Happy Easter weekend everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying your weekends!  I got a long weekend off from work, which I'm fully enjoying as a relaxing 3 days and doing pretty much as little as possible.  Sometimes you just have to recharge ya know?  Anyway, I made this rack of lamb a few nights ago and thought I would share it with you in the event that you haven't decided what to make for Easter dinner yet.

The Elements:
1 rack of lamb (I got mine already cryovac-wrapped from the Fresh Market--it came already Frenched/trimmed but next time if I can find one that isn't pre-done, I'll do a tutorial on how to prepare lamb)
2 small sprigs of Rosemary
About 6 fresh Sage leaves
2 Garlic cloves, chopped
1-2 Shallots, diced
1/2 cup good red wine (I used a Syrah)
Salt and pepper to taste

One of my dear friends, who is also a lawyer, suggested that instead of having "Directions" I should have "Procedure". I thought it was brilliant and so I hope y'all like the new change :)

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 450
Season the lamb with salt and pepper, to taste
In a large skillet (that can go in the oven--I used AllClad), heat a little olive oil over medium-high heat (approximately 2 TBSPs)
Brown the lamb on both sides for a couple minutes each side, starting with the fatty side, to render a bit of the fat off into the pan, then put the lamb back to fat/bone-side down and pour in the wine, and add the garlic, rosemary, sage, and shallots.

Take the pan and put it in the oven, roasting the lamb for approximately 15 minutes, up to 18, then take the internal temperature with a meat thermometer.

Remove the lamb from the oven and take it out of the pan, allowing the lamb to rest for about 7-10 minutes before carving.  Carve between the bones (there will be a part in between that slices easily, this is where you should slice).  Alternatively you can remove every other bone with a very good boning knife, and then slice the lamb to be twice as large. 
After carving your lamb, spoon the reduction over the chops.

The Verdict:
I served it with Lebanese Couscous, which can be prepared in any number of ways and I will probably do another post on that if there is interest.   I thought this lamb was spectacular...and my boyfriend who formerly did not like lamb, is now a convert.  I highly recommend this dish!

Footnote:  I used a couple of books to help me out with this one... the Williams-Sonoma Tools & Techniques book (which shows how to clean and prepare a lamb, which I didn't end up needing because the lamb came pre-cleaned) and The Flavor Bible.  I absolutely love The Flavor Bible.  It provides enough information so you don't put together a dish with conflicting flavors but isn't a "cookbook" so you can make recipes your own.  I highly recommend it as well!

Well folks, we did it!  We finally took the plunge and moved to Raleigh.  Matt can now walk to work, and our new place is just lovely (I will post pics below).  On the same day we moved, I got a job *yay!* at a firm ten minutes from our new place...fate or what?  Anywayyyy I was feeling slightly cheesy and so I decided to make some cookies celebrating our move but wanted to make them Cow-Themed so that they could say we "MOOved"...I know, I'm a dork...but at least I don't deny it.  I made these cookies with the simple sugar cookie recipe given by the lovely Sweetapolita on her blog...I just adore this recipe and so I use it a lot.  I used fondant to do both the white and black and also for the letters.  I used a pre-made fondant (Satin Ice), which is good but it's insanely sweet.  I found it to be far too sweet and could only eat like a quarter of a cookie.  I preferred the marshmallow homemade fondant I made for Marina's birthday cake because I had used lemon extract to cut the sweetness and so it wasn't too sweet like these.  I used these little letter cookie cutters that I got from Williams-Sonoma, and they worked great for the most part...I had a hard time with the Os and the Ds (Because you have to cut the middle part out) so they look a little wonky and I think I preferred the cookies as just the plain cow pattern, but nevertheless I stuck with the letters because they were fun.  

Here's how I did the cow cookies:
The Elements:
Your favorite sugar cookie recipe
Fondant of any kind (I would say one batch of marshmallow would be enough--I used the bin of Satin Ice and had a ton left over)
Royal Icing (just a bit for "glue")
Food Coloring (not cheap stuff from the grocery store), I prefer Americolor but if you have another favorite that's perfectly fine too!

