cherry blossom cards

Perhaps I sent out my Cherry Blossom "Happy Spring" cards a little too soon! Or I was just hoping that sending them out would mean we would actually get some spring weather instead of SNOW!

In any case, here is a craft post (finally!).

I bought this small cherry blossom stamp from the Paper Source a few years ago and I love it. For the blossoms, I used two colors of pink card stock, a watermark ink pad, and seafoam white embossing powder. 

After I finished embossing all of the blossoms, I cut them out. It took me 3 hours. My hand hurt a lot...and I couldn't straighten it out!

For the cards, I used A6 sized plain white flat cards. I had some shiny brown card stock and matte card stock that I used to cut out branches. Then I added dots of glitter to the blossoms for an extra pop of sparkle.

And voila! There you have spring cherry blossom cards. I also happened to have cherry blossom tape for use on the envelopes.

I had attempted to stamp the wording on the cards but I found it easier to do the lettering by hand instead. And have an excuse to use my pink pen.

I hope now that the cards have been sent that we actually get some spring weather. Happy Spring, friends! And Happy Crafting!

-A^2

Brussels sprouts take 2. With salt crusted potatoes. #whatsfordinner

First attempt cooking Brussels sprouts = not too shabby. Blood orange oven roasted Brussels sprouts. #whatsfordinner #myplate

blood orange vinaigrette.

I am fascinated by blood oranges. I had tasted them when I worked in restaurants and just loved their color. I learned that the distinctive crimson flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins- which is basically antioxidant pigments that are  uncommon in citrus fruits. Blood oranges originate from China and the South Mediterranean but are now primarily grown in Italy – where the low temperatures in the fall and winter help the anthocyanins develop the oranges' unique color. Additionally, blood oranges cultivated in the United States (in Texas and Cali) are in season from December to March.

I bought some blood oranges a month ago and decided to make blood orangecello with them… I’m still working out that recipe. But in the meantime, I had purchased a whole bag of blood oranges before they go out of season and figured they would be a perfect ingredient for a dressing to jazz up my spinach salad.

I bought a single glass mason jar at World Market for $1.50 to shake up the vinaigrette and store it. It's just easier that way.

Here are your ingredients: blood orange juice, shallots, dijon mustard, honey, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Put everything in the jar...

Shake. it. out. In fact, I might have done a little dance when I was shaking the jar. (Thankfully AC was not home to witness this...)

And there you have it! Blood orange vinaigrette. Put it on a salad. With goat cheese. All salads should have goat cheese.

Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Assemble your ingredients and put in a bowl or jar. If you choose a jar, simply put the lid on and shake until well mixed. If you use a bowl, whisk the juice, shallots, mustard, honey and vinegar. Slowly add in the olive oil as a steady stream until combined and then add salt and pepper.

Refrigerate in an airtight container- should last a few weeks.

Enjoy!!

-A^2

fragole cello

Strawberries are definitely a favorite fruit of mine. Sure, strawberry season is far away from now but after making limoncello and blood orangecello (recipes coming soon), I decided I just couldn't wait until summer to make strawberry cello.

This Italian strawberry liqueur is actually called fragole cello and is made in the same way as limoncello- the fruit is submerged in high-proof vodka or grain alcohol and then combined with simple syrup. However, the strawberry version doesn't take nearly as long as the other lemon or citrus cellos (3-4 days vs 4-6 weeks) which is good for those who enjoy instant gratification.

So let's get on with it. You'll need at least 100-proof vodka (my local liquor store only had Smirnoff), a non-reactive container and strawberries.

Next, wash, hull and halve the strawberries.

Into the jar they go.

Filled to the top with vodka.

Now...wait 3-4 days until the color is leached out.

Strain the berries from the vodka. The smell of the vodka is deliriously wonderful. I discarded the berries at this point...wasn't really up for trying to eat one.

