this week on tumblr (royal wedding edition)

If you thought I could or would stay above the fray surrounding THE WEDDING OF THE CENTURY, then you don't know me very well at all. I'm irrationally drawn to this glorious royal event and all of the hullabaloo, nonsense, over-the-topness and glamor of it all. I mean... princes and princesses! Tiaras! Horse-drawn carriages. I dare you not to get a little bit swept up. Even if you didn't set your alarm for an early-morning live viewing in your PJs and fancy hat, I want to share a few Royal Wedding-themed favorites from Tumblr, just for you. Now go fix yourself a gin and tonic, or cup of tea, and get obsessed.

(Free! Royal Wedding Party Printables - Design Editor 

found via How About Orange)

For your Royal Wedding Party! I feel like a serious failure for not hosting a party. I mean, when I look back on this day in history, I'll have to tell my grandbabies that I was just behaving like a normal human being and did not throw a fantastically over-the-top Royal Wedding party. Future generations will judge me.

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(via Get Yer Royal Wedding On Shopper’s Guide | Apartment Therapy New York)
British-themed tea party!

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(via Knit your own Royal Wedding - Telegraph)
Taking it a bit too far, maybe. But I respect the commitment.

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(via Spring Fruit Tarts Recipe | House & Home)

Wouldn't this be a cute dessert for your Royal Wedding party?

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 (via Celebrate with Will and Kate - plus 8 Coupons for Royal Savings at Price Chopper!)
Even the grocery stores are getting in on the action. Stop by the P-Chop for deals on fish and chips, tea, bangers and mash and even a little tiny cake.

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(via Kate Middleton’s Hats and Fascinators: The 10 Best : People.com : People.com)
I really, truly, sincerely hope that crazy hats become more commonplace. The fascinators are starting to creep back in, but I'm cheering for a full-fledge return of hats. For both men and women. C'mon Kate, if anyone can do it, it's you.
 

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(Awesome one from someecards, via apostrophiee)

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And yes, in case you had any doubts, I woke up early to watch the procession and the wedding live. And yes, of course, I loved every minute of it. Those princes are just the cutest and the new princess is gorgeous, obviously.  And I really like those big trees they brought into the Abbey. Almost like a quiet wedding in the woods, right? Hmm. As a sidenote, it's so cruel that they don't let the bride and groom kiss in the Church of England. I mean, c'mon already.

So that's that. Happy Royal Wedding Day!

swappin' food and takin' names

Last Friday's festivities included an optional food swap. A food swap! I'd heard of them before, but never formally participated in a swap. Unless you count giving away random things in my kitchen to my mom and sister, knowing that next time they'd give me something random from their kitchen. ("Mom, you want this potato? I don't think I'm going to use it." "Sure, take this bag of beans for your soup.")

From the party invitation:

A food swap is an opportunity to share homemade food with others while also getting a ton of goodies to bring home. This is an anything-goes swap so you can bring whatever home-produced item you'd like: loaves of bread, quick breads, soups, stews, canned/pickled goods, condiments, crackers, dinner/lunch/breakfast entrees, jams, whatever.

Ooh, I like it. Our swap was pretty casual, and we were divided into groups of five and then everyone in a group swapped their stuff. So you only had to bring four sets of your swap item. Totally manageable. I brought a Roasted Garlic Hummus and walked away with homemade macaroni and cheese, sweet and sour salad dressing, a spinach tart and palak paneer! And it's been rad ever since, because whenever I'm hungry I've been able to just open the fridge and I have ready-to-eat delicious food ready for me.



Other food swaps I've read about are structured like a silent auction or a straight-up bartering-only market. You actually walk around with your food and ask people if you can trade them your hummus for one of their apple pies. Because I don't handle rejection all that well, I was pleased that no one in my group had the opportunity to reject my hummus offering. Though they would have been off their rockers to do so, because this shizzy is good. And it's really easy to make too, which means now I can't swap it anymore because everyone will know how simple it is to DIY.

