I’m baaaack! with a Pinterest Challenge

02. November 2012 · 48 comments · Categories: crafts, life · Tags: , , ,

I’m back from my honeymoon!…and just in time for a Pinterest Challenge!

I promise I’ll be back with honeymoon details and my regularly scheduled FOOD programming shortly….

Two of my favorite DIY blogs do something every season called a Pinterest Challenge. The goal of the Pinterest Challege, is to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the gorgeous stuff that we’ve pinned on  Pinterest!

This month, the challenge is hosted by: Sherry, Katie, Carmel, and Sarah

You may remember I participated in this challege last summer and made myself a jewelry holder! I also participated in the winter and made a lovely button bird for Nate’s mom’s Xmas present :)

This time around, I had been stockpiling projects from the wedding, which I will be sharing with you over the coming months. But the one I thought I’d share first is my “Here Comes the Bride” sign for our flower girl.

FlowerGirlSign

Before I go into to my inspirations for this project…HOW FREAKING CUTE ARE MY FLOWER GIRL AND RING BEARER?! Omg, I can’t stand it.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to do something different for my flower girl. I had seen these signs around the web and thought it was cuter, and cheaper than going with a basket that my florist was going to charge me for.

These were some ones I saw:

http://pinterest.com/pin/68117013084590660/

 Since my flower girl is only 2 1/2 years old, I knew I needed something light weight. I also wanted something that would be easy to read. I contemplated fabric but it’s a pain to paint on and would flap around if it was windy.

I wanted to use wood but thought it would be too heavy for her to carry. So my first go-round, I got some poster board, and spent an unecessarily long time making it look like wood and then painting the words on it. But when i was done I just wasn’t happy with it. It didn’t look like wood because you could see the styrofoam on the edges. I hated to waste it but I wanted it to be perfect.

So I headed to Michaels to try to find a piece wood that was light enough for a kid to hold. I spent a long time there examining all the options…a LONG time. I tend to have a hard time making decisions. Luckily my aunt was with me to encourage me to pick something.

I found this weird, VERY lightweight piece of framed balsa (?) wood. We asked a random kid at Michaels to hold it to see if it was too heavy but it passed the test! I forgot to take a pic but you can get the idea from the finished product. It was 14.5″ x 17.25″ and is in the section with all their wood frames.

I used photoshop to make the words fit inside the dimensions of the frame and to play around with fonts I liked. After much deliberating (and pestering Nate for his opinion…apparently he doesn’t have one) I made a decision and saved the file as a .jpg. If anyone would like this file as a .psd or .jpg, let me know.

Because a lot of my wedding projects involved an old white picket fence and brown paint, I thought I’d go that same route color-wise.

The first thing I did was stain the back sides and inside edges of the frame with a dark walnut stain I had. I taped off the inside while doing it, put the stain on with a brush and then wiped off excess with a paper towel.

After that dried for a day, I taped off the inside edges and painted the inside main surface with plain old white paint. I had some leftover from a furniture project.

Once the paint was dry, I printed out my letters on two pieces of paper since it didnt fit on one and taped it onto my wood.

The next problem was getting the letter transfered somehow so I could paint them. I didn’t want to freehand it. I had some charcoal transfer paper leftover from my wedding signage project (that I’ll be sharing with you soon), so first I tried that. It was just messy.

The next thing I tried was something i had seen online. Since the wood was so soft, I just pressed really hard with a pen while tracing all of the letters and a faint outline appeared on the wood.

After I finished this, I went to town with my leftover brown paint and slowly and VERY carefully painting in the lines. I went over everything twice because the craft paint I used was kind of watery.

The painting part wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely good enough.

I’m SO pleased with the result…and especially with my lovely model :) It was worth the time that went into it, which honestly wasn’t all that long.

Also, for a bonus, I won’t be doing a post on the ring bearer pillow I made (also inspired by pinterest), since I just sewed some burlap with lace, but how cute is my ring bearer??

His suspenders, shirt, and khakis match the groomsmen! :)

Here’s another shot of the pillow up close:

P.S. Go check out the owl pumpkin I carved this Halloween and entered in Movita’s Pumpkin Carve-off 2012! It made it to the finals but sadly didn’t win :(

The wedding was a success!

23. October 2012 · 60 comments · Categories: life · Tags:

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. And after everything, the sleeves on the dress worked out fine, although I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.

