Writing Down Recipes

This past Christmas, I realized I'd lost my recipe for gingerbread cake. It's something I make only once a year, but that recipe in particular (as opposed to the hundreds of others I found when I googled) was my ideal gingerbread cake. How'd I lose it? Mostly because it was an online recipe and in the pre-Pinterest days I didn't have much of a plan in place to keep my favorite recipes. Sometimes I'd email them to myself, sometimes I'd print them out, and sometimes I'd assume I could find it again when I needed it, like the gingerbread cake.

Losing my gingerbread cake recipe got me thinking about going back to a more traditional method of recipe storage: writing them down. My mom has a binder full of (mostly) hand-written recipes, and it's always neat to flip through and see which ones are in her handwriting and which ones came from friends or family. My friend Murph showed me her grandma's recipe for chocolate pie (above), which adorably describes the amount of butter needed as "size of egg" and includes the funny typo "floor" instead of "flour." There's just something special about handwritten recipes.





So the other day, I sat down to write out a few of my favorite recipes. Then I decided to fully revive the tradition and send some recipes to friends. I chose recipes of mine that each friend has loved or asked for, tied them up with yellow baker's twine and popped them in the mail as a surprise. I think the next time I want a recipe from someone, I'll hand them a recipe card (or even a piece of paper!) and ask them to write it down.

How about you, do you have hand-written recipes in your family, or from friends?

Weekend in Wedding Cake

This past Saturday I made a huge wedding cake and covered it in coconut. I think it looks perfectly winter-y, almost like it's dusted with snow. I spent most of Saturday working on it, so there wasn't much else to photograph. But there was cake, and that's often all one needs :)

A Song for Your Friday

Glen Hansard and Lisa Hannigan singing Blue Moon in Paris at Shakespeare & Co. It's sunny and sweet, and NYC is definitely lacking for sun, as I mentioned yesterday. I stumbled onto this the other day while looking at Glen Hansard's tour schedule, hoping for a New York show soon. No such luck, but this song almost makes up for it. Happy Friday!

Hot Toddy for the Body

We've reached that point in winter. You know the one: the sparkle of Christmas and New Year's are so far gone you wonder if they even happened, and spring is still painfully far off. It's the doldrums of winter, the part that C.S. Lewis must have used to help his readers understand what Narnia was like under the spell of the White Witch. "Always winter, but never Christmas."

I don't mind winter, but around this time of year it gets to be a bit trying. I don't want to wear a hat anymore, I'm sick of my toes being cold, and I'm bored with all my sweaters. Enter: Hot Toddy for the Body. This smart little kit contains a scrub and body oil with scents and essential oils reminiscent of a real hot toddy. Doesn't it sound warm and refreshing? (Californians and Texans need not answer :)

How about you, any tricks to get through the last bits of winter? Besides a vacation!

Top photo by Chloe Price

(A President's Day) Weekend in Pictures

{lady liberty at sunset}

{crocheted explosives at my friend nathan's show}

{crazy amounts of crocheted explosives}

{saturday brunch}

{wedding cake baking}

{netflixing... who knew carson from downton abbey was in shakespeare in love?}

How was your long weekend? Mine was relaxed and quiet, with a friend's art show on Friday night, some baking and meals with friends, and discovering Carson in drag on Netflix. All in all, a good weekend.

Little Lies

Pretty designs of the little lies we like to tell ourselves from Daily Dishonesty. I mean, when was the last time you read all of a contract before signing it? And that last one is my least favorite to be on the receiving end of, we all look at our phones constantly so it's hardly ever true :)

via A Cup of Jo

(A Snow Day) Weekend in Pictures

{the beginnings of the storm, friday night}

{lovey dovey hot chocolate}

{saturday morning backyard view}

{snowy chelsea}

{little icicles}

{blue skies and snowy streets}

{spending the snow day with a president}

{more icicles}

{I don't think people took this sign seriously}

NYC got close to a foot of snow on Friday night, which made for a super cozy weekend. Friday night I hosted a little girl's night in, with truffle popcorn, lovey dovey hot chocolate and lots of laughs (thanks to Pitch Perfect!). The rest of the weekend was spent alternately rushing outside to frolic in the snow and then rushing back in for hours under blankets. Hope your weekend was equally cozy!

Friday Night Movie

Have you heard of The Giant Mechanical Man? It's a sweet, independent romantic comedy with Jenna Fischer (from The Office) and Chris Messina (who is super cute on The Mindy Project) who are both a little lost and directionless. Chris Messina's character is one of those robot guys you see in big cities - he paints himself silver and wears stilts. Anyway, it's a cute and funny story, with perhaps the sweetest on-screen kiss I've ever seen.



So, if you're hunkering down for a winter storm with a cartoon name, or just having a night in, I'd highly recommend it! Happy weekend :)

Simple Valentine Treats

Remember the Valentines you gave out as a kid? The paper ones, bright and a little cheesy, with the latest TV character wishing you a happy Valentines Day. For me, they were Rainbow Bright, Hello Kitty, then New Kids on The Block a little later. They were simple and easy: just tape on a piece of candy and bam! Valentine. That left the fun part, which was deciding what message to give to which classmate (being careful to avoid an "I choo choo choose you!" scenario). They were cheesy, not at all artful, but they were simple.

When I saw these heart shaped cookies at IKEA last weekend, they reminded me of the ease of those old school, kindergarten Valentines. So I decided to package them simply, add some festive ribbon, and pass them out a la elementary school. If only everyone still had construction paper mail boxes on their desks!





More Valentine's Day treat ideas:

Sweetheart Brownies
A Tiny Cake For Your Valentine
And a cute card to go with them.

Don't You Know You Can Fly?

Do you watch 30 Rock? Or, I guess I should say did you, since the last episode of the final season has come and gone. I didn't get it into it right away, but once I did I binge-watched everything I had missed (which I highly recommend, the episodes are even funnier back-to-back). With 30 Rock off the air now, it's a bit like the end of an era. No more Liz Lemonisms, no more night cheese, no more mandatory Liz Lemon parties (except in syndication).

Thankfully, to keep us all from crying into a bag of Sabor de Soledad, Vulture turned some of 30 Rock's best jokes into graphics.







via Vulture, here and here.

Pretty Swedish Recipes

I spent a good part of Saturday at IKEA, helping a friend buy nearly the entire store to furnish her company's new office. While loading eight (eight!) sets of dishes into one of our (five!) carts, IKEA's new cookbook caught my eye. It's full of tasty-sounding recipes, but my favorite part is the way the recipes are presented. Like last week's snoball cookie recipe, the ingredients are arranged into beautiful compositions, photographed by Carl Kleiner.

Aren't they beautiful? I can't wait to make one.

Photos via FastCo.

The Prettiest Recipe

Have you ever seen a prettier recipe? It's from the latest Olive Us video about making snoball cookies. I've been shopping around for a recipe box (I got some cute recipe cards for Christmas) lately, but this makes me think that all recipes should be visual. Not entirely practical, but pretty.

Happy weekend! Go make some snoball cookies :)

via Design Mom