Procedure:
I took the same circle cookie cutter that I used to make the cookies (Medium-large round) and cut out circles of white fondant that I had rolled out.  Once I had all the white rounds, I "glued" them on using a little royal icing.  I took the remaining fondant and separated it in half (try to follow this one guys hah, but I had lots left over so don't worry too much about the proportions).  Then I took half of the leftover fondant and dyed it black with my Americolor gels (LOVE times 100).  I used really strange cookie cutters (lobster, moose, and lighthouse) to make the funky black shapes and just played with them a bit to get them to look natural...cows don't have perfect patterns so the cookies shouldn't either! 

Directions for the Letters:
Take the remaining half of the fondant and divide it into however many colors you want to use (I did 3) and then knead in the food gel to get the desired color before rolling out your fondant.  I found it very helpful to have everything greased with shortening and a little powdered sugar... it made it a bit easier to get the letters to come out.  They definitely didn't come out perfect, but that's okay...the whole point of this is a learning experience and I definitely had fun doing it!

The Verdict:
The cookies came out cute but could have been better if I had fully mastered getting the letters to come out properly :(  Also I thought they were wayyy too sweet.  I think you could get the same cow look with royal icing and you wouldn't need all that fondant, but you live and you learn right?  Again, I think if you use your own fondant, you can cut the sweetness a bit or you may be able to do that we the pre-made one, by kneading it in (although that seems like a lot of extra work).  As for the apartment??  We love it so far... I've added pictures below for you to see it :)

Hey y'all... I'm doing the holiday thing early (or right on time, in blogger world).  I realize that I posted my 4th of July cake ON the 4th of July, and my holiday cookies on December 30th (oy vey) and that does not give readers enough time to make these holiday items for the actual holiday (unless they have a time machine...if you do, please let me know).  I wanted to make mini-cakes for St. Paddy's day that reminded me (and hopefully you too!) of little lucky pots of gold!  (I have recently been informed that it is actually St. PADDY's day and not St. Patty's day...learn something new every day huh?!)

So instead of spending the money to buy mini-cake pans, I decided to make 9-in cakes and then cut circles with a cookie cutter about 4" in diameter.  I thought it was a pretty decent money saving technique but next time I make a mini-cake, I'll probably just splurge on the pans... read the Verdict below, to see why.

I have been dying to make dripping cakes like this one from Smitten Kitchen, or this one from Sweetapolita.  Unfortunately, both of those dripping effects were made from chocolate, which is dark brown (not gold).  I asked around as to how I could get that effect with a white icing (so I could paint it) and worked with my pal Jenni over at the Balanced Pastry Chef, to determine that royal icing would probably work best.  I thinned it down a bit by heating it and adding a little extra water, so that it was easy to spread out and drip over the edge.  It worked out pretty well.  I definitely haven't mastered the technique but I think I did a decent job for my first try (right?).  

The Elements:
Your favorite white cake recipe (I had a ton left over, because like I said, I just made 9 in cake layers and cut out smaller circles--I put the leftovers in a ziploc bag in the fridge to nibble on)
Your favorite fondant (I used a homemade marshmallow fondant)
Your favorite buttercream recipe (I used my favorite simple buttercream with 2 sticks of softened butter, 1lb. confectioner's sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract)  (I only needed about half of this)
Royal icing (approximately 1/4 cup)
Americolor (or similar brand) food color gels in GREEN and BLACK (I got mine in a set, which I highly recommend!)
Americolor (or similar brand) edible gold paint
Gold disco dust
Mini-cake pans (4" - 6") or a cookie cutter about that size (round obviously)

I did one cake with glitter all over and one with just a little glitter.  I think I actually prefer the one with less glitter but still undecided!  Jury?

That's pretty much it!  Let me know what you think, if you try it, what you like/don't like, etc.  Before making your own, however, I suggest you read the Verdict, below, to see what I would change about this cake/the process.  I used a gold doily for each cake to display, both because I think it was cute and St. Paddy's Day-esque and also because I handmade that cake stand with a candle stick and wood plate spray painted (not so good for food) so needed something between the cake and the stand!  Serve with Baileys on the rocks (delish)!

The Verdict:  Overall, I was happy with the finished product.  It certainly wasn't perfect and there is probably a lot I would change.  For starters, I may invest in some actual mini-cake pans.  While my cookie-cutter creation of mini-cakes was very economical, it caused them to break slightly and they were not easy to ice with the buttercream AT ALL.  It probably would have been easier had I frozen the layers for about 15 minutes first before cutting, or frozen the mini layers for at least 30 minutes before attempting to ice them.  My bad.  That's why they came out all wonky shaped and not perfectly round cakes like I had imagined in my head. 

