Last year, Trevor and I spent Valentine’s Day in the executive lounge of the Hong Kong Airport Marriott. It was actually quite nice – we were at the tail end of our 6 weeks in Asia, waiting for our connection back to the US, having just come back from an incredible vacation in Japan. We were really exhausted, and for two entire days we didn’t leave the hotel. We never travel like that – we are always on the go, exploring, trying new things. But we were tired, and it was raining, and we’d already spent 5 weeks in Hong Kong. So we just stayed inside the massive hotel, taking long showers, watching TV, and working from the top floor lounge. There was unlimited free wine and snacks. If every Valentine’s were like that, I’d be perfectly happy.

This year, Trevor will be working at the restaurant and I’ll probably be home catching up on the 5 weeks of miscellaneous chores and errands I didn’t do while we were in Portugal. When Trevor gets home we’ll probably sneak in an episode of Arrested Development and maybe I’ll pop open a bottle of champagne. Actually, I think I’ll definitely pop open a bottle of champagne. And I’ll bake something chocolatey. It may be subdued, but we’ll make it just as romantic as a big dinner out. In my book, a few hours together is all you really need to appreciate someone you love.

However, if your plans are a bit more exciting than mine, I have something festive for you: Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch. This is what I would be making if I were throwing a little dinner party or girls’ night for Valentine’s Day. I seem to have a bit of a thing for pink, sparkling drinks. I’ve got Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats and Rhubarb Prosecco Spritzers and now I’ve gone and made a whole punch full of Chambord and hibiscus-infused-vodka and champagne. It’s quite easy to put together, and a little dangerous – the way a good punch should be.

I partnered with Drizly to bring you this recipe – they dropped off the Chambord and champagne within an hour, and we were ready to go. Drizly works with a number of fantastic cocktail bloggers: you can find more recipes on their Tastemakers page.

Disclosure: As a Top Shelf blogger, Drizly provided me with the alcohol for this post free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated. As usual, all opinions are my own!

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More pink and sparkling drinks…

Blood Orange Mimosas

Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats

Strawberry Champagne Shrub

Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup hibiscus-infused vodka, chilled (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup Chambord
• 1 1/2 cups champagne, chilled
• fresh raspberries, for garnish

1. Place the raspberries, water, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the raspberries have become very soft and started to disintegrate. Remove from the heat, let cool to room temperature, then pour into a glass jar and refrigerate until chilled.
2. Mix the chilled raspberry syrup, hibiscus-infused vodka, and chambord together in a punch bowl. Add ice. Just before serving, add the champagne to the punch, then ladle the punch into glasses. Top each glass of with a little bit more champagne and a few fresh raspberries. Serve immediately.

Hibiscus-Infused Vodka

Makes 2 cups.

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 bags of hibiscus tea, such as Tazo Passion

1. Cut open the tea bags and empty the contents into a sterilized pint jar. Pour the vodka over the tea and stir a few times with a clean spoon to mix. Cover the jar with a lid or plastic wrap and let infuse at room temperature for 6-8 hours. When it is done infusing, strain the vodka through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean jar. Use in recipes as directed.

The post Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch with Drizly appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

We spent last weekend in Maine, in what felt like the real kick-off to the summer. I love the way Maine smells – like pine needles drenched in sun, freshly cut hay, lake water, wood shavings, and the occasional whiff of smoke. When I step out of the car I inhale deeply, taking in everything sweet and fresh and good about a place where days are spent outdoors and the windows are always open. It was a blissful few days. I went swimming every day, hiked on mossy trails and rocky ones, ate fried seafood overlooking the harbor, and caught a few beautiful sunsets – one from a small cabin deck with a 180° view of the ocean, one from the middle of the harbor, bobbing gently in our boat, and two from the picnic table where we gather for wine and dinner. I can’t wait to go back.

While we were there, we put together a sunny Sunday brunch featuring Stonewall Kitchen products in celebration of their 25^th anniversary. Stonewall Kitchen is a Maine company through and through, headquartered in a beautiful space in York, Maine. They are probably most famous for their jams and jellies (especially the Wild Maine Blueberry Jam!), but I’ve tried a number of their sauces and spreads and all of their products are truly high quality and delicious. Started by two young men selling their jams and chutneys at a farmer’s market, Stonewall Kitchen has expanded into a company that is a household name for many. You can read more of their story, and check out all their delicious products, on their anniversary website, Taste of 25 Years.

For our brunch, we used four Stonewall products to put together three delicious recipes. First, Sea Breeze Mimosas, the simplest thing in the world to make – just a splash of chilled cranberry-grapefruit Sea Breeze Mixer, a dash of cranberry bitters, and a healthy pour of prosecco. If you’re getting an extra strong start to your day, a little bit of vodka added to the mix doesn’t hurt either. Second, a Smoky Roasted Garlic Hash – potatoes sautéed with shallots, Roasted Garlic Oil and smoked paprika, strips of roasted red pepper and poblano, a sprinkling of scallions, and a crispy olive-oil fried egg to top each serving. And to finish off the dish, an essential topping: Habanero Mango Hot Sauce. This smoky, slightly sweet, slow-burn hot sauce is absolutely delicious – I’m kicking myself for leaving it behind with my family (we put it on everything from eggs to burgers to baked beans over the course of the weekend).

