California Sun

I happened to be in SoCal for work this week, and I wish I could tell you that I spent a bunch of time at the beach, or shopping on Rodeo or star-watching in Hollywood. Instead I can honestly say the closest I got to Hollywood was passing a Universal Studios lot on the way to lunch, and I didn't make it to Disneyland, but I did stay at a hotel 5 miles from Legoland.

Still, there's something about seeing Palm Trees literally EVERYWHERE you go that is a little relaxing.  Oh, and that bright thing in the sky blinding me?  That's the sun which I feel like I haven't really seen in 3 months.

Matzo Ball Soup at Jerry's Deli

I did get the opportunity for some great shady Thai food and a Cali staple called Jerry's Deli - great kosher Jewish food, and probably some of the better Matzo Ball Sousp I've had in the past few years.  With a menu containing over 600 options, it was pretty tough to decide on just one item.

Golden Tidbit:

I bought these Mazzy Flip Flops from Banana Republic last year and they are still one of the most comfortable pairs I own.  I got them on clearance for about $15, but you can get then today from BR for $39.50. They take a little time to wear in but are an easy way to bring a little Gold to your summer wardrobe.

Golden Quote: "There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."  - Edward Abbey

Cooking up a storm

I realized recently that I hadn't yet posted any recipes, so you'll be happy to know I spend all day yesterday cooking up a storm! (No really, by 10 am the apartment smelled like roasted chicken, it was AMAZING!) Every couple of weeks we have a rotating dinner with some friends and each time the hosting couple is responsible for cooking the main portion of the meal, and the other couples bring sides, apps or dessert as needed to complete the meal.  It was our second time hosting and I brought the big guns: Personal Pot Pies & Oven-Baked Fried Chicken.

Personal Pot Pies

Ingredients: (Makes approx 8 personal pies)

1-2 C. Chicken (Thigh or Breast, or whole roasted)

1 C. Peas

1 C. Corn (kernels)

1 C. Carrots (chopped)

1 C. Potato (chopped)

2-3 cloves garlic (diced)

1/4 C onion (Diced)

3-4 Tbsp Flour

4 C. Chicken broth

 1/2 stick Butter

Spices to taste (S&P, Thyme, Rosemary, garlic)

Phillo dough or pre-made frozen pie crust for top

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Line baking sheet with Foil (in case the pies bubble over, makes for easy cleanup), set aside. In oven safe large frying pan, lightly over bottom with olive oil & place chicken; season liberally with spices. Roast for Approx 45 min or until cooked (if using whole chicken, 45 min @ 400, baste & turn to 375, cook for 20 min, baste, cover with foil, cook for 30-40 more minutes or until juices run clear).  *Tip: While the chicken is roasting, use this time to dice your veggies!

I usually use this as a good time to start heating the Chicken broth on the stove - I use a combo of Trader Joe's Savory Chicken Broth packets (thanks to my Mom for turning me onto these) + a few bullion cubes + a bay leaf + spices to taste.  Cover and set on low, this will really get some flavor going for the broth.

Remove from oven, set chicken aside to cool. Once cool, cut into small pieces. Do not wash pan, place frying pan burner set to med heat.  You want all the chickeny goodness stuck in the pan from roasting, this is called Fond.  Now we're going to make the roux (pronounced roo) this is basically the gravy base for the pies.  Add approx 1/3 stick of butter to pan.  As the butter melts, use a whisk to stir; this will help unstick the fond and combine it with the butter.  Once all the butter has melted & starts bubbling (keep whisking) add flour 1 heaping tbsp at a time - keep whisking! The roux color should look caramel, be the consistency of thick syrup and smell a bit nutty when it's just right.  If it's clumping still, add a bit more butter, if it's runny, add a bit more flour.  Now it's time to add the chicken broth (which should be hot!) slowly pour the broth onto the frying pan with the roux & KEEP WHISKING! You've just made gravy :)

Taste and season as needed.  Allow to cook on med for a few minutes (if it seems like it isn't thick enough, cook down for longer, whisking occasionally).  Now add chicken, carrots, peas, garlic, onion & potatoes.  Stir until well mixed and allow to heat throughly.  Ladle the mixture into the ramekins filling to just below the top. 

