Bird Houses for Spring

Hellooooo Spring!

I wish =(

I have been bamboozled by Mother Nature for a few weeks now. She is starting to act like a psycho ex-girlfriend. One day she loves me, the next she wants to poison my cupcakes. So I have been trying to cheer her up by slowly re-doing my balcony. Hoping that maybe a few pops of color and some pretty flowers would get her to warm up the weather for good.. and instead she's made it rain, snow and sleet all in one day. Killing my flowers. Sounds like a psycho ex girlfriend to me.

Anyway, one of the things i have been working on is bird houses. I have two adorable little kitty katz living in my apartment with me and sometimes they get pretty bored despite the abundance of toys and cat nip. So I have been feeding birds on my balcony as a cheap form of entertainment.. and it works. It really works.

Look at them, probably imagining some delicious chicken wings made out of finch or something.

They love those birds... and they would love to catch one too! But I would feel bad letting them out to catch a bird. Plus I would be totally traumatized from the bloodbath.. and feathers. So instead, I decided to make the birds a little bird house so they stick around a little longer.

I went to my local Michael's and bought a few cardboard/wood bird houses for $1 and some acrylic paints that were on sale for $.33. Pretty cheap, huh?

So here is how it all went down:

1. I painted the bird house with some left over primer paint from home depot. The acrylic paint wasn't adhering to the bird house otherwise. And the colors weren't showing as well either. But it dried pretty fast!
2. I painted the roof of the bird house this saffron yellow
3. I painted the body a pale green
4. And the little stick for the bird to stand on as well as the inner ring of the hole in the house were painted navy. 

In between each color I waited for the paint to dry. I also did two coats of each color. I then used a protecting spray, you could use Mod Podge to protect it from the harsh environment once I hang them up. I think I am going to wait until Spring to actually put up the bird houses. I don't want Mother Nature to have another meltdown and destroy them.

Here's another little house I painted

What do you guys think? I think my birds have been enjoying all that bird food too much and might not fit inside! Haha, guess we will have to wait until Spring to find out.

xoxo

A Little Panna Cotta

Hi everyone, are you all up for a panna cotta challenge? 

Don't be scared! This panna cotta is super easy to make and delicious too. I am not a very good baker or dessert maker. I have a black thumb (is there such a thing?) when it comes to making desserts. Everything I have baked or attempted to make has been a giant flop, sometimes literally. So I was a little apprehensive about making this panna cotta for a very special anniversary dinner. I didn't want to poison my guy with a pool of raw eggs in chocolate or something (something i almost did when i attempted to make chocolate mousse). So I figured the panna cotta would sound fancy and extra special, yet be easier (and fool proof) to make than most desserts. I once again, relied on my trusty La Tartine Gourmande cookbook for the recipe.

Here are the ingredients

Makes 4 individual cups

For the strawberry toping:

• 1 pound 3.5 oz (550 g) strawberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup blond cane sugar

For the panna cotta:

• 4 cups half and half
• 1/2 cup blond cane sugar
• 2 vanilla beans, split open and seeds scraped out
• 6 cardamom pods, crushed
• 1 1/4 tsp of gelatin powder

Directions:

For the strawberry toping

Combine all ingredients in a pot and let stew for 4 to 5 minutes, until the fruit softens. Let cool. Note that you might have leftovers, perfectly delicious eaten to top yogurt.

I placed some at the bottom of clear plastic cups and let them cool in there while i made the panna cotta

For the panna cotta:

• In a pot, combine the half and half, vanilla seeds and bean, cardamom pods and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 4 minutes. Stop the heat, cover and let infuse for 20 minutes. Strain vanilla bean and cardamom pods.
• Mix the gelatin powder to the half and half mixture until it completely dissolves.
• Fill small glasses with the panna cotta preparation and let cool. Cover each glass with plastic wrap and place the glasses in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, until the panna cotta sets. Once ready to serve, add the stewed berries (to taste) on top.

I topped my panna cotta with another scoop of the strawberry sauce and some crushed pistachios. The plastic cups were great for this dessert and a great alternative if you don't have little glass jars to make this in. The flavors were very light and delicious. I really like the taste of vanilla and cardamom together. 

It is important that you use unflavored gelatin so it doesn't clash with the flavor of the panna cotta mixture. If you think your panna cotta is still too watery or not hardening quite right, you can add a little more gelatin mixture to the cups and stir. I did that for one of them and it still turned out fine. The panna cotta isn't going to be as solid as jello, it will have a little creaminess to it. so don't worry if it doesn't look like jello... it isn't supposed to! 

This was a huge hit with the boyfriend, it wasn't too sweet for him and it wasn't too heavy either. Perfect dessert for a special dinner with my guy or dinner party with friends! I hope you all like it!

xoxo  

Valentine's Day Truffles

"Roses are red, some socks are black, won't you be my daddy mack?" - Family Matters

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Valentine's day is not something I usually celebrate, but this year my love and I have decided to do something a little special together. Part of the reason for this is our two year anniversary was a couple of weeks ago and we neglected to do anything special for that, so we decided to combine it with Valentine's Day.

