Monthly Archives: July 2010

Jul29

Wrapper's Delight

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I think I’ve actually used this post title once before, but my creativity is feeling a bit muddled today hence it’ll have to do.  With that acknowledgement out of the way, let’s talk about wonton wrappers.  Perhaps you’ve seen them in the dairy or freezer section in your local supermarket.  It’s quite likely that your familiarity and/or interaction with them is limited to wonton soup or dumplings.  Today, my friends, you will learn a simple, sauve, and oh so easy way to use them to create bite size treats.

First, however, you’re going to get a little history on my first exposure to the functionality of these doughy squares.  My alma mater was College of Charleston.  Right next door was The Citadel, the military college of SC.  A college friend of mine had a friend who was a freshman, known as Knobs, attending The Citadel.  As Knobs, they are deprived of all sorts of everyday pleasures in an effort to teach disclipine.  This knob’s mother asked my friend (sorry if it gets confusing) to make his favorite: sausage and cheese stuffed wonton wrappers.  They were super easy to make and quite delicious, although a bit tough on the old acid reflux. Every since this fateful day when I helped her make them, I’ve been using wonton wrappers to make all sorts of interesting conglomerations.

At the Asian market the other day I picked some up and used them tonight to stuffed them with three different mixtures. 

The first step is preheating the oven to 375 degrees.  The first creation I made was a veggie medley consisting of green onions, vidalia onions, sweet peppers, celery, and fennel seeds tossed in olive oil and cracked pepper. I spooned the mix into the wrappers and topped each with a small bit of fresh mozzarella.

For the second, I chopped and then boiled small red potatoes until soft.  I then drained and roughly mashed the potatoes, using olive oil and two teaspoons each of garam masala and turmeric, and one teaspoon of Chinese five spice.  Last but not least I added salt to taste.  I then spooned the mix into the wonton wrappers.

The third mix I made was egg, green onion, and sundried tomatoe and chicken sausage. No special seasoning in this mix since all the ingredients were pretty strong in and of themselves.  I cooked all of the wrappers until brown around the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes.   So with all these different flavors, what were the favorites?  According to Little Man and Aaron, the favorite was (drum roll please)….the veggie mix:

The second fave was the egg/sausage combo mix:

I personally really liked the potato mix, but Aaron was not most likely because he is not a fan of Chinese Five Spice.  Regardless of what the faves were, the whole point is that you can put just about anything in these wonton wrappers and come out with a hit.  They are impressive and super easy appetizers and always hits at a party.  I encourage you to given them a try and let me know what you come up with!

Jul29

From Dry to Fly

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There is a certain thrill in procuring a treasure on the cheap and that is exactly why Aaron and I thoroughly enjoy yard saling.  It’s true that you have to wade through a lot of cheap chotskies in order to find things of real value (at least to you), but when you can score something that is the apple of your eye for mere dollars then all seems right with the world.  Now, we aren’t necessarily dedicated yard salers who head out every weekend; we are more the occasional Saturday shoppers.  That’s good news for Aaron as otherwise our house would probably be a clutter fest full of all manners of stuff.

On a recent Saturday, we headed out with my parents to see what lovelies we could find.  We went to a lot of duds that morning until the very last one.  Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?  Anyhoo, my parents scored some very cool outdoor chairs while we bartered for a great outdoor bistro set.  Within a mere 30 seconds of back and forth negotiation, we settled on $9 for this sweet little set.

I’d say it was well worth the money, although it did need a little TLC to revive the wood.  After a few weeks of staring at these weathered beauties, I finally pulled out the sand paper and teak oil and went to work.  The table was my first line of attack.

I started with 100 grit to get all the muck off and weathered outer layer.  I followed this up with 220 and then used 400 grit to smooth everything to a fine finish.  I brush off all the dust and used a damp cloth to wipe up any remaining specks.  The last step was applying an initial coat of teak oil and then a second 15 minutes later.  After this hour long task, my table was looking rather lovely and (I assume) as good as new.

