Posts Tagged ‘Friends and Family’

Wordless Wednesday: Williams-Sonoma and Calphalon Dinner Party

June 16th, 2010

Picture by R. Lasquite

Picture by G. Feiereisel

More photos at Greg’s Photo Album. Thank you everyone for such a fun evening! Let’s do this again soon.

Tags: calphalon, cooking, dinner, Friends and Family, party, williams-sonoma

Posted under entertaining, food1 Comment

Catching Up and Homemade Pasta

June 7th, 2010

It’s back to the kitchen and catching up on chores this week. The weather has been so nice that I’ve neglected the decluttering and mini-mountains of clothes that need folding, and instead have been riding my bike with Ollie and hanging out at various parks. The kids have also had a little education in local and federal government as the whole family applied for passports. Abby laughed as we posed for our pictures, “Mom, it’s like we’re in jail?!” Yes, but would we by smiling?

I like Ollie’s first attempt:

Last weekend we hosted a House Party sponsored by Calphalon and Williams-Sonoma and while we weren’t selected as the hosts to have Chef Michael Symon visit, we had a fantastic time with our guests. The easiest part about this dinner party: the menu, along with recipes and a grocery list, was supplied by Calphalon and Williams-Sonoma. We were so busy cooking up dinner, I had my brother-in-law and cousin take some pictures and I hope to post some soon.

Friends came over a few months ago and taught us how to make homemade pasta. We tried homemade potstickers so I thought, homemade noodles shouldn’t be too difficult.

Basic recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups semolina flour
6 large eggs (at room temperature)
pinch of salt

We combined the dry ingredients in a large bowl, made a well in the middle then cracked the eggs into the flour. Using a fork, begin beating the eggs lightly as if scrambling them, and the flour will start “falling” into the egg mixture. Continue beating the eggs to incorporate the flour slowly. The mixture will begin forming into dough, and then once the dough begins to stiffen and all the flour is incorporated, you can take it out of the bowl to knead. It wasn’t very pretty, pulling and pushing the dough, squishing it around. Our friend made it look all nice and rectangular. Mine sort of looked amoeba-shaped until I folded it over again to knead some more. I think we did this for a few minutes before running it through the pasta machine. And when we did, it took a few passes to get to the thickness we wanted. We hung the noodles up as we finished the rest of the dough and got a big pot of water and salt to a rolling boil. The noodles cooked quickly in less than 5 minutes.

Tags: Friends and Family, homemade, noodles, passport pictures, pasta

Posted under life, recipeNo Comments

Communion Reception: Menu and Recipe

April 26th, 2010

What time do most people eat dinner? Do most people call it “dinner” or “supper”? I suppose there’s a difference, and maybe a subtle one. I never bothered to look up a definition until now. So, what would you do for a reception if a religious service was at 1:30 pm and lasted for 1-1/2 hours? It’s not really a late lunch, but it’s not totally time for dinner either. Essentially, it was supper and it was good.

Here’s what we figured for 25 adults and 11 children (some of whom are light eaters – count 2 kids as 1 adult)

To munch on: Banana-chocolate chip bread, Cran-apple-orange bread, Orange-rosemary mini cornbread muffins (breads baked at home), salami and cheese, smoked salmon and crackers, roasted garlic hummus and olive crostinis (store bought).
48 piece tray – Italian subs and Club subs (approx. 4″, bought at local Italian deli) One tray had 24 pieces, and that wouldn’t have been enough.
Tortilla chips and roasted corn-black bean salsa (brought over by family)
Shrimp salad (store bought)
Cake – split yellow and chocolate cake with custard and strawberries
Coffee, tea, assorted soda, and juice boxes for the kids

Notes:

Quick breads can easily be done a few days before and frozen if you want.
The cornbread muffin recipe is from Martha Stewart which was recently reprinted in the Living magazine with the addition of orange peel. True to the recipe, it keeps for 2 days in an airtight container. TWO days. I made it one day too soon. They dried out.
It’s nice to have a good bakery so close to home!

Here’s a favorite recipe for black bean salsa that I’ve made over the years adapted from The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook by Paula Deen. I visited her restaurant before she was a Food Network celebrity and bought my cookbook there. This salsa is similar to the one we had last Saturday; the difference being roasted corn. It does add a lovely smokiness. Just by frozen roasted corn for ease! Enjoy!

Julie’s Black Bean Salsa

2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (17 oz.) pkg. frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
2 lg. tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup. chopped fresh cilantro
4 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 lg. avocado, peeled and chopped (optional)
1/8 tsp. cumin (optional)
1/8 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

In large bowl, mix all ingredients well. Cover and chill overnight. Before serving, add salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Great with tortilla chips or just as a side to your meal.

Tags: Communion, cooking, food, Friends and Family, menu planning

Posted under entertaining, food, home, recipe1 Comment

Happy Spring with a gift

March 22nd, 2010

Signs of Spring! Last fall, we planted garlic bulbs. They started coming up with the little warmup we’ve had in the weather. So exciting! Have to get the chicken wire on the fence soon. The three shrubs in the back seem to have survived the winter, too. I’m a little concerned about one of them, but time will tell.

It was in the low to mid 60s around here, then the bottom fell out and we had snow (again) over the weekend. Saturday morning I woke up to, “Mom, it’s snowing! You have to shovel!” (I actually didn’t. No snow on the driveway or walks.) Yesterday, we had to get out of the house for a little and ended up having noodles and sushi at one of our favorite Japanese spots.

