Packin' Heat

Packing up to move to New York required A LOT of downsizing.  My husband was the merciless "editor-in-chief" of all my belongings that I would be taking.  I painstakingly gave away shoes, clothes, furniture, home accessories, books, craft projects, you name it, I purged it.  But there was one thing I was NOT going to purge.  A thing I had to take to comfort and soothe the crafty side of my domestic goddess nature.  And that thing was my glue gun.  I was packin' the heat no matter what!  This was my weapon of creation and I needed it with me.  In no time I was gun slinging glue all over my NYC apartment.  Ok ok ok, I'll stop with the gun references.

  

The plain white valance I had made while in LA was screaming, "Decorate me!"  So I did with a lovely black braided cord.  You can't see the pattern of the braid but it adds a really nice detail to my black and white kitchen.  (I desperately need to find my camera that has been misplaced in our move!) My Libra-ness likes the matchy-ness.

Once the valance got an aesthetic lift, the lamp shade in my bedroom was feeling a bit plain jane. So across town I went to the best trimming store in the city, M&J Trimmings.  It can be really overwhelming in there.  So much to choose from, it's hard to decide. My Libra-ness struck again.  But I finally made a decision after about 1 hour.  Haha.

I chose two ribbons. One a silvery grey with a white stitching and one a smoky lavender. I eventually want to do my bedroom in these colors.  

Since I am no Martha Stewart, remember I am a domestic goddess IN THE MAKING, I had a problem with the edges.  The edges of the lamp had a slanted angle to them so I couldn't just wrap the ribbon directly around the shade. I matched up and measured the grey ribbon as best I could and to hid a bit of the flaws made a criss cross pattern with the smaller ribbon on all four corners.  An organic fix it that turned out cute. 

Before

After

A subtle difference that makes me happy.


And last but not least, the candles.  I had 3 white pillar candles in my bathroom that just got lost in the white etagere.  But a $1.50 worth of black satin ribbon took care of all that.  It's so simple.  I just glue gunned the ribbon on to the candles, took 2 fancy looking brooches I had in my jewelry box and stuck them into the front.  It's not permanent so I can always take them out if needed.  

Before

after

see how they stand out?

These were all little projects I completed in minutes.  It doesn't take a lot of time to add these little details and create big impact to things in your home.  Is anyone else out there packin' heat and slingin' glue?  If so, love to see what you've created.

3 Cup Peach Cobbler for 3 Miriams

My 3 Miriams turned into 2 Miriams at the last minute, but the title of my blog had already been pre-determined so it stayed.   And yes, I invited 3 friends over for tea who all happened to be named Miriam and all Israeli.  So I was thinking, what would I make and serve to my 3 Israeli Miriams with their tea?  Peach Cobbler of course!  My southern families famous "a cup, a cup, a cup" Peach Cobbler recipe.  It's so delicious and so simple and looks as if you spent hours baking it up.  My parents own a Bed and Breakfast called The Veranda where they serve this for dessert at breakfast with ice cream no less! True decadence southern style. 

The Veranda

"A cup, a cup, a cup"  Peach Cobbler got its nickname because the recipe calls for 1 cup self rising flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk.  Mix those 3 things together with a can of peaches (including the syrup), a stick of melted butter and bake at 450 degrees for about 35 minutes, or till the top is a bit brown, and ta-da! You have super yummy, crowd pleasing dessert.  It was a hit with my Israeli Goddesses.  One even left with the recipe.  Shalom Ya'll

Cobbler after we dug into it

Tea with Nana (mint)

Challah Back Girls!

Sorry, couldn't resist the cheesy title.  After posting my first blog on Challah,  I was asked by one of my fellow Goddess, also named Sarah, if I could show her how to make this delicious bread.  Wow!  How cool!  Someone wanted me to show them how to make Challah!  I was flattered and excited to share the experience and to also do some catching up on girl talk.  So last Friday Sarah came with her flour and yeast in tow and we got down to business.  It was a rocky start as neither of our yeasts rose to the occasion.  I learned that yeast is like Mama Bear.  The water cannot be too lukewarm or too hot.  Ours was too hot and dead in the water.  Thank goodness we had exactly enough to re-do. Yeast can be finicky so it's always good to have extra on hand.   Half cool and half hot water works like a charm.  Once we overcame the yeast scare we mixed in our other ingredients and went straight into the arm workout, kneading.  Here are our perfectly round kneaded doughs.  Mine is on the left and Sarah's is on the right.  

