Friday, December 21, 2012

I am headed home today much to my excitement.  Although I have loved celebrating the holiday season  with Erich,  I have been missing home a bit.  Luckily, a few friends came up for a soiree we threw last weekend so that tided me over this week.  Below is a picture from the party.  I thought Erich had snapped a photo of the delicious spread we made for the party, but he only captured the hummus?!





Anyways, one of my New Year's resolutions is to take more pictures for the blog, so wish me luck!


And incase your are curious as to what we made for our party, "For the love of Tapas Christ," I have listed the tapas selection below.

For The Love of Tapas Christ

Crunchy Curried Chickpeas (Sprouted Kitchen cookbook)
Lemon and Herb Hummus (Sprouted Kitchen cookbook)
Whole Roasted Tandoori Cauliflower with Mint Chutney  (My New Roots)
Sweet Potato Bellini with Black Bean salsa (found here)
Roasted Pork Belly with a vinegar dipping sauce 
Roasted chestnuts with cinnamon and sugar
Unami flat bread (Bottomless Pie)
Roasted Red Pepper flatbread with Gorgonzola Cream




Have a holly jolly Christmas!

-Ash

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Deck the halls

   This weekend, Erich and I bought a tree and some tree fixings.  It's our first tree and Christmas season together.  Needless to say it has been one of the best, though I am missing my friends and family.  I am an only child so there is no one to assist my parents with the tree, so my Catholic guilt is kicking in.  

   Erich suggested that we start a little tradition in which we each add an ornament to the tree every Christmas season.  For our first Christmas, we went to Anthropologie and picked up the fluffy white owl, and the polar bear who is carrying a fish.  The other ornaments are from Target and make great fillers until we have a real collection of special ornaments. 










    We even put a little garland in our bathroom.  Oh and we made hanging planters in mason jars to bring a little life to our bathroom a few weeks ago.


    Sunday I sketched up a Christmas card, and we pulled out the Gocco and printed away!  I cannot wait to give them out!

It's official 12 days till Christmas!  Get your egg nog on!

Friday, December 7, 2012

My signature salad

    So, it's true.  I have a signature salad, and if I owned a little cafe or restaurant, this would be on the menu.  The ingredients change slightly each season.  For the fall/winter recipe, see below.  It's the perfect, I ate too many carbs and need a break, but still want the warm comfort of a hearty winter meal.  Ya know what I mean?



Ashley's Signature Salad

serves 2

arugula (kale makes a great substitution)
8-12 brussel sprouts (quartered)
3-4 carrots (halved lengthwise and cut into thirds)
1/2 an avocado
3 Tbsp. pepita seeds
salt 
pepper
cumin
feta

dressing

1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

   First coat the brussel sprouts and carrots with olive oil, and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until you see some caramelization happening.  Season to taste when they are finished. While the vegetables roast toast the pepita seeds in a pan until golden brown.  Once everything is finished toss together and voila! 

Hope your weekend is filled with festive holiday wonderfulness! 






Thursday, December 6, 2012

Jacquard pattern


I designed the jacquard pattern for this lovely coat for Anthropologie.  
Tis the perfect gift! Buy it here!









Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Life lately





Friday night we experimented with our pie dough recipe.
Success or failure?  Find out here.


Saturday morning we hit Blue Sky in Park Slope.  
Erich had the pumpkin walnut muffin scene above.
I ordered their banana chocolate chip bread.  Mmmm!


    I had Erich take a silly picture of me afterwards for my Dad, who seemed very interested in the new Barclays Center.


I went on a walk around Prospect Park on Sunday. 


    My dad sent me home with a container of chili, and although I had enough for two Erich insisted upon making his own dinner Sunday night.  Quite the pile!

  Two more days till next weekend! Woooooo!

