Category Archives: Life

A Cake + A New Year

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Happy 2014, everyone!

I hope that your holidays were delightful!

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Now, let’s talk about this cake + this brand new year.

I made this cake on Monday. I don’t know why, I just wanted to. And so I did. This cake was to me, so beautiful and also so delicious. This cake is a combination of two wonderful ideas. I used this recipe, for lemon cake, from Always With Butter and this rosemary buttercream, idea from My Name is Yeh. While this is an unconventional cake flavor combination, trust me when I say it’s delicious. For what I like in a dessert, it is close to perfection. Not overly sweet, not overly common and the flavors are meant to be together.

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Let’s do more of that in this new year. Let’s do things just because we want to. We do so many things because we (feel like) we have to. Let’s do more of the stuff that makes our hearts happy.

What are you looking for in the new year?

I’m looking at the new year as a way to refocus my ideas, visions and the things that I want to do. I don’t quite know yet exactly where I want to be one year from now, or what I want to have accomplished, but I am slowly working through having a more concrete idea in my mind.

I am now a college graduate, and have been for 8 months. I made it through the end of 2013 often struggling to know exactly what the future will look like for me. I resolve to embrace the blank canvas ahead of me this year, rather than concern myself with the unknown. I resolve to keep doing what makes my heart happy, and trust that I’m doing the right thing. 

As far as my blog goes, I know I want it to improve, but in what exact ways I am not sure yet. The word improve is very vague, but that’s all I’ve got so far. I read this interview yesterday on The Huffington Post, with Sarah from The Vanilla Bean Blog. I absolutely love the advice she gave to bloggers. She said:

“Discover your voice and be true to it. It’s okay to learn from others and emulate them while you’re learning and practicing, but figure out what unique things you want to bring to your photos, your words, your recipes, and always be moving towards them. Also, quality over quantity is important.”

That’s about as concrete a goal as any for me right now. I want to do what she said. I want to find out what exactly it is I want from this blog and for this blog. I want my intentions to be clear in my head. I potentially want this blog to lead me to something someday. What that something is, I have no idea at this point. But as I see it, to be completely in love with what I put on here and for it to be a complete representation of me is the first step to getting to that something. 

For the first few months of The Dreaming Foodie, I was obsessed with posting something 5 days a week. I put so much work into creating those posts. While I don’t regret that at all (it’s all part of the process that Sarah talks about in her advice), that is not the direction I intend to go any longer. There was a period during the summer that I stressed about not posting enough. I stressed about not even being able to post twice a week. That’s going to be all behind me now. I intend to not even pick a number for how often I will post. Instead, I will work hard to develop ideas and to execute those ideas in the best way until I bring them to this blog. When they come, they come. Because of that and because I will still be working to make money, I probably won’t be posting as often. 

But know that I won’t be stressing about it. No more. I resolve for this blog to bring no stress, only happiness + growth. Know that when I do post, it will be a complete representation of me and what I want to bring to the world.

I do know that I love this blog and I love sharing ideas with all of you. Thank you, to all of you!, for reading, for your comments and for your support of The Dreaming Foodie.

Thanks for listening to my new year ramblings. Let’s make it a good + completely delicious year!  

 

DIY: Wine Cork Label Holder

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Things are getting crafty today on The Dreaming Foodie!

I don’t think that I’ve really talked about it much before, but you should know, I do like to try to be crafty. I always have. It’s just the type of person I am – I like to make things. Things like food and decorations, and wine cork label holders. Mostly things that are cute and pretty!

My mom and I have made many seasonal wreaths over the years, many centerpieces for various events and I’ve always jumped at the chance to try DIY home decor things. 

But honestly, I haven’t done anything crafty in so long. Too long! I was so excited about these wine cork label holders, I thought I just had to share them with you!

So, a few weeks ago, I helped a friend from work host a holiday party. We prepared a bunch of delicious food and drinks and had a wonderful time. While planning for this party, I was trying to think of ways to label the food. I came across this page, which featured these amazing wine cork appetizer place cards, and that was my inspiration! The instructions on that blog, Raisin & Fig, are excellent, so you should definitely check that out too! The way I did it is just a bit different and I am going to show you now!

Here’s what you need:

-Assorted wine corks
-Kitchen twine or string
-Small card stock paper
-A pen or other writing utensil

Four simple things, that’s it! I don’t save a lot of things or keep a lot of things around, but one thing I have saved over a couple of years is wine corks. I have a little white box that I put them in after they are out of the bottle. In the box, they are out of the way and not cluttering anything, but, I always know where they are. I’m so glad I had them around when I decided to do this little craft. 