In all honesty I have not finished the two chairs as of yet, but with the table looking so sharp I now have the motivation I need to complete refreshing our bistro set this weekend.  Can’t wait to have it done and enjoy a nice cold cocktail while admiring my hard work.  Cheers!

Jul26

Back from Vacation..Eh! Part 2

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Yesterday I provided a brief pictorial journey through the Buffalo portion of our vacation. Now it’s on to the second, third, fourth portions of our vacation: Toronto, London, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  All of this Canada time explains why I included the “Eh!” portion into my last two post titles (but you probably already caught that :) .

We decided to swing on up to Toronto first largely because we had never been before.  Aaron’s dad is Canadian, so we figured exploring his home country would be a meaningful jaunt into his old stomping grounds.  Let’s just say that I was a little surprised how big Toronto is.  It wasn’t until later one that I learned it is referred to as the New York City of Canada.  It is such an exciting, clean, friendly city!  There was a huge race, and Indian festival, tons of parks, loads of people enjoying the outdoors, and so much more happening in the short 24 hours we were there.  Here are a few photos of our time and ferry ride over to the Toronto Islands:

Peace Bridge, crossing into Canada

Unusual fruit in Chinatown, Downton Toronto

The University of Toronto

Toronto Skyline

One of the beautiful old houses in London, Ontario

Niagara Falls, Wine Estate

Niagara Falls

The plane ride home

After our whirlwind tour of Canada and upper New York, we are safely back home.  We had a wonderful time visiting with family, old friends, and making new aquaintances.  Cheers!

Jul24

Back from Vacation..Eh!

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You may have noticed my prolonged absence and lack of posts for the last week and a half.  The reason?  We were on vacation of course! We took a leisurely train ride all the way up the East Coast, through the Adirondacks, to Buffalo, NY.  There we visited family and toured the sites, enjoying ourselves the entire time.  Here are some quick snapshots of the fun:

Train Station in Washington, D.C.

Sunset in the Adirondacks

The Basilica in Buffalo (Blasdale)

The shores of Lake Erie

Walking along the Sky Way in Downtown Buffalo

Antique Store hopping in Buffalo (Gothic City)

The Anchor Bar, birthplace of the Buffalo Wing

It was absolutely wonderful seeing my mother’s side of the family again.  It was particularly special since this was the first time any of them had met Little Man and the first time meeting many for Aaron.  Tomorrow I’ll post about the next stops on our vacation journey.  I hope everyone had an amazing last two weeks!

Jul13

One in the Hole

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One of my projects this weekend was making corn hole bags for our new corn hole boards.  I was quite anxious to get this completed so Aaron and I could begin honing our tossing skills.   The first order of business was picking up a bag of squirrel feed from Lowe’s, laden with corn kernels, bits of sunflower seeds and peanut shells, and who knows what else.  When Aaron went up to the register to pay, the bag turned out to have a large hole, meaning we got it for a mere $2.  Score!

It’s recommended that you use duck cloth to make the bags, largely because it is such a hardy, durable fabric.  However, I couldn’t recommend going out to buy more fabric when I already had so many remnants at home.  I chose a nice brown and cream faux bois and some teal turquoise outdoor fabric and figured it’ll do. 

I cut the fabric into 16 x 8 inch pieces, since I was going to fold the pieces in half for one less side to sew.  The final dimensions should be a 6 inch square. 

I then flipped the fabric inside out and triple sewed the edges.  I then flipped them right side out, filled them with about 1 pound of squirrel feed each, and then sewed them the rest of the way up.  In half an hour I had eight corn hole bags, four of each color.  They may not be the prettiest things, but they have already proven that they will certainly serve their purpose. 

Jul12

Home Suite Home

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We are blessed to have a well proportioned Master bedroom.  There is plenty of space for a bed, a dresser, side tables, etc. without feeling cramped.  As an added bonus there is even a small bathroom en suite.  Yay!  The only downside is that I haven’t really devoted a whole lot of time or effort to create a cohesive look in this room.  Eventually I’ll get around to it, but until then I had to do something to make it feel a little more cheerful.  The last time I had done any decorating the room had been left like this.