After discarding the berries, I ran the vodka through some coffee filters. Want to avoid having this kind of "strawberry shrapnel" in the vodka. While waiting for the vodka to filter, this would be a good time to make the simple syrup. (No photo of the syrup.)

Filtered! Add the simple syrup, stick back in the fridge to let everything settle again. I left mine in for 3 more days (but you don't have to wait that long).

Now, bottle it up! Serve it ice cold, straight up. It's too good to drink any other way.

Fragole Cello

2 pints fresh strawberries 1 750mL 100 proof vodka 1 cup sugar 1 cup boiling water

Wash, hull and halve the strawberries. Put into a non-reactive container and cover with vodka. Let the vodka and berries stand for 3-4 days until the color of the berries has been leached out. Then strain the berries and run through coffee filters.

Boil water and mix with one cup of sugar until dissolved. After the syrup has cooled, add to the liqueur. Add a little at a time until the desired sweetness has been achieved. Bottle and chill. Enjoy ice cold.

Metal-Lidded Glass Jar from West Elm 17 oz. Square Hermetic Bottles from Container Store Chalkboard Labels from World Market

Enjoy!!

-A^2

miso braised pork

I enjoy fall for many reasons - crisp weather, changing leaves and everything flavored pumpkin. With cooler weather, I love doing a good, comforting braise to warm up the house. The stove is on for hours and results in some amazingness that usually feeds AC and I for days!

I've been working on a braised pork recipe for awhile now but somehow I could never get the braising liquid flavored just right. On one of my many trips to the Asian Grocery store, I finally picked up some miso paste. I didn't know what I was going to use it with but I figured it was just good to have around. (Side note: all of the writing on the container is in Korean so I honestly couldn't tell what kind of paste it was. Apparently there are lots of kinds. I was looking for white shiro miso... but this is what I got.)

When I went to the grocery store, I found a 2.75lb pork butt that I felt would be perfect for using the miso paste.

It gets seasoned with salt and pepper and soon meets my Dutch oven with sizzling vegetable oil. After browned on both sides, I added minced garlic, miso paste, brown sugar, soy sauce and water. The lid is about to go on.

One hour later...

2 hours later...still going

3.5 hours later...

Fall-off-the-bone tender, perfect blend of salty and sweet. SO GOOD.

Yeah...you have to make this. Pronto. It's -that- good.

Miso Braised Pork

(So as you might have noticed, my list of ingredients doesn't call for exact measurements. Honestly, I just sort of eye-balled all of the measurements - it's really a matter of what you think you'll need/how you want to season it.)

1. Season the pork on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan (like a Dutch oven) over medium-high heat until hot. Brown the pork on both sides and remove.

2. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the water, soy sauce, brown sugar and miso. Bring to a simmer; put pork back in the pot and add additional water if necessary to make sure the meat is fully immersed.

3. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 3+ hours until the pork is tender.

Then, enjoy.

Happy Eating and Happy Fall!

AG and AC

Philly Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

I remember signing up for the Philly RnR Half Marathon in January thinking, “Oh man. That’s so far away!” And then before I knew it, AC and I were packing my car to drive up to Philly for the weekend and run those 13.1 miles. It was my first half marathon and AC’s second. We also convinced our friend Michele to run with us.

We arrived Saturday afternoon with minimal traffic issues except when we missed our exit and the GPS was re-routing us to some place ridiculous. It was too early to check in at our hotel so we just went to the expo to pick up our bibs and swag. I should also mention that according to the Rock ‘n’ Roll crew, “swag” also includes packs of albacore tuna.

The expo had a good number of sponsors and we picked up a few items like a new headband and “13.1” magnets for our cars. We also picked up some of the Jelly Belly Sport Beans. My nerves seemed to calm down once we watched the video of the race course. It was really, truly flat. Well…except for the final, cruel turn uphill to the finish. More on that later. Soon after we met up with Michele, we hit up the Reading Terminal Market for some late lunch and ice cream. Can never go wrong for good eats here. After finally being able to check into our hotel and a little downtime/naptime, we settled on Doma Sushi for dinner. It certainly did not disappoint- we had the freshest edamame I’ve ever had, mediocre pork belly buns and a few really great rolls – spicy scallop and spicy tuna.

