The Best Fruitcake Ever

Pretty much everyone that tries my fruitcake agrees that it blows their preconceptions about fruitcake away. It is nothing like the stereotype. My friends once renamed it boozy trail mix cake because, honestly, that's a much better description of it. It's extremely customizable as well. Change up the fruit, nuts, and alcohol to suit your tastes. My mom even prefers the cake without the alcohol, so that's another option. The key to success with this cake is picking high quality ingredients. Buy good dried fruit, natural and not overly sweet. Use an alcohol you enjoy drinking.

Best Fruitcake, aka Boozy Trail Mix cake
(adapted from Holiday Baking by Sara Perry)

5 cups of dried fruit such as:
   1 1/2 cups cranberries
   1 1/2 cups apple rings, chopped
   1 cup tart cherries
   1 cup raisins
1/2 cup spiced rum, plus more for soaking (buy a whole bottle)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 3/4 cups nuts, roughly chopped or halves such as:
   1 1/4 cups each almonds, walnuts & pecans
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup applesauce
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp firmly packed brown sugar

5 mini loaf pans, 3x6 inches
cheesecloth

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease the mini loaf pans and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dried fruit and the rum. Stir to coat and set aside.
3. In another very large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves until well blended. Stir in the nuts, then stir in the fruit-rum mixture.
4. In a medium bowl (or a stand mixer), whisk the eggs until frothy. Whisk in the applesauce, butter, and molasses. Add brown sugar and mix until smooth.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until all the fruit and nuts are coated with batter.
6. Fill the prepared pans to about 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until the sides begin to pull away from the edge of the pan & a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. When cakes are completely cooled, take out of the pans. Cut cheesecloth to 5 pieces - lengths that will wrap around a cake about twice. Put the cloth into a bowl and pour in enough rum to thoroughly soak all the pieces. Wrap each cooled cake completely with a piece of cloth, then tightly wrap with foil. Put all wrapped cakes into airtight containers and set aside into a cool or room temperature dark place for at least a week.

The cakes will keep several weeks at room temperature. You can rewrap the cakes periodically with fresh rum-soaked cheesecloth to keep them moist if you'd like. If you want to keep the cakes longer, they freeze very well.

Holiday Party Food

For last Saturday's party, I made a few easy dishes.  I hope you'll try them!

Sugared Cranberries

My specialty - fruitcake!

Spiced mixed nuts

Mulled wine

Candy cane bark

4 bars 60% Ghirardelli dark chocolate

1 bar Ghirardelli white chocolate

4 candy canes, crushed

red decorating sugar

Line a cookie sheet with sides with parchment paper. Sprinkle red sugar then candy cane crumbs on the paper. In a microwavable bowl, place 2/3 of the white chocolate, broken into small pieces. Microwave in short intervals at half power until melted, stirring after each interval. Add the remaining chocolate one piece at a time, stirring until smooth. Drizzle melted chocolate over the candy canes. Use the same method to melt the dark chocolate, then pour over the white chocolate. Let chocolate set in the refrigerator. Once set, break into bite size pieces. Store in an airtight bag.

Holiday Party

On Saturday I hosted a holiday housewarming party.  It was nice to have my coworkers and neighbors over to my place.  It was the first of many great parties I'm sure!

   

Just a few pictures of my place decked out for the holidays!

Furnishing My Home

This weekend I worked on my townhouse.  Next weekend I'm hosting a housewarming party, so I'm trying to get the first floor ready.  I am halfway done with my dining room.  I have a new rug and my buffet. Over Thanksgiving weekend my parents took me to a furniture store, European Antique Pine, and told me that they're getting me a dining room table for Christmas.  I ordered a custom designed solid pine table!  In addition, I went to Ikea this weekend and picked up a new couch slipcover.

Verona Buffet from Cost Plus World Market

Similar to the table I designed from European Antique Pine

New slipcover from Ikea

I also put up my Christmas tree (with a new star topper)!

Dining Room

This is my dining room.  It's big and open to the kitchen and sunroom.  It's part of a great entertaining space.  However, I don't have furniture for a big fantastic dining room.  I plan on buying a new rug, table, drapes, and a buffet.  (And I have a lot of shelves and art to choose from for the walls.  The mirror is just hanging out in the corner because there was already a nail there, so it probably won't stay.)  Eventually I will have hardwood floors as well.  Maybe one day I'll even replace the light fixture!

