Urban Comfort

Tincture of Pine

Last year about this time, there were a lot of tinctures being made in my household. We were making them to add to cocktails (you can add a drop or two to a cocktail or spritz the top for an aromatic). We'd made cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, black pepper, chile, espresso...and then I decided to make a tincture from our Christmas tree.

I wasn't sure if it would work, but it ended up being one of our most successful. In fact, the bottle I have from last year still smells as fresh and amazing as it did when I first bottled it. So why would anyone make a tincture out of their Christmas tree?  Well, we gave them as Christmas "cards" to my husband's mixology circle. It was fun and maybe this year we'll actually come up with a cocktail to accompany it.

But I think it's a nice gift to give anyone who could use a dose of Christmas spirit - friends who don't buy trees because their apartments are too small, elderly friends and family members who've decided a tree is too much trouble, friends and coworkers who spend too much time working in windowless offices. You can spritz it on your wrists, in the air, on your linens...all natural, no overly perfumed, artificial air freshener. Christmas in a bottle.

 

To make it, simply snip some fresh sprigs of pine (stems and all) and place them in a wide-mouthed, airtight jar (such as a Mason jar). Cover the pine sprigs with grain alcohol or 100 proof vodka (the vodka will take longer, however). Shake it up and place it in a cool, dark cupboard. Shake it at least once a day and start checking it after a couple of weeks. You'll know it's ready when the smell of pine replaces the smell of alcohol. At that point, strain it, bottle it and give it away or store it out of direct sunlight (which will cause the potency to fade). 

Tip: If you trim the bottom branches off your Christmas tree when you buy it, use those to make tinctures. Otherwise, there are many lots that will give you the discarded branches or sell them for a few bucks - and you don't need a whole lot. But don't bother making tinctures from branches that have been cut awhile back and are already drying out. The more resinous the branch, the better.

Resources: You can buy the amber bottles from herbal shops, specialty bottle stores, or even The Container Store. Buy them with an atomizer top.

Christmas Inspiration

Most of the time it feels like a perpetual holiday around my house, sometimes overlapping (as I prep for Easter now), which means that I have to find ways to separate the personal from the professional. One of the ways I do that is to celebrate my personal holidays in a style that's completely the opposite of what I created for work. As evidenced by my prior posts, I got my fill of Christmas color and homespun cheer back in the summer. So this year I'm dialing it back - subdued tones, shimmer and shine, with a touch of nature.

Here are some of the visuals that have inspired me. They've also inspired a few projects that I'll share in the coming days as I decorate my house for the season. I can't wait!

 

HGTV.com

Martha Stewart Living

Martha Stewart Living
 
 

Martha Stewart Living
 

Skonahem



Source unknown

Country Living

House and Home.com

Title photo from Family Circle

Turkey and Sausage Gumbo

My husband and I have a tradition. Every year, whether we're having Thanksgiving at home or not, we order a smoked turkey, make sandwiches with it on Thanksgiving night, and then make a gumbo the next day. The smoked turkey honors my grandfather, who spent several days smoking our turkey every Thanksgiving when he was alive. There was so much care that went into those birds! The sandwiches are a tradition I shared with my grandmother on Thanksgiving evening, and the gumbo tradition is all ours. 

This year was no exception and with the cold front that blew in yesterday, it's the perfect post-Thanksgiving meal.  Here's the recipe (which can be made with roasted turkey as well):

Turkey Gumbo
Makes 6-8 servings

3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup flour
2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 pounds smoked sausage, such as andouille or kielbasa, chopped
2 quarts turkey broth (see below)
Reserved turkey meat (we always save 2 or 3 cups of dark meat from the turkey before we even make the stock)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped green onion

1. Combine the oil and flour in a large cast-iron pot or enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, over medium heat. Stirring slowly and constantly, make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate.

2. Season the onions, bell peppers, and celery with the salt and cayenne. Add this to the roux and stir until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Add the reserved turkey meat and cook for 15 minutes. Add the parsley and green onions. 

3. Serve in soup bowls with rice. (Can add Filé powder to taste, at the table) 

Turkey Broth
makes approximately 2 quarts

1 turkey carcass
3 ribs celery, cut into large pieces
2 medium onions, quartered
4 quarts water (or enough to cover the carcass)
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
4 bay leaves 

1. Put the carcass in a large stockpot and add all of the ingredients.

2. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered for 2 hours. Remove from the heat and skim any fat that has risen to the surface.