My back was still bothering me a lot before we went to bed so I did as many stretches as I could and used the foam roller we brought along to ease the pain a bit. I woke up the next morning still a bit sore but was feeling better after a hot shower and more stretching. The hotel was within walking distance of the start and finish which was nice. We took some pre-race photos since we were all in different corrals and weren’t sure we’d be able to find each other at the finish. Plus, we figured we’d also look better pre-race.

The race promptly started at 8AM but being in corral 20, AC and I started closer to 8:25/30.

Miles 1-4: These first miles took us in a loop around the historic parts of the city. I never felt crowded like in most races due to the luxuriously wide Philadelphia streets. This was also one of the first major races that my family (mom, dad, bro and uncle in town from UK) happened to come see (they live in PA- about an hour due north of Philly) so it was fun for me to see them cheering along the parkway.

Mile 3: Since the farthest distance I’ve ever run was 10 miles, I mentally prepped myself for this half marathon by thinking of the first 5K as warm-up and the 10 miles was like the other 10 mile races I had run. This is where my real race began…(in my head).

Mile 5: Mile 5 brought us back to the starting area which indicated that we’d ended the urban segment of the race. Now we would have more of the nature/river/shaded by trees route. Mile 6: I was still feeling good at the 10K mark. According to my Nike+ GPS this would have been my fastest 10K to date. Mile 7: Here’s about where I wanted to stop and walk but instead started eating those energy beans from Jelly Belly. The berry were good; however, I had to spit out the fruit punch. Gross. Mile 8: Gatorade, please? It seemed like most of the drink stations were out of Gatorade. Water just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Mile 9: The bridge! Finally the turnaround point to go back to downtown Philly! Mile 10: 10 miles…can I be done now? No? Oh. (And this is where my back/sciatica started to throb a little.) Mile 11: WALL. This is where I just had to start run/walking. I was on target with the time goal I had set for myself up until this point. Could I really make it these last two miles? Also…what happened to the shade? Mile 12: OKAY ONE MORE MILE. I GOT THIS. I CAN DO THIS. I CAN…walk? Yeah, walk. Mile 13: Wait, that’s not the finish line? That’s just a banner and camera guys? Wait, around the corner and up the what?? UP THE HILL? WHAT HILL? So cruel. Last .1: So. Close. Almost. There…. DONE! I had finished my first half marathon (and last?)

After crossing the finish, I was excited but feeling a bit hazy. My body was screaming at me (my sciatica aka butt and leg) and I really just wanted to sit down. My family was actually at the finish and we managed to find each other easily before heading to pick up bags and get back to the hotel to shower and get food. It was really great to have them there.

Our post-race lunch was at Lan Zhou Noodle House was a great re-fueling meal. My stomach always hates me a little after an early morning race and the soup broth was very kind to me.

All in all, this was a great introduction to a half marathon. The course was flat, quick and mostly shaded by buildings or trees. I’m not ruling out all half marathons in the future but I am not itching to sign up for another one right away. Of course a 2:45-50 race time (2:45 according to my GPS; 2:50 official race time) gives me ample room for improvement. But since it’s my first half, any time is a PR . And while to some this may be very slow, to me, simply crossing the finish after months of frustration (with pain in my back) is certainly a success in itself.

-AG

sriracha butter.

I generally only eat sriracha in a steaming hot bowl of pho. I've got a rather weak tolerance for spice but I always find myself adding way more than I should. Heh. Last week, I randomly decided to saute some shrimp with butter and sriracha and it was incredible. (See below: shrimp, kale, mushrooms over rice.) 

