kitchen Archives - Page 17 of 29

Christmas Market | ABC Carpet + Home | 1st Floor | NYC

Every time I’m in New York City I do my best to get to ABC Carpet + Home. The iconic home furnishings purveyor always manages to wow me with their windows, displays and offerings, and this visit was no exception. In fact, I felt like I had stumbled upon an international Christmas market with my first glimpse at their inspired winter windows!

Once inside, their ever-changing bazaar of products is truly a feast for the senses, and ABC knows how to do Christmas with an exotic and eclectic flair.

For all my New York friends who are searching for incredible ornaments or unique, international, organic or handcrafted hostess gifts this season, you will want to make ABC a destination on your shopping adventures.

These gorgeous wooden tea utensils would make a thoughtful and lovely hostess gift paired with your favourite tin of tea and some good Manuka honey.

I fell head-over-heels for the organic shapes and subtleties of the porcelain dinnerware from Jan Burtz. The gilded finish on some of the fluttered-edge bowls and plates are decadently simple and such a refined take on rustic. I also love the way they have been layered with vintage china for a truly unique table setting.

Given my addiction to wood in all it’s forms, I was truly in my glory with this lovely corner of their First Floor.

These large, live-edged salad bowls had me drooling and are very much on my wish list for this {or any!} Christmas.

With all these photos, I’ve truly only given you a tiny taste of the veritable feast for the senses that awaits at ABC. And this is just the First Floor!! Can’t wait to share more from them with you soon.

Wishing you a happy and productive Wednesday!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 28th, 2012|1 Comment

Natural Food Colouring | Using Beets, Carrots + Pomegranates to Create Gorgeous Cupcake Icing!

Today I have the absolute delight of introducing you to my sweet and talented friend Natalie. To say that Natalie has prowess when it comes to baking and decorating confections would be a MAJOR understatement. Natalie is something of a genius with baked goods, in fact, and she recently decided to take her genius to a whole new level by experimenting with natural dies instead of food colouring to make gorgeous and inspired cupcakes. Here is Natalie’s process of experimentation and the BEAUTIFUL results!!

I have a theory that people like the idea of cupcakes more than they actually like to consume them. Sure the first bite is exciting. The second bite is enthused. By the third bite you can hear the faint sounds of sobbing dentists the world over and when you hit the cupcake home stretch the regret starts to set in. Regret tastes like a metric ton of refined sugar, shortening, and chemical food colouring.

I like my cupcakes small, interesting, and flavorful.

The trend of sky-high icing and fondant accessories has done the cupcake no favors. It’s too much! In my own form of mini rebellion, I now only make mini cupcakes. I’d rather have someone go back for seconds than abandon ship. After a delicious meal, a delightful caress of something sweet is all you need, not a glycemic index assault.

I set out to make a new icing variation without flour, eggs, shortening or food colouring. I knew there would still be sugar, but could I cut it down and still find a texture that pipes my fun dahlia petals?

I need very little encouragement to experiment with cheese. Goat cheese has such a versatile flavor and doesn’t need too much to become sweet. For the icing I used:

¾ cup of unpasteurized soft goat cheese (chilled)

1 cup of organic confectioners sugar (sifted*)

½ cup of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

* I’ve been programmed to ignore the word “sifted” until recently. Take the time to sift or strain, especially when using organic confectioners sugar. It’s made from crushed organic cane sugar and tends to clump more than refined.

I wanted my cupcake flowers to be a soft pink and so I experimented with 3 different natural stains: pomegranate, beets, and purple carrots. The pomegranate was the first one up. I sliced and squeezed and added a few teaspoons to the mixer. If you’re used to gel food colouring that stirs easily into the icing, you’ll quickly notice that the viscosity of the juice needs to be incorporated with a mixer. The colour was a soft pink and the flavor of the pomegranate was very subtle but present.

The only casualty of the day. It’s kind of ombré and I kind of like it.

Next, I sliced and boiled two beets with a small amount of water. The color was rich and beautiful and transformed my wooden spoon into a permanent reminder of this experiment. Despite the richness of the colour, the icing looked exactly the same as the pomegranate version.

The final test was the Purple Carrot Juice from the Smart Juice line. I was introduced to non-orange carrots at Sarah’s Thanksgiving dinner and was instantly enamored by the colour, texture, and general weirdness. A few teaspoons into the icing produced a rich, pink/mauve colour.