3. Strain the broth through a large fine-mesh strainer. Reserve any meat that has fallen off of the bones (if it doesn't feel too dry) and any meat that may still remain on the carcass.

Use right away or store the broth in quart containers in the freezer.

Christmas Crafts for the Kids

This is the perfect time for kids to start Christmas crafting for classmates, friends, and relatives and I have the ideas for you. The projects pictured here are from a feature I did for Parents magazine this year, along with a snow globe ornament I did a few years back and still love. Most of the crafts are made from items you may already have around the house or things that are easily accessible and inexpensive.

Some of my favorites: 

Coffee cozies made from colorful, inexpensive knit socks found at Target (the beauty of knit socks is that the cut edges naturally roll up, creating an instant "hem" that doesn't fray). The snowman was made from buttons that were glued on and a scrap of felt for the scarf. The snowflake pattern is a self-adhesive felt sticker found at Michaels and embellished with a small button.

Bottle Cap Magnets are easy to make with fingerprint art and tiny scraps of wrapping paper.

Detail shot from the personal snaps I took to document what I was creating - see how perfect children's fingertips are for bottle cap sized canvases?

 

 

Stones decoupaged with strips of fabric and embellished with felt stickers make easy and colorful paperweights.

 

 

Finger puppets were made from felt covered coin wrapper rolls and 1 1/4-inch wooden doll heads (found at Michaels) that were glued onto the wrapper. Bits and pieces of felt and pipecleaners bring these guys to life. (If you twist in a small screw eye at the top of the head, I bet these would make cute ornaments as well.)

 

 

Even if you don't make the full ornament, I think these little pipe cleaner guys are lots of fun!

For more project ideas and directions for the crafts shown here, visit Parents magazine's website.

(Photos other than specified are from Parents)

Thanksgiving

To all in the States, have a very happy Thanksgiving!

For those who are interested, don't throw away the turkey carcass. I'll be posting a Turkey Gumbo recipe this weekend - It's a great way to use up leftover turkey and you'll need the carcass to make turkey stock (and if you're really sick of turkey by the end of the day, gumbo freezes well).

 

The Ones That Got Away: Felt Holly

Whenever I do an assignment, there are always projects that get excluded.  I used to take it personally, but now that I have a blog I no longer feel like it was time wasted - I get to share it with an audience anyway. This time, I had two projects that got bypassed and it was for the same reason - the holly intimidated the editors. But it's easy enough and I'll pass it on to you.  

Remember the felt dahlias I learned to make from Not Martha? Well, I loved the dimensionality of the middle of that flower and it was so easy to do. Shortly after that, I started working on Christmas and I remembered that technique and thought it would work just as well for berries, which it did!

 

I used the same technique for the ornament as I did for the wreath - I simply used a shorter strip for the smaller berries.  And to make the larger circles more stable, I added dabs of Fabri-Tac to the strip as I rolled it.

The wreath was very simple - I cut strips of felt into various widths, wrapped them around a Styrofoam wreath form, and pinned them to the back of the wreath form with straight pins. When the wreath form was covered, I cut holly leaves out of wool blend felt, folded the leaf in half and ironed it with an iron preheated to the "wool" setting with steam. That gave the holly leaves some dimension. I glued the leaves to the wreath front using Fabri-Tac, then glued the berries on as well.

 

Resources:

I was completely inspired by the "Taffy" (light aqua) wool blend felt that I found at Felt-o-rama. Photographs don't even do it justice. It's just beautiful.  I also loved "Strawberry Parfait" and "Pistachio Ice Cream" wool blend felt from Wool Felt Central.  Those three colors made up most of my palette for the entire feature, with other colors accenting as needed. Both sites are great sources for wool blend felt of high quality.

I also discovered that Divine Twine made a much nicer ornament hanger than plain string. It's a small detail, but it made an impact on the overall look of the ornament. 

It's a Felt Christmas

Remember my never ending Christmas? This was one of the features I did for Family Circle and it was all about felt. I've been so in love with felt lately. It's easy to craft with, holds up year after year, and comes in more colors and blends than ever before. It's one of my absolute favorite craft materials. 

Here are a few projects from the story. To see more, and to get directions and templates, the December issue is on the newsstand now - or you can visit the Family Circle website.  
 
 

Felt Circle Garland

        3-dimensional wall poinsettias

        Two-tone pinecones

Foolproof Pie Dough

I'm on a quest to make the perfect pecan pie. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm very, very close. In the course of this quest, however, I happened to try a new pie dough recipe and I was so happy with it that I had to share. After all, there will be plenty of pies being made this week and I know how tempting it is just to use a store bought crust.