Exhibit A: wonky

Another thing I would change, is that I would probably have tried a different gold paint and gold disco dust.  The gold paint turned out to be alright but it had a wee bit of a greenish tint that I didn't love and the disco dust had more of a brassy/reddish tint that I loved even less.  But I bought them from Amazon and there isn't really much you can do about that.  

Exhibit B:  kinda greenish

Exhibit C:  reddish/brassy disco dust

Also, I would have liked to not have waited until after work to take pictures because the lighting is not great and because I was racing the sunset, I didn't have time to let my cake sit out.  I would have liked to let the cake sit out for about 10 minutes to let the buttercream and royal icing warm up closer to room temperature.  Because I didn't wait on the royal icing, it cracked when I cut it (not a lot, see below) but once it was out for about 10 minutes, I was able to slice through it a bit easier.

Exhibit D:  Cracked out

And now I'm going to go force-feed a Guinness to Matt because I paid $3 for it to be a food prop, and I'm unemployed...not good home economics.  I'll drink the Bailey's myself ;)  

P.S. if you are a lawyer (or a dork), you may know that you cannot enter in exhibits during the Verdict... they can only be presented during your case in chief, but whatever, not in blog world :-P  Okay...now it's really time to have that Bailey's  (P.P.S I'm writing this at night and posting it tomorrow morning so, no, I'm not drinking at 9am)

1. YOU!  I've loved getting to know so many wonderful people in the blogging/twitter/instagram community and this has really made my leap year.  I've enjoyed so much getting to know all of you and appreciate you!  If you want to know more about me, head on over to the About Me section or check out my recent interview with Kimm from Sweetness Catering.  Hi Kimm!

2. We just got back from an amazing trip to Hawaii.  I'm not really leaping for joy about being back, but I'm certainly grateful I got to go!

3. My precious little Muggsy does NOT have Ringworm.  When we got back from the trip, her little bitty rash on her belly had turned into a huge red ring/rash covering a pretty sizable portion of her belly.  I tweeted to the twitter community hoping for answers and got really panicked it was ringworm.  It turns out that she just had a little infection and that her licking it constantly was making it worse.  I'm proud to report that after 4 days of the cone of shame and her meds, the rash is going away!

4. We're moving.  Thank goodness!  We are moving to a new place in Raleigh and getting out of our old place (which has a slew of problems I won't bore you with).  But what really makes me leap for joy is that this has given me an opportunity to completely re-organize our lives and plan for the move to ensure that our new home is just as we want it.  I made a pinterest board and everything... I told you I was obsessed.  
I bought matching jars for everything in our pantry and am prepared to label them (once the decal paper arrives) as I mentioned in this post.  (The link for the jars brings you to the set of 2 but if you have a World Market near you I'd suggest going to get them because you can buy them individually and then get the quantities of whatever sizes you want and not be limited because of sets).  Also, I bought a mini spice rack to hold things like popcorn, choclates, and oatmeal, and then used a wire basket to hold all of my oils/marinades (I'm pretty sure I got the wire basket at Target but I've had it for ages).

Also, I ordered jars to make a spice set the way I really wanted it.  I should have taken a before picture (because it was a disaster) but I'll post the after instead, so I look incredibly OCD and legit.  I got the idea from Smitten Kitchen, here.  I got the mailing labels and jars on Amazon and went to work. 

Sadly, I didn't realize that one dozen jars wouldn't be enough and had to order a separate order of another dozen (doh!)...so I would highlyyyy recommend counting how many spice jars you will need before placing your order! I also accidentally ordered white mailing labels instead of clear first, and then had to go to Staples to get the right ones.  It's not the end of the world because I can use the white ones for letters but still, kind of a pain...so make sure you order the right ones (I've linked you to the right ones on Amazon but they are available at Staples too and probably Office Max etc.).  
Do as I say, not as I do (clearly...because if you do what I do, you will probably want to stab your eyes out).

The bottom right 6 spices are from Williams-Sonoma and when you buy 6 spices you get the wooden caddy for free!  On the left, the spices are stacked on these little shelf stairs, which you can find on Amazon, here.

I also got those little plastic bins for rice packets and pasta stuff (ignore that there is chicken broth in there for now please hehe)... The bins are from World Market but can't find them online so maybe it was just in my store, but I'm sure other places have similar things.  I got those labels for Pasta and Rice at the House of Smiths Shop.

