Another Successful Bramblefest

The fourth annual Berry Weekend has come and gone.  This year we were only four: Emmy, my mom, and my friend KD, all others having weddings or school to attend.  This year, thanks to local Philly blogger and canner Marisa McClellan and her amazing book Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year Round, we really felt like we got into the swing of things are were finally comfortable with the entire process.

We were so comfortable in fact that we ended up making about 8 batches of jam, including peach lavender, peach spice, blueberry vanilla, and of course bramble jam, which was made using the juice from the wild berries that grow on Emmy's property.

It rained most of the weekend, but we still got a chance to do the things we like to do on Berry Weekend other than jam - go antiquing and shoot guns.  And after the rains, we were rewarded with this incredible sunset on Saturday night.

Enjoy the very end of summer, autumn is on its way!

- Erica

P.S. Posts from Bramblefest 2009, and 2010, I didn't document 2011 :(

We Can Has Kittaz!!

In addition to moving to a new place last month, we decided to adopt two kittens. That's right, two. They are brother and sister and they are named Fela Kitty (grey, boy) and Ladybird (striped, girl). To quote M, "They are awesome. They make everything better." Even when they are spilling my plants all over the floor and licking my hair in the mornings.

They also have their own Tumblr, if you're interested - www.erafuz.tumblr.com

Making a Home

This month M and I are moving to a new place that we are renting by ourselves! We figure it's about time to see if we can live without roommates (we've been married for a year already, holy cow!)

We gave ourselves an entire month to move and I would say we're about 90% done as of last week. The new place is a total chaotic mess, don't get me wrong, but at least at this point most of our stuff is here and not there.

One of the most exciting things about this place is that there is a backyard! It's cemented over and surrounded by a chain link fence covered in weedy vines, but not for long! I have lots of ideas for it, including cement removal, a hammock, a fire pit, a colorful trellis, strings of lights, herbs, lavender, fruit trees, a rain barrel, lots of flowers and more.

Here are a few "before" pics, let me know if you have any ideas!

Follow me on Instagram!

I've been posting some photos over there that I would normally post here, so follow me @erafuz!

The ants go marching one by one

My baby cousin turned one last month and I offered to make the cake for her picnic-themed birthday party! I did some research online and followed the advice from this website mostly - http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/how-to-decorate-cakes.html#c1. The ants are mini M&Ms, the red for the blanket is cut up strawberry fruit roll up and the letters were made by melting mini chocolate chips in a ziplock, piping them into a foiled lined baking sheet, freezing it, them peeling them off and placing them on the cake. It was time intensive but worth it because it was a huge hit!

Street art in BCN

As usual, I find myself documenting the graffiti here in Barcelona. We've seen some really interesting ones in the past two days. The first one of the woman with the yellow face is by an artist named C215 from Paris, who specializes in stencils - http://www.fatcap.com/article/c215-1.html. The stencil of the two girls is signed by Alice and the one of the butterfly is signed by Nina, but I can't find any info about the others.

Barcelona!

I'm visiting Barcelona for about a week with my parents, M and my sister and her boyfriend! We're celebrating my parents' 40th wedding anniversary and my 1st wedding anniversary with M.
It's just too beautiful to keep to myself, so hopefully I'll be able to share some of it with you here.

We got in this morning and have already enjoyed some tapas and wine. I decided to attempt to order our meal in Spanish, which went well except for the fact that I ordered anchovies in vinaigrette instead of artichokes in vinaigrette!

Now we're settling into the apartment we rented for the week - here's a pic of the view from the room that M and I are sharing. There is a courtyard below us with many potted plants and brightly colored walls, and people are hanging their laundry out to dry across the way.

Hasta luego!

Summer Inspiration!

Though not officially summer yet, it sure felt like it this weekend in Philly. We went to the Trenton Ave Arts Festival, hosted a porch crawl in our neighborhood and hung out at the community garden in the sun. AND I got my copy of Food in Jars by local author Marisa McClellan! Her blog of the same name is a constant source of inspiration. I can't wait to start reading and canning!

Baking Our Way

This weekend we celebrate both Passover and Easter. As an interfaith couple, this presents both challenges and rewards.

On Friday I made a flourless chocolate cake with berries for the Second Seder we hosted at our house along with M's family on Sat. M led the Seder for his family and some friends and did a wonderful job.

I also made Easter baskets for my side of the family on Sunday with jelly beans, chocolate covered blueberries, homemade chocolate chip cookies, eggs dyed with red cabbage and onion skins, and fudge soap (less fattening than real fudge but smells good enough to eat!).

I think we're navigating our two family traditions quite deliciously.

Morning :: Osage. Avenue