saturated the internet! Definitely worth seeing!

Cookbooking

In preparation for our first CSA delivery next week, I've started buying cook books..lots of cook books! Since Mike and I have become "part-time" vegetarians (for lack of a better term!) it has opened up a whole new world of cooking to us!

I'm a sucker for beautiful books. I can't help myself! So how could I say no to a cover as fabulous as this one



As stated on the back cover, Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes is "a contemporary version of field-to-table cooking." There are over 150 recipes in this book, created by Jeanne Kelley, a contributor for Bon Apetit Magazine for over 20 years. The photography is amazing, it makes you want to get into the kitchen and start cooking right away! I can't wait to try some of the recipes which include things like Black Beans with Orange and Chipotle and Oven Roasted Frites with Herbes de Provence...yum!

Alice

Mike found this video over the weekend and I have had it in my head all week...it's a song made from the audio of Alice in Wonderland...it's awesome (and catchy!)

I had such a great weekend...the weather in the city was beautiful and it seemed like everyone was in the Hamptons so the city was quiet and peaceful and fabulous! I had to drag myself out of bed this morning though, I feel like I got absolutely no sleep this weekend, every night was a late night!! I am hoping to get a lot of stuff done this week so hopefully I will have a shop update soon. I am preparing for a show in June so things are kind of hectic right now. It's hard to be motivated to work when all you want to do is be outside!! Hopefully everyone else had a nice weekend as well, only 4 more days until the next one!

Happy Long Weekend

I am so happy the long weekend is here, NY is expecting some beautiful weather so I can't wait to be outside. Have a nice long weekend everyone! I will be back on Tuesday!

Food wise

Mike and I finally found a CSA to join for the season. We were lucky to get one with a pick up location in our neighborhood. Some of the other ones we found were on the Upper West Side (we're talking 125th St!) which is just way to far to trek to once a week, even from my office in midtown. It starts on June 3rd. We are super excited to try out some veggies we've never eaten before. We are hoping that we can eat just from the shares we receive each week, they estimate each weekly share to be about 14 pounds of vegetables, that seems like a lot!

Mike and I are down to eating meat about once a week now. After watching this video I would really prefer to avoid it all together. I tell Mike all the time that I want to raise animals on our farm to eat but I just don't know if I could do that. I feel like I would get too attached to them! I just watched an interesting show on Sundance about a family who is trying to sustain themselves on their farm in England and they raised two pigs and slaughtered them on the farm to ensure that they were treated humanely during the slaughtering process. The wife had a really hard time with it. Pigs are so cute too, I just don't know if I could! I guess it's about knowing that you gave them a better life then they would have had if they had been raised on a feed lot and having a responsibility to take part in how and where you food comes from.

I am embarrassed to say that we have had this camera for over 2 weeks now and have not taken a single picture with it until last night!! I think we were both a bit intimated by it, I have never used a camera with a big removable lens and thought I would never be able to take a picture with it so I was relying on Mike to take the initiative and get it working (big mistake!). Last night, finally fed up with the fact that we had spent all this money on a camera and the only thing we had done was charge the battery, I finally took it out of the bag and started taking pictures of random things around the apartment. All I can say is, WOW!! It takes amazing pictures! I'm still getting used to all the controls and menus and I know we are going to have to sit down and actually go through the manual for this thing because it isn't as simple as other digital cameras we have had in the past. We got it for our upcoming Alaska trip but I am really looking forward to taking product shots with it!

Baking and famous people

I was hoping for a shop update today but unfortunately I wasn't able to get everything done this weekend, Saturday was so beautiful that Mike and I spent most of the day outside. We were given free tickets to Taste of Tribeca and while we were there we met Spike from Top Chef!! Afterwards we were walking to meet some friends in the West Village and we spotted Giselle! The paparazzi were following her like crazy!





I did quite a bit of baking this weekend as well. Mike and I have had this amazing bread book for a few months now and the only thing we have managed to make from it is pizza dough. Since I have scared myself silly by watching all these documentaries about food I am trying to avoid eating processed foods so I wanted to make some sandwich bread. I referred to the book and found a recipe for Buttermilk Bread and since I had some buttermilk left over from the scones I made last weekend I decided to give it a try. Wow! It was delicious, the recipe made two loaves so I made one into a cinnamon raisin bread (another recipe in the book) which Mike and I ate for breakfast and the other one I am going to use for sandwiches this week. If you like bread, you have to get this book. It is incredible! The next recipe we are going to try from the book is soft pretzels...yum! I also made some amazing buttermilk cookies which I found the recipe for at Orangette's blog. The recipe called for lemon zest but we only had a lime on hand so I used that. It was a tiny lime and didn't give it much flavor but the green flecks in the cookies looked pretty! The cookies really didn't even need the zest, they were so good without that added flavor. Mike and I devoured them, I'm embarrassed to say I made them not even 24 hours ago and they are all gone!!! I am now going to have to walk on the treadmill for 6 miles to burn off all the carbs I consumed this weekend!!