The last recipe, and in my opinion the star of the show, Wild Maine Blueberry Jam Doughnuts. These are the doughnuts of your dreams – light, just a little bit chewy, rolled in a generous amount of cinnamon sugar, and stuffed to the gills with Wild Maine Blueberry Jam. There’s a trendy/hipster doughnut shop near us in Boston that makes jelly doughnuts that I dream about (so much so that I got one for my birthday breakfast for the past two years) – and these were even better. Every single one of my family members tried to have just one and ended up eating two – even my weight-lifting, sugar-avoiding little brother.

Congrats to Corinne of Spare Cake on winning! A Giveaway! I have good news – Stonewall Kitchen is also hosting a giveaway to send one reader their own set of products to make a delicious, Maine-inspired brunch. In addition to the four products I used in these recipes, you will also receive a canister of Farmhouse Pancake and Waffle Mix and the most adorable Downeast Coffee Mug to round out your brunch-making kit. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me your favorite way to spend a summer morning. By entering the giveaway, you are agreeing to the contest rules as outlined at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Stonewall Kitchen, but all opinions are honest and my own as usual.

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Sea Breeze Mimosas

Serves 1.

• 1/4 c. Stonewall Kitchen Sea Breeze Mixer, chilled
• 1 dash bitters
• 1 oz. vodka (optional)
• 1 c. chilled Prosecco

1. Pour Sea Breeze Mixer into a champagne glass. Add 1 dash bitters and vodka, if using. Top with chilled Prosecco. Serve immediately.

Wild Maine Blueberry Jam Doughnuts

Makes 12 large doughnuts. Recipe adapted from Taste of Home and Serious Eats.

• 1 c. milk, heated until warm but not hot to the touch
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1/4 c. plus 1 TBS sugar, divided
• 3 TBS softened butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. AP flour
• 1 1/2 c. bread flour
• canola oil or shortening, for frying
• 1 c. sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon, for coating
• 2 jars Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry Jam

1. Place warm milk in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the top of the milk, along with 1 TBS of the sugar. Stir for 30 seconds, then let stand 10 minutes, until yeast is foamy. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and remaining 1/4 c. sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in salt, then beat in eggs until completely mixed in. Add milk and both kinds of flour and stir until a smooth dough is formed. Knead dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in the fridge overnight.
3. When ready to fry doughnuts, remove the dough from the fridge. Shape into a flat disc, then roll out on a floured surface to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Use a biscuit cutter or glass to cut 3 inch circles out of the dough, and place doughnuts on a baking sheet or tray. Re-roll any scrap dough to make more doughnuts. Cover doughnuts with a towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
4. Heat canola oil or shortenining in a high-sided frying pan or dutch oven until the temperature reaches 350-375ºF. Fry doughnuts one at a time in the hot oil, flipping once. Doughnuts should fry for about 1 minute per side before they are golden brown on the outside and cooked all the way through. You may need to adjust the temperature up or down as you go.
5. Combine the 1 c. sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon in a paper bag. Immediately after frying each doughnut, place it in the paper bag and shake the bag to coat the doughnut with cinnamon-sugar before placing it on a plate to cool. Repeat the frying and sugar coating process until all doughnuts are cooked.
6. Once the doughnuts are cool to the touch, begin filling them. Place the blueberry jam in a pastry bag fitted with a pastry tip. Insert the pastry tip into the side of the doughnut and fill until the doughnut is heavy and jam is starting to come out the front of the doughnut. Serve doughnuts as soon as possible after filling them.

Smoky Roasted Garlic Potato Hash

Serves 4.

• 8-10 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• sea salt
• 2 TBS Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic Oil, divided
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 4 eggs
• Stonewall Kitchen Habanero Mango Hot Sauce, for serving

1. Add the cubed potatoes and white vinegar to a large pot. Fill with cold water to cover the potatoes and salt generously. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and boil gently until potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes, then toss with 1 TBS of the roasted garlic oil and the smoked paprika. Set aside.
2. Preheat the broiler to high. Place the poblano pepper and red pepper on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet, then place under the broil. Broil until pepper skin is beginning to blacken and blister, then use tongs to turn the peppers to another side. This should take about 5 minutes per side. Once peppers are blackened all over, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cool, remove and discard the stems and seeds, and slice the pepper flesh into thin strips.
3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add bacon. Fry until browned and crispy, about 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the sliced shallots and saute until golden brown. Add the cooked potatoes to the pan and season generously with sea salt. Fry the potatoes until golden brown all over, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes total. Remove from the heat and mix with the sliced peppers. Transfer to a large platter.
4. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a frying pan. Carefully crack the eggs into the hot oil and fry sunny-side up. Place the fried eggs on top of the potato hash. Serve with the Habanero Mango Hot Sauce.

