Creole Wisdom

not your average baking class

Katie was super generous and purchased a baking class for us as a belated birthday gift. How sweet! This wasn't your average cupcake class, though. I'll let the title speak for itself:

Cocktail Cupcakes

How fun is that!? We learned how to infuse flavors and qualities of a few popular drinks into baked goods. The entire class divided into groups, ours perfectly named "Team Butter."

{all our ingredients came out on giant baking trays in labeled containers, my ocd heart sang//top of the line baking hardware and some wine glasses, too//team butter in full force; we all became fast friends.}

The class consisted of a few demonstrations and then we got working, creating in total five cupcakes and their corresponding frostings. I'd have to say my favorite one was the little lemon drop minis :) Oh, and the Irish car bomb cakes weren't awful, either!

{Yum!}

I had such a wonderful time, thank you to Katie-- it was fun to do something birthday related not in December. And wouldn't you know, it snowed, which is perfectly appropriate for celebrating my birthday!

my fridge

I will preface this my saying two things: 1-my fridge has never been so clean. I left some kale in my produce drawer and forgot about it, you can imagine the result-- so a good scrub down was much needed. 2- start to finish this entire project took me almost two years.

That all being said I was long ago inspired by this pin. I wanted to create a really organized and pretty fridge and freezer, call me crazy.

 

 

It's certainly not perfect, but I like how it all came together :) I have a standard, un-sexy fridge. It is the boring white fridge that comes with every apartment.

Here are my sources:

Freezer bins: Target clearance section. I think these two are part of their home organization system, they aren't magazine holders. They are excellent for storing frozen stuff.

Fridge bins: The Container Store.

Clips: Russell + Hazel

Labels: I just created them in word, printed them out, cut them with pinking shears and covered them in packing tape (trick I learned from my preschool teaching days).

What I love most about my fridge bins are that when they get dirty I can just throw them in the dishwasher, so easy! All in all, easy to do, don't know what took me so long :)

Bread & Wine Party

When one of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequist, asked bloggers to read, review and celebrate her new book, Bread and Wine, I was excited! Shauna writes the way I wish I could; her books have been lent out to friends with many dog-eared pages.

My goal for this gathering was springy, uplifting and light. Despite the snowy weather I think I conveyed spring! For favors I gifted letter pressed prints of my motto adding a favorite book quote on vellum to each place setting. For table decor I kept it simple:

kraft paper with hand drawn quotation marks for a table cloth :)

tea lights wrapped in washi tape

favorite quotes from Bread & Wine on each plate

a chalkboard centerpiece

wine cork place settings

My favorite piece was this simple instagram garland, so easy to put together!

{loved the cork place settings//dinner by candle light is my favorite way to eat//Shauna's sea salt toffee was so easy to make and delicious!//we moved to the couch after a while//more bunting}

In sum, here's what I love about Bread & Wine: It shares beauty and snippets from an authentic life with delicious recipes thrown in. There's a paragraph where Shauna talks about how eating makes us human, we have to come to the table-- in our day and age where we can escape much of what it means to be men and women the table still brings us back...

The best part of the evening was gathering with a group of wonderful, beautiful, authentic women. People who can talk, laugh and cry together. We took some time and shared a few beauty-from-ashes stories in our lives. I'm so honored to call these women friends.

~

freezing tip three

Here I make a fool out of myself. I think this is my first video post aside from a contest winner years ago. Anyway, here I am. When I get nervous I sound like a valley girl mixed with a cheerleader.

A few other tips/things I forgot to say:

-I laid out most items on a cookie sheet even after I put them in gallon plastic bags. I wanted everything as narrow as possible!

-Sharpies get kind of weird on the bag surface, esepcially if your hands are cold so I used a gel pen

-I didn't do a quick water bath for any of my stuff, I'll let you know how it turns out

 

freezing tip two

Summer berries? I don't think there's anything better. They are prettiest, tastiest and always in better shape than their winter counterparts. Look at these standing alert:

I love berries. I do not love paying $$$ for them in January when I want to make crepes or something. My cousin (well she's my cousin's wife's sister, I just call her my cousin) Susan taught me how to flash freeze. It's really easy and kind of fun, not to mention it can save you money and time.

1-Wash your berries thoroughly. I washed mine three times, the same as I would if I were to can these for jam. Food safety is everyones' responsiblity (Kate are you proud!?) I took that slogan from something I saw at the Fair.

2- Cover a baking sheet with foil and line them up. This keeps berries from sticking together into one large clump and saves freezer space.

3-Freeze and when finished group together in smaller, sandwich sized plastic bags. This way I can take out smaller amounts depending on what I need.

4-Place smaller bags inside of one gallon plastic bag that lists item and date frozen in pen and lie flat on a cookie sheet to freeze.

freezing tip one

I have spent a good chunk of my time the past two weeks freezing produce and a few other goodies. I wish I had an extra freezer now, never thought I'd ever say that! The trick to freezing liquids like soups and pesto?

1-Spray your ice cube trays down with pam/cooking spray

2-Don't fill to the very top like you would water for ice

3-Allow to freeze and then carefully pop out onto a dish cloth or cutting board

4-Carefully place cubes into a gallon sized plastic bag

5-Lie bag flat onto cookie sheet and freeze flat (makes it easier for stacking, more on that later!)

 

raspberry + vanilla mousse

Mom requested this complicated dessert for her birthday. I took a deep breath and read the directions about three times. I'm happy to say it turned out delicious, much to my surprise! A similar recipe can be found here.

lemon pesto to end all pestos

Lemon pesto

ingredients:

2.5 cups basil

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 olive oil (plus more)

1/2 cup parm cheese

juice from one lemon

method:

Using your blender or food processor, add and process basil a cup at a time until chopped.

Add pine nuts and process

Add garlic and process

Alternate between olive oil and parm cheese, being careful to scrape down the sides with a spatula

Add the lemon juice

I like my pesto a bit thicker so I tend to go light on the oil. It makes an excellent topping for whole wheat pasta but also doubles as a veggie dip and sandwich spread.

good morning smoothie

Ingredients:

5-6 strawberries (I usually buy organic so mine are a "smaller" size)

1 cup spinach

2 tablespoon raw honey

1 tablespoon flax seed

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Milk to taste

Method:

Blend everything adding milk to the consistency you like

This is definetely a healthy smoothie and not a dessert one so it will taste more foody than sweet, but it's chalk full of incredible ingredients that are so good for you!

for the bride to be, take one

I am attending three weddings this summer!!! What to bring to bachelorette parties and bridal showers? Here are two new ideas that worked perfectly for my stunning (seriously) friend Katherine.

For a gift:

Dinner in a jar. It's simple, just assemble a nice jar full of your favorite gourmet pasta, seasoned oil from your local oil & vinegar shop and seasoning spice. Now your bride-to-be has a dinner and a pretty display jar. Easy breezy.

For a dish:

Shower food, you know it's usually bad for you! But not this. Ready for how complicated it is? Assemble the following ingredients (cook the couscous, of course!)

To create this... delicious tzatziki couscous salad with fresh basil (by the aromatic kind from your co-op). It is fast to prepare, full of flavor and relatively healthy!