May 4 2012

Going South!

South America Adventure
Happy Friday, friends! I am so ridiculously excited to announce that Curtis and I will be starting our South America adventure tomorrow! We’ll be spending almost a month in Peru and Argentina!! The big things on our agenda are hiking Machu Picchu (woo hoo!!) and spending about a week and a half in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we’ll be indulging in coffee, serious amounts of food, and maybe a tango hall or two. Since I won’t be bringing my computer with me (we’re traveling light – back-backing style), I won’t be able to post on this blog while I’m gone, but I’m bringing my camera, so there will be plenty of photos to share once I get back to the States!

Hasta luego! *I definitely need to brush up on my Spanish skills… they’re pretty rusty!*

May 2 2012

Get Sconed

Since I have yet to photograph my favorite scones, I didn’t want to leave you hangin’ without some yummy photo to drool over. So, what’s the perfect pairing for homemade almond buttermilk scones? That’s right, a cup of home ‘spro, courtesy of my main man, Curtis. Anyways, this post is about the scones, so back to it! This past Sunday, I attended an LA blogger meet-up, and met some super cool ladies! It was a potluck — there was a lot of deliciousness going on — and I made my favorite scones to share. Fortunately, they were a hit (glad I’m not the only one that likes them!), so I wanted to share the recipe with you all. I can’t remember where I picked up this recipe, but it’s super easy to make and they’re seriously addicting!

Almond Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients:

  • A scant 2 ¼ cups (10 oz.) all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon (2.33 oz) sugar
  • 1½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 stick cold unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • Turbinado or demera sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
  2. In a medium to large-sized mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. Add the almonds and stir to combine.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and the vanilla.
  5. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture and stir to combine. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
  6. Gently knead the dough together in the bowl until it is just combined. Be careful, however, not to mix and knead the dough too much—you just want to combine the ingredients. If you have to add a tablespoon more of buttermilk, do so, but otherwise just gently pack the mixture into a ball and then turn dough out onto a work surface.
  7. Gently pat and shape the dough into a rectangle approximately ¾ to 1 – inch thick. With a knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into six triangles.
  8. At this point, either freeze the cut scones in a zip lock bag or place them on Silpat or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Brush the scones with the milk and sprinkle with the sugar. (Note: you can brush the scones with anything you like: eggs, egg whites, cream, even water. If you don’t have turbinado or demera sugar, regular granulated sugar is a fine substitute.)
  9. Bake the scones for approximately 15-18 minutes. (When you bake frozen scones, remove them from freezer while oven preheats. Brush with wash just before baking and bake 18-23 minutes.) Serve immediately.

While you’re enjoying your freshly baked scones, check out their blogs for some good reads:

Jessica Ahnert Davis (the hostess with the mostess! *Thanks for hosting the get-together, Jess!*): www.nesteaglerock.com

Sarah Ehlinger: www.verysarie.com

Amanda Habbershaw: www.lovecreativeblog.com

Theresa Dykes: www.inspirationcooperative.blogspot.com

Kelly Lanza: www.studiodiy.com

Callie Bloem: www.callmecal.com

Jen Sobel: www.punkyandthecity.com

Irene Lovett: www.designstiles.me

Elsie Lau: www.elauinc.blogspot.com

Apr 30 2012

Minted’s Thank You Card Challenge

I had a ton of ideas for this challenge, but didn’t have enough time to design all of the cards that I had hoped to… but I managed to get two designs in before the deadline this morning.

My First design is titled “Office Space” and uses common office supplies to form the word “thanks.” I designed it with the Professional (office/business) Thank You sub-category in mind.

My second design is titled “Professor” and features a pipe with “thank you” coming out like smoke. It is intended for the proper gentleman who wants to say thanks, and was designed for the Thanks From Him sub-category.

The submission deadline was at 10 AM today, so voting will begin soon. There are a ton of really awesome card designs, so go check ‘em out and vote for your favorites! The winners will be sold on Minted.com!!