Using my favourite Wilton #81 tip, I created flowers by piping petal by petal from the center of the cupcake out (yet another reason why small is good!). Choosing a goat cheese icing for this particular piping method is a little ambitious because the cheese softens as your hand warms it up but a few minutes in the refrigerator solidifies it again. A small mint leaf tucked into the side with a toothpick gives these cupcakes a refreshing flavor.

They’re delicious, they’re cute, and they’re made without harmful dyes. The goat cheese and mint adds a flavor that won’t leave this dessert deserted.

Can anyone say baked goods genius? Thank you so very much, Natalie, for sharing your creative genius with all of us! I have designs on getting you into the kitchen with me soon to do some stellar gluten free baking, K? The world needs more of your sweet goodness.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 20th, 2012|1 Comment

The Beautiful Process of Bonterra Vineyards

I love those conversations with a new friend where you discuss something you haven’t touched on yet only to discover you are totally like-minded and passionate about the same things. It’s always such a bonding moment, isn’t it? And so reassuring that this person you were naturally drawn to is somehow “your people.”

Well, I’ve kind of had that experience with a winery. I know, it might sound strange. But here’s my story.

I first stumbled upon Bonterra a few years ago via their Cabernet Sauvignon at a time when organic wines were very hard to come by. I was already on a journey towards cleaner living and determined that doing so didn’t mean I had to give up everything I loved, so I went off in search of organic alternatives to my old favourites on many fronts, including red wine. I had no idea at the time how fortunate I was to find Bonterra, but it was definitely “love at first sip” for us!

Let me interrupt my own story by answering a question I can hear ringing out there in the blogosphere. Why drink organic wine, you might ask? Well here’s three good reasons.

1. Organic wine is made with organic grapes. That means no pesticides or chemicals are sprayed on the grapes at any point during the process. Not only is this WAY better for your health, it also means the body and structure of the wine are not impeded by the chemicals, leading to a brighter, bolder flavour profile.

2. Organic wines contain fewer sulfites than non-organic wines. Sulfites are sulphuric acids that naturally occur in wine as a result of the fermentation process, but most non-organic wines have more sulfites added to them for preservation purposes. Organic wines, on the other hand, never have sulfites added during the winemaking process, making them much cleaner and healthier for your body.

3. Sustainability. According to the FDA, “organic wine is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.” You don’t have to take the FDA at their word, though. Bonterra’s story is a beautiful example of how a beautiful process {including caring for the earth} can result in a beautiful product.

OK, back to our story. Isn’t that a gorgeous photo? The delicate finch lightly perching on top of a bottle of Bonterra wine. A marketer’s dream image. But it’s not just marketing! It’s their real story. Bonterra truly is a winery that is in touch with nature.

In pursuit of creating a truly sustainable, organic and beautiful product, the team at Bonterra decided to approach pest control in the most heart-warming and ingenious way possible. Their brilliant team chose to build birdhouses all around the vineyard, welcoming the local finches and bluebirds to nest in these sweet and humble abodes. The birds offer up their thanks {“paying rent” if you will} by snapping up the bugs that would otherwise harm Bonterra’s crops. They get a tasty dinner, and we get gorgeous, organic, sustainably grown wines as a result!

I’ve already mentioned Bonterra’s Chardonnay {my go-to favourite for roasting the perfect turkey}, but here are three reds that are sure to convince you that organic is simply better in every way, including the incredibly rich and vibrant flavours they offer.

If the bluebirds and finches weren’t enough to get you swooning over this vineyard’s beautiful process, there is more to this heart-warming story. Every winter and early spring when it is time to tame the weeds and grasses that flourish on their pesticide-free property, the vineyard skips the air-polution of lawn mowers and heads straight for nature’s best grass-groomers: SHEEP! They bring in this fluffy herd of mowers and set them loose to trim back the grass and weeds and improve the biodiversity of the soil while they work!

You can see why I feel like they are “our people” now, right? Having just hosted a delightful dinner party last night for some amazing friends, I can tell you that Bonterra’s wines never fail to impress and delight, pairing well with so many of our favourite meals and hors d’oeuvres. I promise to feature some of our favourite pairings with Bonterra’s wines in future posts, but in the meantime I highly recommend popping out and picking up a few bottles for yourself! Once you’ve gone organic, you won’t go back. Not if Bonterra is in your wine rack or cellar!

Wishing you an inspired Thursday!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 15th, 2012|0 Comments