It Ain't Too Hard for Me to Jam

Now I realize that when a new year starts you're supposed to flip the switch from indulge to cleanse, but I've been a little reluctant to let go of the month o' carbs. I figured there must be a way to ease off the good stuff without total deprivation.

Enter the Jam Dot.



Part cookie, part health-food, I find it to be the deliciously perfect compromise! You can even make them with whole wheat or spelt flour and cut back on the sugar for an added health boost.


images via souvlaki for the soul

Or throw a chocolate chip or two in the center because good chocolate makes everything better (and did you hear, it's a health food too)! I'll let you know how my version turns out.

Happy eating in 2011!

JAM DROPS RECIPE by Souvlaki for the Soul
125g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
200g self-raising flour
115g (1/3 cup) strawberry or raspberry jam


Pre heat your oven to 180 deg C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until very light and creamy.

Proceed to sift the flour into the creamed butter mixture and fold everything together until you have a soft but useable dough. If you find it’s sticky add some flour a little at a time until you reach the correct consistency.


Using floured hands shape a teaspoonful of dough into a ball and place on a baking tray a few cms apart. Using your floured index finger pierce the center of each ball to make a well. Spoon half a teaspoon of jam into each biscuit.

Bake in the oven for 15 mins or until the jam drops are nice and golden (shouldn’t be more than 15 mins).


Serve with milk, tea, coffee or eggnog.

How Do You Hibernate {stephmodo}

Well, today it is officially back to reality and I am completely in denial. Luckily, on this first Tasty Tuesday of 2011, I have a few taste treats to share with you.

First off, below you will find the darling and talented of Stephanie of stepmodo's mouth watering answer to the question How Do You Hibernate?

And then, if you're still hungry for more, you can head over to the Rue Blog, where I feel incredibly privileged to join the dazzling group making up the Rue blogging team. You can check out my debut post here!

Finally, if you haven't entered our Happy New Year giveaway, there's still time (but the clock is ticking!).


How Do You Hibernate? {stephmodo}

Right now hibernating sounds like a lot of fun...and with the holiday season now behind us, I'll be participating more actively in this alluring activity :)

I think most people like to curl up to a great book and I admit, I love that too. Or a great magazine...like the latest Donna Hay or Sunset. However, I find that I'm more prone to baking and cooking when it's cold, windy and gray outside. Making great food and yummy treats puts a smile on everyone's face, despite the gloomy weather, and this encourages me to put forth the effort and stay active in the kitchen. Below is a recipe for one of my winter favorites - Cranberry Orange Bread.





all images by stephanie

I also enjoy decorating and finishing up home projects during the winter.



The dismal weather presents an excellent opportunity to stay inside and analyze what you love surrounding yourself with. I'm a proponent of surrounding yourself with pieces you love, while considering budgetary limitations. Cozying up to Craigslist on a winter day is my idea of a good time too :) You can check out a recent tour of our home here.

Stephmodo's Cranberry Orange Bread
makes 1 large loaf or 4 mini-loaves

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon good salt
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (about 3 oranges)
zest of 3 large oranges (about 1 Tablespoon, packed)
1 egg
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1/3 cup chopped walnuts


Preheat oven to 350°. Sift all dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until the mixtures resembles coarse meal. Over a plate or parchment paper, zest the oranges using a microplane zester. Set aside. Cut the oranges in half and juice. In another small bowl, combine the fresh orange juice, zest, and egg with a whisk. Add the orange juice mixture to the dry ingredients all at once. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chopped cranberries and nuts. Spoon the mixture into one greased loaf pan or into four greased mini-loaf pans. If you make one large loaf, cook the bread for 1 hour. If you are making the mini-loaves, set your timer to about 30 minutes (you’ll want to start watching it at 25 minutes as ovens are all different). Once out of the oven, cook the loaf pans on a wire rack for ten minutes. When the bread is slightly cooled you can tap the loaf/loaves out of the pans carefully and place them on the wire rack for additional cooling. Enjoy!

