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!
Autumn_Apples26 Autumn_Apples31 Autumn_Apples35 Autumn_Apples44

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!

Autumn_Apples05Autumn_Apples31Autumn_Apples19Autumn_Apples12Autumn_Apples27

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!

LHJ2LHJ1Processed with VSCOcam

 

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.

Processed with VSCOcam Processed with VSCOcam Processed with VSCOcam

Life

BeStyled Boston Blogger Event.

Last night the gracious ladies of BeStyled, a blow dry bar in Chestnut Hill, invited a group of us from Boston Bloggers to have an evening of pampering — and what better way to shake off a mid-week slump than with blow-outs, make up styling, champagne and blogger chatter, right? I love going to get my hair done, and my stylist Kelly did such a great job of giving me some volume and movement.  I feel so relaxed when I’m getting it washed and dried, and it’s even more fun to do it with a group of girlfriends — we took over the salon and had a blast!

Untitled-1Processed with VSCOcamCapture 3Capture 2cap

Note: BeStyled gifted all of us free blow outs at their salon. All opinions are my own. 

Recipes

Mini Donut Birthday Cake.

One of my best girlfriends has a birthday coming up, and we have a mutual passion for donuts — I wouldn’t be exaggerating by saying we exchange at least 2-3 emails a week about donuts. Which is why I thought it was completely acceptable to make a cake, and then add donuts on top of it for her birthday celebration this weekend.  Conveniently, I had recently purchase a mini-donut pan, and followed the recipe that came with the pan (from Williams-Sonoma). They were surprisingly simple to make and totally jazzed up my box-mix cake I made for the occasion. So remember:  the next time you’re making a three layer chocolate-chocolate cake and you ask yourself “Is this enough?” the answer is no, no it’s not enough, and then add donuts on top of that cake.

Mini Donut CakeMini Donut Cake 2 Mini Donut Cake 5 Mini Donut Cake 6

 

Recipes

Homemade Applesauce.

This summer when we were on our cross-country honeymoon road trip, we stopped at a restaurant in Cleveland where I promptly demolished my bridal diet by ordering the baked mac and cheese. When the dish came out the waiter stopped to point out some homemade applesauce accompanying the cheesy dish. All he asked was that I give it a try, dip the steaming hot pasta into the cool, sweet applesauce — he assured me it would change my life. And it did. It makes total sense, I’d heard of people eating a slice of sharp cheddar cheese with apple pie, but it just never occurred to me to try this combination before, but it was completely and totally delicious. So this week I made some macaroni and cheese and had to try making some homemade applesauce to go with it.

Processed with VSCOcamLet me tell you a little secret: making homemade applesauce is as easy as pie (you like that apple joke?).  I peeled and cored 10 apples (a friendly farmer at our farmer’s market recommended using gravenstein apples, if you can find them.) and combined them with half a cup of apple cider, half a cup of brown sugar, one tablespoon of granulated sugar, and three cinnamon sticks. I put it in our crock-pot on high for 4 hours, removing the cinnamon sticks after the first hour, and stirring occasionally. And that’s it, simple as that! Make sure to serve the applesauce cold — I’m convinced the difference in temperature is just as important as the balance of the flavors.

 

Home

Bar Cart Styling.

I finally got around to doing a little bit of styling of my new Society Social bar cart, it’s a work in progress, but I felt like it was time to share a few snaps of what I’m working with!  I propped up a vintage painting that my parents gave us as a wedding gift, and culled together a bunch of pieces I already had scattered around our apartment, like a green lacquer tray from Target, my Kate Spade coasters (that coincidentally were a gift from Roxy of Society Social!), my Mrs Lilien Cocktail Book, and lots of little drink accessories, like striped straws and flamingo cocktail stirrers (what, you don’t have those lying around your house?).  I also added my new ‘shake, rattle, and roll’ cocktail shaker which I get a total kick out of! I need to hang a few more pieces on the wall above it, and I’m hunting on Etsy for some more vintage barware, but it’s getting there! I get so excited every time I turn the corner now and see it as I walk into the apartment — it makes me so happy!DSC_0003DSC_0001 DSC_0004DSC_0002

Recipes

Homemade Ravioli.

I tried my hand and some homemade pasta this weekend, and finally got a chance to use the pasta machine we got for our wedding — the process of making pasta seems so daunting at first, but it’s actually amazingly simple, and so worth the effort! I tried two different methods, the first was a classic all-purpose flour and eggs combination, and the second used an egg flour and water.  I also tried two different fillings with the dough variations, one was a ricotta, parmesan, and Italian sausage stuffing that I served with a red sauce, and the other was a butternut squash with maple brown sugar that my in-laws brought home to me from Vermont — I served those  with brown butter and toasted pine nuts.  I preferred the egg flour for a stuffed pasta like this, and think the all-purpose flour works better for a cut pasta like fettucini, but overall: YUM. Luckily I made about a gazillion of each, so I will be enjoying leftovers all week!

DSC_0016 DSC_0018 DSC_0024DSC_0028DSC_0030DSC_0053

Entertaining

Dinner with Friends.

This weekend we had big Saturday plans to go to Ikea and buy a new couch, but right before we left we checked the inventory online and saw that it was out of stock — bummer! So I was faced with a rare treat: a weekend day with zero plans. I decided to take advantage of our surprise day of freedom and threw a little impromptu dinner for friends. Since it was super last minute, I worked with what I had and re-purposed our table topper from our wedding, and some bright pink napkins from our rehearsal dinner, and then I finally broke out a few of our wedding shower presents, like my sea urchin salt and pepper shakers (I love them!), some Kate Spade candles, and a bunch of farmer’s market blooms — I was so happy with how it came out! ADSC_0033 ADSC_0037 ADSC_0040ADSC_0039

 
 
Verified by MonsterInsights