Friday Five

1. Whoever came up with the idea of using frozen water balloons to cool drinks deserves a metal for Sheer Brillance. 
2. I know that I just said that bananas 'aren't my thing', but I could totally make an exception for this Banana Split Bombe. 
3. This simple (and probably time-consuming) craft project might just be the perfect choice for our above-the-bed art--cheesy, love-related sayings, anyone? 
4. I could stare at this pickled slaw all day. Is that wrong? 
5. And finally, time for something completely normal that I will completely lose my business over: rooting hydrangea cuttings (ohmygod favorite flowers, WHOLE BUSH of favorite flowers. Can't even) 

Thin Pear Tart

The expression "easy as pie" is ridiculous, there is nothing easy about making pie--unless you cheat and buy a pie crust, but we won't go there. Pie crusts are somewhat notionally difficult to do well, and for some of us, they present a delightful challenge, not everyone is crazy. You probably know by now that I'm crazy. I love pie crusts.

This tart truly is as easy as pie, er, um, tart. The crust comes together in a snap, and it's crazy delicious. It's also without the usual temperature concerns that come along with crust-making (hooray!). The addition of cream cheese to this recipe makes this tart oddly reminiscent of kolaches and childhood treats. Which, as you may have noticed, I'm a little crazy for. Childhood treats: always a winner in my book! 

Make this tart when you have leftover pears. Or you're on a time crunch. Or when you want to impress. Or when you want to eat a delicious tart. I promise, it will satisfy all of those needs.

Thin Pear Tart

Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one eight inch tart

Ingredients

   2 ounces cream cheese
   4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
   1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
   1/2 cup, plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
   1/8 teaspoon salt
   2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
   2 tablespoons Grand Mariner
   2 Bosc or Red Bartlett pears
   1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine cream cheese and butter in a food processor. 
2. Add flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt, and process until combined. Dough will be sticky. Turn dough out onto prepared baking sheet. With lightly floured fingers, pat dough out into a flat 8-inch circle.
3. In medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar with lemon juice and brandy. Halve pear lengthwise; core; leave skin on. Cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices; transfer to lemon-juice mixture; coat well. Place slices in strainer to drain liquid. 
4. Arrange lengthwise around border of dough, overlapping slightly. Arrange remaining slices in center. Sprinkle tart with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar. Dust pears with cinnamon. 
5. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

DIY Macrame Plant Hanger

It was a wild and crazy weekend, y'all: I learned how to macrame. Oh, okay, we did actually go out and do things--really--but I also decided that Sunday should be Learn a New Skill Day. I'm so glad that I made that decision. Seriously. Look out for macrame everything coming soon to my life. I'm a little obsessed now. Clearly I missed this trend the first time around.

Macrame gets a bad rap, but with a neon update, this look is less 1970s and more right now.  Granted, my husband (who was born in the 1970s) is still giving me a pretty hard time for integrating (A) neon pink and (B) macrame into our dining room space, but I love it! He can just deal.

Plus, he can deal while breathing better. Thanks Golden Pathos (that's the plant, y'all). 

As for the supplies, I found this nice, plastic, non-leaking pot for cheap (yay!), however, it was a disgusting shade of beige. It first needed a few coats of white paint to reach it's perfectly pristine white state. I also ended up needing two packages of this paracord, so if you're looking to make a similar project, I suggest picking up more than you think that you'll need.

Refinery29 (yes, Refinery29!) has an amazing step-by-step tutorial for making a macrame plant hanger. I found that once I started working, I didn't really need it anymore, but it's a great guide. I also added a few additional rows of knots, only because my plant/pot was so much larger than theirs.

All told, the project took me a few hours (with drying time), but I learned a new skill and my dining room is all plantified now. Win/win.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Salt & Pepper Cookies (Going Rogue)

This weekend the Baked Sunday crew made Banana Mousse Parfaits. These are not Banana Mousse Parfaits. I haven't been doing this very long, but apparently it's okay to deviate from the group--I hope it is, anyway. I don't really like bananas. 