Current

Table that I want from Ikea - it has 2 leaves so it can sit 6-10!

Buffet from Cost Plus World Market that stores wine. So perfect for me!

My dream chandelier that I cannot justify buying right now with so many other expenses.

For chairs I plan on painting 4 chairs from my parents.  They're pretty standard round back traditional kitchen chairs, but I think they'll work if I paint them in 4 different colors - yellow, white, red, and aqua.  I also want to buy 2 fancy end chairs.

For the floor, I need an 8'x10' rug (the current one is 5'x7').  I want to bring some color to the floor, so I'm looking for something with aqua in it. A pattern like damask or floral will look good.  Any advice on wear to buy a good rug for cheap?

Pumpkin Revisited

Today was dedicated to pumpkin.  After brunch and shopping at Earth Fare, I started cooking.  I started out with a pot of pumpkin white hot chocolate.  It's basically my pumpkin coffee drink with coffee replaced with white chocolate.  For dinner, I cooked Rachael Ray's Penne-wise pasta and Green Gobble-'Ems garlic bread.  Following dinner, I baked pumpkin butterscotch cookies.  Whew, that's a lot of pumpkin (& dishes)!!  However, I didn't stop to take photos today, so these are from the web.

 

From Food Network

From Joy the Baker

Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

2 cups vanilla soy milk

1 Tbsp maple syrup

3 Tbsp pumpkin puree

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

vanilla extract, if needed

Whisk together soy milk, syrup, and pumpkin then heat over low heat until hot.  Place chips in a bowl, add a small amount of hot milk mixture and stir until chips melt.  Add melted chips to the pot of hot milk and whisk to combine.  Add in pie spice, taste and adjust sweetness or vanilla if needed.  Whisk vigorously or blend briefly to create foam.

Pumpkin Spice

I was thrilled to find the recipe on the Kitchn for a pumpkin spice latte since I really don't like paying for it at Starbucks. Despite the price, they're amazing.  So I found some canned pumpkin and made it...YUM!  I modified the recipe a little, so here's my take on it.

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Drink

(makes about 2 very large mugs)

2 cups vanilla soy milk (I used 8th Continent Complete Vanilla)

2 Tbsp canned pumpkin

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Coffee to taste

Whisk together soy milk, pumpkin and maple syrup in a small saucepan over low heat until hot.  Off the heat, add in pie spice and vanilla.  Blend or whisk until frothy.  Serve in big mugs with coffee to taste (I used a 1:1 ratio) and an extra sprinkle of pie spice.

The soy milk I used was very sweet and had a strong vanilla flavor, so if you use something else, you can double the syrup and vanilla.

Small Town, NC

Just a few miles from where I live is an adorable little town, Waxhaw.  It has a main street with train tracks running down the middle, a bike shop, antique stores, ice cream parlor, and more.  During one of my Mom's visits, we explored.  I bought an antique cake stand, we ate ice cream, and we walked around.

Race Photos

The professional race photos from the 5k I ran last weekend are online, so I thought I'd share them.  I wish they had gotten a finish line photo of me though.

Photos taken by Image Magic Photography

Big South 5k

I am finally back into running!  This is important since the official Disney Princess half-marathon training started this week.  The half-marathon is in 20 weeks, so I'm doing the first three weeks of the beginner plan, then I'll switch to the 18 week "to finish in the upright position" plan.  This weekend the shopping center across the street from me hosted a 5k, so I just had to run it.  I hadn't expected to do well since I am very rusty in my training (only 2 runs into the half-marathon training).  Since I got bronchitis earlier this year I have been really neglecting my running.  I am proud to say that I finished the 5k today in 38 minutes!  I walked a lot, but I got it done.  My mom is in town, so she cheered me on and took photos.  Also I cannot recommend this Lululemon top highly enough.  I was decently warm at the start line and comfortable during and after the race.  I was so happy I didn't need any layers!

 

New Shoes!

