Northampton, MA

We stopped in Northampton, MA last weekend on our way home from the Berkshires. I love that little city! A few favorite spots, should you find yourself in the area:

• Ben & Bills
• Broadside Bookshop
• Faces
• Fresh Pasta Co.

Anybody taking any day trips this weekend? Peter has a huge stack of papers to grade, and I'm trying to finish up a botched sewing project. But we have grand plans to push through the thongs of teeny-boppers to see Hunger Games! Happy Friday, all!

2nd Anniversary Gift: Cotton

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Our second anniversary is coming up in a few months, and I haven't hit upon something that I'm super excited about, like last year's anniversary painting for the paper year. The traditional gift is supposed to involve cotton.

Bedding, cloth napkins and a picnic blanket would all fit the bill - and I absolutely adore the selections above - but they're sort of boring, no? I would never buy a cotton candy machine, but I thought was too cute not to include :) And of course, you guys know how I feel about gin. Perfect gift for everything! It made its way onto the list because of the cotton gin - GET IT?

I have another post on the docket with some ideas for the modern second anniversary gift - China. Contain your excitement, please!

Anyone out there have a brilliant 2nd anniversary gift idea to share? I'd love to hear!

Early Spring Picnic

It feels a little cruel to share these photos on such a cold and windy day. But this was just four days ago! I was wearing capri pants and I was too hot.

This little outing was arranged after a no-good-very-bad-day. Everyone who pays their own taxes in quarterly installments has a horror story or two to share. That day, we got one of ours.

But Peter is full of wise, good sense, and I am very optimistic. The horror faded quickly, and we remembered how crazy lucky we are. We have jobs; we have money in the bank. And we have a lake to visit on unseasonable warm afternoons in March.

Roasted Chicken with Honey, Peas and Shallots

We went to the Berkshires over the weekend. Whenever I see my mom, she always passes along the magazines she gets that I don't subscribe to myself. Country Living, Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens -- the Mom Magazines. I love them!

In the latest BHG, there is a series of recipes that all feature honey, including a glorious roasted chicken recipe. You roast a chicken (I use Dorie's hurry up and wait method, which involved roasting the bird on it's sides for 25 minutes each, and then finishing breast side up for the last ten minutes, but you can just do it the standard way, too!). When the bird is ten minutes away from being done, you take it out and slather it with honey, and put it back in the oven. It comes out all dark and glazed and glorious.

Then, using the pan drippings, you make a sauce with shallots, peas, more honey and lots of fresh tarragon. Peter declared this dish to be restaurant-worthy. We all know he's biased, but still! High praise.

Roasted Chicken with Honey, Peas and Shallots
Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens


You will need:
4 lb chicken
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons honey, divided
1 cup dry white wine, or chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 lemon, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Heat the oven to 450 F. Pat the chicken dry, then rub with butter and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you want a juicy, super amazing chicken, truss it up, put it into a cast iron skillet on it's side, and roast for 25 minutes. Flip it to the other side and roast for another 25 minutes. Take the bird out and brush on 1 tablespoon of honey, covering the top and sides well. Roast another ten minutes, then place on a cutting board under a foil tent to rest. (We actually do this elaborate resting set-up involving a bowl and a jelly roll pan. The chicken goes breast-side down, butt in the air so that the juices trickle back down to the white meat - try it!).

While the chicken is resting, put the cast iron with all the chicken drippings on the stove over medium heat. Add the wine or broth, shallots, lemon slices, peas and the last tablespoon of honey. You'll cook this for 7-10 minutes total, until the liquid reduces by half. Scrape up the good stuff from the bottom of the pan. I know these peas look very "done," but Molly Orangette says that peas are legumes and need to cook for a while to get super delicious. I follow Molly's advice!

When the sauce has been cooking about 5 minutes, call your husband in and have him carve that chicken! Pull out the lemon slices and stir in the Dijon and most of the tarragon.

Serve over mashed potatoes. Place chicken on top of the potatoes, and then spoon the sauce on top of everything. Sprinkle the little bit of tarragon you saved on top, and enjoy!

Paris Planning: Packing

Edie purse; Frill front beige trench; Scalloped silk top; Nine West taker flats; Mossimo Supply Co. white floral aquare acarf with blue pom trim; 3/4 boat neck sailor tee; Black skinny pants

I've been on a look out for a few new items to bring to Paris. The only thing above that I have (so far!) are the pants. They are fabulous! If you are looking for new skinny black pants, I highly recommend these. I used to be a J Crew Minnie girl, but these are my favorites now.

Isn't that pink shirt fabulous!? A friend sent me a link to Boden USA, and I'm obsessed. Has anyone ordered from there? I'm very tempted to actually order something online (I never do that - I like to try things on and see them in person).

The color theme for this trip is looking like pink, black and white. Did you see Abbey's post on the color theme she used for a trip to the Caribbean? So perfect!

Do you guys pack in themes? Or does this seem sort of crazy, and you just pick your favorite pieces to come along?

Springtime

Our weekend was filled with all kinds of fun. On Saturday night, Peter and I went out for Indian food and saw a super funny comedy show. (As sort of an aside, Indian food can be tough if you avoid tomatoes, soy and gluten, but I got the most amazing dosa - it's a savory sort of crepe made from rice and lentil flour! So good.)

On Sunday, I met a girlfriend for lunch. We had such a great time talking about houses and work and dating (her dating, not mine!). I've been missing friends lately, and this was such a fun treat. I try to keep reminding myself how long it takes to build up new friendships, and reconnect with old ones. It's hard to be patient with that.

On Sunday afternoon, glorious Sunday afternoon, Peter and I drove out to Walden Pond for a walk. It looks desolate in these photos, but it was packed!

All the crazy New Englander's were jumping into the water, too! They still had the "beware of ice" signs out. Way too cold!

