homemade turkey stock...

...is so easy to make that it would be silly not to make it. It's the best way to use your leftover turkey carcass and veggies from Thanksgiving dinner. And even if you don't have a lot of leftover vegetables, you only need a few things from the grocery store and I'm sure you can find a lot of the spices/seasonings in your pantry. The only thing is that it does take some time - most of it is just spent waiting while it simmers - but you'll have to plan to make it on a day when you'll be home for most of the day. I made stock for the first time last year and it was so nice to be able to just reach into my freezer and grab a container of homemade stock whenever I needed it. I ran out of the homemade stuff months ago, so I'm excited to "stock" up! HA! Get it, "stock" up? ANYWAYS....

I used 3 carrots, 2 onions, 4 stalks of celery and I just roughly chopped them up. In addition to those veggies, I added 2 bay leaves, a few sprigs of parsley from about 6 stems, and a head of garlic that I cut in half. I put about 1/4 tsp of dried thyme leaves, oregano leaves and basil leaves each as well as 1 tsp of cracked black peppercorns and 1 tbsp of kosher salt in a metal tea ball - but I don't think you need to do that if you don't have a tea ball, just dump it all in the pot. Once you get everything into a pot, add some water - enough to cover everything by about an inch - and heat the water until it is just simmering - try not to let it boil. Then comes the waiting around. You want it to simmer for about 4 hours and you really don't need to do anything - no stirring, just check on the water level every so often.

The most finicky part of this recipe is the process you have to go through to store it properly. There are recipes out there that say to do this to avoid contamination of bacteria and then there are also recipes that don't say to do anything special...so I don't know if it's really necessary to do the following, but I do it anyways to be safe. First, fill your sink with ice cubes and water. Get a stainless steel bowl and using a ladle, pour the stock thru a strainer into the bowl. Put the bowl into the ice water, stir for a few minutes and let rest for about 10 minutes. Once it's lukewarm, pour into containers and freeze. Not too bad, pretty simple.

And it makes a good amount of stock too...look how many containers I filled:

Now I'm ready to make some soup!

BTW - I don't add a whole lot of salt to the stock, so it may taste a bit bland. I just figure that I'd rather have too little salt and add more while I'm cooking than to have it be too salty.

happy friendsgiving!

We had our annual Friendsgiving dinner this past Sunday and I had an amazing time. Everything just came together so well - Eric and I weren't as stressed as we typically have been, the table was set and the candles were lit by the time guests arrived (that has never happened before!), the turkey was delicious (some even said it was the best turkey they've ever had - kudos to Eric!) and all the side dishes that everyone brought were perfect. Maybe it was because it had been such a beautiful day and was a beautiful night, or that we were celebrating not one, but two pregnant couples, or maybe I was just happy to be able to wear my new dress - but I wasn't the only person in such a good mood - everyone seemed really excited to be celebrating and being together.

I had wanted to get disposable plates this year, but in an effort to save money, I decided not to. To dress up my plain white plates, I put the EAT. napkins that I made on top. What do you think? Since I already had the stamps, I stamped everyone's first and last initials onto cardstock and used that as placecards.

These branches were leftover from a wedding that I helped design. I was so excited when the bride decided to let me keep them (thanks Cristy!) because I knew I wanted to use them for Friendsgiving:) I got the paper flowers from West Elm. They had wire stems so I was able to easily wrap them around the branches.

I wanted to add a touch of color to the table, so I made little bouquets of orange tulips. The table probably could've used a few more tulips... OH - aren't the birds adorable?! They are paper mache and I got them at West Elm also. I couldn't resist. And I wanted all the whites and beiges to pop, so I made the tablecloth out of navy cotton, even though it looks black in the photos.

And I saved the best picture for last:

Now THAT is a good plate of food!! Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on Monday!

