cooking ala mel

Decorating HP Style.. not a food post!

January 8, 2012

For Christmas, Alex got me 2 collage style photo frames with four 5×7 frames in each, and so I’ve been finding pictures to fill them with: family, friends, my sister’s wedding, the kitty.. and then I stumbled upon some wonderful Harry Potter typography art on Pinterest, and now I want to finally finish decorating the rest of my apartment with frames. By the way that my email’s been blowing up with repins of these prints, it’s obvious that most people like these just as much as I do.

Key example here:

I love a good Sirius Black quote. *swoon*

Here’s one that describes my life so, so well:

After perusing all of Priscilla’s beautiful typography art over at the readables, I wanted to make my own little print to frame using one of my favorite quotes from a fan fiction I read not too long ago.. yes, I read fan fiction. It’s the only thing I can do to satiate my need for stories of the marauders’ days at Hogwarts. Anyway, in the story I read, this quote was one that James Potter’s mother always told him as a child, “Don’t chase the quaffle if you see the snitch.” Great quote on life, yeah? It’s probably one of the first things I read out of a fan fiction that I’ve actually kept with me. Oh, and by the way, if anyone out there is a reader of Marauder Era fanfic, this was the story.

So I found a beautiful snitch drawing on Deviant Art and had some fun with it..

Now, I just can’t wait till I get some more frames and hang these all over the place! And today was originally supposed to be a reading day.. sigh.

Red Cabbage & Kale Slaw

January 7, 2012

Upon my return to Buffalo, I realized I forgot my macbook’s power cord; Alex packed up my computer for me, nice guy he was trying to be, but didn’t pack the power cord because it wasn’t sitting with my computer. Typical boy. I, of course, assumed that if he took the time to pack it up, my cord would obviously be there too, so I didn’t check. That’ll never happen again. Thank goodness I have the best parents ever, though; my dad shipped it to me the next morning. In the mean time, though, I used Alex’s pc, which meant no access to my RSS feeds of my favorite blogs. If it weren’t for pinterest, I wouldn’t have seen this salad from Tracy at Shutterbean until Friday. Although, I only decided I liked it enough to share it on that same day, so maybe it really made no difference. Either way, this slaw is all sorts of colorful and all sorts of healthful.

Just look at all those colors! You can see why I was immediately drawn to it. That, and I was craving something fresh, as I’m sure most of you all are as well, after those many, many holiday dinners. I was so excited to get some more kale. I had a slight love affair with it last year, but then I didn’t get it again, for reasons unknown to me.. but we are back together, and I am loving it. I have a whole two pound bag of it, and I can’t wait to use it all.

At first, I was a bit turned off by all of the parsley leaves in this slaw, and I originally thought it was the red cabbage that was causing it, so I was really upset that I was going to have to eat something I really didn’t think was palatable. But then I realized it was the parsley, and I’ve now been picking out most of the parsley before I eat it, and I am in looove with this slaw now. I think I just overdid it on the parsley somehow, so I wouldn’t worry about following the recipe and still using it. Other than the too much parsley in my slaw, this slaw is perfect. Sweetness from the apple, crunchy nuttiness from the cashew and sunflower seeds, the kale.. I really missed you, kale.

Kale & Red Cabbage Slaw

adapted from Shutterbean

yields 4 servings

1 T olive oil

1 T brown mustard

1 t apple cider vinegar

salt & pepper, to taste

3 cups shredded kale & red cabbage, mixed

1 carrot, peeled and shredded

1 apple, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

2 T red onion, diced

1/4 cup roasted cashews, chopped

2 T raw sunflower seeds

lime juice

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, mustard and vinegar for the dressing. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the kale/red cabbage, carrot, apple, parsley, red onion, cashews and sunflower seeds. Season it with salt and pepper, squeeze some lime juice over top and drizzle it with dressing. Toss to coat and serve!

Peppermint Meringues

January 7, 2012

Now, I know it’s no longer Christmas, and most of you are probably trying to eat healthier in the new year, but I promised my mom I would post this recipe, and I really just love it; I had to share it with you all. Every year, I make my brother in-law, Mark, some kind of cookie. This year, he requested peppermint meringues. He’s a huge candy lover, the tooth achingly sweet kind of candy. I’ve never made meringues before, so I was pretty excited about this. Especially since I could make them look like little red and white swirled pillows..

The recipe I found from Joy the Baker, who adapted it from Martha Stewart. I had plenty from this recipe that I had quite a bit left over after I filled a tin for Mark; my mom ended up loving them so much that I filled a little bag up for in her stocking. Once they were gone, she’s asked over and over for the recipe.. so here it is, Mom!

These are light and crisp, with such a great burst of peppermint. Adding mini chocolate chips would make these absolute heaven. And really, these are just like little clouds of peppermint – barely anything but air – I’m sure your New Year’s diet can handle it! 😉

Peppermint Meringues

3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 t peppermint extract
red food coloring
2 candy canes, crushed

Place egg whites and sugar into a heat proof bowl of a stand mixer; set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the sugar is dissolved (and warm to the touch), about 2 minutes. With the whisk attachment of your stand mixer, mix on medium high speed until stiff peaks form. Stir in the peppermint extract.
Into your pastry bag, place a few drops of red food coloring down along the sides (if you use gel paste coloring, you can paint stripes down the side). Fill your pastry bag with the meringue, and pipe small star shapes (about 3/4″ high) onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes. Bake the cookies for about 1 hour and 40 minutes at 175ºF, until crisp. Let cool completely on the sheets. Store in an airtight container.