Wagon Wheel on the Wall

Old Crow Medicine Show's Wagon Wheel is a song Jesse has been playing for me for years. I love everything about the song and after years of listening to it and seeing Old Crow play it a handful of times I'm still not tired of it.

When we got married, both our ceremony band and our reception band played covers of Wagon Wheel (the band from our reception actually did a mash-up with Wagon Wheel and Don't Stop Beliving and I'm pretty sure it was the best thing I've ever heard).

Pre-wedding, I knew that I wanted to get Jesse an antique wagon wheel as a wedding present and so I searched all over the internet and in local stores. I finally found one on eBay that came from an estate sale and was relatively close by. I met up with the antiques dealer seller, hefted it into the back of my Jeep, and brought it home to wrap up for Jesse for the BIG DAY.

Now, more than a year later, we've finally gotten around to hanging it up. It is 42" wide and INCREDIBLY heavy. I had originally imagined it hanging on the wall over our bed but Jesse pointed out that if it fell on us while we were sleeping, we'd be killed immediately. Uh...time to move it out to the living room where it wouldn't crush anything more serious than a Craigslisted side table.

Since it's not just flat (it was, after all, a functioning wheel at some point), we measured the distance from the wall to the outer spokes:

Using the measurements, we bought hooks to hang the wheel on and screwed them into the wall.

Here's our beloved wagon wheel... it now it sits in the corner of our living room:

How's that for sentimental decor? Any other Old Crow fans? Stay homey!

La Scarola Chicago, IL

My favorite restaurant in Chicago. Unpretentious homey Italian feel with a great energy.



Best Pasta Fagolie and escarole with beans and sausage. Best in the city.

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Penguin Ornaments

Here's day two of ornaments... pretty simple! Craft store penguins ($5 for a tube of 10), ribbon, white paint, and glitter paint. I decided to make them two ways - one with just glitter over the penguin and one painted white and then coated in glitter.

I said "white paint" above, but I realized I didn't have any so I improvised with WhiteOut.  For the first penguin, I coated him in white...

and then painted him with clear glitter paint and glued on a loop of ribbon.

Here's the second one...how cute is this baby penguin?  I passed on the white coat this time and just painted on the glitter:

Again, I glued a loop of ribbon to his head and let the whole thing dry...

Here they are... a quick (and adorable) addition to our Christmas tree this year!  The glitter doesn't photograph well, but in real life they're wonderfully sparkly.

We're 2 days into 24 days of ornament making...stick around and stay homey!

Camogli, Italy

I wish I could describe to you how magical Camogli is.  No matter what I say it just won't do it justice.  You should just go.  Right now.  Close your computer and go. Well read this first and then go.

By the time we arrived, we were in much need of relaxation.  We had just spent three glorious, lazy, peaceful days in Bellagio, Lake Como, hopped in the car and then shot every single one of our nerves in the face.

Have you ever driven in Italy?

Those people are either flying around drunk or are just insane.  It took about three hours to go from point A to point B.  During those three hours, my life flashed before my eyes, rewound, played again in slow mo with Italian subtitles, and then I dry heaved.

Our conversation went like this:

Are we going the right way? I don't see a speed limit. What's the speed limit?   I'm car sick.  How fast are we going?  I can't read kilometers. I might throw up.  How many kilometers in a mile?  Check your phone.  I don't have service in Italy.  Did that guy really just pass us? Are there cops in Italy? Is that a donkey or a horse?  Can you pull over?  I can't pull over or we'll die.  OMG is this a road?  It can't be a road.  People are dining al fresco three feet in front of us, HOW CAN THIS BE A ROAD?  And so on.

So by the time we arrived, you can imagine our jubilation.  We survived.  Or, we died and went to tropical heaven.  We weren't totally sure.

My husband and I agree that the biggest surprise on our trip was from this quaint little seaside town.  It was gorgeous - absolutely breathtaking.  I wish I could be there right now, sitting on a lawn chair, listening to the waves crash, drinking far too much local wine, munching on my fourth serving of cold cuts and packing focaccia into my lower lip.  Sigh.

One of our readers, Danielle, contacting me with lots of great questions on Italy.  I thought now was a better time than ever to share one of our stops during our two week tour.  Today, I'll show you our time in Camogli. 

Every color under the sun can be found in this photo.  The bright vibrant colors from the village contrast beautifully against the green mountainous back drop.  Each house is painted a pastel color for a reason.  When this fishing village was in its hay day, the bright colors helped fisherman find their way home from sea.  Isn't that cool and romantic?

