Feeding Friendship: Peppermint

This time around, in honor of the Christmas season and its flavors, I chose peppermint as our featured ingredient.

While there are several killer cocktails out there involving peppermint flavor, I decided right away on the candy classic: peppermint bark. It's easy, involves few ingredients, is highly gift-able and has the added bonus of involving 2 kinds of peppermint: candy canes and extract. I decided to make a big batch and my original recipe called for:

2 lbs. white chocolate baking pieces
1 cup crushed candy canes
peppermint extract

Once I got out the peppermint extract, there was another recipe for peppermint bark on the box. It only called for 16oz of baking pieces, but helpfully gives an amount of extract- 1 tsp - as well as suggesting using food coloring to make red or green swirls in the chocolate. Sooo, I ended up with this final recipe cobbled from the two above:

2lbs white chocolate
~1/2 cup crushed candy candy (1 c is too much, maybe 6 canes will do it)
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
~10 drops red food coloring

Start the process by unwrapping your candy canes if necessary, putting them in a baggie and smashing them to a size you'd be comfortable eating on top of candy. You may want to use a rolling pin or something less angular than my friend the hammer here, since I ended up with some fairly serious gashes in my baggie. This may just be the hazard of working with sharp candy, so crush cautiously.

crushing candy canes

I bought my 'canes in bulk

Next, you'll need to melt the chocolate pieces by using a double boiler or using a metal bowl on top of a pot of boiling water or microwaving in 30 second intervals and stirring in between. Sorry for the plethora of options there, but everyone's equipment is different. I used the bowl on a pot method and added the pieces gradually, stirring with something heat-proof to help the new pieces melt.

my crude but effective setup- won't burn your chocolate!

stir occasionally while it melts

While the chocolate is melting, get out a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) and cover it with wax paper or parchment paper. Once your chocolate has achieved a smooth, creamy state, remove from heat and add your extract. The extract is clear, so I'm not including a photo here of adding something clear to something white. Yawn.

ready to pour

When you've stirred in your extract completely, pour the chocolate out onto the cookie sheet you prepared. Spread the chocolate with a spatula until it's around 1/4 inch thick.

spreading out the chocolate- 2lbs makes most of a pan

Next came the only part I found at all tricky. The McCormick directions said to dot the chocolate with the food coloring and spread with a wooden skewer- I chose a toothpick, being fresh out of skewers. I found the spreading of the color to be a bit tricky and hard to achieve an appealing overall effect. Observe:

dotting the food coloring, per the directions

hmmm

spreading the cheer 

If this was a pan of those cheesecake brownies, I would be seriously irritated. However peppermint bark gets broken up into smallish pieces, so it's not a big deal if your color is not distributed evenly and beautifully over the surface of the chocolate. You can even skip the food coloring step, and I'm certain your bark will still appear plenty festive. I just happened to have some red food coloring burning a hole in my pantry after a recent foray into red velvet cake pops. Once your color is spread to your satisfaction (or the best of your ability before the chocolate sets up), sprinkle on the candy cane pieces you previously smashed. Lovely. You may want to press them down into the chocolate a bit to help with candy retention during the breaking phase.

sprinkle and pat down your pieces

Then, into the refrigerator goes you pan for 45 minutes or until the chocolate sets up completely. I'm sure you can cheat by using the freezer if you're in a hurry.

chilling out

Once it's set, get your pan out and break into bite-sized chunks. I ended up using a knife for this, because darn it, candy canes are sticky! I would just pick an area and slowly lean on the knife until it created a fault line and then cut pieces down from there. No need to be perfect or form squares!

breaking up the bark

Tah-dah! Now you have peppermint bark to snack on or share. George asked for seconds, and I thought it was just minty enough without being overkill. Go forth and make bark!

Feeding Friendship: Sweet Potato

This time around Ellie picked the sweet potato for our ingredient.

