Felting

I absolutely adore these felted pillows.


And the patchwork quilt? Darling. I also kind of want the baby that's lying on top of it, but umm...not for another three to five years (Peter, are you reading this? Just checking!).

Have you guys ever felted anything? I haven't, but it seems easy enough.

We're going to Connecticut this weekend so that we can meet with a wedding photographer (and hopefully play some golf!). I'm totally going to look for some old wool sweaters I can "borrow."

The power of butter

Trattoria Sostanza makes the best buttered chicken in the world. I've already shared this wisdom with everyone I know because I would hate for anyone to miss an opportunity to taste perfection in the form of a chicken breast.

My mom has been trying to re-create this dish at home since we first went to Italy as a family eight years ago. She would make a butter sauce to go on top, fussing around with very fancy clarified European butter, baking bone-in and skin-on chicken at a low temperature.

None of it worked.

And of course, none of that was neccesary. When they were there a few weeks ago, my mom was brave and decided to just ask what they did to make the chicken so life-changingly good. The wild answer is that they heat up a lot of butter and cook the chicken in it.

I made it last night in my cast iron skillet. It was absolutely the closest we've ever come to replicating it. One of the most powerful things about the dish is its very strong, rich smell, and I'm happy to say that this achieved that. Oh, the power of butter.

Photo of the original, taken my sister. But I swear, mine looked just like this!

Trattoria Sostanza style buttered chicken or Pollo al burro

You will need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 stick of butter
Salt and pepper

Add the butter to a small-ish cast iron skillet. Melt the butter over a medium-low heat until it is just becoming brown, about 10 minutes. A good tip from Sostanza was that the chicken should be packed into the pan because it gets less dried out that way. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto chicken and add to the skillet. Cook on one side for five minutes, then flip. Repeat, until both sides have been flipped twice (about 20 minutes cooking time total).

Pour all of that brown butter over the chicken. Don't be stingy! You've already decided to make a dinner with a whole stick of butter in it, so don't back down now.

At Sostanza, we always order buttered tortellini to go with it, but last night I served it with swiss chard-mashed potatoes and salad. A slightly lighter combination that was delicious.

Piacere!

Entertaining

Photo from Apartment Therapy

We are throwing a little Christmas party this year, despite my nervousness. I am so excited that a few friends from DC and my sister and her sweet boyfriend will be coming. It's still a long way off (NYC friends: mark your calendar for December 19th!), but I'm starting to look at different menu and entertaining ideas:

• Cranberry Caipirinha - we drank lots of caipirinha's in Brazil. It might be fun to do a holiday version of the drink for the party. Also, I'm kind of a sucker for pink drinks.
• White Crudites with Buttermilk Dip
• Classic Gougères - ever since I read about Molly Wizenberg's cocktail party fantasies in Bon Appetit, I've wanted to have one myself and serve these.
• Classic Cheese Plate
• Mini Meatballs with Yogurt-Dill Sauce
• Spicy, Sweet and Salty Rosemary Nuts
• Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark - these are so pretty, and so delicious.

Oh, I just love the holiday season.

Elf-like

I signed up for the Martha Stewart Christmas Workshop last week, mostly because it sounded awesome.

Today I got an email from Martha with the Christmas Workshop shopping list. It is nine (9!!!) pages long. The list for the first week alone includes: socks, red transfer paper (?), 1/2-ounce squeeze bottle with 0.5-millimeter stainless steel tip, baby wipes, elastic ribbon, glitter glue and so much more.

So, uhh, who's with me? It will be fun, I swear! Maybe!

You can sign up here.

Please?

Kick!

I have wanted to see the Rockette's since we moved to New York (three Christmas seasons ago!).

Dreams come true, my friends! Use this code: EM50SAVE to save 50% off non-peak performances through November 30th!

Because I like to live vicarious through my sister, and thought you might like to as well

Anyone want to guess where she was?

Sauced

Every year, my mom bought paperwhite bulbs to grow in our house during the holiday season. I love this tradition, and do it every year in my own apartment. It's so lovely to actually have something growing this time of year as opposed to dying. Some people don't like the scent they give off, but I think it's very nice and clean.

This is a fun little trick from Margaret at A Way to Garden: add 1 part alcohol to 8 parts water for your paperwhites. This prevents them from growing too tall and flopping over! I'm going to try it this year with my new little bulbs. I wonder if my flowers will like gin as much as I do.

They'll grow incredibly fast -- practically before your eyes. I'll keep you posted!