(Inside A Black Apple)

The Cottage/Cookie Mystery

So, this post begins with a mystery. The mystery of why I have started to receive Cottage Living magazine in the mail. I thought maybe one of the moms (mine or Josiah's) was responsible, but nope. If anyone has any theories, feel free to throw them out there.

A very wonderful thing came of this mystery, which is these cookies that I have made twice in the span of one week, because they are SO. GOOD. I think they might be too good. And where did the recipe come from? Why, Cottage Living's March 2008 issue.

Here is the recipe, if, after seeing my onslaught of cookie-making photos, you feel compelled to break out the peanut butter. I usually tamper with recipes, but didn't with this one. 
Leave it be.

 

We had very fantastic friends over last night, and I was a little nervous (because one of them is a little bit of a picky eater). However, I made my favorite chicken dish, and then these magical-mystery cookies for desert, and I think everything was a hit.

Enjoy! I hope the beginning of the week is off to a nice start for you.

Chocolates From France & Bunnies With Headgear

Sara is back from her long journey, and she brought us some very beautiful and tasty presents. This little owl and squirrel are too much:

Look at how beautiful and detailed they are! The little talons on the owl? They kill me.

Also killing me (in a good way, of course) is the new-to-me tiny book from Renee French, Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio. Here is one of my favorite, erm..."troubled"... rabbits:

 
They're such beautiful images...it's hard to not to want to frame up a bunch and make a mini-gallery.
Renee French is amazing.
I'm very glad to have my friend back, and to have purchased this sweet little book today. The rabbits remind me of Sara and her work (and she knows that's a compliment).

And thanks for all the Portland advice! I'm going to make a list with the "must-try-to-do's" tomorrow to pack with us for Friday.

Lovely Leftovers + Portland Advice

Today we had a very nice light lunch of leftover homemade bread + a potato and chicken soup improvised from one of the soup-making techniques in this excellent soup book. The plates looked so pretty together on the counter, I had to take a photo.

I'm doing as hoped/planned in yesterday's post (drawing/reading/listening), but I thought I'd hop on and ask for some advice. Any Portlander's (the Oregon variety for now) out there, we need some armchair travel agents to represent for their favorite Portland restaurants/shops/haunts. Portland aficionados, feel free to chime in, too of course!
General advice is very appreciated, as well as specific recommendations. We're flying out to that fair city on Friday, and we have this wee book which is full of nice suggestions, but I trust you guys more than that little tome. Are there any particular neighborhoods/areas we should definitely visit? I mean, house-neighborhoods, not just shopping neighborhoods.

I'm excited to hear what you have to say, and am also very excited about our "interview" with Portland.

Happy Monday!

Post-Easter Candybrain

I'm so glad the new banner is such a hit!
Thanks for all the sweetness, you guys!

But on to the matter at hand: Good grief, there is so. much. candy. in this apartment.
I'm going to ration it out over the next few weeks, so as to not encourage the onset of diabetes.

I hope everyone had a nice spring weekend! We had a really nice little Easter this year...on Saturday, Josiah and I paper mache'd some enormous easter eggs to hold our candy/treats for each other and yesterday, My mom and sister came over for lunch and egg-dying and a good time was had by everybody (I think!). The weather here was just beautiful...I remember so many soggy, grey Easters, and was very relieved by the crisp brightness of yesterday.

On Saturday night, we scoured the neighborhood after our jog for flowering branches to decorate the table with, and they looked so pretty! Sadly, my kitchen has one measly little window, and my photos turned out pretty awfully. The only decent photos are of my Easter pièce de résistance (which is definitely better than nothing!):

Oh, good! There is evidence of some of the pretty branches after all!

I made orange cupcakes (orange meaning containing juice and zest) with cream cheese frosting, and they were (and still are) very tasty and Easter-y.

Happy Monday!

PS: Anyone who was jonesin' for print images from the last update (The Terrarium, Button Collector, etc.) all five are now up in the shop.

 

We forgot to break out the hats...

