homemaking | kimberly ah

Aug 27 2013

I Heart Snack Sets & 1950s Entertaining

Last week while thrifting with my parents, I came across these snack sets. They were only $1 per set, so I bought all four. I justified this purchase (I already have another collection of four smaller snack sets) by noting that the plates on these are almost dinner-sized, so they would be more useful for luncheons and larger servings. The ladies at the thrift store encouraged me to buy all of the snack sets, but I resisted. (It was hard to resist.)

I have an obsession with snack sets. They make me think of well-dressed ladies getting together and playing cards or having a wedding shower, eating tiny sandwiches and homemade Jell-O salads and drinking tea or coffee from the tiny cups. I feel like now, when I get together with my friends, we are wearing yoga pants as we crack open a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers and call it a day. I long for the days of more polished entertaining.

On Sunday night I had some friends over for paper crafting. We ate veggies and homemade dip, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, roasted tomato caprese salad and other tasty treats off of the snack plates. We drank summer red wine out of the tiny cups. (There were frequent refills.)

I’m thinking of hosting a snack set luncheon when I return…maybe as a last hurrah for the summer? I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime…do you get all fancy when you entertain? I can’t be the only one who dreams of fancy parties with homemade salads and tiny glass cups, right?

Tagged adventures, homemaking, parents, shopping, thrifting, vintage

Aug 26 2013

3 Comments

gardening, homemaking, Simple Summer Suppers, summer manifesto

Simple Summer Suppers: Roasted Tomato Caprese

The challenge is on! We need to eat up all of our tomatoes around here before they go bad and before we hop on a plane for Japan. We’ve been giving away tons of red beauties, but still have so many to use! Last weekend, we had a mini-garden fest with our friend, Karen. We dined on our favorite panzanella, lightly grilled zucchini, Karen’s citrus rice salad and this delicious roasted tomato caprese salad. We were so lucky that the weather was perfect for dining outside on the balcony.

Honestly, it seems like a shame to roast perfectly delicious, garden-grown tomatoes…but it’s more of a shame to let them go to waste. I really think this salad will be a good one to try this winter with sad, peaked grocery store tomatoes. I’ll let you know. But for garden tomatoes…holy cow, the salad is crazy-good!Ina Garten’s Roasted Caprese Salad

12 plum tomatoes (or the equivalent in lovely tomato varieties from your garden), halved with seeds removed

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

16 oz fresh mozzarella

handful of fresh basil, julienned

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees while you prep the tomatoes.Place your tomatoes on a sheet pan (I covered mine with parchment paper to reduce sticky messes.) cut side up and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.

Roast for two hours.

Cool tomatoes to room temperature and dump contents of pan (tomatoes and liquid) into serving bowl. Add fresh mozzarella (sliced) and basil. Mix and serve.Ina recommends arranging everything beautifully and adding a bit of extra olive oil, salt and pepper. But we found that the dish is fine without the extra oil. And while it’s lovely to serve alternating slices of tomato and mozzarella, serving it in a bowl is easy and rustic (and in no way lazy at all).

Tagged food, garden, gardening, homemaking, summer

Aug 12 2013

6 Comments

adventures, crafty adventures, homemaking

Shark Week Cake…& Party

As I mentioned Saturday, we went to a Shark Week Party this weekend. So much fun! Shark-fan Stacy decked out the apartment with hundreds of paper fish, shark decorations, shark-themed food and drinks, Sharknado! on the ceiling (if you haven’t watched it…you should!) and a shark-themed Brett, who sported these fabulous shark footie pajamas. Pictured above is a blurry Naoto at the Bloody Mary bar…he was studying the shark poster for the quiz later that evening.

