Turkish Tile

{Top: Equipment; Skirt: J. Crew (old, similar here); Booties: DV by Dolce Vita (old, similar here); Jewelry: Harlow via Fuchsia}

This is what I was expecting after ordering this shirt online.  Needless to say, the color is quite different in person.

Sheppard - Let Me Down Easy

I found this song via the local alternative radio station's slice of New Music Heaven.  If you sign up for their 94/7 Nation mailing list you can get a free download.  It's an easy little tune, happy to bop along to despite the less than happy lyrics.



Sheppard is an Australian band, with three siblings in the 6-person band.  They released their first EP in hard copy on August 17th and on iTunes on August 28th.



Band comic via.

Peach Birthday Pie

My sister and I baked three peach pies with the help of our lovely friend Kristi for my dad's birthday celebration last week.  While we made a huge mess of the kitchen in the process and the pie crusts kind of slumped off the edges of the pie pans in the oven, they were pretty tasty.  They got rave reviews at the dinner itself, so much so that my dad's friend Bobby at two more pieces straight from pie plate to hand to mouth while we were cleaning up, and Megan's co-workers went after the leftover third pie the next day.



We used this recipe for simple peach pie (times three), although we followed Smitten Kitchen's instructions to blanch and peel the peaches first.  And Megan made Dorie Greenspan's double pie crust recipe, which can be found here, (times three).  This pie crust is delicious, people.  Like so good Megan said she would eat it in cookie form.  It did kind of slump on us, but I don't think anyone minded.

Instagram picture by Megan.

End of Summer Tomato Salad

Portland tends to get late summers, where they don't really start until after the 4th of July, but then they last through September.  In a last gasp of summer, I made one of my last tomato bread salads and drank a grapefruit Stiegl Radler the other day, and it was perfect.



This one had some homemade croutons, blanched green beans, hard boiled egg for protein, fresh corn, and of course tomatoes from the back yard.  For the method, as it is, and vinaigrette recipe, see here, although these pictures are prettier.  This is highly adaptable though, so you can always just throw together whatever you have.



A word or two on the Stiegl Radler.  I got it at my lovely local wine shop, although I believe I cleared them out of the last of their stock.  It's pretty well a summer drink anyway though, so I highly recommend it for next summer.  It's a shandy, so part beer part juice (in this case grapefruit, but I believe lemonade is the most traditional).  Mostly it is delicious.  It popped up in the Portland Bottle Shop's weekly newsletter and then in the July Bon Appetit as well, so I knew I had to try it.  Grab a bottle if you can still find it around, or it's always something to look forward to for next summer!

Clothing Swap Black & Gray

{Shirt: Nicolette, via Aggie at a clothing swap, Jeans: J. Crew; Flats: Target (old, similar here), Jewelry: Anne Klein, Fuchsia, BaubleBar}

In the move I went from a double closet down to a single closet, and so knew I was going to have to downsize.  It all took longer than expected, and so after purging and getting rid of half of my closet, I loaded up my car but didn't have time to make a Goodwill/Buffalo Exchange run before I was meant to meet some lady friends.  When they heard I had a car full of clothes I was trying to sell/donate, we decided it only made sense for them to shop through my closet and drink fancy champagne while I got to hold the baby.  It was so much fun, and I ended up with a shirt too!

Twin Shadow - Five Seconds

All my good new music come from Lauri!  I've been listening to Twin Shadow to get pumped up for moving and clearing out my old basement.  He's got kind of a cool 80s style thing going on, and some good up-beat boppy songs.  Reminds me a little of Swiss Lips.

Twin Shadow is the stage name of George Lewis, Jr.  His most recent album, Confess, came out on July 9th on 4AD.



This video is pretty great, but there's a weird talking intro, so if you just want to listen to the song, start it at 1:40.



Album cover via.

Lemongrass panna cotta with plum compote

I was invited to lovely dinner party this week where Suzie made her family's tomato soup, which incidentally was the most delicious thing ever.  I was asked to bring dessert, and decided I wanted to make lemongrass panna cotta, because I had lemongrass leftover from my FuBonn run.   I also had a bunch of plums from my produce box that needed to be used before they went bad and before the big move (to my sister's house).  Which is how I ended up with this apparently random flavor pairing, but which I thought sounded lovely.  It was Megan's idea to add ginger snaps (which I bought) to pull it all together, which was genius.

I adapted from a number of recipes, but there were a couple that were the most helpful.  This Kaffir-Lemongrass Panna Cotta recipe from Tasting Menu was the most helpful for technique.  I wasn't able to find sheet gelatin though, so I polled a bunch of other recipes to determine how much powdered gelatin to use.  And the plum compote was roughly inspired by the Rosewater Plum Compote recipe from 101 Cookbooks, although I reduced the sugar because I wanted it to be a little tart.


Lemongrass Panna Cotta with Plum Compote and Ginger Snaps
Serves 8

Panna Cotta:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
zest of one lemon and one lime
2 stalks lemongrass, bruised and sliced thinly
3 cups cream, 1/2 cup held very cold
1 Tbsp. powdered gelatin (one envelope)

Compote:
1 1/2 pounds plums
zest and juice of one lemon
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1/4 cup sugar

Put 1/2 cup of cream in the bowl you intend to whip it in, and place it in the fridge along with the whisk you intend to use.  Gather eight 6-oz ramekins or serving dishes.

Put the milk, sugar, lemon and lime zest, and lemongrass in a small sauce pan and heat over medium-low heat until just below boiling, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat and steep for half an hour.

Strain the milk through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the solids, and return to sauce pan to rewarm the milk over medium-low heat.  Add the gelatin to the warm milk, and stir until completely dissolved.  Transfer milk to a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature for about an hour.

Meanwhile, make the compote.  Pit and chop the plums into roughly 1/2 inch pieces, and put in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot along with the sugar, lemon zest and juice, and powdered ginger.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.  You want it to cook at a lazy boil for 20-25 minutes, so adjust heat as necessary.  Stir every so often and scrape the bottom to make sure the fruit doesn't burn.  The compote is ready once it has kind of all slumped together, but before the fruit is totally broken down.  Remove from the heat, spoon into jars, and store in the fridge until ready to use.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.

When the milk/gelatin mixture is cool, begin whipping the 1/2 cup of cold cream.  Whip the cream gently, avoiding beating too much air into the cream.  You just want the cream to thicken until it kind of holds together, but before it will hold peaks.

Add the 2 1/2 cups of unwhipped cream to the milk/gelatin mixture with a whisk.  Add the thickened cream and fold in with a spatula until evenly combined.

Pour or spoon the panna cotta into the ramekins or serving dishes, and chill in the fridge overnight.

To serve, run a knife around the edge of the ramekin, invert a dessert plate on top of the ramekin, and then flip the whole thing over so the ramekin is upside down.  The panna cotta should slide out, but if it sticks, gently lift one side of the ramekin and use a knife to loosen the edge of the panna cotta from the ramekin or release the vacuum.  Spoon a couple of tablespoons of plum compote over the panna cotta and add ginger snaps.

Picture via Margaret's Instagram.