For Crust: Before filling ramekins with Gravy, use them as a guide to cut out top (cut a little larger than the ramekin)  I've used both Phillo & premade pie crust and I personally prefer the Crust, but here's the info for both ways:

For Phillo: Place tops onto each ramekin, push into gravy as needed (Phillo option pictured below) Melt the remaining butter in microwave, brush tops & bake @ 400F degrees for 30 min.  Remove from oven to cool.

For Premade crust: allow to thaw while chicken is roasting. The crust may overlap the top of the ramefin, which is fine.  Melt the remaining butter in microwave, brush tops & bake @ 375F degrees for 40 min. Remove from oven to cool.

*Golden Tips: I took the long route and instead of just oven roasting chicken breast/thigh I roasted a whole chicken.  Instead of spending $8-10 per ramekin at William Sonoma/Target/etc, I recommend buying the pot pies or Mac & Cheese from Metropolitan Market; you get a meal, and get to keep the dish for about $5.99.

Oven-Baked Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

10-15 chicken legs

1 quart buttermilk

2 C. Flour

3 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Thyme

Salt & Pepper

Remove skin from chicken. Pour buttermilk into large Stainless Steel mixing bowl.  Add spices and S&P, mix thoroughly, add chicken to buttermilk (fully submerged) and allow to soak at min 1 hour (up to overnight) covered & in the fridge.  Stir the buttermilk & chicken mixture 1/2 way through soaking.  Prepare a roasting pan with a rack (you want the chicken off the bottom of the pan), spray the rack with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray.   Preheat oven to 400F degrees. In a pie dish (the tall sides contain the flour mixture better than on a plate) mix the flour & spices together.  Even if it feels like you are adding too much of the spices, you aren't, the flour will dilute the flavors more than you think.  Remove the chicken, and 1 piece at a time, shake off the excess buttermilk, roll in the flour mixture until fully covered, place on the rack in the roasting pan.  Place roasting pan in over and bake 45-50 min.  Remove from oven and allow to cool, enjoy!

NOTE: There are a lot of versions of this recipe online, and I will say that the chicken wasn't as crispy as I had hoped when it cooled (VERY crispy right out of the oven).  Next time we're trying the version that uses no rack, and butter in the bottom of the roasting dish so you fry the chicken while it bakes, turning at 20 minutes & then finishing (same cooking time).

Dinner is Served!

Golden Tidbit:

If you have $1000 to burn next time you are in NYC, stop by Serendipity 3 and order the Golden Opulence Sundae; it's actually in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 as the worlds most expensive Sundae. Made with 23k gold and the worlds rarest chocolate, I think this dessert is a true once in a lifetime opportunity for a real Gold lover.  You get to keep the Baccarat Crystal goblet, but no the 18k gold spoon.  Don't forget to call ahead, they need 48 hours notice to get it ready for you!

Golden Quote: "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.  In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude." Julia Child

Spring Decor: a touch of Gold

It's Super Bowl weekend so naturally I know everyone's minds are on snacks, football and BBQ.  Somehow, my mind is on redecorating my apartment.  It's not quite spring yet, but I have an overwhelming desire to change at least something about my apartment. The good thing about apartment living is that limited square footage makes inspired decorating a must. Gold inspired decorating is of course my preferred path.