Ever since the Shark Week party of 2011, I’ve been filling up a Pinterest board of all my favorite Shark Week ideas in preparation for another party. I fell in love with the idea of this cake*. So I spent Saturday baking a cake and making frosting. I never bake, so it always makes me nervous that the cake won’t rise or it will taste terrible…and cakes are especially stressful because you don’t really know how bad or how good things are until you cut it open at the party…

Thankfully everything worked out and the cake was quite tasty. I made this cake. I’ve made the cake a few times (but never the Cloudburst Frosting). I always use Hershey’s Extra Dark Cocoa Powder. It makes a nice, deep, dark chocolate cake that works well with all sorts of frostings. I decided to be daring and try to make the Cloudburst Frosting for the first time. It was surprisingly easy, though it did take all day because of waiting for the milk/flour mixture to cool down. But most of that time was waiting, not hands-on. The frosting was good–not too sweet or too buttery–like a slightly elevated buttercream. And it really was easy enough to become my new go-to recipe. (You know, for when I bake again next year…)For the toppings, I used Teddy Grahams, gummy sharks, vanilla wafer cookies, peach gummy rings, cocktail umbrellas and a toothpick with a typed BEWARE OF SHARKS sign. I giggled the whole time I was creating the little shark scene…Sigh…every week really should be Shark Week…

*Sadly, I cannot find the source for the original cake…both inspiration pins (here and here) only go to a picture. If you know the source, please contact me and I will include it!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, diy, food, homemaking, Shark Week

Aug 02 2013

3 Comments

gardening, home is a 1970s apartment, homemaking, summer manifesto

The Summer Balcony

The balcony is in full summer mode right now. Everything is blooming like crazy, even my old geraniums! (They started blooming in mid-June and have been going strong ever since!) And, I’m happy to report that it’s August 2nd and ALL of my plants are not just alive, they are thriving! I think this is only partly due to the fact that I’ve been diligent about watering, but mostly due to the mild weather and the fact that I picked pretty easy going plants this year.

In the spring, Naoto and I relocated the bird feeder to the north end of the balcony. We also decided to stop filling it during the summer. The birds can find plenty of food in nature right now, and the birdseed makes such a mess on the balcony and blows into my flower pots, starting weeds in my flowers. We’re happy to fill it up again in the winter to feed the birds when they need it most and (more importantly) to give Presley back her birdwatching pastime. Once we created more room, I made a little conversation area on the south end of the balcony. It’s hard to work with the space, since it’s only five feet wide. There’s not much room for walking (as you can tell by the fact that the chairs are soooo close together!) It’s not perfect, but it’s fine for small gatherings. We’ve had our neighbor friends over quite often lately and it’s been wonderful to take advantage of the mild summer nights out there. On the north side, we have our little bistro table and the “potting area” (the pile of pots in the corner). In the morning, this area is nicely shaded for early morning letter writing, reading and crafting. (You know…the things I should be doing instead of watching the TODAY show!)

I’m a little nervous that August is going to be sweltering since we’ve had such a perfectly mild summer so far, but for now, I’m just going to try to soak up as many hours as I can outside.

Tagged decorating, garden, gardening, home, home improvement, homemaking, summer

Aug 01 2013

4 Comments

gardening, homemaking, Simple Summer Suppers, summer manifesto

Simple Summer Suppers: Homegrown Panzanella

Tuesday I was watching the TODAY Show (Don’t judge…it’s a sickness, I know.) and Giada was whipping up a dish with bread and tomatoes and artichokes and vinegar and basil–panzanella! I could not stop thinking about it. So I decided, eying the fresh harvest of tomatoes and basil sitting on the counter, that we would have to have panzanella for dinner.

Panzanella is the perfect summer meal. It’s the ideal recipe for fresh garden (or farmers market) tomatoes. I can’t imagine this dish could ever be enjoyed in the winter with the mealy, barely pink, imported grocery store tomatoes. Nope…better enjoy it now while we are harvesting the rich red tomatoes of summer.

Homegrown Panzanella
(slightly adapted from Giada’s Artichoke & Tomato Panzanella)

3 cups bread, cubed into 1-2 inch pieces (I used ciabatta)

3 large tomatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces, or sliced (I used a mix of tiny Juliets and two big Brandywines, all freshly picked from our garden!)

1 can artichoke hearts, sliced in half

handful of chopped basil

2/3 cup good olive oil (For salads, we love Trader Joe’s California Estate Olive Oil.)