This is a view from the promenade, one of two major streets, overlooking the village's cathedral.  This is from the street that is actually right next to the water, lined with restaurants, bars, and cute little shops.

Shot from the pool deck from our hotel, Cenobio Dei Dogi, overlooking the village and promenade.   The hotel was in the perfect location.  See what I mean?  Love.  Can we talk about the color of the water?

This is the actual pool deck.  That's right.  They have a pool that overlooks the ocean. It was too chilly for us to go into the ocean or the pool.  They don't heat the pool and despite my polite requests, wouldn't heat the ocean.  I mean, it was October after all. 

Camogli has one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.  The other most beautiful sunset is in Harspwell, Maine.  Anyway, we would sit on this patio for 3 hours every night just watching the sunset.

Ah, palm trees.

Snacks and drinks.  I drank Moscow Mules the entire time I was here.  Random, right?

Yup.  That's right.  Here is a shot of the sun setting behind France.

Another look at sunset from another night, at a restaurant.  Don't worry, we sprinted back after dinner to see it from our special spot on the hotel patio. 

So, let's talk about the food for a minute.  Camogli is about 30 minutes east of Genoa.  As in Genoa Salami.  As in the holy land.  Every bar we went to brought us a spread like this FOR FREE just for ordering a drink.  Every place you go to will have a cover charge of usually a couple of bucks per person, perhaps to cover this, but who cares.  We were sitting here for a few hours and were brought several plates like this, but different and fresh each time.  Here we had salami, mortadella, focaccia spread with herb cream cheese, carrots, and...ummm.... mayonnaise.  I don't usually use mayonnaise as a dip unless I'm eating French Fries, because that makes much sense than carrots. 

  

Here is another example of our drink snacks.  I think we only went out to dinner in Camogli once.  We would just fill up on yummy appetizers like this throughout the day.  Sort of how I prefer to eat, anyway.

So here is one thing about Camogli that I should mention.  Because it is a fishing village, all they basically serve is seafood.  I don't mean half the menu, I mean everything on the menu.  Think clams stuffed with anchovies, over noodles made with pureed scallop row, in a squid ink sauce.  Charlie, not a huge seafood fan, always found something to eat, but it wasn't easy.  Here was one of our favorite meals.  Spaghetti bolognese and clams with linguine in a white sauce of olive oil, wine and garlic.  Now that was good.

This was our view at breakfast every morning.  This hotel had an AWESOME free breakfast.  Every day I'd  make two five minute eggs and then eat them with focaccia.

So I had no idea, but focaccia is to Camogli as deep dish is to Chicago.  Besides pesto and seafood, this is their thing.  Focaccia in the states sucks compared to this.  This is chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside.  It's basically a sponge with olive oil baked into it.  Absolutely AMAZING.  I have yet to try to make this but I will. 

On one of our walks on the promenade, we found a bakery that served cookies (I don't care) and FOCACCIA.  Like rows and rows of all of these different kinds.  The more basic the focaccia, the more I liked it.  This one had a super sharp wet cheese.  I have no idea what the cheese was, but it was almost as if you blended goat and ricotta.  It was good, but not my favorite.

Ummmm yes.  Focaccia with olive oil and onions.  

Just to give you an idea of WHERE we ate this. 

The only thing we haven't really talked about yet is the pesto.  Pesto originated in Genoa in the Luguria region of northern Italy.  So, the kind we had apparently didn't have cheese.  I like cheese on my cheese, so this was a different variation for me and one I wasn't too crazy about.  I asked for cheese  and the waitress sort of frowned and then said, well try it without the cheese first.  Excuse me?

This is how we spent our last evening in Camogli.  We got the coveted table we had been sniping the entire visit - the singular table for two on the point of the balcony.  The balcony was so far out, the waves crashed right below us.  Simply magical. Stay adventurous and stay hungry my friends!

Bird's Nest Ornament

Can you believe it's December already??  This year has flown by but I'm so excited to be celebrating the holidays in our new house!  I'll be making an ornament every day between now and Christmas... here's the first one, made from a bird's nest!

My neighbor told me once that growing up, she always had a bird's nest in her Christmas trees. Her mother said it was good luck. I googled this tradition and came up with a few things - that a nest symbolizes the home, that a bird's nest in your Christmas tree means good luck in the upcoming year, and that a bird's nest in your tree will bring health, wealth, & happiness.

The morning after Hurricane Irene, I found a bird's nest under one of the trees in our backyard and I've been saving it to make into an ornament. Since it's very fragile, I wanted it to be enclosed in some sort of casing.  If you don't happen to have your own actual bird's nest, you can make one using moss or hay from the craft store.

