No, I’m not giving away cake pops at my door, they went to friends and family’s coworkers. Costumed kiddos get our typical Starburst and Skittles. Note: They come in a giant bag with Snickers and M&M’s, but somehow, those don’t quite make it to the trick-or-treaters!
Quite a bit of our time this past week has been spent at the building, continuing to hang drywall. Justin also bought a special soundproofing material, called Green Glue, that we spread between drywall layers in our bedroom. We aren’t too worried about the noise from Main Street and The Square, but we figured that this certainly wouldn’t hurt.
This afternoon we spent some time cleaning the upstairs a bit, clearing out unneeded tools, extra pieces of drywall and wood, and generally getting the space ready to become even dustier after mudding and sanding. Justin started filling in some of the larger gaps with quick-set mud, so that it will all come out even when finished. Hanging the drywall turned out to be a much longer and more involved process than we anticipated, so it is nice to be moving forward to the next step!
is there a better site than melty, glistening chocolate?
Another not-uncommon chocolate fix triggered yet another little wave of nostalgia, and this quick, simple, tastier-than-tasty treat was brought to mind. I can remember the first time I had this “faux toffee,” or “graham cracker toffee,” or whatever it might be called in your family.
faux toffee = happy tummy
The edges of the details are a little blurred, like who all was there or what year it was exactly, but the important facts are crystal clear. First, we were in Illinois visiting and laughing with family, Second, my Aunt Ruth made this toffee for everyone, and Third, I wished I could have more. These easy, sweet, chocolate-y treats are forever intertwined in my memory with feeling happy and my Aunt Ruth.
my mom (and us) laughing as Ruth eats adventurously
And really, being around my Aunt Ruth and feeling happy are always intertwined. Ruth has a pretty kickin’ way about her that makes me feel confident and loved, and want to laugh til my sides hurt. Justin and I always look forward to spending time with Ruth, Greg, and their now-adult kids, Allison, Laura, and Thomas, because we know, whether it is a big holiday or a common meal, we will have Big Fun. This faux toffee may not have quite the same power, but it still makes me smile.
my favorite Seuberts: Laura, Thomas, Ruth, Greg, Allison
And I bet I made Ruth cry. Love you, dear friend and aunt, see you on Tuesday!
I’ve been somehow sucked into a vortex that has taken me back to 1989. This probably has a lot to do with me stumbling onto old Doogie Howser, MD episodes on Hulu. But these caramel apples I made last night have triggered childhood memories as well. One of my favorite treats during the Art in the Park festivities downtown was to enjoy fresh, crisp apples chopped up with warm caramel drizzled over the top. So easy. So simple. So delicious. Especially when wearing a neon pink and yellow shirt, paired with purple leggings.
It is a near perfect treat (considering it doesn’t have any chocolate or peanut butter in it)! Back to present day, the honeycrisp apples are being harvested by the bushel barrels, which makes them easy to find and ridiculously cheap this time of year. I love that these are grown just a few miles from our home! These are among my favorite apples, a lightly sweet flavor with a great crunch. I went the easy route with the caramel, opening a bag and unwrapping a bunch of the fool-proof cubes. I added a couple tablespoons of heavy cream, and slowly heated them until stirred smooth. Then (generously) ladled it over the chopped apples. I like chopping the apples, rather than dipping them whole, because the caramel-to-apple ratio is so much higher!
I’m off to see which patient Doogie saves, and what positive moral message he learns, in the next episode!
Ginger Chewies have now been coming out of my oven on a pretty regular basis around here. Besides being a favorite, the cooler weather seems to increase our demand of cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Along those same lines, when I cracked open my copy of Martha Stewart Cupcakes yesterday, and it fell open to “Gingerbread Cupcakes,” I didn’t feel the need to delve any further. I had all of the ingredients on hand and felt it was quite necessary to make the house smell of spicy happiness.
The batter came together easily and quickly, but I was surprised that no baking powder or baking soda is listed among the ingredients. The result is a rather dense cake, much more muffin-like than cake-like. The flavor is definitely that of gingerbread, and the vanilla buttercream frosting paired nicely with it. But I’m not sure I would make them again. I think that I will try this recipe, which is really quite different, considering it comes from the same person!
Yesterday we started hanging drywall. Some family came down from Wausau to help with the grunt work of lifting and holding, and our friend Jim helped direct us where to lift and hold specifically.
