After almost one year of Wicked Domestic, we’ve finally upgraded to a wonderful new look! You like? Elizabeth and I have been working with Krystyn from Krizzy Designs for a couple of months to perfect our new look. I hope you all like it! And a special thanks again to Krystyn for all of her hard work!
- Jackie
Throwing a dinner party makes you feel so adult. I mean, there are other things that make you feel grown up like doing your taxes, working a full-time job, not eating ramen noodles everyday. You get the point. But throwing a dinner party, to me, is one of the most fun things about being an adult.
Last week I had the sudden urge to scour my cookbooks and put together a french inspired meal for all my pals. I planned out my menu, did the shopping, set my table and was ready for a fabulous dinner party-au francais! I requested all my guest grow teeny mustaches and were bereits, but no such luck. We had fun anyway. Here’s how it all played out:
A few shots before I started cooking:
Baked brie with dijon and brown sugar
Brie with fig preserves
Parmesan and thyme cheese straws
Sole meuniere, Cauliflower gratin
Endive, pear and roquefort salad
and for dessert: croissant bread pudding
Can you tell that I’m pretty obsessed with Ina Garten? Her recipes are simple yet elegant. I don’t think you can go wrong with her. Anyways, the dinner was absolutely delicious, but the company was even better. You can’t have a good dinner party without fabulous guests!
To say this was a healthy meal would be a big fat lie. This menu was unbelievably butter and bechamel sauce heavy…but hello?! It’s French food, people. It’s quite possibly the best food on earth…throw out your diet for one night and savor the delectable offerings of France. You’ll be glad you did!
- Jackie
To cut to the chase, there’s nothing more delicious than homemade pasta. It’s light and fluffy compared to the dried, boxed stuff that most people eat day in and day out. It’s not a simple task to make your own pasta at home, but it’s absolutely worth the hard work. My cousin Katherine has a pasta making machine and we love to get together and make up big batches and feast until we can feast no more. It takes four of us girls to pull off the cutting of the fettucine and we were wondering how little old Italian ladies can pull it off on their own! For a basic pasta dough recipe, click here. And for a tutorial for making the fettucine using a pasta making machine, click here. The following pictures are our adventures in pasta making…can you smell the marinara sauce in the air?
The pasta was so amazing! Katherine also made an amazing homemade tomato sauce that made the dish that much better. Throw on some fabulous parmesan cheese and manga! If you have the time and the desire, homemade pasta making it absolutely worth the effort. It’s a great entertaining centerpiece for an interactive dinner party as well. Pasta+wine+good pals=best dinner!
- Jackie
Chocolate lovers, heed the call! These truffles are outrageously good. Jackie discovered the recipe (Ina Garten’s) and made these as favors for my bridal shower, and they were a huge hit. It took me nearly 4 years to get around to making them myself, but I finally did last week. I made them as a hostess gift for the dinner party we went to Saturday night, and luckily there were a few that didn’t fit in the box, so I got to taste test. Delicious! The recipe isn’t very difficult, but it is a bit time consuming, so plan ahead.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate (Ina recommends Lindt; I used Ghiradelli)
1/2 lb semisweet chocolate (Ina recommends Ghiradelli, which is what I used)
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp prepared coffee
1/2 tsp good vanilla extra (i.e. not Shaw’s brand imitation)
coatings: I used cocoa powder, coconut, crushed macadamia nuts, chopped pomegranate craisins
Chop the chocolates finely with a sharp knife and place them in a heat-proof mixing bowl (I used porcelain).
Heat the cream in a small saucepan, stirring frequently, until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds. I actually stood there and counted out loud.
Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with chocolate. Use a wire whisk to slowly stir together the cream and chocolate until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in the coffee and vanilla extract.
Put the chocolate mixture into the refrigerator for an hour. Ina tells you to leave it at room temp on the counter, but that was definitely not the way to go. You want the chocolate to firm up enough for you to be able to roll it into balls, and that did not happen at room temp.
