Dulce Delicious

One of my favorite Fall traditions is apple and pumpkin picking and this past October was no different. But when some of our apples went uneaten, I had to save them, so I sliced them up and sautéed them in butter, then stuck them in the freezer for a moment of brilliance.

Then, I came across this recipe for homemade Dulce de Leche. Yum! Tasty and I get to use the crock pot GK and I received from SB for our wedding! I did not grow up using a crock pot, but thanks to my Midwesterners, I’ve learned it’s a handy gadget to have in the kitchen.

Now, if I were to make it again, I would not cook the condensed milk for the full 8 hours, because I prefer my dulce de leche more syrupy than jammy.

Apples and milk caramel are a match made in heaven and there are dozens of ways to put them together, I chose cake…pound cake. Pound cake gets it’s name from the original recipe, which used a pound each of flour, sugar, eggs and butter. Thank goodness I did not use that much, but I went to the Queen of Butter, Ms. Paula Dean, for a pound cake recipe.

Then I added 2 tsps. of cinnamon, some walnuts, the apples and dulce de leche and VOILA! Pure decadence warm with vanilla ice cream… Sorry, I don’t have a finished picture, it went too quickly to capture!

A Dinner To Talk Aboot

Hip! Hip! Hooray! I’m back!

I can’t tell you how nice it has been to get requests to return to blogging. Truth is, I’ve missed blogging, but life has been a bit challenging lately, and I like this to be a happy space. So let’s not dwell, let’s enjoy some holiday cheer!

It has certainly been a busy holiday season, starting with Canadian Thanksgiving. What’s that you ask? Well, our lovely neighbors to the North like to celebrate the festival of food on the second Monday of October every year.

And who doesn’t love a chance to chow down on the best meal of the year twice?! So for the second year in a row, we gamed the system and hosted a potluck Canadian Thanksgiving at our house, in addition to our family Thanksgiving in November. It is a great chance to celebrate how thankful we are for the great friends in our lives.

GK and I are in charge of the turkey and we loved last year’s recipe so much, we used it again this year… Oven Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter, plus Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing. Tyler Florence is our favorite celebrity chef and this recipe of his does not disappoint.

Now, I hang with a lot of foodies, so when it comes to potlucks, it’s best to wear your comfy pants, because you will have to be rolled home. That being said, it’s hard to pick a favorite dish, but I did want to share one I thought was both different and delicious. LS brought Olive Biscuit Cookies that she found the recipe for here. They are an incredible blend of both sweet and savory and easy to make, so I hear.

Trust me, there will be more food blogging to come, after all isn’t that one of the best parts of the season?!

A Love Story about Blogs and Jackets

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I love Design*Sponge. It’s one of my favorite blogs. We just seem so in sync, as you can see from my update on yesterday’s blog post.

Well, I had another, “great minds think alike,” moment. Last week, I finally got around to watching Love Story. It’s been in my Netflix queue for quite some time, it’s supposed to be a “classic” I’ve never seen before and I was in the mood for something girlie.

Well, what would you know, Design*Sponge did a whole post on the movie right after I watched!

I can’t say I loved the movie. It was a bit too mushy and dramatic for me, but I was drooling over Ali MacGraw’s wardrobe, especially the camel and winter white jackets! Love!

So much so, it inspired me to buy this on Alloy (I know, I know, I am not a 14 year-old anymore, but they have cute jeans in 30″ inseams!):

Doesn’t the model even look like Ali MacGraw?! I’d also been thinking I will go dark at my next hair appointment…and even though I have perfect vision, can I get away with fake glasses or is that taking it too far?

Mi Condo Es Mi Casa

After three months in the condo and being house rich and cash poor, we opened our doors and had a house-warming party. It was wonderful to be surrounded by friends and family in our new home!

It was a barn burner! There was lots of food. Including, build your own sandwiches, pierogies with kielbasa, onions, apples and sour cream (Hooray for Polish roots! And, I got to use my new crockpot for the first time. I feel so mid-Western at the same time!), beautiful home-made pineapple cookies (a sign of hospitality, and no they aren’t waffles GK and AK) made by our very own SB (shouldn’t she go into business?!) and lots more.

And of course, college football (duh, it’s a Saturday in Fall…is there anything else?). All three of my teams, Michigan, Maryland and UCLA, made good showings…with UCLA killing Texas as the highlight! (Sorry Longhorn fans, especially you Yoda.)

As I am sure you know, part of an open house is having your guests walk through your new home, inspecting your purchase, allowing you to brag about all the changes you’ve made with your bare hands (see earlier posts) and showing off your decor.

Which brings me to displaying locales past and present into our decor. You already know I’m from Buffalo. Born, bred and proud of it! The Husband is from Orange County, CA:

Together, we are DCites or DC’ers (whichever you prefer) and the most commented on item in our home was, without a doubt, our Ork DC poster:

We have the green and brown, because it goes with our house, but I love the “crackberry,” the color that is, a taupe and cranberry combo, not the actual addiction to your smartphone…so obnoxious! Do you display your hometown pride in your home?

Update: Look what was featured on Design*Sponge today!

