Pink Peppers » Aileen

Beautiful Gifts

Aileen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:25:25 +0000

I can't imagine how long it would take me to embroider this by hand!

Jas is a far better person than me. As Christmas approaches he is genuinely more excited to give gifts than to receive, something I thought didn’t happen in nature. I, on the other hand, have learned to eke some joy out of shopping for others but if I’m really being honest I have to admit that I want to do the opening, not watch others. I got to do my fair share of opening this year and got some great gifts! My sister-in-law sent me the most amazing embroidered pillow (she did the design and embroidery herself!) and I took these photos with my amazing new camera that Jas got for me (thanks to Meghan for the crash course in photography!)

So how about you, any especially special Christmas gifts this year?

Granola

Aileen — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:17:49 +0000

As promised here is the recipe for the granola for Valiant. I wish I could take credit for this but I can’t – and I can’t even take credit for discovering it. My mother-in-law made it for me a while ago and it changed my life forever. If you, like me, shy away from dates (the fruit, that is – who would avoid the other kind?!) then I implore you to resist ‘forgetting’ to put them in. They really make it special and it doesn’t end up too sappy sweet at all.

P.S. the apples are completely unrelated – I just liked the punch of color. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the granola because it is very elusive and disappears too quickly to get a good photo.

Granola – adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe

2 cups old fashioned oats

3/4 cup whole almonds, halved

1/2 cup sweetened (I used unsweetened) flaked coconut

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 stick salted butter (I use coconut oil and it is very tasty that way)

2 Tbsp honey

1/2 cup pitted, chopped dates (packed and can use up to 1 cup depending on taste)

I throw in an assortment of dried fruit/nuts depending on what I have around the house or what strikes my fance.

Heat the oven to 300.

Mix the first 9 ingredients together (feel free to be generous with the spices). Melt the butter or coconut oil with the honey in a saucepan over low heat (I am the queen of shortcuts and use the microwave instead). Pour over granola mixture and mix well. Spread mixture on a baking sheet and bake 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Add dates while it is still warm and mix to separate the clumps. Continue to bake until golden brown, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes – be careful not to over toast the granola!

Enjoy with yogurt, milk, or by itself while standing in the kitchen in your slippers late at night while your husband is sleeping (my personal favorite).

Eight Mile

Aileen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:14:25 +0000

Jason't hair doesn't really look like this. I swear. I may have been the one to give him the haircut.

I was chomping at the bit this weekend to get out into the mountains since it is getting close to snow season and traversing the trails without snowshoes will soon be impossible. Sunday was clear and cold and a perfect hiking day. It turned from fall to winter as we crept up the 3.5 mile trail until we reached the iced-over lake where we spent some time sliding rocks out as far as we could across the ice until we had enough on to break through. I think we are both teenage boys at heart.

Summer Bounty

Aileen — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:00:21 +0000

Like with your children you are probably not supposed to have a favorite vegetable in your garden but I do - beets

This spring, with the help of my mother-in-law we planted a garden. It was in her yard (my ‘yard’ is a hard dirt patch with brown and yellow grass) and we narrowed down my list of about 20 vegetables I wanted down to an attainable eight: tomatoes, beets, carrots, beans, peppers, butternut squash, zucchini and cucumbers. There was a lot of waiting involved and now the rush has begun – everything ready at once!

A friend has a very prolific apricot tree in his backyard and lets us pick for free!

Granny

Aileen — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:00:23 +0000

This is an ode to my granny, who, despite the sound of her title (which, should be noted, she chose) was a real lover of the finer things of life and passed on some class to her granddaughters. She taught me a lot about those things, even as her life became increasingly eclectic she still insisted that the fork and knife (silver, of course) be placed just so for dinner and the napkin folded properly. The glass over the knife, blade facing in. All this fuss but it was not a big deal that her fat Great Dane sat on the loaf of focaccia bread that was sitting on the side table awaiting dinner.

Her food tastes were exotic too, especially considering being raised through the depression and being a mother and wife in the canned food age of the 60s and 70s. There was no ‘kids menu’ at granny’s house – if anyone was eating Coquille Saint Jacques, Jerusalem root or a fine steak then everybody was. This was so good for me, learning to eat and eventually appreciate foods I had never seen before. One food that has especially remained a treat and love of mine is the humble, awkward-looking artichoke. Simply steamed and pulled apart at dinner to be dipped in little wells of melted garlic butter, this is one of my comfort foods and one that was always especially dear to her as well.

Let Them Eat Cake

Aileen — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:03:23 +0000

There are some things in life that are scientifically proven to be impossible to resist. According to a recent study I did the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is one of them, especially in the case of this magnificent cake. If you have not read or made anything from the Smitten Kitchen blog then you had better hustle over there (but not yet, first finish this) because the pictures alone will have you drooling on your keyboard.

This here is the chocolate peanut butter cake in all its glory. I really don’t approve of the name because it should be something much more fitting like ‘cake of magnificence’ or ‘cake to end your desire for all other cake’ but I guess that’s just me. My only modification was making it taller because I love tall things (I almost didn’t date Jas because I thought he was only just my height and I would have to stop wearing my pumps) using three 6-inch square pans.

If you have a birthday, anniversary, bar mitzvah, house warming, block party, baby shower or really any excuse at all to make this cake you should. You won’t regret it.

Ok, now you can go check out Smitten Kitchen.

At LONG Last!