Basically I just threw butter in the pan and added sriracha. So this week, I decided to be less lazy and blend the sriracha and the butter first so it will be ready to go for future cooking. 

So... we start with butter, garlic, cilantro, a pinch of salt and a swirl of olive oil. Well and of course, sriracha. 

Once the garlic is minced, mixed with the salt and olive oil, all the ingredients are blended in a bowl. You can mix by hand with a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

Scoop into jars (or cover in plastic wrap and form a log) and re-refrigerate for at least an hour. 

Then...it's go time! You can use it on meat, corn on the cob or fish or with pasta. I cooked a halibut filet with charred corn, tomatoes and feta:

Sriracha Butter

1. Finely mince the garlic and once done, add the pinch of salt to the garlic as well as the swirl of olive oil to sort of create a paste.

2. Add butter, garlic mixture and cilantro to the bowl.

3. Blend until evenly distributed.

4. Add one tablespoon of sriracha at at time while the paddle continues to mix. (Feel free to add more sriracha if you like - it depends on how spicy you like it!)

5. Once all ingredients are well blended, either scoop into jars or onto plastic wrap and roll into a log.

6. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for 6 months.

ENJOY!

What will you use your sriracha butter on? Let us know in the comments! 

-Alicia^2

pea shoot pesto.

It all started with a trip to the Bethesda Central Farmer's Market.

Pictured below is what I actually purchased at the market that day...

Farm fresh eggs, the most fragrant strawberries I've ever smelled, parmesan focaccia and pea shoots. My original plan was to just add pea shoots to salads or garnish other dishes but on my way home, I thought, hey! Why don't I make a pesto out of it?

Pea shoots taste like...wait for it... peas! They're grassy and crisp and just a little sweet.

They basically taste like spring.

To make this pesto, you will need: pea shoots, parmesan, cilantro, salt, garlic cloves, toasted pine nuts and olive oil.

Pulse a few times in a food processor til all ingredients are finely chopped.

With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil.

When you are done, it should look something like this:

Scrape into a bowl or jar.

Now you're ready to enjoy! I used mine a couple different ways... on a chicken sandwich with that focaccia (pictured earlier in the post), warmed up with some angel hair pasta, and also in a pasta salad.

For this pasta salad, I used whole grain bow tie pasta, added peas, chopped spinach and the remainder of the toasted pine nuts. Delicious!

Pea Shoot Pesto

1. Toast the pine nuts in a pan until golden. Takes 2-3 minutes. 2. In a food processor (or blender), pulse the pea shoots, pine nuts, cilantro, cheese, garlic and salt until finely chopped. 3. Slowly pour in the olive oil as the ingredients are blended with the motor running. 4. Scrape pesto into a jar or bowl.

Recipe from: NYTimes.com

Happy Eating!

-Alicia^2

Easy Easter Baskets!

There's a little over a week left to Easter, so if you haven't assembled an Easter basket for the little ones in your life, you still have time! I (AG) decided to get some for my "niece and nephew" (my cousin's kids, so technically my 2nd cousins), and the 3 kids who used to live in my old house when my fam lived in Brussels. They're like siblings and are adorable and make me feel super loved when I see them.

Target made it super easy. They have cute baskets of all kinds and fun trinkets to stuff them with- pretty much all at $1. How convenient that all of the kids love Disney Princesses and Spongebob...because that's what they had!

I also bought some items for the housemates' Easter baskets because well, I thought it would be fun. Those are not pictured here because I'd like to think that both of them will be reading this. :)

3 of the baskets completed- with jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, mini chocolate eggs, bug putty, Spongebob color packs, Disney princess notepad and pen, and Spongebob socks.

I opted for paper "grass" instead of the wire-y plastic stuff I used to get in my basket. A bag is $2 at Giant in the Easter candy aisle.

If you read my Christmas card post, you'll recall my love for heat embossing. These baskets will be complete once I make heat embossed tags with a chick/egg for their names.