Giveaway Rules

• No purchase necessary
• Void where prohibited
• One entry per household, and only entries answering the listed question will be considered
• The sponsor of this giveaway is Stonewall Kitchen
• The estimated retail value of the products is $49.25
• The odds of winning will depend on the number of entries received
• This contest is only open to U.S. citizens over the age of 18
• The contest will open today, July 11^th, 2016 at posting time and will close at 11PM EST on Friday, July 22nd, 2016
• One winner will be selected randomly and contacted via email (so please leave an accurate email address!). If I do not hear from the winner within 48 hours, the winner forfeits their prize and an alternate winner will be chosen.
• I will post the winner here by Monday, August 1^st, 2016

The post Stonewall Kitchen Maine Brunch (and Giveaway!) appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This month marks the one year anniversary of buying and moving into our house. It’s a little hard to believe it’s already been a year! We had grand plans for the house when we bought it (we still do) but we’ve progressed a little slower (OK significantly slower) than we planned. Our major accomplishment is that we’re halfway through renovating our basement, and really, that’s mostly thanks to Carl (thank you Carl!!!) and to Trevor’s dedicated trench digging. And Trevor has painstakingly renovated the guest room – it’s almost done and is going to look gorgeous with the new orange couch we bought. But even though the to-do list for the house is miles long, I love living in it the way it is. Because it’s ours!

The last time I moved, from the sunny Davis Square house I shared with three roommates, to the little Inman Square apartment Trevor and I moved into, the place that will always be our first apartment, I wrote this post, about all the things I would miss and all the things I was looking forward to. This time, I didn’t have the time to indulge in that kind of thinking before we moved, but now that things are calmer and our new house is starting to feel like ours, I find myself thinking about it more – what I miss, what I love.

There’s so much that I love about our new house. One of the biggest things is the light – every room in our house is filled with sun, and we know at any given time of day the best spot to curl up in the sun for a minute or two. The sun is also the key to the second thing I love – having our own garden, which is thriving. We don’t have tons of space but we are making the most of it: in the front we’ve replaced hedges with a hodge podge of flowers – foxgloves and heather and poppies and whatever else tickled our fancy at the nursery. After much deliberation on varieties, we planted an apple tree this spring, and regularly talk about the wealth of apples we’ll have in oh, say, five years. And along the side of the house are the herbs and veggies and fruit bushes, planted neatly in raised beds that get 10 hours of sun a day this time of year. Almost every night you can find Trevor and I out “walking the grounds,” checking each plant’s progress and then sitting on our stoop to discuss. I love that.

I’m surprised how much I like living in a neighborhood. “Neighborhood” wasn’t particularly high on our list when we were house shopping – we were coming from a series of city apartments where neighbors weren’t really a concept that had much impact on our lives. We never even met any of our neighbors in Cambridge. So we were really lucky to end up moving into a place where neighbor is a word with meaning – people who will take in your trash barrels and check on your house while you’re away, who chat across fences when you both happen to be out. Families with kids that spend all day playing outside. It’s great. And when it’s nice, I like to take long evening walks around the nearby streets, looking at houses and gardens and just enjoying the fact that there’s little traffic and lots of fresh air. In Cambridge I only walked places when I had a destination or an errand – here I walk just to walk.

There’s more. I love having my own office. It might sound materialistic of me, but one of my favorite things is sitting at my gorgeous new desk, with a homemade latte in my favorite mug, snuggled up in my extremely soft jersey robe, catching up on emails and blogging with the early morning sun falling softly through the window. It’s “me-time” at it’s finest. I love that the entire house is filled with gorgeous wooden floors, deeper in color than most. I love that we can change whatever we want about the house. And I like the new routines we’re building, like the Friday morning dates we have at Tamper cafe, one of only two remotely trendy/interesting eating establishments within walking distance.

The list of things that I miss is shorter. I miss being able to walk 30 steps around the corner and find myself in one of best local grocery stores/butchers in the city, the kind of place where you can find pork belly and black pudding and fava beans without having to give it a second thought. Ditto for being able to walk across the street and choose from a selection of trendy bars and restaurants. I miss having a house cleaner – something we could afford when we had fewer rooms and no renovation costs. And I miss being a little closer to our friends, although honestly, we’ve been just as social as before – having easy access to the highway means an Uber home from downtown is only $20 and 15 minutes, which is very doable a few times a month. And I honestly can’t think of anything else I miss. Nothing about the house itself. Just walkability and a handful of individual establishments.