Aileen — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:11:26 +0000

I promised pictures of our renovated (ok, that is kind of an overstatement – really we just repainted and cleaned, but it’s amazing the difference that can make!) apartment. We had to force ourselves to stop making changes so as to avoid this mistake…

My style right now is sort of forced eclectic – I am living with a mishmash of furniture and decor collected over the last couple years of moving around – but I don’t mind for now because pretty much all my things have some sort of story! Someday I will grow up, own a real house and have Meghan, Caitlin and Erin decorate it for me.

I like that the kitchen is so close and open to the dining/living room - in our last place you were totally secluded if you were in the kitchen - bad for entertaining!

My kitchen is in a constant state of messy - but the productive kind of messy that I am actually just fine with. Jason claims that the window from the front door to the kitchen is so that the woman never has to leave the kitchen even when guests arrive... he is such a charmer.

I love built-in cabinets!

The fireplace is functional - that is a plus except that that means there is a permanent black smut all over the brick. Ah well, once again that is productive messy I guess.

The bathroom is definitely a lot better but does anyone have good tips for removing rust stains? They are definitely not going to leave their home in the sink without a fight.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Aileen — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:35:01 +0000

Spring is in the air (here at least, sorry Caitlin…) and I am busily working on plans for a little garden. The operative word here is little because this is my first experience gardening and, although there is a list about 3 feet long of everything I want to grow I managed to pare it down to just a few essentials: herbs, peppers and tomatoes.

And kale.

And I will probably pick up a couple more things because I won’t be able to resist.

It’s hard when they put those beautiful, glossy pictures of baskets overflowing with produce on the front of the little seed packages. It makes you forget that you have to start this thing from seed, pot it, water it, weed, love it (ok maybe not the love part, but I do) before you will actually reap the benefits of this little seed packet.

I bought my seeds from this great little seed and feed store downtown in Wenatchee (for you Wenatchee people it’s the one with the giant horse on the roof). I will admit that the only reason I chose that particular place was that they advertised baby bunnies, chicks and ducklings for sale (who can resist that?!). So after gazing at baby animals for a while I turned to my real task and realized that this was an accidentally great choice of place because the owner was a hardcore gardener and a fount of wisdom.

I cut up an old yogurt container lid to make labels

Sweet chocolate peppers, chives, cilantro, basil and Italian parsley - a pretty good start!

A covered disposable casserole dish is my makeshift greenhouse

You want to continue to plant seeds throughout the spring and summer so that you always have a fresh plant - especially with the herbs - because they will go to seed and just get old and tough eventually

New Apartment!

Aileen — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:36:34 +0000

In an effort to slim down our flabby budget Jason and I recently moved to a cheaper apartment. It’s an old triplex complete with hardwood floors, a fireplace and tall ceilings but it was in desperate need of some TLC. When our wonderful landlord offered to pay us for our labor as well as the supplies we signed the lease as fast as we could, bought a large box of latex gloves and got to work. Here is just a sampling of the before pictures, more soon as we transform our new little home!

Old bathrooms are always scary and this one definitely needed scrubbing, patching up and a lot of paint - as well as a new TP holder, if you'll notice it is hovering a mere couple inches off the ground...

From what I could tell the last few tenants deep fried EVERYTHING because there was about 1/2" of grease on all kitchen surfaces. Do notice the cute retro wallpaper on the one wall - we kept that!

We have cowboys roaming the perimeter of our living room - definitely going!

Makeup Remake

Aileen — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:20:24 +0000

Jas and I recently took a trip over to Seattle for a special dinner at McCormick and Schmicks with some old co-workers of mine. I was enjoying the fact that we had outsmarted the others because we had parked in the free parking instead of paying for the parking closer to the restaurant. Paying for parking is just for people who are followers instead of inventive thinkers. Needless to say I was pretty humbled when we came out to find our passenger side window smashed and the ipod missing, along with my… makeup bag. Yes, the thieves had left the new kindle (cleverly disguised in an 80s kid’s Bible cover) and taken all my makeup, maybe just as recompense for them going to the effort of breaking the window to find nothing more than a measly ipod. If that was their intent then they were brilliant because I stood there blubbering like a baby over the loss of my makeup collection, something I had accrued over a long time and recently perfected when I got all the makeup for my wedding. So Nigel our Subaru and I suffered the same difficulties in the looks department for a while, he with a network of plastic trash bag and duct tape covering his window and me gallivanting around all-natural, makeup-free…

The upside was that I got to start over fresh with my makeup collection, thanks to a generous gift card from my mother-in-law and aunt to my favorite of all time makeup stores, Sephora. It really is the perfect blend of quality products and reasonable prices. The basics that I think every woman should have in her makeup bag are: a good foundation (even if you don’t use it every day there are definitely those days when ya just need it!); a matte, oil-blasting powder; eye primer (really, it’s an essential, I promise) and of course a good eye palette. Throw in a good lip stain and you’ll be ready for anything! I confess I always just go to Wal-mart for Maybelline mascara, I have tried a lot of them in my day and nothing can beat it!

So I started hunting and comparing price, quality and reviews and here’s what I came up with:

I am having amazing results using the Sephora brand moisturizing foundation (at an unbeatable price!) , especially used with a nice base of Make Up For Ever’s microperfecting primer in – don’t freak out – GREEN. It does wonders because the green color totally neutralizes any red in your complexion, which is a life saver for rosy faced girls like me!

My old standby Lorac illuminating powder always provided the perfect glow without looking shiny, but I have been wanting to try a more matte finish powder so I purchased this one, which provides the perfect natural un-shiny look (bonus: no searching for the right color because it’s colorless!).

This eye palette provides you with all the right shades for a daytime or evening smoky eye look, all in one pretty little package, and, paired with this eye primer by Urban Decay, it will last all day and look just as good as it did in the morning (serious, not a single crease)!