Great Potato Salad Recipe

I just wanted to share a great recipe I recently tried: Creamy Potato Salad with Lemon and Fresh Herbs from Epicurious. I needed to throw something together to accompany some fried pork cutlets (traditional Czech řízky) I was making, and this po-po salad sounded promising. Tons of fresh herbs and some lemon zest? A recipe for success, me thinks.

It was simple to make and tasted great...this recipe is definitely being added to my cookbook of go-to dishes. It would be especially fitting for a summer BBQ or picnic, so give it a shot if you're ever looking to try out a new potato salad.

Note: I omitted the celery and the basil and it was still fantastic. Easy peasy.

Simple Solution: Moss!

I am currently in the process of trying to grow an Amaryllis. So far I'm 0-for-2 in this category, so I'm very excited to report that this time, there is an actual flower stem growing, instead of just leaves! Crossing my fingers for a beautiful bloom sometime soon!

But, that's not really what this post is about. All I really wanted to do is give sheet moss a shout out for being awesome...that's right, sheet moss. Bear with me if you're like *yawn, I already know this*, because I did not realize that I could just go to Home Depot and pick up a bag of moss for a couple bucks and use it to beautify a potted houseplant.

This is how it looked before, with the potting soil all scantily clad. Not cute.

I actually went to Home Depot with the intention of picking up some of those little white stones to cover the potting soil...but then I saw the moss and thought it would look better, earthier.

Apparently I'm not the only one who's impressed with the more polished look. :)

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!;)

2011 Garden Planning

One peek at the mountain of snow outside and this post might seem a little premature. But spring will be here before we know it (seriously, how is it already the end of January???) and I'm already starting to think about this year's veggie garden.

I've been flipping through the seed catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I just can't get over all of the amazing varieties of vegetables. So far I've picked out a couple types of tomato seeds to order.

The "Egg Yolk" tomato...

...reportedly a great producer, with a rich fruity flavor.

The Black Cherry Tomato...

...with that super flavor unique to "black" tomatoes.

And the Pineapple Tomato...

...which grows up to 2 lbs in size and tastes awesome! (I had one of these last summer, and I couldn't believe how juicy and fruity it was.)

I've also checked out a couple books on intensive gardening since last year, and discovered that my plan to "improve" my garden by making better rows is actually counterproductive. From what I've gathered so far, this book is the bible of intensive gardening:

Essentially, it proposes that designing a garden in rows is not only a poor use of space, but also requires more weeding and more water. Basically, it's inefficient. The logic is pretty compelling (as are the supporting stats), so I think we're going to try and split the garden up into quadrants this year and also follow the suggestion to use more vertical space by planting more climbing plants (such as vine green beans and indeterminate tomatoes).

I definitely need to look into it more, but that's where we're leaning right now.

And just for some fun, take a look at these awesome/funky varieties of veggies I found in the seed catalog:

*Shamrock Squash*

*Plum Lemon Tomato*

*Ananas Noir Tomato*

*Japanese White Egg Eggplant*

*Cannibal Tomato EGGPLANT*

Aren't they cool?

*All images via Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds*

Laid Back Ladies' Night: Fancy Pants Pizzas

When my girlfriends and I scheduled a Ladies' Night for the weekend after NYE, I knew right away that a nice laid back evening at home would be just what we needed to recover from the rush of the holidays. And since I was hosting, I thought Build Your Own Pizzas, preceded by hot chocolate and vanilla steamers, and followed by chocolate fondue with fruit would be just. what. we. needed. I dare say I was right on the money.

We ended up making a Roasted Butternut Squash and Ricotta pizza...

a pizza featuring roasted garlic, fresh spinach, and roasted cherry tomatoes, topped with mozzarella...

and a Fig & Prosciutto pizza (from Todd English's Figs restaurant) that I have tried to reproduce about 3 times now, and *finally* hit the nail on the head.

The key is the balsamic fig jam, for which I had tried to substitute store-bought fig spread in the past. This time I decided to make it myself and it was spot on...I combined butter, chopped dried figs, balsamic vinegar, water, salt, black pepper, sugar, and dried rosemary in a saucepan and cooked it down for about 1 hour. Spread that on your dough, add prosciutto and shaved Parmesan.* Top with chopped scallions before serving, and you have got one tasty fancy pants pizza!

*Todd English's version also features Gorgonzola. Mine didn't, because...well...I forgot. But it was a fortuitous mistake, since not everyone in my world loves the stinky bleus. :)

P.S.-It's so much fun cooking with girlfriends! In the last couple of months, I have also teamed up with my girls to braid 15 loaves of Vánočka, create a glorious NYE smörgåsbord, and make delicious homemade tamales (documented by LB *here*). Good times.

China Cabinet

With the majority of the downstairs renovation complete (although there are some lingering touch ups that we're stalling on), it's a fine time to turn my attention to fun stuff like the china cabinet.

The china cabinet is a built-in number in the dining room, and just like everything else, it needed to be refreshed. Here is the oldest picture I could find, taken during our first tour of the house. Take a moment to appreciate the wallpaper and carpet. ;)

And here it is now:

We had the plasterers do a quick skim coat on the interior walls, and then we painted, painted, and painted some more.

