a happy breakfast
Tag: foodie
Pat McGrath Mothership I Subliminal Eye Palette
I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY ABOUT MAKEUP IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.
Pat McGrath is my makeup inspiration, my idol, and my everything. I’ve looked up to her for years and ever since the Mothership line dropped, I’ve had the biggest want for makeup probably ever.
This highly pigmented palette of metallic and mattes does not disappoint. So smooth it feels like putting on sweats after just shaving, exfoliating, and moisturizing your legs. It comes in a visually beautiful rope bound box and the palette itself has a nice weight to it.
The only reason I have waited so long to finally get it was the price. At nearly $130 I just couldn’t justify it. Lucky enough, I found an old Sephora gift card that had just enough to cover the palette and a Kat Von D lipstick. If the price isn’t a concern for you, get this palette. If price is a concern, try putting a few dollars aside every week until you reach your goal! Unfortunately, I don’t foresee these going on sale anytime soon but it is worth every penny.
Looks to come!
xx
Homemade Ravioli
What you’ll need..
- 2 cups of flour
- Salt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- Ricotta
- Parmesean cheese
- Measuring cup
- Rolling pin
- Ravioli stamp or knife or pastry cutter, etc.
- Pour out your 2 cups of flour onto whatever surface you’re working on.
- Gather all of the flour into a mound and then make a crater in the middle, big enough to hold all of your eggs.
- Add the 3 large eggs to the crater.
- Separate the other two eggs, whites from yolks, and add to the crater. If you don’t know how to do that, watch this video!
- Beat the eggs together (while in the crater) with a fork until blended together.
- Sprinkle some salt over your eggs and flour and start mixing together with your hands.
- Once you’ve beaten your eggs, slowly start incorporating the flour.
- If you find the dough to be too sticky, add a little bit more flour at a time. Too dry? Add a spritz of water.
- Start forming the dough into a ball and proceed to kneed it for about 10 minutes or until the dough bounces back when you push into it
- Coat with flour to avoid sticking and let rest for about a half hour. If you plan on using this mix at a later date, put it in the refrigerator.
- While the dough is resting, make your filling! This recipe is for classic ricotta ravioli, but you can pretty much put whatever mixture you want into these.
- Mix together your ricotta and grated cheese.
- Season to your taste and set aside.
- After a half hour, start rolling out your dough. If you have a pasta maker, amazing! If not, a rolling pin will do.
- Once it starts to get flat (assuming you’re using a rolling pin like me), cut in half.
- Take one half and roll it out until its about 1/8” to 1/16” thick. Do the same to the other.
- Once your dough is rolled out, now it’s time to fill! I use a teaspoon to spoon the ricotta mixture onto the dough.
- Space the spoonfuls about 1/2″ apart.
- Place the other sheet of dough onto the sheet with the filling and lightly press between the spaces with your fingers, just enough for the two sheets to touch, try not to push down.
- Take your cutter or ravioli stamp and place it with the mound of filling right in the center and press down until you’ve gotten all the way through. Just like using a cookie cutter!
- Once you’ve cut out all of the raviolis, repeat these steps with whatever dough is left until you feel like you’ve gotten all you can from what you’ve made.
- boil 5 at a time to avoid sticking and once they float, take them out and out them directly into whatever sauce you have prepared!
Viola! The finished product. These were so good! I love making recipes that remind me of my childhood, don’t you? I ate these with my Sunday Gravy, packed with tender meat, it’s the perfect sauce for creamy and smooth ravioli.
Enjoy!
xx
Strawberry Fields
This Valentine’s Day was amazing. We had dinner reservations for when I got off work, but we decided at the last minute to stay home and order a pizza and drink a beer and honestly it was everything I could have wanted. Our anniversary is New Year’s Day, and being right after the holidays, budget for Valentine’s Day is usually pretty tight. We don’t go too crazy on gifts, the last two years we got a hotel room for the night just so we could swim in the pool. No gifts, no nonsense. This year I came home from work to home made chocolate covered strawberries and cookies. Mike isn’t the biggest cook, so this was a great surprise! These with some pink roses and a little pink multi tool for my keychain was just perfect for me. And for my mans? A pair of socks with sloths on them (“slocks” as he calls them) and a hand printed t-shirt from Etsy.
xx
Sunday Gravy
I have been making homemade sauce since I was a little kid but it wasn’t until much older that I started eating and enjoying meat in sauce. This turns into more of a stew like consistency, so if you like you sauce to be a bit more thin, add a little water or broth.
You will need
- 1 whole yellow onion, diced
- as much garlic as you would like ( I used jarred because I didn’t have any fresh)
- olive oil
- 2 cans of crushed tomatoes
- 1 or 2 packages of stew meat depending on how much you would like, I usually freeze my meat as soon as I buy it
- 1/2 cup red wine, preferably not a sweet wine
- salt and pepper
- red pepper flakes
- sugar if needed
- In a large pot, brown the meat for about three minutes on either side and then remove from pot and put aside.You can drain the liquid from the beef or not, I usually leave it and use a little less oil.
- Coat the bottom of the pan in olive oil if you have decided to get rid of the juices from the meat, if you’ve left it just a little drop will do ya.