Here's what I was working with:

I grabbed a clear plastic ornament from the craft store - it's split into two halves so you can fill it up and then close it to make a globe.  I put the nest into the globe and used glitter glue to cover the seam that connects the two halves:

After filling in the seam around the whole globe, I strung a piece of raffia through the loop in the ornament.  Here it is...

It's time to get ready to trim your tree!  Stay tuned for more ornament ideas and stay homey! 

Banana Tarte Tatin

Hot damn this was good.  If you like bananas foster you will L O V E this. 

I couldn't actually tell you how to pronounce tarte tatin, but I can show you how to make it.  Lucky for me, someone left their Bon Appetit October issue in our condo gym so I helped myself and was immediately hypnotized by this beautiful dessert.  I'm one of those who enjoys watching the Food Network and reading recipes while working out so I can plan on how to use my burned calories as quickly as possible.  Makes perfect sense to me. 

So I made a small change to the recipe.  I used unsalted butter and added a couple of pinches of sea salt.  Just a personal preference and an excuse to use my favorite condiment - salt, salt, salty, salt.

Here are our SUPER simple ingredients:

Unsalted Butter

Dark Brown Sugar

Banana

Frozen Puff Pastry, Thawed 

Sea Salt

What's really cool about this recipe, is that you can make it as big or small as you want.  I used a 6 inch ramekin because it was just Charlie and I on this particular night so I thought making just one was a good way to avoid eating 42 servings.  I used about a tablespoon of butter to grease the heck out of the bottom and the sides.  I just smushed it around with the back of a spoon.

Add your brown sugar.  Light or dark will do.  I used dark because that's what I had.

Add a couple pinches of sea salt.  Having a hint of salt is incredibly important because it hits a different part of your tongue than sugar does, adding an entirely new dimension to the dish.  You won't taste the salt, but your taste buds will know it's there and they will silently thank you.

I like under ripe bananas.  Not super green ones, but ones that have no bruises and still have a hint of green by the stems.  They are firmer and have a better flavor.  I know everyone else on the planet will disagree with me, but the firmer texture worked very nicely for this recipe.  Under ripe bananas are also less sweet and since I don't have a huge sweet tooth, this worked nicely for me.

With your evenly sliced bananas, pic them up in sections and fan them out carefully.  You can start anywhere, on the side, or in the middle.  Doesn't really matter.  I started on the side and worked my way in.

Eeeeee I love how this looks.  Top Chef Just Desserts, look out.  I'm such a professional pastry chef.  Not.

Let your puff pastry dough thaw on the counter top.

I had an extra ramekin of the same size so I used it as a guide for the puff pastry crust.  I haven't had the time or energy to wrestle with the sticker on the bottom.  Eventually it will peel off on its own.  I would rather wait the ten years.

Just free hand it if you want.  No need to be perfect. I just followed the edges with a small sharp knife.  Took seconds.

So I didn't really think of this before, but having the extra edges was actually important.  It kept the brown sugary glaze from bubbling over. Also, you'll see in the next pic that the puff pastry shrunk up while it was cooking.

Nom nom nom.  I baked this in the oven for 25 minutes until it was golden brown.

I flipped it upside down on a plate.  I just held the plate flush on top and then flipped it over.  It fell out super easily.

This is so pretty!!  The wheels in my head are already spinning.  I can use this exact method to make a million other desserts and savory dishes. How about a mushroom tart?

We didn't have any powdered sugar but we DID have gelato.  I will always have gelato of some sort, that is until I eat it all. Which is pretty likely.  So, let's just say that 50% of the time I'll have gelato.  Don't get greedy on me.

This was so easy and totally company worthy!  It's really beautiful and smells amazing.  The crispy puff pastry pairs so well with the creamy bananas.  Let us know what you think and for the love of bananas, stay hungry!!

Banana Tarte Tatin Recipe
1 Banana
2 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbs of Unsalted Butter
2 Pinches of Sea Salt
Frozen Puff Pastry, thawed

In a six inch ramekin, spread unsalted butter all over bottom and sides.  Sprinkle 2 Tbs of brown sugar on top.  Add pinches of sea salt.  Cut banana in even, thin slices.  Pick up sections of sliced bananas and fan them out so they are overlapping each other, starting on the side of the ramekin.  Repeat and work your way in so bananas coil inward.  Cut slightly larger portion of puff pastry than the circumference of your dish and place on top of bananas.  Tuck in edges.  Cook on 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  This recipe makes 2 servings.  Adjust quantities accordingly for more/less servings.