lazy saturday snack

{ Kauai map }
{ papaya and lime }

I was reminded today, of my family's trip to Kauai a few years ago over my mid day snack of papaya and lime.

Which I might add is the best little slice o'heaven eva !! I totally forgot how amazing this tastes....I might be partial because it brings me right back to Kauai, and all those amazing memories make it even sweater.

We bounced around between a resort and bed and breakfasts on the island. One bed and breakfast served us fresh (like right off the tree people) papaya and lime for breakfast and I about died...seriously.

So on my lazy Saturday I find myself wishing for warm breeze...salty water and an abundance of fruit trees...come on December, get here already!!!!!!

*I have some seriouse projects this weekend...invites are picked up and in the appropriate (and legible) shade of olive green...now it's putting these little packages together that's going to take up all my time...can't wait to show you!!

Happy weekend lovelies :-)

:: peace and love ::

potato-pear-gorgonzola pizza

little pizza all put together.
pretty yellow world market mat

chimay-blue label and amber.

sunday--after doing numerous loads of laundry and generally having a lovely-relaxing and productive day...wes decided he wanted a home made pizza. we were seriously obsessed with my pesto pear creation a couple weeks ago....but we didn't have any basil and had reached a point of laziness where we were no longer willing to run out to the store (i did admit laziness...).

i decided to mix that pizza up just a bit--

here's what you need--

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic-chopped

parmesan (about 1/2 cup)

salt and pepper to taste

trader joes whole wheat pizza dough

1 bag mozzarella (i use about 1/2 the bag on a large pizza)

gorgonzola (handful sprinkled on top)

pear

1 russet (we had russet--you could use any potato you would like)

walnuts (chopped and bagged from TJ's)

directions--

super super easy--one of the reasons we love home made pizza. Roll out the dough (wes' job...he's just so much better at it than me ;-), i used a food processor to combine olive oil, garlic and parmo...blend until well combined. i spread this mixture all over my dough (instead of pesto)...sprinkled mozzarella over the top followed by v. thin slices of potato (one right next to the other) so you will always get a bite of potato; layer thin slices of pear over that and sprinkle gorgonzola and your walnuts over the top.

i cook it for about 20 minutes on 450. yum yum.... we never end up snapping a pic once it's done...probably because it's so delightful that it gets cut into and devoured before one can even reach a camera...

i will say i love the thin slices of potato on the pizza...i love the crunch of the walnuts and the flavor of gorgonzola is amazing. I have an idea for our next one....but really, you can't beat that pesto (i would choose pesto over anything else)...this was delightfully delicious though!!! enjoy.

:: peace and love ::

enjoy cupcakes

this just made my sunday : ) head on over to jose villa's blog and check out the simply wonderful(ness) that is Enjoy Cupcakes....

:: peace and love ::

pesto-pear-gorgonzola pizza.......oh ya.

These pictures really don't do it justice...we have a great point and shoot camera that I love, but I am willing to admit I have not yet mastered how to capture the light. I decided I was going to make a pizza on Saturday...Wes had been out of town and I wanted to make us a fun 'stay in' and hang out meal! I have made pizzas many a time before....usually sauteing peppers and onions...adding goat cheese (always good...of course). This time I decided I needed to switch it up--here's what you need ::

2 packages of Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough.
1/2 Pear
crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
walnuts
mozzarella
basil
pine nuts
salt
pepper
garlic
olive oil

The sauce is a home made pesto--done with a package of basil from TJ's (equivalent to a handful of basil-if you grow your own). A clove of garlic and about 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, and 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Combine all of this in a food processor and blend until smooth.
After you get your crust rolled out on your pizza pan, apply the pesto spread all over the dough, next add the mozzarella and top with pear slices, walnuts and sprinkle of Gorgonzola.
Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.
Honesty............it was so good, so so so good. I wish I had more right now....
If you give this recipe a try I hope you love it as much as we did....how could you not, it's killer!!

:: peace and love ::

Christmas Feast !!

The prettiest head of cauliflower I've ever seen....almost too pretty to eat...but it was so v. tasty!
Pan Roasted Cauliflower from here....drooling over it here.

Baked Brie from here...with cranberries and walnuts instead of cherries and almonds.

Christmas contained a plethora of amazing food...veggie scramble (bear bread...see here from last year), fresh fruit sprinkled with Cinnamon and fresh eggnog (better cold momma...) yum yum...oh, can't forget the hot cocoa with rum (!!). Dinner was beautiful and so fun, curried citrus rice with almonds, this cauliflower recipe, pan sauteed salmon, and roasted greens......with our version of this baked brie recipe...we substituted cranberries for cherries and walnuts for almonds, but kept the honey and rosemary....delicious!!!! Besides the food, we had a beautiful day spent with family, and really nothing is better than that!!!

Happy Holidays...Merry Christmas...one day late!

:: peace and love ::

Strawberry Scones...yayaya

{ready to go!!!} Don't judge me.....