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

drizzle of olive oil for cooking

salt & pepper

Preheat a grill pan on medium heat. Toss your bread and artichokes with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and add the bread and the artichokes to the preheated grill. Turn every couple of minutes until each side is golden brown. Remove from the grill and add to a serving bowl with your tomatoes and basil. Toss to combine.

Whisk the good olive oil and vinegar together and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

You could add olives, red onion or parmesan cheese.

As it was, the panzanella was amazing. We ate it as our main course, with a side of fresh green beans from the farmers market and a couple of glasses of red wine. We took advantage of another mild summer night and ate outside…it just might have been the perfect summer meal.

Tagged food, forest park, garden, gardening, homemaking, summer

Jun 24 2013

1 Comment

homemaking, Jell-O, Those Were the Days, what's for dinner

Knox On-Camera Recipes

Knowing my love for all things vintage & gelatin, my friend Karen snagged this book from her grandmother’s collection (don’t worry–we gave it back!) It is the Knox On-Camera Recipes Gel-Cookery Guide. Printed in 1960, the guide is a print-version of TV demonstrations and (according to the introduction) “gives you a new look at the many rewarding uses of Unflavored Gelatin(e).”

Basically, the recipe book takes delicious dishes–like gazpacho, spinach salad, Waldorf salad, deviled eggs…and gelatin-izes them…which creates beautiful and yes, slightly weird, molded presentations (as seen below).

While I am super-interested in trying to make a savory gelatin dish just for the nostalgia of it all, the thought of molded avocado and tuna kind of makes my stomach turn. Part of me thinks that there’s a reason Jello survived in its sweet form…and maybe we should just leave savory gelatin in the past.

How about you? Have you ever had a savory gelatin dish? Would you ever try one?

Tagged food, homemaking, memories, vintage

Jun 18 2013

4 Comments

homemaking, Simple Summer Suppers, what's for dinner

Simple Summer Suppers: Lemon Chicken Pasta

It’s hard to pick a favorite summer supper…but this one might be it. Naoto and I have been making this for years and it’s become our go-to recipe for guests because it’s no stress and it’s always a crowd pleaser.

Just like the Greek Orzo Salad, Lemon Chicken Pasta is a Giada de Laurentis recipe that we modified and made better (well, better for us, anyway.)

Lemon Chicken Pasta

1 pound angel hair pasta

2-3 chicken breasts (roasted)

2/3 cup olive oil

2/3 cup grated parmesan

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

extra parmesan for serving

Roast your chicken breasts. (As I said here, the only no-fail way I know how to cook chicken breasts is to season them with salt and pepper, fold them up in little foil pouches and pop them in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until my meat thermometer says 165 degrees.)

Boil a pot of water for the pasta.

While the chicken is roasting and the water is coming to a boil, make the sauce: whisk the olive oil, lemon juice and grated parmesan in a large serving bowl. Set aside.

When the chicken is done, slice it into bite sized pieces and add it to the serving bowl.

Boil the angel hair until it’s al dente. Drain the pasta, but reserve a cup of the pasta water for later (just in case).

Toss the pasta and the chicken in the lemon sauce. If the mixture seems dry, add a little bit of the cooking liquid to loosen things up. Once everything is mixed in well, add the chopped parsley and lemon zest for garnish.

Serve with extra parmesan.

If you don’t want to turn the oven on during the hot summer, you can pick up a whole roasted chicken from the deli section of the grocery store and use that instead of the chicken breasts. And, of course, you could leave out the chicken and just make the lemon pasta (as Giada originally intended in her recipe.)

Tagged food, homemaking, summer

Jun 10 2013

2 Comments

homemaking, Loving Day, Simple Summer Suppers, what's for dinner

Simple Summer Suppers | Somen

During the summer, Naoto & I like to eat simple cold dishes that we can enjoy on the balcony. Last summer I shared two dishes, but hopefully this summer, I will be able to share more. We are looking forward to eating our own community garden grown vegetables.

This somen dish is an old favorite. I had it for the first time at Naoto’s host parents’ home in Hawaii. Auntie Judy, Naoto’s host mom, made it for lunch and I found it so refreshing and tasty. There are many variations of somen dishes, but this one is probably a slightly Americanized Hawaiian version of the Japanese dish. Oh, and I shared this recipe back in 2011 on my old blog, so Mom, it might look familiar.