We’re on our honeymoon now. Thought I would leave you with this pic our photographer already posted:

by Jodi Miller Photography

**Update- For more wedding photos check out:
Our photographer’s blog post about the wedding.
Our wedding feature on Green Wedding Shoes!

Wedding Drama…and Mexican Stuffed Shells

11. October 2012 · 52 comments · Categories: cooking, Dinner, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Mexican Stuffed Shells

My wedding is in 10 days. I seriously can’t believe it’s happening next weekend…and that my dress isn’t done!

To say I’m stressed would be an understatement. I’m sure it’ll all come together but I’m not the kind of person who likes to wait until the last minute to get things done.

Nate and I both knew from the beginning that if we got married it would be in the autumn. So I subtly mentioned to Nate sometime last year that if he was going to propose, he better give me at least a year to plan the wedding. Luckily, he picked up on my demands hints.

Mexican Stuffed Shells2 | ElephantEats.com

I’m the type of person to arrive 10-15 minutes before I need to be somewhere. I like to allow myself way more time than necessary to do simple tasks. I know that I’ll probably end up finishing tasks with time to spare, but I’d rather have too much time than not enough. I do not like to wait until the last minute to do things!!! Oh wait, did I say that already?

So when I went to the dressmaker to ask about the sleeves that she knew (for months) that I wanted put on my dress and she told me that she’d have to order extra lace for them, I calmly told her ok, but freaked out on the inside because she should have ordered it MONTHS ago.

Mexican Stuffed Shells3 | ElephantEats.com

When she then told me 2 weeks later (and 3 weeks before my wedding) that they had shipped the lace, I felt much better…until a week after that when it still hadn’t appeared and I called her for the 20th time to ask about it. She finally told me yesterday (a week after it had supposedly shipped) that they “promised” they’d ship it that day…as in they hadn’t actually shipped it when they said they would!!!  This was on yesterday. Oh, and the dressmaker who will be making the sleeves only works on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I asked her if they had expedited it and she said that it was going from Manhattan to Manhattan, so it should get there next-day anyway. I don’t understand why, if it was less than 5 miles away this ENTIRE TIME, why she didn’t just go and pick it up?!?!?!? or ask me to, as I would have been more than happy to.

Yesterday afternoon I checked in to make sure they had received the lace, and the woman told me that she called the lace place and that despite the fact that they PROMISED it was going to ship the night before, it didn’t go out until yesterday morning (or so they claimed). And, she told me, she couldn’t even pick it up now because it was already shipped.

Mexican Stuffed Shells4 | ElephantEats.com

So all day today I’ve been anxious, waiting for UPS to come to her store so that she could tell me she has the lace. Well I called at 2pm and UPS hadn’t come yet. I called again at 4pm and they still hadn’t had a delivery. I sent an email and said that if the lace didn’t get there they better move to plan B.

I checked my email at 6pm today and there was an email from the dress lady saying “I’m going to pick up the lace tomorrow.”

WTF!?!?!?!? Didn’t she say she couldn’t pick it up because they had shipped it?? Did they not really ship it even though they said they did?? Did she lie to me?? I don’t even know who to believe anymore That lace better freaking get to the store tomorrow one way or another!!!!

Mexican Stuffed Shells5 | ElephantEats.com

Can you tell I’m really angry?

So now here it is, 10 days before my wedding and the material to make the final parts of my dress is missing.  AND I’M FREAKING OUT.

I wish i could say that eating this recipe that I made last week, which incidentally was absolutely delicious, would help, but I seem to have lost my appetite. Hopefully it’ll come back before the honeymoon…

Mexican Stuffed Shells6 | ElephantEats.com

I do feel a little better by venting to the world wide web :)

***UPDATE as of 12:00pm on 10/12, the dress store has the lace! They went to pick it up…and told me that someone was lying because when they got it, it wasn’t even in a UPS box. So they apparently had no intention of ever shipping it! But again, I don’t know why the dress store didn’t just go and pick it up a month ago. I told them that I have to come in this weekend because I have my brow appt on Tuesday, but they told me the dress maker is on his honeymoon and won’t be back til Monday so I have to leave work early on Tuesday so they can finish it and I can try it on. So my dress isn’t going to be done until TWO days before I leave for the wedding. Oy. I’m just praying that nothing goes wrong between now and Tuesday to prevent my dress from getting finished.