Now, I'm not wild about sweet potatoes- you won't catch me ordering sweet potato fries instead of regular- but I have eaten one sweet potato dish that won me over. A couple years ago, my sister-in-law Stephanie's mother graciously hosted George & I for Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of the family. I tried her sweet potato casserole, and it was amazing. I've been thinking about trying to re-create it since then, but I hadn't given it a try until now. Now, a smart person would just ask Stephanie if her mom could give me the recipe, but I didn't do that. I reviewed all the sweet potato casserole/souffle recipes and decided that I would try out the one that seemed the most standard, but omit the nut topping and replace it with marshmallows like the one I liked.

Ingredients:
3 cups mashed sweet potato (3 to 4 large potatoes)
1/3 cup butter (I used unsalted)
3/4 cup white sugar (cut it to half a cup if you like it less sweet)
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten (or egg beaters)
~1 cup small marshmallows

The original recipe is here if you want to check out the nut topping.

I started by boiling the potatoes for around 23 minutes until a fork stuck in them came out easily.

Once I got them out of the boiling water and let them sit just a little bit, I worked on removing the skin. It's easiest to do it while they're still warm, but be really careful since those suckers are pretty hot coming out of that pot. I actually used a dishwashing glove on one hand to protect from the heat and grip the skin better. (btw, True Blue makes the BEST gloves ever. They are fabric-lined and very sturdy) 

The method I had the best success with was to use a regular fork to remove the very tip of both ends (which were a little bit funky anyway) and then run one tine of the fork under the skin for the length of the potato skin like a scalpel. The skin should tear easily and then you can grab the "closed" side and pull the whole thing off. 

Once your potatoes are skinless, put them in a large bowl and add the butter and sugar. 

Mash the potatoes with the butter and sugar until smooth. Then add the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs. 

I just kept using my masher to combine the wet ingredients as well. Potatoes can't be too silky, in my opinion. Once it's all well combined, put it into an oven-proof casserole dish. A size around 2 quarts should do it. 

Next add your marshmallows on top. I made mine cover the whole surface pretty thoroughly, but obviously you can use your own preferred marshmallow density. 

Then it's into the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. You'll want to check on it a few minutes early with a convection oven. Take it out when the marshmallows start to turn golden.. like this!

done! 

mmm, marshmallows 

The final result was pretty tasty! It might not have been quite as good as the original dish, but butter, cinnamon, and sugar definitely succeeded in making something palatable that I would rather not eat. 

Feeding Friendship: The Egg

Hello readers. This time Veronica picked the egg as her ingredient, in order to use up the output of their new feathered backyard tenants in the "fowlamo." This cycle I have failed on the photo front due to some work travel and general lameness, but I wanted to share a recipe that I make all the time featuring eggs: Quiche Lorraine. Despite its delicate French name, it's a tasty and hearty quiche that can be enjoyed openly by men since it includes bacon. It also makes great leftovers that I can take to work for lunch for several days. Great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Ingredients:

6 to 8 pieces of bacon
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (or substitute cheese of your choice)
1/3 cup minced onion
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups whipping cream or half-and-half
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
1 pie crust

Preheat your oven to 425. Cook 6-8 pieces of bacon (depending on how much bacony goodness you want) and crumble once cool (or crumble the pre-cooked variety). Make or buy a standard 9" pie crust. In the bottom of the pie crust, spread the bacon, 1/3 cup minced onion, and 1 cup of Swiss cheese (I like cheddar or Gruyere too, Swiss is just the traditional cheese for this quiche).

In a medium bowl, beat your eggs. Then add the salt and pepper and beat in the cream or half and half. Combine well and then pour this mixture over the other elements in your pie crust. You may want to put your pie crust on a cookie sheet before you pour to make it easier to transfer to the oven. Don't overfill, as this sometimes makes a little too much cream/egg mixture for your crust. Carefully put the quiche in the oven. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350. Bake another 45-50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The center will puff up slightly, but will fall after you remove it from the oven. Wait a few minutes for it to cool and then slice or put it in the fridge and serve later. It keeps pretty well for several days. So yummy!

