Watercress, Tomato, and Feta Pasta Salad

Watercress grows plentifully in the stream by my mother's house (zone 6). She found a calm part where the water flow is very gentle, very minimal, and has propagated a little watercress colony.

She brought over a bag of fresh watercress recently and I obviously turned to Pinterest to find a recipe to use it. This little salad was super simple, easy and quick, and used some interesting blanching techniques that I'd never tried.

Ingredients:

8 oz pasta (I used penne, you can use anything)

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

3 cups watercress leaves

1/4 tsp black pepper

Preparation:

1.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

2.

Place the cheese in a large bowl; top with the watercress. Before draining the pasta, take 1/4 cup of the cooking water from the pot and pour it over the watercress. (Watercress will wilt slightly and cheese will get soft.)

3.

Place the tomatoes in a colander. Drain the pasta over the tomatoes for a super-quick blanch.

4.

Toss with the watercress and cheese; sprinkle with pepper and serve.

I made this for dinner and the following day added some grilled chicken to the leftovers for a great lunch. NOM.

CRAFT - Blooming White Tulips

Last October I planted 200 tulip bulbs from VanEglen.com. I am beyond excited to report that they have just started to bloom and look gorgeous. Hip, hip, hooray! 

Montreaux Tulips - as of April 21, 2013

I purposely wanted to plant the bulbs en masse to create a big tulip presence in late April. I planted two varieties, the peony-like Mt Tacoma and the Montreaux. I think that just the Montreaux variety is blooming so far (it claims to bloom "mid-April"). I can't wait for the Mt Tacoma (which reads "late April") to also open up in the weeks to come!

Blood orange fennel relish on rainbow trout

I love cooking, it's the perfect blend of crafting and consuming. 

CRAFT: A couple nights back I worked on a blood orange fennel relish. In progress (below) are the chopped fennel fronds, my amazing citrus zester (a gift from my sister, similar here), and lemon juice. I often craft dinner with some vino in-hand. 

CRAFT- Planting Ranunculus Bulbs

Ranunculus are like the Celine bag of gardening right now. They are everywhere, trending like crazy (and understandably so). These gems are vibrant, colorful, and stunning with layers of petals that burst from wild, beautiful stems.

Naturally, I decided to try and plant my own. To be honest, I tried last year, but I got them in the ground too late and no blooms appeared. Seedlings didn't even appear. It was a pretty epic failure. Somebody call the wah-ambulance. 

It's ok. I'm over it. No wah-ambulance necessary. I've done some research. Ranunculus like to be cool. I'm in the northeast (zone 6) and by June we have weather in the 80's. The sun blazes down on our gardens in a pretty major way and plants that need to be cool when getting rooted don't stand a chance. So for early spring bulbs, that means planting in the late March- late April time frame. 

CONSUME - Etsy Picks: Stackable Gold & Diamonds

I came across this unusual trillion (triangular) cut diamond ring on Etsy and was very intrigued. I love the idea of wearing it stacked with simple gold bands or other interesting shaped, very minimal pieces, like the pear diamond ring above (bottom right). I was impressed with some of the amazing stackable gold rings available on Etsy.  

• Trillion Ring - from Artemer Studio in Israel - $720
• Ultrathin Hammered Stackable rings- from HannahNaomi in Oregon - $34
• Textured Gold Ring - from Venexia Jewelry in Israel - $47
• Pear Ring - from Artemer Studio in Israel - $320

CRAFT- 2013 Vegetable Garden - early Spring Planting (zone 6)

The weekend of March 30 I prepped one of my four raised beds and got some early spring seeds in the ground. I'm in eastern Pennsylvania, so early spring planting for us is mid-March to late April. Only cold-weather tolerant seedlings can handle being planted before the frost-free date (May 15th). I planted:

Early Spring Vegetables (zone 6):

• lettuce
• spinach
• radishes
• kale
• beets (so many beets, because I love them. nom nom.)
• onions (bulbs)
• garlic (bulbs)

I also dusted off the gladioli bulbs that were over-wintered in my basement and planted them. I noticed when I took them out that they were already starting to create shoots!

