'Tis that time of year again... when I take a weekend out of my so busy life and dedicate a few days to creating edible gifts to express my love and appreciation for those close to me. This year made a set of four flavored salts:

- Pomogranete
- Vanilla
- Sriricha
- Lemon Lavendar

I also handmade cards to send with these small tokens of affection. Unfortunately, I was so busy drying salt that I forgot to take pictures of the process. I am out of practice on the food blogging front. I've been a busy bee outside of the kitschen! However, the whole thing is pretty simple. Take some salt, add the flavor you want into it and (if needed) dry it out in the oven. The times when you need to dry out the salt mixture is when you add a liquid (duh!!!). Making vanilla salt is similar to making vanilla sugar... take a bean, split, scrape and mix. No drying required. When drying the other salts I pre-heated the oven to 350, spread the mixture on a baking sheet and then turned off the oven once I placed the salt inside. It usually takes less than 10 minutes in the oven but, be sure to check because you don't want your salt mixture to burn!

On the home front I tried to keep things simple. I decided to make the no knead sticky buns I made a year or so ago. I am happy to report my continued attempts to use yeast has resulted in improvement in making bread! Also, this basic dough is a gift that keeps on giving! You can find the recipe here.

First up... sticky buns! I pre-made the dough and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Then the afternoon before Christmas day I rolled out the dough and prepped the buns into a pan. This way on Christmas morning I could pull them out of the fridge to rise while we opened presents.

To bring some balance to this decadent treat I pulled out my inherited cast iron skillet and made a frittata!






I had some left over dough so I took it and made some mini-loaves of cinnamon swirl bread.





Next up for me is using my new spherical cake pan to make a pinata cake stuffed with candy! My prior attempt failed b/c I over filled the pans. Also, on my wish list is this message cookie cutter set. Happy new year and happy cooking!

Another year... another birthday for my gramps. This year he turned the big 90!!! Almost a century old. My PaPa started from the bottom and is now livin' on top. It amazes me to think he's seen so many changes, from indoor plumbing to Skype! It is because of him I have the Lotto app on my phone! He might not like being on the computer (what he said about using Skype) but he does love it's convenience. Initially he was adamant about not having a party. But, when you turn 90 decades young people gonna turn up and do it big. In the end it was just family but, my family is BIG...the final headcount was 57 people!

As usual I was in charge of baking the cake. I started looking up recipes and decided to do a tea flavored cake. My gramps loves a cuppa tea- specifically Black tea with citrus. So I did some research (thanks Google) and found out the BEST way to infuse tea flavor is to steep it into the butter. But, if you use a recipe with milk you can also steep the tea in milk. BUT, the catch is to make it concentrated. So double up on those tea bags buddy! As the plan for this non-party changed and more people from both sides of the Mason Dixie line RSVPed we figure one double decker 9 inch cake couldn't cut it. So I put that cake batter into muffin tins and made cupcakes instead. Then I called Sam's an order a full sheet cake.

I also made my two favorite non-alcoholic summertime drinks: vanilla lemonade and ginger limeade. A simple syrup is this crafty mofos best friend! How do I make it? Simple a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Add flavor (ginger slices, lemon/lime rind, vanilla bean, etc.) and set it on the stove at medium low heat. Let that sucker simmer for about 20 minutes. Boom! Flavored sugar water LITERALLY!!!

But we cannot live on baked goods and citrus drinks alone. This meant it was time for tapas/appetizers/horsedevous. As you may no I never ever do anything nice and easy... I like to do it nice and complex! So I took some in season ingredients and some old flavor favorites of my PaPa and but a twist on them.

• corn and zucchini fritters with jalepeno infused cream dip
• black eyed pea dip
• baked ravioli squares with marinara dipping sauce

My apologies folks... I didn't do this spread justice with photojournalism. I was too busy having a not-party party to take a bunch of foodie pictures. There was so much family and a lot of gossiping catching up to do!

Whoa!!!! I just realized it's been over a month since my last post. I know you all missed me. I missed you all too. I have been busy! It's been a nomadic living for me. Over the past year I've spent a lot of my time traveling between three points in the Mitten. I also head to DC on a bi-monthly basis. And, when I'm lucky I head to Chicago to see some friends there. Usually when I head to DC I'm there for serious stuff and don't get to hangout much. However! Last month I got to go walk around Chocolate City for a whole week! I also got to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine. Let's discuss!

GBD

That is the most delicious acronym ever... it stands for golden brown and delicious! What do they sell? Fried chicken and donuts! SO tasty! While in DC for a week I went to this place at LEAST three times. Literally. First I went to get some chicken. But, they have strange food hours so it was between breakfast and dinner. So I had to settle for just free smells. The next day I went back for lunch and it was well worth it.