Thanksgiving

    The holidays came fast and furious this year as usual.  It seems like Thanksgiving was yesterday...I am always a bit bummed after Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday, and I hate the thought of having to wait another whole year to celebrate!  I did not take very many pictures of my thanksgiving.  Now that I live in New York, when I return home I make rounds to visit family and friends, which is wonderful yet a bit exhausting. 

   Thanksgiving morning I headed over to make pie crust in Erich's mom's kitchen aid.  Oh how I cannot wait to own one of those one day!  Before we got down to pie crust making, we ate pumpkin cinnamon rolls via Miss Deb's recipe.  Found at the one and only, Smitten Kitchen.  (Have you bought the book yet?  It's amazing and makes the perfect holiday gift!)


Before frosting...


     
 
After!!!

    Then I attempted to make my first apple pie.  Usually my Uncle makes his infamous apple pie, but he was not feeling up to it this year, so I offered to fill the void.  I found a recipe for a salted caramel apple pie on A Cozy Kitchen blog, and I knew I had to make it.  (Recipe found here.)



   It turned out okay...but not great.  My family showered me with compliments, but I knew what they were thinking.  (I wish we eating Uncle John's pie...)  The apples did not cook through, the crust did not glisten, and the caramel did not caramelize.  Oh well.  It was my first pie.  I can't be too hard on myself.  Right?

   Full of thanks and food, I headed over to my second families household and to my surprise when I opened the door, Lea's friend was giving tarot card readings.  I had my cards read, and then I cuddled up with Izzy Fartalini.  Her last name describes what you may have guessed.  She toots.  A lot.


The little stinker sure is cute!

    Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are immersing yourselves in the holiday spirit and holiday festivities!




Sunday, November 18, 2012

A new blog

    Erich and I have been cooking up a little blog called Bottomless Pie, in which we share our adventures making and eating pizza.

Check it out, here!

p.s. We'll be making a special pie tonight, so look for a new post later this week!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Patterns for Anthropologie

   Here are a few more pieces I worked on for Anthropologie's winter collection.  They even made the catalog!!! Woot, woot!

heart jacquard #1



heart jacquard #2

  

    For this pattern we used a space dye to mimic the texture of wood grain in the heart shapes.



    These two jacquard patterns were inspired by Ray Eames.  She used to place hand cut paper hearts in the hands of people she met.  What a cute gesture.




 Paisley




  To create the surface texture we mixed boiled wool with boucle, which makes the pattern appear out of focus.  This is a truely one of a kind piece!


Marble Print Lining



We fell head over heels for pom poms and tassles this season.  




Sunday, November 4, 2012

Birthday Boy, Bananas and Burgers=B cubed


  Erich recently turned 27.  His request was simple, yet complicated.  He wanted to plan a quiet night out with friends at his favorite bar in Brooklyn, 4th ave. pub, and he wanted me to make this cake to bring!  I could not complain really.  It was not like he was asking for roast lamb or an extravagant meal, but I was a bit intimidated by the four layer cake.  Luckily, it turned out not to be too hard to make, and there were no leftovers!  Unlike, Sarah, I did not have a spring form pan, so I divided the cake batter between two layer cake pans and cooked them for half the time.




  On Friday, we had a burger off as a special birthday dinner.  Recently, Erich has been obsessed with Asian ingredients...miso, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and bonito flakes.  He puts one or all into and onto everything!  It's pretty fantastic!  For his burger he made an "unami" pesto (roasted mushrooms, miso, garlic, bonito flakes, etc.).  He also made parmesan crackers, and roasted tomatoes to top his burger.


Unami burger by Erich


Brussel Sprout Burger by me


  For my burger, I sautéed brussel sprouts, garlic, and red onion with a little bit of olive oil and fish sauce.  I topped my burger with whole grain mustard, gouda, avocado and the brussel sprout mixture.  Both burgers were delicious!  Originally we had planned to make a third burger to share with the winning burger, but they were both so good!  So we combined the ingrediants to make the final burger, and it ended up being the most delicious!  Go figure.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Argyle Intarsia Cardigan

   The heart jacquard I worked on for Anthropologie is finally up!  It's one of the pieces that I personally love, and I think is a fall/winter must have.  You can wear it with jeans, a skirt or over a dress, and the color combo will make for easy outfitting.










