A Gift from John: Smitten Kitchen

This year for Christmas, John gave me the sweetest, most personal collection of gifts I've ever received. One of them was the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, with a sweet note inside about our first married Christmas. To say I'm hooked would be an understatement. It's the first cookbook I've ever been unable to put down, and the only one I've actually wanted to read front to back. Deb's description of her endless attempts to formulate perfect recipes are fascinating. We made the Apple Cider Caramels, above, to give as holiday gifts, and I made her Baked Potato Soup, below, last night - the perfect January cure. (PS, you don't have to bake the potatoes!) 

(More) Little Holiday Moments and Tips

Part of me doesn't want this week to end, because once Christmas arrives, everything is gone in a flash. The little moments are what I'll miss. Herbie's obsession with his stocking, our tradition of baking together, and these secret chocolate chip cookies. I suppose the challenge will be to make little moments in the plain old normal, busy days that don't feel so magical. These two certainly make that easier.

Some holiday things:

We're having this baked Camembert tonight as part of our (private) Christmas Dinner.

I made these Apple Cider Caramels via Smitten Kitchen, and they're amazing. 

For your after dinner drink, a Cardamom Fashioned.

The best place to order beautifully designed gifts using wedding photos, Pinhole Press.

A beautiful piece about joy by Zadie Smith. 

What is Marriage: Holiday Traditions

What would marriage be without two different families to negotiate around the holidays? John and I got lucky; our parents live only three hours apart, so we're able to see them both over Christmas. Typically we spend Christmas Eve in Atlanta with his mom and Christmas Day in Aiken with my family. Although it was exciting to share each other's family holiday traditions after we met, it's been just as lovely to develop our own.

Eat this: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

John and I are trying to limit indulgent baked goods, so when I got a seasonal urge to bake with pumpkin, I turned to Eating Well. What I got was this delicious recipe that you should try if 1) you like baked goods that use whole wheat flour, 2) you don't like breads that are overly sweet, or 3) you just love fall.

Enjoy!

Bits of Summer

John and I have been spending lots of time relaxing and daydreaming and planning our future. I suppose that's what all newlyweds do? You can usually find us behind our house with a little Whiskey or Zinfandel in hand, figuring out the next best step.

Other bits of summer:

1. Mac & Cheese

2. Long Evening Walks

3. Letting Herbie run himself silly in empty baseball fields

4. Furniture Hunting

5. Blueberry Cake

6. Thinking about painting (but not actually doing it)

We are really looking forward to spending this weekend in the sand and the sun with my family in North Myrtle Beach. Happy Thursday, everyone!

2011's Food Trends

According to The Huffington Post, these are the top 11 food trends of 2011. From macarons to bitters to a general homage to the South, I feel like they took this list right off the tip of my tongue. 

And just to be clear, I would totally go to a fancy donut shop for dinner. You should come along. 

xo,

         Lauren 

In the Oven

I've bought an embarrassing amount of butter in the past week. This was evidenced by my last post. I thought my mini baking craze was over, but then I saw this. Maybe it's Kate's designer-brilliant flashing box at the top and cute "recipe card" with such perfectly selected font, but now they're all I can think about. And thanks to my recent baking stint, I think I have everything on hand. This presents a problem.

YeeHaw Letterpress

I've been quiet.

Only because I've been having a great time:

I've been hanging with my puppy.

I've been finding pretty landscapes.

I've been baking cookies. I recently made it my personal goal to make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies...ever.

(John made me promise not to give anyone the recipe. Not kidding. He also requested that our wedding cake be CCC.)

I made delicious Halloween treats.

We also dressed as a neon-and-denim-on-denim-with-sneakers couple for Halloween. We had a party entitled "No Child Left Behind" and were instructed to dress as our favorite childhood memory. We were the '80s. I had scrunchies galore, and John looked like the Asian Zack Morris. The best thing about is that we had friends nearby! and a party! with great people! YAY. It's so great being here.

Edible Gifts

On my recent-grad-student budget, I've been forced to execute even more creative gift-giving than usual. Sometimes I hate it, because there's little that's more fun than finding unique and interesting gifts for the people I care about - but some baking and a pretty little box can go a long way.

I decided to make some (hopefully) interesting cookies and buy white boxes, ribbon, and the tiniest little ornaments as tie-ons. Presentation is the best part!

All three of these were a success, and I'll recommend them. The pumpkin cookies could stand to be a little more complex in flavor, so in the future I might add more pumpkin pie spice or do cinnamon nutmeg free pours. Nothing wrong with throwing some spices around.

easy easy

Golden Sesame Roll-ups

John and I both love sesame, so I was excited to try these. They are very good, but very sugary. With my leftover puff pastry, I tried a variation: half the cinnamon, a little less sugar, and a few shakes of poppy seeds. The result was slightly less sweet, with a depth of flavor that we both loved. Poppy is very distinct, and it worked well.

Glazed Pumpkin Cookies

Sugar Cookie Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwiches

Great sugar cookie recipe that I've used before from Real Simple. It's not overly sweet, which allows for the non-nauseating addition of sugar, sprinkles, icing, Nutella - whatever you like!

Happy Baking.