I purchased Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking at the newsstand (because there was a photo of Red Velvet Cake on the cover and that's yet another passion - but more on that next month). It includes a recipe for foolproof pie dough and if it hadn't been so unorthodox, I might not have tried it. After all, how many pie dough recipes have you seen with the word "foolproof" in the title, but still you're intimidated by pie crust even after you try it?  But it was the first recipe I've ever seen that uses both ice water and vodka to make the dough. (There is, of course, science behind this, but I'll let you buy the issue and find out all the reasons for yourself.) What I will say is that it's the best pie crust I've ever made - and I'm definitely a mere novice in the pie department. 

This crust is earth shatteringly flaky, like a crust made with all shortening, but it includes butter, so the flavor is better than an all shortening crust. From now on, this is definitely my go-to recipe:

 

Foolproof Pie Dough:
(for one 9-inch double crust pie or 2 single crust pies)

Note: Vodka is essential to the texture and of the crust and imparts no flavor - do not substitute. This dough will be moister and more supple than standard pie dough and will require more flour to roll out (up to 1/4 cup)

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher salt in baking)
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about two 1 second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until the dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (will resemble cottage cheese curds and you shouldn't see any loose flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into 2 even balls and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and chill for at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days.

3. Roll out your dough on a well-floured board and transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate by rolling the dough around the rolling pin and unrolling over the pan. Working around the circumference of the pie plate, ease the dough into the pan corners, then trim the dough edges, if necessary, and fold the overhang under itself. Flute the edges of the pie crust with your finger or the tines of a fork. Refrigerate the dough-lined pie plate until firm, about 40 minutes, then freeze until very cold, about 20 minutes. 

4. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the dough-lined pie plate from the freezer, press a doubled piece of heavy-duty foil inside the pie shell, and fold the edges of the foil to shield the fluted edge of the pie crust; distribute 2 ceramic or metal pie weights over the foil. Bake, leaving the foil and weights in place until the dough looks dry and is light in color, 25 to 30 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and weights by gathering up the edges and pulling up and out. For a partially baked crust, continue baking until light golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. (For a fully baked crust, continue baking until a deep golden brown, about 12 minutes more.) Transfer to a wire rack.

Note: The recipe included in Holiday Baking only went through Step 2. Steps 3 and 4 were adapted from another Cook's Illustrated recipe for partially baked or fully baked pie crusts. If you don't want to bake the crust beforehand, then just roll the pie dough out, fill, and bake according to your pie recipe.

Interior Styling on Flickr

 

This is going to be a quick post today, as I've spent the last few days doing a little too much hunting and gathering and not quite enough work. But I wanted to share some inspiration with you today.

One of my very first jobs in Los Angeles was at an agency that represented stylists for print work (books, magazines, and catalogs). We called them "artists" and some specialized in hair, others in makeup, and finally, the prop and interiors stylists. They seemed like a glamorous lot, with their thick, European accents and eclectic wardrobes, always on the verge of despair (financially, creatively, or emotionally). Even more glamorous was the fact that someone who could fold a sheet or towel perfectly was earning in one day what I earned in two weeks.

Twenty years later, having logged in plenty of time at photo shoots, I now know that the life of a stylist consists of more hard work than glamour. It's shopping and schlepping, packing and unpacking, labeling and shipping - lots of manual labor for the pleasure of those few moments when all of the elements are arranged just so, and the perfect picture emerges. It's the beautiful, perfect photos that make it all seem so magical.

Today, the artful vignette has become more commonplace as bloggers style and shoot for their own pleasure. And that's what the Interior Styling group on Flickr is all about. It's a compilation of over 4,000 photographs (and counting) by amateur and professional stylists alike. (Be warned, it's addictive!) I have found it so inspiring and it makes me want to just putter and arrange all day. There's no end to the inspiration, so don't forget to tag your favorites for future reference. 

 

Photo from Herz-Allerliebst via Interior Styling Group

Pastitsio

I'm a seasonal eater, and in the summer I don't give this dish a second thought. But come fall and winter...well, I could eat this just about every day. Ground lamb, pasta, Béchamel sauce...perfection. The recipe is from Martha Stewart Living and it's been a staple of our winter menu for almost a decade now. Enjoy!