Swap-able Roasted Garlic Hummus
(This recipe is inspired by one sent by the doc.)
Ingredients

• 1 can of chickpeas, reserve the liquid
• 5-6 tbsp tahini 
• 2 cloves of roasted garlic(do it yourself, it's easy)
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 dashes tabasco
• 3/4 tsp salt

 Directions

1. For the garlic roasting, just head over to this wonderful post by Joy the Baker. She tells you about the wonders of roasted garlic, shows you pretty pictures and teaches you how to do it. Hint: you cut the tip off of a head of garlic, peel off a few of the outside layers, drizzle olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and wrap it up in foil to roast in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.
2. Add all of the ingredients to your food processor, plus 2 tablespoons of the reserved liquid. Pulse pulse pulse. Add more liquid if you think it needs it.

THAT IS ALL. I recommend serving it with pita chips, but you could just use a spoon or your fingers if you were so inclined. Keep it low-carb or whathaveyou.

(This photo is from the talented Thea Coughlin, all others were taken by yours truly.)

So now I'm totally into food swaps. I've been mulling over a Sunday Soup Swap for a few months now, but I think I may hold off on it until soup season returns or I'm feeling more inspired. Everyone would bring quarts of their favorite homemade soup and then you'd swap and have a freezer full of soup! The perfect situation, if you ask me.

More food swap resources:

• The New York Times wrote an article about this new hip thang.
• The Kitchn hosted their first food swap and offer some tips.
• Hip Girl Kate Payne has lots o' resources to share, being the Queen of Food Swaps. She also has a good list of ongoing food swaps throughout the country.

Ok, ok I'll stop yammering on about this party and the book... for now. You'll be hearing more about it, of course, I work my way through the projects and tips. For other round-ups, follow From Scratch Club's facebook page, and check out this great slideshow by Thea Coughlin Photography.

gluten-free chocolate cheesecake brownies

Here are the brownies that I brought to last week's dessert potluck. They happen to be gluten-free and they are once again from that Quinoa 365 cookbook. I promise I'll lay off that one for a little while. They are super fudgey and rich, maybe a little more so than I generally like my brownies, but they are tasty. I'm actually of the absurd and evil belief that brownies from a box mix are more delicious than any brownie I've ever made from scratch. I know, I know. Traitorous. Murderous. Absolutely sinful. But there, I said it. I love brownies from a mix. I love that thin crust-like layer they get, I love how they are the perfect blend between fudgey and cakey. I love everything about them, except maybe any mystery ingredients they've stuck in there. Turn me into the police, tell my family I love them and I'm so sorry for letting everyone down.

But, if you'd like to make your own gluten-free, superfood, fudgey brownies... well, be my guest.  Here's a recipe.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredient
For the Brownie Base

• 1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour

For the Cheesecake Topping

• 8 oz package light cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp quinoa flour
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease an 8 or 9" square baking pan. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate chips and butter together and stir. Remove from heat.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla together. Add in the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour and mix until blended. Spread in the bottom of the pan.
3. In another medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and egg together. Blend in the milk and flour and then divide the mixture in half. Spread the other half over the brownie base in the pan.
4. In the small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips over low heat and then add to the reserved cheesecake mixture and blend. Drizzle over cheesecake mixture in pan and then use a knife to swirl the surface into a pretty pattern. (Mine didn't drizzle very well at all, so I just spooned mounds of the chocolatey stuff on the cheesecake layer and then swirled with a knife.)
5. Bake for 35 minutes until the middle of the cheesecake just springs back a bit when gently pressed. Cool and chill before you even think of cutting them, or it will be a big old mess. Trust. Makes 16 small brownies or nine gigundo brownies.

