This weekend...

1. John made his amazing homemade meatballs and sauce for my sister and her boyfriend who came to stay with us.
2. Moonshine cocktails and our made up SNL drinking game rules (don't ask)
3. French press coffee in my favorite gold Bodum press  bought here
4. Sweet potato and puff pastry egg pockets for brunch at home (recipe to come this week)
Hope your weekend was relaxing and fun!
xo M

Love in Brooklyn

Thought I should share some of our E-shoot pictures. Our fantastic photographer Angelica Glass did such an amazing job. I love love love them! Here are some of my favs...

 All photos by: Angelica Glass

Terrific and Tiny

Lately I've been obsessed with tiny little elements on delicate, thin chains or wires. These rings are the perfect cure to my craving. There's something so sweet, simple, and girlie about them.  I'm adding these to my never ending wish list.

 

Cat Bird Alphabet rings

Happy 2012

I can't believe its been almost a full year since I last blogged! Well it's never too late to start it up again so here I go.
             2011 was an amazing year filled with new adventures. Lets see...My best friend had a baby, which was so amazing I cant even begin to describe. John and I ventured to 8 weddings in one year! And in between he popped the question!

So my 2012 will be filled with lots of exciting things. Wedding planning is well underway and while it's probably the most stressful thing I've ever had to do (even applying for college was less stressful) It's most certainly the most exciting. So here's to a great 2012 one filled with love, health, and all things positive!

xo M

Winter Soup....

Hello loves! Its been quite a while now! I've been hibernating if you will. I hope everyone has been having a wonderful 2011!! I unfortunately got very sick right after New Years and am only just now getting better! My late great Aunt used to make this amazing chicken soup for the winter. My mom was the only one who was taught to create this amazing dish and whenever I'm sick it's all I crave. Since I'm all grown up now and have to fend for myself when I'm sick (even though my Mom ALWAYS offers to come all the way to Brooklyn to take care of me, love her!) I asked her to teach me how to make it recently and I have to say, I did a pretty good job of recreating this soup! Even my boyfriend who hates left overs was eating it for days! It's the perfect cure for those winter sniffles and freezing cold nights.

So I wanted to share this recipe with you because It's a special one and evokes feelings of comfort, and family, and hopefully if any of you try this recipe and are far from home, you'll totally get what I mean....

Toni's (my aunt) Special Chicken soup

Ingredients:

• 1 package "soup starter" (should come with carrots, onion, celery etc...)
• 3-4 large size chicken breasts skinned but on the bone.
• 1 package Sazon seasoning (I used the no salt version)
• Oregano (generous sprinkles)
• Parsley flakes (generous sprinkles)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• Garlic Powder (to taste)
• 2 Garlic Cloves thinly sliced
• Salt (to taste)
• 1/2 lb Acini de Pepe Pasta (you can use a little less if you don't have much broth because this will really soak it up)

Directions:

Take all the ingredients and place them in a very large pot filled with water. Don't cut the chicken off the bones but trim off the skin and fat and don't cut the veggies just leave them whole the way the are, even the onion.

Boil everything for 1 1/2 hrs.

Turn the stove off, let it cool down a bit and then take out all the veggies and chicken. Put the chicken and carrots aside. Put the rest of the veggies in a blender with about 1 cup of the broth from the pot. Blend until nice and creamy. Pour the mixture into the pot of broth. In another pot, boil the Acini De Pepe pasta for about 5 -8 min (follow the box instructions). Meanwhile cut the carrots and shred the chicken off the bone and put it back in the pot with the broth (sans bones). Add the drained Acini De Pepe Pasta to the pot and boil everything together for 5-8 more minutes (At this point I did a lot of tasting and testing to see if I needed any more seasonings, I added some more salt and some garlic powder, see what works for you.) Serve with sprinkled Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Hope you all have a happy and warm winter!

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!!!

Such an eventful weekend coming up! But most certainly my favorite time of the year filled with family, friends, and food!! Here are 2 delicious dessert ideas that are sure to make guests wish they had saved more room!! They only use a few ingredients and everything can be found at any old grocery store!

Death by chocolate toffee trifle

I used this recipe. I made this just last night for my parents who came in for a pre-holiday dinner. Usually you would layer this in one of those big clear trifle dishes, but I didn't have one and the clear martini glasses are way cute!  Who doesn't love their own individual dessert!

Oreo Truffles

These are insane!! A coworker of mine brings them in every Christmas and we literally fight over them! Crazy addicting!! So for a holiday party I was attending this past Saturday I decided I would try to whip them up. My coworker gave me the recipe which was literally 6 lines long, so I figured how hard can it be? Well they were super easy and worth the time it took to dip them individually in white chocolate!

Ingredients:

1 package Oreos, 1 package cream cheese, 2 bags of white chocolate, Milk chocolate optional, or decorative sprinkles

Chop Oreos in a food processor till very fine, add cream cheese blend till it's a paste. Roll into 1 1/2" balls. Freeze for 15 min. Melt white chocolate and dip each ball individually using a fork and spatula to help you roll it around. Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper and let cool in fridge till chocolate is hardened. Drizzle with melted milk chocolate. DONE!

This isn't a dessert but it was probably the best bruschetta I've ever had!

Made by my Boyfriend who happens to be a wonderful Italian cook! I have no idea whats in it besides tomatoes, but it was delicious and also looked so beautiful! My parents were super impressed!

 

Some photos to get you in the Holiday spirits....

My hello kitty ornament John bought me...

Our first ornament...John picked it out :)

Sparkely red just for the Holidays!!!

And were off!!! To visit the parents all weekend!!!

Hope you all have a happy and lovely holiday filled with love and laughter and amazing friends, family, and food!!!

DIY winter headband...

Hello my lovely bloggers!!! I've been MIA this past week an a half. I decided to take a little break and focus my energies on work, and my health (don't worry I'm fine just trying to get into a better sleep cycle and work out pattern). I've taken a step back from social networking in general. I realized I need to have a balance between my human everyday interactions with friends, co-workers, and family, and my "cyber-life" (is that what we call it?) So for the next month or two I will be blogging much less, but I will be catching up on your all fantastic blogs of course. I hope all you lovelies can understand! Soo.... any-who, on to this weeks post....
I've been dying for a winter headband to cover my ears for the chilly weather we've been having here in NYC. I found one at Macys recently but the adorable bow was half ripped off and of course it was the last one! On my way home the thought popped in my head that I could probably make one myself with some of those stretchy headbands. Well I found these perfect terry cloth headbands (even better than the stretchy headbands because they are super warm) and with a sewing machine and a little creativity I was able to whip one up in less than a hr! So I've decided to share my DIY project with you!
What you need:
3 stretchy headbands
Needle and thread
Sewing Machine


Step one: Take two headbands and sandwich them together matching up the seams.

Step two: Sew the two head bands together about 1/8" away from edge


Step three: Take the 3rd headband and fold into a bow. This doesn't have to be perfect, any shape you like will work, even a little rosette. If you are making a bow, sew the sides down where you pin them.


Step Four: If you want your bow to be scrunched up in the middle use a needle and a thread and simply stitch and pull the thread as tight as you can without tearing the thread. There is no real technical way to do this so just continue until you've scrunched enough to your liking.


Step Five: Stitch the bow to the headband wherever you like. Since I'm a bit anal I had to make sure my seam was centered in the back and the bow was off to the right. I stitched my bow on using the hand method with a needle and thread but you can use a sewing machine, or whatever works for you.

THAT'S IT! Your all done!!! This was SO easy and such an affordable version of the sweater ones in a department store!! They also make great stocking stuffers!!!


Happy Sewing loves!!!