I can’t wait for the day that a neighbor knocks on our door and asks to borrow an egg or a cup of sugar. I hope that someday when I have little ones playing in the yard my neighbors will know my kids’ names and feel free to tell them to get away from the weird stray cats (one of our neighbors feeds said stray cats). Still, I haven’t met many of our neighbors and it’s high-time we introduced ourselves.

Cookies are good for the soul and helpful when making friends with your neighbors. Earlier this week I made up a big batch of cookies to take to the people on our block. No one slams the door on a neighbor delivering cookies, right?

These pudding cookies are especially wonderful for making large batches ahead of time. The pudding helps them stay nice and chewy for a couple days as long as they are kept in an air tight container. In the past I’ve made these with peanut butter chips and mailed them to friends far away – they didn’t even crumble during transport!

Chocolate Pudding Cookies

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 package chocolate instant pudding mix

2 sticks of butter (softened)

2 eggs at room temperature

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

white chocolate (or other variety) chips

Cream together the sugars, butter, vanilla, and pudding mix (careful that pudding mix will fly everywhere if you aren’t careful!). Beat in eggs. Mix in flour and baking soda. Stir in the white chocolate chips. I use just over half a bag, but go with your gut on how many chips you like.

Scoop with a medium sized cookie scoop onto parchment or silicon mat lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes until edges are just beginning to brown (hard to tell with chocolate cookies, but 10 minutes should be just about right on the button). Allow to cool on wire baking rack.

2 Comments

by Erin on May 4, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in In the Kitchen

Tagged Cookies, Neighbors

Posted by Erin on May 4, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/chocolate-pudding-cookies-with-white-chocolate-chips/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My father-in-law loves angel food cake. I made it for him once this winter when we had our parents over for a post-wedding celebration meal and it was a big hit. I decided to give it another try for his birthday, this time with a lighter honey lemon sauce instead of the traditional chocolate and cream. It was a huge hit! The perfect light dessert after a very rich birthday dinner.

Angel food cake can be a little intimidating to make. All those egg whites and hanging the cake upside down! Crazy talk. Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it though. I use the America’s Test Kitchen recipe and method. They haven’t steered me wrong yet.

Angel Food Cake

3/4 cup Swan’s Down Cake Flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

12 egg whites (save those yolks for ice cream!)

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees and line the bottom of a 16 cup capacity angel food cake pan with parchment paper (don’t grease the pan! the cake needs to be able to cling to the side while rising and baking).

Whip the egg whites until the are foamy, then beat in the cream of tartar and salt until the egg whites form soft peaks. Next, mix in 3/4 cup of the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until the egg whites are nice and glossy. Mix in the lemon juice and extracts.

Sift together the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and the cake flour. Gently, using a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the egg whites in six batches.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and rap it on the counter a time or two to settle. Use your spatula to make sure that the batter is evenly distributed and then pop it in the oven for about 50 minutes (rotating halfway through) or until a toothpick comes our clean and it is nice and golden brown.

Recipe from Giada

Mix together one cup plain yogurt, 1/4 cup honey, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Super simple. Wonderfully delicious.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

2 Comments

by Erin on May 2, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in In the Kitchen

Tagged Cookbooks, Dessert

Posted by Erin on May 2, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/696/

…..

Last weekend we gathered Mr. Thirdrow’s family in our tiny little house to celebrate his dad and future-brother-in-law’s birthdays. It is always a delight to have them over (especially because they always help with the dishes)!

We had planned to host the part for nine out on our spacious patio, but the rain and unexpected chilly weather drove us inside. I tend to panic with these sorts of changes in plan, but luckily Mr. Thirdrow is so level headed. When I want to throw in the towel and never host anything in our tenny tiny house, he reminds me of all the reasons why we love our home and helps me come up with a plan to make sure our guests feel welcomed and not squished.

We moved the coffee table out of the living room and set up our folding 6 foot table so that we could all eat together. It was wonderful to have the whole fam gathered around the table together to celebrate. I’m so grateful to have gained such a great family!

First Fruits

We’ve done it! We’ve actually grown a vegetable in our garden!

This weekend we harvested our first couple of radishes. They were freaking amazing. Perfect, brilliant red on the outside and shiny, milky white on the interior. Washed, sliced, and dipped in kosher salt, they were in our bellies within minutes of leaving their garden home.

Next up: Radish Risotto!

2 Comments

by Erin on April 30, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in In the Garden

Tagged Garden

Posted by Erin on April 30, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/first-fruits/

In the Garden: This Week

Some of our colder weather crops that are planted outside in the garden boxes have loved this recent drop in temperature. Let’s not talk about the starter seeds inside, ok? I can neither confirm nor deny that we may or may not have to purchase some new starter plants when it’s time for the tomatoes and tomatillos to go into the ground. I don’t want to talk about it. We haven’t given up hope yet though.

The roses are in full bloom!

2 Comments

by Erin on April 26, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in In the Garden

Tagged Garden

Posted by Erin on April 26, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/in-the-garden-this-week-2/

New Pillows!

Just a few weeks ago I was the lucky recipient of a hand-me-down sewing machine. It’s beautiful. I love it. I think I’ve told my best friend at least four times since that we are now unstoppable as far as crafts are concerned. I feel like I can tackle any DIY project. Sewing machine in tow we can make curtains! napkins! table cloths! dresses! and pillows! Yay for pillows.

Last summer I bought fabric to recover some blah brown throw pillows in the living room, but being without a sewing machine, the project never really got off the ground. Well, last weekend Mr. Thirdrow was out of town so I set up shop in the living room and went to town. Here’s how I took our throw pillows from blah brown to beautiful. Keep in mind, this isn’t a fancy tutorial and I’m just a beginner, but I believe in you. Give it a try!

You’ll need some pretty fabric. The pillows I was covering were about 18″ square. I used about 1/2 yard of fabric, a 12″ (or appropriate size) invisible zipper, scissors, iron, thread, sewing machine. I found that Jo-Ann‘s fabrics and crafts was a great store for all of my supplies. They were friendly and helpful. They even have an iPhone app with coupons!

I have been in love with this patterned fabric for ages, but thought that it might be a little much for the entire front of my pillow cover. So, I decided to go with stripes on the front and then a solid green square for the reverse side. There was no complicated math involved here. I simply decided how many stripes I wanted, adjusted for the 1/4″ seam on each side, and sliced up the fabric. All you need is the calculator app on your phone for these calculations. Promise.

Once you’ve sewn all of your pieces together, take a few minutes and iron the underside of your pillow square to ensure that all of your seams are nicely flattened in the same direction. This will help it look nicer when it’s stuffed and on your sofa and also makes the next sewing steps a little easier.

When you have your two sides of the pillow cover sewn up and ready to assemble, it’s time to tackle the zipper. Zipper installation is all new to me. I’ve never done one before and it was surprisingly simple – although most of the credit goes to the zipper foot on the sewing machine! I fumbled my way through the first zipper by guessing at each step, but then, after a little googling, found a super helpful video tutorial. You should definitely take the time to watch this before you attempt your first zipper (also the ladies have British accents which makes them even more awesome).

Zipper tutorial Part 1 Zipper tutorial Part 2

Once the zipper is in you’re basically finished! Turn your pillow cover right side out and insert your old pillow or pillow form. That’s it! New pillows for less than $20. I think the new colors really changed our living space. I am a happy girl!