Up-cycled Chalk/Bulletin Board

The other day George and I went to brunch in Old Town on a Sunday morning. We parked on the street and I noticed some "good miscellaneous" out on the curb for a Monday trash day. After brunch I spied a large picture frame leaning against a tree and decided to take a closer look. For reference, only fairly wealthy people can afford to live in that area, and I figure if you have a million dollar mortgage and a gorgeous federal style house, your trash may be my treasure. I loved the way the paint was peeling from the frame, and it was still in possession of its hanging wire in the rear but had no glass. I declared it to be "shabby chic" and insisted we take it with us, much to George's chagrin. I had been tossing around ideas for one corner of my kitchen since we moved in, I've looked at many shelves, coat racks, apron holders, etc and never settled on anything I liked. Recently I was thinking how cute and easy it would be to do a framed chalk board with the frame of my choosing by making my own chalk board with the specialized chalk board paint they sell now. With this project in mind, I promised to use the frame or put it in the trash at our house instead. Here is the frame I found:

You'll notice it's still got a little brown paper clinging to the back, and it definitely had some cobwebs clinging to the front. The first thing it did was take it out back and give it a good rub down with a rag, not particularly caring if I knocked more paint off. At this point, I realized that under the off-white paint there was gold paint- yay! I think it adds to the vintage, shabby chic feel, and lots of people have to paint twice and sand to fake that layered look. Observe: 

Next, I flipped it over and removed all the little bendy staple things that would normally be used to press the backing into a picture frame. I used regular pliers for this. I later reflected that maybe I could have left them to help hold my board in place, but they were rusty and some a little loose, so I'm not mad that I ditched them. 

There were a few areas where the paint was really flaking and/or the wood seemed a little rough, so I took a fine-grit sand paper and hand sanded most of the frame. Since the paint didn't flake evenly, I used the sand paper to help the flaking along in a few areas. 

After sanding I gave it another quick wipe-down to remove the dust. I decided that I wanted to preserve the paint I had and prevent further chipping, so I gave the whole frame a quick clear coat of Mod Podge Hard Coat, which is intended to be used on wood, furniture, etc. (sidebar: did you know there are like 8 kinds of Mod Podge, including outdoor and sparkle!?) 

Now we come to the chalk board portion of the project. I was debating what type of material I would paint with the chalk board paint right up until I went to Home Depot. I thought about just using one of those presentation cardboard things we used to use for school projects, but once I got to HD I saw that I could get hardboard for even cheaper. Hardboard is a thin board that's hard an smooth on one side and sort of fuzzy on the other. I had them cut it from the standard size to the size of the slot in the back of my frame. It was <$5 and I didn't have to get out a saw- love it! I also picked the spray paint type of chalk board paint because it was the smallest size it came in and I knew I wouldn't come close to using a pint of the stuff. At some point during my visit to Michael's to check on the cardboard option, I decided that I might not need a 36" wide chalkboard and that having a cork board to pin coupons and cards to would be perfect right next to my mail station in the kitchen. I bought a 4-pack of 12" x 12" dark-colored cork tiles for about $13-- $2 more than their more traditionally colored cork brethren, but definitely $2 more chic and a better match to my kitchen. 

My first step to create the chalk board was to put the hardboard on a drop cloth outside and spray on 2 layers of primer, per the package suggestion on the chalk board paint. After this had dried maybe half an hour, I put on 3 separate layers of chalk board paint, letting it dry around 10-15 minutes between coats (follow package directions on whatever you buy if you're trying this). Only do this outside, because the fumes were pretty serious, even in the great outdoors. Slow, smooth, constant motion is key with spray paint- that, and a strong arm for shaking the can beforehand. Whew!