...but I think that a good time was had by all, New Years Eve-wise.
Our friends Jenny, Andy, Sara, Devlin, Mandy, Leslie + Mike came over. Isn't it a peculiar world when everyone can be represented by a webpage? We had, in no particular order, dinner, firecrackers, lemonade-wine (which Nigella invented and I don't know that I can vouch that heartily for), champagne punch, cupcakes + muffins, and France Gall.

Here we are earlier, having a comfort-food dinner, salmon patties...chicken + dumplings, roasted baby tomatoes and zucchini.

But we didn't have party hats! Because I forgot to break them out.

So the two of us made a point to don them yesterday evening. Our January first was very quiet and sleepy (as I think they often are). We went to see a live broadcast of the Met's Hansel + Gretal and then cozied up for the rest of the day...making projects, eating leftovers, watching DVD's, napping.

Thanks for all the New Year's well-wishing! You applets are the best.

Sugar Shack

I love my mom and sister so much. They came to my apartment on Tuesday to make our annual gingerbread house (which is actually more of a candy-yard-art-assemblage of sorts).

The finished product...our house was so small that we had to use up lots of the candy on bushes and trees and things:

I am particularly proud of that nonpareil tree there!

Well, the shop has been put to sleep for the first time in history, and Josiah and I are leaving today for holiday visiting with both of our families. This is the first time the shop has been closed the whole time I've had it.

I'm very excited for Christmas to finally be here. I can't wait! I hope all you applets have the most wonderful of holidays, and I'll see you after the big day.

See you soon  & xoxo

Cozycozy

I really, really love chicken and dumplings. In fact, I would venture to say it is one of my favorite foods. When I left New York, my friend Greg offered to make me whatever I wanted for dinner as a little "farewell", and I opted for chicken and dumplings.

Why, then, have I never actually made them? Furthermore, why do I hardly ever eat them?

I undertook a big pot for dinner on Saturday, which was one of those great kind of days where you have some time to putter around in the kitchen and kind of just feel things out and let things simmer a little more. I used this recipe, which I would highly recommend. I added celery about 15 minutes before taking the whole thing off the heat, and I think that was a great addition, but you are talking to an avid celery fan, so I'm biased. I do like the biscuity sort of dumplings, but I think I might also have a go at a more "noodle-y" dumpling later this week.

We had parsnips on the side...I think I am becoming parsnip-crazed. I love them with just a touch of salt, butter and nutmeg.
Mmmm.

The Goodbye Girl, but with waffles

I am so sorry to be so scarce this week!

Things will be back to normal next week, I promise. And I've got to get to the Halloween fun, too! It'll just pass me by if I let it. I brought you a giant-acorn-shaped waffle to make up for my delinquent blogging:

A nice sliver of butter and some syrup and I think that'll do just fine. (I'm so crazy for that big acorn cookie cutter! It's kind of too big for cookies, but it cuts up sandwiches or waffles like a champ).

We are headed out of town again tomorrow to a weekend wedding (it will be the first best-friend wedding I've attended in my young life, so I'm really excited!). My lovely, lovely friend Liz is getting married to her long-time sweetie, and I get to be a bridesmaid. In black, no less.
And my own black dress, at that! She is so thoughtful to abolish usual matchy/nightmarish bridesmaid dresses.

It will be so fun, and I am excited to show you guys the present I made for then when I get back (I know Elizabeth peeps over here every so often, so I don't want to spoil it).

I will, of course, miss this little dapper chap:

He really took a shine to the pretty blue scarf that Jenny made. I had trouble getting it back.
Okay, that's a lie.
But still. He did fancy it.

Enjoy the rest of your weeks, lovely Applets. I'll return on Monday!

Cocoa Rosettes

I've decided what I will be, should the artist/illustrator/whimsy-stitcher thing not work out in the long haul:

A Chocolatier.