Ken, Greg, Ruth and Jim all helped make this day a lot more fun than lugging hundred pound sheets of drywall up a flight of stairs should be. There were plenty of laughs, an abundance of “that’s what she said” jokes, and musings on the need to insulate bathroom walls. Plus we were able to get both of the ceilings in the bedrooms and walls in the kitchen and office area done. We were all tired by the end of the day, and we still have more to do, but it was a great day with some of our favorite people, and that makes some sore muscles worthwhile.
Scones are something I always seem to forget about. Except that I love ‘em. I love ‘em plain… or with butter… or with cream… or jam. I’m not sure why I forget about them. They’re really pretty easy to throw together, and it only gets a couple of bowls dirty. And the recipe is so easy to adapt to what you have on hand. Some dried cranberries and orange zest – lovely! A handful of cinnamon chips – delicious! Heck, I didn’t even have enough cream when I made them today, and the recipe still came out heavenly having substituted some skim milk and a little bit of extra butter. Scones are best served the day they are made, though you could easily freeze some of the wedges before they are baked, and just pull them out to bake as you like!
Cinnamon Chip Cream Scones
from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook
10 ounces (about 2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in cinnamon chips. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Transfer dough to large bowl. Add cinnamon chips.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to counter top and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by pressing the dough into a floured 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper.
6. Place wedges on an ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
The last week and a half has been near-miserable weather. Temperature hovering around the freezing point, clouds hanging thick and dark across the sky, sucking all hope and happiness from the world, traditional beautiful October weather a thing to only dream about. I wasn’t taking my camera outside to get rained and sleeted on. Heck, I didn’t even want to leave the warm covers of my bed, much less step foot outside!
But then today rolled itself around. The sun decided to stand its ground and not let those bully clouds dampen its rays. A great day to rake the front lawn of maple leaves, set just-purchased pumpkins on the stoop, and get some much awaited autumnal photographs.
Thanks, Fall, for deciding to make an appearance!
While I do have a cornbread muffin recipe that I really like, I decided to see what else is out there that has the potential to be better. I decided to search out a highly rated recipe on Allrecipes.com. Well, there ended up being two recipes that both received rave reviews, and, as they were quite different, I decided to try them both out, to see which we preferred. One is a more traditionally Southern recipe, made with buttermilk, while the other has a more Midwest slant, made with additional butter, sugar, and regular milk.
First up is “Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread.“ This recipe contains buttermilk and baking soda, and equal parts flour and cornmeal.
The second recipe is Buttery Cornbread. It contains regular milk (I used whole milk, as I had it on hand), baking powder, and more than twice as much flour as cornmeal.
The difference in recipes was immediately evident, even in the batter for each. Grandmother’s batter (on the left) was much thicker, similar in consistency to cooked grits. On the other hand, the Buttery batter was much thinner, closer in consistency to a yellow cake batter.
After being baked (375 degrees for 30 minutes), the differences became less pronounced, but were still visible. Grandmother’s thicker batter stayed solid and retained a dense shape while baking. On the other hand, the baking powder and cake batter-like texture of Buttery’s recipe contributed to a cake-like finish, with higher rounded edges.
In regards to taste, the differences became even more evident. Both are excellent recipes and worthy of the great reviews. Grandmothers Buttermilk Cornbread had a rich, dense texture, and the extra cornmeal in the recipe really contributes to an appropriately “corny” taste. The buttermilk lends itself to keeping this bread incredibly moist, as well as giving it a slightly tangy aftertaste. Buttery Cornbread was indeed buttery, both in mouth-feel and taste. This bread was a bit less dense, with a strong corn taste, but less so than Grandmother’s (as expected).
For us, Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread won, hands down. We liked the richer, denser texture and more pronounced taste of the buttermilk and additional cornmeal. I will definitely add this recipe to my binder, the perfect accompaniment to a warm bowl of chili on a cold evening!
This weekend we drove down to Galena, Illinois with my Mom, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Phyllis, Uncle Mark, and cousin Allison. The trip is an annual pilgrimage to Galena during their Country Fair weekend. The weekend is a flurry of laughing, eating, walking around Galena, and scoping out sweet Craft-wear. Applique pumpkin shirts? Check. Quilt-Jackets? Check. Bedazzled hats, shirts, and sandals? Check. Bedazzled underwear? Not so much, thankfully.
One tradition that we have carried on is to hike up the Stairs in the middle of town. The picture doesn’t quite do these stairs justice. There are 194 stairs, starting at Main Street, and rising up along the hillside of homes. At least we were smart this year, and didn’t wait until right after a filling lunch or dinner!
We all made it up fairly quickly (Justin graciously offered to stay at the bottom, you know, to photograph the event) but coming down was certainly the easier of the directions!