Well I had a crappy morning.  I was rear-ended this morning and it was a hit & run.  Thank goodness there wasn't any damage to my car other than scuffed paint.  Mostly, it was irritating and pissed me off.  Since my day kind of sucked, I went to Off Broadway Shoes after work (and the insurance adjuster).  I fell in love with glittery peep-toes and pumps at Kate Spade a few weeks ago that I couldn't afford, so I went in looking for something similar.  I got SO lucky!  I found a pair of pewter glitter covered pumps in my size that are comfortable which is insanely lucky in a size 5!!

And a theme song for this post:

Dynamic Zigs

Last month, I used my birthday discount at Anthropologie to buy the Dynamic Zigs dress.  I have worn it a few times since I bought it, and I took photos of it twice.  I haven't changed up how I've styled it, but I thought I'd share my two takes on it with you.  The length feels a bit long for me, but since midi-length is in style right now, I've left it as is.

Shoes: Clarks

Belt: Forever 21

Sweater: Banana Republic

The second set of photos were from my birthday.  I wore my birthday candle necklace that I received last year from Anthropologie with my discount coupon.  I went to dinner and martinis with friends at a local thai restaurant.  It was a ton of fun!

Chocolate Chipotle Chili

(Image from myrecipes.com. No picture of my actual dinner tonight because I ate it before I thought about taking a photo.)

I made chili based on a Cooking Light recipe.  I think it's a good start to creating my own championship chili.  I love it!  It smells like chocolate and chipotle.  It's spicy, but not too spicy.  It's super colorful too!

Ingredients
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Cooking spray
1 large sweet potato, peeled & diced
1 3/4 cups chopped onion
3 cups chopped red, green & yellow bell peppers
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 links fresh spicy pork sausage, out of the casing (about 8 ounces)
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
3 (14-ounce) cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (11-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Juice of 1 lime
Salt & black pepper to taste
3/4 cup fat-free plain greek yogurt (optional)
Frito chips (optional)

Preparation
Remove 2 chiles from can; finely chop, reserving remaining chiles and sauce for another use.
Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Break up and brown sausage. Add chiles, onion, bell peppers, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add chili powder and next 7 ingredients (chili powder through corn), stirring to combine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are soft. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate, lime juice, salt, and black pepper.
Serving size is 1 cup, top with 1 tablespoon greek yogurt and serve with Fritos if desired.

Fashion's Night Out - Charlotte

I wasn't able to go downtown for the big event in Charlotte, so I went to the mall.  Neiman Marcus had a fabulous event with a fashion show, drinks, and food.  I mostly attended for the people watching.  It was my first taste of Charlotte's fashion scene.  The theme was neutrals, strappy heels, and perfect hair and make-up.  In LA, the trend was to look fantastic without looking like you tried too hard.  In Charlotte, it's apparently appropriate to look like you put a lot of work on your appearance.  There was even big hair, but not on everyone, thank goodness!  I've browsed a few websites to try to find looks that fit what I saw last night.  In addition to these, there were skinny jeans with heels and nice tops, and imagine these outfits with perfectly applied lipstick and not a single hair out of place!

  

 

 

Images from Forever 21, Banana Republic and Piperlime

My Favorite Home Decor Store

It's not what I expected to be my favorite home decor store.  Since I'm not scheduled to close on my townhouse until mid-October, I've been curbing my desire to shop for furniture.  I've been restricting myself to only buying decor items for now.  Almost everything I've bought so far has come from one store!  And it's a store I had previously only bought clothes at - Urban Outfitters.  Who knew they had such great home stuff?  (I used birthday money to buy the last print today, thanks Grandma!)

   

Mirror, picture frame (purchased in white), Paris print, & this must be the place print

You & Tequila

This music video is just beautiful.  They did a great job of capturing Los Angeles.  The song is also one of my favorites right now.

Summer Whites

It's finally not raining!  This is exciting since I feel like it's rained a lot since I moved.  I was able to go over to the outdoor mall without carrying my umbrella.  I wasn't planning on doing much actual shopping, but I did pick up a few items at Francesca's Collection.  One of those is this watch (no, I hadn't set the time yet when I put it on).  I've wanted a sparkly white watch all summer, so although fall will be here soon, I finally bought one.  This is one of the dresses I purchased from Banana Republic as well.  I took this photos just outside of my apartment.