It seems everyone has motherland pride on their mind lately. Not all the states are released yet, although MN is pretty awesome, but you can get the prints on fineartichoke.com. There were also some other cool prints for sale. I liked these, which reminded me of all my mid-western friends:

Blog Finds of the Day

So glad it’s Friday! I know I took a day off to celebrate the Mom’s birthday with her (more on that soon), but it has been non-stop this week. Catching up on my blog reading today, here are my two favorite finds.

I loved this dresser makeover on Design*Sponge:

I am not that bold with my big furniture decisions. I like to be able to switch things up on a whim. However, the Husband and I do need new dressers, and this is great inspiration for making secondhand tres chic!

I also fell madly in love again with neon pink thanks to A CUP OF JO:

A carryover from this summer perhaps?

Again, bolder than my comfort zone…maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something?

Go forth and BE BOLD!

Update:

I went to Sephora on Sunday and settled on Sephora’s nano lip liner in Native Nude and Stila’s long wear liquid lip color in Caprice. I wore it for the first time yesterday and it was the perfect pick me up for the cold, wet weather we’ve been having here in DC.

I put a bit of gloss on top, but I think next time I will go for more of a matte look. The long wear liquid lip color is great, because you can do both glossy and matte and it lasts as promised. I could also mix with red lipstick to match closer to the inspiration.

I don’t have the lip canvas the model does or the sun-kissed skin anymore (oh how I miss that part of saying good-bye to Summer), but I am pretty pleased with the results. Here is a pic:

Can We Build It? Yes, We Can!

Over Labor Day weekend we decided to use two of the three days to celebrate the holiday, by partaking in some labor around the house. Oh wait, what’s that you say? Labor day is for resting from labor?! Bollocks! Well, we did rest on the actual Monday holiday, so no worries, and turns out it was well worth the effort!

I have already shown you much of the wonderful transformation in our master bedroom, especially taking out the carpet and installing hardwood floors. Unfortunately, it left us without base moulding and some lovely dust-collecting gaps between our wall and our floor.

That does not solve the husbands allergy problems we were trying to alleviate by taking out the carpet in the first place. So, we took advantage of having the Father-in-Law in town and his handy woodworking skills to install new base moulding.

And, since we had the tools and everything, we put in chair railing in our dining room too!

It was a messy job – saw dust everywhere! A challenging job – thanks to our old buildings uneven walls… And a manicure ruining job – just look at all that caulk destroying my pink paint job.

But like I said, in the end it was all worth it! Just look at these gorgeous results!

Jenny and Johnny

GK and I are heading to the Black Cat tonight to see Jenny and Johnny, the latest interpretation of Jenny Lewis.

I’m a Rilo Kiley fan, didn’t care for Jenny Lewis’ first solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, but it grew on me, and then love, love, loved her sophomore solo album, Acid Tongue. I’ve seen some version of her about three times or so and it’s always a good time. Looking forward to it! I will leave you with this:

Update: The Black Cat was a great venue for the show. There wasn’t as great a view as the 9:30, but it did provide the intimate atmosphere for the Jenny and Johnny tour. The opening act had a good sound, but zero stage presence. It didn’t stop a couple of girls from going all jam-band dance crazy for them. That was entertaining. Jenny looked so much healthier than she did when we saw her last summer in Richmond, VA. She’d clearly gotten some sleep, taken a shower and eaten a sandwich. Yay! Together they rocked it and I really enjoyed all the songs off Acid Tongue. At one point they pulled some audience members up to sing back up, poor women didn’t sing so hot, but nice try! My favorite new song was, “One of the Boys.” I was a bit tired going into the show, but it really turned out to be a fun night!

On the Hunt or One More for Good Measure

I am on the hunt for the perfect new hat. I love this one as my inspiration thanks to The Sartorialist. Any suggestions?

 

Update: FOUND IT! Want it? Click the picture.

Settler of my Free Time

Sorry about the lack of posts, my three ,very dear readers. It has been crazy busy! We have had lots of house guests, house projects, and some high holy days thrown in just for fun.  But no worries, I’m back and better than ever!

Although I do still owe the sister, BK, my famous stuffed eggplant parm recipe. Maybe if we’re nice, she will take pics of the process and final product and we can share it with all of you.

I won’t lie, there is also something else that has been taking up quite a bit of my free time…my new iPod Touch. Loves it!

One of my favorite board games is Settlers of Catan…yes, I am a total nerd.

If you like board games and don’t have this one, you must add it to your collection STAT. And guess what, there’s an app for that!! So, now I can play it ALL THE TIME. This is both fabulous and no good at all. 

Have any favorite apps I should check out? I will have more fun posts in the next few days, so keep checking back. I have not deserted you!

Marina and the Diamonds

So excited! Tonight GK and I are going to see Marina and the Diamonds at the 9:30 club!

My favorite song on her album, The Family Jewels, is Are You Satisfied, but it is not a single, so I will share Hollywood with you today:

Hope you are relaxing and having a great Labor Day!

Update:

Had a great time at the show last night. The yawning had nothing to do with the quality of the show, I’m just “old.”

Young the Giant. the opening act was fantastic!  They had a great sound, although they were a bit spastastic on stage. I am looking forward to picking up their first album, when it is released in October.

Marina was fun and wacky. She has a slightly different audience then I expected. I wasn’t into the cheesy props, thought the sound on the instruments was a bit loud and I was distracted by the back-up singing soundtrack, but her voice is amazing, she had a great stage presence and lots of energy and that was enough for me. I’m a fan!