I cut, whittled and delicately placed vegetables to create this Thanksgiving masterpiece that we’ll devour later today. I hope you have a wonderful day with your friends and family! And, don’t forget to eat your vegetables!
Here’s the full tray. Looks pretty awesome, if I don’t say so myself.
‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, all the creatures were drinking, including my spouse!
We’re not cooking the turkey tomorrow, but if we were, this is exactly what I would do. Cheers to a very happy Thanksgiving!
Seriously. Ever. And they’d make an amazing Thanksgiving dessert (or breakfast, for that matter).
Brandon and I were cleaning out the pantry over the weekend, which meant we had a half of a bag of rice krispies and a bag of marshmallows that were “going bad” and “needed” to be re-purposed into something delicious. That means rice krispie treats! And I had just gotten a new recipe!
I was recently at a Social Media Lunch event at Allrecipes.com where I had the best rice krispie treats ever. VoraciousGirl was kind enough to share her recipe with me. The following recipe is predominantly hers, with some Megan’s Island adjustments. I’d recommend you run to the store immediately and pick up the following ingredients.
Now, get up and head to the store to pick up some butter, marshmallows and Rice Krispies!! Enjoy!
My friend Emily claims that this Smitten Kitchen recipe is the best rice krispie treats, We’re going to have a rice krispie treat-off soon to crown the champion recipe. In the meantime, try out this one. It’s a winner.
I hope you had a nice weekend. Beyond the usual grocery shopping and cleaning, I spent this afternoon finishing up a lot of projects I’ve been working on for the past few weeks (or sometimes years!).
How did I spend my crafternoon? Let me tell you all about it!
First, I’m on a pinata making kick and I put the last layer of paper mache on a WSU Cougar pinata that I’m making for the big Washington vs Washington State Apple Cup game this Friday.
The pinata is turning out really well and I’m hoping that its dry enough to paint tonight.
My pinata tutorial will be posted in the next few weeks.
Next, I made 15 pairs of holiday earrings for a craft show at work. These are super easy to make and I’ve made them many times in the past.
How do you make them?
First gather your ingredients and tools:
Next:
Since Seattle has been so sunny (ok, not rainy) this week, I decided to do some spray painting. Here is a sneak peek. There will be much more explanation in the weeks to come.I was just happy that I got to bust out the gold spray paint. UPDATE: Read about my golden pine cones here!
Finally, I bought a bunch of felt balls more than a year ago (online from the Felt Pod) and recently re-discovered them in the garage. It took me about 30 minutes to create a felt ball garland by stringing them on some embroidery floss and hang them in front of the big mirrors in our living room.
What do you think? I love them and I’m so glad I finally finished this project!
(Please note: I only made one strand, that’s just the reflection in the mirror.)
And now? It’s time to make dinner. We’re making this root vegetable stew with beef and barley from Whole Foods. It’s so good! Definitely pin this as a dish to try this winter!
Have a great week!
2011 Robert Ramsay Counoise
A few years ago we bought a Living Social deal for tasting and a bottle of wine at a winery called Robert Ramsay Cellars near some of our favorite wineries in Woodinville. We bought it knowing we’d be in the area before it expired and we always enjoy trying a new winery. At that time Robert Ramsay was only making Rhone-style reds and we fell in love with most of their wines, especially the Mourvedre, a peppery, smooth and spicy wine blend.
We’ve visited Robert Ramsay nearly every time we go to Woodinville and we finally bit the bullet and joined their wine club after tasting their newest release: the 2011 Counoise and the 2011 Le Mien.
I preferred the Counoise and Brandon liked the Le Mien. Perfect since we got both bottles with our new wine club membership. Later tonight we’ll be drinking the Counoise with this gnocchi with turkey, squash and kale.
Here are the tasting notes for the Counoise. Looks like we’ll have to get another bottle or two to enjoy with a filet mignon:
With the grill fired up and the first glass accompanying the chef, you experience smells reminiscent of Syrah, deep, dark and musty. A taste of star anise confirms your thoughts but is followed by a meaty and chewy mouth feel, a thickness to go with your filet mignon and a peppery tone suggests the blending of Mourvedre into the mix. Has Bob combined a powerhouse of Syrah and Mourvedre together you ask? No. Counoise transcends them both and your steak has found the perfect partner. If you didn’t buy a second bottle, you may be disappointed.
Never heard of Counoise? The Rhone Rangers have more information about the grape itself:
Counoise may be an obscure grape in the United States, but it is a key component of many Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines. It is a deep purple-red, and has a rich spicy character, with flavors of anise, strawberries and blueberries. Counoise’s moderate alcohol and tannins make it a good complement for Syrah, balancing that grape’s characteristic intense spice, strong tannins and high alcohol.
Have you been to Robert Ramsay Cellars before? Next time you’re in the warehouse district of Woodinville, you should definitely check them out and let me know what your favorite wines are. Happy Wine Wednesday!
It was just a few short months ago when our backyard looked like this:
Backyard shade garden, circa summer 2013
With the rain and wind and the changing of seasons, our yard now looks like this:
Looks like we traded UW Husky flamingos for hostas!
A few weeks and showers later… It’s almost a winter shade garden
Where did all of those beautiful hostas go!? I know from previous experience that hostas die back in the winter, so I was prepared for the decomposition and their disappearance.
