{Gone Pinning} In season now: Chanterelles!!

Posted in Food, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

I mentioned all of the things that Labor Day symbolizes for me in my post on Sunday, but I forgot to mention something very, very important: it also signifies the start of chanterelle season.

Brandon and I are quite the mushroom-lovers and chanterelles are some of our favorites. We’re Costco shoppers and when my parents or sister find them there, we’ll often buy a package for each other. They’re just that good and their season doesn’t last that long. It also seems like they’re at Costco (for $9.99/lb) for an even shorter amount of time.

I bought theses chanterelles the other night and cooked up the full pound. We paired them with grilled chicken and my favorite kale salad (we use pine nuts instead of bread crumbs), so I went with a traditional and simple seasoning strategy: butter, salt and lemon-thyme. First, I cleaned up the mushrooms a little more by brushing them off. (Sometimes some tree needles, foliage and dirt are left behind…) Next, I sauteed them with a wee bit of olive oil and two tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium-low heat. Cooking these mushrooms is definitely a ‘low and slow’ operation. I continued cooking them, stirring occassionally, for about 20 minutes. I added the thyme and salt (and another tablespoon of butter– Shhh! Don’t tell Brandon. He’s healthier than to eat that much butter…) about 15 minutes in, to really finish the dish. Once they were the perfect texture and flavor, they were plated and thoroughly enjoyed.

I’m headed to get more chanterelles soon and these recipes caught my eye. Check out all of my recipes to try on my Pinterest “Falling into Fall” board. Go get some chanterelles for yourself and have a happy weekend!

Truffle taglietelle with chanterelle mushrooms:

Beef tenderloin stuffed with lobster and chanterelle mushrooms:

Chanterelle mushroom omelette:

And our dinner, which will be pinned once I hit publish:

6Sep2013

{Gone pinning} Damn fruit flies

Posted in Around the house, DIY, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

‘Tis the season for bugs: mainly spiders but also fruit flies. As a regular reader, you’re familiar with our love of wine. Well, we’re apparently not the only ones in this house who love wine. (No, the cats don’t drink. They’re too young…) The fruit flies also love our wine and tonight it reached a breaking point and we took our problem to Pinterest.

Anyway, Pinterest had some great ideas for us. We chose a pretty easy one with ingredients that we had on-hand. It was 9:30 p.m. on a Friday night… We opted for the “shot glass traps of apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of dish soap.” AND… it worked!

Please note: we don’t normally have a lot of fruit flies. I’m attributing this surge in fruit flies to the overripe bunch of bananas in the fruit bowl and the unusually humid weather. We’re not dirty people. (Brandon says and he’s always right…)

We still have the note cards (extra two-year old wedding invitations) draped over the glasses to protect our wine and there are still fruit flies overhead, but I’d say we’ve caught/drowned 80 or so fruit flies between the three traps. Per the instructions, we first used a shot glass and filled it with the vinegar and soap. It worked pretty well, especially when we “assisted” and blew the fruit flies on the edge into the death mixture. (Sorry…it was right there in front of us…)

We then took one of our mini pie dishes (from Crate & Barrel, apparently not for sale anymore. I couldn’t find the link…) and filled it with the death mixture. It worked like a dream. I’d highly recommend the mini pie dishes — they’re great for tea bags, random pins and screws and snacks — and this concoction. It’s cheap, easy and effective. That is the winning combination for a successful pin. And that’s why I love this death mixture. Thanks, Pinterest. I can now (almost) drink my wine in peace.

How have you dealt with fruit flies in the past?

30Aug2013

{Gone Pinning} Our next vacation

Posted in Adventures, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Brandon and I will be celebrating our second wedding anniversary next month (where did those two years go?!) and to celebrate we booked a vacation. My very first all-inclusive vacation, in fact. You probably think we’re headed to Mexico or the Caribbean, right? Well, nice guess. We’re headed on vacation to a less-warm locale. We’re off to see the northern lights in northern Alaska, in the arctic circle in the dead of winter. We know how to have fun, right?

Thankfully the lodge we’re staying at provides all of our food, drinks and warm clothes. (We’re talking intense parkas, gloves, hats, hand warmers, the whole shebang.) They even have Internet in the middle of nowhere!