I let the board dry on the drop cloth inside overnight once it was dry to the touch- you can't be too careful with paint transfer in your house. My next problem was how to affix the board into the frame in a sturdy way that would support the cork board and future bric-a-brac. I tried hot glue around the edge in round one, but Watson quickly pointed out the flaw in using such a brittle and easily removable glue by sitting on the board and popping it swiftly away from its frame. I can always count on my furry stress testers. Then it dawned on me that I should use wood glue to glue wood. Duh. Since the frame was partially suck down by the hot glue still, I left it in place and used the wood glue around the board's edges to bind it in place. We're still on the drop cloth for this step- no sense gluing all over your table or floor. You may have also noticed from the photos that the corners of the frame are gaping a bit, so I squeezed some wood glue into the gaps in the rear of the frame to help stabilize these joints. I let this all dry overnight. On one corner the glue did escape out of the front of the frame forming a rather un-aesthetic glob which I'll need to pick/chisel off eventually. This glue seems very stable, so I moved on to the cork board phase. 

I decided that I would use the whole 12" tile width since my frame is rather large. The space was also > 12" tall, so this meant that I could leave 1 tile intact and only cut 1 side of another tile to fit it inside the frame. I used a box cutter and long level as a straight edge for the cut, because my scissors just weren't, well, cutting it. The cork will crumble all over the place, so cut on a drop cloth or something else to catch the debris and protect your work surface.

cutting the cork along a straight edge

I fit the two tiles in place without gluing first and trimmed the second tile's edge a bit for a good fit. Then I put a liberal amount of wood glue on one side of the tile and stuck it to the hardboard. I did the same to the smaller cork piece and then put random heavy objects on the corners to make sure they stuck and wouldn't gap while the glue dried. I left it overnight on my drop cloth drying while weighed down. All that was left now was to hang it up! I centered it on my kitchen wall and used a 20 lb picture hook for good measure. And, voila! 

Including all the supplies- board, cork, paints, primer, and Mod Podge- I spent $35 - $40 on the whole project. I couldn't find a framed chalk board on Etsy the same size for less, and Pottery Barn is offering one basically the same size with less character for $99! So, I now have a place to display weekly dinner options, leave notes for George, and pin up memories along with the satisfaction of having "up-cycled" a vintage frame destined for destruction. This project would work in a variety of sizes and it's easy to find framed art at Goodwill for like $2 to buy for the frame and paint. 

30 by 30

Hello Dear Readers. After completing my (semi) recent birthday, I've decided to follow in my dear friend Ellie's shoes and chalk up a set of goals for myself to complete by my next birthday. You can read her fabulous blog over at Stiches and SNPs. Some goals are big, some are little, but I am declaring them in order to be held accountable. I let myself off the hook for some things if I only risk disappointing myself, so I figured that being motivated by semi-public shame would be just the kick in the pants I need to get some things done. Feel free to comment, participate, check in on me and suggest modifications to my goals. Without further ado, I give you 30 by 30.