But if I run out of time, there's always these embossed bunny gift tags on etsy.

I can't wait to give these to the kids. I know they're going to love them!

Happy assembling!

-AG

running: new year. new gear.

It's been nearly a year since I (AG) started running and I felt it was time to make a switch in gear. I had originally been running in a very stable pair of Asics. They were nice and cushiony which certainly helped ease into running with a sometimes-wonky lower back. But after several friends increasingly began to encourage me to try minimalist shoes and I had a LS deal at City Sports...I caved. City Sports is actually my go-to spot for all running gear. I have many pairs of their running capris (which I love) and their t-shirts. There was a great pair of CS pants that helped keep me warm on the colder days as well as a pullover.

The above photo is of my two new pairs of running shoes - the silver ones are neutral and the white saucony ones are minimalist.

The switch hasn't been too bad - I eased into them pretty quickly. It feels very strange to put on my old Asics after running around in these. And I think they did me well as I used them in the "Love the Run You're With" 5K and had a new PR!

That race was VERY VERY cold...possibly colder than the disastrous Hot Chocolate 15K at National Harbor in December. (We didn't end up blogging about this race but all I can say to sum it up is: Don't. Do. It.)

It was a little pricey for a 5K ($40) but check out the swag - fleece blanket!

So as I was saying - it was absolutely freezing that day. The wind just ripped right through all layers and had us shivering throughout the whole race. Oh and the other twist was that immediately around the first turn was a giant hill. Super. The saving grace was that it meant when we do the turn around and come back, we can just sprint down the hill to cross the finish. And I did in a new time, 33:01. It's not super fast, I realize this, but considering I used to finish a 5K in 38 and 36 minutes, I'm pretty excited about it!

I don't have any races lined up in March but that's because I will be physically (and mentally) trying to prepare myself for the longer races I am signed up for in April.

4/1 - Cherry Blossom Ten-Miler 4/22 - GW Parkway Classic Ten-Miler 4/29 - Pike's Peek 10K

And chances are, I will probably sign up (last minute) for the Crystal City 5K Fridays.

That's a lot of running for one month. And the furthest I've ever run is 15K so I'm actually a bit nervous about these 10-milers. I'm also signed up for a half marathon in the fall but there's no need to panic about that one. Yet. Hopefully it gets warmer soon so I can really hit the trails in preparation for these races.

So ... what races are you signed up for? Where do you shop for your gear and what have you bought that you loved?

Happy Running! AG

NY vs New England... revisited

Happy Tuesday! By now, hopefully you've all recovered from your Super Bowl hangovers/food comas.

Congrats to all the Giants fans out there! And condolences to all the Patriots fans. I (AC) am not a football fanatic, but was grew up in MA... so I was rooting for the Pats. AG didn't have a particular team alliance for this match up, but got no help from either team in helping her win her squares office pool (that opening score on a safety got things off to a bad start).

Anyway... enough sports talk, since that is about all I can handle (well, at least until we get into baseball season, go Red Sox!)

I decided to do a little NY vs NE match-up in the kitchen with Chowder Bowl 2012: Manhattan vs New England Clam Chowder!

Growing up in New England, the thought of tomatoes in my clam chowder is just blasphemous. But I have at least one friend who feels the exact opposite, that cream belongs no where near her chowder, so thought this would be a fun tie in to Sunday's big game.

I couldn't find a recipe that I loved, so I took the basic ingredients and came up with some of my own. Side note: did you know there are people out there that research the history of clam chowder?? The folks over at UMass Amherst put together the New England Chowder Compendium which I came across in searching for recipes. Worth checking out if you're interested in seeing how chowder recipes have evolved over the years.

Ingredients:

Manhattan Clam Chowder:

New England Clam Chowder:

Recipe:

Basic recipe for both chowders is the same, main difference being when you add the cream to one, you substitute the tomatoes in the other.