Based on tip found in This Old House magazine, we boiled the door hardware to remove the bazillion layers of goopy paint that had accumulated over the decades. (Totally worked.)

Since we didn't really care for the original glass drawer pulls, we bought these antique bronze reproductions online. They are so much more substantial and I think they add a lot of visual interest.

Steven used serial layers of copper and oil-rubbed bronze spray paints and some steel wool to refinish the old door hardware to match the new drawer pulls.

We wanted to use an accent color inside the china cabinet that would both make it *pop* and create a flattering background for the items on display inside, particularly my grandmother's china, which she just recently handed down to me. (Thanks, Babi!) We settled on a dusty plum tone called "Victorian" and it really highlights the elegant silver and gray of the china.

So now I'm just puttering around with this project...slowly unpacking the various treasures that we've acquired over the past few years and arranging them in their final destination. It feels SO GOOD to be putting stuff where it belongs, and it's a lot of fun to envision how I might use all these lovelies in the future.

P.S.-Happy New Year!

Vereniky

I spent yesterday at my mom and grandmother's house making our traditional Ukrainian Christmas meal: Vereniky (better known in the U.S. by their Polish name, pierogi.)

Every year, the women in my family get together a couple weeks before Christmas and crank out hundreds of these simple yet satisfying dumplings, as well as ushka (much like mushroom tortellini), which are served with borscht on Christmas Eve.

We make two varieties of vereniky...one with potato and cheese filling, and one with sauerkraut filling. They are the main dish on Christmas Eve, and are served boiled, with fried onions and a dollop of sour cream.

Last year I graduated from the vereniky assembly line to making the dough, which was my job this year as well. I had long been intimidated by it (no one wants to be responsible for making a crummy dough and having the vereniky fall apart when boiled), but now that I've got it mastered, I've got the know-how to carry on with the tradition for decades to come.

Because honestly, it just wouldn't be Christmas without home made vereniky.

P.S.-Although I haven't had them in years, vereniky can also be sweet...filled with cherries or blueberries, and served with melted butter and a sprinkle of sugar. Definitely going to have to try and make some this summer!

P.P.S.-If you ever want to give it a shot, Martha (whose mother was Polish) has a whole bunch of recipes and tutorials on her website.

The New Living Room

Here is our newly finished living room. It's not exactly done in the "decorated" sense, but certainly in the "renovated" sense. As I mentioned in the previous post, we stripped the wallpaper, had the walls skim coated with plaster, had the floors redone, and painted everything. Ahhh, feels SO good to have a living room again, especially a freshly revamped one!

We chose a low gloss polyurethane for the floors, and it's just the right amount of gleaming for us.

Steven did a great job scraping and painting the old steam radiators. (He used a high heat engine enamel spray paint.) We also had the valves replaced because there had obviously been some long term leaks going on. I love the scroll detail on these old beauties.

Not gonna lie, we have been rather vegetative since the entertainment center was reinstated...it won't last forever, but right now we're giving ourselves a free pass on being couch potatoes!

This heirloom wall clock that belonged to Steven's grandfather is the only item we've hung on the wall so far. It looks really nice against the cool green wall, adds a touch of vintage character, and has this soothing tick tock which makes Steven sleepy, lol.

We'll slowly be adding the final touches to this room...wall decor, CURTAINS, something for the coffee table...but for now this is it. It's so nice to curl up on the couch and relax in our new living room!

P.S.-Yes, I know there are some angles missing in this room reveal...namely, those that show the view into the girl room and foyer. They'll be coming soon enough!

The Living Room BEFORE

We're finally ready to share some "After" shots of the downstairs renovation, starting with the living room. But just for perspective, and to set the mood, here is a montage of "Before" pics.

*A shot from the original MLS listing*

*From our first weekend as homeowners*

*After tearing out the dingy gray wall-to-wall carpet, revealing oak floors*

*As in the dining room, we found murals under the wallpaper in the LR...*

*...decidedly less charming murals.*

*And here it is after the new plaster skim coat*

Stay tuned for the next post...the AFTER pics!

Recently on My Radar

While this blog's adoring fans (all 3 of you ;) await the unveiling of the downstairs renovation, I'd thought I'd share some good things that have grabbed my attention lately.

1)

I was peripherally aware of the hype surrounding the release of the final book of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy this summer, but as I knew nothing about the first 2 books, it didn't really register. Then a coworker lent me her copy of book 1. Halfway in and I was hooked, and the fever only increased with the next two installments. It's been quite a while since I've felt so emotionally invested in a character in a book! Great reads.

2)

Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate recipe from Good Life Eats.

3)

Because this tomboy-turned-scientist could always use a few pointers.

4)

The October issue of Martha Stewart Living featured an article entitled "Grown-up Grilled Cheese" and it's definitely worth a look. I'm aiming to make all ten.

Challenge accepted, Martha. Challenge accepted.

5)

This seasonal treat somehow keeps getting mixed in with our weekly milk delivery. Hmmm, how did that get there? ;)

6)

Yay yay yay! I just won this book in a giveaway from The Non-Consumer Advocate.

Happy Halloween Weekend!

~LT