Creole Wisdom

sunday dinner

I feel grateful to be surrounded by such incredible women, to call such accomplished people friends. Among my closest circle there are: two masters degree level teachers, a registered dietitian, a student of marine biology applying to challenging graduate programs, a speech pathologist, a pastor-to-be, a writer with dreams of becoming a librarian, one attending graduate school at Queen's university in Belfast, advertising aficionados, stay at home moms and some good quality Target people thrown in for good measure. To say the least I find them inspiring.

Each has faced her share of trials and difficulties as we together navigate this era of making life-changing decisions. My friend Emma has been through her own midnight moments and has always maintained grace and stayed savvy throughout. I am so proud of her (and all of my friends, really), but especially because I've been privilege to see her almost weekly for Sunday dinners. I'm so glad I had Emma there for me as I went through more than a few bad recipes.

Four years of Sunday dinners has witnessed it all: boyfriends (four total), friend falling outs and falling ins, moves and new kitchens (six between us), two volumes of Food Everyday, crafts projects, endless episodes of Sex and the City, summer grilling and cancellations due to icy roads or blizzards.

But, like many good things, Sunday Dinners has arrived at an ending. I like to think of it as temporary, as I imagine being an old widow along with Emma living in a fabulous beach home cooking up more gossip and farfalle. For now I'm feeling bittersweet.

I'm not sure if Chicago deserves such a vibrant woman, but I am here to cheer her on. Minneapolis will never be the same without Emma.

Vintage Sunday dinner, circa 2009

halloween 2011

I have a new philosophy on Halloween: homemade is best and more points for getting creative. I truly appreciate the time, work and let's face it, money that people put into making authentic, beautiful, funny and cool costumes. I am in awe. I sometimes feel like I'm all alone in my creative mind but Halloween really shows you how many people out there also love to create. This year, I was impressed.

For a few months I had thought about what to dress up as and decided on being the Statue of Liberty. I carefully crafted a crown, torch, book (complete with real roman numerals) and shoes. I turned a Target table cloth into a dress. I used copious amounts of glitter and went wild with make up. It was just too fun.

A few hours before heading out to a festive costume party Emma called me. She was having a glue dilemma when it came to creating her Velma Kelly headband.

I don't know how to stick these two pieces of trim together. do you have any glue?! I could hear the desperation in her voice.

Yes. Come over right now. I've got several different kinds including super glue so we'll figure it out. I love being "that" friend. If ya need adhesive, I'm your girl :)

So I answer the door ten minutes later and Emma is decked out in sweats with GIGANTIC curlers all over her head. I can't stop laughing and smiling. She's laughing and smiling at me laughing and smiling. It was perhaps one of the happiest friend moments of my life.

Forty-five minutes later Becky and Ashley arrived all suited up for the evening. Becky had the reddest lipstick I'd ever seen, her Betty Crocker costume was spot on. Then she digs into her bag and says oh yes, here's my wooden spoon.

I just don't have the words to describe Ashley, her dad let her know he'd need all his hunting gear back. When she pulled out her bird call I just about died.

        Ashley grew up in LeSeur/Henderson area so we had to get a shot of her with area icon, Jolly the Green Giant.

These people make me so happy it's just outrageous.

The parties we attended were, in short, perfection. I'm not sure how you can fit over sixty people in a duplex without it feeling too crowded but it happened. As we walked up to the steps two pumpkins were carved with "party here." Is that a great idea or what?

We saw it all: raggedy andy, royal wedding guests, Bob Ross, a loofa, top gun fighter pilots, care bears, the new old spice guy with octopus head piece, Lady Gaga...

I can't lie, what truly took the cake was on Saturday night Emma morphed from Velma Kelly into Rosie the Riveter. Have you seen a better Rosie ever? She's the Queen of Halloween, that one! We loved being the most patriotic, strong women costumes of the evening.

Well, it was fun while it lasted (I type this as I have candy handing out duty tonight at Brittany's... haha!) Maybe I should teach a tutorial on how to make a dress out of a table cloth. These are marketable skills folks :) Hope you and yours had a splendid, spellbound and treat-filled Halloween.

homemade leather stacking bracelets

Emma and I started adding craft time to our Sunday dinners, a natural progression I think. We are having too much fun. This is the third project we've completed together: leather stacking bracelets.

I love wearing these, they are kind of sexy. Love the backs, too. I think it would be really cool to double up, maybe I'll get really bored in January and make ten more. For now these beauties are working for me.

lavender basil soap

You know and love Pinterest, right? You can follow my boards here if you'd like to :) Emma and I decided a while back to add some craft projects to our weekly Sunday Dinners. Our very first pin project turned out well! We made lavender and basil soap.

