I'm addicted to Skyr soothies. This one is banana, fronzen peaches, plain skyr, orange juice, and protein powder.
My friend Alyssa made the most adorable and delicious lemon, lavendar, blueberry cupcakes.
My Tuesday was greatly improved with an afternoon crepe from Boston's Paris Creperie Food Truck. Mmmm, nutella.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I have some exciting personal news in the works, which I will share soon. I also have some exciting knitting projects that are almost ready to post. For now though, I wanted to share some of delicious treats I've enjoyed in the past week. Have you been baking, making, or noshing on anything noteworthy recently? xo anna
I made this pear clafouti a few weeks ago, and it turned out so well that I made another one yesterday for a dinner my roommate and I hosted. I used Ina Garten's recipe, and it was so easy and so delicious I was surprised clafouti are not more popular! It was great warm, room-temp, and chilled. You really can't go wrong with this one. I'm looking forward to making another with different fruit - cherries, raspberries, topped with almonds... The possibilities are endless!
Step 2: Assemble your fruit, keeping the blue fruit separate (this will make up the stars part of your pie flag).
I used 4 peaches (white), 1 carton of raspberries and 1 carton of strawberries (red), and 1 carton of blueberries (blue). I also used the zest of one orange to flavor the fruit.
Step 3: Wash, cut, and combine your fruit with granulated white sugar, lemon juice, and orange zest.
I used 1/4 cup sugar for the blueberries, which were on the sour side, and 1/2 cup sugar for the rest of the fruit. Set aside.
Step 4: Roll out one half of your dough until it is pretty thin (you will almost be able to see through it).
Step 5: Arrange the dough in the 9in pie plate. Refrigerate.
Step 6: Roll out the other half of the dough and cut into stars and stripes.
Step 7: Assemble the pie.
Step 8: Bake at 400F for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350F and cook for another 40 minutes.
On my way to work I get to walk through the Boston Public Garden. It was looking especially lush today, so I snapped this picture. I love how green the grass and trees are. Maybe I am prejudice, because green has always been one of my favorite colors, but I feel like green is a color trend for the season. I especially love it paired with black...
Here is one of my favorite new J. Crew patterns of the season: punk floral.
And for another burst of green + black, how about a Grasshopper Sundae? I'm in!
Are you excited for the Super Bowl? I am - perhaps more for the food than the game, but that's all part of the fun. I'm heading to a Super Bowl watching party and I offered to bring a dessert I hadn't had in years: Muddy Buddies. Here's how I did it:
It is a Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting from the blog Baked Perfection. The recipe is on the website, and I will definitely try it soon. I also want to get a piping bag so I can decorate cupcakes like this. So cute!
Sunday night I got inspired to make a summery dessert. I flipped through some of my cook books and settled on Ina Garten's Summer Fruit Crostata. The recipe originally comes from the restaurant Al Forno in Providence, RI, which has THE BEST desserts. (Al Forno was recently named one of the Best Italian Restaurants in the U.S. by Travel and Leisure Magazine.) Ina tweaked their recipe a bit to make the crostata using summer fruit rather than apples.
Here is a picture by Sohini R. via Yelp of an Al Forno made to order pear and walnut tart:
I made the crust a few hours before dinner. I don't know why I get intimidated by pie crusts, because they really are very easy. I didn't even use a food processor, but instead cut the butter into the flour mixture using two knives. I just hate getting the mixer dirty when I don't have to!
The crust turned out nice and flaky, and the mixture of summer fruits Ina recommends (black plums, peaches, and blueberries) was delicious. I will definitely make this again.
Yesterday was my birthday! I turned 25. I had a little after dinner party of cake and prosecco on our roofdeck. Despite generous offers from others, I decided I wanted to make my own birthday cake. For me, birthdays are all about the cake. I chose Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
I had never made it before, but it turned out wonderful. It was an easy cake to make, and the buttermilk in it made it very moist and delicious. The frosting was good, but definitely on the sweet side. I might make something less sweet next time.
Here's to my first quarter century!
PS: For more info on the dress I'm wearing, click here.