Three weeks later, the seedlings are looking strong and happy. I've even had to thin them out once or twice. Above are the little lettuce seedlings as of April 20th. My mom says you can eat these teeny tiny seedlings and they will be yummy in salads. 

I also planted brussel sprouts, peas, sweet peas and ranunculus two weeks later (April 13). I got a second row of lettuce in the ground too, so that as the first row matures I will have more lettuce that's on a slightly different growing schedule. More photos to come as the rest of the veggies emerge from the soil.

Etsy Picks: Printed Tea Towels / Housewarming

One of my nearest and dearest friends just bought a house! Such a momentous step in life and I am in the midst of compiling a little housewarming gift for her. I have been hunting for lovely (& practical) house accessories. I'm going to combine some of my favorite things into a pretty little lantern as a "gift basket". First thing to fill the "gift basket" are pretty tea towels. Etsy did not disappoint with a bunch of fabulous options:

• Corazon Organic Tea Towel - by RinconRoad in Carpinteria, CA- $20
• Gold fish tea towel - by ohlittlerabit in Albany, OR - $10
• Just Beat It tea towel - by FrenchSilver in Atlanta, GA- $9
• Lemons Tea Towel - by DearColleen in New Zealand- $15

Photo fred from OneKingsLane

Photo Cred from BeWhatWeLove 

Denver Travels

Denver Skyline Print

My handsome boyfriend and I are heading to Denver later this spring and so... I've been searching the old Interweb to get familiar with this fabulous, laid-back city. I came across the Design*Sponge Denver City Guide, complete with a Google Map of all the hottest Denver destinations.

On my list of (art) places to visit:

• Museum of Contemporary Art: I checked out the current happenings at MCA Denver and am most interested in seeing Eduardo Sabia's photo exhibition, Tainted. D*S suggests sipping a glass of wine at the rooftop MCA Café. Supposedly there are beautiful views of downtown Denver. I hear the gift shop is also a must!
• Denver Art Museum: I'm super bummed to see that I won't be in town for the exhibition of Nick Cave's Sojourn installation, or for Mark Rothko's Figure to Field exhibition. I might have to come back to the Denver Art Museum later in the summer just for a trip to the DAM!
• Navajo Street Art District: I'm excited to see that there are First Friday festivities happening in the Denver art scene. Apparently the Navajo Street Art District is filled with artist co-ops, galleries, performing arts series. Sounds like my cup of tea. 
• HINTERLAND: This is an art space made from reclaimed and salvaged materials. The husband and wife duo behind HINTERLAND feature contemporary art in the space. I worry that if we go, my boyfriend might never come home. Their website advertises a beautiful studio space with an exposed brick wall for only $360/month. Drool.

Pining for Summer {Retro Swim Edition}

It's March, (almost April) and my crocuses are up! I am beyond excited for spring to kick into full gear. Once spring arrives, that means those long, warm nights of summer are just around the (river) bend.

I'm pining and planning for fabulous summer weekends, with lots of East Coast beaches & deep blue waters! Some places on my hit list:

• The islands of Maine
• Wine tours in the Finger Lakes
• Montauk
• Cape Cod
• Coney Island

So naturally I've been collecting warm-weather inspiration, including these very retro-inspired swim looks. How are you making it through these March snow storms? 

1

Egg Decorating!

Last year I got a bunch of friends together to celebrate spring's arrival and get to crafty for Easter. Looking back at photos shows all of the different techniques we used to decorate our fabulous eggs. I'm getting extra excited for this year's Egg Decorating event. The coolest part about an annual egg-decorating tradition? Saving the egg shells year after year and remembering all of the lovable people who stopped by to get crafty and contribute to our massive Easter Egg Tree. 

This first photo shows a marbleized effect made by using nail polish dripped into water like this.

My sister designed this little bunny egg by drawing with wax on a plain white egg, then painted on the various colors of dye.

The navy blue Aztec-inspired design was also done using the wax-resist method. I drew the triangles first with wax(they are white), then dunked the whole egg in yellow dye. Then I used wax to protect a yellow stripe around the middle of the egg. Next I dunked the whole thing in a red/purple dye, and finished up with a dark blue. You always go in order of lightest to darkest when dong wax-resist egg dying. Very official here.