Home over-haul.

I am re-decorating my apartment. Mostly because half the things in my apartment just relocated with me from college, and I don't particularly like them any more/think I can do better.

My mom and aunt (who is practically a pro decorator) are coming to help me paint in three weeks. I have been busy ordering accessories like pillows and art and other such things for the rest of the re-design. Mostly, I want to re-do the walls. I have art and pictures of friends/family on the wall that have not been swapped out since I was a junior in college. Yeah... I don't even look like that any more...

I am planning on framing all the art and arranging that first, then filling in any remaining holes with a few pics of friends/family/possibly kitties.

However, I am most excited about my first Etsy purchase:

{Chevron Pillow Squares from HoneyPieDesign on Etsy. SOLD! To me!}

I am anxiously awaiting my two Chevron pillows in white and gold from HoneyPieDesign. Check out her shop. Lots of cute pillows!

I'll share part of my process with you all as I pick out paint samples this week, have all of my random online purchases delivered to work (since I don't have a doorman), and in three weeks, attempt to rent a ladder from the hardware store and paint my first wall ever... under the careful guidance of my aunt.

I finally ordered two prints from Paris vs. New York.

And those Ork Poster Minneapolis and Manhattan maps.

Martha Stewart Sundays: Spinach & Goat Cheese Omelet.

Why, yes, I did make a homemade spinach & goat cheese omelet this morning. And it was delicious. I even took a beautiful(-ish) picture of it before attacking it...

One of my goals in life is to make a better omelet. Mine always fall apart when I flip, or I let the eggs cook too long (to avoid the falling-apart), but then the eggs get too tough instead of moist and fluffy... Or I need a live-in French chef to make omelets for me.

*sigh*

Someday.

No recipe for this. Seriously, who can't figure out what goes in an omelet?

I'm having a lazy weekend. I have homework to do today and want to clean out my closet and finally replace my winter clothes with the summer clothes stored under my bed and clean the bathroom. But I also feel the need to just hang out today, go for a walk in the park, get an iced latte from Starbucks...

We'll see how far I get on my to-do list... after coffee.

Why I Love New York Wednesdays: Laundry service.

It's been a really busy 10 days since I've been back home after the holidays! I barely have time to put 2 thoughts together! Hopefully things will slow down soon so I can share some more interesting tidbits with you about the latest goings-on in the young professional world of NYC.

For the 2nd installment of Why I Love New York Wednesdays, I want to share something that I realized very quickly after I moved here: It's actually cheaper for me to have the Korean laundry joint across the street do my laundry than for me to do it myself. For the first 2 months, I was doing my laundry in my building's basement (I guess I am lucky enough to have a laundry room in my building) and was spending an outrageous amount of money on a single week's laundry in the coin-operated machines.

See:

2 loads in the wash machine: $6
2 loads in the dryer @ 45 minutes each: $8
Laundry detergent ($8 divided by 25 loads): $.34/load
Fabric softener ($9 divided by 100 loads): $.09/load (x2 for each week = $.18)
Special dark wash laundry detergent for dark jeans, etc. ($15 divided by 25 loads): $.60
---------------------------------------
=$15.12/week

Not to mention, the 3 hours I spent sitting in the weird, dimly-lit, soapy-smelling laundry room. Now, I noticed that other people in my building would leave their clothes unattended and run back up to their apartments while their things were in the machines, then come down after 45 minutes or whatever to just change them to the dryer. So, as my building seems pretty safe and everyone was doing it, I tried this for a few weeks.

Until an entire load of dark clothes, including my favorite Red Engine jeans from college and a beautiful jewel green Kenneth Cole ruched t-shirt, was stolen.

That was the last straw for me. And that's when I discovered the Korean laundry across the street, Reliable Laundry & Cleaners. And man, have they been reliable! It's one of those laundries that charges you by the pound for your laundry, so depending on the week and the number of towels in my laundry bag, I usually spend $8-$12 total. I drop it off at 8 a.m. on my way to work, and pick it up at 6 p.m. THE SAME DAY on my way home.

It's magical!

There's a place like this on practically every block. If you haven't found yours yet, keep looking. Or come check out my Koreans on 73rd street. Every week, they separate my clothes into lights, darks, and colors, wash my lights without bleach (I hate the smell of it!), use extra fabric softener on the towels per my request, and neatly fold everything and put it back in my laundry bag for me to take home and leave on my floor for 3 days before I decide to actually put things away.

So, yes, I love New York because there is guaranteed to be a laundry service (or two) on practically every block in a primarily residential nerighborhood that will do your laundry for you for cheaper than if you did it yourself. And the nice Korean man knows my name now, and I have absolutely no problem with him folding my delicates.