We have a friend who is currently studying for his Master of Wine examination, who knows vast amounts more about wine than I could ever hope to. We have another, mutual, friend who recently brought a bottle of champagne to a soccer game to celebrate a finals win (they lost), only to find upon popping the cork that the champagne had gone flat. Upon discussing this event our wine-y friend told us – “Never save champagne. Open it up on a Tuesday night just because.” We are guilty of holding on to two bottles of fancy champagne that I know have been improperly stored. So we heeded his advice and opened one, just because, and also to celebrate our home-ownership anniversary. We drank half and the rest we poured over this gorgeous Rhubarb Campari Sorbet, which we slupred while watching Game of Thrones (now #champagneofthrones).

A few things to note. One, yes, it might seem wasteful to pour Veuve Cliquot over sorbet. I say, whatever floats your boat. Two, yes, the sorbet in some of these photographs is not at all set – it was almost Game of Thrones time and I couldn’t wait any longer. I need a blast chiller. Three, because of the aforementioned not-set sorbet, I photographed these again the next night. And yes, I opened another bottle of prosecco. Only this time, it was a $10 bottle of La Marca that’s been in our fridge for 2 1/2 years, so, about time. Which brings me to the main point of this paragraph – the prosecco was actually a much better match for the sorbet. It is significantly sweeter and blends better with the sweet and tangy sorbet. So, in conclusion, open your fancy champagne on a Sunday night just because. But if you’re going to pour it over sorbet, open the $10 prosecco instead. Or open both and live it up.

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Rhubarb Campari Sorbet

Makes 1 1/2 pints (3 cups). A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 lb. rhubarb, roughly chopped into segments (about 4 cups chopped)
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 TBS campari

1. Add rhubarb, water, and sugar to a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the rhubarb is very soft and almost falling apart, about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender. Blend on high until the mixture is a very smooth puree. Always use caution when blending hot liquids! Pour the blended mixture through a fine mesh strainer, using a spatula to press the mixture through the strainer into a large bowl. Stir the campari into the strained rhubarb puree until evenly combined. Chill the mixture until very cold.
2. Churn the chilled rhubarb puree in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churned, you may need to let the sorbet sit in the freezer for another 1-3 hours before it is firm enough to scoop.

The post The New Place // Rhubarb Campari Sorbet with Prosecco appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I have news – really big news! As of twelve days ago, Trevor and I are no longer just boyfriend-girlfriend/roommates/long-term-snuggle-buddies… he made the whole thing official and asked me to marry him!

Part of me feels hesitant to write, or even talk about it – it’s such a personal moment and a huge, emotional decision, to commit to spending the rest of your lives together. The other part of me wants to tell everyone I see and take obnoxious photos of my ring. Basically, in real life, I’m alternating between blushing and gushing. But I know that 1 or 2 or maybe even 10 years from now I’m going to be back here hoping to remember what I was feeling and thinking right now, so I’m pushing my reservations to the side for a moment and sharing.

Here’s the story. Saturday morning we took a leisurely drive through Western mass and up into Southern Vermont. It was a brilliant day, cold and crisp and cloudless, and every turn seemed to take us through a tunnel of golden leaves more vibrant than the last. Everything glowed. We checked into a lovely inn in Dorset, VT, in the early afternoon, and went for a cold and quiet walk for the last hour of daylight, marveling at the colonial houses before wandering up a wide, wooded trail simply marked “Town Trail.”

As we turned around it began to snow, then hail – not enough to be uncomfortable or wet, just enough to rattle through the leaves and fade the golden landscape to gray. By the time we were back at the inn, the snow had cleared. We changed into warmer clothes and sat by one of the many fireplaces, drinking big glasses of Malbec and reading and nibbling on blue cheese and pickled green tomato pizzas the lovely innkeeper had put out for us. As the dark and cold grew deeper, we bundled up for a windy, back-roads drive to SoLo Farm & Table, where seemingly everyone else in Southern Vermont had gathered for a cozy meal in the farmhouse. I had mushrooms and duck egg on toast followed by the tenderest rabbit with bacon, prunes, baby eggplant, and roasted vegetables. We ended with a shared chocolate pot de creme before stepping back outside into the gentle snow.

Back at the inn, full and warm and sleepy, sitting in the low light in front of the woodstove in our room, Trevor kissed me and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and asked me would I marry him? And of course, with the biggest smile and a pounding heart, I said I would and kissed him a lot more times. We didn’t tell anyone until we got home the next afternoon, so all morning we reveled in our temporary secret, driving around in the alternating sun and snow and holding hands and just enjoying being together.

And here’s the more important part: I get to spend the rest of my life with an incredible man. There’s so many little things that I’m thrilled to have every day. The way all the tension leaves my body when I slip into his arms at night. Yelling “goodbye, I love you!” from the front door to the bedroom every morning, even though we’ve already kissed goodbye. The hug I get every time I walk in the door. I have a man who will drop everything to come pick me up if it’s raining and I don’t want to wait for the bus, and who meets me with takeout when I have to work late. Who insists on dropping me off and picking me up at the airport every trip, even though it’s sometimes a bi-weekly occurrence. Who comes home from a 12-hour day and spends 3 hours more working to fix our house. Who makes spicy chicken noodle soup when I’m sick and tirelessly helps me with my photo shoots and does all the dishes when I just look tired. Trevor is smart, hard-working, handsome, supportive, sweet, and most importantly, kind. I have a lifetime of being cherished ahead of me, and of giving back all the love I have. And I’m so excited for every minute of it!