This recipe requires a lot of dishes. You need a saucepan, a medium bowl that ends up getting chocolatey and then another medium bowl to mix the cheesecake topping without getting it chocolatey. Then the pan. And an electric mixer and of course the measuring cups and spoons and a spatula to scrape it out of the bowl and into the pan. And finally, a knife to swirl the damn topping. But they are good and gluten-free, if you're staying away from the gluten. Which I didn't even realize was a thing until like a year or two ago.

hip girls indeeed

As predicted, the house party for The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking was awesome.  So awesome, in fact, that I'll be milking it all week long here at Chateau Unspeakable Visions. There were desserts (oh so many desserts!) and a food swap and awesome people and cute little babies and one really great book and that book's author.

When you get a bunch of women together and ask them each to bring a dessert, watch out, because it's going to get really awesome really quickly. There were brownies (black bean! regular! my chocolate cheesecake ones!), pies, tarts, cupcakes, fudge, biscotti, trifle, cake and cupcakes and cookies. So I took a few pictures and then propmtly stuffed myself silly.

This is Sister's Easy Two-Layer Fudge, and right behind that are the brownies I brought. You'll get that recipe later this week.

Too many dessert photos? No, I think not.

Two local bakeries, All Good Bakers (you know them by now, right?) and X's to O's Vegan Bakery donated tasty treats and a nearby wine shop donated some New York State booze. I chit-chatted, met new people and talked with author Kate Payne about tiny kitchens and how sometimes reading too many DIY blogs can make you feel like crap. (Right? Do you ever read blogs and think, "Well shit, they've got it all together. They have a glamorous job, a clean house, a huge kitchen with an island and dishwasher and, oh I don't know, drawers for things like silverware plus they sew all of their own clothes and grow all of their own food and run five miles every morning and sing in a folk band and they summer in the south of France and their eye makeup never smudges off!" Anyone else ever feel like that? Maybe we can all talk about this some more later, if anyone's interested in some group therapy.)

So yeah, the party was a blast and Kate Payne is a blast and as a sidenote, I really love the boots she had on.  Here she is whooping it up with Sister, Ms. Silly Goose Farm and Erika of Our DIY Life.

And here we are. I asked if we could take the picture sitting down so I wouldn't look like so much of a little pipsqueak because she is a normal-height person, a description I've only recently realized does not apply to me.

Thank you so much to the lovely ladies of the From Scratch Club for throwing this house party and for the awesome Ms. Payne for trekking out to the Capital Region. It would have been a perfect night except for the part where I got home, started putting away dishes and then got a paint & wood chip sliver under my freaking fingernail and had to perform a gruesome quasi-surgical procedure on said fingernail. Luckily, I had a glass of wine in me already so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, although it might have made me a bit more reckless with the surgical tools than was safe. I'm recovering nicely, though, thank you.

Up next: a recipe for gluten-free chocolate cheesecake brownies, details about my first-ever food swap and a sneak peek into The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking.You won't want to miss it.

weekday soup, roasted red pepper & tomato

Hmm, we're slowly making our way out of soup season and into... grilling season? Salad season? I love me some soup all year round, but they really are best on a cold, blustery day. This week has been rainy and chilly-ish here so we decided soup was in order. This recipe is from that Quinoa 365 book I've mentioned before. It got a lot of play in our kitchen this week: we made this soup, a Southwestern quinoa salad and a dessert from it (more about the dessert and what it was made for soon). All quinoa'd out for now.  This soup recipe was easy and even though we forgot to buy fresh basil, it was really tasty. It also doesn't require hours of simmering, the book calls for just five minutes but we let it cook up for about a half hour.

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped roasted red pepper (I used the kind from a jar)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1 cup half and half (I used 1/2 cup light cream and 1/2 cup almond milk, because that's what we had!)

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion for about eight minutes until tender and then add in the tomatoes, red pepper, basil (if you remembered to buy it), sugar and salt.
2. Add the veggie stock and flour to the pot and whisk together. Bring everything to a boil, then lower the temperature and simmer for about a half hour (less is fine if you're in a rush).
3. Remove from heat and puree cooked mixture with an immersion blender or in batches using a food processor. Return the soup to low heat and stir in your cream/half and half.

