Behind the Scenes: Thanksgiving Baking

I finally uploaded pics from my camera, and I had some pictures taken by Marissa and I from the Thanksgiving morning bake-a-thon...

First, to give you an idea of what i'm working with here... this is my entire kitchen- all of it!!

Rolling out pie crusts. I don't have a rolling pin, so I use a glass usually.

The real challenge is finding enough counter space!

Apple and cranberry pie filling. So easy to make. I cut all of the apples into slices so that when you cut the pie, it looks really pretty. The cranberries added awesome color!

Ready to bake.

Ready to eat!

After the chocolate cream set, I added a layer of raspberries before I put the whipped cream on top.

Hye working on the icing for the red velvet cake. Marissa popping open a bottle of sparkling apple cider (SO typical!) ...check out that glamour apron!

2nd Annual Korean American Thanksgiving Dinner!

Tonight we packed 20 people into my teeny, tiny baby apartment in Chelsea. It was SO much fun! I was so afraid we wouldn't have enough food, but at the end of the night I packed up to-go plates for 6 people! And there is still some left for Marissa and I's breakfast!

The Menu:

Turkey (delicious, amazing, perfectly cooked)- by Suji

Stuffing (so awesome-- am getting the recipe asap because everyone must make!)- by Angélique

Korean noodle dish (quite possibly my favorite korean food yet)- by Yeagi and Sookhyun

and Mashed potatoes and biscuits (yum yum yum)- by my fave sis, Marissa

Sookhyun, Suji, Hye, Marissa, me, Yaegi

Sue, Suji, Marissa, me, Angélique

Sue, Suji, Marissa

So, after we were all totally stuffed and comatose... we started on desserts.

I wanted to make all new and different pie recipes from last year, and I am pretty happy about the way they all turned out.

Clockwise from upper left: Cranberry Apple Crumble Pie, Brown Sugar-Buttermilk Pie, another Cranberry Apple Crumble, Red Velvet Cake, and a Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie

Yaegi's favorite was the Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie-- it was literally gone in 2 minutes, so I would call it a hit. So, so delicious. I made the chocolate cookie crust with Newman's chocolate ABC cookies because I couldn't find any chocolate wafer cookies. The texture wasn't super fine, but it still looked really good, and had great flavor.

I love buttermilk pies. This recipe was delicious and really, really easy to make.

Annnd, the red velvet cake. Made just for Hye. I only have 7" pie pans, so i used those instead of the 9", which made a really tall cake. It honestly turned out perfectly. The Southern tradition addition to the meal... I miss Texas food.

Recipes:

*Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie

*Brown Sugar Buttermilk Pie

*Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie

*Red Velvet Cake (I didn't use the raspberries and blueberries, waaay too expensive at this time of year...)

I used my mom's pie crust recipe for the apple pies and buttermilk:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4cup icy cold milk

And: all of these pics were taken by my girl, Angélique. Seriously, if you haven't checked it out already...

click HERE!

It was a really wonderful day. I'm so glad I have so many great friends (who all also happen to be fantastic cooks) that I could spend the day with.

Mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and pie for breakfast?

UPDATED**Hooded Cardigan with Checkered Pleather Trim

This past weekend I made a couple of pieces for my patternmaking class. The skirt is a very slim pencil skirt that due to Pie Pop overloading I am not modeling... But! The top turned out really cool. The body of the cardigan is only three pieces- the two front panels extend all the way up to create the front part of the hood. The pleather trim was a little tricky to work with, particularly since I was sewing it to a jersey fabric, but it really does add a classy touch. My favorite parts are the hood, obviously, but even more I love the length in the front and the shortness in the back. It's a really cool oversized top to wear over anything.

Cutting out the cardigan...

Top and skirt on the form. The form has a way tinier waist than me, which is why it doesn't fit right.

Back view.

Back view

Hood!

My sister is coming today to visit and to be here for the 2nd Annual Korean/American Thanksgiving Day party at my place. The menu is starting to come together and I am super excited about it. I'm doing desserts and am currently deliberating on my recipes of choice.

So excited!!!

Glamour Nailzzz

Today in Computer Patternmaking when Angélique and I should have been making patterns, we were trolling the internet instead, mostly reading each others blogs. It was during this time that Angélique discovered The Daily Nail. Basically this lady from Las Vegas has challenged herself to paint her nails in a new style everyday. Now, if you know me you know I take nail art seriously. There are some really cool ideas on here. I could never do this, not only because it would be a huge time commitment, but mostly because there's no way I could part with some of those nail stylez in less than 24 hours. Rough.

Anyways, I was so excited about all that classy expression of personal style that I came home and dug up some of my past nail triumphs...

St. Patrick's Day clover nails

Playing cards... perfect for my gaming lifestyle

Party nails for Mark and Melly's bday week (this is a bad pic but the thumbs are cake (!!!) and the others are balloons and presents and stuff)

And my most recent (and most awesome-est) miss pac man nails

they pretty much inspired my halloween costume...

Anyways, halloween is over and sadly the miss pac man nails are gone, so I am ready for some new nails... I need some ideas... Anyone?

PIE POPS!!

So I think I can safely say, this was the most excited I have been about a post so far. Last week was most definitely the most insane week i've had at school so far this semester, and after 5 days of literally no sleep and consuming nothing but bagels, soup, brownies and coffeecoffeecoffee I passed out for 10 hours and woke up ready to bake. A while back I saw an entry on Pie Pops! one of my most favorite blogs that I just discovered, Luxirare, and I was immediately determined to recreate them. However, while Luxirare's looked sooo amazing (no really, check it out here)they used store bought pie crusts and only fruit, corn starch and sugar as a filling. So, while they certainly photographed waaay better than anything I would be making, they didn't sound that appetizing.