We haven’t done anything official to celebrate yet, but I did make us a little cake and open a bottle of champagne last weekend. The cake is packed full of apples spiked with a little bit of bourbon and drizzled with salted caramel for a supremely fall-ish dessert. And the champagne, besides getting drunk it’s own, worked very nicely to top off a simple cocktail of apple cider and bourbon and bitters. So, cheers to Trevor, to us, to the past 7 years and hopefully the next 80!

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Salted Caramel Apple Cake

Serves 8-10. Adapted from Dorie Greenspan via Epicurious.

• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 TBS bourbon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 TBS butter, melted
• 3 large apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 c. salted caramel, plus more for serving
• Greek yogurt or whipped cream for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, bourbon, and vanilla extract until frothy. Whisk in half of the flour until incorporated, then half of the melted butter. Repeat with the remaining flour and butter, leaving a small amount (less than 1 TBS) of melted butter to the side to grease the cake pan. Add the sliced apples to the batter and gently stir to coat the apples with the batter.
2. Brush a 9-inch springform pan with the remnants of the melted butter, then place the springform pan on a baking sheet (to catch any leaks). Pour the batter into the pan, using a spatula or wooden spoon to smooth the apples into a flat top layer. Drizzle the cake with the salted caramel and transfer to the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake and release the springform cake. Serve with whipped cream or yogurt and a drizzle of salted caramel.

Bourbon Apple Cider Sparkler

Serves 2.

• 3 oz. bourbon
• 1/2 c. apple cider
• few drops bitters
• chilled champagne

1. Add the bourbon, apple cider, and bitters to a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake for 15 seconds, then strain into coupe glasses. Top off with champagne and serve immediately.

The post Engaged! // Salted Caramel Apple Cake appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As has sort of become a tradition for me (and so many other bloggers – I secretly love reading everyone’s year end reviews and getting a little glimpse into their highs and lows), I wanted to take a little time and a little space here to reflect on last year and look forward to the next. I’ll try to keep it relatively short and sweet, but if you’re just hear for the food (no shame in that), skip down to the end for some delicious Russian-inspired zakuski from our New Year’s Eve festivities.

2014, A Year in Review

It was a pretty big year for this blog, especially in the last few months. There were a few months where revenue from this space was actually enough to cover my rent (!), Trevor and I wrote and photographed our first in-print article (I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s published), I worked with a number of great new sponsors and brands, and I created some content I’m pretty proud of. Although sometimes it’s hard to feel progress when you’re working on something day after day, taking a minute to look back at how it has grown over time highlights all the changes.

Personally, this year felt mixed. It may be that I’m letting the stress I’ve been feeling for the past two months represent too much of the year, but like any year, 2014 definitely had its highs and lows. I actually ended up having 3 different jobs this year, all with the same company, which was exciting, but not without its transition stress. I traveled a ton – this was certainly my biggest year yet as far as travel is concerned. I made trips to 6 countries – Ecuador, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Malaysia and Ireland – and all of them except for Italy were places I’d never been before. I wrote detailed travelogues of my family’s trip to Ecuador (Quito, The Amazon, Baños, and Cotopaxi) and shared some pictures and memories of our over-the-top dinner at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, here. The rest of the trips were for work and were mostly documented through Instagram, but in short: Hong Kong is incredibly vibrant and alive and I would love to spend more time wandering through it’s crowded streets; a long-weekend spent solo in Rome in May is just about the loveliest thing there is, for the unhurried bowls of fresh cacio e pepe eaten al fresco, long runs through the Villa Borghese, and afternoons spent poolside; the best part of Malaysia was undoubtedly the food, which was abundant at every meal and convinced me that I would be perfectly happy eating sweet and creamy curries for breakfast for the rest of my life; if someone asked me to move to Dublin I would be happy to go, for the friendly people, the twisty streets, the lively pubs, and unlimited quantities of amazing Irish butter.

Besides travel and blogging, there were a few other things that defined this year for me. I definitely got back into a solid fitness routine over the course of the year, which I documented through these monthly “Fitness Challenge” posts. I started from a place that I was very unhappy with – heavy, tired, and a complete stranger to my old running habits. Getting back in shape was a slow process, but by springtime I was running regularly and eating better, and I managed to keep those habits going all year. And of course, there’s the stuff that really matters – family and friends. I love how much time I was able to spend with my family this year, and being able to drive over for gardening and Sunday dinner almost every week is something I really treasure. I perhaps could have done a little better in prioritizing some of my friendships last year, but it’s something I hope to focus on more in 2015. And finally, Trevor is still the best, I love sharing my life with him, and I love that even after 7 years together I still feel excited to be with him. So that’s a big fat plus sign for 2014.