The recipe pinned wasn't actually good so I looked to my main girl, Martha and used this as our spring board. Soap making with glycerin is so incredible easy, it actually might be a fun project for kids (with parent supervision, of course!) I took the best of a few sources and here's what I'll be following when I do this again:

Ingredients:

1 package clear, unscented glycerin (found at Michael's)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon lavender essential oil

Waxy lined containers (milk cartons etc...) washed out and coated with cooking spray*

Method:

Melt glycerin in microwave or stove (we used the stove)

Once melted, remove from heat and stir in herbs and essential oils

Using hot pads carefully pour liquid into molds

Transfer molds to freezer and let set for 45minutes-1hour or until hardened

When done, just tear away paper and cut block into bars

It's honestly so easy and the results are beautiful. These soaps are naturally moisturizing because of the essential oils and the basil creates such a pretty pattern.

*While it seems like a great idea to use muffin tins don't do it. You won't be able to get the soap out and will end up baking them again and pouring into waxy lined containers. Trust me.

what to do on sundays.

I had chicken, spinach and whole wheat pasta sitting around staring at me in the kitchen on Sunday night.

Emma was coming over in about an hour. I needed to throw something together, so I did.

I cooked the spinach and pasta. Then I mixed in the chicken (it was already cooked, no risks for my lovely guest!) I did a little experimentation and threw in honey dijon dressing and parm cheese. I thought it tasted good.

Of course I made my usual standby of ghirardelli brownies in the star pan I got for free on black friday one year at the le creuset store (a reward for being one of the first 100 customers!) They were good. Emma and I eat about one brownie each.

Then K came over and eat half the pan and convinced me to eat more!

It was exactly what I needed to do on a Sunday evening.

How do you spend your Sunday nights? Does your guy make you eat more dessert, too?

just what the doctor ordered

When life feels a little ho-hum and spring is still nowhere in sight there are a few things one can do to challenge the monotony of it all. One is to attend a dinner party.

Emma hosted and executed the most delicious, fun and fabulous soiree at her uptown duplex last Friday. There were six guests in total and a menu out of a dream:

Goat cheese salad on organic greens dressed in honey dijon

Spinach dip with crusty bread

Penne tossed with olive oil and fresh mozzarella

Chicken parmesean in all its decadence

Better than ____ cake

I think we were all kind of giddy. I arrived a bit early and my excitement level was probably at a 8 and this is without any wine my friends! There were some old friends and new ones made. We sat around in Emma's living room and talked about everything. Mostly about how small this town is, the rude note left on Rachel's car and trifling people. We laughed really, really hard.

I love nights like that. If you are feeling a little low I suggest a dinner party.

stillwater in the details

On Saturday Emma and I took off from the city and headed up to the best little town in Minnesota (and that's saying a lot). We love Stillwater, and are planning a photography excursion there in September. This time we went for the antiques. Get there early, and that's all I gotta say. Here are some of my favorite images from our morning-afternoon:

•The most decadent refurbished chair at Isaac Staples Sawmill Antiques • I think specialty olive oil places are the "in" thing now • Yum (no other words necessary) • Ornate buildings • Snickers malt at Leo's tdf (to die for) • A nice collection of my birthstone •

girls who grill

Emma & I grilled on Sunday. It. Was. Divine. We had Greek chicken kebabs, and let me tell you– grilled food is just better. Oh, and we got to sip on these, too. Not. Too. Shabby.

I really covet Emma's CNN cup, I want one really bad. Anderson Cooper, can you hook a girl up? Oh, and what made the drinks so amazing? Fresh mint. That is how we roll in the Mpls folks, it's how we roll.

It was the best dinner. I could of died after and been perfectly happy. That's when you know you've eaten well...

back in business

Well dear readers I have had the most whirlwind week and weekend*. Before I go into details I'd love to tell you about dinner last night:

Emma came over and I made chicken, risotto with blue cheese, and taragon asparagus. It was fantastic. Then we went to starbucks and I had my favorite: roobois tea (African :)
*Let's just leave a hint: it has to do with signing lots of papers and being the favorite customer of a sweet sales man.

this is why i live here-

 

It was a fantastic fall adventure with Emma at Minnetonka Orchards in Minnetrista. Yep, and can you count how many city names begin with "Minn" in this great state? Kind of strange, right, but I love it. The families with kids were leaving, so perfect time for two bachlorettes to wander the corn maze. Much less frightening and more beautiful during sunset than at night.