Martha Stewart Sundays: Turkey Chili.

So, one of my goals this year (not a resolution, per se) is to blog more often, and to give this blog a little more structure. Another goal (not resolution... because then I can't break it...) is to cook more often for myself and to experiment with baking and more variety in the things I attempt in my kitch.

Voila, I present Martha Stewart Sundays, when I will share a recipe or adventure in domesticity from the previous week... because hopefully I'll have done something domestic in the previous week! I firmly believe that young people don't cook enough for themselves (myself included!) and would be much healthier and happier if we cooked more and packed our own meals for work.

This week, I'm making a big batch of turkey chili (using leftover frozen turkey breast from Thanksgiving) to take to work for lunch, adapted from the South Beach Diet Turkey Chili recipe.

(Excuse me, please, I'm a terrible food photographer, I know! I swear, this tastes much better than it looks!)

Ingredients:

1 McCormick Original Chili Seasoning Packet
1 cup chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
2 cups 99% fat free chicken broth
2-14.5 ounce cans diced, no salt added tomatoes (do not drain)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1-14.5 ounce can cooked beans (do not drain)
1 lb. diced turkey breast meat, skin removed (you could also buy a roasted chicken prepared from the deli section of the grocery store and remove the skin)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
2. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, spice packet, and tomato paste. Partially cover and simmer until it thickens slightly, about 30 minutes.
3. Add diced turkey and beans. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Divide into 4 servings. Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition info:
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 383.3
Total Fat: 9.8 g
Cholesterol: 48.8 mg
Sodium: 2,491.0 mg
Total Carbs: 34.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 13.9 g
Protein: 30.0 g

(I use the recipe calculator on SparkRecipes to calculate the nutritional value of my recipes. This is a really neat tool, especially when I'm trying to detox a little right now after the fat/carbs/sugar of the holiday season!)

This turned out delicious! I don't love beans, so I loved that this had a 2:1 ratio of tomatoes and turkey to the actual beans. It gives it just enough of the right texture without being overwhelming.

Wall candy.

Remember my obsession with posters from Paris vs New York last week?

Yeah, now I also want these posters from Ork Posters! too. Nothing like showing off my Mpls hometown pride alongside my newfound sense of Manhattan snobbery. Posters from $22, screen prints from $27 at orkposters.com.

Minneapolis

Manhattan

Love.

A foray into vegan-ish baking.

Do you ever really want to make something, and then realize that you don't have half the ingredients? Or better yet, your milk/eggs/SUPER IMPORTANT INGREDIENT is expired?

This seems to happen to me a lot... Maybe because I don't buy groceries that often. Or because life gets in the way and I don't actually cook anything when I originally planned on it... So I experiment!

A few weeks ago, I was planning to make Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Layer Cake for Thanksgiving, bought all the ingredients, and then we didn't have time to make it. And here, 3 weeks later, I still had all the ingredients... except the eggs and milk are expired... and there's no way in hell I'm going out in the freezing rain in NYC today just for some stupid eggs.

Experimentation! I've never tried vegan baking, but I've heard good things about it. Basically, you replace the wet ingredients like milk and eggs with things like applesauce, mashed banana, pumpkin puree, canola oil, etc.

After googling a few recipes, I started with this one for Vegan Old-fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies in mind... and added some other things to make it into cake batter... My additions are in pink.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I nixed the 1/2 cup whole wheat flour because of course, I'm lucky to have ANY flour at all, let alone whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't have ground cloves either, so I added an extra 1/2 t. of ginger)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (So I cheated, it's not vegan anymore... because I have regular old unsalted butter in my fridge, no vegan margarine)
• 2 cups Libby's canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup applesauce (The recipe called for 1 T. of applesauce for the cookies, so for cake batter, I added extra applesauce)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• about 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I wasn't measuring this... but adding it little by little until I got the desired consistency)
  

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease cake rounds.
3. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in medium bowl.
4. Beat sugars and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended.
5. Beat in pumpkin, applesauce and vanilla extract until smooth.
6. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Beat in olive oil little by little, guessing as you go to achieve desired consistency.... Cross your fingers...
7. Divide batter evenly into two cake rounds.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
9. Pray to God that it turns out...

I cheated again and topped it off with Martha's Light Cream Cheese Icing... again, not vegan, but that wasn't really the point. The point was using up what I had, which was lots of cream cheese!





Annnnd the taste test...