But....I made scones for the *first* time today and they were delicious!!!! We had bought a flat of fresh strawberries at our farmer's market last night, and while eating them alone is fab. I got to thinking that eating them in a scone would un-doubt ably be superior...obvi! I have been dreaming of making my own scones forEVER (honestly...they're my fav), but I thought for some reason that I needed a mixer, and couldn't manage it with shear will power and a wooden spoon....but thankfully my previous judgments about the scone creation process were dis proved today!! Alright, alright.......let's get to the good stuff huh!?!?!?

{I found these amounts to make 8 mid sized scones}

Ingredients ::

2 cups all-purpose flower

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup cream....cold buttermilk or 1/2 and 1/2 (I used 1/2 and 1/2)

1 cup fresh strawberries (or any fresh or dried fruit)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cubed and slightly softened

Directions ::

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees; lightly grease cookie sheet.

Cut fruit into smaller pieces, sprinkle with sugar and set aside.

Combine sugar, flower, baking powder and salt with the softened butter cubes. If using a mixer lightly mix (be sure not to over blend), I used my hand to gently mix the ingredients together breaking up the butter into the flower mix. Stir in fruit, then add the 1/2 and 1/2 (or other), all at once. Use spatula to gently stir mixture until it sticks together.

Turn onto a flowered surface and lightly kneed a few times to get ingredients to stick together. Be sure not to squish berries, or over work the dough...sprinkle with flower if it gets uber sticky!!

Press dough into circle about 3/4 of an inch thick, from there I used a knife to cut the circle into eighths....and used a spatula spreader to scoop pieces up and onto the cookie tray.

Bake 15 mins...sprinkle with sugar and bake another 5-10 more mins (it was 10 more for me).

Keep an eye on them in the last few mins. you don't want dry scones!!!

Sprinkling the sugar on the top in the last bit of cooking provides you with a pretty sparkly topping.

Happy eating ;-) I can't wait to enjoy one with my morn. coffee tomorrow!!!

:: peace and love ::

***My next batch....which may be tomorrow...I'm fully obsessed now..will contain eggs and vanilla extract! (stay tuned...I'll tell you which version I like best!)

Danielle's Bruschetta Recipe

{organic heirloom tomatoes..Mmmm}

I have been meaning to post this one for a while now--my dear friend Danielle introduced this to me a while back when we were doing our weekly 'Project Runway nights'. I have had many forms of Bruschetta, and I like this one very much (so does Wes...that's always a plus).
Ingredients ::
Tomatoes
Onion
Fresh Basil
Garlic
Olive Oil
Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Crumbled Feta Cheese
there's really no secret, you just mix all these together and 'voila!' it's amazingly delicious!!!! We always get a baguette and slice it, apply a trickle of olive oil and get them toasty in the oven, it provides the perfect receptacle for the bruschetta mixture!

:: peace and love ::

{ SF :: and Ikea driveby }

We're off to San Francisco for an A's game this weekend...staying at the Villa Florence hotel and going to Ikea on Sunday to hopefully find and grab some of these goodies above (I'm really hoping for a new media station...bedside tables...and a chest of drawers...but let's try not to get *carried away). I'm hoping for a wonderful and relaxing trip with my honey...a lovely get together with our very good friend Mara (Ashlee has suggested the Bubble Lounge), for the A's to win of course....and good weather! Happy Weekend everyone : )

:: peace and love ::

*carried away :: something I do often.....

Cupcake Dreams

There's a few things we know about our wedding. One of them, is that we want CUPCAKES (yummmm) instead of a traditional cake. I (with much assistance from Danielle no doubt) will be trying out some homemade versions trying to find my personal favorite, we know Wes' (Double chocolate with cream cheese frosting...) and some other delights to expand people's choices!!! Here's what we're thinking :: Lavender and vanilla bean, clementine, coconut, lemon and of course chocolate. I'm not saying we'll have 'that' many options...but I want to try them to find maybe 3 or 4 that we can't possibly live with out!! If you have a favorite cupcake recipe please post it here...I would love to know!!

:: peace and love ::

Jonathan Adler....you rock my socks

**Weekend recap--so far, aside from studying for finals and doing my final projects in art...Wes and I had a beautiful date 'afternoon' today. We went and had some delicious drinks (pineapple mojito and flatliner martini for me--beer for Wes) at the Dolphin Bay Resort, followed with a movie and onto sushi for dinner at Yanagi's. It was fantastic...and so fab to spend some quality time with my sweets.
If you aren't aware of who Jonathan Adler is....com on out from under your rock...and experience the amazing'ness' that are his ceramics (really everything on his site...but lets not get carried away!). I am 100% obsessed with his Ojai collection....I am thinking that I NEED some of his mugs in yellow and orange with the yellow centered bowls (since we have a couple bright yellow bowls already) it will be a coordinated mixture!! Ahh....more and more I'm realizing the signs...you know you're getting older when ceramics make your day!!!! Who can blame me though...really!?!?!

:: peace and love ::