SweetAnd Condensed

Oh my, oh my has it been a crazy month: welcome to December! I feel blessed, I feel happy....I feel...tired.  I heart the holiday season there's just so much to do and so much going on... 

I love being busy though and made some cookies for the 2nd Annual New York Holiday Cookie Swap event today organized by Bloggers Without Borders to benefit the Cookies for Kids' Cancer charity.  So many great blog friends to catch up with and new ones to meet.  Oh and did I mention all the cookies?!  

So, someday I'll catch up on blog posts about flower arranging, (birthday present, 2 Thanksgiving dinners, 2nd year of amaryllis for a big fashion client), canning (Brooklyn Swappers event and Justin's first pickles), sewing (new book and material to make my first skirt), knitting (another beautiful book and lilac-colored socks), felting (have the tools, don't have the time), paper crafts (squirrel place cards and so many great friends who are into this!), craft fairs ('tis the season), friends visiting from out of town (yay!), holiday parties (double yay!) and holiday projects (oh so many in mind...)  

But this week is the busiest one of the whole month for catering, so I'll resurface very soon.

Here are some much better recaps of the event, enjoy:

Three Many Cooks: thank you so much for organizing such a fun, tasty event!
Justcook NYC: in which he made THREE kinds of cookies, oh my
The Diva That Ate New York: with a video!
Sweets by Sillianah: she even volunteered for the event
One Tough Cookie: my award for best presentation with her cookie TREE
Healthy Green Kitchen: mmm iced ginger bars...
Abby Dodge: sooo sorry I didn't grab a piece of her caramel 
macadamia coconut shortbread before they all got snapped up
Open Mouth Insert Cookie: an amazing picture summary of the assortment

Fun with Fruit

Happy November!  I've been so inspired by lots of fall fruits and events lately, everyone is as busy as little bees....I really enjoyed Pie Party Live hosted by Jackie & Ken -- great job, guys!  I even won a copy of the Sarabeth's Bakery Cookbook, hurray!!

I'd been meaning to make a pie (or 2!) but being sick for the whole month of October threw a wrench into my plans.  Eventually I got back to canning with some black grapes and red plums from a recipe in Canning for a New Generation.

Love how the kitchen smells when fruit is simmering...

Winnie suggested a way to use up a bunch of kumquats: 

candy them with cinnamon sticks and star anise, yum.

I also love her post because she rounds up some great DIY gifts.  

One of my favorite things about canning is that it makes such nice, little presents.

Back to the grape plum filling: got this Wilton pie press at Sur La Table 

and (I admit) used store bought pie dough to save some time -- NOT as good I agree, but infinitely faster.

And pretty quickly we had a bunch of hand pies!

They were best right out of the oven of course.

But I had to wrap up a few

for little breakfast presents the next day.

More canning adventures soon, I'm having so much fun!

Vanilla Peach Lemon Abundance

My 4th canning venture went pretty well.  Justin was away, so Kate came over for Chinese food, wine and to keep me company in the kitchen.

Peeling peaches was easier than I expected, just a little boiling water bath, then a plunge into ice water and....

gasp!  Naked peaches!  They kind of looked like big egg yolks.

Pitting them went well too, I guess they were just ripe enough.

Kate and I chatted and caught up while we sterilized the jars

and filled them up with the sliced peaches.  I loved the laughter in the kitchen as we looked at our old high school yearbook -- we've known each other since kindergarten after all!

Then just a little piece of vanilla bean in each jar, processing in the boiling water and the vanilla permeated the syrup quite nicely.  Mila observed and supervised of course.

Next up, zesting some lemons

and thus, yup, you guessed it: naked lemons!  And lots of butter and some sugar.

For a quick dessert from Canning for a New Generation, I broiled some of the vanilla peaches with some whipped cream and demerara sugar.

Kate even brought birthday presents!  Lovely hand-painted tiles for JOY, HOPE, LOVE and WISH with pink wine and a hand-stamped and punched card.  She knows how much I love the thoughtfulness of handmade gifts, especially when they're pink!

And Justin got home safely from his trip to Seattle, bringing back this beautiful Curtis Steiner necklace of black garnet, copper and mother of pearl.  Such good taste he has...

We've built up quite a canned collection: there's the raspberry jam from a previous post, but the strawberry and sour cherry preserves are long gone.  So I thought we'd be all set and stocked up for the coming autumn...

and then this morning my genius pastry chef friend Eric gave me some of his grape jam, still warm from the kitchen.

Such good, seasonal fun, can't wait for my next canning project!

Bday week fun (& more jam)

[from tarot.com]

Yep, been a great week so far. Even my cat is being nice to me and that's a new development.  And it just keeps on going...

Vacation Day 1: Blogger Meetup!

Heading out the door, but writing a few quick e-mails before shutting my phone off for a week and having limited internet access -- yikes!  But I had to do a quick post about the awesome blogger meet-up yesterday in McCarren Park.  I felt met Helen from Helen Hearts, yay!  First though, I did some morning baking. 

Popovers really DO pop up!  Had them with some of my strawberry jam.

And made some jam-filled cookies from a recipe by Mrs. Fields for the picnic.

Helen and I also made some new friends!  The Delightful Dozen hosted and I'm so happy I met Yanil from thenewyorkerstyle (check out her handmade jewelry!), the totally stylishly fabulous Monroe from Fashion Steele NYC (love her twirling in her latest post) and the totally fun Nicole from Black Shoes Diary (she had the most adorable shoes on that she got for FREE!  And thanks to whoever made the spectacular spiked punch...

The girls took me vintage shopping at beacon's closet, which I have NEVER done before and I can't believe how fun it was!  

Got some dresses from Calvin Klein, J. Crew and Kimchi Blue for such great prices.  Uh oh, I may have found a new obsession...too bad this cute, pink wall sconce in the dressing room wasn't for sale.

Also loved these colorful chairs lining Bedford Avenue.  Helen said they're all over Paris too, so can't wait to see them in person very soon.

We also passed the biggest Scrabble game.  Too bad I am so so bad at Scrabble.

Well, my posts never end up short or quick, but there you go.  And to my new friend who I sent a link to today, hope you visit soon!