1. Complete our wedding scrap book. I did the slick commercial one, now I need to do the version where I'll put in our invitations, programs, and the sign-in cards we had our guests write. Have I bought some supplies? Yes. Have I started? No.
2. Tile our entryway. That faux malachite has gotta go, so it's time to bust out the tile saw again.
3. Have the light fixture in our bathroom centered and paint the room. Half involves calling an electrician and the other half will be all me. I'll let you work out which is which.
4. Floss more. Simple, yet difficult to enforce. I want my dentist visits to be quick and painless- literally.
5. Visit Frank Lloyd Wright's house Fallingwater. It's not that far to drive to PA, and I had better do it while I live in the area. 5 b. Visit the Pope Leighey house- it's like 10 minutes from me and I haven't gone.
6. Sew a skirt using the fabric I bought at Mood. This will be the first piece of clothing that I make myself.
7. Do ancestry research at the New York Public library. Both George and I have ancestors in the New York City area and many of the library's resources aren't online.
8. Sew a handbag...most likely with fabric from my new favorite place, Tonic Living
9. Make a quarterly photo pilgrimage. Take part of a day each quarter to go out and just take pictures.
10. Corollary to 9- re-read my digital SLR manual and remember how to work all its features again.
11. Cook something that really scares me about once a month
12. Finished the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series.
13. Learn to make 2 Indian dishes that aren't chicken tikka masala.
14. Read the whole George Smiley series by John Le Carre, preferably all from the public library
15. Drink more water and less Coke. *sigh*
16. Refinance the house. Good times ahead there, friends.
17. Get all the art framed that we already own.
18. Learn to knit enough to make a scarf.
19. Get a real filing cabinet: the two plastic totes are just not cutting it anymore.
20. Start a Tumblr account for my photos to see if anyone likes them besides me.
21. Visit an art museum at least quarterly. It's only the Potomac...I've got to cross it more often.
22. Create more original recipes like my cheesecake bars instead of just making everyone else's recipes all the time.
23. Visit a beach in Maryland this year. I've lived on this coast for 5 years and have never stuck my toes in local sand- it ends this year!
24. Take a knife skills class to, ahem, sharpen my knife skills in the kitchen
25. Blog at least 3 times per month OUTSIDE of Feeding Friendship posts
26. Reshape my rear end via exercise until it is a shape that fits into all the work pants I already own
27. Celebrate 5 years of coupledom with George in June by taking a trip of some kind (neither of us can believe it's been that long)
28. Call/Facetime/Skype/see my friends more often: ie, suck less at keeping in touch
29. Run another race with Ellie and Veronica this year
30. Start hemming & shortening a significant portion of my own skirts and pants. With my deceptively short legs, that tailoring adds up at $15 a pop, and the savings will soon pay for my sewing machine.

Newport Weekend

I had been meaning to visit my friend Amanda in Connecticut for quite a while, as I had only been up once while she was getting her PhD. Unfortunately, I chose the week after the most horrendous early snowstorm in CT (you probably read about it in the news) and my poor friend was still without power a week after the storm. Since she and her boyfriend Brandon were already camped at a hotel, we decided to road trip. Amanda picked the town of Newport, RI for its historic mansions and generally lovely seaside vibe. And then brandon got the flu. He decided to be a trooper and make the trek anyway, so they picked me up in Hartford and we drove to Newport. Having picked out a local cafe for breakfast and planned to hit historic mansions the next day, we called it a night. ...and then Amanda got the flu too. Bummer. I therefore conducted my Newport photo safari solo until we met up later for some pizza and football in the hotel.

Since it was still gorgeous, I'll share a few photos and a little history from Newport. Here is what constituted a "summer cottage" for Cornelius Vanderbilt, a railroad baron from New York whose fortune was estimated at around $75 million IN THE 1890s! Think about that for a minute. Using an online currency calculator, that would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.8 Billion in 2010 money (the latest year it would figure). So spending $12 million (~$318 million now) on a Renaissance style palazzo on the water was no biggie.

lamp post and part of the front facade of the house

Facade from another angle with an ornamental urn

Just a wee summer cottage of 65,000 sq ft and 70 rooms, ho hum. It was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, and started a fashion for period houses in America. He practically became the Vanderbilt family architect and also built the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina that you might know. The real disappointment was that no photography was allowed inside the house, so I just listened to my interactive audio tour and kept my lens to myself...but it was hard. The walls had beaucoup gold leaf on walls and ceilings with carved putti (cherubs), murals, mosaics and in interior fountain in a "grotto" under the grand staircase.  One room with grey-green paint had platinum painted panels featuring the Muses- not silver, platinum, the world's most expensive metal. The grand entry hall was meant to impress and entertain everyone from business titans to politicians and visiting foreign diplomats. Its ceiling soars 50 feet high, has an upstairs balcony, and the Vanderbilt crest featuring 3 acorns (gilded, of course) is prominently featured. It makes quite the impression. 