Yesterday, a few of my friends from college and I got together to skype a mutual friend who is living in Paris. Before the skype date, I cooked a mini parisian brunch for us. I decided to set up a crepe bar, where guests could fill their freshly made crepe with whatever fillings they wanted. I just pulled out whatever I had on hand, but you could substitute your favorite crepe fillings. Here's what I laid out:
Anna's Crepe Bar
- Nutella (I got mine at Venda Raviloi in Providence, RI - they import it from Italy, and it really is better than the stuff they sell at American supermarkets) - Fresh strawberries - Fresh bananas - Parisian honey - Granulated sugar - Butter - Marmalade
I used a basic crepe recipe from allrecipes.com, to which I added a little vanilla. The secret is I made the batter the day before and let it rest overnight. I then used a non-stick pan to cook my crepes, which worked perfectly.
While I was looking for tips on the internet about how to make the perfect crepe, I found a post from the blog theKitchn on how to make perfect crepes.
The blog interviewed pastry chef Jehnee Rains who suggests putting beer in your crepe batter. Very intriguing. I might have to try that at my next crepe bar. You can find her recipe here.
Happy fourth of July! I made a batch of s'mores of a stick for a fireworks watching party I'm hosting. See how I did it here. I got the patriotic tooth picks from iparty.
I am a HUGE proponent of dessert for breakfast. If there is ever a left over slice of cake or chocolate chip cookie, I have no qualms about eating it in the a.m. Some people - who shall not be named - have questioned my practice. So it is with great delight that I share this article from Time magazine, which this week reported that eating dessert for breakfast may actually aid weight loss.
While researchers from the study referenced stress that dessert for breakfast is not the ideal diet for everyone looking to loose a few pounds, I, personally, take this story as a little bit of vindication for my occasional indulgence in morning after birthday cake.
I may have to indulge myself further with an "Eat Cake for Breakfast" T or tote from Kate Spade.
The fourth of July is a little over a week away, which means it is time to start brainstorming party ideas. My first thought for a party always goes to the food - by which I mean the dessert - and so I was happy to find a bunch of fun America-themed dessert ideas on pinterest. Here are some of my favorites.
I love these American themed fruit skewers from Party City. It is clever without being overly complicated.
Another cool way to serve fruit on the fourth is this cookie cutter fruit salad from the blog Wit & Whistle. The author mentions the possibility of adding white rasberries, which I think would be awesome.
Moving away from fruit, I think I might bring back the S'mores on a Stick I made a few weeks ago. They were easy to make, easy to serve, and delicious. Fine the recipe here. You could always replace the pinwheels with mini-American flag toothpicks.
This is not particularly fourth of July themed, but I had to add a few pictures from the Oh Happy Day blog post Giant Banana Split. Now that's my kind of sundae.
Do you have any cool fourth of July dessert ideas? Share them in the comments!
Last night my friend Alyssa had my roommate and I over for dinner and an episode of Downton Abbey. I offered to bring dessert, and ended up making a twist on Ina Garten's Peach and Blueberry Crumble. I love this recipe, because you can swap the fruit depending on what is in season. For this crumble, I decided to use peaches, strawberries, and rhubarb. The result was a cute pink dessert that was perfect for our girls' night.
Peach, Strawberry, Rhubarb Crumble - A Photo Recipe.
The exact ingredients and measurements can be found here.
Step 1: Mix the fruit with lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and flour.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients until the butter is the size of peas.
Step 3: Put the fruit mixture into ramekins and top with the crumble -- add more crumble than you think you need, because it fall down into the ramekin during baking.
Step 4: Bake with a lined baking sheet under the ramekins at 350F for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
My friend, Mara, invited me to a picnic in the North End. I volunteered to make a dessert after seeing an intriguing recipe for S'mores on a Stick on Pinterest. The recipe came from the site babble, and after reading the instructions (which include some wonderful pictures), I decided to give it a try.
I found these cute pinwheel toothpicks from iparty, which added some color and whimsy to the presentation. Overall, S'mores on a Stick were super easy to make and tasted delicious. I will definitely be making this again!
S'mores on a Stick -A Photo Recipe.
What you need:
What you do:
I added some heavy cream to my semi-sweet chocolate to make it extra decadent.
What you eat:
Yum.