Another great reason to head down Galena-way is to connect with our dear friend Angie, who lives with her husband Kurt and daughter Katie in Kieler, Wisconsin, only about 20 minutes from Galena. Angie and Katie drove over to take in the Country Fair with us. Katie is always a hoot, and we enjoy a bit of time to catch up.
The one downfall this year was the weather. As it is the second weekend in October, the weather can be pretty unpredictable, but in years past we’ve enjoyed wonderfully warm and sunny days. This year that was not the case. The temperature hovered between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and a flurry of snow started to fall on Saturday. While colder than we would have liked, we all agreed that we would take snow over rain, and were glad we weren’t soaking wet in addition to cold.
Definitely a fun weekend in a great little town.
A lot has been happening over at the building! While we were in South Carolina the electricians (Central State Electric) were in for a few days, rewiring the entire upstairs. Last week they came in and put in new panels. In a week and a half the utility company will be changing over our building from the current measly 100 amp service to 400 amp service.
On Monday and Tuesday we had a couple of HVAC guys (Chet’s Plumbing & Heating) in who installed the new furnace to service the apartment upstairs. It is hung above the suspended ceiling on the first floor. Several months ago, as we were poking around, we found duct work from an old furnace system (which serviced the whole building at that time). The new furnace takes advantage of this, taping into the old main trunk, and only a few more holes for registers needed to be cut in the floor upstairs, while capping off the registers facing downward.
Tonight, with the help of Jim, Daryl, Lori, and Pat and DuWayne, we picked up all the drywall we will need upstairs (found on sale, or we probably would have waited another week or so). While it took a little longer than we had estimated to load and unload it, it is nice to see it all stacked and waiting. We’ll start hanging that towards the end of next week.
Our good friend Jim added another year to his age today, though he was very clear that he was NOT 40 yet. We were happy to celebrate his 39th year the best way we know how – with great food and plenty of laughs. The birthday boy himself made the main dish – a kickin’ meatloaf that rates right up there with my mom’s, and Justin and I took care of the rest. Justin worked hard to make the perfect card for Jim. It involved a pink unicorn, and that is as much as I’m going to say about it. Believe me, you don’t want to know the rest!
We rounded out the meal with Pioneer Woman’s Dinner Rolls and Twice Baked Potatoes. But it wouldn’t be a birthday without a cake! When I asked Jenn what I should bake, she suggested a German Chocolate Cake, as that is Jim’s favorite. Well, despite my aversion to coconut, and the fact that I’ve successfully escaped ever making or eating a German Chocolate Cake up to this point, I can’t argue with birthday favorites. And actually, after our visit to Baked in Charleston, and the fact that there is a recipe for German Chocolate Cake in their cookbook, I was quite willing and looking forward to making one.
The cake came out splendidly, but is a deep, dark, rich, intense cake, with a wonderfully sticky sweet coconut pecan frosting/filling. While phenomenal, after an already filling, superb meal, we pretty much just wanted to roll onto the floor when we were done. Here’s the kicker – the only one of us that was actually able to finish a (three layer!) slice of cake was Madie! Yes, not-quite-70-pound, 10 year-old Madie. It was quite a feat.
Happy Birthday, Jim – we love being your friend!
When Justin and his dad were out golfing on Thursday, they were paired with two local guys who gave them some restaurant recommendations. One of the places they suggested was The Fat Hen, a French restaurant on the road between Kiawah Island and Charleston. We went online and drooled over the menu. From a link on their website, we saw that the Chef/Owner of The Fat Hen just opened an Italian restaurant this year, Wild Olive, just a few blocks down the road. The menu also looked remarkable, so we pretty much flipped a coin to decide which one to try. Wild Olive was the winner.
As we were going to be leaving very early the next morning and needed to get back to the house at a reasonable hour to pack, we decided to take in an early dinner, right when they first opened. We were among the first people seated in one of the dining rooms, right near the kitchen. It was a comfortable room, and we enjoyed looking around a bit and watching the action on the line as orders began to come in.
In addition to a couple of glasses of a perfect sweet tea, we started the meal with an order of bruschetta, and were served something we definitely did not expect. Rather than toast already topped with chopped tomato and herbs, we were served a platter with toasts, oven-roasted tomatoes, house-made mozzarella, white bean spread, grilled escarole, and speck, a smoked ham similar to prosciutto. We each carefully constructed a piece with each of the components, and then groaned with happiness as the flavors melded and exploded in our mouths. So delicious. A perfect start to our meal.