NY (Giants) may have won the Super Bowl, but IMHO as far as chowder goes New England will always come out on top.

Which chowder version to you prefer?

Cheers!

~ AC & AG

Chowder Bowl: New England Clam Chowder vs Manhattan Clam Chowder... which will be victorious?

Happy 2012! (A little late) Happy lunar new year! (Not quite so late)

Happy New Year readers! And thank you for your patience with our continued procrastination in getting up these blog posts!! We have ideas for posts... just never quite find the time to get them up here. Maybe we should have made more frequent posting a resolution... but then again, people usually end up breaking their resolutions*, so maybe it's better that we didn't?

*Notable exception: AG's No Potato Chip/No French Fry Resolution of 2011: 365+ days chip and fry free! --blog post to come!

Anyway, I hope everyone's 2012 has gotten off to a good start. For us, the year is shaping up to be fully loaded with running events. More races, longer races, and maybe even convert a few more friends over to the 'dark side' by talking them into joining us for some of our planned events. But, more on those later.

Monday was the start of the lunar new year! Happy Year of the Dragon to all! Here at Alicia^2, we celebrated with a little trip to Kam Sam Supermarket in Rockville to stock up on some treats and so AG could get some red envelopes to pass out for the new year.

shrimp dumplings

scallion pancakes

steamed pork dumplings

I decided to try my hand at making egg custard tarts, a common dim sum dish. We had some really tasty ones in a recent dim sum outing to Oriental East in Silver Spring. Since I'd never made these before, I did not have high expectations for this attempt... but I was pleasantly surprised. Not perfect, but a good first shot. The hardest thing was trying to find a recipe to work from. Lots of recipes, lots of options, all slightly different. Here are two recipes I used a a guide in adapting my version: allrecipes.com and Christine's recipes.

Ingredients:

Crusts

Custard

Helpful tools: individual tartlet tins... but alas, I could not find these. Instead I used disposable aluminum muffin pans and pressed the dough into them to form the tart crusts. I took the lazy way out this time and didn't roll out the dough. Next time I would hunt down the tart tins first. Then take the time to roll out the dough to ensure thin and more even crust.

Recipe:

Prepare crust

Prepare custard

a little puffy, but still pretty tasty!

These custard tarts can be equally enjoyed hot or cold, but I have a slight preference for the warm, straight out of the oven version. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!

新年快乐

~ AC & AG

chocolate sea salt shortbread cookies

Oh the holidays! 'Tis the season to be... eating? You have to love this time of the year, if only for the excuse to indulge a bit more than usual. (You'll work everything off come the new year, right?)

I always associate the holiday season food and baking. Whether it is getting together with friends or family for a big meal, or to make some sweet treats, or just to gorge on said sweet treats at the endless stream of holiday parties that seem to run from after Thanksgiving straight through New Year's. 

When I was younger, I used to get together with some friends of the family for a cookie making party. This year I was happy to renew that tradition when our friend Tu-Van decided to organize one.

AG brought her secret recipe sugar cookie dough to the party where we all took turns rolling dough, cutting out shapes, decorating, and baking. Everyone had a good time (even those 'forced' into decorating duties!) and we ended up with a heaping portion of cookies:

  AG showing off the A^2 mitten she decorated.

I brought chocolate sea salt shortbread dough as my contribution to the party. I was inspired to make these after trying a version by BKLYN Larder (SO many tasty treats here. If you're in Brooklyn, you should definitely stop in!)

As I probably mentioned before, baking and I don't always get along. BUT, this time was a success (no burnt cookie bottoms! and they were pretty tasty to boot!). I would like to thank all of my fellow cookie makers/decorators for helping me keep a watchful eye on these as they were baking... I think this is what helped me break out of my baking curse!