I am currently under a tight budget, and I don't really have the resources to buy a ton of gifts or go out to fancy dinners. So instead, I decided to make some pistachio chocolate truffles and put them inside a pretty box and give them to my sweetheart as a gift along with a cute card. I am also making him dinner, but dinner will be Friday (the day after Valentine's Day) since it works better with our schedule.

I was going to recycle a small pink box from Georgetown Cupcakes for my truffles. Some of you may recognize the name from the TV show called DC Cupcakes. We recently went there as a treat since there was no line outside (there is usually an extremely long line that goes as far back as 5-6 blocks). We got two yummy chocolate cupcakes (a strawberry lava fudge and a chocolate ganache) to go from there, and the box is the perfect size for my truffles. But when I went to World Market (Cost Plus), I found a really pretty chinese take out box for $.99 cents, and I liked it much better than the cupcake box. I used some left over ribbon to decorate it with and recycled some sparkly red tissue paper from some Christmas gifts I got this year to wrap the truffles in.

Here are some pictures from Georgetown Cupcakes

Aren't they pretty? They were pretty yummy, that's for sure.

But enough about cupcakes, here's the quick and easy recipe I used for the pistachio truffles courtesy of  Clodagh McKenna.

Ingredients

• 7oz good quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa) broken into pieces
• 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons of heavy cream
• 1 1/4 cup of pistachio nuts, finely chopped

Directions

• Slowly melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan full of simmering water until it is smooth and glossy
• Gently heat the cream in a heavy bottomed sauce pan until warm
• Pour the warm cream onto the melted chocolate and mix well until fully incorporated
• Mix in two-thirds of the pistachio nuts. Set aside to cool and firm (you can pop them in the fridge)
• Once firm, take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into walnut-sized balls, then leave to set on a tray lined with parchment paper
• Once set place the remaining finely chopped pistachio nuts in a bowl and roll the truffles in the nuts. (I bought a bag of pistachios and put them thru a food processor to chop them up)
• You can also zest a lemon or orange and roll the truffles in the zest for added color and flavor!

How fancy looking are they!? I taste tested one of these suckers... maybe two.. or three.. and they are really yummy. Make sure you buy higher quality chocolate than you usually do. It really makes a huge difference. I bought all of my ingredients for this at Trader Joe's and this recipe makes about 14 truffles. Not bad, huh!

xo

Risotto with leeks, shiitake mushrooms and truffles

Wow!

It has been a long time since I've written a post! How the time flies!

I suppose that for my first post of 2013 I should write something extra special.. and since valentine's day is just around the corner, I am going to share my go to recipe for a special occasion. I got this recipe from Epicurious.com and I have made it at least 5 times and every time it has been a huge hit. My boyfriend loves this recipe, and we usually serve this risotto with shrimp or fish, white wine and a side salad.

Ingredients

Leeks:

• 2 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved, thinly sliced crosswise (about 2 cups)

• 3/4 cup whipping cream

Mushrooms:

• 1 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, cut into 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices

• 1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced lengthwise

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

• 1 tablespoon white truffle oil

• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

Risotto:

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, divided

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice or medium-grain white rice

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 5 cups (or more) hot vegetable broth

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 2 teaspoons shaved or chopped black truffle (optional)

• Chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

For leeks:
Bring leeks and cream to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until leeks are tender and cream is thick, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm before continuing.

For mushrooms:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss all ingredients on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until mushrooms are tender and light brown around edges, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

For risotto:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add rice; stir 1 minute. Add wine and stir until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 1 cup hot broth. Simmer until broth is almost absorbed, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Add more broth, 1 cup at a time, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding next and stirring often, until rice is tender and mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes longer. Stir in leek mixture, mushroom mixture, remaining 2 tablespoons butter, cheese, and truffle. Transfer to large bowl, sprinkle with parsley, and serve. 

*We don't use the black truffles at the end because black truffles are uber expensive. But we do use white truffle oil we found at Whole Food's and that works just fine for us. 

For the shrimp, we simply season it with salt, garlic, onion and black pepper on a skillet with olive oil. After it is cooked, we turn the heat on high and pour some blue agave syrup to sear the shrimp and give it a caramelized flavor. Fish we have served with this risotto are tilapia and lemon sole. Any light flavored white fish will go great with this risotto. 

I will not be making this meal for Valentine's Day, but I will be making something special! Stay tuned for pictures and a recipe of my romantic Valentine's Day meal (on a budget). I will also post pictures and a recipe for homemade treats I will be making my boyfriend as a gift this week! 

xoxo