It turned out really great! Of course, everything's better with icing... but no, really, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's moist and dense and not overwhelmingly sugary or pumpkin-y. It kind of reminds me of the pumpkin scones from Starbucks. Success!

Update: I brought my two pumpkin cakes into work this morning, and they were completely gone by lunch!

l'obsession.

A friend recently shared the Paris vs NYC blog. I love the simple, colorful graphics and the juxtaposition of two of my favorite cities in the world! And now Paris vs NYC is selling some of the graphics as prints to decorate the bleak walls of snug studio apartments everywhere.. starting at $42 each in the Paris vs NYC store.

Here are the ones I want.. desperately.. to adorn my own bleak walls.

l'obsession

le café

la romantique

I just signed my lease renewal to stay in my apartment until Feb. 1st, 2012, so now I'm really thinking about putting a little more effort into decorating. I really want to paint my plain-Jane white walls and get some fun art/new frames for artsy photos of my friends/family. I'm still debating on a color, but I'm thinking of painting a light grey-blue color to match the lightest blue in my Michael Kors bedset and to help my soon-to-be-acquired Paris vs. NYC prints pop!

Thanksgiving Part 2: The Big Day.

After a good night's sleep and fun morning watching the parade from the window of our hotel room at the New York Athletic Club (pictures to come tomorrow), we arrive back at my apartment around 1 p.m. to put the finishing touches on our Thanksgiving meal.

Thursday, 1 p.m. I lay out the appetizer spread. We have celery and carrots with T. Marzetti's dill dip, water crackers and pita chips with herb-shrimp dip and blue cheese-walnut spread, the goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, and an assortment of marinated olives and dill pickles from Agata & Valentina's. The mushrooms go in the oven for 20 minutes to melty-perfection. They called for red pepper flakes, and I didn't measure the amount... they were a bit spicy, but absolutely delicious! They were one of my favorite dishes of the day. The dips were both really good, too, and I'm excited for those leftovers the next few days.

Thursday, 1:10 p.m. We pop the turkey back in the oven to heat it all the way through and mix the rest of the ingredients for Martha's simple stuffing into a crock pot (borrowed from my aunt Diane). The recipe didn't call for sausage, but I thought that Italian sweet sausage might be a nice addition. The dried bread seemed to be taking up too much space, even with the 3 eggs, 1/2 a cup of wine, and 2 cans of chicken broth, so I'm a bit concerned about this. We can't get all the bread into the pot just yet either. At this point, we also peel and start boiling our 5 pounds of red potatoes (no recipe for this, I make great mashed potatoes on my own!) and start boiling our Minnesotan wild rice with a mix of sauteed mushrooms and onions.

Thursday, 1:50 p.m. The turkey comes out of the oven to rest, and the green beans go in to cook for 45 minutes. The potatoes are done boiling, so I mash them with my $7.99 hand mixer from Target with skim milk, butter, salt, pepper, and 4 ounces of cream cheese.

Thursday, 2 p.m. We mix some of the juices from the turkey in with the dressing, stir vigorously, add the rest of the bread, and pray to God that it will cook more in the final half hour.

Thursday, 2:15 p.m. Mom mixes up the gravy. I've never made gravy before and don't feel like trying it today... maybe next year! Mom also carves the turkey while I'm dishing up everything else into the serving dishes and heating up the rolls. I mix up a special drink in a big pitcher of 1 bottle of champagne, 2 cups of cranberry juice, and 6 ounces of grand Marnier, decorated with cranberries frozen in ice cubes. On the table in wine glasses, the drinks looked really pretty and festive, and they tasted delicious! Also at this point, my dad and uncle pulled out my awesome gate-leg table, flipped up the other side, pulled out the extra chairs and set the table.

Thursday, 2:25 p.m. I realize all the clean silverware is in the dishwasher still, stop the dishwasher mid-wash and pull out burning hot forks and knives for the whole family. No need to panic :-)

Thursday, 2:30 p.m. We sit down to the table, say grace, pass the dishes and dig in! The turkey and stuffing were actually probably my favorites. I don't normally like stuffing, but I really liked this recipe, especially with the extra sausage. Way to go Martha! Mom was worried that the gravy was a little lumpy, but it was delicious so no one else seemed to notice. Of course, I always love Minnesotan wild rice with gravy, but that's a given!

Thursday, 4:30 p.m. After cleaning up a bit, flipping through some of the advertisements for Black Friday, we serve up our apple pie from Agata & Valentina with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The pie was really good, also one of my favorites from the day.

