Laziest Chocolate Cake EVER

I may need to try this.

DIY Wedding Wednesday: Flowers and Floorplans

There's just SO much to do before the wedding this October, I thought it would be best if I broke down the to-do list by month, and if nothing else, at least got one wedding thing done every Wednesday.

Truth is I got a few things done this week including procuring a floor plan of the loft space where we're having our reception and tracking down the bride having her wedding there the day after ours. I figured if we both need to rent a hundred chairs and tables and votive holders etc etc etc, maybe we can save a few bucks by sharing some items. She was thrilled I contacted her. My thriftiness is so catchy.

Since today is my newly dubbed "Wedding Wednesday" (not to be confused with "Tecate Tuesdays" at the office), I went to the fancy deli on my lunch break and picked up some pale blue hydrangeas and baby's breath so I could start toying with floral arrangements.



In my opinion, floral arrangements are one of the biggest rip offs when it comes to weddings. If you have even a slight knack for design, or if you are able to mimic photos of bouquets you like, you can make your own bouquets and arrangements. It's not like sewing your own dress or baking your own cake. Flowers are already pretty; all you have to do is group them. Granted the DIY approach is best if you are going for something simple or for an earthy wildflower look. I don't want to totally discount the talents of a skilled florist.

That said, you also don't want to be fussing with flowers the day before your wedding and find out you're going about it all wrong. Practice. Also that's not my finished arrangement above on the left, that's just flowers in a vase. I'll practice making them look like the Real Simple photo on the right later, but first, I wanted to start playing with this...



Last weekend I attended the Brooklyn Based Wedding Crashers fair where I got buzzed on free Prosecco (Italy's more affordable answer to Champagne), stuffed my face with canapes and met with a couple dozen of Brooklyn's hippest wedding vendors. I'm not a girly girl in the traditional sense, but this event had just the right amount of quirk and class that it didn't take me long to start cooing over cupcakes and custom letterpress coasters. But I digress...

I got some really good ideas from the vendors at the fair, whether I'll be able to afford to pay them for their talents or if I'll attempt my own knock off in the end. One florist had a beautiful willow branch arrangement decorated with "crystal" beads and blue feathers (stealing that idea), vintage glass bottles with baby's breath (see my attempt above) and beautiful, simple hydrangea bouquets (I can do that). So that was the inspiration for today's Wedding Wednesday as well as this Style Me Pretty post I came across a few months ago.



I started collecting vintage glass bottles at the Brooklyn Flea and from awesome second-hand shop Junk when I saw that post. I figure I'll create groupings of three or four bottles with either baby's breath or single stem dahlias. No paper pom poms or anything with yarn though. This ain't gonna be a barn wedding, this is BROOKLYN.

Bigger Balls

What can I say... I got lazy near the end.

You may also be wondering why I've been writing so much this past year about desserts and baked goods. No, I've not given up on balanced meals. I just happen to have scored a husband-to-be who is an amazing cook and totally kicks my ass in the kitchen. And I'm no slouch, so that's really saying something. Meanwhile, he leaves the baking to me so I'm happy to be in charge of cookies and pies from now on.

Baking aside, expect wedding D.I.Y. ideas coming down the Home Sweet Homewrecker pipeline soon as we're planning one heck of a hands-on celebration!

Christmas Balls!

Happy Holidays everyone! I wanted to share with you my favorite Christmas cookie recipe -- Christmas Balls. Of course I can't talk about delicious Christmas balls without channeling the SNL sketch with Alec Baldwin showing off his Schweddy Balls on NPR. Trust me, bake these balls and you won't be able to wait to get them in your mouth too!

Christmas Balls

• 1 c. butter 2 t. vanilla
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 t. water or milk
• 2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 c. chopped pecans (chop 'em pretty small)
• thin confectioners frosting (about 3/4 c. powdered sugar + 1-2 T. milk)
• coconut or colored sugar

Cream butter and vanilla; add sugar, creaming the mixture until light and fluffy. Blend in water. Stir in flour, mixing well. Add pecans. Shape in 1" balls. Bake 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheet in 325 degree oven. Bake 20 min. or until firm to the touch. Cool before removing from pan. Frost with conf. frosting and coat with coconut or with red and green colored sugar.

I decided to bake Christmas Balls yesterday when the first blizzard of the season had me holed up indoors, relishing wearing my jammies all day. Turned out I had all the necessary ingredients for balls except for 1 cup of pecans. Rats! I tore apart the cabinet looking for some kind of nutty stand-in, and luckily I came across the remains of a stash of "Culinary Touch" nut mixes sent my way by the fine folks at Fisher Nuts. These blends, intended to "add delicious flavor to any dessert or meal" were about to do just that. Fisher's pecan, cranberry, orange blend seemed like it would work, and perhaps even improve my balls.

Whatta you know, the touch of cranberry and orange made my favorite Christmas cookies even more delicious. Didn't even think it was possible! It took me awhile to find a use for the Fishers Culinary Touch blend, and this was the perfect occasion.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

In my last post I was prepping for Thanksgiving, hosting for the first time! Everything went great, the parents were pleased and delighted to meet one another, though we barely made it through cheesecake and boardgames before passing out from exhaustion.

I can't take too much credit though. While my main man did most of the cooking, I merely handled the clementine cranberry sauce and the pumpkin cheesecake. Thank you to my friend Nancy who suggested an alternate recipe from Smitten Kitchen which I actually ended up making for the big feast. I tried Martha's the weekend before as practice, but it never quite solidified in the middle. It did however make a delicious dip for ginger cookies!

That said, next time I think I will combine both recipes and make Martha Stewart's cake (baked somewhat longer) with the pecan crust from Smitten Kitchen and the sour cream frosting. It will be the ultimate pumpkin cheesecake!!!



So I know Thanksgiving was about a month ago, but do you think it's ok for me to eat the last 3 slices of cheesecake still hanging out in the fridge?

Thanksgiving Dress Rehearsal

With two sets of parents coming to our tiny Brooklyn apartment for Thanksgiving, we set up the table tonight to make sure we could wedge it between the coffee table and the entertainment center. We're also stock piling the traditional provisions, as you can see above.

I'm going to try my hand at my first ever cheesecake with this Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe from Martha. Got the springform pan and everything. Wish me luck! If it fails I'm gonna feel like our rotting Halloween pumpkin here.

Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

It's fall, and that means it's time for my favorite seasonal treats -- pumpkin treats! To kick off the baking season, I reasoned that muffins would be a healthy treat if I stuffed them full of protein-rich quinoa. Try this recipe for a healthy-ish, pumpkin-y breakfast. I found it on The Daily Green. I also made my own pumpkin pie spice and substituted vinegar+milk for buttermilk:

PUMPKIN QUINOA MUFFINS

SERVINGS
Makes 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups quinoa, cooked and drained
2 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup shelled sunflower seeds or pepitas

PREPARATION
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Oil or butter a 12-cup muffin tin or line with muffin tin liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pie 3. spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the quinoa, separating the grains with a fork to distribute evenly.

3. In another bowl, beat the eggs, then add the pumpkin, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Gradually stir into the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

4. Spoon the batter into muffin tins and sprinkle sunflower seeds on top of each muffin. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the muffins are browned around edges and a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins rest for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.