So now we enter the part of the process of which I have zero photos – mainly because my hands were coated with chocolate the entire time. I had to do this part in shifts because I had to keep re-chilling the chocolate. Maybe that’s because I didn’t refrigerate it long enough to begin with, but maybe it’s just the result of a warm kitchen. Plan ahead and do what you need to do to get these to come out right – it’s worth it!
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a small spoon to gather up a small amount of chocolate. Use your hands to roll into a ball. Ina claims her recipe makes 60; I got 35 out of it… so I think my balls were too big. (Michael Scott: “That’s what she said!”) Now, I struggled a bit because the longer the chocolate sat on the counter, the more it warmed up, so I’d have to pop it back in the fridge before making more. I also kept putting in the balls that I had already rolled. So, it took me a while to assemble the basic truffles, and after refrigeration I’d reroll some of them to smooth them out a bit. But once you have all your plain chocolate truffles, you can start to roll them in the coatings. I used cocoa powder, crushed macadamia nuts, chopped pomegranate craisins, and coconut flakes. Jackie has used confectioners’ sugar, but said it kind of gets messy.
I got a cute little metallic box at Michael’s, and used tissue paper and pretty ribbon to dress it up a bit. Here are my truffles – assembled, coated, and boxed up:
On top of the truffles I placed this:
And I attached matching ribbon to the lid of the box. I thought it looked really nice!
Leave yourself plenty of time to make these truffles and you won’t be sorry. They’re soooo rich and delicious!
- Elizabeth
The home bar: often found in faux wood-paneled basements with shag carpeting, on refined dining room hutches with perfectly polished silver or thrown on the kitchen counter with mis-matched glasses. Where ever the bar is set up for a soiree, you’ve got to have it well stocked. A few weeks ago, Chris and I hosted our families for a little holiday cocktail party (we had to convince the boys to come with the promise of the Patriots on the tube) and I yet again found myself setting up an at home bar with all the accoutrements.
With New Years Eve close on the horizon, I thought I’d pop a bottle of the bubbles and share must have picks for stocking your bar (brought to you by The Bar Mix Master Has Spoken):
Liquors: Bourbon, Brandy, Gin, Light Rum, Dark or Spiced Rum, Tequila, Vodka, Whiskey (Blended, Rye, Scotch, Irish or you know…all of the above if your of Irish decent like yours truly)
Liqueurs: Amaretto, Triple Sec, Coffee Liqueur, Italian Vermouth (sweet or red label), French Vermouth (dry or green label), Various Schnapps (Apple, Peach, Peppermint …)
Garnishes and Condiments: Angostura Bitters, Black Pepper, Cocktail Olives (no pimento), Cocktail Onions (pickled), Limes, Lemons, Oranges, Grenadine, Horseradish, Maraschino Cherries, Rose’s Lime Juice, Salt, Coarse Salt, Sugar, Tabasco Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Orange Bitters
Mixers: Water, Club Soda, Cola, Diet Cola, Lemon-Lime Soda, Milk, Orange Juice, Tomato Juice, Tonic Water, Ginger Ale, Cranberry Juice, Pineapple Juice, Beer
In addition to this list, I think you always need to have a few bottles of red, white and sparkling wine at the ready. And of course, you can’t forget to have the brewskis chilled and ready to go.
No one expects you to go out and buy all of this boozy stuff all at once and have your local package store worker question your liver health. Buy everything slowly…the booze will last until you need a liver transplant.
Our Lazy Susan full of liquor (or what my Mum calls, the Boozy Susan)
As a frequent entertainer, I find that setting up a bar is an instant WOW for guests. Set it on a nice tablecloth, buy a bouquet of flowers and let the booze do the talking. A bar at the ready will make your guests feel welcome to serve themselves, which frees you, the hostess, up to mingle and enjoy yourself.
My bar set up from a girls night
Table o' booze for our Masters Golf party last spring
Champagne, wine and peonies made a beautiful bar for my engagement party
Now, you just have to make sure you have some good snackery and good conversation and your event will be an instant success!
Cheers!
