weekend warriors

it started as some of the best weekends do:

with a pizza, on a tractor

(and of course some cookies for the truck drivers)

in the mornings i made potatoes and eggs... and then potatoes and eggs again

first, inspired by this cute eggy/mendelssohny video, and then inspired by the tortilla in steph's book.

my arm workout came by way of teaching a cymbal lesson

and my cardio workout came by way of jumping around all extremely ecstatically excitedly when we got showtime!!!!!!! (get at me, saul berenson!!!!!)

i took a record two (2!!!) showers. one was because i hadn't taken one in a week, the other was entirely because i wanted to become marzipan with the help of this marzipan body scrub.

we had a brunch club get together, only it wasn't for brunch, it was for nighttime pretzel making (!!!!) complete with lye and nutella and mustard and guac (and no burns from the lye!)

and then

i did a thing i've never ever done before...

i helped my new fellow east-coast-transplant friends make apple cider! they have an apple tree that rivals ours, so for an afternoon, we chopped, smashed, juiced (?), and drank part of their 300 pounds of apples. it was so fun and flannel-appropriate and autumny.

the weekend ended with a big bowl of brussels sprouts topped with hot honey and enjoyed in my new robe that is fluffy as fuck. 

eggboy was either sleeping or on a tractor or eating oatmeal for 100% of the weekend, but it still managed to be pretty deeeeeelightful!

how was yours????

-yeh!!!!

pretzel mandel bread + farm scenes + friday links

i am not at all surprised that within five minutes of meeting his first sugar beet, my pops had already taken 10,000 selfies with one and then eaten it like an apple, dirt and all. he is basically just a more extreme version of me when it comes to picture taking and eating. a more extreme version with a much larger stomach capacity. he really enjoyed his time around the farm! he had to wear eggboy's boots as to not get his little dainty city shoes dirty, but once he got into the fields, he was so excited about the sugar beets that he decided we should make a cake about it. so we subbed a sugar beet for carrots in a carrot cake recipe and watched the new york phil on the tv while it baked and i didn't really like it. i hated it. everyone else seemed to like it, but i just couldn't choke it down, and i hate it when the last thing i've made is bad, so the next chance i got, i whipped up this pretzel mandel bread. it's sweet, it's savory, it's pretzel-y, and it's just in time for a yom kippur break-the-fast and the season premiere of homeland this sunday. the recipe is up on jew and the carrot!

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friday links!

i cannot wait to make this hungarian chicken with spaetzle. perfect for the snowy (!!!) weather that's been in the forecast.

this is the sweetest, most beautiful restaurant review

new goal: appear on this website (in the background, sticking my tongue out)

oh so lovely vintage blogged about grand forks!!! i feel like a proud mommy.

can i register for a pet piggy?

i need this polenta in my life!

tahini + coconut + rosewater cake, yes!

animal crackers in ice cream, i am sold.

 <3 the new puzzle muteson album <3

it's not easy being so far from a momofuku milk bar, but luckily there is this cereal milk ice cream recipe!

this ricotta maple + sand pear cake is soooo pretty!

bacon cinnamon rolls need no explanation, right???

say this low and slow: buuuuuuuttttterrrrr tarrrrrts

last but absolutely not least, i am totally obsessed these new linens that i've been using all week (and will no doubt continue to use). they come from stitch new york and they're all handmade in a tiny apartment in new york! from now until the end of the year, you can get 15% off of your order with the code (in all caps): stitchlovesmolly

have a great weekend everybody!!!!

-yeh!!!!

rich little brownies with matcha glaze + a giveaway

as first time guest-bedroom-having humans, we have a rule: whenever someone braves the small planes, long drives, and lack of 4g or l.t.e. or whatever in order to just visit us, we have to be as hospitable as possible. five-star hospitable. so hospitable that they would easily brave the planes, trains, and automobiles all over again to come back for another visit. every pillow must be fluffed, every towel must be warm, every political stance must be taken into account when curating the guest bedroom library. and obbbbbbbbviously, there must be plenty of little welcoming snacks, representing sweet and savory, and addressing any applicable dietary preferences.

so before my pops arrived on monday, we scurried around, cleaning, collecting apples from our backyard, combing through our magazine collection, and putting out these itsy bitsy brownies. like why have a chocolate on your pillow when you can have a chocolate brownie on your pillow?

pops was in and out before you could say sugar beet but we had such a delightful time! we strolled around town and ate many kinds of cake. we ate ribs and roamed around the fields. more on this later...

my point is, if he wasn't my dad and also already in possession of a plane ticket to come back for the wedding, i'm pretty sure that eggboy and i made a very convincing argument that yeah, he totally needs to leave chicago for a few days again and come back soon.

i overlook brownies entirely too often. which is silly because not only are they very good, but also these ones are so quick and easy to make. no softened butter, weird ingredients, or even cooling time necessary. (ok, some might consider matcha a weird ingredient, but it shouldn't be. it's wonderful. i keep one little bag on hand at all times and i rarely need to buy more because a little goes a very long way.) my mom used to make these and instead of matcha, she'd spike the glaze with peppermint schnapps. addicting. they'd never last more than a day. so if you're having a chocolate emergency of medium intensity, meaning you can wait about 45 minutes but no more than an hour, i'd highly recommend these little bites of joy. 