 

Pastitsio

Meat Sauce:

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lg. onion, diced small
2 lbs. ground lamb
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup dry red wine
6 ounce can tomato paste
2 dried bay leaves
2 cups water

Béchamel Sauce:

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups whole milk
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper

To Assemble:

Unsalted butter, for baking dish
1 pound large elbow macaroni (or curly pasta, such as Cavatappi) 

Directions: 

1.  Sauce:  In a large, deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions, and cook until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes.  Add lamb, salt, cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg.  Cook, breaking lamb into pieces, until it is no longer pink.  Add wine, and cook until liquid is almost evaporated.  Stir in tomato paste, bay leaves, and 2 cups water.  Cover, and let simmer 30 minutes, skimming the fat occasionally.  Remove from heat, and set aside, covered. 

2.  Béchamel:  In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  When butter is bubbling, add flour and baking powder.  Cook, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, for 1 minute.  While whisking, slowly pour in milk.  Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.  Remove pan from heat, and stir in Parmesan, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper.  Set aside, covered, until ready to assemble. 

3.  Assemble:  Preheat oven to 375º.  Butter a 9x13-inch. ovenproof baking dish; set aside.  Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.  Add pasta; cook until very al dente, 2 to 3 minutes less than the manufacturer’s instructions.  Transfer to a colander; drain well.  Stir noodles into meat mixture.  Pour meat-and-pasta mixture into prepared pan.  Spread béchamel over the mixture and bake until top is set and golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes.  Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

 

 

Easy Ornament Upgrade

Every holiday season you'll find me combing the aisles of stores like Target, Walmart, and Dollar Stores searching for inexpensive Christmas decor that I can upgrade or deconstruct. A lot of it ends up being used as gift toppers but I'm always happy to add to my ornament collection as well. The problem with cheap holiday merchandise, however, is that it tends to look cheap - especially the plastic or glittered items. So here's a quick way to upgrade the pieces that show promise but could benefit from a little tweaking.

Glitter:
 

I'm all about glitter and a lot of the inexpensive, colorful ornaments are just fine the way they are. When it comes to silver or gold, however, I find most of them tend to look cheap and don't mesh with my more expensive ornaments. But if you find a shape you like, it's easy enough to change the look. My secret weapons - spray adhesive and better glitter.  

Working with one side at a time, I give a quick spray of adhesive to the ornaments and then sprinkle the new glitter right on top of the old.  The type of glitter to use depends on the look you're going for. If you want to retain most of the color and simply add dimension, try using an iridescent glitter. If you want to keep fine details but tone down the color, use a fine textured, opaque glitter in a lighter shade than the original ornament. And if you want a truly vintage feel, use glass glitter (Though keep in mind that glass glitter tends to soften fine details, so get the finest glass glitter you can find. Coarse glass glitter works better on pieces without a lot of detail.)

Flocking Powder:
 

When I'm not immersed in glitter, you'll usually find me gravitating toward homier materials, such as felt. Felt ornaments can get a little pricey but plastic ones can blend in effortlessly if you embellish them with flocking powder. For the snowflake shown here, I took a plastic ornament that I found at the dollar store ($1 for two), gave it a spritz of adhesive and sprinkled it with white flocking powder instead of glitter. The finished ornament doesn't even look like plastic, making it a nice complement to these handcrafted felt ornaments.

Before and Afters:

My lighting wasn't the best this weekend so the nuances of color and texture aren't as clear as I'd like them to be, but I think you'll still get the general idea:

 

 

Resources:

You can find spray adhesive (a little goes a long way so you'll get a lot of mileage out of a single can), Martha Stewart Crafts glitter (both opaque and iridescent) and flocking powder at Michaels stores, as well as through online sources. 

I also particularly like the Powderz line of glitter, available at Confetti.com.  If you're looking for glass glitter, good sources are Meyer Imports, Art Institute Glitter, and D. Blumchen and Company.

Smoked Tomato Infused Vodka

The Bloody Mary is a year-round staple for weekend brunch in New Orleans and there's no shortage of opinions on where to get the best one. I've had plenty of decent ones, the occasional bad one, and a few great ones. But it's always nice to add your own touch to a basic. So after years of making smoked tomato soup, my husband and I decided to try an experiment and see how smoked tomatoes would work in an infusion.

We think it's a great addition to a fall or winter brunch. The infusion is easy to do, and if you're making a batch of soup, just smoke a few extra tomatoes. It adds a subtle hint of fall (no overpowering smoke flavor here) to your favorite Bloody Mary mix - if we're not making homemade mix, we prefer Zing Zang.