Chocolate Sea Salt Shortbread Cookies

Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

Notes:

*For the cookie party I made two batches of dough... the first I made with baking powder because I misread the ingredients. The second I made correctly with the baking soda. I didn't notice a huge difference between them, both were full of chocolatey goodness.

**The first time making these I used fine sea salt to mix in and also for topping. Taste-wise this was fine, but appearance-wise I was hoping to visibly see more of the salt post-baking. I'd recommend using the flakier fleur de sel or even coarse sea salt for the topping. The second time through I used fine sea salt for the mixing in and coarse sea salt for topping (results pictured).

Recipe:

Do you have any holiday food traditions? Feel free to share any of your holiday cookie recipes!

Happy holidays!

~ AC & AG

cranberry-orange infused vodka.

Back in college, I was convinced to do 99 days at the Tombs. Was I a student at Georgetown? No. Did I do it? Hells yeah! See below:

Name. On a plaque. In a bar. Oh yeah.

So anyway, the point of this story is cranberry-orange vodka. For a lot of those 99 days, I drank Stoli O and Cranberry. It's sweet and girly. And that's fine by me.

In addition to gifting homemade limoncello, I also decided to make cranberry-orange infused vodka in honor of my favorite mixed drink.

Fresh cranberries. Sugar. Water. Simmer.

Into a non-reactive container with orange peel.

Add everclear. Yes, everclear. Just don't take a big whiff of it. It hurts your nose.

Strain/discard cranberries & peel. Add (filtered) water. Chill in freezer. Bottle. Freeze again. Enjoy!

Cranberry-Orange Infused Vodka

Ingredients: 1 package of fresh cranberries; 2 cups of cranberries to infuse the vodka, reserve the rest for a quick jam 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons additional sugar 4 tablespoons water 1 orange; will be using peel and juice 1 liter of Everclear 1.5 liters water (I used bottled SmartWater) 

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, heat 2 cups of cranberries, sugar and water until the sugar dissolves and the liquid becomes pink in color. After the cranberries have burst, pour the cranberries and liquid into a non-reactive container. Stir in the peel and Everclear. I used Everclear so that the most flavor is extracted from the cranberries and orange peel. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 day.

2. On the second day, strain out the fruit and peel and discard. Add 1.5 liters of filtered water. (Since Everclear is 95% alcohol, 190 proof, to bring it down to 80-ish proof, we add 1.5 liters of water per 1 liter of alcohol. Don't worry, I didn't do this calculation, I made the guy at the liquor store do it. I may be Asian but I am horrible at math.) Put back into container and freeze overnight. 

3. On day 3 or 4 (or really whenever you get to it), take the remaining cranberries and throw them into a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Once they have simmered and the berries have burst, take that orange that you used the peel from, cut it in half and squeeze half of the juice into the pan. Let reduce a little longer and then remove from heat. 

4. Use a funnel to add the cranberry jam to each bottle. You'll probably need a chopstick to push it through too. Then add your liquor. Add a pretty bow and a label and you've got a homemade gift.

Recipe yields 2.5 liters; can make multiple gifts depending on the size of bottles used. Can be served chilled on the rocks, in a cosmopolitan or added to prosecco (which is how I intend to drink mine). 

Cheers and Happy Holidays from Alicia G and Alicia C!

homemade holiday cards.

AG here. I promise we haven't abandoned our blog even though the lack of posts would make you believe otherwise. We have been busy with a lot of DIY projects for the holidays. We probably would have posted them sooner than now but since some of these projects are gifts...well, we didn't want to ruin the surprise.

First up (because I know these are in the mail/received already) are holiday cards! (If you haven't sent yours out yet or you want to do New Year's Cards instead - hopefully this will give you some inspiration!) So normally I sent out postcards from moo.com of a photo I've taken because then you don't need an envelope and you only pay for a postcard stamp. Buuuut I totally dropped the ball on that. I ultimately decided to go with rubber stamping and heat embossing. 

And so we begin with red and green envelopes from Paper Source. 

