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! 

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. 

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.

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

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!

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

THREADBEAT

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.