I got the kitchen twine and small card stock at Michaels. Each were cheap and will last a long time and will be used for many different things! I used a fine point black pen to do the writing. 

So, all you do is choose two corks that are the same height. They definitely don’t have to be from the same winery, and I actually kind of like it when the two corks are different. 

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Cut a piece of twine or string to about 16 inches. Place the wine corks down on the string, wrap the string around to the front and tie a tight double knot. Here’s what it will look like at this point:

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 Now, wrap the string around the corks several times. I wrapped mine around two more times. There should be enough string left after wrapping to tie a bow. So, tie the wrapped string into another knot to make it tight, and then in a bow. Here’s what you’ll have:

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Stand the corks up, with the smooth side of the cork down, and here’s what you’ll have:

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Next, write on the pieces of card stock and place the card stock in between the two wine corks. That’s it! Easy as pie. 

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This idea is so cute and went over very well at the party. I love that it’s so easy to do and requires so few materials. These add a nice little touch without much work. That’s the best. 

Also, these can be customized to different occasions by using different colors of twine or string. Get creative with the color you use depending on the reason for celebrating!

Hope you enjoyed this little craft!

And, just one more picture to share, my little helper!

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 {How cute! :))

Happy holidays! 

Wintertime Birthday

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If there is anyone I know who will love these photos, it is my dad. 

The two of us have many things in common. We enjoy many of the same foods, both enjoy a good beer or glass of wine, we both love warmer weather + sunshine. (the list could go on + on). Neither of us are in love with winter. We both enjoy spring, summer and fall, when going outside and enjoying the day is the best thing to do. But when it comes to winter, and one has to bundle up layer upon layer to make it even tolerable to be outside, it’s just not our jam. 

My dad’s birthday is just before the official start of winter. I’ve always wondered about the irony in this. I think the universe did this to give us something to celebrate, because surely we aren’t celebrating the weather outside. 

But the cool thing is, when it comes to anything with the outdoors, I know my dad appreciates the beauty, no matter what the season. I know that he loves the scenes of winter, even if he doesn’t love the cold. 

So, these photos are just for you, Daddy. I love you very, very much!

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See you soon!

One Day in Cape May

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One beautiful, gorgeous, breathtaking, enjoyable, autumn day in Cape May. 

One nice thing about living in Philly is being less than a two-hour drive from this beautiful place.

My parents and I woke up Monday morning, drove to the shore, and drove home in the evening. It’s not something that we’re used to – being able to drive to the beach and home, all in one day. But if I could guess, I’d say it’s something that will now happen often. 

We fulfilled one of my moms life-long dreams by visiting Cape May. She had high expectations, and at the end of the day, her expectations were surpassed. What an adorable town, gorgeous beach and generally fun place to be! Cape May, we will be back, sooner rather than later.

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Vacation

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Hi everyone! How are ya?

Let’s get right to it — it’s been way too long. I didn’t mean to leave this blog quiet for so long, but it just happened, and I’m sorry. I won’t go into a huge list of excuses, but I was on vacation. That’s my main excuse. 

I’m back now, sort of. I’ve come up with a theory of vacation inertia. You know the law of inertia? A body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest? Well, ya, I think that my vacation body + mind are staying in vacation body + mind. They don’t want to come back to real life. But, I’m trying really hard, and I thought that today I’d ease in by sharing some vacation photos with you! 

And, I don’t like to make promises, so you know it’s big when I say — I promise you, a recipe tomorrow! 

We went to Disney for a few days of our vacation. As usual, we had tons of fun! An added bonus – we were there during the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Naturally, we indulged more than usual, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The Food and Wine Festival is a really neat concept. Epcot sets up “stands” (this year, there were 30) throughout the World Showcase,  representing countries and concepts. Each stand has a menu of food and drink that is authentic to that country or concept. Between the six people in our group, I would say that we had something from about each and every stand. It was a fun opportunity to learn about and explore cuisine that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried. Here is a little photo collage I put together of just a handful of the stands:

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And some from Epcot:

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For the second part of our trip, my mom, dad and I stayed in Celebration, Florida at the Bohemian Hotel. It was stunning. Maybe the cutest hotel I have seen.  And Celebration is a wonderful town. My mom and I kept saying that it is a perfect town and there is absolutely not one thing wrong with it! My mom and I got a lot of time to explore the town, while my dad unfortunately was working at a conference. We ate at every restaurant in the town except for one! And we spent a lot of time just relaxing, admiring the town we got to stay in for a week. Some photos:

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Okay guys, I think that’s it for now. I am happy that I could share some of my vacation with you and I will be back tomorrow to talk food again. Have a wonderful Wednesday!