home grown holiday

Let's jog our memories back to April,

when I made clear my obsession for the

miniature Fungi farms from

Far West Fungi.

My fascination with the mini fungi garden is a long running

one that started about 8 years ago with trips to

the Ferry building in S.F.

How pretty are these mushrooms?

See their mushroom forest in the forefront?

Gorgeous! Effortless! Like a terrarium, but better.

So much better.

Thanks to Melvin, I received my very own Fungi farm over the summer.

In hindsight, perhaps I should have named him. Would that have

made him feel more nurtured?

At any rate, I ran out and purchased a large glass cloche,

the only one I could find was from Pottery Barn,

and gave him a nice, comfy and trés chic home.

And of course, I haven't mentioned him since.

Shattered dreams.

Halloween came and still nothing.

He did appear to be some groovy science experiment,

which helped the spooky decor some.

Our main problem here, so we think, was that it was still

80 degrees in October in Southern California.

Like the lagomorphs, shroomy likes a nice crisp 60

degrees. Lucky for him, the month of November has created

a buns-chilling atmosphere in our guest bathroom.

And that is where we moved him. The rabbits are so jealous.

And, wouldn't you know it, he responded.

Growth and more growth.

Shroomy checking himself out in the mirror..

(he's so vain)

New larger growth..

Original mini growth from the great hot spell of 2009.

New large growth next to old whimpy growth.. see the difference?

Even a few shroomy heads.

Well, I have been butt dragging on this post and this was a shot

of the shroomy heads on Friday..

This was shroomy head MADNESS on Sunday..

Finger high!

Shroomy reaching for the sky on Monday..

And mondo Alice in Wonderland shroomy status this morning.

I am totally a mushroom farmer. So my three shroom heads don't

really resemble the beauty of the Far West Fungi sample.

That's ok.

I have a strong desire to incorporate them into my

Thanksgiving cooking. Yet, somehow, I am not sure I have the

confidence to serve guest a fungus that I have grown in my

guest bathroom, that has been witness to lord knows what.

But, maybe I do.

belated weekend wishes

This post was absolutely meant for Friday,

but I could not make it happen.

I decided while cooking my favoritest quiche in honor of

baby Lucas that I would finally figure out

what the hay I put in this masterpiece

so I can finally pass the recipe off to some

very patient party goers who I promised

it to over a year ago.

Belated weekend wishes and happy cooking!

The first element of a non lazy and totally delicious quiche is the flaky

Tart pastry dough from Martha Stewart’s website… find it here.

note the incredible cornucopia in the background.. the best

ten dollars I ever spent.

Once you pull the chilled dough rounds from the fridge, follow

these crust finishing instructions..

*On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into a 16-inch round.

With a dry pastry brush, sweep off any excess flour;

fit dough into a 2-inch deep-dish tart pan with a removable bottom,

gently pressing it into the sides.

Using a sharp knife, trim the dough evenly with the edge of the pan.

Cover with plastic wrap; chill tart shell until firm, about 20 minutes.

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

*Line the tart dough with a sheet of parchment paper

and fill with pie weights.

Transfer to oven and bake until light brown, about 25 minutes.

Remove weights and parchment paper and continue

baking until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Lovely golden pastry crusts from ‘scratch’…

scratch is seriously impressive. Right?

Here is where I get wacky and combine my moms recipe

with some totally unwarranted kitchen related confidence.
So, I make either ham and cheese or spinach and cheese quiche…

and you are more than welcome to swap the ham

or the spinach with your vegetable or meat of choice.

For 2 quiche, which is what one recipe of the

flaky tart dough makes, the ingredients are as follows….

For the egg mix..

4 eggs

2 cups heavy whipping cream

( not the healthiest biggest loser type substitute,

but quiche is for special occasions, right?)

1/4 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

add ins..

get creative with your favorite combo of cheese. I mix

1/2 cup jack and 1/4 cup swiss per quiche.

Use either 1 cup of meat or 1/2 cup of spinach.

Lets get started.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

The egg mix always stays the same, but with the add ins,

I seriously experiment every time.

For the egg mix, my recipe requires an electronic mixer.

Instead of lightly beating,

I whip it excessively on high until it is really really fluffy..

I am sure Martha would snicker at this clearly novice move,

but honestly, I find my quiche to be so much fluffier and

such a pretty color when I do this.

While whipping the egg mix, layer your add ins into the empty crusts.

Put the meat in first and then layer the cheese on top.