Here's how you do it:  

Smoked Tomato Infused Vodka

1 750 ml bottle of vodka
2-3 large Roma tomatoes
Wood chips of your choice (we most often use hickory) 

1. Halve and seed the tomatoes.

2. At medium heat, place a single layer of wood chips on the bottom of a large cast iron pot, cover and heat until smoking (about 10min).  

3. Place halved tomatoes face down on a baking rack (we use a round cooling rack - the kind you'd use for cakes) and place the rack in the pot over the wood chips.  Cover and allow to smoke for about 15 minutes (smoking time may vary depending on the size of the tomatoes).  The finished tomatoes should be soft, with the skin beginning to come apart.  

4. Once the tomatoes are cool, peel the skin from them.  Roughly chop and combine them with the vodka in a glass jar or pitcher.  Cover the pitcher and let it infuse in the refrigerator for approximately three days. Stir or agitate once a day.  Taste it after three days - if it's not infused enough, let it sit for another day.

5. Strain the vodka through a fine strainer (or a strainer lined with cheesecloth) back into the bottle. Keep chilled.

Have a great weekend! 

Holiday Cards from Minted

 

I'm not much for the holiday photo card, but Minted just might change my mind with their current offerings. By now, most of you are probably familiar with Minted - the online stationery store that offers crowd-sourced designs from around the globe.

Indie designers, mostly female, submit their designs to bi-monthly competitions. The Minted community (anyone who signs up) votes on their favorites and determines what designs the company will sell. It's a democratic concept that gives everyone a chance to show what they've got. This year's crop of holiday cards was selected from 1,370 entries - the largest number of submissions ever - and it's clear there's some serious talent out there.

The cards are heavy and nice to hold in the hand, with smart details like envelope liners and printing on the envelopes themselves. There's something for everyone, not just families with kids, and prices start at $1.45 per card. 

You can check out their entire holiday line HERE.

 

Grilled Ham & Cheese 2.0

Lately, my Sunday afternoons have been all about the Saints (who knew how much I would grow to love football!). It's also one of the rare days when we're together as a family, so I don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. That's why this sandwich is one of those perfect lunches - it can be pulled together during halftime, but is hearty enough to be a satisfying meal. 

Grilled Ham & Brie with Apricot Preserves

Rustic peasant style bread
Thinly sliced ham
Brie
Apricot preserves
Creole mustard (or a coarse, stone ground mustard)
Butter or oil for bread

Heat a skillet (I prefer cast iron) over medium heat and cook the ham a bit, just to warm it up. In the meantime, slice the bread and brush melted butter or oil on the outside of each piece. Spread a thick layer of apricot preserves on the inside of one piece and a thin layer of mustard on the other. Slice the Brie. Remove the ham from the heat and layer it on the mustard side of the bread, then place the Brie on top of the ham. Finish with the preserve brushed piece of bread.  Grill it in the skillet, on both sides, covering the top of the skillet so that the Brie melts faster.

And while I'm on the subject of sandwiches, I made my BLT 2.0 for a Halloween party, cutting them into appetizer size sandwiches. (I assembled the sandwiches while the Ciabatta loaves were whole, then cut the loaf down the middle and then into eight pieces per loaf.) They were a crowd pleaser and they held up very well at room temperature (the trick is to cook your bacon just right, so that it's neither rubbery and soft or too brittle and crisp) - a great thing to prepare when you don't have a lot of time but want to offer something substantive.

 

Bananas & Coconuts

Bill Bryson's book At Home is one man's attempt to "write a history of the world without leaving home." Narrowing his focus to the objects in his home, he writes, "Houses are amazingly complex repositories. What I found, to my great surprise, is that whatever happens in the world - whatever is discovered or created or bitterly fought over - eventually ends up, one way or another, in your house". 

This concept resonated with me immediately. I thought of a shipping crate that I purchased this past summer from a local antiques store. It's a worn shipping crate from a fruit company, the words "Bananas & Coconuts" still visible on its sides and its ports "New Orleans" and "New York" clearly marked. In the thirty seconds it took for me to decide to purchase it, I smelled the bananas in the sticky, tropical heat, heard the clamor of the loading dock, saw the rough hands transporting the crate, heard the bells ringing at St. Louis Cathedral and the lapping of the Mississippi against the hull of a cargo ship. It all happened, in just an instant, and that crate came home with me. 

