Email of the Day

Sent by Meghan in correspondence regarding my visit to her house in West Hartford tomorrow...Needless to say, I can't wait for a suburban bake-a-thon.

Gimme S'more Whoopie Pies!

As you know, I love me a campfire and not just because it's cozy and smells like summer. S'mores have long been on list of favorite desserts--nothing tops their gooey, chocolatey, crunch!

So when looking for inspiration for a dessert to bring to a dinner party tonight, I nearly started drooling when I saw these S'Mores Whoopie Pies on the Capital Baker (Allison's step sister) blog. I've never made whoopie pies, but if there was ever a recipe that would inspire me this was it!

I must admit it was a little more involved than my standard weeknight baking project, but thanks to my AMAZING new standing mixer, start to finish it probably took about 2 hours. I followed the instructions using just a tablespoon dollop for each pie but they turned out a lot smaller than I expected....more like mini whoopie pies.
Equally tasty and adorable, but more fun-sized, making it even easier to justify saying gimme s'more!

This Weekend Was Sew Productive

My first weekend in NYC in a month was domestic to the max with a hint of spice-- yes, I got out on Saturday night. I vacummed, did laundry, got a facial, cleaned, ran errands, went running, made delicious lentil soup and finished my first home sewing project! (Am I housewife year old trapped in a 28 year old's body? Sometimes I wonder...)

I've had bare windows in my kitchen/living area ever since I moved in. I managed to put up some blinds to prevent any perv neighbors from watching me vacum in my birthday suit, but they're plain white-- borrrrrring. Since curtains seemed a little overwhelming for my first solo sewing project, so I decided to try something a little easier to practice my skills. So here they are:

Yes, some may say they turn my already nautical or childlike apartment into a circus, but they make me happy (and isn't that what apartments are supposed to do anyway?). Here's a close up of the happy flags, so you can marvel at my imperfect sewing skills:

I got the pattern/instructions from this little book called Home Sewn: 30 Projects for Every Room in the House. Lots of fun little projects in there-- next up, new tablecloth!

Bonjour Baby Batiste!

So I've been in SF since Friday. Apologies for the Internat outage, and even more apologies if you happen to live in SF and I haven't seen you. I've been working, wedding showering and hanging out with a special little man who I realize has not yet made his Internat debut. So at the ripe age of 5 weeks, here he is:

As you know my middle name is babysnatcher, so naturally the birth of Baby Batiste, Dyani and Brice's little bi-lingual bebe, has made me batty (in the best way possible). I visited him last month when he was 6 days old; which I now realize was probably pretty inappropriate at the time since only family had visited, sorry Deej. He slept through approximately 99% of my first visit, a boy after my own heart. This time though, he was a whole new little man.

Since I consider all teammates sisters, I have already assumed the role of Tante Natalie and am gunning to be his favorite aunt by the time he can say "Oui!" Which, I may add, is probably going to be sooner rather than later since he is the product of an MD, DDS and PHD from Harvard. Anyway, I spent Friday afternoon strapped into the baby bijorn (watch out Deej, I could make a run for it with him) and bouncing around the house singing and dancing. Pretty much a typical afternoon for me anyway...aside from the 10lb nugget.

Clearly I insisted on seeing him again this visit, so Jess volunteered to host Baby's first dinner party, where I spent the evening bouncing Batiste with one hand and sipping low sodiYUM cioppino with the other. Heaven.

Rekindling my Love of Reading

Ever since I got my Kindle in the fall, it's become my favorite device of the dozens of digital goodies that can be found in my apt or bag. Not only is the Kindle the cutest little thing in the world, but it's often smaller, lighter and and more versatile than its paper and cardboard book counterparts. Plus if you are someone that likes to read more than one thing at a time, or is tearing through books at the speed of light, this device will change your life because you can buy new books at the snap of a finger and access dozens of them all at once.

The best feature is that you can keep up with your reading even if you forget your Kindle, using the iphone or Android app. So if I'm in the subway and can't even access my email, I can still get ahead in my book-- and it auto-syncs with the kindle so I just pick up where I left of. Rad.

Ok, enough of the Kindle love-fest. And no, Amazon did not pay me for this promotion...though they should. The real purpose of this post was to tell you about my favorite books of the year so far. Here's what I've read:

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

This was the first novel that I have read in probably a year, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much I enjoyed a novel! If you are a frequent novel reader (and a female), you've probably read this already, but if you haven't, buy it, read it, love it. It's a page turner (or in the words of R. Kelly, "a cliff hanga"), with a very compelling plot about racial relations in the south in the 50s, and a very lovable cast of female characters.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, by Toni Hsieh

The story of the man who started Zappos, this book is not as impeccably written as some other of the business books I've read, but Tony's exciting story through the ups and downs of starting, selling, funding and running tech companies kept me reading. Lots of lessons to be heard about entrepreneurialism...and of course, many interesting anecdotes about Zappos.