***UPDATE #2: As of TWO days before my wedding, in which I spent 5 straight hours in the store and the dressmaker made me cry, I have my dress. By the way, the dress store is called Adrienne’s and is in downtown nyc. I’m telling you this so that if you’re thinking of buying a dress, you can avoid it at all costs. I’m going to write a scathing review on every website I can find. I’ll give you updates after the wedding after I have time to calm down about this and how I was treated.

P.S. I do realize that people in this world have far worse problems that they’re dealing with right now, and I am by no means comparing my “little” problem to theirs. I’m thankful that this is the worst thing going on in my life right now (knock on wood), and if my dress doesn’t have sleeves my wedding will still be beautiful. But right now, I’m frustrated…

To see our wedding photos, click here!

To see Nate’s AMAZING wedding video/ story-of-us, click here!

 

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Slightly adapted from The Way to His Heart

Print this recipe!

Serves 8-10

1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 package taco seasoning
2- 8 oz containers of sliced mushrooms
1 cup frozen (or fresh) corn kernels, thawed
4 oz. cream cheese
20 jumbo pasta shells
1.5 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce (This is a smooth, tomato based sauce found in the Mexican section)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions
Sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a frying pan cook turkey; add taco seasoning and mushrooms and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese and corn, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and cool completely.

While turkey is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to directions; drain. Set shells out individually on cutting board/baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.

Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes, with the foil removed. Top with any condiments you’d like (green onions, black olives, etc.) Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa.

 

Apple picking and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

01. October 2012 · 32 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, food, life, recipes, Savory, Side dishes, vegetarian · Tags: , , , ,

Twice Baked Sweet Potato with Apple

Nate and I went upstate last weekend with a couple of our friends to Poet’s Walk Park…where Nate and I were exactly one year ago when Nate proposed.

Nate wanted to go back to shoot a couple things for the wedding video (which is now officially done, and completely awesome!!!) and we needed the help of our friends to do this. We also wanted to take a few pics at the proposal location since we completely forgot to snap a pic of it when it was actually happening. Oops :)

The bridge where Nate proposed…one year later!

This park is fairly small but it has gorgeous views.

It was a two hour drive north of the city, so we thought we’d take advantage and stop at Fishkille Farms on the way home to do a little apple picking! Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, was coming up and apples are traditional to eat (with honey) for a “sweet” New Year.

Nate and bridesmaid, Kim, showing their apple excitement!

We picked a ton! I wanted to make sure we got enough for eating plain and for cooking, although i didn’t have anything specific in mind yet.

We also got some hot cider for me (cold for Nate) and some fresh cider donuts. YUM!

I knew I wanted to make a recipe to use apples. On Rosh Hashannah, since all my family and jewish friends were travelling, I decided to just make a nice dinner for the two of us.

I roasted up a chicken and set off the fire alarm. The recipe had me cooking it at 450° with just the chicken in the pan, nothing under it. After it completely smoked out our apt, I looked up what to do and someone suggested putting a layer of potatoes under the chicken and roasting it at 425°. Luckily I had one lone potato sitting on the counter so i sliced it up and put it under the chicken and shoved it back in the oven.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato with Apple

Success! Well kinda. It stopped the chicken from smoking, but when I checked the temperature of the chicken after the allotted time, it was at the correct temp. I took it out of the oven and the breast was perfectly cooked, but other parts were still raw! Ugh, I’m never cooking a chicken again. I’d rather just buy a rotisserie one from the market.

Anyway, I wanted some nice side dishes to go with dinner and since I had some freshly picked apples to use, I pulled out this apple cookbook that I got last year that hasn’t ever gotten used, and found a really tasty recipe for The Best Twice-Baked Potatoes.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato with Apple

They were really good. I think I was expecting them to be more sweet with the apples and the sweet potato, but they were definitely more on the savory side, but still delicious! I highly recommend these as a side dish for your next holiday meal…or even just an every day dinner :)

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Apple

Very slightly adapted from The Comfort of Apples Cookbook

Print this recipe!

Serves 6-8

1/4 cup olive oil
4 medium yams (about 3 pounds total)
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups light cream
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp minced fresh thyme
3 cups peeled and diced apples (1/4 inch dice)
3/4 cup bread in small chunks
3/4 cup parmesan in 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup parsley

Preheat oven to 400.

Line a baking sheet with foil and spread with olive oil. Roll the yams in the oil to coat and season well with salt and pepper. Bake until tender, about 1 hour, and remove from oven. **Alternatively, pierce potatoes several times with the tip of a knife, wrap in paper towels and microwave until soft.

