patriotic parfait

Got back from Florida on Sunday. I gotta tell you, there's nothing worse than scheduling a ticket in advance only to realize you scheduled it for the wrong days. Who on earth comes back from the beach where her boyfriend is the day before Memorial Day?! All in all it was a quiet holiday to say the least — just mom, dad and me chilling on the back deck with way too many cheeseburgers and hotdogs for three people. One good thing about being home for Memorial Day though? Mom's jello parfait. She makes it on the patriotic holidays, i.e. Memorial Day and The 4th of July, because it's a red, white and blue dessert. I didn't think to take a picture of it, but this image from Martha Stewart's website gets the gist of it. 

Here's how Mama makes it...

First off, she does not do all the little individual parfait glasses. Too much time and effort, and quite honestly we like our portions slightly less delicate. Instead, she uses a large footed glass bowl (like this one). Her version consists of three layers — one jello, one whipped cream, one blueberry. It's really super easy! Just make two boxes of black cherry jello (this is one of our favorite flavors, but if you like you can substitute in a different red flavor like strawberry) and allow it to set in the glass dish. Once it's ready, beat some heavy cream and sugar for yummy homemade whipped cream and scoop it into the bowl as the second layer of the parfait. Top the dessert off with a layer of juicy blueberries and you're good to go. I eat this stuff for every meal when it's in the house! 

-S.

cadbury confections

There are two times during the year when I look forward to eating candy more than ever. One is Halloween, for the Brach's Mellowcreme Pumpkins. The second is Easter, for the Cadbury Creme Eggs. Because they are limited to a season, I somehow manage to justify eating them in extreme excess during that short period of time.

Photo: bon appétit

This year I have come across a whole new way to indulge in my springtime sugar-fest. The first I had ever seen a Cadbury Creme Egg used in a recipe was earlier this week in this picture from Zoey Cakes.

Uhhh... yum?

So after a really quick search, I've discovered that these crave-worthy cupcakes are not alone in their Cadbury creativity. Here are a handful of other recipes that make me want to go and buy up the creme egg stock at the A&P down the street.

Ornamentation

My adventures into the wonderland of dress-up and costumes always starts out so innocent... and it always ends up infinitely more involved. Such was the case last night. My mom has begun her annual holiday decorating craze. As she decked the windows in the kitchen with little glass ornaments, I picked up the pretty yellow star and told her I wanted to wear it in my hair. One thing led to another, and before I knew it she and I were conducting a full blown photo shoot. What began as a request for her to take a picture of the simple starred style rapidly progressed into various contortions of my hair, decorated with bits of holiday ornamentation I would spot around the house , and a messy slew of outfit changes. Somehow, from a sickening cloud of hairspray and abundant layers of silk satin gowns tossed haphazardly around my room, a spread of some cool photos emerged....


-S.

Feast Your Eyes

The linens on my bed have been changed. My toiletries and makeup have been stowed on the glass shelves of my aqua blue bathroom. A man in a brown uniform pulled up in a truck with no door and delivered four hefty cardboard boxes of clothes and shoes. The refrigerator has been stocked with Diet Dr. Pepper. I am officially moved in. Now that all the relocating chaos is more or less behind me, I can focus on what's ahead. While in reality that may include finding work and completing graduate school applications and studying for the GRE, in the blissful confines of blog-world looking ahead points to one thing: the holidays. In particular, I'm focused on Thanksgiving.

Photo: Movie Mobsters

While I was in college Thanksgiving was more of a hassle than anything. Classes weren't over, we always had homework assignments, and there was the foreboding cloud of final exams looming overhead to darken the measly two days we were given for vacation. Now that those stressors no longer apply, I'm quite excited for a holiday that encourages us to gorge ourselves on rich, autumn treats and then doze off into a tryptophan slumber. Not to mention Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season. And that means sales, festive décor, Christmas movies, parties and snow!

Photo: Only Funny Images

Before I had returned to New York my mom sent me a message saying how much she missed all the delicious things I would usually whip up at this time of year. Now that I'm home, I have created my annual "Recipes" bookmark folder to grace the upper bar of my Safari browser and I've quite rapidly plumped it up with mouth-watering recipes and ideas for the imminent feast of Thanksgiving. I have always loved to bake and to cook, but never did much of either in my apartment where cookware was cheap and groceries were not. I'm so eager to make that pre-Turkey Day voyage to the A&P and steer my cart through the dreamy aisles of culinary delight without doling out my own pretty penny! (I could do without the mothers and their strollers though, and the cranky men who were forced to do the shopping but have no idea where anything is...)

Click after the jump to check out my potential recipe list and let me know what you think! Careful not to drool on your keyboards, darlings.

-S.