EAT. napkins

I was at a store in Northern Liberties this past summer and saw these napkins that I loved that had the word EAT stamped on them. I think they were more than $20 for two napkins (!!!), so I didn't buy them...I decided to make them instead! Not only that, but I decided to make 14 of them so I could use them for Friendsgiving. It's just sewing a square - how hard could it be, right? Well, let me tell ya, I won't be trying out for Project Runway anytime soon. It took me FOREVER to cut them out and then I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to use the sewing machine (I know how to sew, but since I don't do it often, I always forget how to use the machine...) The sewing itself was pretty straightforward, but it still took me a loooooooong time. So much for a quick little project!

I thought the stamping portion of the project would be the difficult part - but it was actually really easy. And, fortunately, fast! I bought these stamps at AC Moore along with a black ink pad. I've never used stamps like these before - each letter is separate and you're supposed to buy a stamping block that the letters stick to and you hold onto while stamping. I was being cheap so I decided to see if the cover of the ink pad could work as the stamping block - and it did! I first tested the stamping on a scrap piece of linen...



...then moved onto the real thing.





I'm really happy with how they turned out. And everyone at Friendsgiving loved them too - yep, Friendsgiving was this past Sunday and it was the best one yet! I will post photos soon...

pretty plates please!

Our friendsgiving dinner party is coming up soon and I've been trying to think of ideas for how I want to set the table this year. One thing I know for sure is that I want to do something different with the plates - I use the same ones year after year and although I absolutely them, I think I need to switch it up a bit. I found some good options:

These mushroom plates from West Elm are adorable!




These plates are also from West Elm - I love the woodgrain pattern combined with the gold finish...very rustic glam:)



Black and white is probably my favorite color combination. So classic and graphic...and how cute are these Rosanna cameo plates?



But who am I kidding? I can't afford to buy fifiteen new plates! Plus I have nowhere to store them...have you seen my kitchen? I think my best bet are disposable plates. Fortunately, there are disposable, sustainable AND good looking options out there. These are my favorites:

My friend Michelle used bamboo plates for her wedding and they were really nice. They're rustic yet elegant...




I think these plates from Wasara are the front runner though. Aren't they gorgeous? I sort of wish they weren't disposable!

friendsgiving

Eric and I have been hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for our friends for the past few years. We like to call it our "friendsgiving". As soon as fall rolls around (technically not fall yet, but don't you always think fall when you think of September?), I start thinking about it, getting excited about it, planning for it. This year it started a little earlier than most thanks to my friend Karen. She emailed me this photo that she found on Everything Fab:

Isn't it lovely? I want to be there. Look at those tomatoes! I want to grab one and take a big bite out of it. I never thought I would ever want to do that - just a few years ago I hated tomatoes. They brought back bad memories of my aunt forcing me and my sister to eat mushy tomato and cheese sandwiches when I was younger. I still can't eat a tomato and cheese sandwich but I do love tomatoes. Okay, back to the picture. That heirloom tomato centerpiece is so beautiful in the way that ugly heirloom tomatoes are beautiful. Everything feels so rustic and simple and effortless. Karen (who always helps me plan/set up for the dinner) thought we could do something similar to this but with apples. I think gourds would also be a good option. We have some time left to figure it out.

In the meantime, here are some photos of past Friendsgiving dinners:

See the rectangular candle holder below? I took a piece of yellow construction paper, traced the damask pattern that's on the plates, handcut the pattern, wrapped it around Ikea vases, and voila...a custom candle holder!

I had been using the same black and white damask plates for the past couple of dinners, so I wanted to switch it up. I couldn't afford to buy 14 new plates, so I decided to make large placecards in the shape of my original round plates to dress up the white plates. They had a chocolate brown background with a silhouette of either an Indian or pilgrim with the guest's name below. The most difficult part was finding a good profile image of an Indian/pilgrim online but after that all I did was use a bit of Photoshop and printed it out onto cardstock.

Because I didn't want to spend money on real flowers that year, I decided to test my origami skills. I made about 30-40 red and orange origami lillies. It took me a lot less time than you'd think - I think it only took me an evening? The lillies were then attached to tree branches I found at a park around the corner from my house. Leaves, also from the park, were spray painted gold and spread around the table.

images: eric heidel