Golden Tidbit:

1. Gold Lacquered Tray $8.98 Sale (Pier One)

2.  Sugar Frost Gold Candle $6.38 Sale (Crate & Barrel)

3. Brown & Gold Agate Coasters $125 (Jonathan Adler)

4. Gold Feather Tray $98.00 (William-Sonoma)

5. White Stag with Gold Antlers $94.99 (White Faux Taxidermy)

6.  Gold Chevron Pllow $75.00 (Caitlin Wilson Textile)

7. Measuring Hedgehogs $36 for a set of 4 (Anthropologie)

Golden Quote: "There is a conception in this country about luxurious things that we have to save them for a time that's right.  But an object is truly luxurious if you allow it to be, if you use it.  When you live with beautiful things you stimulate the mind, you enjoy life a little bit more." - Ralph Rucci

Prada Perfection

Have you been shopping lately? I have and Resort/Cruise Collections are out in full force.  Pastels (particularly mint green & pale pinks), Whites/Neutrals, graphic prints and..... neon (yes, still).  Sidebar: I'm all for neon as workout wear; high visibility is important:

Puma Windblock hoodie, on sale for $70 right now; I have this and LOVE it

This leads me to my point today.  I have been on the hunt for the perfect purse lately, and have been waiting for my current one to fail me any day now.  Resort collections do NOT help to find the classic black perfect purse, but offer a plethora of orange, teal and pale pink.  Not exactly classic. I'm at the point where I'm ready to make an investment in the right piece, I just have to find it. Correction, I have found it but Prada is not quite on my level yet, so here we have the original idea and the attainable possibility:

Retails for about $1700 @ Bergdorfs

Retails for about $230

Anyone who's ever searched for the perfect purse knows this is the struggle; ideal vs reality.  But I digress. Since Resort season is upon us, let's talk vacations.  Where's you're ideal getaway? Maybe just a weekend, or a true 2 week decompression trip, what helps you relax?
For me it's Sonoma, but I'll take a solid day of wine tasting in Woodinville in a pinch.

Golden Tidbit:

There are a lot of things that you should pack for vacation, but sunglasses are the #1 must-have. These Gold Helene Aviators from Banana Republic fit the bill perfectly! ($98 and come with a leather case)

Golden Quote: "No matter what happens, travel gives you a story to tell." -Jewish Proverb

Lighting Trends 2013: Gilded style

I was lucky enough to spend the last 3 days at the Dallas Market Center for International Lighting Market.  Every year this is the largest event for the lighting industry and their opportunity to release the newest products to the largest audience (comprised of wholesale buyers from just about everywhere).  Now let me say that the DMC is impressive all on it's own, but the lighting portion is over a million square feet of lighting resources.  Imagine Mall of America, but bigger and all lighting; each showroom is basically the size of a department store (some smaller, some bigger) with the largest being over 30,000 sq ft.

View from one end of the Trade Mart in the DMC

 Luckily my coworkers warned me and I was well prepared with multiple pairs of flats, but after 3 days of walking on concrete, my feet definitely need a rest today. (for more info on the DMC, click here, we stayed primarily in the Trade Mart portion). Wishes for next year: Better wi-fi and vendors who offer power outlets; I took about 1,000 pics on my iPhone and live Tweeted & Facebooked while I was there, but absolutely would have done more if I hadn't been concerned about my battery life & where to find the next outlet. Also, they had a giant Social Media board that featured tweets with the hashtag #lightingmkt, and I ended up on the board a few times, pretty cool to look up and see your own tweet on a huge screen like this:

Now that you have some background, onto the fun part! There were some definite trends in lighting, including: Whites, Spheres, Gilding/Metallics, Historic, Natural Materials, Bold Colors, and Fururistic design.  I'm going to focus on Gilding, because everyone needs more Gold in their lives.

1. Ion Chandelier (Hinkley) 2. York Sconce (Hudson Valley) 3. Ecran Pendants (Tech Lighting) 4. Infinity Chandelier (Eurofase) 5. Spectra Chandelier (Hinkley) 6. Veubronze sconce (Elk)  7. Hugo Chandelier (Feiss)  8. Uni Chandelier (Troy)  9. Ombrello Chandelier (Eurofase) 10. Bronx Pendant (Eurofase) 11. Novello Chandelier (Eurofase) 12. Houdini Chandelier (Corbett) 13. Manchester Semi-flush (Maxim) 14. Amytis Chandelier (Schonbek) 15. Muse Pendant (Corbett) 16. Camelot sconce (LBL) 17. Poetry Chandelier (Corbett) 18. Gold dusted Crystal (Capital)
Gold Notes:
#3 Is made using a silkscreening process that actually puts gold and silver ON the glass
#7 The inspiration for the design came from vintage extendable sewing machine lights
#8 Inspired by a Sea Urchin (and not the only version I saw, just the only gold one)
#14 Used Swarovski crystals that don't show as well in the pic, but sparkle in person
#16 It's actually gold brass chain mail, but inspired from another fixture that uses swarovski crystal in gold mesh