It wasn’t terrible and was suitable enough to serve our needs, but it after staring at the same montage for a while I became bored.  It also didn’t help that the green sofa had been moved into the living room, the result being a big blank wall.  So I did what I could with my available resources and made some changes this weekend.  Here is how our Master looks currently.

No major changes mind you, but enough to give it some new life.  I started by swapping out the curtains from the office.

Then I moved the dresser to the wall the couch used to occupy and did a very simple display.

The only aspect of the transformation I actually exerted a little effort on was the bedskirt.  I only had a blue silk plaid one on hand and that was not going to look too hot with the orange based curtains, so I made a new one.  I already had an old twin flat sheet on hand and some brown striated fabric which made this project all too easy.  I simply copied the dimensions and pleating of the blue plaid one and was done in half an hour.  It was very easy and lended the room the coordination it needed to work.

The only new thing that went into this room was a cheery patterned blanket I picked up from TJ Maxx a few weeks ago for $30.  Not a bad price when considering it pulled everything together and gave our ho hum bedroom a little more life (that is until a more comprehensive overhaul is undertaken).

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Jul7

Food for the Gods

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So today’s post is yet again about food.  Sorry for the let down. I promise that tomorrow I will have a home/decorating project, but today’s discussion is going to be about my recent accomplishment in the baking department.  I am not a baker.  I repeat, I am not a baker.  I truly try to follow recipes, but I fail at making even the most basic chocolate chip cookies.  I figured if I can’t execute simple baking recipes then by default I should be able to easily pull off wildly convulated ones.  Backwards logic I know, but it makes so much sense to my kooky nature. 

And what, dear friends, did I make?  Why an angel food cake of course.  It’s not like the ingredients themselves are particularly complicated.  It’s the composition of the recipe itself and the process.  For my little project I pulled a recipe from a Good Housekeeping cookbook I picked up for $1 at a yard sale.  The photography showing what the dishes should look like are a little disturbing and not at all appetizing, but the recipes themselves are golden.  Behold, my new favorite cookbook.

Here are the ingredients needed to make your own:

  • 1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • I cup cake flour (I just regular all-purpose flour)
  • 12-14 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a small bowl, mix flour and confectioners’ sugar.  In another bowl, mix your egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and salt.  I poured this mix into my food processor and mixed, slowly adding in my sugar.  I let it mix for abou 5 minutes until stiff peaks formed.  I poured the mix out into another bowl and slowly folded in my flour mix with a rubber spatula just until the flour dissappeared, about 1/4 cup at a time. (here’s my meringue mix pre-flour; my peaks feel a bit after being transferred)

Pour the mix into an ungreased tube pan. Bake at 35 mintues or until top of cake springs back when touched lightly

Here’s my mix heading into the cooker.  Lovely!

Here’s my beauty coming out of the oven.  I was so proud of myself, I started to get giddy.

You’re supposed to invert the pan and loosen the cake with a spatula once cooled, onto a plate.   One of the things I like about this cake, is that it is surprisingly low fat/low calorie given that it has little sugar, little flour, and no egg yolk.  Unfortunately, I am a sauce person and this cake needed some “sauce”.  So I whipped up some orange icing.  Trust me when I say it is RICH. 

Here’s how to do it: in a small bowl mix 1 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar with 3/4 cup softened butter, 3 egg yolks, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and grated orange peel (to your taste).  Mix until fluffy. 

Just a word of caution, I did not slather this all over the cake but merely added it as a dipping sauce on the side, since it is so decadent.  Let’s just say it was yummy and Hubs was very pleased!