But I have been dying to make these Salt & Pepper Cookies since I bought the Baked Explorations cookbook a while (a year? two years?) ago. Dying. They're the cover for crying out loud. These cookies, they call to me. Regularly. 

The crew originally made these cookies in 2011. I'm so behind the curve. 

Can we be real, though--because these cookies are so worth being behind the curve, as long as they eventually curve their way into your mouth. I feel a little guilty about breaking away from the group this week, but when I do, I just take a bite of tasty cookie, and rebellion tastes a little sweeter.

Head over to the Baked Sunday Mornings page to check out everyone who followed the rules this week!

Friday Five

1.  Richard Saja embroiders on toile--and I want him to be my new best friend. 
2. Sandwich cookies are my new favorites--zucchini nut sandwich cookies? Need to happen. 
3. Let's all make these amazing candles from HomeMade Modern. 
4. ...let's also make these amazing bow pillows from Kate Spade 
5. File this dress under "Gimme (Please)" 

Spicy Paloma Cocktail

Let's continue on with the jalapeño trend, shall we? The garden is still overflowing, and it's still hot, which means it's still the perfect time to make delicious, chilly beverages. Delicious, chilly, spicy beverages.

Palomas are among my favorite cocktails, as they're the perfect combination of tart, salty and tequila-y (yes, tequila is a flavor profile). The recipe below is a natural take on a Paloma--you can also go easy style and just use grapefruit soda (Jarrito's or Italian style soda). Your call. The jalapeño tequila is a super easy infusion, it only takes an hour or two. It's a great choice for a trepaditious first-time infuser.

Spicy Paloma Cocktail 

Ingredients 
   2 ounces jalapeño-infused tequila (see below)
   juice of 1/2 lime
   juice of 1/2 grapefruit
   1 teaspoon agave syrup
   soda water
   ice

Directions

1. Use lime to wet the glass' rim. Roll rim in salt. 
2. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake until well combined. 
3. Pour ingredients into an ice-filled glass. 

Jalapeño-Infused Tequila 

1. Cut up a jalapeño and add to tequila. Allow to infuse until spicy to taste, about 1 hour. Jalapeños can impart their spice very quickly, so do not allow the tequila to sit for longer than 24 hours. 

Jalapeño Cheddar Popovers

The growing season is crazy, y'all. Jalapeños don't really care if you only need one pepper for a dish--they'll produce a dozen, whenever they feel like.  If you needed one last week, well, sorry Charlie... this week you have ten, though. Zucchinis, tomatoes, onions and garlic don't care either. Like a garden full of honey badgers. Growing your own food teaches you lots of things.

When you grow your own food, you learn about growing seasons, and frost dates, and germination periods, and days to harvest. You learn to wait for tomatoes (because they are so, so worth it). And you learn about resourcefulness. Most of all, you learn about resourcefulness. How to improvise when your produce isn't ready yet--even more so, that you learn what to do with your produce bounty.

Luckily I like spicy things (maybe I planted 6 jalapeño plants because I like spicy things), because the jalapeños came in full force last week. The littles are not spice fans (yet), so I needed to find a way to use some of our peppers without subjecting the littles to the pepper burn. 

These jalapeño popovers were the perfect option--with the peppers cored and deseeded, of course. Cheesy, eggy goodness, with just the tiniest kick from the jalapeños. If I were making these for only myself, I would deseed, but leave in the ribs, my jalapeños because these didn't really have the bite that I long for. 

Jalapeño Cheddar Popovers

from Mother Thyme
Makes 12 popovers

Ingredients
   3 large eggs
   1 cup all-purpose flour
   1 cup whole milk
   1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
   1/4 cup jalapeno, diced
   1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  
2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed or whisk combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and and stir until blended.
3. Pour batter in to muffin tin filling 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are risen and firm and golden brown.  
4. Remove popovers from tin and cool on wire rack.   