The snowflake rubber stamp is from the Paper Source as well. It's heat embossed. 

The Mistletoe Stamp from Yellow Owl Workshop was absolutely irresistable. It comes in a pouch with a bow stamp as well. So we start with the bow...

Use a watermark ink pad and then dump your embossing powder on top. I used a cherry red glitter powder.

Shake it off.

Apply heat.

Annnnd voila!

Next we have the mistletoe. I used a green inkpad and super fine clear embossing powder.

Shake it off again and add heat.

Now add a message. 

And then you're all set! 

Don't go away! We'll be back early next week with more DIY stuff - calendars, cookies and alcohol infusions! 

Happy crafting!

Alicia^2 Craft Corner: T-Shirt Quilt

So our blog has existed for about 6 months now with the tagline: "We cook. We craft. We create." And yet, we haven't blogged about a single craft project. That's not to say we haven't been crafting...we've just not been so great about telling you about it. I (AG) have finished knitting 2 scarves but more importantly, finally completed my t-shirt quilt...a 3 year project.

Yes, you read that right. It has taken me 3 years to finish this. I started it on a whim the year after I graduated from college. I had just moved into a new apartment with a new roommate and I just couldn't see letting the shirts take up space in my dresser knowing I would never wear them. At the same time, I couldn't just throw them away. So I cut them up instead.

I used my old 11x14 glass painting palette as the template and cut out 24 patches. 

Since I didn't know anyone at that time with a sewing machine, I sewed them all together by hand. And then I sewed the rows together. This sewing occurred over the next two years as I had forgotten about the patches for awhile...moved to another apartment the following year...forgot about them again...and then finally moved to my own place the year after that. 

^ 4 rows done

Once I had all of the rows together (a total of 6), I sought help from someone with a sewing machine. Enter Little Asian Sweatshop. LAS is the fabulous Fenny, a very talented seamstress/crafter friend of Alicia^2 who was incredibly kind enough to help me with my project. Find her etsy shop here and her facebook page here.

For the back of my quilt, we purchased 2 yards of navy blue 1" diamond double faced quilt. Let's face it, I'm not that great with quilting so there was no need to get too fancy with this, especially since I plan on using it for outdoor picnics and at parks. 

So what we had to do was cut the fabric in half lengthwise and stitch it together along the width to make sure it would cover the whole back. Then pin the quilt to the back and sew. Seems simple enough, right? 

Well. Yes. But when you add wine to the mix...sometimes things get overlooked. Fenny has hilariously recapped our night of sewing on her blog so if you want a good laugh, click on over. 

To sum it up, there was blood, Hello Kitty band-aids and the painful realization that I had sewn the backing on the wrong side. Yeahh. Not the finest moment but I had a good laugh about it. By the time we realized this, it was midnight and it was not getting fixed that night. 

Fenny was kind enough to rip out the seams and re-sew it but I'm sure it didn't take her as long as it took me to just line up the pins. 

Even after Fenny finished, there was still some legwork that I needed to complete. They're small, so you might not seem them clearly in the photo, but I put handsewn x's in each corner of the patches to make sure the shirts were actually attached to the backing. I used black embroidery floss and a sharp darning needle.

So if you're heading home for the holidays this week and have a stack of old t-shirts that you love but never wear, I suggest making a quilt out of them! It's not an easy project but will certainly keep you busy. 

My favorite patches have to be the yellow Special Olympics shirt from China (I interned there in Beijing), the Tombs 99 Days Class of 07 and the I <3 Wu shirt also from Beijing. Most of the other shirts are from my volunteering days with Alpha Phi Omega and others are a little nerdy (Pep Band) but I love them.

Hope you've gathered a little bit of inspiration from this post. We hope to get a few other crafting posts up soon, especially with the holidays. I love making my holiday cards every year and this year, I will be incorporating heat embossing with my rubber stamping.

Have a great week and Thanksgiving everyone!