Jul7

Feeling Corny

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Howdy-Tuesday everybody!  I hope you are faring well through the heat and managing to keep nice and cool.  I am still on my soup binge for some odd reason and had the perfect reason to mix a batch of a cold weather favorite this evening.  A co-worker’s brother apparantly has a huge field of corn that is way too much for him and his extended family to consume.  So, she brought in a few a bags of ears and sold them at work.  I was very quick to snag a few of my own not because they were necessarily cheaper than what’s in the grocery, but because it’s comforting to actually know where your food comes from.

Several days went by and we still had eight ears left.  I knew I had to cook these kernels up before they went bad on me.  What better than a homemade corn chowder?  Seeing as how I can’t get enough soup lately, I mixed up a batch in no time. 

Ingredients:

  • Two cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 8 ears of corn (more if you like lots of corn, or use 1-2 canned)
  • 2 white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces
  • Half an onion chopped
  • Two stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tbsp. flour
  • 1  to 1 1/2 cups half n half ( you can use lowfat milk for a low calorie version or whipping cream to make it richer)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Cumin
  • Parseley (fresh if you have it)

You start by boiling the corn in a large stock pot for roughly 20-25 minutes.  I cooked mine through, let the ears cool, and then cut the kernels off with a knife.  While the ears were cooling, I rough chopped some onions, celery, and potatoes (peeled).

I heated some minced garlic in a bit of olive oil until I could smell it’s aroma.  I then through in all my rough chopped veggies, stirring to coat. Put the cup of water in a jar with a tight fitting lid and add the flour.  Close, and shake vigorously.  Pour on top of the veggies. Leave on medium heat and cover.  Stir occasionally and cook for 15-2o minutes, or until potatoes become somewhat tender.  Add corn, parseley, salt and pepper, and cumin (if you like it).  Stir.  Add half n half.  Stir again, cover, and turn heat to simmer.  Leave for 10 minutes.  After this time, stir and make sure the broth is to your flavor liking.  Spoon into bowls adding parseley for garnish.  A little blue cheese and/or hot sauce mixed in makes it pretty tasty, too.  Yum!

Jul5

Living in Color

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As I am sure is the same with a lot of young couples, the majority of our furniture was provided to us by our families.  One such piece for us was a dry sink from Aaron’s grandmother.   I’m told she loved this piece and I can confirm that it is well-made.  The only downside when we received it was that it was very dark for our then, already dark apartment.  We hemmed and hawed about whether or not to paint it given it’s sentimental connection, but eventually we decided to make it work for us.

I painted the dry sink several years ago and did not think to take any ‘before’ shots, so you’ll just have to trust me that it was a major improvement.  Over time, we also added a set of castors we picked up from Ikea.  By adding this little convenience, we could move around what was then our wet bar where ever it needed to go.  In our present home, however, we have a bar in the basement and aren’t big enough drinkers where we need a mixer station on both the top and bottom floors.  So the wet bar was placed in the Living Room and became our music station

It served its purpose well, although it matched the Benjamin Moore Crisp Linen walls perfectly.  Not so great in my opinion.  While not a piece of any real monetary value of historical significance, the dry sink did not deserve to dissappear into oblivion.  The answer, of course, was to paint it.  This was beneficial not only to give it more ‘pop’, but also to rid the piece of all the scuffs and bang it had suffered through the years and so many moves.

I didn’t really have a paint color in mind, so I simply looked through my leftover paints from other projects.  In the end, I decided to use the same color from Little Man’s room.  A nice, fresh green that complemented the 60′s era of the piece (think of how popular Avocado color was back then), but was neautral enough to go with most any color when moved.  I quickly pulled out my supplies, took off all the hardware, and went to work.

After a good coat or two and ample drying time, the doors were ready to go back on.  Then it was on to the next step: roughing it up a bit.  I guess I’m a shabby chic type of girl in the fact that I’m not a fan of any furniture that’s too new.  To give a little more character and personality to the dry sink, I simply took a sanding block and roughed it up a bit around the edges.

A few little scuffs later and the dry sink was as good as new and making a much stronger statement.  With it’s new paint of coat, it stands out rather than blends in.  Maybe not a ‘forever’ color, but it works well enough for now!