This project actually takes quite a bit of brainstorming, but luckily my friend Rachel signed up to help since I was still slightly brain-impaired from the activities of the week. Basically, you have to use a pie filling that a. bakes in the crust, and b. isn't too runny or lumpy. Immediately I thought of pumpkin pie (duh) and perused through epicurious.com for a new recipe since I always like to try a different pumpkin pie recipe. I was clearly feeling overambitious/ hungry because I also decided on a chocolate fudge pie recipe (which was reportedly Marilyn Monroe's fave pie recipe...)

about to go into the oven. shiny and pretty after an egg white wash on top.

these first ones weren't too pretty, but they tasted so, so good! (Marilyn knows good pie!)

see all those flakey layers?! homemade crust!!

Tae approved.

Sookhyun and Tae ate like 6 each.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the actual process, but

since you only need a pretty small spoonful of batter per pop, I have about 5 tons of filling leftover and am going to make some more this week, so I will document and update...

So the recipes I used were: Miss Milton's Lovely Fudge Pie & Pumpkin Pie

I didn't make any changes to the chocolate pie at all, and it was the perfect consistency. The pumpkin pie however, did turn out to be a little too liquidy, so I baked it in the over for about 45 minutes at 325 degrees to kind of set it up. It worked perfectly. The pie crust recipe is my moms: 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup icy cold milk. One pie crust recipe makes about 10 pops. In one night I made 6 pie crust recipes. That's a lot of rolling. They only need to bake about 10 minutes!

These would be really fun to serve at a party with a big bowl of whipped cream. Definitely a possibility for my upcoming Thanksgiving get-together...

More coming soon!

Lingerie Portfolio Project

Another one of the many projects I had to complete this week was my a lingerie collection for my portfolio class. My inspiration was 1940s films, particularly "How to Marry a Millionaire" starring Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and ***Lauren Bacall**. I really love Lauren Bacall. Anyways, I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I wish I had spent more time on the rendering though, and the flats are kind of a mess. Oh well. My hands were super shaky as a result of no sleep and way, way too much caffeine. I've really got to cut back.

** eh. these did not scan well. and i really do not have the energy to edit them. you get the idea though...

**Spider Sweater!**

This weekend I made this sweater for patternmaking class. The silhouette is obviously pretty basic, just a raglan that i made oversized (since obviously I like everything xxl!). The fabric however is amazing- super soft and fuzzy felted dark green wool/mohair combo with a tiny but of orangey-red mixed in. In an effort to put off doing my lingerie art project as long as possible, I came up with the bright idea to hand finish the hem with some of that orangey-red. Then, naturally, I thought of a spiders and tried my best at embroidering one of those on there as well. Embroidery is definitely something I want to get better at, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I wore it all day Monday and it was super comfortable and warm! It may or may not sub in for my "Best Dad on Earth" sweatshirt a couple of days a week... no promises though.

Photos courtesy of Angélique. Check out her blog here. She's really good about uploading her awesome sketches all the time. Plus she's just got a great eye for interesting things.

**this was day 2 into my thus far 4 day no sleeping streak. Fashion school is rough.

High Tea in Chicago

On a recent trip to visit my sis at Wheaton, we spent the day in Chicago. After cleaning out the boys department at Ralph Lauren, we collapsed into chairs in the beautiful salon at the Peninsula Hotel for high tea. Somewhere I scribbled down the full (extensive, amazing) menu, but who knows where that is now. As soon as I locate I will add for the full effect.

My Sis, sipping some tea at the Peninsula!!

Marissa pulls off this stuff better than a male model...

First course, sandwiches!! (These were so, so, so delicious... I really wish I could remember exactly what they were!)

Scones with clotted cream, lemon curd and homemade preserves.Surprise! Coconut souffles. (Best. Souffle. Ever.)And of course... the dessert tray. By this point Marissa's RL boyz blazer was feeling a little snug and I was curled up in a ball ready for a nap in the chair next to her. We definitely cabbed it back to the train station...

Cooking With Melly

vintage pic courtesy of our photog on call: MJP

So this week marked a really depressing milestone in my life. My best (and first nyc) boo not only moved out of my apt, but OUT OF THE STATE. I've been wallowing in self-pity all week. Now, not only do I have no one to snuggle with every night, but I have no one around to whip up delicious meals for me when I reach those work-induced points where I haven't consumed anything other than bagels and coffee in days (these times are real, and very scary).

Here are just a couple of the meals she's made for me in the past couple of months:

Melly's a vegetarian, and one night she was craving one of those bean patties they call veggie "burgers". Out of consideration for me, she also picked up some BEEF, plus loads of delicious veggies and toppings.

prepping

which one looks better guys? I whipped up some mini redskins with dijon mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar (we were missing the chives though...) These babies had avocado, cheddar, pickles, field greens, and the best heirloom tomatoes ever from the Union Square farmers market- all on a fresh baguette (!!!!)

A couple of weeks later, I had spent all day waiting for the Time Warner repair man/ trying to finish a huge art project and incidentally hadn't eaten all day. Even though she'd just finished a marathon shift of serving customers with a smile at the 'Bux, she surprised me with this feast:

Taco with scrambled eggs, cheddar, fresh salsa and avocado in whole wheat tortilla.

And a pumpkin ice cream sundae for dessert.

That's true love guys.