Sunday, November 25, 2012

Desk

So I've been cleaning and organizing my home, getting rid of things and bringing in more functional, space efficient pieces of furniture and utilizing what we have. 

Currently I have been tackling my desk, which is never used as a desk, and pretty much only used to put stuff on top of. 


So I'm thinking about piecing together something like this from manhattan nest. Tomorrow I'm going to albany with this in mind and hoping to find some pieces. When I get excited about stuff like this though I always wanna do something immediately which I can't. So i was looking on craigslist and ikea and I saw this little guy. So im feeling really inspired and it will probably take me about a month to get it all done. However, if I'm honest with myself it probably won't get done till after december holidays and birthdays and all. 



I've been doing a lot of organizing lately hense the desk purge. here are some other pictures of how I've been keeping busy.


Organized the crazy woodpile 


made a little kindling and newspaper box



moved my money tree to the kitchen/dining room (love the new location) 



Iyla finally moved to brooklyn ::insert sad face:: the best roomate ever! so JR and I have been panicing about finding a new roomate and Allie is moving in, in january. but what will we do for december! i think if i dress the room up all nice maybe i can rent it out for weekeners? until january?! I'm not sure the other solution is renting to michele for the month of december, but its still up in the air :o/

thats whats up in my house I'll give you guys a tour of my excursion tomorrow of the warehouse/antique stores in albany. I'm excited! 

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Art History

A little Art history - My friend Will of Thorneater Comics is having a show tonight in town. His last show at AI Earthling Gallery he was featured next to an artist that I admire Julie Chase. Tonight at Noble collective and Ed Dempsy tattoo shop is another showing of wills work I hope if your in the area you can go check it out. I unfortunately will be working at joshuas Java Lounge until like 11 probably soooo stop by and grab a drink.

Fall has come and gone and winter is well underway.

 I'm in the process of
1. trying to find a roommate
2. trying to buy/make xmas/chanukah/birthday with out going broke
3. trying to start a small business i can call my own
4. also of course challenging myself with new weekly recipes to experiment with 

Last week i made pickled curried onions. Which came out awesome, so this week i decided to make pickled brussel sprouts (Also known as frog balls). the pickled onions were much easier to do, you just kinda sauteed the onions in the ingredients you wanted i measured out the vinegar and it ended up not being enough so i added water to dilute it a little bit.

 I used 
Apple cider vinegar
white vinegar and umi plum vinegar, 
sugar,
mustard seed, 
curry, 
a bay leaf,
hot pepper,
garlic and carrots sliced thinly they make everything better. my favorite thing that ive made with them so far are kale and white bean quesadillas so good. 








the brussel sprouts were more daunting at first because they actually have to pickle and there are way more rules that come with that territory like sterilizing and making a brind, i just eye-balled it again. this is a 32oz mason jar, yes the big guy, but hes all filled up and i used the same ingredients as with the pickled onions except i didn't use curry i used cumin and salt, no sugar, and you also have to blanch the brussel sprouts. I'll let you know how they turn out.



in other news my roommate Iyla, my number one cooking pal, has moved to the city. She is missed much and now i dont have anyone to experiment weird gluten free recipes on like this one. Zuccini pizza pie. using only the ingredients inthe house we were able to stifle Iylas pizza cravings with this incredibly satisfying, gluten free, vegetarian zuccini pie pizza, that for some odd reason tasted like peperoni. it was amazing. 


Recipe: (serves about 4)
two zuccinis shredded
mix with unsweetened apple sauce, (one individual serving size)
grated parmesian, (a handful)
gluten free buckwheat flour (a sprinkle)
lay in a pan (that can go in the oven) with a good layer of olive oil fry like this for about 15-30 min
then pop in the over for another 15-30 minutes- depending on how thick you've made it.
when the top starts to look golden take it out and
smother tomato sauce,
parmesian and fresh mozzarella
and we put kalamata olives on it
broil for 10-15 minutes
and then removes once the cheese starts to get golden on top
serve and enjoy


apparently all i do these days is cook, clean and knit so if you've lost intrest in this blog i don't blame you, but some day i will get it together and this blog will be awesome! so don't fret and check in every now and then. 




Thursday, October 4, 2012

Arnold Palmer Cake

Recipe

This summer i tried to bake and cook more, one challenge I overcame was the Arnold Palmer Cake featured in spring issue of Lucky Peach

This cake was a fucking challenge four different Layers of labor and time intensive flavor and textures



Layer one - Lemon Tea Cake



Layer Two -  Lemon Marscapone




Layer Three - Lemon Tea Jelly (this was the step that took me a week and a half, I made the Jelly three times following the recipe and adjusting it everytime it didn't come out right, eventually I just added Gelatin and it finally solidified)






Layer Four - Almond Tea Crunch



    


It only took like a week to make but when all was said and done it was delicious.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Summer pt 1

I'm sorry i abandoned you blog-land, I hope you can forgive me and we can start over.

Summer was busy, mostly working, but lots of fun between.