We ate ours with miniature grilled cheeses on slices of Sesame Whole Wheat Oatmeal Stout Sourdough (long name, great flavor).  Tomorrow night I'm going to the coolest party ever-- a book tour/dessert potluck/food swap party celebrating the release of The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking! Eek, right? The rad bloggers of From Scratch Club are hosting author Kate Payne during this little stop on her book tour! Everyone's bringing a dessert, we can get our copies of the book signed and then we are doing a food swap so we all go home with tasty treats too. Seriously awesome. The dessert I mentioned earlier is for tomorrow night and uses quinoa flour. More details next week :

iron & wine (& local brews)

(via Iron & Wine)

We went to an Iron & Wine show this past weekend at Mass Moca- great band, great venue. And we had a great little walk around Williamstown, a car picnic in North Adams and then dinner and drinks with friends before the show. Right before the concert started, I found out that The Low Anthem was opening, which was a most pleasant surprise. Also pleasant: finding out that Mass Moca was serving local brews instead of Budweiser.

Do you know about NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series? It's a series of mini-concerts recorded live in someone's office at NPR. Iron & Wine's performance is particularly awesome (see above). It's just the singer Sam Beam without any band. The last song might make you cry a little, if you're into crying over music. Which I'm not, obviously, because that's so weird. So very weird...

PS- Other great Tiny Desk Concerts: Adele, Frazey Ford, K'naan and Rodrigo y Gabriela. And an interesting interview on Design*Sponge with Sam Beam about his album art.

all good bakers storefront now open

You know how I've been bragging about the delicious baked goods I get every week from All Good Bakers? And how you've been jealous and bitter because you weren't a VIP baked good recipient (although, I mean, you could have been at any time)? Well, you're in luck. All Good Bakers now has a storefront! A cute, cozy storefront offering locally-source breads and from-scratch baked goods.

They sell tasty treats such as Upstate Bialys, Seasonal Wholegrain Muffins and Buttermilk Scones, Vegan Cinnamon Buns (SO GOOD), Biscotti, Crispy Brown Rice Energy Treats, English Muffins and Rolls and Daily Breads including Hearty Multigrain, Rustic Italian, Rye, Whole Wheat, Spelt, White and Whole Wheat Sourdough Baguettes and creative Specialty Loaves.

They are also offering Specialty Foccacia topped with local produce and cheese. And let me be completely frank, it's addicting. I tried one that had roasted garlic on it and if I ate one sample, I ate twenty. So damn good.  On Sundays they serve light brunch, too, with buttery croissants and seasonal quiche. You know I love a quiche.

But what's even cooler is that they are environmentally- and community-minded. Arrive to the bakery by foot, bike or bus? 10% discount. Bring your own mug for coffee because they are reducing waste by not using paper cups (they also have some mugs on hand). They donate leftovers to the Mercy House Women's Shelter and Refugee Resettlement Program of Albany Catholic Charities. And they share their kitchen with another local producer, Gatherer's Granola, a maker of really awesome granola.

It's been such a great experience getting to know All Good Bakers and having the opportunity to enjoy fresh, from-scratch and delicious baked goods and bread made with locally-sourced, organic ingredients. A friend asked me why I was so pumped about this bakery, as in "Are they paying you to advertise?" and I was like, "Nope, but I really really want to be able to continue to buy quality items made with quality ingredients by quality people." And judging by the crazy crowds there on opening weekend, it looks like they're around to stay :)

Stop by and visit Nick and Britin!

All Good Bakers

160A Quail Street

Albany, NY

Spring 2011 Hours

Fridays, 11am-6pm

Saturdays, 11am-4pm

Sundays, 10am-2pm

PS- Check out their website, their blog and then like 'em on Facebook to stay up to date on their weekly specials.

tiny spaces

(Teen Tiny Entry: Laura's Sophisticated Studio)

I'm loving all of the entries for Apartment Therapy's Small/Cool 2011 Contest. I browse through them everyday and am reminded that small homes can be just as cool, just as polished and just as functional. Which isn't to say that we are opposed to having a wee bit more space, say, enough so that we don't store our spare bike parts in our kitchen cabinets or our wine glasses on a shelf in our bedroom. But still, small can be cool. From Apartment Therapy's site:

At Apartment Therapy we've always believed that small homes can be the most inspiring and influential, filled with design ideas and solutions to motivate and educate us all. From teeny tiny studio apartments to compact cottages, we love discovering the homes that really show off just how cool small homes can be.