As our entrees, we each decided to choose a full-size order of pasta, rather than have both pasta and an additional entree. Justin chose a Sweet Potato and Ricotta cheese Gnocchi with Scallops. This was a wonderful dish. The sweet potato added an extra depth of flavor to the gnocchi, as well as gave them a bit of extra heft while still being light and tender. And the scallops were perfectly cooked and married beautifully with the gnocchi.
I chose the pasta special of the evening, a braised veal cheek ravioli covered in a wild mushroom sauce and slivers of pecorino cheese. This pasta was also phenomenal. The fresh ravioli pasta was nice and light and thin, not gummy or chewy. The rich meat filling had a lovely spice to it, that felt familiar and new at the same time. The mushroom sauce was perfect with it.
Having seen the dessert menu ahead of time, we specifically left room in our tummies to partake of something sweet. Oh goodness. We were not disappointed in the least!
Justin chose the dessert special of the evening, a warm Pistachio and Date torte, served with Vanilla Gelato and chopped, toasted Pistachios.
I chose a Strawberry Almond Bowl, which was a warm almond cake, topped with Vanilla Gelato and sweet Balsamic Strawberries.
The desserts, quite simply, were amazing. There was nothing complicated or simple about them. The warm cakes were moist, flavorful, and inviting. The cold, creamy gelato added a perfect balance to the rich cake. The strawberries and balsamic also added a sweet, fresh component that paired beautifully with the almond. The bowls got passed back and forth between the two of us several times. Both of these desserts were among the best we have ever had in a restaurant. I am already plotting in my head of how to recreate these at home. We are so thankful to have received the recommendation. We’re already looking forward to coming to Wild Olive in the future, but also plan to make time for The Fat Hen!
Kiawah was obviously sad this was our last day, as we had a few rain showers this morning. After about 9:30 am though, the clouds cleared out a bit and the sun shone through. Justin and I went for a morning walk to the beach, and ran across this friend in a pond along the path.
Some workers were making repairs on a nearby home, and tried to point out a baby alligator that had been poking about, but alas, it must have skittered into the water and out of sight. This was the first and only alligator that we saw this year, which was a bit unusual.
Later in the day we walked down to the beach again, this time wearing swimsuits and carrying beach chairs and towels. The day was a bit windier than Wednesday when we were out, and Justin was thrilled to be able to jump and launch himself in the waves. We stayed out and were bowled over by wave after wave for almost an hour before relaxing, reading, and drying off in the sun.
We drove off the island to have dinner at Wild Olive, which was out-of-this-world good, of which Justin will review in the next post. As we drove back to Kiawah, bellies happily full, the sun was just setting, setting the sky aflame with reds, purples, oranges and pinks.
Goodnight and Good-bye , Kiawah Island. Until next time!
While Justin and John went golfing again today, Sarah, Maggie, and I drove out to Boone Hall Plantation, just north of Charleston. To get from Charleston into Mount Pleasant, you cross the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, built just over 5 years ago.
Arthur Ravenel Bridge
It really is a neat-looking bridge, and Sarah and I both took quite a few pictures as we passed over it. Though she was more adventurous than I and actually stood up through the sunroof to get hers!
trying to capture a shot through the windshield
The entrance into Boone Hall is a beautiful one, with hundreds of Living Oak trees lining the quarter mile road up to the main house.
Avenue of Oaks
Boone Hall Plantation has been a working plantation since before the Civil War. It is one of the few plantations in the south that still has some of its original slave quarters, now turned into mini museums focused around slave culture, the civil war, and the Civil Rights Movement. One of the only reasons these quarters are still standing, is because they were originally constructed from bricks (made by the plantation slaves).
One of only nine small homes still standing.
The plantation house itself is actually not the original house at all, but one that was built in 1937. According to the tour guide, this is the 4th house to stand in its place since the 1700’s. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the house.
The 4th Boone Hall Plantation Home
Also on the grounds was a small enclosed Butterfly Pavilion. While not teeming with butterflies, there were still a fair number flitting about the flowers and plants, posing for the photographers.
showing off
It was another beautiful day to spend outside, take in some history, and get some great photographs.
A bizarre and captivating flower!
Carolina Gold Rice - one of the first crops to have been grown in SC
White and Purple Eggplants at a nearby Farmer's Stand
We’re a (relatively) young, (not necessarily) hip, offspringless couple from the midwest. While we may pay the bills as a software engineer and a geologist-turned-baker, our true passions lie as traveling foodies. Finding amazing restaurants in-town and abroad rocks our faces off. Discovering and attempting new recipes in our own ... Continue reading »