Friday Five

1. This oil-cloth covered outdoor table needs to happen in my backyard. 
2. Sardou-Style Eggs for Father's Day brunch? I think I know a Papa who would be interested in these. 
3. I love these "camp-inspired" cork coasters. Camp always needs more camp (in neon form) 
4. This house. I want it. Also, missing Oregon today. 
5. Grilled desserts? Let's do this, Summer!  

PS: Yes, all Martha. I love you Martha. 

DIY Longhorn Piñata (aka Rainbow Bevo)

Do you know what we don't talk about nearly enough on this blog? Piñatas. Though, admittedly  if I had my way, we would probably talk about nothing except piñatas. As an adult, my fondness for piñatas verges into the obscene. I am my inner child is so glad they're hip these days, and that I can indulge in them freely.

We had a piñata at our wedding. For the kids. Or something.

I've made a lot of piñatas, but this was my first experience making one that wasn't out of paper mache. Holy moly, if I had known then, what I know now, I would have never made all those dang Cthulhus out of paper mache. In August. In Texas. Where the balloon bases expand and contract because of the heat. Criminy. Cardboard bases are The Way. 

Using Studio DIY's guide to building a piñata base, we made this rainbow Bevo for our last day of school. We are affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin--Bevo was a slightly ironic choice. Please excuse the crazy fringe in the last photo, it was taken outside in the wind, moments before Rainbow Bevo met his maker.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream Sandwiches

I would be remiss if I didn't immediately give a shout-out to Ruby Jewel, whose Lemon and Lavender ice cream sandwiches changed my life years ago--and was craving like a madwoman when I decided to make these cookies. It's all thanks to Ruby Jewel. And Matt Lewis. And Renato Poliafito. And my weirdo cravings. Okay, there are a fair amount of thanks to go around. 

See, the thing is, it's hot in Texas (surely I've mentioned that recently?) and so, while I'm happy to whip up the occasional bake good, for Baked Sunday Mornings--or Just Because--I've been dying to turn my attention to ice creams. Yes, I made Popsicles last week (three different times, actually), but Popsicles don't really feel all that special lately. Ive cream, ice cream is special, if only for the sheer volume of work that it involves.

Once upon a time I worked for an ice cream company, and every time that I make ice cream at home, I bemoan my lack of industrial-size ice cream maker. Seriously. Then again, I don't know if my former employer would be interested in selling Honey Lavender Ice Cream. Which is too bad, because I am definitely interested in eating it. Sorry, Amy, your loss... and my personal ice cream making gain. 

Honey Lavender Ice Cream 

Adapted from Epicurious 
Ingredients 
   1 1/2 cups heavy cream
   1 1/2 cup half-and-half
   1/2 cup mild honey
   2 tablespoons dried edible lavender flowers
   2 large eggs
   1/8 teaspoon salt

Special equipment: a candy or instant-read thermometer; an ice cream maker

Directions 

1. Bring cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender just to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove pan from heat. Let steep, covered, 30 minutes.
2. Pour cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard lavender. Return mixture to cleaned saucepan and heat over moderate heat until hot.
3. Whisk together eggs and salt in a large bowl, then add 1 cup hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Pour into remaining hot cream mixture in saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on thermometer, about 5 minutes (do not let boil).
4. Pour custard through sieve into cleaned bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours or overnight. 
5. Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Cream Cheese Chocolate Snacking Cookies

I've been waiting for this moment, all my life--okay, maybe not "all my life"--but I've been waiting to find the perfect chocolate, chocolate chip cookie for a flippin' long time. Let's momentarily step out of We're All Perfect Blogland, because we are about to switch to confessions of a [former] teenaged preprepared cookie dough fiend. Don't worry, I've been long-since cured.

Yes, we should have known better. Yes, my mother is a pastry chef. Yet, there is no comparison for the joy of watching Mean Girls with your adolescent brother, while eating per-packedged cookie dough with a spoon (while drinking margaritas? Sorry, Mom) 

Once upon a time in a Tina Fey as an adorable, yet hopeless, high school math teacher era we fell in love with gory chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. We found a dough--laden with unpronounceable ingredients, weird preservatives, and [when unbaked] potential salmonellas--that made the best chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, well, ever.  Until this week.  I can pronounce every ingredient in these cookies, and, both their batter and their finished product are perfect for soft chocolate cookie lover like myself. 