A huge thank you to Stephanie for joining the How Do You Hibernate series! My stomach is now growling.

Ok, maybe getting back on this horse isn't so bad :)

Cheers luvies!
*Mrs. E

Tasty Tuesdays {The Best of 2010}

Since launching Tasty Tuesdays last summer, I've been thrilled by the response from fellow foodies and I've so enjoyed sharing recipes, gorgeous food photos and the random taste treats I find with you.

Good food plays such a significant role in my daily life and I hoped that talking about food on Apartment 34 might inspire others as well.

So when I looked back to pick my favorite tasty post for 2010, I just had to go to where the inspiration all began ~ the experience of eating decadently through our entire European honeymoon. There are so many meals that I still remember vividly - food memories that I hope will last a lifetime.

I hope you've found some good recipes, kitchen ideas and maybe even a bit of style inspiration from this series. I plan to find and share even more deliciousness in 2011!

Best of Tasty Tuesday 2010

I talk about a lot of different things I love here - fashion, style, design, decor, travel...but one passion I've yet to delve into is...food! I am an out and proud foodie and take this love very very seriously.

It's gotten to the point where I just had to share some of my favorite eats with you. So I give you a new Apartment 34 feature ~ Tasty Tuesdays! Since talking about food could easily overtake everything here, I knew I had to limit it to just one day a week (at least to start!). 

To kick it all off, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite honeymoon meals.

I judge most things by the number of good meals I had, so I made a point to make sure we ate very well throughout our honeymoon travels. Whether it was old Amsterdam cheese, apfelkuchen and beers by the city's canals, or lovely lunches of polenta with squid ink sauce paired with an excellent Valpolicella in Venice we made sure to savor each and every morsel.

1) tortellini in Borghetto 2) traditional Dutch seafood in a modern way at Spelt 3) Venetian cicheri 4) beet risotto at Spelt 5) polenta with black ink sauce 6) Dutch breakfast  at Gartine 7) dessert on the Amsterdam canal 8) black ink spaghetti 9) pumpkin tortellini with amaretti

We tried to sample the local speciality of each city we visited. It ranged from fantastic handmade tortellini outside of Verona, to a beautiful beet risotto (in Amsterdam no less and it was divine!). Feel lucky I didn't take pictures of every gelateria we sampled because those posts would dominate Tasty Tuesdays for weeks.

Now back at home, I'm still hankering for those amazing dinners. I highly recommend my italian speaking readers check out La Cucina, a stunning italian cooking magazine. Every recipe makes me drool all over my keyboard.

Sunday-Supers, the Brooklyn-based cooking school on which I have the biggest foodie crush, also recently held an all italian dinner with delicious recipes. You can check it out here.

Bon appetito luvies!

*Mrs. E 

New Series: How Do You Hibernate?

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but we've hit that very tough time of year in Seattle when the days become very short (and generally grey, rainy and chilly) and the nights become veeeerrrrry long. It's the time of year where bed becomes pretty much my favorite spot in the world and my mind swirls around little else than soup, hot chocolate and cozying up with the hubby.

Spending all that extra time huddled under the covers also got me wondering, how might some of my friends in blog-land hunker down for the long winter? And then I thought, why not ask them!

So I present to you a new Apartment 34 series: How Do You Hibernate?. Darling Kate, the brilliant mind behind the must-read {wit + delight} kindly obliged to answer this burning question to kick the series off. And her response is just pitch perfect for Tasty Tuesday's month o'carbs. Ahhh, a girl after my own hungry heart.

With that, I give you Kate!

How Do You Hibernate: {wit + delight}

I truly believe that nothing warms the soul like a hearty meal with great friends. So naturally, spending time in the kitchen is my favorite way to pass the winter months. I indulge a little more; lattes over an americano, savory dishes over crisp salads, and my sweet tooth kicks in just in time to hijack my new years resolutions.


images via 1, 2, 3, 4

A few of my favorite winter recipes:

~ bacon wrapped figs
~ martha's mac n' cheese
~ apple, goat cheese, and honey tartlettes

Mmmmm, I'm drooling already! A huge thank you to Kate for getting things off to a delicious start. As we slog through the winter, be sure to check back. Many friends will be stopping by with their hibernation tips all the way till spring!