We wrapped everything up with this corned beef recipe. That sauce, you guys - it was to die for. I want to put parsley mustard sauce on everything from now on.

I hope you are having a lovely start to your spring! My sense of time is all off with this warm weather - it feels like school should be ending in a few weeks, and we're not even at April vacation yet! I'm not complaining, though, weather gods (please hear me!).

House Tour: Living Room

Our living room! Sharing this one makes me a little nervous for some reason. I think because for a long time I wasn't totally sold on it myself. This room has been re-arranged four or five times - and we've only lived here for eight months!

The things that I love about the room also posed some problems. Double french doors that lead to our front door, a big mantle with built in shelves, a double open door into the dining room, and five windows! Lots of big things to take into account, and no solid walls to arrange furniture around.

 

I'm sure things will continue to evolve and change, but for now, I'm really happy with it. I love that we easily have seating for six. And my mom and sister will roll their eyes at this, but I also love the amount of pattern I was brave enough to mix in. They're pattern junkies, so this is pretty tame to them, but floral + fish pillows + geometrics is pretty big time for me!

 

While I was snapping pictures, I thought I'd take one of the entryway, too, which is through the french doors next to the couch. 

I've heard this advice before, but taking pictures of your own home is eye-opening. You see things on the screen that you don't notice in real life, like that white cord going across the floor in one corner of the room. I also had a brown paper grocery bag by my mantle for months (!) that held kindling and newspapers for fires. So ugly! Now it's on the hall closet instead. I re-shot the photos where it was visible, in case you're looking for it!

One last thing to mention. This pretend shopping living room post is one my most popular (very relative term here on Fresh Basil!). I think people come to it while searching for information on the Chloe sofa.We haven't had it very long, but I highly recommend it! It isn't huge, which is great for apartments and smaller living rooms. It's gotten a few spills (including baby puke, ew), and everything just wipes right off. I couldn't be happier with it!

Asian-style Wedge Salad

I take a lot of food pictures that never make there way to the blog. Usually they seem sort of obvious and ordinary with a little hindsight. Do you really need to see my quinoa tostadas or fancy grilled cheese, along with a brief explanation? I always tell myself you do not.

But this week I started thinking about the kinds of recipes I'm always on the look out for. These include: grains + veggie main dishes, one-pot meals, and salads. Lot of salads! So in that spirit, I'm sharing this one with you (even though my inner editor is still sort of asking why).

A little back story: In Disney World's Prime Time Cafe, of all places, I had a really good wedge salad. It was the standard BLT variety, with lots of blue cheese dressing (but no tomatoes, ew). Ever since, I've been on Team Wedge Salad. They are so easy to make, really inexpensive, and feel very light and summery.

This one is a slightly different take. It's a wedge with carrots, radishes, chopped cilantro, peanuts, and a peanut scallion dressing. It was good! Here's a loose version of the dressing I made, but you'll probably want to play around with it a bit.

Happy St. Patrick's Day weekend, all!

Peanut Scallion Salad Dressing

You will need:

1 scallion, white and pale green parts only, chopped very well
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
Big squeeze of lime juice (from about a 1/4 of a lime) + some zest, if you wish
Salt and pepper
Water or vegetable oil, as needed

Combine all ingredients but the oil/water in a bowl and mix very well with a fork. This will likely be quite thick, so add in additional oil or water until you have the desired consistency. I added about 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of water for a creamy, thick dressing. Makes enough for two wedge salads!

Striped table runner

I had this project on my list for Crafty February, but as you can see, we are now in the Ides of March (beware!). A little late, what can you do?

This is half a yard of a Waverly fabric (it has some kind of cute-ish name like, "So Stripey!" that's escaping me right now).

I folded the fabric in half the long way and stitched that together inside out, being extra sure my stripes were lined up correctly. I'm not usually like that, but stripes, man. They are tricky! Then I closed off the ends right side out, because pickiness can only last so long.

I wanted to make it double sided because as my mom said, "Runners get gross!" Ha. They do, though. So, nice to be able to flip it over after I Peter inevitably spills some super spicy, bright red hot sauce on my darling new runner.

P.S. Don't mind the gaping hole in my $3.99 TJ's bouquet. A Gerber daisy that formerly inhabited that hole bit the dust shortly before these photos were taken!

Paris Planning: The Apartment

(via Domino)

After weeks of research, we recently booked our apartment rental in Paris! There are so many options, I thought this process would be a breeze. And, if I had wanted to spend a bit more, it would have been.

Unfortunately, I kept thinking about all the wine and cheese I could buy with that money instead! A tiny budget meant lots of studios with futons (not real beds). I mean, I don't require a super long, bright pink bed, but a futon just wouldn't do. Being in my late twenties has made me more snobby about my sleeping arrangements!

I combed through Airbnb, HomeAway and Trip Advisor. Many people seem to have good luck with Airbnb, but I found most of the apartments had kind of dark, sketchy photos. This Trip Advisor rental in a former bakery was tempting, but I didn't love the location. We wanted to be in the 9, 10 or 11th arrondissement, based almost entirely on this old Gourmet article.*

Eventually, in desperation, I took a peak at VRBO. I hadn't looked there earlier because I didn't think they did international bookings. But they do! And they had the most affordable, pretty, real-live-bed apartments. And lots of reviews! Those sway me so much (even though I never leave them, so it's sort of hypocritical, I guess). 

I'll definitely share how it works out after we return!

*Much of our trip planning is based on this old Paris issue of Gourmet. I'm mentioning this only because when planning a vacation, we usually latch on to no more than two or three magazines/articles/books total and call it day. It's too easy to get overwhelmed otherwise! Usually one of the other planning tools is the NY Times 36 hours article, too. Just thought I'd share that little tip :)