See a more detailed recipe from the babble blogger JULIEVR here.
I got in the mood to make some madeleines after watching this video from the new BBC show The Little Paris Kitchen.
I read about Rachel Khoo a few years ago and have been dying to go to her in home restaurant -- but alas it is now closed. You can read more about her at her website.
I modified her recipe, found here, for American measurements, and to make it a bit easier. I left out the rasberries and lemon curd, because I didn't have the right ingredients on hand, but I hope to try it soon.
Lemon Honey Madeleines - makes 18 cookies
What you need:
- 3/4 c. unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1.5 tbsp. honey
- 1 tspn. vanilla
- 3 tbsp. milk (I used half-and-half bc I had it on hand)
- 3/4 c. flour
- 1 tspn. baking soda
-1/8 tspn. salt
What you do:
1. Melt the butter and let cool.
2. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy.
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add the lemon zest.
4. Mix the honey, vanilla, and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the egg mixture.
5. In two batches, fold in the flour.
6. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
7. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven 350F.
8. Heavily butter and flour a 12-shell madeleine tin.
9. Fill the tin with the batter so that each mold is almost filled to the top (you may want to use a pipping bag).
10. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown on top.
11. Transfer to a cooling rack.
~enjoy~
I'm thinking of adding lavender to my next batch, or maybe creating a salted caramel version!
While bright colors have been the dominate trend this season, the color "rose" is one of my favorite spring hues. It is a nice transition into the warmer weather, and it looks great on us pale folks who are not ready to pull off bright reds and pinks.
This is a sweater my dad bought for me from j. crew a few years ago before my first internship. I still love the color and wear it with grays and whites.
Below are a pair of loafers I bought last summer, also from j. crew. I love the mix of the pastel shoes with the bright, red nails.
Another trend I'm loving this season is rose gold. This rose gold ring from Gabriela Artigas would be great for stacking.
And when I'm super rich, I'm going to buy myself a rose gold Rolex.
Another rose trend for spring, is rose in foods and drinks. Today I had a delicious rose flavored fro-yo from Berryline near the Porter Square T stop. If you are in the Boston area, you must try this!
Printable Grandma DeSimone's Butter Cookies Recipe Card Now Available Here!
I made the rest of the Grandma DeSimone's Butter Cookies yesterday for my friend Melissa's birthday. Since the recipe makes so many, I wrapped a few up in these cute heart bags from Martha Stewart, and gave them out to people attending her birthday dinner.
I included a little printout of the custom stickers I ordered from The Paper Source in case people wanted to visit the blog to get the recipe. The stickers are meant to be personalized gift tags for holidays or after weddings, but you can customize the writing with whatever words you want! See the template I used here.
For a special Easter edition of anna knits, etc., I wanted to share my Grandma's butter cookies recipe. These roll outs are great for holidays, because you can cut them into any shape you want. Below is a handwritten copy my Aunt Joanne shared with me for the butter cookies.
Grandma DeSimone's Butter Cookies
- 1 cup butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add vanilla to butter mixture.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture.
4. Add flour and salt to butter mixture. Mix until dough forms.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (overnight preferred).
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
6. Cut the dough into a manageable piece (fourths works well), and roll out the dough until they are pretty thin (a little less than 1/8 inch).
7. Cut dough into desired shape.
8. Place cookies on an un-greased baking sheet.
9. Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown edges form. Icing
- Confectioners sugar
- Milk or cream
- Vanilla
- Sprinkles
1. Warm a few tablespoons of the milk or cream.
2. Add a splash of vanilla to the milk.
3. Slowly add the milk mixture to the confectioners sugar until a paste is formed.
4. Ice cooled cookies and decorate with sprinkles.
Ta-da!
The recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I just baked up a half recipe and put the other half in the freezer for later.
For a more intense look, try covering the cookie in sprinkles. While they are not in keeping with Grandma DeSimone's aesthetic, I think these Valentine's Day butter cookies from The Yvestown Blog came out super cute!
Rainbow dots have also been making their way into the fashion world this season. Check out this felted rainbow bobble bag via the blog a pair and a spare.
Felting wool is something I have never explored, but hope to try it this spring. It is a great way to bring your knitting into the warmer months.