5.  Totally unrelated... this really just makes me laugh.  Every.single.time.  I can't get enough.  It makes my leap year, and pretty much every day of my life, amazing.  I had to share it in case you hadn't seen it yet.  I found it on pinterest.

Hey y'all!  Back from Hawaii, and had an absolutely fabulous time (I mean did you really have any doubt?)  I posted endless pictures on Instagram, which you can certainly check out, but I'll just post some of the highlights here, including, most importantly for the purposes of this blog, some of the food:

Travel:  This part is pretty boring... we just went from RDU to DFW to LAX to Honolulu.  It was so long and lots of layovers but we made it.  I became pretty delirious after awhile since we had woken up at like 5 to go the airport in the first place.  Fortunately, there was this incredible cut out of Anderson Cooper (swoon) that I placed all over the plane etc. to entertain myself, using the hashtag #ACdoesHawaii.  I was totally prepared to take Anderson with us everywhere in Hawaii but then I got overwhelmed with excitement and totally forgot, but here is the Anderson montage (and some pics from the plane):

Arrival:  After about 18-20 hours of travel, we were exhausted and hungry when we arrived in Honolulu.  Actually we were starving.  So starving in fact, that Matt made us jump off the shuttle to go to an IHOP that we saw on the side of the road.  No I am NOT joking.  We had our first meal there, where our waiter, Shane, gave us the scoop that it's really called HaVaii and Vaikiki and that all W's were V's and then he gave us some free pineapple...most winning IHOP experience.Ever.  We then arrived at our hotel which had an OUTDOOR LOBBY.  I die.  It was gorgeous and awesome...

Day 1: we relaxed, woke up to an awesome view super early (because of time change not because we are amazingly productive), went and fed some birds (the Japanese guy below shared his bread with me and showed me how to get the bird to sit on my hand! So nice!), hung out on the beach, went for a long walk, climbed some trees and went to the aquarium!

Day 2:  we went on a submarine tour! it was so flipping fun and we saw a (fake) sunken ship and airplane!  It was very very neat.  Then we went to relax on the beach (again), I mean it IS Hawaii.  Then we went to Roy's where I proceeded to indulge myself in the best meal I've ever had.  Hi Roy!  Thanks for tweeting me back...I'm obsessed with you (mildly I swear, and I know the laws on stalking don't worry).

Day 3:  we went on the LOST tour!  This was pretty much the whole reason that we came.  Matt had planned this tour because we are obsessed with the show and went through all 6 seasons in the summer that we were studying for the bar!  The tour was 5 hours and barrels of fun  (It also included some of Jurassic Park, 50 first dates, Godzilla, et al.).  Unfortunately, afterwards we went to this brewery place that our tour guide had recommended (who was right about everything else) but I got a bacon cheddar burger, which sounded fabulous at the time, but then when we went to go relax at the pool for a bit I started feeling awful and basically felt terrible until the next morning...here's how you know I wasn't feeling well: I didn't eat anything past 4pm... and I LOVE food.  (You can click on any photo to enlarge...I'm just making them small to be less overwhelming)

Day 4:  we rented a Smart Car, who I named MartytheSmarty (I know I'm ridiculously creative right?)  We drove up to the North Shore, which is much more deserted and "local"-esque than Waikiki (which Hawaiians call "Disney Land").  We went to the LOST beach (where the plane crashed, and the other beach where they set up camp...they are right next to each other).  We took a picture with the famous LOST tree and then decided we were starving again.  We drove around the North Shore until we found a Shrimp Truck and I about died because I had been searching for a shrimp truck the whole time we were there.  I was SO excited.  I was even more excited when later that night on the internet in our hotel when we discovered that Macky's shrimp truck was the one from LOST! It was like fate.  I then dragged Matt down the road in the opposite direction of the beach for some shaved ice.  It's Hawaii y'all and I was NOT leaving without getting some shaved ice...particularly in the Li Hing Mui flavor (dried plum) that is so raved about.  Well I finally got it and got 3 flavors: Li Hing Mui, Guava, and Papaya.  It was Totally Worth It.  100%.  (again all the small pictures can be enlarged by clicking them).

P.S. we also saw THIS on the way to the Smart Car Rental Place:

Day 5:  after our last fantastic breakfast at the hotel, it was time to go.  I was so sad :(  Aloha Hawaii... thanks for reading y'all!