By the way, look forward to seeing these cookies again soon...  They've made their way into homemade ice cream sandwiches, and I can't wait to share those with you!

Friday Five

1. My life has changed drastically from when I last chose a personal mantra. This may be the one I need for this phase of my life. 
2. Cronuts. That is all.
3. The boys' room is in need of a make-over in the biggest way. I think they need a giant mural of the Earth from space. Agreed? 
4. I want to eat this. 
5. "You can keep Mr. Grey, I'm sticking with Mr. Darcy" tote is just so full of yes. 

Minty Matcha Cocktail

Do you remember last week when I promised that I would show you a way to use that crazy cucumber & green tea vodka? A lady keeps her promises. Even if she realizes after making them, what a strange, strange idea cucumber & green tea vodka really was. 

Because I used Matcha tea to make this vodka, and let it sit for, ehem, weeks, after infusing, it was remarkably earthy. I mean that in a good way, I love earthy. Overly sweet cocktails just aren't my thing, y'all. It's a personal preference thing--if it wouldn't be socially unacceptable/painful for my sodium levels, I would probably drink bloody marys far more regularly. Saccharine just doesn't suit me. 

Feel free to experiment with the amount of sugar in this drink--I initially made this far sweeter than I liked, but eventually worked out an amount that suited me. Maybe you like your drinks on the sweet side?

Ingredients
   2 oz infused cucumber green tea vodka
   Agave
   Fresh mint
   Club soda
   Ice

Directions

1. Combine ice and mint in a glass. Add vodka to the glass, stir to chill vodka. 
2. Add agave to taste, and top off glass with club soda.

I feel like this cocktail needs a snappy name--any suggestions?

Coconut Orange Creamsicles

It's June & it's HOT in Texas. Talk about your shocking circumstances (or not). What this part of the world (and your part of the world too, probably) needs, is a nice, cold, popsicle. Not a weird, added sugar, unpronounceable ingredients, popsicle--but a delicious, homemade, fully pronounceable popsicle.

Creamsicles happen to my very favorite ice cream bars, so I started this summer's popsicle making with an homage to those treats from my childhood. These four-ingredient pops are the kind of of thing that I feel good about serving to the littles (and even the littlest little, their baby brother).

Yes, these [healthyish] popsicles are 100% kid-approved. You really can't beat that! 

Ingredients

   1 can full-fat coconut milk

   Juice of two oranges (and zest, if desired)

   2 teaspoons honey or agave (or to taste) 

   1 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Directions 

1. Combine ingredients in a measuring cup with a pour spout. Pour into popsicle molds.
2. Freeze until solid and enjoy. 

Baked Sunday Mornings: Mississippi Mud Pie (A)

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. Okay, truth time, I never understood why it was so impressive that everyone learnt how to spell Mississippi in elementary school. Notoriously horrible speller that I am--more so now than then--I couldn't be bothered to care very much. I grew up in Texas, and knew how to spell Texas, and spent the remainder of my six year-old brainpower trying to learn how to draw the state of Texas. I always envied kinds who lived in square state, why couldn't I have been born in Colorado?

I guess I can blame my lifelong fondness for all things Southwest (and West Coast) for my lack of Mississippi Mud Pie experience. Seriously, have I never had one of these before? Because if I have, (A) it didn't taste like this (B) I don't remember it, resulting in (C) this pie was a freaking revelation. Mississippi Mud Pie is crazy delicious, even when you dial down on the burbon to make it more kid friendly.

I wish that I could tell you that I made my own ice cream for this project, but admittedly  migraines and end-of-year celebrations got in the way of my full-blown Martha. I used Häagen-Dazs (another unnecessarily difficult proper noun) coffee ice cream, and I don't think the pie was any worse off because of it. I know, Martha, I'm sorry. Next time.

By the way, that's what it looks like when you try to freeze a pie on top of a few jars of frozen preserves: lopsided. Lesson learned.