On to 2015!

Although I’m still reflecting on how I want to shape 2015, there’s a few things that I already know will be focus areas. One thing that I want for myself is to be less stressed. This is probably easier said than done, but I’m trying to think about what habits and routines I can change to allow myself to be more flexible and less likely to end up in a stressed-out, to-do-list-dominated state. I also want to find ways to build more joy and spontaneity into my life, to be more flexible, and to forgive myself and others more easily. I’ve been toying with the idea of some sort of gratitude journaling or instagram project, to keep myself in a positive and thankful frame of mind, but am a little worried that I’ll turn it in to one more thing I stress out about getting done every day. Have any of you tried something like this? What did you think? On a lighter note, I want to read more books, take better advantage of my travels, have more regular date nights with Trevor, and maybe learn to dance on pointe (I have no idea if this is even within my reach, but I’d like to think it is!). What are your resolutions and thoughts for the new year? I’d love to hear about them.

And if you’ve read through all that (not as short-and-sweet as I promised, huh?), then it’s time for some New Year’s eating! We had a fairly mellow New Year’s that was just right – movies and drinks with my brothers, then Veronika came over for snacks and champagne, before we headed with her and Scott to a late dinner in Harvard complete with fun party hats and free champagne. The snacks were sort of a last minute decision, but once I’d gotten the idea of a little Russian-inspired blini spread into my mind, I couldn’t get it out again. New Year’s Eve is a much bigger holiday in Russia than Christmas is, and the evening is filled with lots of zakuski, a buffet of hot and cold appetizers, and vodka toasts. So I whipped up a batch of rye and caraway blini and two easy dips: one made from hot-smoked salmon and cream cheese, and the other from chopped beets, honey, and vinegar. Both got generous helpings of dill and red onion, and spooned onto hot blini for a delightful mix of flavors. For drinks, I went with a sparkly pink number inspired by this Bon Appetit recipe, with fresh grapefruit juice, vodka, campari, and prosecco. Everything was delicious and all together it made for a festive spread.

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Rye and Caraway Blini

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine. Makes 30-40 blini.

• 1 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/2 c. rye flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 c. seltzer or club soda
• canola oil, for brushing the pan

1. Place the buttermilk, both flours, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, caraway, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a blender. Blend on high until a smooth batter forms, stopping to scrape excess flour down the sides with a spatula if necessary. Let batter sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. When ready to cook the blini, stir the seltzer into the batter. Heat a little canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then pour tablespoon-sized drops of batter into the prepared pan. Cook until bubbles on top of pancake have popped, then flip. They should cook for about 60 seconds on each side. Remove to a plate, and repeat until you have used all the batter, adding more canola oil to the pan whenever it runs out. Best served warm.

Hot-Smoked Salmon Dip

Makes about 1 cup.

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 TBS creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2 TBS finely  minced red onion
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh dill
• 1 small wedge preserved meyer lemon, finely diced
• 4 oz. hot-smoked salmon

1. Beat the cream cheese, creme fraiche, red onion, dill, and meyer lemon together until the mixture is even. Use a fork to flake the hot smoked salmon out of its skin in bite-sized pieces. Gently stir the salmon pieces into the dip. Serve chilled.

Russian Beet Dip

Recipe inspired by Cooks.com. Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 medium beets
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 TBS finely minced red onion
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS cider vinegar
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove the greens and tails from the beets and place the beets in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil, boiling until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 25-40 minutes, depending on their size. Remove the beets with a slotted spoon and run under cold water, rubbing the skin off with your hands as you do so. This works best when the beets are still warm.
2. Dice the beets into 1/4 inch cubes. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, red onion, honey, vinegar, and dill until evenly mixed, then stir in the cubed beets. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve cold.

Pretty in Pink

Inspired by Bon Appetit. Serves 2.

• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, from one large grapefruit
• Two 1.5 oz. shots of vodka
• One 1.5 oz. shot of campari
• Chilled prosecco or champagne

1. Add grapefruit juice, vodka, and campari to a cocktail shaker with a few cubes of ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into two coupe glasses. Top each glass off with prosecco and serve immediately.

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I’ve said it before: the best part of cold weather is warm drinks when you finally get inside. With or without booze (although personally I tend to choose with), they are comforting and festive and a great excuse for sitting around the fire with friends and family. Over the past two years I’ve built up a small repertoire of festive winter cocktails, many inspired by this lovely book, so as we gear up for the holidays and you all are looking for creative drinks to welcome your guests with, I’ve rounded my favorites up in one place. Cheers!