Come January, we’re off to Bettles, 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle just south of the Brooks Range. (Thanks, Wikipedia.) According to the tour website, Bettles officially has the most clear weather days in the entire state, which means more cloud free nights of opportunity to see the majestic Lights dance in the sky. Bettles is located directly under the Auroral Band, the highest aurora activity in the Northern hemisphere. And it’s located on the Ice Road. Anyone seen Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel? Neither have we but we’ll watch a few before we go.

Seeing the northern lights has been on Brandon’s bucket list for awhile. I’ve heard about them, but didn’t realize how cool they are until we started researching this trip. The Bettles Lodge website (or tourism bureau? Same thing, right?) claims an 80 percent chance of seeing them. Add this year’s ‘solar maximum’ (a flare up that happens every 12 years) to that and a new moon in the dead of winter and were hoping our rate goes up to 100 percent. We’ll be there several nights to further increase our chances. Fingers crossed! We’re also planning on exploring: cross-country skiing, on a dog sled excursion and maybe snowmobiling.

I picked up some books about the Northern Lights today at the library (of course I did, right?) and I’ll start researching camera lenses and cases so we can adequately capture the views in the potentially -60 degree weather. Brrrrr. More updates to come as we get closer. Until then, enjoy these sweet shots of the Northern Lights that I found on Pinterest. Love Pinterest.

12Jul2013

Gone Pinning: Raspberries!

Posted in Exploring Seattle, Food, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Last year’s crop

Brandon and I have big plans of enjoying summer and raspberry picking this weekend. The raspberry season just opened up on July 5 and we’re going to head down to Harvold Farms, the u-pick spot we visited last year. In just 30 minutes we were able to pick 6.5 lbs of berries. (And that’s with the ‘one in my bucket, one in my mouth’ technique!)

In anticipation of having that many (or more!) raspberries again, I dedicated some quality time to picking out some really tasty raspberry recipes for our anticipated bounty.

Without further ado, here are the best of the best raspberry recipes that the internet has to offer…

How to freeze raspberries: We’ll probably need this!

Lemon ricotta pancakes with lemon curd and fresh raspberries

Raspberry fruit leather

And then I discovered the Driscoll’s recipe database. O-M-G were there some delicious-looking recipes! I was so gaga for them that Brandon laughed at me. Seriously. Lucky for him, I’m totally going to make these! Find all of the Driscoll’s raspberry recipes here. They also have an extensive database for strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

Raspberry Chambord Dream

Pink Raspberry Ombre Cake

This is one that I started really drooling over:

Warm raspberry brie

Caribbean shrimp raspberry avocado salad

Bourbon Raspberry Rub Steak with Raspberry Mango Salsa

Please report back if you make any of these recipes yourself. Enjoy!

21Jun2013

{Gone Pinning} Summa – summa – SUMMATIME!

Posted in Drinky drinky, Food, Gone Pinning, Uncategorized by mszerwo

Happy SUMMER! Wahoo! Today is the first official day of summer and this blogger couldn’t be happier! (Although the weather today is less than desirable. My favorite weatherman, Rich Marriott claims it’ll be in the upper 70’s over the weekend…)

To kick off our ‘Gone Pinning’ series, here are some of the things we’re most excited for this summer. Check out all of my favorites for the season on my Sunshine-y Days Pinterest Board.

First, summers aren’t complete without some delicious eats:

Oh yes, this would be delicious!

Peach caprese!?!?!

Fresh peaches + raspberries + sugar= AMAZING

I heart figs. I heart pizza. This would be amazing!

And something to drink with it…

Popsicles + champagne = GENIUS

Margarita? Yes, please.

I’ve always wanted to make this but don’t think we have the room, so you should make it instead!

Oh yeah! Wine on the rocks in a bench!

And this is a bit of a mantra of mine…

‘Tiz true.

HAPPY SUMMER! How are you planning on celebrating the change in seasons?

7Jun2013

Gone Pinning!

Posted in Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Pinterest-ing (pinning) is one of my favorite past times. Pinterest can be a hobby, right?

So… I’m starting a new weekly feature: Gone Pinning. It will be your weekly glimpse into what I’m looking at, projects I’m envisioning and new recipes that I’m thinking of trying out.

You can wait for Gone Pinning at the end of each week or you can see my pins in real-time on Pinterest, here.

Have a great weekend!

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Category Archives: Gone Pinning