Bring the cream to a simmer over medium-high heat in a small saucepan, and whisk in the butter. Reduce heat to medium, add the garlic, thyme, and apples, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until apples are tender, 8-10 min.

Slice each yam in half and scoop out the hot insides into a medium bowl. Fold in the hot cream mixture. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells.

Place the bread, parmesan, and parsley in a food processor and pulse until fine. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the potatoes, return to oven, and bake until yams are lightly browned and crisp, about 1/2 hour.

It’s Greek to Me!- “Spanakopita” Pasta Bake

18. September 2012 · 44 comments · Categories: Baking, Dinner, food, life, recipes, vegetarian · Tags: , , , ,

Spanikopita Pasta Bake

We’re coming down the home stretch with wedding preparations, and let’s just say I’m getting super stressed.

Among other things, I feel like there are so many incompetent people that I’m dealing with, or maybe I just see them that way, but it’s making me seriously worried that things aren’t going to get done on time…and to my liking.

Do I just have high expectations? or maybe I’m asking for things that normal people don’t ask for? But whatever it is, I feel like no one “gets” what I want! I just really hope that in the end it all turns out ok.

Spanikopita Pasta Bake

Nate and I have been watching Bridezilla on the WE channel. I hope that’s not how I come across to the people I come in contact with.

I made an appointment over a month ahead of time for the only person I trust to do my eyebrows. The salon called me on Sunday to tell me that they had to cancel my appointment because the woman (with whom I had already made an appointment) decided she’s going on vacation FOR A MONTH. Seriously?!

They told me she’d be back on October 16th, which is exactly one day before I leave to head down to PA for the wedding. I’m not sure if you know this about me, but I like to do NOT like to leave things til the last minute because I always expect the worst to happen.

She’s foreign so I have a feeling she’s going home to visit her family in Europe, but the vacation seems so sudden that now I’m paranoid she won’t be back on the 16th and I’ll be stuck with no one to do my eyebrows. I was so worried that I dragged Nate with me to the salon to talk with them in-person to assure me that she was in fact only going on vacation and that she’d be back on the 16th.

After 5 minutes of listening to me voice my every concern, the guy at the front desk told me there was no reason to think she wouldn’t be back in time for my appointment…and then he turned to Nate and said “Are you sure you still want to marry her?”

I.kid.you.not.

Spanikopita Pasta Bake

The only benefit of being stressed is losing my appetite. At least I hopefully won’t have to worry about not being able to fit into my dress that has now officially been taken in. They still have some adjusting to do with other parts, so I suppose they could change the size a bit if they had to.

Although depending on how stressed I am, sometimes I eat more. Let’s hope that’s not the case this time.

Spanikopita Pasta Bake

A dinner like this won’t hurt too much in your weight loss goals. If you’re trying to lose a few pounds like me, you could easily serve it with a nice green (or Greek!) salad and take a smaller portion.

I got inspired by a recent orzo pasta bake on saw on Smitten Kitchen’s site. I thought if I subbed the mozzarella for feta, it seemed kind of Greek-inspired. I tried to figure out what else I could add to feta and when I thought of spinach, I knew I had to try to create the flavor of Spanakopita.

Spanikopita Pasta Bake

I looked up a few spanakopita recipes to get the ratio correctly and then just kind of winged it. This recipe uses several tablespoons of butter but it’s spread over the entire pan. This was so good I kept going back for more…perhaps the only negative thing about making it :)

“Spanakopita” Pasta Bake

Recipe by Me

Print this recipe!

Serves 8-10

3- 10 oz. packages chopped frozen spinach
16 oz. Orzo shaped pasta
2 large onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp salt + pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
12 oz. feta cheese
8 oz. Ricotta cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil water and cook pasta. While pasta is cooking, thaw spinach in microwave and drain THOROUGHLY. You will need to squeeze as much water as possible out of the spinach. Set aside.

Melt 4 Tbsp butter in a large saute pan. Add onions and cook 5 min. Add garlic and cook til onions are soft. Stir in spinach and warm through. Stir in salt, pepper, nutmeg and dill. Cool slightly.

In a very large bowl, combine feta, ricotta and 2 eggs together. Stir spinach mixture into egg mixture and mix thoroughly. Stir in drained pasta.

Pour mixture into a 9×13 baking pan. Bake 30 min or until top is crispy and mixture is bubbling at bottom. Let rest for a few minutes before digging in.

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