We also have a wooden gumbo spoon and a crawfish paddle. I commissioned my brother to carve these pieces as an anniversary present for my husband and he carved them out of the last bit of wood that had belonged to my grandfather, wood he had brought back with him from long ago travels. When I hold these pieces, they are more than just the utensils they are. They are part of the history of a man I loved, a man who is no longer alive, but partly responsible for my existence. When I hold these pieces in my hand, a part of him is still here with me.

I feel that way about so many things in my house, though for me it often comes down to the hands. I don't think so much about the prior owners of items I've come to love. Instead, I'm taken with the idea of how many hands have crafted and created the things I hold dear. I know, that for the most part, there is very little romanticism in this. Some things were made lovingly, some made with resentment, anger or sorrow. I will never know all the details, but I like to imagine all those hands twined together, supporting me in the present, while I craft and create my own part in history. 

 

Gifted Magazine

I'm impressed by the number of online magazines that continue to crop up, but more impressed by the bloggers behind many of these publications. They're beautifully designed and styled, the photography is gorgeous...and yesterday, there was a new addition, just in time for the holiday season.

Creature Comforts' Gifted, a holiday magazine and gift guide, offers plenty of DIY holiday projects dreamed up by some of your favorite bloggers, free printables, gift wrapping ideas and sources, and a comprehensive gift guide. It's lovely and you can view the entire magazine here.

 

Kumquat & Satsuma Cellos

Two reasons I love November - satsumas and kumquats. Satsumas are a Japanese fruit, similar to a tangerine, with a mild, sweet flavor and low acidity. I don't know if they're widely available in other regions, but they're a fall staple in Louisiana. (As a side note, the Jesuits brought this fruit to Louisiana in the 18th century and the groves they started are still in existence today, which completely amazes me.) The kumquat, more widely available, is another Japanese fruit with a distinctive sweet/tart flavor. I'm not much for eating them, but I love the cello they produce.

So that's what I did yesterday after discovering the first crop of the season at my local market. I'll continue to infuse bottles of high-proof vodka over the next couple of weeks. They'll be ready in about a month, at which point I'll sweeten them and then let them mellow out for another week or two before gifting them at Christmas.

Should you find these fruits at your local market and want to give it a try, the recipes are included below. I'll share labels, packaging ideas, and a recipe for a kumquat Bellini with you next month, after the liqueurs are ready.

 

Satsuma Lavender Cello

24 ripe satsumas (Note: a ripe satsuma can be either green or, more traditionally, orange)
1 750 ml bottle Absolut 100 or 1 750 ml bottle grain alcohol, such as Everclear

(I prefer to use the high proof vodka since it requires less sugar syrup to sweeten it. I'm not fond of thick, syrupy cellos. However, if you're making large batches of cello, grain alcohol is a more cost-effective option and the more traditional option).

1. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, peel the rind from the satsuma and cut off as much of the white pith as possible (the pith is bitter and you don't want this bitter element in your cello).

2. Put the satsuma rind in a sealable, glass jar and cover with vodka. Put the jar in a cool, dark place and shake it periodically. Let it sit for about a month. (You can taste and smell it to decide when it's ready.)

3. When the cello is finished, strain out the peels (pressing down on the peels to extract any oils or spirit that are left in them) and add simple syrup to taste. I like to start with a half cup of syrup and add a little at a time. (See recipe below)

At this point, the cello can be chilled and enjoyed (I keep mine in the freezer). However, I find that it mellows even more if you let it sit for another week or two. 

Lavender Simple Syrup:

1 cup water
1 cup cane sugar (look for it in stores like Whole Foods)
1/4 cup dried lavender (organic, culinary lavender)

Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the dried lavender, cover the pot and remove it from the heat. Let the lavender steep for about 5 minutes, then strain it out.

Note: If you want to make an unflavored simple syrup, just omit the lavender. 

 

Kumquat Cello

2 lbs. kumquats 
1 750 ml bottle Absolut 100 or high-proof grain alcohol, such as Everclear

1. If you're using small kumquats, just quarter them and add them to a sealable, glass jar (flesh and peel). If you're using a larger variety, you can slice them into wheels.

2. Cover with vodka and place in a cool, dark place for about a month. (I don't know if this is necessary, but because I use the whole fruit for this cello, I like to infuse it in the refrigerator.) Shake periodically.

3. When the cello is ready, strain it through a coffee filter (or a cheesecloth-lined strainer) to catch any pulp. You can strain it a second time, if necessary.

4. Make a plain simple syrup (see note on the lavender simple syrup recipe) and add it to the cello, to taste. 

5. Chill and enjoy right away or let it sit for another week or two. 

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