With each layer, it gets better..

Then, you pour the egg mix on top. Keep it mind that

it may be pretty puffy, so just scoot it out of the bowl

with a spatula and lightly smooth it over,

so not to mess up the cheese layer.

As the quiche cooks, the egg layer will settle

into the add in layer on its own.

Put the quiches on baking sheets and bake them in the oven for 15

minutes at your original 425 degrees.

Reduce the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for 30 minutes,

or until knife comes out clean.

Behold: golden loveliness.

Side note - we saw Monsters of Folk last night at the

Greek theatre and it was super fun. Hopefully, I did not

destroy the sanctity of the music by desperately eating

In N Out after.

The greek theatre is so fun. I am starting to become

really obsessed with the idea of going back next weekend

for the Heart/Bangles concert.

Go Angels! (go chargers(whispery exclamation!) why not?)

like candy

After a trip to Williams Sonoma last friday, where I went

crazy purchasing WS's new stackable cake decorations,

I am totally into cake making. I made a cake on Friday,

and another on Sunday.

A seriously brilliant idea : making your

own personalized cake decorating tower.

Mine consists of Halloween pearls(I love Halloween),

hot pink sanding sugar, GOLDEN cake duster,

and genuine sugar pearls.

**sadly, these are not available online!

My beautifully sandwiched chocolate cake.

So many delicious things in one picture...

Home grown tomatoes, a giant glass cloche,

a dollop of crema on a nice cup

of Nespresso, 2 cuddly bunnies, a fantastic

vintage lurex stripe dress, and a stack of

apparel mags. ahhhh.

Anyway.. enough ramblings. Onto the main event..

the reason behind the 'like candy' title,

the most incredible random cake kitsch from

my new favorite HEYYOYO store on etsy.

These images of small vibrant plastic goodness

make me insanely happy.

CUPIE!

Seriously!

It is worth mentioning that these amazing backdrops are

all paper from the Martha Stewart collection. The best.

get yours here.

Lie to me and tell me how much you love plastic miniatures!

when i grow up

Since reading this month's Bon Apétit magazine

article about food carts, I have become semi

obsessed with them. Of course, the magazine article

was all about street carts in Portland.. another reason why

Portland is totally amazing.

See the online article/slideshow here.

Is staring at a photo of food for long periods

of time as good as eating it?

After doing some internet food photo gawking,

I have come to find that there is actually a

blog that lists and rates all of the Portland food carts.

OF COURSE there is. Portland is the coolest.

junior ambassadors must be quite the place, as it was featured

in Bon Apétit and on the home page of the foodcartsportland page.

Although, it is an 'ice cream cart' who makes bacon

ice cream. And, its orange.

This one's for you Joce!

The swamp shack.. home of southern fried food.

jambalaya!!

my personal fave(at least in pictures) = the spud locker

melted cheese and bacon? heaven.

I'm guessing that there is a strong correlation

between any food this cool appearing in orange county

and me opening up my own food shack.

Let's put this one at number three on my

potential near future calling list behind killer

apparel and art co op shop owner and crafty workshop

studio owner. I'm hungry.

sidetracked..

So I was fishing around for some cute vintage this 

morning..1918 Vintage is a cute little vintage site and blog..

and I came across this picture. If you are my husband, you know

where this is going. 

Time to introduce you to my number one foreign obsession:

GLOBUS. I am so completely infatuated with this 

department store, that I make it my daily walking destination 

whenever I am in Geneva. Art Exhibit? Historical Landmark? I 

can see them on the way to GLOBUS. Why don't we just eat 

lunch/dinner at GLOBUS? Let's just get drinks at GLOBUS. 

I need a dress to wear/groceries for dinner/presents to bring home?

I can buy them at GLOBUS. 

But, seriously, GLOBUS is a veritable 

smorgasbord(orgasbord, orgasbord)

 of all things fantastic - with a department store on top, 

a wine counter and eatery below, and a specialty foods

grocery in the basement. To share with you some

beautiful recipes that embody the essence of the GLOBUS..

(I realize these are in french. But you are resourceful, 

you can figure it out?)

Look at this amazing twist on a classic..Caprese salad. 

and this melty Chocolate Souflee with strawberries. 

Till next time, I will work on those translations. If after you make 

these scrumptious recipes, you are so compelled to carry a GLOBUS 

handbag, I will completely understand. You can purchase one

at the cute 1918 Vintage. Why don't I have a GLOBUS handbag?