That biscuit... not made with buttermilk. Instead it's got creme fraiche. I was skeptical... and GBD won me over. The creme fraiche gives it a tang similar to buttermilk and it was super moist. I didn't even need butter! I went back the next day to try their chicken breakfast sandwich. It's a sweet potato biscuit with spiced honey and a chicken tender. This was also good. The only issue I had was the chicken to biscuit ratio favored the chicken. I ended up with a huge bit of chicken and no biscuit for my last bite. All in all, not a bad problem to have. I also nabbed a couple of donuts for the ride to Maryland before my mini-roadtrip to the wedding. Being an equal opportunist I got one cake and one raised. The cake donut was an homage to tres leches with coconut flakes on top. The yeast was a take on coffee cake with a cinnamon and sugar crumble. A+++ all around for GBD. Additional raves about this place... they have beer! A happy hour! They have beer pairing menus not only for chicken but also their donut selections!

Wedding Bells

My friend got married ya'll! I had been looking forward to this wedding all year! I was way too excited to see my friend's DIY crafty chic wedding vision come true. When the save the date came in the mail I raved over the chevrons. I discussed the importance of color choice in setting the tone with my friend over Google chat. So when she asked another friend and I to pick up the flower arrangements the day of? The answer was YES. I wanted to be part of this wedding so bad. Also the drive over gave me a chance to have a Thelma and Louis moment with the coolest Iowan ever. The hardest part of the drive was getting out of DC but we had music to listen to. My friend made a great playlist and we were those obnoxious girls singing loudly in the car next to you in the construction backup. It.Was.Awesome. I also played a couple new albums for my  friend so all in all it was a great music swap.






Since we had to get there early with the flowers we had plenty of time to rest up before the wedding. The flowers were done by Whole Foods (awesome and relatively cheap according to the bride) so we stocked up on snacks. After checking into the hotel it was time to kick up our feet and read a book.




The actual wedding was... a super fun party. I think this is what the bride had in mind. She confessed she was more worried about the DJs set list than what the flowers looked like. This is why we're friends. We have similar priorities. There were many other types of special touches throughout the venue to make one coo.

Touristy Chic

Since I lived in DC for a while I don't always go to the big must-see spots. However, I did take the time go visit some old familiar places and at least one new site this past trip. The Sunday after the wedding I met up with another set of friends for brunch. While out I had an amazing Bloody Mary at Tortilla Coast. I originally asked for a Bloody Maria (tequila instead of vodka) but the bartender surprised me. He makes his own chipotle infused vodka so he snuck that into my drink. I am now convinced more spirits should be smokey. Maybe this is why I like mezcal so much?




I road the metro around town as usual and ended up on the green line. I took a picture of my old metro stop.



Lastly, I met up with some friends from undergrad who have been living in DC since I lived there. They are true city people with a city kid. He is the cutest. He had red hair and chubby cheeks. We met up at the MLK monument because I had never been there.




Overall I had a great trip. I love going places that are familiar enough that you can count on some old favorites as you explore and try to find new things. Mostly, I hate getting lost and having to ask for directions. All the sunshine and good times got me excited to summer. I also got a few new songs to add to my summer playlist. We'll talk about that next time;)

The Superbowl... It's a party right? I'm not a sports fan at all. I don't know any of the rules of football. But, I do love hanging out and having tapas! That's what a Superbowl party is right? Snacks=tapas? That's the way I interpret it at least. I hung out with a friend who's an actual football fan for Superbowl and I brought snacks since I couldn't offer any meaningful commentary. I actually tried for a couple minutes... However my friend was not impressed with me enthusiastic "he's happy because he pushed that other guy down!" and "he touched the ball so now he's gonna slap that other guy's butt!" comments. I can wax poetic about many things but football is not one of them.

GREEN SAUCE

My friend Devin makes this wonderful cross between salsa verde and guacamole that I love. I can say it's my fried chicken. I love dips. I love chips. I love avocados. This green sauce is like a trifecta of all three things in one! What's not to love. So for my Superbowl get together I decided to try to make my own version of a green sauce. I think Devin's has tomatillos in it... I didn't go that route. The end result was refreshing and "more-ish."

MORE-ISH (adj)- So delicious that one can't help but eat more, and more, and more....

• cilantro
• parsley
• garlic
• onion
• avocado
• EVOO
• jalapeno
• salt
• pepper
• lime juice

Special tool- food processor. Basically I put all that stuff in the food processor and pulsed it til I got the consistency I wanted. Although in the end I used it as a dip- as the name implies- it's more like a sauce. Loved it! Later today I will make a hasselback potato and pour the leftovers on top!

MEDITERRANEAN TURKEY MEATBALLS

I'm not 100% sure why but I associate meatballs with sports watching. In my mind's eye it's usually old school crockpot meat balls of the Swedish variety. I, of course, couldn't just do that. I had to make it kind-a fancy. Once again I got the recipe from TheKitchn. The dipping sauce is a basic Greek yogurt dip and the meatballs are leaner with the use of ground turkey and lentils as a filling base.













Once mixing the ingredients together you let the flavors meld for 15minutes... also known as preheating your oven time. Shape the meat mixture into spheres and bake at 375 for about 20min.