BBQ's, Hiking, Swimming holes, Bike rides, Out of town Friends.

I really would love to post photos when blogspot, lets me

thats all for now i promis i will update you again soon


Friday, March 2, 2012

Neglect

Woah its been a while and i have back posts that i still haven't posted, but I just had to share my latest purchase. 

I just bought 3 dozen cupcakes from JJ's Rocking Cupcakes in kingston. Don't be alarmed i havent gone off the deep end, and decided to lock myself in my room and gorge myself on cupcakes, rather it is my mothers 50th birthday and she oooOOOoo-ed and Aaaahhhh-ed at this picture of the Muppet Cupcakes when it made its way around facebook. So i thought it would be a good birthday present and addition to the brunch

Some of the flavors i ordered include:



Because it is going to be my mothers big italian family


Because my mother LOOOVES carrot cake


because my mom looooves chocolate covered pretzels

because its Brunch

Some of the other flavors i got were pumpkin spice, chocolate peanut butter explosion & coco monkey. I will do my best to report back to all of you and let you know how every one of these cupcakes are. 

enjoy your weekend!







Wednesday, February 22, 2012

WISHFULL WEDNESDAYS

I decided i should do a weekly theme and since my job is closed every wednesday that this would be a good day to do it and thus wishful wednesdays. I think its pretty self-explainitory 

here is this weeks wishful wednesdays


This dress is perfect! I love the color, cut and details of this simple linen dress. 


This bloomer, bralette set is beautiful and simple and would make perfect lounge-wear


Another beautiful dress, i love the collar and form of this dress, so flattering for busty ladies like myself. 


This dress is the perfect color, and i love the details on the sleeves, I wish i could make dresses like this. 


Someday when I'm not scraping by to pay rent I will buy one of these perfect handmade dresses.

Making Maple Syrup

Sunday was a super fun day, it was the first day since JR's birthday that he had off from work, so we went and met up with Will and Ana for breakfast at the pineview bakery in Shandaken and then went off to The Mystery Spot one of my favorite local vintage shops (pictures to come). After we had made plans to go to Will's dad's (Herb) to be shown how to make maple syrup. 



Gathering Sap




The sap tastes like sweet water, as if you took a whole gallon of water and added less than a teaspoon of sugar in it, subtle and delicious. 



Will's dad had tapped about 12-16 trees, so we walked around the property emptying the plastic gallon bottles into a bucket.











Once the bucket was full we brought it back to the outdoor kitchen



Once the bucket was full we brought it back to the outdoor kitchen


Wills dad had a three gallon pan sitting on top of a wood-burning stove barrel, I believe out visit was day one of the maple syrup boil, he estimated it would take about two days if not then three. 


 We ended the visit with warm fresh baked bread, Will's mother christine baked for us with homemade orange marmalade and some cheese mmmmmm







Monday, February 20, 2012

Dumpster (not quite dive)

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay, but i started working my day job again, which means i have less time for thrifting and updating this thing, but more money to actually go thrifting. 

let me show you two of my recent finds:

I found this guy in the dumpster behind JR's job. I still am looking for a lamp shade I'm not sure about what color i should look for, all white seems intense, I'm sure when i find the right one i will know it. 


The other lamp i found was about to get thrown away but they (the store owners) just gave it to me. I feel like this one is going to be a little bit more of challenge to find a lamp shade for 





Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Wishful Wednesday (Day-late)

So on december tenth i became unemployed, but only for one month. So I  just so happen to be starting a blog on thrift shopping while im not thrift shopping so much because I'm very very broke. However, hopefully this little problem won't inhibit me too much. So I thought i would share a list of things im currently looking for when i go thrifting.  I usually have something in the back of my mind that im looking for when i go thrifting, and usually i find those things, eventually. 


Shoe Rack, as mine and JR's shoe collection is rapidly increasing, (honestly him more than I) I actually found one the other day at Salvo ( Salvation Army)


A Cork Board, to go above my desk in the craft room (which you guys will eventually see). I actually found on of these today at Salvo today. %50 off, so i think it was $2



I know i will never find these while thrifting but perhaps i can find something like it, these are just beautiful dr. Martens. 


A leather jacket, old school punk rock style. 


I think this is a brilliant idea for a terrarium. I started collecting big glass fish bowls when we first moved into our house and rescued some cute little cacti and beautiful fern and planted them in these fish bowls and they look awesome. so i always look in the kitchen wares section of thrift stores and look for creatively shaped glass pieces to plant plants in. 


 This is a beautiful hood scarf, This inspired me to knit the scarf in the picture below which i finally finished last night. took a whole double skein of thick and thin yarn from my favorite yarn spot The Hudson Valley Sheep and Wool Co. and honestly i wish i had bought more to make it a wee bit longer and wider. 

                                           

                                        



One trend that hasn't passed quite yet for me is the peter pan collar, I've been obsessing over  almost any blouse with a peter pan collar and buying them up, when i find them. I love this beautiful lace one.