Here's an image I found online: 

Apparently it became a family tradition to slide down the stairs on large serving trays at parties. The shape of the stairs is based on the grand staircase at the Opera House in Paris, which I can actually vouch for. Here are some mediocre pics I took of the opera house stairs (it's not the most well-lit space). You can tell that it's one main staircase created from 2 branching off to each side at a graceful angle. And, yes those are large bronze reclining ladies holding up the lights. 

The left side of the stairway

The left side and upper levels in Paris

The middle of the main part of the staircase

See the resemblance? The level of ornament and detail in the house's grand hall is only slightly less. The Vanderbilt ladies had the stairs built 2 inches shorter than normal to accomodate gliding down the stairs in long gowns. The rooms weren't as crazy as this part of the opera house...

A room at the Paris Opera House

The Vanderbilt's dining room

...but they were close, as you can see by comparing the photos. The Dining room shot is by John Corbett, of The Preservation Society of Newport County. I have no other interior shots to share, so you should really go see it in person- here's their website. Here are some shots from the rear of the house, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean from a cliff with, you guessed it, breaking waves. 

A view from the porch, if you can call it that

An upper story window, complete with putti and Corinthian capitals

The Breakers from the back. Yowza. 

Here are a few detail shots before we push on to the Cliff Walk. 

Some lichen on a trademark acorn ornament 

The side view of the house with a bush and one errant bit of ivy

Out behind al the mansions there runs a lovely paved path that goes pretty much all the way into downtown Newport. I only took maybe 1/4 of it, but it was very scenic and well worth a walk. Here are some shots of the views, waves, and the last optimistic blooms of some wild roses. 

The Breakers' neighbors

Waves coming in

Some of the neighbors' "cottages" down the coast

Mr. Bee, working it for the camera

Looking along a small bay

A late rose bud 

In Newport you can get a 1, 2, or 5 mansion pass, so I headed up the road a bit to Marble House, built by Alva Vanderbilt, wife of William K. Vanderbilt, who was Cornelious's younger brother. She was quite a firecracker, it seems, and designed the whole house very collaboratively with Richard Morris Hunt, who was made famous by The Breakers. The house cost around $11 million and includes 500,000 cubic feet of marble, mostly in a sort of warm beige tone, except for the formal dining room, which is red marble from Algeria. Alva incorporated lots of relatively feminist symbols in her home from Athena to female chemists. Alva was very involved in securing the right to vote for women, holding many suffrage fundraisers at the house. She even had special china made that said "votes for women" on it. I tried to sneak a picture of the china, but the glass case was faking out my lens. Of course, the Interwebs have an example here. She was never thrilled with her marriage to William, and soon blazed another trail for upper class women: divorce. Alva married a Frenchman for love, but had 3 children with Mr. Vanderbilt. She groomed her only daughter from birth to marry into European aristocracy, and the stuffy red bedroom complete with darkly carved 4-poster bed certainly gives you that message. Poor Consuelo (yep, that was her name- eesh) was a famous beauty and became a Duchess of Marlborough to a rather impoverished Duke. Consuelo produced her "heir and a spare" before following in her mother's footsteps to divorce and remarriage. (don't feel too sorry for him, he got $2 million a year for life from her family) I'm reading her memoir now, which is interesting. Anyway, here is the outside of Marble House. 

It's hard to tell from this angle, but she based the plans on the petit trianon palace at Versailles where Marie Antoinette lived. Alva was a huge fan of Louis XIV and XVand had a large portrait of XV in their dining room. 

The rear of the house

Alva built a Chinese tea house out back...I wasn't a fan.  

View of the sea from the back yard. I like how the shadows turned out. 

That concludes the photographic portion of my trip. My poor sickly friends weren't feeling too photogenic, so there aren't any of us, but we had a good visit despite the ongoing adversity. I would definitely return to Newport, and if you have a cool $4 million lying around, you can buy the house just down the street from Marble House and I'll come to visit.