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Archive for February, 2010

Feb 27

Home Decor at cb2

Crate and Barrel has a new sister-site for the more budget-minded decoristas, cb2. This is a new discovery via mail catalog that arrived on Thursday, and it’s given me just enough time to ooo and awe but reign in that temptation to redecorate our place. While most of the house has been decorated to my liking (and Frank has approved with a nod), there are still a few more changes in the works (we’re being gifted a piano!), so I’m keeping my eyes peeled for those little pieces that serve as nice accents. Aside from the range of pieces available, I like their blog In The Loop, which brings in personal purchases and reason behind their taste. Here are a few of the pieces that I’m loving.


Champion Organic Cotton Blanket


Fu Dog Book Ends


Shatter Rug


Oliver Appetizer Plates

Feb 25

3 Comments

Stuffed Chicken Breast

This recipe is the best way, in my opinion, to utilize a chicken breast, prosciutto and cheese. Savory, hearty, and oozing with cheesy goodness. And it’s so easy. I served them with green beans in melted butter.

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Prosciutto and Mozzarella
Serves 2

Butterfly 2 1/4lb. chicken breasts
Lay 2 slices of prosciutto on each half of the chicken

Butterflied Chicken with Prosciutto slices

Top with slices of mozzarella (or cheese you prefer)
Close chicken, salt and pepper both sides
Fry on high-med heat about 6 minutes each side

Feb 25

Raspberry & Almond Cake

I made this Raspberry & Almond Cake found on Sweet Paul (delightful blog), and it was perfect with vanilla ice cream and lucky me, dessert wine. It’s an interesting mixture of cake and scone, in both flavor and texture. Had the blandness of scone (and I don’t mean that in a bad way, that’s why I heart the scone), that is clearly influenced by the tartness of the raspberries and cinnamon; and the texture was not quite a cake texture…almost like a non-moist pound cake. Nothing really sweet, light and fluffy here. I say it strikes me best on the weekend mid-morning tea-time on a sunny porch. With extra honey.

Feb 18

Banana Bread

We’ve hit a balmy 34 degrees here in Minneapolis today, and it reminded me that before too long (please, please, please!) we’ll be in the temperature range that makes my oven go into hibernation. There are always a few recipes that I bake during the cold months, in particular, banana bread. Especially since finding that Frank’s nephew took half a loaf home and ate it in a day. I better get one more batch in before we hit 50 degrees (again, please, please, please!). This recipe is one of my favorites, from Best New Recipes Cookbook, a la Cooks Illustrated. You get plenty of banana flavor, bread-like carb loading but with the moistness that makes it taste like a treat.

Cooks Illustrated Banana Bread

Ingredients:

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.
  2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Feb 17

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Stairwell Gratification

Who knew that two coats of paint and some carpet squares could provide so much gratification? Painting the back entrance and decorating it a month ago certainly cheered up that space, but I felt like it was still lacking in the overall, um, going-to-the-basement experience. A picture is worth a million words:

The concrete stairs had a laminate from what I assume was the early 70s, so Frank pulled that up and quickly disposed of it. I tacked the stairs with a coat of exterior white paint, and went on homedepot.com for carpet squares; I landed on Shaw Berber Smoke 12″x12″ carpet squares. I found them incredibly easy to use (I had to cut them down to size, and just used a regular pair of scissors), quite sticky (though not too sticky that you couldn’t pull it up if you had to replace it later on), and actually, not too bad aesthetically.

Feb 9

Make! Paper Craft Elephant

Thank you to How About Orange for posting, and Curiosity in Portland Oregon for making. Watch the video “From Flat to Flight” and download your very own easy-to-assemble-highly-cool elephant (download on the right hand side). He looked a bit lonely, so I added in the zebra from the back of the latest Anthropologie catalog.

Feb 8

Cooking with Nick: Surf & Turf

For Chen’s birthday, Nick cooked up a delicious surf & turf dinner. I think one of the most incredible things about cooking is that some of the more “fancy” dinners are the simpler ones to make — take Steak and Lobster tail, for example: A fancy dinner in my opinion, but not super complicated. This was a feast for six. Here’s what we had:

Brussel sprouts with leeks and bacon (left burner) and Roasted potatoes with jalapeno (right burner), which was extremely spicy.

Brussel Sprouts and Spicy Potatoes

Wine for celebration: Argyle Sparkling White from Dundee Oregon, Mac Murray Ranch Pinot Noir from Sonoma CA, Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon from CA, Pra Staforte Classico (Italian White), and Gaja Ca’Marcanda Promis (Italian Red). Of course, the wines did not fail us.

Prepping three New York Strip steaks, and three Lobster tails

Look at this beauty:

Steaks seared 6 minutes on each side at medium high heat, then into oven at 350 for about 10 minutes; pulled out and wrapped in aluminum foil for about 10 minutes while lobster (with shell) goes into oven at high broil, for about ten minutes. Let cool, then pull out meat from shell. Oh, this whole time you should be clarifying your butter.

A very happy plate:

Feb 1

Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti

Last night I was craving lasagna, but didn’t want to put too much effort into dinner, so I picked up this great recipe from Real Simple: Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti. I didn’t have Ziti, so I used penne which worked just fine. I was so anxious to eat it that I forgot to take pretty plated pics. It was quick and easy – about 40 minutes total time to make. AND, if you make enough like I did, there’s extra for lunches.

Lasagna-Style Baked Penne

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