Hot and Mulled

Burnt Sugar Hot Buttered Rum

Hot buttered rum is an old-fashioned drink, but it’s just as delicious today as it was 200 years ago. This version uses a dark caramel as the base for the drink, giving it a deep, caramely sweetness.

Meyer Lemon and Sage Hot Toddy

A mixture of honey, lemon, and rum or whiskey, hot toddies are great when you’re feeling under the weather – the honey and lemon soothes a sore throat while the warm alcohol helps put you to sleep (although if you’re actually sick and not just feeling low, I’d skip the booze and just stick with the honey and lemon). This version uses a sage-infused honey syrup and bright meyer lemons for a twist on the classic.

Sbiten

Sbiten is a Russian mulled cocktail that’s based on a mixture of jam, honey, and winter spices. Although I never actually had one of these while I was in Russia, the thick and sweet drink is just as appropriate during cold New England weather.

Mulled Pear Sangria

Sangria doesn’t have to be saved for spring evenings and summer BBQs – if you serve it warm, it’s equally appropriate in winter. With a pear and cinnamon syrup and a hit of maple liqueur, this drink is full of fall flavors and a great use for white wine on days when a chilled glass of Chardonnay doesn’t sound that appealing.

Ecuadorian Canelazo

Canelazo is a traditional Ecuadorian drink made from naranjilla, a sweet-sour fruit similar to citrus, aguardiente, a sugar-cane based liquor, and cinnamon syrup. It was one of my favorite culinary discoveries in Ecuador, so I came up with this version to have at home.

Warm and Creamy

Nutella Melt

It’s hard to go wrong with nutella, and this nutella-laden and frangelico-spiked version of hot chocolate is no exception. Serve it without the frangelico for an equally appealing kids’ drink.

Chocolate Orange Tom & Jerry

Another old-timey drink, a Tom & Jerry is similar to eggnog in that it’s made from whole eggs and cream, but it’s served warm. In the US it’s most popular in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but I promise this chocolate and orange version will go down well in the rest of the country (and world!), too.

1,001 Kentucky Nights

This drink is decidedly not a classic. Combining coconut milk, dates, cinnamon, bourbon, and rum, it’s a drink with its roots in the Middle East but a profoundly American accent. Sweet and rich but with smoky, woodsy flavors from the bourbon, it’s a great study in contrast.

Salted Caramel Chai Latte

This chai latte sweetened with salted caramel wasn’t designed as a cocktail, but turning it into an Irish coffee with a shot of Bailey’s or whiskey sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Cold and Bubbly

Cranberry-Ginger Sparkling Rum Cider

Cranberry-ginger syrup, sparkling cider, and dark rum make a pretty addition to any holiday table. As a side note, this drink and the accompanying sweet potato souffle recipe won Captain Morgan’s Thanksgiving challenge last year – it was judged by Hugh Acheson, so you have someone’s word other than mine to go by when I say these are delicious.

Pomegranate Mimosas

These pomegranate mimosas are a standard part of my family’s Christmas brunch, which is slowly replacing opening presents as my favorite part of Christmas. Just looking at them reminds me of bright Christmas mornings spent eating cranberry and vanilla coffee cake and gruyere-baked eggs.

Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats

Although these floats could arguably be served at any time of year, I think they’re just right for New Year’s Eve. Festive and pink, they’re a fun way to celebrate a special evening.

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Facing this dilemna last week, asleep on my feet after a long day and without much of a plan, I chopped up the remaining 2 cups of strawberries and threw them in a bowl. I was planning on dousing them with sugar and using them in my yogurt for the next few days, but decided to look up how you make fruit shrubs before doing so. I had been explaining the concept of a shrub, a fruit and vinegar syrup often used to flavor cocktails, but sometimes drunk on it’s own, to Trevor a few days earlier, but had never actually tasted one.

Turns out, the first step to making a shrub is to douse your fruit in sugar and let it sit around in the fridge for a few more days, so I proceeded with my original plan, adding a handful of lemon peels that Trevor had conveniently prepared for cocktails and left in the fridge. After a day or two of maceration, the juices get mixed with an approximately equal amount of cider vinegar, and popped back in the fridge. Now, 10 days later, I have a jar of intensely sweet-and-sour pink juice that can be added to anything that needs a flavor boost. I actually really like it on its own, although only in small doses, but since today is the first day of my Maine vacation (!), I decided to make a celebratory champagne cocktail with it. A little of the shrub, a dash of bitters, top the glass of with champagne, and you have a sophisticated and not-too-sweet twist on champagne and strawberries.

This recipe is not precise in any sense of the word, so don’t feel constrained by it. Mix up the fruit, mix up the type of vinegar, let sit in the fridge for longer, mix it with something other than champagne… experiment and see what works for you.