Golden Feature:

One thing I learned this week, when you're taking as many iPhone pictures as I did, surrounded by rooms full of lighting, it gets hot and the likelihood of your iphone slipping out of your hand gets exponentially higher.  I dropped my phone a few times and my case did it's job and sacrificed itself to protect the phone. Cracks and chips just aren't attractive, and the case looses ability to protect the phone every time it happens. my BF was thoughtful and I came home to this Para Duo case in gold, the black is rubber and the portion on the front wraps around the phone (important for me, I'm most afraid of cracking my screen) Available on Amazon for $28.90

Golden Quote: "When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I'm sure it made the work seem that much more urgent" -George Carlin

Technology & Plumbing Collide

After 11 weeks, I am finally publishing my first plumbing related post.  I'm in the plumbing/construction industry so plumbing products hold an allure to me, which some people find strange. When going out to eat, I'll always be sure to note the toilet, sink and faucet in the restroom.  I will know if that kitchen faucet on Cribs really is top of the line or not. But most of all, as a semi-tech geek, I love when plumbing & tech collide.

This week I had the opportunity to use the Kohler Moxie Showerhead.  

The speaker in hand, charging port shown

It is essentially a bluetooth speaker in a showerhead. Music in your shower, streaming from your phone.  (This is the kind of innovation that really gets me excited about my industry!)

 Moxie was introduced in December and was actually on quite a few tech blog X-mas lists, but not yet having the opportunity to test it myself, I wasn't ready to put a recommendation out.  Function for me is huge, i.e. if the shower head can't get conditioner out of my hair, the head probably won't pass my test.  There needs to be force behind the water, not just good looking exterior design.  The Moxie is not the best spray I've experienced out of a Kohler head, but passes the test just fine.

The spray is only on the outside of the head since the speaker has to be placed in the middle. I'll allow a little leeway in function here to get to the point; it's a speaker in a showerhead. The speaker insert has a 7 hour battery life, is water resistant, is bluebooth enabled up to 32 ft away and can be used separately from the rest of the showerhead.  I've heard of waterproof speakers for a full sound system inside your shower, but the idea of literally combining the 2? True innovation.

 (Kohler, Retails for $199 - See video here)

Golden Tidbit:

Obviously you'll need some body wash to use with a new shower head, why not some infused with 24k gold? (Available at Bath & Body Works, on sale for $8.25 other scents also available)

Golden Quote: "Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dried off and does something about it who makes the difference." - Nolan Bushnell

New year, new Golden opportunity

I'm not big on New Years resolutions.  I hate the obligation to stick to something I think will make me a better person that I probably should be doing anyway.  The whole feeling of it hanging over my head leads me to hate the idea.  Instead I thought I would do something that I WANT to do and think will make other people as happy as I am to get it. I love getting mail.  Real-in my mailbox-with a stamp on it-bonafide snail mail.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one; who doesn't like discovering that little golden envelope with a stamp on it mixed among all the bills and ads and junk mail?  So this year I am committing to send 52 letters/thank you notes/birthday cards/care packages to the people in my life.  I know that Mail seems to out of date in this online era (says the bloggger) but  I hope my recipients enjoy receiving as much as I enjoy sending.
And yes friends, I have of course found a place online to make custom Gold Postage (www.zazzle.com)

Golden Feature:

These hand engraved Gold cards from Crane & Co are a perfect way to say Thank You!

($19 for a box of 10)

Golden Tidbit: "I've always felt there is something sacred in a piece of paper that travels the earth from hand to hand, head to head, heart to heart.” - Robert Michael Pyle