- Add your diced yellow onion and cook until almost becomes translucent.
- Once the onion is at that point, then add the garlic and cook together for a minute or two. It is very important to not let the garlic get darker than slightly tan. If garlic burns, it will ruin the flavor of whatever you are cooking.
- Add the meat back to the pot and add the wine. Cook all of this together for two minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and seasoning. If you prefer to not have a little spice, just skip the red pepper flakes. If you want it more garlicky, add some garlic powder.
- Start small with spices!!!
- Cover and cook on medium for 2 hours or until meat can be cut easily with a fork.
- **Add basil and oregano if you’d like**
- **Add sugar if too salty or bitter**
Don’t forget to check and stir the pot about every 20 minutes to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. There’s nothing worse than burning a really good pot or pan.
Serve over pasta, polenta, baked potatoes, or even eat it by itself!
Enjoy!
xx
Avocado Baby
Family gnocchi making while social distancing
In this chaos, we are all craving social interaction, but I’m also craving my family. My family is in New Jersey and New York and I’m in Boston and It’s been really hard being here and not with them.
The past couple of weeks, we’ve been doing family happy hour and family cooking lessons! We all come together on Zoom, nearly 15 of us, and cook eat together as a family.
This week, my grandma (the queen) taught us how to make gnocchi from scratch! I could not get over how easy it was because in my head it’s such a lengthy and difficult process. Literally all you need is two potatoes, 2 cups of flour, two eggs, and salt. In a quick 25 minutes, you have 4 servings of freshly made gnocchi.
- Ahead of time, boil your potatoes. Do not peel or chop as they would become waterlogged. Cook until fork tender.
- Remove from water and let cool.
- Once the potatoes are cool enough, you’ll be able to peel the skin off with your hands.
- Smash the potatoes with a fork until there are no chunks larger than a pea.
- Sprinkle the potatoes with salt.
- DO NOT ADD BUTTER OR MILK, this isn’t supposed to be “mashed potatoes”
- Crack egg onto potatoes followed by a cup of flour
- Start mixing all three together with your hands
- If you find the mix too sticky, add a little more flour
- Too dry? Add another egg
- Once the dough is needed together, flatten it to a disc about an inch thick all the way through.
- Cut into three equal slices and roll them to about a foot and a half in length
- Cut into bite size pieces no bigger than an inch
- If you’d like, you can roll the pieces on a fork to give it those signature lines, but I like mine smooth
- Bring water to a boil and salt it
- Add 7 pieces at a time so they don’t stick together
- once they’re steadily floating, take them out and place them immediately into whatever sauce you have prepared so they don’t dry out.
- Freeze whatever you don’t eat!
- Pair with your favorite sauce or vegetable or soup for a hearty and soul warming meal.
Have virtual dinner with your family and enjoy!
Sauce recipe coming soon!
xx
Acaí you in the morning
I wish I had the time to make this every morning! So delicious, nutritious, and refreshing, can you think of a better way to start your day?
Acaí Breakfast Bowl
- Frozen acaí pack blended with coconut milk and a handful of a frozen berry mix
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Granola
- Coconut
- Chia seeds
- Banana
Enjoy!
xx
Chetah Gal
This type of look is a go-to for me for a night out. High waisted jeans, tall boots or booties, a tucked blouse, and a leather jacket. Chic, comfortable, and timeless. You can even dress it up with jewelry or heels, maybe a sequin blazer.
I have naturally curly and frizzy, very thick hair. Even as a hairstylist (in training), I find it difficult to blow out my own hair. When I want my hair to embody Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show hair, I turn to my Babyliss 1 1/4 inch curling iron. I can take it over my natural hair and it still looks shiny and smooth, with the right products of course.
Shirt: ASOS Curve
Pants: New Look
Boots: Torrid
Jacket: Primark
Earrings: H&M
My earrings are hard to see, but I love them! They’re about 2 inches of a simple, thin gold chain with a tiny, little fake diamond at the end. They are so subtle and classic and, as with this outfit, can be dressed up or down!
xx
A Day in New Hampshire
This fall, Mike and I took a ride up to New Hampshire one Sunday. On a street corner in the middle of the mountains was a farm stand selling fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. Do you see the size of those carrots? That potato? The corn sweet and crisp. These were, hands down, some of the best farmstead veggies I had ever gotten. I used most of the content of this box to make an Irish beef and Guinness stew.
Recipe to come.
- Shirt: Walmart
- Leggings: Torrid
- Shoes: Nike
- Sunglasses: Warby Parker
- Shirt: Vans
- Shorts: Amazon
- Shoes: Nike
- Hat: Richardson
- Sunglasses: Amazon
Growing up in New Jersey with a family primarily from Brooklyn, going to the mountains wasn’t really a thing. We didn’t ski, we didn’t do any other winter sports so we never made the trip. It wasn’t until I met Mike that I went up to the mountains in New England for the first time. At first I was nervous and skeptical (ridiculous I know). I soon fell in love with the peaceful and airy surroundings and the views that go on for miles and miles. Now, I’m the one poking Mike begging to take a drive up there, especially in the fall. The Kancamangus Highway and Mohawk Trail two of our favorite spots to cruise on a sunny Sunday.
xx
salt x ashes 