- Jackie
Fireplace, check! Big fuzzy blanket, check! Delicious cocktail, check! I love the summer and miss it when the leaves start to turn, but there’s something wonderfully cozy about the change of season. There’s nothing like being lazy on the couch with a fabulous libation in hand. So when I saw this spiced cranberry cider at Trader Joe’s, I knew I’d be having myself an amazing cinnamon filled, ginger laced Cape Codder with a cinnamon sugar rim. So please, wet your whistle with this fine spirit.
Rim your glass with a combination of cinnamon and sugar then combined the cranberry juice and vodka and pour it into a glass with ice.
This cocktail would also be delightful served warm. If you’re not a vodka enthusiast, try spiced run with the juice too! Serve, slip into your snuggie and catch up on the newest trashy reality show offering!
- Jackie
On Friday night Jackie, Re, and Kat came over for Hocus Pocus night – an evening of fine, festive food and our favorite Halloween movie.
I had fun getting set up for all the delightful autumnal treats the girls were bringing.
Jackie brought two dishes: honey, walnut, and goat cheese crostini and a spiced apple and proscuitto calzone (which she blogged about yesterday). I think I singlehandedly polished more than half of the calzone… soooo good!
Re made a delicious butternut squash soup. We had lots of leftovers, which turned into Saturday’s dinner for me!
Kat brought a well-received bag of Munch-Os. I had never had them before, but they were really good! So salty and light. Mmmm….
We settled down for the movie with a spread of desserts in front of us. Dangerous.
I ate WAY too much that night. WAY too much. But it was all so good! Maybe I’ll host a Christmas movie night… but which one to choose? So many good ones!
Hocus Pocus night was so much fun and hopefully we can make it a tradition!
- Elizabeth
As we all get older, my friends and I find it harder and harder to find time for all of us girls to get together. The majority (7 out of 11) of us girls live in or around Boston, yet we have such a hard time finding the time to eat, drink and gossip as a whole. Sounds like a sin! While contemplating ways for us to get together, the usual ideas came to mind: books clubs, weekly dinners, annual get-aways, but the one we decided on was cocktail club. While this sounds like a grand idea, I know my tenacious girlfriends and I will slowly but surely slip back into old stories of us and our friends from high school…the problem was that we needed a reason to meet (not just to drink cocktails-although…that does sound quite appealing). Since we decided on meeting once a month (and some are too busy to keep up with a book requirement) we thought that for each meeting, the lucky lady to host us, would decide on an article of her choosing and we are all to discuss at the next meeting. Now, everyone has time to read an article! So that was that: reason to get together? Check!
So of course, being the Wicked Domestic that I am, I bucked up and offered to host the first meeting. Since I hosted, I got to choose the article to be read, I choose from The Atlantic, Autism’s First Child. To quote The Atlantic, “As new cases of autism have exploded in recent years—some form of the condition affects about one in 110 children today—efforts have multiplied to understand and accommodate the condition in childhood. But children with autism will become adults with autism, some 500,000 of them in this decade alone. What then? Meet Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi. He was the first person ever diagnosed with autism. And his long, happy, surprising life may hold some answers.” The article was really interesting and a great conversation starter. Of course, all of my friends had ENORMOUS opinions (we are an opinionated crew) and it was great to have a basis of conversation, then we could trail off into idle chit-chat.
We couldn’t have our cocktail club without delicious refreshments of course, and since it’s the middle of fall, I wanted to have a lovely spread of delicious autumn inspired foods and drink. Here’s a glimps…
A beautiful bar is a must (the apple cider is missing from the picture-to be mixed with the Captain Morgan!)…
Of course some lovely wines: sauvignon blanc and malbec
Pretty fall blooms in my gurgle vase
My mantle decorated with dried hydrangeas
A plate of homemade pumpkin, cranberry and oatmeal cookies
Homemade tortilla chips with a garlic, Dijon mustard and pumpkin dip
Butternut squash arancini with cran-mayo dip
Granola and caramel apple dip
And pan seared pork tenderloin bites rubbed with pumpkin pie spice
And of course, the lovely ladies in attendance…
We had such a blast getting together and catching up. Even if you have to give a reason to get together, the whole point is to stay in touch and make time for each other. Stay tuned for more Cocktail Club updates!
