Saturday Snaps

^a snappy sushi feast :) spicy salmon & tuna gone wild roll

Happy Weekend!

Recently it was my Dad's birthday (Feb 19th) so I headed home to celebrate! 

^a punny bday card

^sweet treats from the South End Buttery-  red velvet cupcake, chocolate/vanilla cupcake, s'mores bite, brownie bite with peanut butter frosting & a chocolate salted caramel tart.  Mom whipped up a delicious lime chili spiced scallop & rice dinner & these sweets followed shortly after. Yum!

^not a recent picture (Father's Day actually), but with all the food we got distracted & didn't take a picture.  Plus Jeff's in it & my Mom's taking the picture.

^ Queen B taking up 80% of my bed.  She's too cute to tell her to get off!

^reunited with my main squeeze!  Being greeted by Bailey makes me so happy, she runs around the house trying to find a toy, sock, hat etc & bring it over.  Even as she's 10 years old, she's such a puppy at heart.  She lounges around the house and just looks adorable all day, ah the life of a dog.

^ Mom's homemade blueberry banana walnut bread.  Gimme gimme.  Ah this bread is so good.  A few ripe bananas and an hour later this magic loaf appeared on the counter... And was demolished in a day. #noshame

^Academy Awards!  Aka the day I sat on my couch for 5 hours and at a lot of snacks.  My favorite part of any award show is the red carpet.  Jennifer Anniston  in Versace, Emma Stone in Elie Saab & Lupita Nyong'o in Calvin Klein are my top picks.  Rosamund Pike in Givenchy was my runner up!  Over the weekend I saw Still Alice with my Mom.  A very well done, sad movie & Julianne Moore definitely deserved that Oscar.  I really want to see the other movies that were nominated as well - especially The Theory of Everything. 

^and I got a haircut!  Woohoo, time to freshen up (it's always under a hat these days) I've been going to Mia at Rock Paper Scissors for years - she's awesome!

And finally, are you team black & blue or team white & gold?

^the fugly poly dress that has divided the nation😂

xo Sara

Honey Salted Peanut Butter

Oh hello sweet salty creamy peanut butter.  You are so beautiful to me.  Have you made nut butter?  It's SO easy, only three ingredients!  Plus it's cheaper & healthier than buying copious amounts at the store.  Another perk?  It's totally customizable.  Some days you want straight up pb, other times you want almond butter with a handful of honey roasted peanuts.  Other days you want this chocolate covered pretzel peanut butter (everyday)

I'm not going to lie the weather has got me so down lately.  This has been a long, cold winter & I'm getting a bit of cabin fever.  I love frolicking around the city, but when it's -5 and gusts of wind, going for a walk is more like slow torture.  So much snow everywhere, commutes are at least twice as long and the whole city is pretty grumpy.  I really don't like being so negative, and I actually enjoy the snow, I feel like a kid Christmas morning at the sight of flakes.  Lately I've been feeling like a kid whose math teacher decides to have a pop quiz on a Friday every time I see more flakes.  One of the good parts about spending more time inside is more time for recipe testing (and eating) plus I just started watching Scandal... And I'm slightly addicted. 

So now that I have you thinking about what you're going to whip together & what you're going to put it on (or eat it out of the jar) here's a sweet, salty peanut butter that I can't get enough of.  

Ingredients

- 1 lb (16 oz) roasted & unsalted peanut butter 

- 1/4 tsp sea salt

- 1 tsp honey

1. Pour peanuts in food processor.  Blend until creamy, about 8 minutes.  Scrape down sides with spatula to make sure everything is combined

2. Add salt & honey, blend for another 2 minutes.  Grab a spoon & enjoy!

What nut butters are you crazy about?

Stay warm & creative!

xo Sara

Friday Favorites - 2.13.15 - NYFW

                             (fresh blooms for my apartment)

Boston is still over it's head in snow (and only getting more) and while I've been dreaming of tropical vacations, New York Fashion Week seems like a more reasonable escape.  Buying flowers & eating froyo help the winter blues too!  I enjoy reading about designers visions and how they portray them on the runway.  The Fall/Winter 2015 collections are looking very whimsical and colorful so far and I love it!  Here's a round up of my favorites so far.

Love & Hedgehugs

I love making cards.  Holidays, birthdays, hellos, making cards makes me so happy.  I get almost all my card supplies from Papersource.  Seriously can I just move in there?  I feel endlessly inspired whenever I pop in, it's like my creative juices surge & I have to run home and craft.  I tend to use a lot of cut paper and layering and the messiest of glitters.  I'm still vacuuming glitter off my rug from Christmas cards!  Last week I was going through my art bins and stumbled upon my watercolor set & suddenly wanted to paint all the things.  The cards I use (size A2, luxe white) are essentially watercolor paper, slightly textured and thick enough to absorb the water.  I found a paintbrush and started playing around with colors and lettering.

Mint Chocolate Mousse

Mousse brings back memories of special events at home, holidays spent in the kitchen with my Mom showing me how to whisk eggs into oblivion.  With lots of ingredients (heavy cream and a million eggs) I assumed mousse was a difficult and time consuming dessert to make.  A few years ago I started experimenting with coconut milk, and this new mousse was born.  It's the same creamy consistency, but so easy and only requires 3 ingredients!  It's super customizable - the chocolate provides a great base to add mint, raspberries, peanut butter, anything your sweet tooth desires!  This dessert can be made in about 10 minutes (although it needs to be chilled for an hour) so whip this up an impress your friends, roommates, girl/boyfriend, or yourself!  

This is a super easy recipe, you just need to plan a little ahead -- You'll need to refrigerate the can of coconut milk overnight.

Mint Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients-

1 15 oz can of full fat coconut milk or coconut cream

1 heaping cup of chopped semi sweet chocolate 

1/4 tsp peppermint extract 

Directions-

1. Coconut milk needs to be refrigerated overnight.  Scoop the solid white part of the coconut milk into a bowl.  It will naturally seperate in the can, I save the liquid for smoothies.  Using a handheld mixer, whip until creamy & smooth

2.  Place bowl filled with chocolate over sauce pan filled with water, over medium heat until melted.  You can also do this in the microwave in 30 second increments

3. Pour melted chocolate into coconut cream.  Whip until combined.  Add peppermint extract, whip until fully combined.

4.  Dish out into 4 ramekins, cover & place in fridge for an hour to set.  Decorate before serving.  M&M's lose their color in the fridge when placed on mousse, so if you're refrigerating and saving it for later, leave candies off until right before serving :)

Enjoy!

      A mismatched double boiler.... Mmmmmm melted chocolate 

Melted whipped coconut chocolate, que the drooling

I just had to add a touch of pink & red for Valentine's Day!

Thanks for reading!

Xo Sara

Friday Favorites 2.6.15

(Constant winter thoughts) 

Happy February!  The month started off great with the Patriots winning the Super Bowl!! Yippeeeee!!! I was working during the game, but I made it home right in time to see the win! :)