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality, by Scott Belsky

Unlike, Delivering Happiness, this book takes the more traditional business book approach of stating and explaining best practices about business behavior, through research and examples from experts and example companies. I felt it was lacking a true point of view, and subsequently repeated itself often, hammering home somewhat obvious efficiency techniques for successful teams and businesses. Verdict: Eh, skip it.

The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin

This is hands down my favorite book of the year. It may sound cheesy, and I must admit it holds the same sort of stigma as Eat, Pray, Love (which after getting over it, I finally read last year...and loved), but this book is great. This is the story of a very successful woman, in a happy relationship, with two great kids and a great job, who simply decides that she is not as happy as she wants to be. She takes the self-aware approach to focus on happiness for a year-- making resolutions to promote her happiness, reading and researching the history and schools of thought around happiness, and ultimately discovering that we are all in charge of our own destiny and can chose whether to be happy! This is not a desperate woman attempting to make herself happy-- this is a busy New Yorker who is sick of being always in a rush, unappreciative or feeling that her mood is not within her control. I highlighted and note-took all over this book (yes, you can do that electronically with the kindle!) and caught myself making changes to my behavior based on the things I'd read. I even did a massive kitchen clean and reorganization which was one of the most satisfying Saturday's I've had in forever. Read it.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley

Recommended by a co-worker as a fun read, I've since recommended it to everyone who wants to be entertained on a vacation, plane, or just wants some light-hearted reading before bed. It's a collection of true(?) short stories about a Westchester native and 20 something Manhattanite, told with a heavy dose of sarcasm, self-deprecation and wit. From stories about locking herself out twice in one day (sounds familiar doesn't it?), to serving as a bride's maid (and yes, that spelling is intentional: this job is equal to that of a household maid/slave), the writing style is hilarious, and I found myself literally laughing out loud on the subway. The only disappointment was finishing it; and with that, I pressed "order" on my kindle and purchased her second book, How Did You Get this Number, which I'm currently plowing through.

Words to Live By

This birthday gift arrived today (thanks Neva!), and I think you know it's right up my alley. And what better to wear while I cover myself in glitter and glue?!

My Child-Idols

Most likely you (and 6 Million others) have already seen Jessica's daily affirmations (below). If you haven't watch this immediately. Even if you have, its always a good way to re-orient yourself with a fabulous attitude. When it first became popular a couple months back I had more than one friend send it to me wondering whether I was blonde as a child? I was not. But thanks for the compliment.

Yesterday one of my coworkers sent me the below video of a very young feminist with a strong stance on women in the workplace. I'd love to see how she feels in 20 years, once she's been in the workforce for a while...

Surprised and Delighted!

Surprised and Delighted is the theme for today, February 18th, in New York City. Why?

1. I woke up and, as I often am after a night of many glasses of wine, was a bit disoriented and had forgotten that my sister was in bed with me. Surprise #1, oh how wonderful it was to find her there! She had come into town for a 12 hour flash visit to spend my birthday eve with me. Horray. I was also surprised that she brought the birthday bird with her, along with some Patagucci loot. Delightful!

2. IT IS 66 DEGREES IN NY! Yes, 66. Yes, it's Febuary. Yes, I'm thrilled. Yes, I went for a run on the westside highway to start my day, and yes, I actually danced while waiting at the stop light. And sang. Oh and during my run there was a topless man on rollerblades gliding down the westside highway. I'm serious. Clearly, this is my day.

3. I got to work and after logging into my email, I went to google.com and BAM- this is what I saw.

This was surprising-- why would Google have a birthday doodle on the homepage? (I mean, I know I'm kinda a big deal but not THAT big a deal.....yet). When I rolled my mouse over it it said "Happy Birthday Natalie!" OMG. That is QUITE a delightful little feature that seems to be only for logged in Google employees on their birthdays. Loves it!

4. I've gotten showered with love in the form of flowers, phone calls, facebook messages, emails, texts, cupcakes, chocolate cakes, and hugs. WIN WIN WIN I love you all!

Also as my team at work managed to out-do last years' celebration and get me this. WOW, this is VERY exciting.

Granola!

Mmmmmm, Granola. It has always been one of my favorite breakfast foods (and nicknames for my sister). Sometime over Thanksgiving I was randomly inspired to try to make it myself, and Kit and I made our first batch with some pretty good success. Since its not a very common thing to make from scratch, people always seem especially surprised when you say 'I made this!', which is a bonus, because, if they knew how easy it was, they'd be much less impressed.

Since Thanksgiving I've made a about a half dozen batches, experimenting with varying recipes and baking times. Drawing from the best, and my personal taste, here's my go-to recipe.

Natty's Granola

Ingredients:

5 cups of Quaker Oats

2 cups raw slivered almonds

1 1/4 cup raw coconut shavings

1 1/2 cup raw pecans

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups of dried cranberries or raisins

1/2 tsp salt (unless you are making it for Jess)

2/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup pure maple syrup (don't even ATTEMPT with fake)

2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

Here's what to do:

Preheat oven to 300. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Make sure your baking sheets are rimmed-- if yours are flat, you are going to make a mess. It's worth buying disposable rimmed ones if you don't have them.