Hoping for a shop update by the end of this week so stay tuned!

Farm apprenticeships

So yesterday Mike and I started searching for CSA's available in the city. I know we are a little late in the game for this and most of them are full for the season but we have found a few that are still available! While searching through several farm's websites in upstate New York we noticed that one of them offered an apprenticeship. As we researched further we found out that many farms offer this program to people interested in learning the farming trade. Basically you go to the farm in March or April and work with them, they usually give you a place to stay and a small monthly stipend along with farm produce in exchange for your work. You can work through the season or some farms offer shorter work assignments. Mike and I are seriously considering doing this next season. We really want a farm and neither of us know much about farming except for the small amount of reading we do each month when we get our "farm magazines" in the mail. This is such a great opportunity for people who want to learn and all the farms we have researched are organic! I am so excited about the possibility of doing this. Mike and I are going to research this more this weekend and start contacting farms about their opportunities for next season! Farm life here we come!!

New Stuff

I just sent off a few items to be included in the Sampler for the MTV Style Lounge goodie bags!! The opportunity came up through the Etsy Street Team I belong to, The New New. I'm a little nervous because instead of sending soaps I sent a new concept for my shop, screen printed grocery totes. I have been wanting to add a more diverse range of products for quite a while now and have been collecting ideas, this is the first one I have actually implemented. I'm very excited about the idea. I am very big on the "green" movement and Mike and I are extremely eco-friendly. We always bring totes to the grocery when we shop and I came up with a cute concept for a grocery tote. I was able to find these incredible tote bags that are made from 100% recycled materials and are a really good quality. I'm hoping to debut them in the shop by early next week. I was so into the screen printing process last night that I forgot to take pictures to post here! I am hoping to have a shop update on Monday so stay tuned!

Baking

Mike got me this Kitchenaid Mixer for my birthday, isn't he the best?!?



He gave it to me last week before we went out of town and I was too sick to use it so now I am gearing myself up for a weekend of baking! I am going to make oatmeal cookies that I have a recipe for and these scones that I found today. My mom got me the pasta maker attachment so I might even make some fresh pasta too.

I'm Back

We got in last night. It was a great trip, I was sick for most of it but it was still a lot of fun. It's getting harder and harder to say goodbye to family and friends though, I was so bummed out last night and still am today. I'm supposed to sell at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend but I had to cancel, being sick last week and being out of town for the past few days has really taken it's toll on me and I need to get some much needed rest. I'm bummed but I think it's for the best, I'm still feeling run down and congested and I would still need to do so much to get ready for it. Hopefully I will be able to participate next month! Sorry for the short post but I have a ton of stuff to do at work since I've been out for the past couple of days!

Florida Bound

I am heading home for a few days to celebrate my 27th bday and spend much needed time with friends and family. I will be back on Wednesday. Have a great weekend everyone!

Orange Breakfast Biscuit Recipe

I couldn't find the recipe on Martha Stewart's site so here it is. Enjoy!!

Orange Breakfast Biscuits

Makes 1 dozen

1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus for dusting
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Put 1/3 cup sugar and the zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until combined, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and remaining tablespoon sugar in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or two knives, blend in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk, stir with a wooden spoon just until a sticky dough forms.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat dough together, and press into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Using a bench scraper or spatula to lift dough, fold rectangle into thirds (as you would a letter).

Give dough a quarter turn. Roll out into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Fold into thirds. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured parchment paper lined baking sheet. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Return dough to lightly floured work surface. Roll out again, into an 8 x 11 x 1 inch rectangle. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar mixture on top. Fold into thirds. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit or cookie cutter, cut rounds from dough (still folded); transfer to a baking sheet. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Bake until biscuits are just browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Thank you Martha...

It is sort of a tradition for Mike and I, on the weekends, to make a brunch with all the things left over from the previous week's meals. Sometimes we will fry up left over pasta noodles with some egg and sausage and whatever veggies we have left over or we will make a good salsa and just kind of throw whatever we have left in the fridge into the bowl. It's a lot of fun and one of my favorite things about the weekend. This past weekend there were slim pickins in the fridge. We had done a fantastic job at finishing everything up during the week so there wasn't a whole lot to eat and we were both hungry so I pulled out "The Binders" and went searching for breakfast! I found these Orange Buttermilk Biscuits from Martha Stewart that looked good so I ran down to the market to buy the few ingredients we didn't have on had. The biscuits were amazing! I was sort of expecting them to be like those Pillsbury Orange rolls you can get at the grocery but these were even better! We made a glaze to go on top with powdered sugar and juice from the leftover zested orange. The next day we heated them up in the oven and had them with tea, they were delicious!





Update: After writing this post I went online to try and find the recipe and can't! I will post the recipe later for all those who are interested!