Tasty Tuesday {Carb Edition #2}

Luvies, I'll admit, I had entirely different Tasty Tuesday in the works for you today, and while I'm totally commited to my month o' carbs, I stumbled what I think is my absolute dream dessert and now I don't think I can do anything else for the rest of the season!

I give you the ultimate holiday crumble, courtsey of La Tartine Gourmonde! And p.s. (it's gluten free and healthy!!!)



La Tartine Gourmonde pear, apple and chocolate crumble with pecans and pistachios

(For 6 people, served in individual one-cup bowls)

You need:

For the crumble:
•3/4 cup quinoa flour (or millet flour)*
•1/4 cup teff flour*
•1/4 cup quick cooking oats
•3 oz (85 g) dark chocolate. 70 % cocoa (I used Valrhona)
•1/4 cup (40 g) pecans, chopped coarsely
•1/4 cup (40 g) unsalted shelled green pistachios
•Pinch of coarse sea salt
•1/4 cup (50 g) blond cane sugar
•1/4 cup (50 g) light Muscovado sugar
•7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and diced
*Alternatively, use all-purpose flour

For the fruit:
•4 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and sliced finely (choose ripe)
•3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced finely (I used Honeycrisp)
•2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
•2 tablespoons blond cane sugar

Steps:
•Butter the bowls and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
•In a large bowl, toss the fruit with the sugar and vanilla. Divide between the bowls; set aside.
•In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours, oats, sugar, chocolate, salt and nuts). Add the butter and work until crumbles form.
•Arrange the crumble topping on top of the fruit and bake the crumbles for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbling. Eat lukewarm (with cream or yogurt on the side. Or even vanilla ice cream, if you like that combination).

Tasty Tuesday {Carb-On-It!}

So, with the holidays officially upon us, I'm declaring the whole month of December carbohydrate month. Carbs will be the official food group and for this month and this month only they magically will have no calories nor adverse affects on your health nor the fit of your favorite dress {I can't really control that second declaration, but hey, it's cold out so a little extra padding can't be that  bad!}

While I consider myself a reasonably-abled baker who can turn out a pretty cookie or two, I've yet to try my hand at homemade bread. This year, that's all gonna change.




bread images by john blais,, kitchen via french by design

Last year, the husband thoughtfully gifted me (a signed!) copy of Leslie Mackie's Macrina Bakery Cafe Cookbook - the amazing printed sneak-peak into the inner sanctum of my absolute favorite bakery in Seattle.

This year I'm going to step up to the plate and try to produce their classic, and my favorite, bread. Feel free to join me - or simply wish me luck! I'll be sure to share the results, as long as they're not embarrassingly terrible!

Tasty Tuesday {Going Locol}

Rather than share pie, stuffing or other Turkey-day recipes this Tasty Tuesday - I wanted to spread the word about a local taste treat and its unquie ask this holiday season.

Dear friends of mine, Kyle, Kristi and their newest addition, Maddy Duce are on the cusp of realizing their dream - opening their very own neighborhood beer and wine pub in Seattle. They plan to call it Locöl.



Everyone has been incredibly excited, asking how they can help this (young!) family-run business get off the ground in these tough times. Well, now there's a way!!

Locol is launching a "Community Puzzle", literally a jigsaw puzzle in which you can purchase a piece. The puzzle will be 3 feet by 4 feet in dimension and will be an image once completed. Each piece purchased will have the name of the person who contributed placed on a plaque next to the puzzle on permanent display.

I think it's the coolest way to truly invest in small business and community!



The pieces start at $25, though you can donate any amount. You can purchase your piece through a PayPal account set up and linked through Locöl's site and Facebook page.

Once the puzzle is complete, the Locöl will  take 10% of that money and give it back to the community.

So this Thanksgiving, if you love good food, great local hangouts and brave people who dare to launch their dreams - go Locöl!