Get it here!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Me sooo need Miso

  Last weekend, we traveled to Long Beach Island for a bachelor/bachelorette beach weekend celebration.  Almost the whole wedding crew made it, except for one of the bridesmaids who lives far far away.  I made the suggestion of having a little octoberfest potluck for dinner since I knew the boys would be bringing lots of special brews, and since we all love fall food festivities.  We had quite the spread!  One of the bridesmaids brought some special treats from lancaster...garlic herb french frommage, stilton, crackers and shoo fly pie.  Erich made home-made pretzels with the stinkiest cheese sauce.  I made an apple cake that was hardly touched despite it's delicious flavor.  (Don't worry, we've been savoring it everyday this week!)  Maura and Jim made a delicious kielbasa, cabbage and apple main course.  There was sooo much food, too much food one might say... Which left us with a bit of a stomach ache.  So after celebrating with rich food and endless amounts of beer/wine/alcohol/mulled cider, we felt it was only necessary to go on a little detox after we returned.  Hence "Me sooo need Miso."  It's easy to whip up especially when you have copious amounts of miso on hand, and it leaves you feeling nourished and satisfied.


Crew goes to beach.


We were lucky with the weather.  We even dipped our toes!  Not too chilly either!


Fall shoes step aside.  It's beach time!


Erich crafting up some special pretzels.


Check out those salt flakes!  Sorry I didn't get a chance to take a shot of the finished product.  
We ate them quick!


Miso in love with you.



Recipe
serves 2-3

4 cups of water
2-4 Tbsp. miso (any kind works, we used orange)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 bunch of spinach
2 green onions
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes divided between bowls
3 oz. udon noodles
pickled carrots

Cook noodles, rinse with cold water to prevent them from over cooking and separate into bowls.  Boil 4 cups of water and add miso one table spoon at a time, until you reach your desired taste.  Whisk to dissolve miso.  Clean, and cut stems off of spinach.  Add sesame oil to pan and cook spinach for a few minutes until the excess waters is gone.  Add spinach to miso soup.  Ladle soup into bowls, and add green onion, a pinch of red pepper flakes and pickled carrots.  Enjoy!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Southwest Blanket Sweater




I designed the intarsia layout for this sweater!  It's now available at Anthropologie.com.  

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Around the apartment

    It's hard to believe that I have been here a whole month!  Time has been flying!  The never ending project has been whipping our apartment into shape, and let me just say that last week was quite the workout!  Morning, noon and night, I sanded, primed, put on multiple coats of tongue oil or paint to different pieces of furniture I decided to rework.



Our apartment was literally an obstacle course of furniture for about 3/4 of last week.


     My parents let us have one of their chests so we could have extra storage in our kitchen/dining/living room in a stylish yet practical way.  (I think there should be a word for the combination of the three...just saying if you're living in new york you probably don't have all three).


     My uncle stripped the top of the table, and then Erich and I sanded down the chairs.  Not an easy task at all, but well worth it! We were originally going to do a dip dye thing with the white, but ended up color blocking instead.  The wall shelves are old milk crates and apple crates that we found at a thrift store in Brooklyn.  We needed extra cabinet space, and as soon as I saw the crates I knew they would be the perfect way to show off the beautiful dish ware set my parents gave to us.


     Erich's parents gifted us with a kemix, in addition to the new Sprouted Kitchen cookbook!  Loving that pour over coffee!


A little dip dye duvet.


We still have a few things to figure out, like lighting (Erich hates overhead lighting, but only has ugly lamps?!), as well as a few other things.  All in all, we made some serious headway and can sit back and relax a little more this week.


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