Recipes

Baked Brie with Apple Compote.

I have one more recipe to share from our apple-picking porch party that was featured on SMP Living last week — and this one combines my two favorite things, gooey baked cheese and sweet apples. The best part about this recipe? You can make it the night before and freeze it, just pop it in the oven before guests arrive! I’d be lying if I said we didn’t eat the full wheel of brie between the few us gals — it was delectable!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 apples, sliced in thin pieces
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp Royal Rose’s cardamom clove simple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • Dash of nutmeg
  • Wheel of brie (6 to 8 oz)
  •  Frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
  • 1 egg, beaten for wash
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F
  2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Combine apple, sugars, simple syrup and spices in saucepan until apples are fully coated and sauté for 4-5 minutes while stirring. When sugars start to bubble up, remove the mixture from the heat and let cool.
  3. On a floured surface, roll out thawed puff pastry dough and cut into a 10″ circle.
  4. Cut the wheel cheese in half horizontally, place bottom half off cheese wheel on the rolled out pastry dough, top with 1/2 of the apple mixture. Place the second half of the cheese wheel on top, and cover the top with the remaining apple mixture.
  5. Working in a circular fashion, begin to wrap and fold the pastry dough around the brie, leaving some room at the top for the apple compote to show.
  6. Brush the dough lightly with one beaten egg, and then bake off in the oven for 35-40 minutes on a baking sheet, or until the crust is a golden brown.  Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting, and serve warm with a crusty baguette or crackers.

All images by Bring To Light Photography

Recipes

Autumn Apple Punch.

I’m still so excited over our apple-picking porch party that was featured on SMP Living last week. And it’s not a party without a signature cocktail — our autumn apple punch was a perfect pairing for our tasty treats. We mixed up Bulleit Rye, apple cider, and cardamom clove simple syrup with a squeeze of lemon juice and served them in mason jar mugs with an apple garnish. I’m not going to lie, we had quite a few of these that weekend, and they were so darn delicious—I had to share the full recipe with you below!
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Ingredients:

  • Apple cider
  • Bourbon or Rye
  • Royal Rose’s cardamom clove simple syrup
  • Fresh lemon juice
  • Ice
  • Apple for garnishing
  1. Combine 3/4 cup of apple cider, 1/3 cup of bourbon or rye and 1 tsp of cardamom clove simple syrup over ice.
  2. Squeeze a slice of fresh lemon juice into the mixture and divide into glasses.
  3. Garnish with a fresh apple slice.

All images by Bring To Light Photography

Entertaining

An Apple-Picking Porch Party.

What a wonderful little Friday treat, a shoot I styled with Bring to Light Photography and Little Flower Cottage is up on Style Me Pretty Living today! Click on over to read about our little apple-picking porch party with lots of tasty apple-inspired treats. And be sure to check back next week — I’ll share the details of my recipes for an Autumn Apple punch, a baked brie with apple compote, and other treats like salted caramel apples and mini mason jar apple pies!

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Home

Schoolhouse Electric.

Can we say ‘styling-crush’? I got the new-to-me Schoolhouse Electric catalog in the mail last week and it’s one of those things that I think will end up in my magazine box for years to come — the styling and photography are amazing. Not to mention the actual products are beyond lust-worthy, it made me want to start from scratch and redecorate my entire apartment.  I love that slightly messy, collected-Americana look to the pages.  And gosh does it make me want to invest in new light fixtures!

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Images via Schoolhouse Electric Catalog

Home

Caught My Eye.

I had my 10 year high school reunion this weekend, which made me feel pretty old. But you know what made me feel even more old? Taking two days to recover from staying up way too late with old buddies. Since I’m still shaking off my late night of drinking and gossiping, I have a light little post to share with you today — a few things that have caught my eye and are just too good not to share. I’m feeling this modern-cabin-vibe lately and just want to wear chunky neutral knits and classic pieces. That National Parks print? Obsessed.  And a quirky little door mat, I mean, everyone needs a little wit on their way out the door in the morning, right?

Caught My Eye

Clockwise from top left: Door Mat, Knit Hat, National Parks Poster, Arrow Soap Dish, Apothecary Dopp Kit, Leather Handle Boat Tote

Home

Domino.

It’s back! It’s back! It’s really back! I have been on the hunt for the new issue of Domino since the announcement came that my beloved magazine would be back on stands. I remember when the news came that the magazine was closing, it was right around when I was starting this blog and the pages of Domino played a big part in inspiring my interest to write about design and entertaining. I finally snagged a copy last week when I was catching my train to New York, and I savored every single page of it from cover to cover. I was so happy to see that the new format kept the same styling and tone as previous issues, it was like being reunited with a old friend, we picked up right where we left off!  After I scanned in a few of my favorite pages to share below, the new Domino went right into the stack of my old issues, home sweet home.

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Recipes

Royal Rose.

Cocktails are one of my favorite things. And another one of my favorite things? Adorable branding.  Thus my new obsession with Royal Rose‘s line of organic small-batch simple syrups. They are the prettiest little bottles and come in interesting flavors that I’m loving experimenting with in different cocktails.  I purchased the rose syrup to top off glasses of champagne, and the cardamom clove syrup for fall cocktails — I made an apple cider and bourbon punch with it last weekend (recipe to come soon!).  I have a feeling I may need to try the rest of the line, and gosh won’t they look cute on my bar cart?

Simple SyrupImage via Royal Rose

 

Life

Ladies Home Journal: Get Social

Last week I was lucky to join a group of other bloggers at the Ladies Home Journal #GetSocial conference in New York. It was a great day and I got to hear awesome speakers like Kendi, Joy, and Gaby. One of my favorite parts of the day was hearing Joy of Joy the Baker talked about her creative process, and her journey to how she got to where she is today. One thing that stuck out to me in her talk was that she was very candid about her success didn’t happen overnight, she downsized and cut back to make ends meet while working to pursue her passion, and through that hard work and dedication she was able to get her blog turned into a book. I think it’s so important to hear about those ‘behind the scenes’ stories because blogs can often only show the ‘shiny’ side of things — I’m guilty of it too, you rarely see photographs on here of the burnt cookies or failed DIY projects (and believe me, they exist!). It was a refreshing day and I left feeling super energized about my blog and the great community of other bloggers I’ve been able to meet along the way!

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Recipes

Sunday Sauce.

After a rather busy week last week, I was so happy to have a lazy Sunday on the books over the weekend. I caught up on blogs and my DVR, lounged around in my cozy new sweatshirt, and got a pot of bolognese cooking for the better part of the afternoon. Making a big pot of tomato sauce just reminds me of being at my Grandma’s house growing up — the smell of the garlic and onions filling up the whole house. I used a recipe from Williams-Sonoma as my guide, but made it my own with a few ingredient swaps.  It totally hit the spot and exceeded my expectations. It’s a recipe that I’ll be adding to my cookbook file for future reference, comfort food at its best!

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Life

Scenes from the weekend.

Last week I was run down and had a terrible cold, so I was determined to use the weekend to recharge. To me, there is nothing more relaxing or comforting than being in the kitchen, so that’s where I spent my time. I stayed in Friday night and baked up lots of treats, including mini mason jar apple pies, and sea salt caramel apples — both for a little Saturday project I helped style with two my good friends (more pictures coming soon!). And Sunday I let a hearty kielbasa and white bean soup simmer in the slow cooker all day — which made our apartment smell delightful. It was a delicious and successful attempt at a relaxing weekend.

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