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rich little brownies with matcha glaze

based on my mom's recipe!

makes about 24 little brownies

ingredients

brownies:

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 c sugar

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 c butter, melted and slightly cooled

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

glaze:

3 tb butter, melted

1 tb matcha tea powder

1 tb honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 c powdered sugar

clues

preheat oven to 350 and grease and line an 8-inch square pan (or a pan of similar size).

in a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. add the butter, eggs, and vanilla.

pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes.

whisk together the glaze ingredients and pour the glaze on while the brownies are still warm. cut into 1 1/2-inch squares. give to all your friends, otherwise you'll eat them all yourself.

-enjoy!

-yeh!

thanks so much to kiss me organics for sponsoring this post! enter to win a bag of their organic matcha tea powder by leaving a comment here or on Facebook with the craziest use for matcha that you can think of! open to u.s. residents only. update: this giveaway is now closed.

grape crepes with brie and bacon

sugar beet harvest starts at midnight tomorrow, my pops gets in tonight for a quick little visit, and we have just passed the three month mark until our wedding!! here is what this calm before the storm looks like:

a very very large pile of laundry, removed from the bed in our guest room and plopped somewhere else, so my dad can sleep there.

lots of wedding post-it notes taped above my desk that read things like "sprinkles, [personalized] egg cups (?), local whiskey"

 the most delicious wash of cloudy light falling so perfectly into the kitchen on our newly swept floors interrupted only by the tick of the toaster (because there actually is a literal storm coming...)

all of these storms are going to be great storms.

mark my word, i am quite excited for sugar beet harvest this year. last year was unfathomably crazy because it was my first one, i was working hours that were completely opposite of eggboy's, and some of the fields were wayyy far away. like canada far away. but now i'm a seasoned vet, and the fields with the beets are just down the road, so if i want to bring eggboy some pumpkin loaf or go say hello, i can do that easy peasy. and as for the wedding, lots of the big decisions have been made, so now i'm working on really fun things like: what color sprinkles should we have our guests chuck at us as we recess down the aisle? and would my bridesmen like whiskey or gin in their welcome basket? and are shoes with panda faces on them at all ok to get married in???

and obvi can't wait for my pops to get here! we're gonna book it to the one n only and i'll probably make him go on a tractor ride and take a bite out of a sugar beet. weeeee!!!!!

so this all calls for cake! of the pan variety. but make it dainty, so: crepe. and because whenever i ask eggboy what i should make next, he responds with a rhyme (see: saskatoon macaroon), let's make a grape crepe.

these crepes are salty, sweet, bacon fatty, and earthy. they're gooey, crispy, fluffy, and bursty (or whatever the texture of grapes is). and they contain all of the major food groups except for vegetables. you could throw a caramelized onion in there though, that would be good. you know what else would be good would be to infuse the milk with rosemary or something cool like that before adding it to the batter.

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grape crepes with brie and bacon

makes 6

ingredients

12 strips thick cut bacon

1 c flour

2 tb sugar

3/4 c milk or buttermilk

1/2 c water

2 large eggs

butter

6 oz brie, thinly sliced

1 1/2 c california grapes, halved

clues

crisp up your bacon and reserve the fat. set the bacon aside while you make the crepe batter.

let the fat cool slightly, measure out 3 tablespoons of it, and whisk it with the, flour, sugar, buttermilk, water, and eggs. you could also do this in a blender. cover the batter and refrigerate for 1 hour.

heat some butter in a skillet over medium high heat. add 1/2 cup of the batter and tilt the pan so that you get a large even circle. cook for a few minutes until the top is set. place brie, 2 slices of bacon, and 1/4 cup of grapes in the center, cook for a minute or two so that the brie starts to melt, and then fold the two sides of the crepe in towards the center. serve immediately or keep it in the oven (set on warm) until ready to serve.

repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to the pan as needed, and enjoy!

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-yeh!!!

this post is sponsored by grapes from california. all opinions are my own! brie provided by president, linens provided by stitch new york.