On a recent excursion to Atlanta with the Squirrel Mother and our best Andy, we went to brand-new F.C.S. (Fancy Cooking Store), where I scurried around excitedly and acted like a loony...grabbing things here and there and emitting little yelps of glee. One thing I grabbed (and promptly paid for) was a heavy-duty bon-bon baking/chocolate molding tin. It is a really beautiful object itself, and as you can see, even more beautiful, tasty things come forth from it.

I think that most chocolate molds these days are flexible, thin, plastic...and though they are probably easier to work with, I think I would be hard-pressed to find one that makes such beautiful candies. The floret-mounds (there are two on the left) are my favorite, I think. Or maybe the wee star.

I filled them with various good things that I whipped up in tiny quantities...quite a few had tasty peanut-butter candy centers (just small balls of peanut butter mixed with a tiny bit of butter and lots of confectioner's sugar) and the others had mint and orange cream fillings, respectively. Mint, because there are NOT ENOUGH milk chocolate/mint combinations. I can never find them! And orange is just so lovely with chocolate. The creams were confect-ed of milk, butter, generous amounts of confectioner's sugar, and extracts of peppermint and orange. We surprised our dinner guests with them, and I think they were a hit.

I've got a bit of work ahead of me, so I'll stop going on about candy-making. But it is so fun...I could go on for much, much longer!

Happy Saturday, dears.

Everything was a mess, so I made some bread.

Thank you guys so much for all the support over at Venus. It's so exciting just to be nominated with such wonderful company alongside me!

My whole apartment (bedroom, studio, etc.) is messy right now, so I'm being the slightly-bored straightening-and-cleaning-fairy. You know how all of a sudden...after a few house-guests...some willful ignoring...your home is suddenly not in the least tidy. It has exploded with clutter.  And then it's a few days to set it to rights.

This weekend was nice and quiet and was mostly the aforementioned slow cleaning and being a bit of a hobbit. And I finally read the September Vogue that weighs at least as much as Miette.

Also, on Sunday afternoon I thought that the smell of fresh bread a-baking would give a nice homey-ness back  to the place, so I rustled up the really good recipe that began as Alicia's and is now a little different (due to my experimental cooking nature). It is so easy and really, really addictive when it is finished.

Really Tasty Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread
(The foundation of which is Anne's No-Knead Bread, courtesy of Ms. Alicia Paulson)

Combine and set aside:
2 C King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour (or similar...this particular pale whole wheat is really tasty, has just a tiny bit of nuttyness and is a little more nutritious than its white counterpart)
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon + 1 pinch Salt
2 packages of dry yeast (1/4 oz packets)
2 Tablespoons fresh Rosemary (or dried, if it's what you have access to)

Warm lightly on the stove:
1 C Water
1 C Milk
1/4 C Olive Oil

Have on hand:
1 Egg
2 C. White Whole Wheat flour
Greased loaf pan (6"x9" or 5"x8")
1-2 Tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove liquids from heat, and add egg. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. Blend slowly (with your mixer, or your wooden spoon) and then a bit more vigorously for 3 minutes. Stir in the other 2 cups of flour with your good ol' trusty spoon. Cover with a cloth and let rise about 50 minutes (it should be about doubled). Stir down and then spoon into greased loaf pan.

Bake for about 35 minutes, and then test with a knife or skewer for done-ness. It may take another 5-10 minutes if you're using a 5"x8" loaf pan. Take care to not overcook, it should be lovely and golden all around. Brush/spread top with a dollop or two of softened butter, and you should have a crust resembling this:

Let it cool for at least 30 minutes (but preferably a bit more) before turning it out. Let cool a bit more, whilst cutting slivers absent-mindedly for yourself to snack on. After it's mostly cooled, unless you have enough people to devour the whole loaf right away, cut off some slices for yourself and those deserving, and wrap it in foil (It's very moist and soft and wonderful, but seems to get a hardness/staleness creeping in very quickly).

If you're feeling peckish, you can make yourself some tasty (but crumbly) chicken and/or tomato sandwiches for lunch the next day:

Happy Monday, Applets!