- Jackie
Like many gals in their 20s, I’m starting to attend many bridal showers and baby showers. So when my soon to be sister in law’s baby shower was being planned, I wanted to do something special for her. I decided that I wanted to make her something super cute, but also useful, so I made a diaper cake! For those of you out there that haven’t been to many baby showers in your day, this may sound a tad bit weird, but it’s a wicked cute (and a thoughtful) gift to give. Basically what it is, is baby diapers that you roll up, wrap an elastic around it and configure into what would be layers or tiers of a cake. Confused? Yea, I was too. Here’s what I did:
50 or so diapers (I used size 4 or 22-37 lbs)
same number of small elastics
2 extra large elastics
2 baby bottles
a cake stand
ribbon and other decorations
First, I rolled up all of the diapers to have them ready to go. Then take one of the bottles and unscrew the top and put the top aside. (I gave Kerry all the left over diapers and bottle tops separately so she can use them later when she dismantles the cake).
Create a ring of the rolled up diapers around the bottle, and secure with the large rubber band (you’ll notice that the bottle sticks above the diapers, that way when you put another tier on, it will be secure). Repeat this step until you have three rings of diapers around the bottle. This will be the bottom tier. Once you have the large rubber band holding that securely, set it aside.
Take the same steps to create the second and third tier, and insert the second bottle in the middle.
Once you have the cake set, measure out ribbon the wrap around the tiers to hide the elastic bands and secure it in place with crazy glue or double-sided tape. Then, I stuck some pretty fake flowers into the opening of the bottle. I also got a little wooden monogram from A.C. Moore and super glued that to the ribbon (not the diaper, since the baby will be using them!) for some added cuteness.
I loved the way the cake turned out. I didn’t plan on buying patterned diapers, but the box of them I got at Target just happened to have them, so it was a stroke of luck that it went with the rest of the theme (thank god they weren’t pink!). You could really go nuts with all the different decorations you could use…craft stores like A.C. Moore are littered with the stuff. The gift was useful and a pretty centerpiece for the baby shower.
- Jackie
Making breakfast for a crowd can be a daunting task. Whenever my family is all down the Cape or we’re all at my parents house for a holiday, I usually step up to the plate and plan out a big breakfast. My trick for an easy to serve breakfast is casseroles. That’s right people, 1950s inspired casseroles. I have to admit that they are super easy to put together, and you usually can do it the night before. My usual b-fast preference is eggs, but my Wicked Domestic sister has quite the aversion to eggs and cheese (there’s something missing from her autobiography), so on occasion, I’ve tried to suit her early morning food needs.
So over the weekend I whipped up two delightful breakfast casseroles: a veggie and egg casserole/stratta type and a french toast casserole.
Here’s what I did for the egg casserole:
I chopped up all the veggies (I used red and green peppers, onion, garlic, mushrooms and a few big russet potatoes) and sautéed them in olive oil for about 10 minutes in a large cast iron skillet. While the veggies were sizzling away, I whisked up 6 eggs with about 1 cup-1 1/2 cups of milk and salt and pepper. I then combined the egg mixture to the veggies and added 1 cup of shredded jalapeno jack cheese to the top. I cooked the casserole for about 40 minutes at 350 or so with foil on top.
Here’s what I did for the french toast casserole:
I found this wonderful cinnamon bread at the local farmers market, so I diced it up into bite sized pieces and tossed into a greased baking dish. Then, I whisked 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk together and poured it over the bread, making sure to push down on the bread cubes and make sure it’s all absorbed. Then I sprinkled the top with cinnamon and a tsp of sugar. Into the oven it went for around 40 minutes at 350 with foil on top.
While the casseroles were bubbling away in the oven, Jameson and I took a little jaunt down to the beach to soak up some beautiful morning light.
The great thing about these casseroles is that after they’re done cooking, you can leave them in a still warm oven to keep them nice and toasty until everyone gets up. As long as you do some chopping the night before, you’re good to go in the morning…so ring the breakfast bell, folks!
- Jackie
Wicked Domestic