Simple Summer Somen

For the broth:

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup mirin

2 teaspoons sesame oil

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then allow to cool completely.

For the noodles:

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and drop in one bunch of somen noodles per person. (Somen typically comes in little paper-bundled bunches.) Boil for 2-3 minutes, or until noodles are soft. They cook very quickly! Drain, and rinse with cold water.

For the toppings:

Slice any or all of the following into thin strips, or “matchsticks”:

turkey (or ham) lunch meat

cucumber

cabbage

carrots

naruto (fishcake)

thinly sliced scallions

wasabi (I like the wasabi that comes in a tube.)

To assemble:

Place a serving of noodles in a bowl. Add some broth (not too much, this isn’t a soup!) and the toppings of your choice. Squeeze on some wasabi and mix well. (Mix well enough that you don’t get accidentally eat a hunk of wasabi…although I kind of like the suspense of knowing my sinuses might be cleared out at least once in a bowl of somen!)

We almost always just use turkey, cucumber, scallions and wasabi because those things are always on hand and readily available for somen cravings. I like mine with extra wasabi and I always eat mine out of my Hello Kitty bowl with Cinamaroll chopsticks…because it’s tradition.

This week, I will be sharing some little aspects of our multi-cultural marriage in celebration of Loving Day on Wednesday. Somen is one of the first Japanese dishes that made it into our regular dinner routine back when we were dating.

Tagged food, homemaking, Loving Day, memories, summer

Jun 07 2013

3 Comments

crafty adventures, gardening, homemaking

Plant Markers for the Balcony

We still have a few herbs growing on the balcony this year. It’s easier to use the herbs in our “daily” cooking when we can just pop outside to harvest them, plus we wanted to save all of our space in the garden plot for vegetables.

I wanted to make some plant markers for the herbs, similar to those I made for the garden. For the balcony herb makers, I gave the craft sticks a simple watercolor wash (using my cheap set of watercolors from Michaels), let them dry, and then stamped them with my letter stamps in StazOn ink. I love how they look so “official” poking out in the pots!

Tagged crafts, decorating, diy, garden, gardening, homemaking

May 29 2013

11 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, homemaking, summer manifesto

SUMMER MANIFESTO 2013

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer.

Last year, I created a summer manifesto–a list of activities, projects to accomplish and things to learn during the summer months. I was really happy with my progress! While I didn’t accomplish everything on the list, it was still fun to keep the manifesto in mind as I made summer plans. It made me prioritize the important things of summer, like sitting outside and eating fresh fruits and cool popsicles. I had a great time documenting everything in a little photo book (which I completed but never shared the final product here…would it be weird to share it a year later?) I plan to do the same thing this year. I’ve already purchased this book in neon pink so I’m ready to get started!

This summer I will:

* embrace the mornings (as in, get up and get something done before noon!)

* tend to the gardens (balcony & community garden plot)

* take advantage of our Farmers Market in Forest Park (It’s in an inconvenient location & happens on Friday nights, but I want to support it so it sticks around!)

* travel to Boston

* take my camera out more often and practice

* make an anniversary gift (due on Sunday!!)

* master three more cocktails (Summer-y ones with in-season ingredients would be awesome!)

* host a Hawaii-themed party (We thought we were all partied out, but by mid-summer we’ll be itching for something new to plan!)

* paint the bedroom (It’s the last big, nagging thing on my home improvement list!)

* create three pieces of art for our home (I have ideas…it’s the execution I’m lacking…)

* participate fully in 30 Days of Creativity (I love a good month-long challenge.)

* start working on my zine idea (I’ve had the idea floating around for two years now…it’s time to get started. I have no dreams of selling it, I just want to create it.)

And three more from last year…

* find the ice cream truck

* wear sunscreen & sun hats

* document summer & finish my summer minibook

Of course, Naoto will be along for the ride, and a real participant in some of the things like traveling to Boston, tending the garden, chasing the ice cream man, drinking the cocktails and painting the bedroom (ahem…)

I can’t wait to get started!

How about you? Any summer have-tos on your list?

Tagged adventures, crafts, summer