For the seventh year, Apartment Therapy invites readers from around the world to wow us with their beautiful small spaces and tips for living well in under 1000 square feet. Join in and help make this our best Small Cool contest yet - send in an entry, start choosing your favorites and support your picks by sharing them with your friends.

I'm happy to learn that our apartment doesn't qualify for the smallest category, "Teeny-Tiny". We are spacious enough to just fall in the "Tiny" category :)

 (Teeny-Tiny Entry: Alyssa's Light & Views)

(Tiny Entry: Jess' Greener Life in a Small Space)

Every year we think about finding a bigger space. Maybe this year we will. If not though, I've got plenty of inspiration stored up for how to spruce up our wee home. And apparently, small homes are all the rage these days, so we are actually ridiculously hip. Given that brussels sprouts are trendy this year, we are basically rock stars. At least according to my calculations. If you've got a cozy space to show off, you have until April 20 to enter the Small/Cool 2011 contest over here!

PS- Check out these 10 Organized and Efficient Small Real Kitchens too.

guest post: sweet potato gnocchi with balsamic brown butter

Dudes, I have an extra special treat for you today. A guest post from my sis! Kate is an amazing incredible cook, she has thick curly hair that I covet very much and she's always up for a good time. When I heard that she made gnocchi from scratch, I was all, "OMG!!!1! We must share this with the world." And so I made her write up her recipe, knowing full well that I'll probably just force her to make it for me again instead of actually learning to do it myself. Ah, well, what are big sisters for if not to make you homemade pasta and buy you boxes of wine when you're underage? (Sorry, Mom & Dad.) I present to you my sister Kate and her delicious gourmet dinner recipe. I apologize in advance that in the photos they somehow look like little chicken nuggets. This is my fault; I was practically drooling over these tiny guys and wasn't patient enough to grab a proper photo!

Hey folks! Let’s just say that the cookbook/recipe obsession runs in the family. So in light of my love for all things food, here is a guest post about gnocchi.

Gnocchi are basically a dumpling that can be made from a variety of ingredients. Most people would probably recognize potato gnocchi since it is often served at Italian restaurants. Having had gnocchi at restaurants and cooking the frozen and shelf-stable varieties at home, I finally decided it was time to try making them from scratch. Luckily my ambition cleared the way for what ended up being a very labor intensive process. Was it worth it? Heck yes. That’s what I love about cooking, being able to eat the fruits of your labor. Sure sometimes you end up with an epic fail, but that just makes the successes more impressive!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Balsamic Brown Butter 
(Inspired by this recipe)
Ingredients
Gnocchi

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed*

Balsamic Brown Butter

• ½ cup butter (I used salted. If you use unsalted, be sure to season to taste.)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

Garnishes

• Freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Prick sweet potatoes all over with a fork. Place on a baking sheet and roast until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, cut in half and scoop the flesh from the potato and place in a large bowl, discarding the skin. Mash with a potato masher, then let cool, about 15 minutes.
3. Add olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and nutmeg, and work into the warm potatoes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and using your hands, work into a smooth, soft dough. Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 equal portions.** Roll each portion between your palms into a long rope, about ¾-inch thick. If the rope won't hold together, return it to the bowl with the remaining dough and work in more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed. Cut each rope of dough into ¾-inch long pieces. Press each piece against the tines of a floured fork, then drop into the lightly floured surface.*** (Gnocchi also can be placed in a single layer on a lightly floured baking sheet and refrigerated for several hours. Alternately, the gnocchi can be frozen for 1 hour then transferred to an airtight container and frozen for up to 1 month.) 
5. In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water and the remaining 2 teaspoons of salt to a low boil. Add the gnocchi in batches**** and cook just until they float to the top, 1 ½ to 2 minutes (or 3 minutes for frozen gnocchi.) Remove the gnocchi from the water with a slotted spoon and dry on towels.
6. For the Balsamic Brown Butter: In a medium saucepan, cook the butter over medium heat until brown bits form and it has a nutty aroma, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the balsamic vinegar.***** Stir well. Adjust seasoning, to taste. 

