Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Refashion: yellow kimono-style top

I found this top at Goodwill a few months ago. It reminds me of a kimono. I really love the vibrant yellow fabric and the cut of the neckline.


However, I didn't really like the ridiculously long tie that wrapped around the back, essentially creating a large "butt bow."


I had to repair the zipper on the top too, so I did that first while pondering what to do about the oversized tie. Eventually, it became clear to me that there was only one solution to this tie dilemma - remove it. So I got out my scissors and cut it off. Well, most of it. I left some in the front and then tacked it to the side seams. This is what I ended up with:



Friday, July 22, 2011

Stuff I love

There's so much cool stuff featured by really amazing people online. It's hard to keep up. But here's a small list of things I'm currently crushing on.


1. These adorable letterpressed notebooks by The Paper Studio.
2. Lars Contzen's Resofloor. Via Apartment Therapy. Via Web Urbanist.
3. Växbo linen bathmats from HUS & HEM.
4. Anything made by EmersonMade. I love that girl's style!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

At Home: The not-so-new-anymore buffet

Aaahhhh, the dining room buffet. Such a seemingly simple purchase. Little did I know it would turn into a nightmare. But don't worry, it has a fairy tale ending.

It started with a dining room table. A really fantastic dining room table that Zach and I found at Crate & Barrel for only $500. We knew we wanted something with clean lines made of solid wood (or as solid as our budget would allow). So when we found this beauty made of solid mango wood at Crate & Barrel we were super excited. The one pictured here is slightly different than ours. Mainly it's an extension table whereas ours is one solid piece (no extension leaves), but you get the idea.


We don't like a lot of ornate details, but we really appreciate solid wood construction and the Cabria fit both of those requirements. We ordered it. Received it. Unpacked it. Admired it. All was well. We ordered the matching chairs too.



Everything was solid wood and really well made. We couldn't have been happier.

A year or two passed and we eventually started talking about purchasing the matching buffet and hutch combo in the Cabria line. It was rather pricey at $1298, but we knew it was solid mango wood like the table and chairs and we thought it would be a good investment. We went to the store and checked it out. It seemed really nice, but being that it was such a major purchase we sort of stalled a bit.


I casually mentioned to my mom that we were considering purchasing the Cabria buffet and hutch and then didn't think much of it again until a short time later when she and my dad offered to pay for it as a gift (very generous!). So I waited for C&B to offer free shipping and placed the order. This is where the nightmare begins. The Cabria comes as two separate pieces: a buffet and a hutch top. We ordered both (to maximize our storage options), but when they were delivered, the hutch was damaged. So our buffet lived alone in our dining room while we waited for a new hutch top. Long story short, after three hutch tops were delivered and all three were damaged we gave up. We called C&B and had them pick up the buffet too.

Needless-to-say, I was a bit frustrated, but in the end, I was actually relieved, because, to be honest, I wasn't super jazzed about the look of the Cabria buffet and hutch. It was a little too country for my taste and although it had the same flared legs as our table and chairs, I really couldn't see any other similarities between them.

The search continued. I decided I might have more luck finding what I was looking for in a second-hand shop or on Craig's List. So I started looking online, but didn't find anything I loved that was in my price range or local area. And even if I did find something that met all that criteria, I didn't have a truck to get it home. Hmmm...this was getting more complicated by the minute.

One day, while visiting my parents in NH, my mom, my cousin, and I stopped at a consignment shop to check it out. It's a shop I had passed hundreds, probably thousands, of times growing up in NH but had never gone into. While we were perusing, I walked around some furniture and there staring back at me was the perfect mid-century modern buffet. After much (controlled) excitement, I emailed a photo to Zach to get his opinion. He thought it looked good. I loved it. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the piece de la resistance...it was only $100! It was actually on sale from a whopping $150! Could my day get any better? My biggest issue was how was I going to get it home to PA. Enter dear old dad. I called him and, in my best time-to-butter-up-Dad voice, asked him if he would be able to bring it down in his truck when he and Mom came to visit next month. Of course he said he would. And here she is happily living in my dining room:


And just so you get the full effect, here's some detail shots:








It was quite the journey, but in the end, we got exactly what we were looking for. Some day I'd like to refinish her and possibly add some fun fabric to the back wall of the glass cabinet, but for now, I'm just super happy and grateful to have found such a great piece.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Around The Table: Empanadas!

