Dining Room featured on Favorite Paint Colors!

I'm rather flattered to report that pictures of our dining room were featured on Favorite Paint Colors, a blog about, you guessed it, paint colors! It's a great resource for real life inspiration pics and as Steven & I are regular readers, we're quite excited to see our Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart walls included among all the other beautifully painted rooms.

Many thanks to Kristin for posting our dining room!

New Blog Obsession: Tartelette

Have you seen the movie Julie & Julia, in which blogger Julie Powell, apparently rather bored with her life, endeavors to work her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's first cookbook? Well, if I had to choose a similar challenge for myself, I would probably choose to work my way through the recipe index of my new favorite blog, Tartelette.

I am seriously smitten with the recipes, the photos, the desserts...

like S'mores Doughnuts (*omg, drool*):

Candy cane macarons:

and Goat cheese and fresh berry tarts:

That's just a glimpse of all the goodness going on over at Tartelette. Head on over if you're in need of culinary inspiration...so many beautiful things!

*Special thanks to Helene for allowing me to use images from her gorgeous blog*

Macarons

I'll admit that when I saw that the macaron had become the new hot trend in baking (I even heard it referred to as "the next cupcake"), I was rather bummed. Not because I don't care for them...oh, no no no no no, couldn't be further from the truth...but because I myself had only just discovered them during our girl trip to Paris in 2009, and I had filed the experience under that wonderful category in my brain labeled "one of a kind fantastic experience only had while discovering a new place, never to be experienced again, unless I make it back there...but, *sigh*, we'll always have Paris..."

So, as I said, I was a little bummed when I saw every blogger and etsy seller and their grandmothers and their dogs making them like they were chocolate chip cookies.

But then I thought, what the hell...if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

So here you go...Raspberry Macarons and Vanilla Maple Macarons:

The raspberry macarons are filled with a raspberry mascarpone cream, while the vanilla maple macarons are filled with maple cream. Delicious!

Some time ago, I had come across a very detailed step-by-step guide to making macarons on a fantastic food blog called Food Nouveau and saved the link. Thank God that blogger is infatuated enough with the delicate little treats to write such an exhaustive instructional post...because they are a little tricky. I was most worried about deflating the egg whites (which was not a problem) and under/over cooking them, which turned out to be a legitimate concern. (I had to lower my oven temp to 260F after the first set of cookies suffered cracked tops.)

But as you can see, they did come out rather nicely, and I'm really happy about adding macarons to my repertoire, trendy or not. (And I'm even happier about getting to eat them!;)

Inspiration: Kitchen

Isn't this a lovely light & bright kitchen? Specifically loving the farm sink, subway tile, drawer pulls, and especially especially especially that deep window sill. The image is from Life in the Fun Lane, my latest blog obsession, full of design inspiration and fantastic, creative, budget-friendly used furniture refinishing projects. Definitely will be trying to copy her in the future (sincerest form of flattery, right?).

Eggs Benedict

A couple of weeks ago, a froworker (friend+coworker=froworker!) offered me her Siena Farms CSA share as she was going to be out of the country and wouldn't be able to use it. I was happy to help her out. :)

Of course the first thing I thought when I rifled through the box of produce I received was "What am I going to do with all this stuff?" Then I remembered that Gesine Bullock Prado of Confections of a Closet Master Baker, had just posted a recipe for eggs benedict featuring sauteed swiss chard on her other blog, Living in Freegrace.

We love us some benedict and had some lovely rainbow chard in the CSA box, so...no brainer.This was my first time making hollandaise from scratch, and I was actually really surprised at how simple it was. Egg yolks, butter, salt, lemon juice, pepper...and blend.

A perfect weekend brunch!

Cupcake Rendezvous

I had to go in to work last Saturday morning (boooooo, hisssssss) and to make matters even worse, I took the 7 am train in. BOOOOOOO. HISSSSSSSS. It's unnatural, I tell you.

However, my internal peace was restored by a little cupcake rendezvous with one of my best friends, LB, who just moved to Boston's South End after many years in a land far, far away.

(That would be Connecticut.)

Side note: LB has joined the blogosphere! Go check out her new, sure-to-be-fabulous blog Girl Meets Beantown, where she'll be detailing her Boston adventures, foodie quests, and more.

Anyways, we went to South End Buttery, a perennial award-winning café on Shawmut Avenue. Café, schmafé...we were there for the cupcakes!

LB got the carrot cake cupcake (fantastic), while I got the red velvet (OK). I also picked up a couple to bring home to the hubby (1 chocolate and 1 vanilla), and they were also pretty good. With the exception of the carrot cake cupcake, they were just not as moist as I would have liked. Really good buttercream frosting, though.

*I call this pic "Dueling Bloggers"*

Pretty sure I detected some eye-rolling at the table next to us. Tsk, tsk, tsk...some people just don't appreciate photojournalism. ;) But my excessive camera usage made it possible to catch this covetous expression on the snooty people's dog's fuzzy mug:

Despite being a little underwhelmed by the uber-hyped cupcakes, I'd definitely go back again...after all, we only tasted their "classic cupcakes". There's a whole other "specialty cupcake" menu.

I need to be thorough, you know!

Blog Crush

I came across the A Country Farmhouse blog this past week and fell in love. Talk about living the dream! The blog is all about a couple who bought a horribly wood-paneled and crooked farmhouse somewhere in the pacific northwest, in the BEAUTIFUL countryside, and then renovated it into a lovely, light and bright, cozy home. And when the author, Trina, is not writing about the home renovation, she's detailing a charming life full of fresh flowers, mountain views, and elk migrating through her yard.

Here are some of my favorite images from this inspiring blog:

(her adorable dog taking a swim in the lake)

(her kitchen BEFORE)

(her kitchen AFTER)

(bathroom BEFORE)

(bathroom AFTER)

(I felt so encouraged when I saw this pic of her husband installing the same floor tile we just purchased! Silly of me, but I felt like it was a good sign!)

(sigh)

(The reality of this woman's "outdoor dining" stuns me. This is her front porch.)

(rustic, yet light & airy. love it.)

So I don't have a mountain view and I don't live in the country. So what? Fresh flowers, natural light, beautiful home? It's doable, right?