Monday, September 23, 2013

Pretty Pumpkins!


Fall is my absolute favorite time of year! 
I love the crisp chill in the morning air, the smell of burning apple and cinnamon candles, spiced cider and pumpkin coffees. Cozy fall sweaters, the changing color of the leaves.

If you love pumpkins as I do but want to "jazz" up your display a little bit this fall, I pasted some pretty pumpkin photos below. Whether you prefer chevron, chalkboard paint or glitter, sky is the limit on how fun and creative you can be.

Send me some pics of your decorated pumpkins and I will display on the blog!









Friday, September 20, 2013

Happy Fall


The first day of Fall is this Sunday, even though it has definitely felt like Fall all week long. 
With temperatures in the 60's and nights dipping to the 40's, the chill in the air makes me crave spiced cider, apple picking, pumpkin pie and cozy sweaters. 
Even though I am sad to leave Summer behind the below images will hopefully get you excited for the fabulous Fall season ahead!







Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Pizza Party

My brother is really into making his own pizza and has gotten quite good at it. So, it was a big treat when he came over this week and whipped up some delicious thin crust pizza for all of us.
He gets his dough from a local pizza place. You can go into pretty much any pizza joint and ask for dough and they will sell you however much you need. 

He says the key to a good thin crust pizza is getting the dough nice and thin and using a good quality pizza stone. He puts the oven on 500 degrees and puts the pizza stone in there to get very hot. 
Construct the pizza on a separate wood board and make sure to use ample amounts of flour under the dough so it doesn't stick. Then carefully slide it onto the hot stone in the oven.


His speciality is a truffeled mushroom pie and a bbq chicken pie.
For the truffle mushroom pie (pictured below) he uses a truffled mushroom pesto that he buys at Murray's Cheese in NYC. If you live in the area I HIGHLY recommend stopping by Murray's and picking some up. It's ridiculous! If you don't live by a Murray's you can get the same kind of spread by pureeing mushrooms, garlic, Parmesan cheese and truffle oil. 


We spread the truffled mushroom pesto on the pizza and then topped with fresh mushrooms. Baked it in a 500 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes until it was crisp and bubbly and then topped with a drizzle of truffle oil. It was seriously out of this world!




For the second pie we used BBQ chicken cutlets, shredded mozzarella cheese, sweet onion and fresh cilantro. 
We started by lightly covering the dough with RAO's Marinara sauce and the shredded cheese. We then used diced chicken cutlets in BBQ sauce and thinly sliced sweet onion. Again we cooked this in a 500 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes and then sprinkled with fresh cilantro.


Both pies were so good I can't pick a favorite. 
Good thing I didn't need to as we had plenty to go around! 

Saturday, September 7, 2013