Last year three lovely women from Argentina moved into the townhouse next to ours. They had come to the US for a one year work exchange program. One evening there was a knock at our door, and when I opened it, there stood one of the Argentinian women holding a plate piled high with empanadas. It was the sweetest neighborly gesture Zach and I had ever received. We had just finished dinner, so the only logical thing to do was to carefully wrap them up and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. Instead we ate them all while hovering over the plate in the kitchen like ravenous dogs. They were delicious. And authentic. Even now, my mouth is watering while I write this.

Needless-to-say, my husband and I are huge fans of empanadas. I had never tried to make them from scratch myself, but I've made some pretty mean pies in my day, and an empanada is essentially a hand pie with meat and spices instead of fruit, so I felt confident I could pull it off.

I found a recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me years ago called Home Cooking with Amy Coleman (Vol 2)



The recipe is below and includes my adjustments and process.

Empanada Dough
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup ice water

To make the dough, combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, or pulse in a food processor.

Add the eggs and water and gently work the mixture together until it forms a ball; or pulse in a food processor until ingredients just combine into a loose ball. Remove dough from bowl or food processor and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Thankfully, I had the forethought to make the dough in the morning (for once!). It mixed up rather quickly in my food processor, which I love using for any type of pie dough because the blade cuts through the fat (butter in this case) really well and prevents overworking in my opinion. If you overwork your crust it can become tough instead of tender and flaky. I then wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge until I was ready to roll it out later that day.

Later that day...

Beef Empanada Filling
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (didn't have so I used red pepper flakes instead)
1/2 lb ground beef (I used leftover steak)
2 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (I used 1 tsp and it was still rather strong)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 canned plumb tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (I had parsley so I used that instead)
2 tsp fresh lime juice

egg wash: 1 egg, well beaten with a pinch of salt

I started by chopping half an onion and about half a pound of leftover steak from a previous dinner. I also minced two cloves of garlic.


I then remembered I needed a hard-boiled egg for the filling, but it seemed wasteful to just boil one, so I boiled a whole pot of them and made deviled eggs with the rest.


While I was waiting for the eggs to finish boiling, I sautéd the onions and garlic in a small amount of olive oil.


At this point, if you're using raw ground beef (as recipe calls for) you'll want to cook it with the onion until it has lost all pink color. I used steak that was already cooked so I skipped this step. You will also want to add the jalapeno at this point. I didn't have one, so I added a couple dashes of red pepper flakes instead. Once the meat is cooked, remove it from the heat and add the remaining ingredients. It should look something like this:


You want the filling to cool completely before building the empanadas.

At this point in the process, I got distracted by rolling out dough and making the empanadas look nice, so I forgot to take pictures, but this is what I did...

Note: before you begin rolling out the dough, get your egg wash and brush ready and set aside.

Basically, I divided the dough into quarters and then worked with one quarter at a time so it was more manageable. I rolled each piece into a small ball and than flattened it slightly before rolling it out on a floured surface. You want the dough to be about 1/16 of an inch thick which is pretty darn thin if you ask me. But it resulted in a better dough-to-filling ratio and allowed for more empanadas (Yaah!). I then used a glass, measuring roughly 3 inches in diameter, to cut out small rounds of dough that I filled with a generous teaspoon of filling.

At this point I realized this recipe was actually an appetizer, not a main dish as I was intending to use it, so I decided to make some of the empanadas larger. It sort of turned into one big experiment, which is how one learns, so I was okay with that.

Okay, back to the filling. I placed a tsp of filling on one side of the dough circle and then brushed a little egg wash around half of the circle edge. I then folded the dough over the filling and pressed lightly to seal. Just to be thorough, I went around the edges with a fork to give them a nice crimped edge and to make sure they were sealed. I then brushed the tops lightly with egg wash.

I placed the empanadas on a baking sheet (according to the recipe, it should not be air-cushioned.) lined with parchment paper and baked them on the center rack of a 350 degree oven for for 12 to 14 minutes. And this is what I ended up with...


I think they turned out pretty good. Zach really liked them, which is always a good litmus test for me. He has a pretty high standard, so I felt good that he enjoyed them.



If you make these, I'd love to hear about your experiences and what modifications you made. Enjoy!

Friday, July 15, 2011

It's been awhile

Sorry for the silence. I've been working on lots of project and will have lots to post next week (fingers crossed!). Until then, here's some shots of some flowers from my garden and on my back patio...



Enjoy your weekend!
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