Thursday, 5:30 p.m. My aunt and uncle get on the road back to New Jersey, we clean up a bit more, and then everyone (kitties included) is ready for a nap and some good old fashioned, American television.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Part 1: The Preparation.

Because it's my first year in New York, and my first year in my own apartment, I had this crazy idea to host my parents, my brother, and my aunt and uncle from New Jersey for Thanksgiving this year. In my tiny apartment. My parents and brother will actually be staying in my apartment, and my aunt and uncle will drive in for the day. Fun!

Unfortunately, my brother, who is the real gourmet chef in the family, was asked to work on Friday and won't be able to come up now until Friday evening after work. So I'm all alone with my Martha Stewart recipes for the big meal! My mom is a decent cook, but she's not one for following directions. I think the phrase we heard a lot in her kitchen growing up was, "Good enough!" This will be an adventure.

To make things even more exciting, I have some sort of cold/flu that hit me over the weekend, bad enough to make me miss work on Monday. So I lost some valuable prep time this weekend.

Here's how it went:

Sunday, 10 a.m. Loads and loads of grocery shopping. Luckily, my crappy little market had everything I needed. I'm still shocked that one tiny little bottle of vanilla extract cost $6.99 in Manhattan, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore. I didn't have time to check other stores, so I just carted everything home in my old-lady-shopping-cart. And then I practically cried when I had to carry everything up to my fourth-floor walk-up.

Monday, 2 p.m. Drag myself off deathbed to move the 8.5 and 7.5 pound turkey breasts to the fridge to thaw. I decided to do turkey breasts because they're smaller and will cooker a little faster. Besides, I don't like dark meat anyway... For the five of us for dinner tomorrow, we really only need one, but I'm going to make a second while we're at, freeze the meat, and use it for soups, etc. this winter. Plus, I feel safer making a turkey breast "on my own" when my mom will be here to supervise.

Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. Drag myself out of bed to frantically clean my apartment before my parents arrive at 10:30. Play loud Christmas music to annoy the old hag that lives below me. Feed the naughty kitties. More cleaning.

Wednesday, 9:38 a.m. Take a break. Cleaning is hard!

Wednesday, 10:15 a.m. Not quite done cleaning... AND my parents arrive! Hugging ensues and the kitties snuggle their grandparents tentatively.

Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. My mom wants to get down to business. We're chopping and sautéing the vegetables for the dressing, the green bean casserole, and the wild rice. We mix up a shrimp-herb dip, a blue cheese-walnut spread, and prepare the filling for the goat cheese stuffed mushrooms for our appetizers. Dad's job is to keep the darling, curious kitties out of the kitchen. They've been known to jump up on a cutting board in the past and knock chef knives crashing to the floor... nearly missing my feet... so Dad made sure to keep them busy with a laser pointer while we were cooking away!

Wednesday, around noon. I completely botch the sauce for the green bean casserole, and we have to throw it away. I'm not too sure of my ability to make the roux for the sauce correctly, so we scratch that idea, and just mix some cream of mushroom soup in with beans and call it a day. We store the green bean dish wrapped in foil in the fridge, ready to bake in the oven on Thursday.

Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. We create Martha Stewart's herb butter, rub down the turkeys, prepare the pans with quartered carrots, celery, and onions, and pop our first turkey breast in the oven - only one will fit in my tiny oven at a time! We have about 3 hours to kill until it's done. We're doing one today and one tomorrow.

Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. Everyone's tired and ready for lunch. We head to Agata & Valentina's on 79th and 1st Ave. to pick up lunch and our apple pie and bread for tomorrow. The supermarket is a complete mess. There's a line all the way around the entire store à la Trader Joe's Union Square at rush hour.

Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. Turkey's all done, perfectly golden brown on the outside and smells delicious. We pop it in the fresh covered in foil and are all done for the evening.

We head off to the New York Athletic Club, where we rented a room just for Wednesday night/Thursday morning to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone's tired after a full day of prep work and running errands!

Countdown to Thanksgiving.

My family is coming for Thanksgiving in 36 hours, and I have the flu.

I have all the shopping done except for a few things I need to pick up Wednesday, and I didn't pick up the wine/beer yet because, let's face it, that stuff is heavy, so I was going to wait until my brother's here to help me carry everything. I have a cooking agenda which is supposed to kick off tomorrow night after work, but now that also includes all the cleaning I didn't get done over the weekend because I was laying in bed.

On the other hand, I'm super excited for the parade and cooking with the fam on Thursday, dinner at Peasant on Friday night, brunch at Bar Boulud and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular on Saturday. It should be a fantastic weekend with my family if I can rally from this little flu I have going on!