two-thousand-twelve, show us whatcha got.

My New Year's Eve looked a little like this:

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{that's my brother and I having a dance party in our jammy-jams}

We had ourselves a rip-roarin' New Year's Eve. We ate a delicous brisket-in-red-wine prepared by my seeester-in-law Vanessa, the appetizers I made were pretty tasty, the drinks I made were even tastier, and we wrote down "ten to forty resolutions" at the request of Vanessa, on the back of a postcard, that will be mailed to me later. Unfortunately Jason was still in Springfield so he couldn't be there and we missed him a whole lot. We all had a hard time staying awake till midnight, decided to get our pajamas on to wait for its arrival, and then when midnight struck, I didn't even notice until people started calling me. You see, we're getting older. We get sleepy early and forget things easily. It was a super fun evening.

But to get serious for a minute, 2011 was a thrillingly wonderful, tough, amazing little year. In summary we:
- finished remodeling our house and sold it in three days.
- almost moved to Seattle for Jason to go to grad school but then decided not to.
- went to Ireland for an incredible wedding, and then to Paris, where I fell back in love with my favorite city.
- packed up all our things, quit our jobs, threw caution to the wind, and made all my dreams come true by moving to San Francisco. We arrived officially on July 23.
- by some kind of miracle, I found a kick-ass job and was hired before we even moved.
- met some really wonderful new friends. Just when you think you've made all the close friends you're ever going to make, surprise! you make more friends.
- discovered the TV show 'Damages' and are now officially addicted.

2011, you rocked my world. Moving was really hard (and expensive, lordy!) but so incredibly worth every single penny and all the stress and exhaustion and emotions that we paid to make it happen. 2012, show us whatcha got. If it's even half as exciting and life-changing as 2011, it's going to be a good year.

To celebrate this first day, I plan to sit on my couch watching the second season of Damages and eat Adronico's chocolate chip cookies for dinner.

Happy 2012!

resolutions and a winter cocktail

Guess what? One of my new year's resolutions has to do with this blog. I have neglected it. I set it aside in favor of this blog, momentarily, and now we've neglected that blog, too. When will this madness stop? Well, it stops today. On this eve of 2012, I am renewing my commitment to this place called Little Bird Bake Shop and will be posting at least once a week. I don't even know if anyone still reads this, but whatever, it shall be done.

As I mentioned, it's New Years Eve. I have never liked going out on NYE (doesn't that abbreviation make it seem so official?) because it never lives up to expectations. It never has for me, anyway. This year, I'm headed to my brothers house for dinner which sounds perfectly lovely to me. You see, when you're almost 30, you lose that desire to do whatever it takes for a wild night out on the town. Zero desire. I'm not saying I never want a wild night out on the town, but just not on NYE.

My contributions to dinner tonight consist of two appetizers, a dessert, and some boozy drinks. For appetizer ideas, I consulted my dear friend Ina Garten. She's not really my friend, but I wish she was. I want to cook with her in her giant, gorgeous kitchen in the Hamptons and pretend like she's my long lost aunt.

After perusing her "How Easy Is That?" cookbook, I decided on roasted figs wrapped in prosciutto (it IS New Year's after all) and herbed ricotta on toasted sourdough bread. 

Unfortunately, figs are out of season so we'll have to settle for dried ones. I'll let you know how they turn out. This appetizer couldn't be easier. You wrap figs in prosciutto, drizzle with olive oil, bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, and you're done. Shazzam! Fancy time.

This herbed ricotta mixture is going on top of toasty slices of sourdough bread in a few hours. It's very fragrant, with dill, chives, green onions, and I added in a little fresh garlic. You can get the recipe here.

For dessert, another friend, Andres, is bringing flourless chocolate cake so I made honey lavender ice cream to serve alongside. Now, this isn't the first time I've written about this ice cream. It's that good. It has also become one of my favorite things to make because people love it so much. Can you blame them?

And finally, because it's New Years, I'm making some fun boozy drinks. I've always been a devoted wine drinker, but lately I've been enjoying this whole artisinal cocktail thing that is happening now. One of my favorite things is St. Germain, which is a lovely french liqueur that tastes of elderflower (think similar to lavender). Go on, add some to a glass of champagne. I'm also making the "before & after cocktail" that I found in the January issue of InStyle Magazine because it sounds all nice and toasty for a December evening.

Happy new year to all and to all a good night!

winter cocktail
adapted from InStyle Magazine, January 2012
2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. Campari (or Aperol, as the original recipe suggests)
1/2 oz. Madeira

Mix together, serve over ice.

still recognizable

It's strange how so many things have changed in the past year, yet my life is still recognizable. I just sat and looked through all our wedding photos - laughing and maybe getting a little teary-eyed - at how amazing that day was. Is it weird to be so in love with a day?

 

When I see pictures of other people's weddings now, it makes me feel really emotional about our wedding. I'd marry him all over again if I could. I love love, what can I say?

It's surreal and comforting to be a in a place in my life where I truly have nothing to complain about. I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. I watch our dog getting older. I think about actual human babies. I bake when I want to and discover that adding salt to cookies is a fool-proof path to delicious. I cherish my friends more now than ever. I watch the sun set over this gorgeous city. I am lucky.

On our day in the city:

my friends came to visit and celebrate a 30th birthday

our dog is terrified of his new food bowl and refuses to eat. sigh.