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Strawberry-Lemon Shrub

Based on the instructions on Serious Eats. Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 c. hulled and quartered fresh strawberries
• 1 c. sugar
• peel from 2 lemons, white pith completely removed
• 1 c. apple cider vinegar

1. Stir together the chopped strawberries, sugar, and lemon peel in a large bowl. Cover tightly and let sit in the fridge for 2-3 days, stirring briefly every 24 hours.
2. Strain the juice from the fruit mixture. Stir the juice together with the apple cider vinegar. Place the juice-vinegar mixture in the fridge in a covered jar. Let sit in the fridge for at least 4 days before tasting – the flavors will mellow with time. Will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

Strawberry Champagne Shrub

Serves 1.

• 3 TBS strawberry-lemon shrub, recipe above
• 2 dashes cranberry bitters
• 3/4 c. chilled champagne or prosecco
• 1 small strawberry, for garnish.

1. Add the shrub and bitters to a tall glass. Top off with prosecco, drop a strawberry in, and serve immediately.

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Hey! It’s Friday! And in honor of Friday, I have a nice fizzy cocktail for you. Actually, it’s a riff on a cocktail I had on Monday (because starting the week is as hard as ending it is relieving) at Coppa, where I enjoyed Trevor’s birthday dinner while he died of allergies across the table from me. I couldn’t recreate the duck prosciutto or the liverwurst platter for him to try with renewed, allergy-free tastebuds, but I could make him another lemony Italian cocktail.

This drink is made from amaro, honey-lemon-rosemary syrup, and a good splash of cold prosecco. I first discovered amaro only a few months ago, but since then I seem to be noticing it on cocktail menus all over the place. It’s an intensely flavored, dark, semi-sweet Italian liqueur that is great when mixed with lighter alcohols and flavors. Trevor said this was the best drink I’ve ever made for the blog – it falls right in the category of dark, not-too-sweet, fairly strong drinks that he likes best. It’s easy to whip up, so get to it – happy hour is almost over.

Roman Holiday Cocktail

Serves 4.

• juice from 3 lemons (about 3/4 c. total)
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 4 shots (1.5 oz) amaro
• 1 bottle chilled prosecco
• more rosemary, to garnish

1. Mix lemon juice, honey, and rosemary together in a small pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then immediately remove from heat, stirring to dissolve honey. Let sit 5 minutes, then refrigerate until chilled.
2. To make each cocktail, add 1/4 c. of the lemon-honey syrup and 1 shot of amaro to a tall glass. Top  off with prosecco, garnish with rosemary, and serve immediately.

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Another New Year’s Eve is here! Although at times it felt like everything was getting away from me, I’m very satisfied with how 2013 turned out. It was a big year. I’m going to try and keep my musings short and sweet (how cute is Molly’s one-paragraph mini reflection?), because I know everyone and their mother is writing down all their thoughts and feelings and memories today. But basically, here’s the big stuff: I moved in with Trevor, and I’m still so excited that I get to see him every single day. I went to Russia, five times. It was awesome, but exhausting. I also went to Spain, and Italy. My brother moved to Seattle and I went to visit him and to meet lots of other food bloggers at IFBC. I stuck with my beginner ballet lessons and made it through an intensive two week ballet camp, complete with a recital at the end. We grew an amazing veggie garden and spent August picking pounds and pounds of tomatoes and cucumbers and blackberries. On the blog, I reviewed dozens of new cookbooks, started working with Captain Morgan, and was featured as one of Huffington Post’s best food bloggers. I got my first smartphone, and subsequently became addicted to Instagram. I liked my job, I spent time with friends, I threw a couple of parties, I saw my family all the time, I rested, I ran, I explored. If 2014 is as good as 2013 (and I think it will be), I’ll be happy.

We have a pretty low key evening planned tonight/it’s not really even that planned. We’re definitely going to the movies with my brothers to kick things off. Then we might wander around First Night with some high school friends and see where the night takes us, or we could just end up on the couch with champagne and bugles watching Out of the Wild: Venezuela on Netflix. We’ll see. Either way, I’ve created a drink to match our attitude toward the festivities – easy but still celebratory and fun. In fact, it’s so easy that you could swing by the liquor store for Framboise and Champagne and the grocery store for a pint of sherbet right now and up the ante for your drinks tonight in a mere 20 minutes. Or you could just go with what you already have planned and make these tomorrow or any other day of the year. (Does anyone have a New Year’s resolution to drink more champagne? I think that could be a good one…). Whatever you do tonight, I hope it’s happy and fun, and here’s to a wonderful 2014. Happy New Year!

P.S. I opened our Champagne early just for you guys and just drank both of these at 2PM. I also had a Best Pop of 2013 dance party by myself earlier this morning. No shame.

Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats

Serves 2.

• 2 small scoops raspberry sherbet
• 2 oz. Framboise, Chambord, or other raspberry liqueur
• Champagne, Prosecco, or other sparkling white wine

1. Place a small scoop of raspberry sherbet into each of two champagne flutes. Drizzle 1 oz. of the raspberry liqueur into each glass. Top each glass off with champagne, stirring gently to mix. Serve immediately.

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