The Ravenna Girls » 2010

posted by Danielle

29 Dec

a few of those pictures we promised…

from D’s birthday when we went to happy hour/dinner at Toulouse Petite…. YUM.

( very affordable happy hour with yummy southern food! )

fried chicken bites over mashed potatoes…

cajun meatloaf sliders and pomme frites…

the most amazing thing ever eaten, dungeoness crab over fried green tomatoes

and yummy dessert, a pear and hazelnut torte!

and a birthday drink of course!

Tags: seattle

our house, christmas decor 2010

a few images from around the house we have taken over the last days…

we wish you a very merry christmas!

Tags: design

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posted by Danielle

21 Dec

mmm cookies!

Are you into the Christmas baking mode yet?

I have been in the Christmas eating mode since Thanksgiving… but this weekend cookies were pretty much my focus.

To begin, you can see and get recipes for some delicious Christmas cookies B and I made last year in this post.

This year, we were intrigued by the Martha Stewart December issue. It featured one basic dough and then all kinds of cookies you could make from that simple dough! It certainly has been handy to have around this season… you just whip up a new type of cookie for different events.

To start:

Make this Basic Vanilla Dough

{Slight dough variations include spice, chocolate, and citrus.}

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder (omit if making thumbprints, ball cookies, or spritz cookies)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined.

Then wrap the dough and place in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

On Sunday, I organized my small group’s Christmas party around cookies. Decorating them mostly…. but eating too. I wanted to bring a little sugar to get us going…. {we had a whole lotta cookies to decorate!}

So I rolled balls of this basic vanilla dough that were about 1 1/4″ in diameter. I then baked them at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. After baking, let the cookies completely cool.

Then, with B’s excellent skills at chocolate melting… we dunked each cookie in a pot of melted chocolate. I crushed up some candies to put on the top. Once finished, place the cookies in the fridge so the chocolate can harden.

and … eat cookies!

My small group, for the record, is full of the most creative, sweet, funny, amazing 13 year olds you could ever meet. They took cookie decorating to a whole new level. For example, who says you just should have the basic frosting colors? No way! They mixed up some coral, turquoise, and lime green. And, who says you should just decorate one cookie at a time? Instead, you could make a cookie sculpture complete with a four inch pile of cookie that you carve away at.

All this while sticking firm to our beliefs that there is no such thing as too many sprinkles.

Tags: christmas, cookies, recipe

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posted by Danielle

20 Dec

oliver is all ready, he has even had a practice run!

Here he is, with the first round of presents underneath…

We had our girlfriends over for a little brunch and present opening a week ago….

Yum ….

this was brunch, before we ate it… (thanks joelle, for having the sense to photo this!)

oh, and this was an edible tree for the day, thanks to dana. yum!

{yes, our friends do come over to eat cookies and drink cocoa in front of the fire and open presents we buy for each other. I strongly suggest you do this too. Lights and christmas socks and running to Christmas parties is delightful, but this really is just perfection.}

Today Oliver is slowly being populated with presents again. Here he is in the nighttime, all lit up.