ratty snax

Look I'm alive! (but I'm a horrible blogger!) I'm going to blog more. There, it's in writing.

Here's a new series I'll start: ratty snax. Here's yesterday's snacks (yes, they are spoiled).

Pennsylvania Visit & Pickling

I recently returned from a trip to Pennsylvania with my cousin Tana. It was such a relaxing trip. My parents live in the countryside and their house doesn't get at&t service and the their wi-fi is slow (sorry mom, but truth). I pretty much put down my phone when I arrive and am running around outside most of the time I'm there. A cold front came through at the beginning of the trip and one night we had a low of 52 degrees! We got to catch up with a bunch of family and spend time in my grandma's gardens.

Uncle Alan shows us the silk from a milkweed plant.

me, dad & Uncle Chris

Every night dad wanted to get ice cream...

An accidental overgrowth of garlic happened this year in the garden (we picked several 5 gallon bucket's worth), so we decided to pickle a lot of it alongside the cucumbers.

some dill, some sweet:

Well, as usual, I've been a terrible blogger. I really did make a lot of stuff this summer...but got in the habit of never turning on my computer (which was lovely). More soon (hopefully!).

Mini Burger Cupcakes

I made some mini burger cupcakes for a 4th of July party that ended up being a hit. They're just mini cupcakes sliced in half with a small brownie in the middle.

In other news, we got two ratties this week! They're both really sweet and seem pretty attached to us already, too. Look how sweet Gigi is:

I'm off for Louisiana to visit my brother but I'll post when I'm back in town.

wedding signs

Two of my favorite people got married May ----- Tana (my cousin) and Jess (best friend/college roomie). I got to make some wedding signs for both of them.

Here's a couple shots of me and Tana from her day:

*the high quality photos in this post were taken by jordan burch.

Babka

I tried babka for the first time a few years ago. How had I never had this before?  When a Bon Appetit issue from last year included it, I saved it and promised I'd make it.

A year later, I finally did, and it was so good and fairly easy to make. Bon Appetit's Chocolate-Cinnamon Babkallah recipe here.

I forgot to snap a photo when it was finished and only remembered when half of it was left! Cheers to anything you make that needs braided!

DIY Bridesmaid Dress

photo by Jordan Burch

So what do you do when you're asked to find a mustard yellow bridesmaid dress and you procrastinate? You have a really hard time finding one...even on the internet. Well, I did find one that was very unflattering and overpriced. It would have worked.

I was determined to find another dress, searching at the mall, every boutique in Austin, and all the thrift stores around. No luck. Then one day it struck me - wait, could I dye my own dress?

Yes!

And it was really easy. I used Rit yellow (full package) and a couple tablespoons of tan. I dyed it in the washer and it was foolproof. As long as you follow the directions carefully about dissolving the dye first in hot water and aggitating the water before adding the garment, I don't think you can mess this up.

I had to take the dress in at the waist and all the darts, which was the most challenging part. Silk is a pain to sew (at least for me).

The dress looked pretty good, but it was definitely missing something. I decided some shoulder beading would make it look a little more polished.

Here's the dress before. An off-white silk Ann Taylor dress found at a thrift store for $7.99:

2nd Wedding Anniversary Tiramisu

Eric and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary yesterday. We ate lunch at Odd Duck. The meal was incredibly delicious and I left hardly able to walk after all the food and drinks we had. Poor Eric had to go back to work and I came home and took a nap!

We decided our anniversary traditions should include drinking limoncello and making tiramisu. We opened a bottle of limoncello that we brought back from the bed & breakfast we stayed at during our honeymoon in Italy. The bed & breakfast was set in the mountain above Positano and had a farm on the land. The family made limoncello out of the huge, sweet lemons that grew on their property.

Papa making the limoncello on the patio of the b&b in Montepertuso, Italy.

The tiramisu turned out amazing. I used the recipe from Del Posto. No store bought lady fingers - the sponge cake is made from scratch! I accidentally poured too much of the espresso on the first layer of sponge cake and had to make more. I probably used one & half times the amount of espresso the recipe called for and we loved it. (Note in the recipe it says "Don’t be stingy with the espresso, okay?". No stinginess here!).

More posts this week! I have lots to share from the month of May.

Some old posts that have pictures from our wedding: here, here, & here.

Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie for Eric's grandma's 90th (!!!) birthday last month. It was my first time making a key lime pie and it was so-freaking-good. I'm not even a huge key lime pie fan.

I should be back to posting regularly again soon.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hi-Hats

Some late birthday cupcakes for Eric. I had been wanting to make hi-hat cupcakes for a while now and went with a chocolate peanut butter version. OMG the frosting is unbelievable (rich, of course). The frosting is like the chocolate peanut butter balls my mom makes every Christmas (lighter & airy-er thanks to a couple of egg whites in the buttercream). Recipe from here. Definitely making these again.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! So....we bought a house! We're still in the process of moving and this weekend we'll be cleaning our old place out like crazy. I hope you have a good weekend. I'll be back to posting again when things get settled!

Dirt Bombs

The compromise between Eric wanting pancakes and me wanting a muffin on Saturday morning. Cake for breakfast! These are excellent. They taste like a sugar-cinnamon cake donut. YUM. The outside had a slight crunch to it too on the first day.

 Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Muffins, aka Dirt Bombs
 Recipe from Bon Appetit
 Makes 12

Muffins:
 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp  kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk

Topping & Assembly:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 TBS (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Muffins:
 Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin pan Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in egg. With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions alternating with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Divide batter among muffin cups and bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 30–35 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire rack.

 Topping & Assembly:
 Mix sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Working one at a time, dip tops of muffins in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar.

Pet Peeves

This morning I realized how much I really, truly hate when you cut a sandwich in half and everything oozes out the sides. I use toothpicks to try and hold everything together, but the avocado, tomato bits and condiments are always going to end up more on my hands than on the sandwich. It's stupid how much this bothers me.

I did a google search to see if there's something out there like a bagel slicer that holds your sandwich in place while slicing. Someone actually tried to get a patent for their idea, but it doesn't look it went very far.....ha.

Who doesn't want their sandwich cut in half though?

CHEERS

Happy New Year, y'all! (I'm a little late, huh?)

Lots of exciting things are happening here at the start of the new year! We welcomed the new year by having a little party at our place. I'm obsessed with making decorations, so I'll jump at the excuse to make some. We weren't even sure we were going to have a party when I started making decorations.

I thought a fun Christmas gift for Tana would be to give her a new year's decoration kit, so I doubled everything I made and gave it to her.

There's a part of me that I think should have been an elementary school teacher. I love cutting stuff out. And hot glue.

and glitter filled balloons sound like a great idea until one POPS and you have glitter everywhere.

(....but can we secretly admit that I don't mind the fact that it's hard to clean up and glitter makes me super happy?)



Cheers to 2015!

Christmas Gift Painting

My brother and sister-in-law saw the painting I made that's hanging in our living room and hinted that they would maybe request one in the future. I decided to surprise them with one as a christmas gift. It went through a lot of phases in the afternoon I painted it, but I like the end result.