Mix all dry ingredients, except the cranberries or raisins, in large mixing bowl. In a separate small mixing bowl whisk together oil, syrup and extracts. Then pour the wet mixture over the try and toss with wooden spoon to coat. Spread the mixture evenly over the two cookie sheets and put in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the mixture is browned but not burned, rotating baking sheets and moving the mix around with a spatula every 15 mins or so. Sprinkle the cranberries or raisins (or both!) over the mixture and let cool and dry completely. Then sprinkle on top of yogurt and berries, enjoy straight up with milk, or package it up in some mason jars for a sweet and healthy treat for friends!

Granola will last at least 2 weeks in sealed containers, and is a lot less fragile than trying to send cookies!

Valentine's Day Card Round Up

So yeah, it's too late to provide inspiration for your card making this year, but thought I would share some of this years' creations from my den of love anyway. Because, after all, you never know when you may want to surprise someone with a heart-inspired message. Rather than focus on paper valentines, I expanded my mediums this year with some new craft tools and techniques...

The two cards below are brought to you by the glorious glue gun that has recently joined my ever-expanding collection of craft tools (thanks, Santa). It has proved it's worth not only for securing buttons and ribbons on paper, but also for repairing furniture in my apartment. Loves it.

On a side note I'm considering launching a glue gun marketing campaign called "Make Crafts Not War," with some iconic hand gun and glue gun imagery...think it has potential? prob not.

The cards below require no glue at all-- they are pure tape. Japanese masking tape of assorted colors is REALLY fun.

For much less neat project, I tried stenciled valentines over at Etsy Craft Night last week. I usually try to avoid using paint in my apt as it will likely end up on my furniture and clothing, so trying it out in Etsy's amazing craft studio was rad. I made this real heart Valentine with a stencil, then I got my thumbs dirty and created this little thumbprint heart bookmark.

Last of all of all I had to create this web-inspired card for the nerdiest of my valentines.

Ok, now time to get over vday and on to the next holiday....my bday is Friday!

Sneak Attack Shots

Exhibit #1: Gu Energy Gel, a popular gel used for athletes participating in endurance sports.

Exhibit #2: Spotted in bodega, a pocket shot of energy....errr alchol. This is a rather sick marketing trick. Imagine reaching into your pocket half way through a marathon and taking a shot of warm tequila!

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

Sweet Hearts

Since today is all about chocolate, and hearts, what could be better than baking up some chocolate hearts!?!

I had to share these super easy tasty treats that will make any sweet toothed sweethearts' heart melt (how's that for a tongue twister!). These light airy chocolate crisps are simple to whip up and only 50 calories a heart! Thank you Martha for coming through as usual. Recipe here.

I stacked some up in this reused little circular canister that came with cupcake liners in it, added some paper, ribbon and voila! The perfect little gift for the hostess of the vday girls dinner tonight :)

Love Muffins

Happy Valentine's Day! For the LOVEliest day of the year, I whipped up some banana chocolate chip muffins. Here's my recipe below, sure to please any sweetheart with a sweet-tooth.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (or Bread)

Makes about 20 Muffins or 1 Loaf

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon into paper lined muffins tins (or greased loaf pan). Bake at 350° for about 25 mins or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (Bake for about 1 hour if making a loaf) Cool 10 minutes in tins on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

It's a Small World After All

So every once in a while I have those experiences where the stars align or the dots connect or [insert cliche here] where you are reminded that the world is SMALL. A big one of those moments came for me on Tuesday, when I headed up to Niketown to meet up with the Nike Running Club, which I have recently started running with on Tuesdays.

Tonight, they announced at the door, there is a special event going on with a celebrity athlete. Minutes later, riding up the escalator to drop off my bag, who should I run into but the celebrity athlete (and my freshman roommate!!!) the fabulous Ogonna Nnamani of Stanford and US Olympic Volleyball fame! We scared most of her high school volleyball fans with hugging, and screaming OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

The world is small. Turns out, she's living in NYC with her fiance (looks like I'm the only of our 3 freshman roommates to be riding the single train), and finishing her requirements to apply for med school. And, as it appeared, making some special celebrity appearances (this one was for the launch of the Nike Training Club app). As we used to say freshman year, GO OG!

And yes, we both were coincidentally dressed in matching Stanford/Nike gear :)

Sew exciting!

New year, new hobby. (And yes, I'll also be trying to maintain the old hobby of blogging, which I know I've been failing at lately)

In an effort to further morph into the modern Martha, I signed up for a Sewing 101 at 3rd Ward (rad place BTW) with Christina. I've done some sewing projects before, but only with the help of my master-seamster dad who basically set everything up so I could sit there and push the pedal. Sew, I decided, time for me to learn to do sewing projects on my own. For the first 3 Wednesday's of the year we trekked out to Brooklyn learned how to wind a bobbin, thread a machine and sew (semi-)straight lines. We made simple bags for the first 2 classes and on the third we learned the skill/thrill of installing a zipper...which turns out to be one of the more satisfying projects I've ever finished!
Needless to say, I'm hooked, and ordered a sewing machine which arrived this week! Not taking requests yet, but stay tuned...