Elsewhere in the STiJ world:

Last week, I interviewed for a volunteer position at our city hall. They’re forming a historic preservation commission. We’ll see how this goes.
This week is Spring Break for Abby and next week will be Eastman’s. I might not be on top of my blogging game.
To further my gardening skills, I’ll be attending a “Make Your Own Composter” class later this week at a local nature center.
I have my first Craft Critique article coming out soon, too, and I’m finishing my second article this week. Let’s say I hope it “sticks”!
Been making more cards lately. Will post tutorials soon.
Lastly, I’m hoping some readers can help. I’ve made a very casual survey about handcrafted gifts. Hopefully it will help me organize some thoughts on opening an online shop. The survey can be forwarded to other people – so please feel free to do so. Go to the link below, answer the questions and participants can win one of two free subscriptions to Midwest Living. Survey is open until this Wednesday, 3-24-10.

Click here to take survey

Cheers,

Julie

Tags: free magazine subscription, Friends and Family, garden bed, garlic, kids, spring

Posted under life, outside the houseNo Comments

Busy February

February 28th, 2010

Picture by G. Feiereisel

Wow, it’s been a while… let’s update.

Holiday/birthday season is over for me (husband’s, father’s, daughter’s and numerous friends), and tomorrow our party-hosting blackout month starts. We may be taking a hosting hiatus, but that doesn’t mean we’re not thinking about it. Amidst the celebrating, we started looking for Holy Communion dresses for Abby and planning a lunch reception. We have a little less than two months, which really translates to, I have a little less than two months to reorganize and pull my house back together again.

In the next month, I’ll begin reporting for Craft Critique where I will rediscover and review some of my own crafting supplies and equipment, and be introduced to new and exciting products in the crafting world. I can’t wait! You might imagine I have quite the array of products, but my craft shed is fairly minimal. You’ll see. To jump start my creative juices and “research” current products, I’ve been visiting the local Archiver’s over the last few weekends to see the “make-and-take” projects and see product demos.

Another love of mine is Chicago history and architecture, so to celebrate that my husband and I attended “Chicago in History and Mystery” at our local library. Fabulous guest speakers, wine and hors d’ouevres, too. (Can I tell you how weird it was eating and walking around the library with a glass of chardonnay? God forbid I spill anything!) Back to the speakers: Authors JA Konrath, Gillian Flynn and Henry Perez; Rick Kogan and Charles Osgood from the Chicago Tribune and WTTW personality, Geoffrey Baer.

I’ve never been to an author panel discussion before; it was eye-opening and fun! These authors write mysteries, and being able to hear them speak about their inspirations, how they got started, how they approach their character development was so fascinating. We came home with Afraid by Konrath, who also writes under Jack Kilborn, but I’m definitely looking forward to reading the others. Have to get through my stack of books by my bed first.

It’s amazing enough to watch Geoffrey Baer’s tours of Chicago on tv, read Rick Kogan’s articles and see Charles’s photography, but listening to them when they’re a few feet away from you… incredibly captivating and entertaining personal stories. Sorry to say I didn’t bring my camera, but then again, not many people did. I might be able to link to the library website if they update their event photos. I wanted to tuck every anecdote away in my head to share with friends, but by the time we left (about 4 hours) I was so overwhelmed with factoids and fun stories. I’ll end with a few Chicago tidbits that stuck.

Louis “Studs” Terkel (Chicagoan author, broadcaster, historian) was one of the oldest people to undergo open-heart surgery at the age of 93. In his own words through Rick Kogan, “I’m a medical miracle!”
Caldwell Avenue is named for “Billy” Caldwell whose American Indian name was Sauganash which is also the name of the neighborhood that the avenue runs through. I had no idea…
Park Ridge is not the highest point in Cook County which many Park Ridgians believe. High point is somewhere around Barrington.
Park Ridge was home to many artisans and craftspeople, and included a workshop called Kalo Arts Crafts Community House where many silversmiths and jewelers started their trade.

Such a rich history in the arts… is it a wonder I feel at home here? We’ll see what happens in the next month since I also applied for a seat on the newly formed “Historic Preservation Commission” in town.

Tags: chicago, craft critique, date night, Friends and Family, library, life

Posted under home, lifeNo Comments

What I’ve Learned Having Houseguests

January 31st, 2010

Now that the holidays are over and I’ve recovered somewhat, I tend to review our hosting strategies, successes and misses. Every year we have at least 1-3 guests stay with us for any given length of time. It could be an overnight stay or a couple of weeks. Don’t know about other people, but I get worked up. I just want to make sure that our guests feel welcome and comfortable, that they enjoy their stay and would want to come back.

We have a slight challenge of not having a dedicated guest room, but here’s how we get around that: the basement. It becomes a semi-private suite. In the case of my awesome brother-in-law, he’ll room in my kid’s room, or with my kids. No problem. However, I can’t necessarily assume that everyone will be as accommodating.

My must haves: No matter what the state my house is in, I will prep good pillows, a good air mattress (we have two), towels, sheets, clock, storage cubes doubled as nightstand, hangers, and coat rack. Don’t have yet but would like: luggage rack.

Entertaining: Here, I luck out again with pretty easy going relatives. My in-laws did most of the shuttling around last Fall with our guests. But, it’s helpful to have schedules and sight-tour brochures handy. Seriously, I even picked up at our library a few copies of “family-friendly” publications that have local things-to-do and set that on the bedside table for our guests.

Meal times: I’ll ask about favorite snacks and more importantly, kids favorites, if I’m not exactly sure what my guests are into. Putting together a dinner/meal schedule was also a super timesaver. It was more like a guideline, if anything, but sure helped with grocery lists. We had plenty of drinks on hand too.

Here’s my favorite way of setting up my towels on the bed for a cute “welcome”. One of my best friends taught me this a long time ago when I stayed at her home for a few days. Sorry, you might only get this the first time you come over, after that, you’re like family and I don’t sweat it out so much.