In fact, I’ve taken my sweet time planting most of these hostas and have had them in their pots for years. This is how it usually goes: Clean up the yard in the spring, look at the empty pots as I’m taking them out to the yard waste bin, see new plants sprouting! So, they stay in their pots another year. Summer 2013 was a big time for us in that we actually freed the hostas from their pots and planted them!
Knowing that the hostas and a few of our fern varieties will disappear until the spring and that I’ll forget where I planted them, I bought some golf tees (~$5 for 100 of them from Target) to put in the ground, so I’ll know where not to plant next spring.
Here’s how it looks:
Pretty inexpensive solution, right? As your fall gardens start to decompose, I encourage you to get some golf tees of your own to help with your spring planting.
Happy planting and decomposition!
I kid. I like feasts full of gluten but I also like gluten-free feasts!
I’m coming more around to the idea that Thanksgiving is almost here — in less than a fortnight (thank you, Heather), nonetheless.
As I mentioned last week, Brandon and I won’t do much cooking for the holiday, so this post is really targeted at my parents (thank you for reading) who will hopefully be considering some of these ideas for our holiday feast. This post is also for a dear friend of mine who is throwing her first gluten-free Thanksgiving (hi, Megan!), so hopefully this provides inspiration for her too. (Man, that’s a lot of pressure on this post!)
So, here we go. First things first: gluten-free appetizers:
A cute, holiday-inspired veggie display
Bacon-wrapped dates? Yes please.
Sweet potato crostini
And some ideas for gluten-free side dishes:
Lemony Brussels sprouts
Wild rice and mushroom stuffing
Honey-roasted butternut squash
Spuds!
I’m going to assume that you gluten-free’ers have the main dish covered. Mom & Dad: I hope it’s turkey!
Which leaves us with some gluten free desserts!
Gluten-free pie crusts
Pumpkin-ginger cupcakes
Gluten-free fig frangipane tart
If you do use any of these recipes or re-pin these, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! And if you’d like to see all of my Thanksgiving pins, visit my board. Please note: not all pins on my Thanksgiving board are gluten free.
Happy menu planning and have a great rest of the weekend!
This made the news a few weeks ago, but I wanted to make sure you saw it: cats can finally join in on the Wine Wednesday fun with Pussy/Nyan Nyan Nouveau. A wine for cats!!
Pussy Nouveau Cat Wine
There is now a non-alcoholic beverage made from the juice of Cabernet franc grapes, vitamin C and catnip, and intended “exclusively for cats.” Presumably, pets will only be able to drink the product with their owners’ purrmission. Get it? It’s a cat joke!
It’s currently only available in Japan, but Pussy/Nyan Nyan Nouveau is very inexpensive (~$4/bottle) and could be quite a hit with my cats. What do you think? Would your cats like to enjoy a glass or two of wine with you?
Here are my two gatos, ready and patiently waiting to get their paws on some cat wine! Happy Wine Wednesday!!
Jackson of Megan’s Island
Madison of Megan’s Island
Holy crap. It’s November. And not just the beginning of November. We’re already 1/3 done with November! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by.
Since it is mid-November, its time to be thinking about Thanksgiving. (I still can’t believe it…)
Brandon and I love to cook, but we don’t really get the opportunity to showcase our skillz at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Both of our parents are really good cooks and typically take care of most of the big dinner. Brandon and I each have siblings and we get to either bring appetizers or desserts to the big event. We haven’t been assigned a dish yet, but I thought I’d get a jump start on our options. Today, I’ll share some of the front runners for appetizers for the Thanksgiving holiday.
First, we’ll start with the baked brie recipes. I can’t get enough brie and baked brie is even more decadent. I do have a favorite recipe, but it’s a mish-mash of a few recipes and it’s not online. Come to think of it, I should probably make that dish soon, share the recipe with you and then pin it for everyone else to see and share.
Brie + jam on sticks: YUM!
Baked brie bites with pecans
Brie bites with cranberry jam
A cheese plate would be a great idea… I mean, how good does that look!?
Garlic cheesy bread . Yes. Yes. Yes.
More cheese: marinated fresh mozzerella balls
Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites
And for the cheese haters (like Brandon):
Shrimp lime cups
Now I’m hungry. I hope you’ve enjoyed the fruits of my pinning. Please share some of your favorite holiday appetizer recipes in the comments below!
It’s the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, which means its a very special day: Election Day.
I’m a bit of an elections nut (I worked as a spokeswoman for the Elections Department for many years) so I love Election Day and I love educating voters on the process. Now, it’s your turn. In Washington, we don’t have polling places. Instead, we vote entirely by mail. We received our ballots three weeks ago and after reading all of the mailers, the voter pamphlets and the endorsements, we voted.
If you haven’t voted yet, make sure you return your ballot TODAY! Ballots need to be dropped off in a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. You can also return your ballot via the USPS, and it must be postmarked with today’s date.
Save a stamp! Fill out your ballot and drop it in one of these!
For all you King County voters, here are some useful links for you:
Here I was this morning sign waving for a candidate that I’m endorsing for Mercer Island City Council. Go Rich! This was my first time working on the campaign side of things and I really enjoyed it! What do you think of our “Waving Rich” cutout? They’ve been all over Megan’s Island!
Mercer Island voters: Vote for Rich! http://voteforrich.org/
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