Transfer gnocchi to a large serving dish and gently toss to coat with the balsamic butter. Garnish with black pepper and Parmesan. Serves 4-6.

Notes from the chef:
*I ended up using what I estimate to be about 3-3 ½ cups of flour total. You don’t want a sticky dough, but you don’t want a dry dough either.
 
**Divide the dough into as many portions as workable for you. I do not have the counter space to support dividing the dough into just 4 portions, so I did 8 which was more manageable.
 
***Don’t get hung up on the fork rolling…I didn’t. My technique needs some work but, in the mean time my gnocchi are ‘rustic’ because that’s what chefs say when their dishes aren’t perfect looking.(Editor's Note: I LOVE THIS. Now I call every dish I make "rustic".)
 
****I cooked my gnocchi in one batch, but was careful not to overcrowd the pot. I also just drained them in a colander, but was gentle with them.
 
*****On the Balsamic Brown Butter, BE CAREFUL when adding the vinegar. The HOT butter will bubble up in a scary fashion. Be sure to use a saucepan with high sides and you should be a-ok.

boozy amaretto pound cake

In preparation for last weekend, I Googled "boozy desserts" and was delighted to find a ton of recipes. The Kitchn even had an entire round-up called "11 Spiked and Boozy Desserts". Glad to see everyone else is on the same page when it comes to blending two wonderful food groups (?) together. I had all of the ingredients for this already, so Amaretto Pound Cake it was.

Boozy Amaretto Pound Cake
(From here)
Ingredients
For the cake:

• 2 cups bread flour (or all-purpose), plus a smidge more for coating the pan
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup amaretto
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp amaretto

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9x5x3" loaf pan with parchment paper, coat with butter and then coat with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. 
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about one minute until creamy and smooth. Add sugar and continue beating for another four minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half of the flour mixture and continue beating until just mixed in. Add the amaretto and vanilla and mix. Then add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just mixed in. Pour into prepared loaf pan and smooth out with a rubber spatula.
4. Bake for approximately one hour, until cake is puffy and golden and it passes the toothpick test. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for ten minutes. Remove from pan and cool another half hour or so.
5. Make the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and amaretto in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake. If you've got 'em, garnish with slivered almonds. 

 

If you don't have time to cool the cake, just put it next to you on the passenger's seat for your drive down the Taconic Parkway and glaze it while your friends are busy getting to know the neighbor across the street.

spring fever festival

While Chris continued to soak up the rays in Palm Springs, I decided that a proper Spring Fever Festival weekend was in order. Last Saturday I packed up my pjs, whipped up an Amaretto Pound Cake and drove down to the Hudson Valley to see my good buddies.

We made some pizza for lunch and fixed ourselves a cocktail. One must have priorities when hosting a Spring Fever Festival.

Then we headed outside to putz around in the garden for a little bit.

Next up on the schedule was a grueling home manicure/trash magazine reading session followed by more cocktails and chips with guacamole hummus. Guacamole hummus. Genius.

We Skyped in our West Coast satellite Spring Fever Festival location and shared a cross-continental beer before ordering dinner, digging into the pound cake and playing a few rounds of cards. Because that is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Even our canine mascot Bella got into the spring spirit with her little bandana.

I'll share the Amaretto Pound Cake recipe tomorrow. It's a perfect boozy snack for a Spring Fever Festival weekend. Does it feel like springtime where you are yet? Besides the nonstop rain we've had the past few days, it's still feeling like late winter here. Blergo.