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...

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.

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!

Jammin'

OMG, I made jam! after I went strawberry picking last weekend.

Cutting them up probably took longer than anything else.

And since I closed a sweet deal at work this week I bought myself a present I've been craving for a long time: a cassis Le Creuset 3.5 quart French oven.

It helped that Broadway Panhandler was having a great sale: I even got a free bakeware set with purchase!

Next: supplies!  A lid lifter and jar lifter while I was at Broadway Panhandler, Ball jars and a funnel at Walmart (they have a whole canning section!) and Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff.

I really like this book: beautiful pictures, tasty-looking recipes and a soothing (and encouraging!) writing style.  So, away we go...boiling the jars...

starting to cook down the berries, adding sugar and watching it all meld together.

And finally filling the jars and processing them for a few minutes in the boiling water to create a seal.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be and way more fun. Maybe I shouldn't of started at 10 p.m., but I still had a good time (even tho I didn't go to sleep until 2:30 a.m. on a Monday).

Sheep & Strawberries

When my parents sent me pics of their trip to Valley Shepherd Creamery I liked them so much that they offered to take me too.  So I went to see the farm with 600 - 700 ewes who are bred with only 30 - 40 rams.  Interesting...they also have alpacas, goats, a horse and....

baby lambs!

In their Sheep Shop they sell many, many things made from sheep's milk and wool

including of course their cheeses.

I also bought some glow-in-the-dark sparkly sheep along with yogurt, gelato and butter.

Next it was on to Alstede Farms for pick-your-own strawberries.

We picked about 12.7 pounds from the fields, so next post will be about my adventure canning my first batch of strawberry jam!