Another interesting discovery I made was that the textures of our doughs were different.  Mine had a consistency more like play dough (not as thick of course) and hers was a bit more soft and pliable. This was due to the flour.  Here is a link from Cooks Illustrated that delves into the subject of flour provided by my super smart and beautiful Aunt (although 4 years my junior) Cassie. I was using the Trader Joe's brand whole wheat flour and Sarah used a different brand I can't remember the name, only that it started with an H.  When sifted, more of the wheat bran of my flour went through the sieve and less of the bran from hers.  

Never the less they turned out spectacular!  Sarah's Challah is on the left and mine is on the right.  Beautiful right?  So the moral of the story is:
1.  Make sure the water temperature for your yeast is juuuuust right
2. The brand of flour you use can make a difference in texture
    and
3. That making Challah for the one's you love always makes them feel special and gives you the  warm fuzzies inside. 


Thanks Sarah A. (omg she has the same last initial as me too! haha) for coming over and kneading bread with me.  I felt like a proud Mama.  Keep up rollin' out the dough!


Challah!

Life Design

Two months ago my husband and I "suddenly" picked up and moved ourselves to New York City far away from our cozy little bubble in Los Angeles.  I wasn't into the idea at first, but then got into it.  I started visualizing all the cool new ventures I would take up once settled and how dramatically exciting my life would become. So today I acted on one of those visions, to learn interior design.  Out into the cold snowy/rainy/icy downpour I went to the upper east side to check out the New York School of Interior Design.  

The school is located on a lovely street

I was really excited because I am an interior design junkie;  HGTV, blogs, websites, magazines, anything design I love it!  After chatting with the admissions girl and taking the tour of the school, I was a bit surprised that I wasn't itching to jump into the academic pool of designers in training.  So I was asking myself, why?  You're never to old to learn something new right?  So why not Sarah?  You have a flexible work schedule, you don't have kids yet and you can pretty  much do anything you desire.  And that was just it!  I  had done years of major design on my LIFE.  My life design floor plan is a perfect balance of freedom and flexibility.  Not sitting on my tush eating bonbons all day freedom and flexibility, but freedom and flexibility to nurture and create a family, to travel and still maintain a job, to fully practice my spirituality and participate in things that matter most. Committing to a set schedule for a looooong period of time didn't sit well with my inner design center, my soul.  Therefore, I decided to continue perfecting this life design of mine and to keep learning from the great universe of HGTV, blogs, websites, magazines etc. and share the results with ya'll along the way.  That is exciting!

Challah! Food For The Soul

I was trying to decide what I should write about in my first blog entry and settled on one thing I've gotten down as close to perfection as possible, my Challah.  Every Friday, I make two loaves.  It's become a ritual.  I feel satisfied watching friends and family enjoy my bready creation.  But I will say, I also have a spiritual connection to making Challah.  Challah is a symbol for sustenance.  So baking it in my home I am drawing down that energy for my family and all those who eat it.  Cool huh?  Eat and get rich!  Just kidding...sort of.  Have you ever seen that movie, "Like Water For Chocolate"?  What I am talking about is similar to the concept of this movie.  The main girl in the film is responsible for all the cooking and every emotion she feels while cooking gets transfered into the food and the people who eat it.  I am not that powerful of an emotional tranferer (I tend to make up words sometimes to help me describe things..fyi) but I do keep in mind what I am thinking about while I'm kneading away and also say special prayers while kneading away. 

It took a while to find this perfect Challah recipe. A long process of trial and error.  Ask my husband, he will tell you, he had to eat them.  Then finally, one day, I hit the Challah jackpot and came across a super yummy recipe on food.com.  I made a few of my own adjustments. One would be that I use 5 c. of whole wheat flour and 2 c. of white flour as apposed to all white flour and the second is that  I also make sure my water for activating the yeast is pretty hot and not lukewarm.  So for all you lucky readers and inspired bakers out there, here is a link to the Famous Challah recipe for your baking enjoyment!


Challah!!!