Host a Holiday Cookie Exchange!

Last year I hosted my first Holiday Cookie Exchange with my girlfriends. It was so much fun and I think all the guests enjoyed their time (and all the goodies they got to take home). Here's how you can do the same!

1. Send out the invitations well in advance so people have time to choose their cookies and bake them. I think three to four weeks is enough notice, but I know how my friend's schedules book up, so I sent mine out for the "2nd Annual Exchange" about eight weeks ahead.

I used this fun template from Evite.com

2. Tell guests how many cookies to make. Final numbers will be determined by RSVPs. I'd been to one cookie exchange where we had to make 10 cookies per person. That was too much. So for my parties I say 2-3 cookies per guest. So if there are 12 guests you'd be required to make 24-36 cookies each. That's much more doable.

3. Have guests print their cookie recipe for everyone. I didn't do this my first party but I think it's a really nice touch.

4. Here's the fun part!! Decorate and make appetizers!! Last year I made meatballs, crostini, a veggie tray and fried (baked) ravioli. We had hot chocolate, coffee, wine and a few sodas to drink.

The cookie exchange savory snack spread!

5. Set up one big table or several smaller tables for the cookies. Make sure there is room for guests to walk around in a circle and gather their cookies.

6. Have plenty of saran wrap, wax paper and some extra containers on hand. (Guests should be instructed to bring their own empty container, but it's always nice to have some on hand, just in case).

7. Entertain, mingle, take pictures, have fun!

8. When it's time for the formal exchange I really enjoy having each guest share which cookie they made and a little bit about the cookie--why they chose it, what's in it, how hard was it, etc.

9. Go around in a circle and have each guest take the given number from each container.

10. Mingle more, take more pictures and then sit back and soak up the success of your party.

Love these ladies!

I can't wait for this year's party. I've started a group Pinterest Board with cookie recipe ideas and I've got great plans for making the party even more fun.

Happy (early) Holidays!
Karli

Simple, Delicious Food: Canteloupe Salad

I won't often post about food, but when I do it has to be simple, delicious and beautiful. This salad meets all those requirements. I also tend to not make the same recipe twice (Brent wishes I would break this habit) unless it's easy and amazing.

I was inspired to create this salad when I was at a photoshoot for work a week ago. Our photographer always has the most unique yet simple food for us to eat. I arrived in time for breakfast and was greeted with a plate of tomatoes, arugula and ricotta salata. It seemed out of place at breakfast. But then I ate it and it all made sense. It was sweet, peppery, salty and creamy. So many lovely tastes and textures achieved in so few ingredients.

So I came home and made this salad. Now I can't stop!

It really couldn't be any easier! Here's the rundown:

• Baby arugula
• Cantaloupe cubes
• Blueberries
• Ricotta Salata (my store carries this in a section of special cheeses, near the fresh mozzarella)
• Pistachios
• Fresh Mint (from the garden)

Simply layer the ingredients in a shallow bowl. NO dressing is necessary on this salad. I love that!

And the reason I crave this salad is because it's perfect! It peppery (arugula), sweet (melon), tart (blueberries), salty (nuts and cheese), crunchy (nuts), creamy (cheese) and refreshing (mint). The combination of these ingredients knocks it out of the park. And each ingredient sings through as you make your way through the dish.

Try it, you won't be sorry. And remember: Simple foods are often the best foods. Don't mess with perfection.

You're welcome,
Karli

Karli's Kitchen Makeover: Part Two

Here's part two of my kitchen update. I thought the last post showed a drastic change, but this one is a very close second. 

So we left off with white paint on the cabinets. It was already such a happier, brighter place to cook. I spend so much of my time in the kitchen, I really wanted to love this space (but not break the bank in the process.)


Just a reminder of where we left off after painting the cabinets.

At this point we didn't have a backsplash on the wall behind the stove--probably the place where I make the biggest mess (hello spaghetti sauce and cake batter splatter).

Painted cabinets, but we were still living with old counters and one missing next to the fridge--a result of my super measuring skills.

At this point, we hired a contractor for new countertops, backsplash and installation of a new sink and faucet. I knew I wanted a fairly neutral slab that would work with stainless appliances, white cabinets, gray walls and the future darker hardwood floors we'll have (these might be in the plan for 2013--fingers crossed). So off to the granite yard we went... 

Brent was holding up a white cabinet door and a darker clipboard to represent the future hardwood floors. We wanted to check out how the slabs looked with those components.


At this point I'd also decided I wanted to do a classic white subway tile backsplash. For many of the same reasons I chose white cabinets, we chose a crisp white backsplash and white grout. My goal was to bring light to the space!

At the same time, I ordered my dream sink and faucet. I HATE (cannot stress this enough) trying to wash large pans in a double sink. So my answer was one giant sink basin in classic white cast-iron. Nearly every day I say to Brent while washing dishes, "I will never regret spending the extra money on this sink. Look at me...I can run this entire cookie sheet under the water!"

After the counters had been templated, cut and were ready for installation, the crew came and took out the old, ugly stuff. I did a happy dance! 


Old counters GONE!

They made fast work of getting the countertops installed and putting my new sink in. That faucet is pretty awesome too. The spray nozzle can toggle on and off and just slides right out of the neck.

This makes me so happy!

The next day the tile guys showed up and started the subway tile backsplash. It was tedious work and they had to make several trips to the house: mortar dry time, grout and finally a seal on the whole thing. 
 

Woohoo! What a difference with the counters, backsplash and white sink too! At this point we still needed the grout/seal and electrical covers.

 

Just look at how much brighter it is. I love the way the light bounces off the subway tiles.


I think I may have forgotten to mention in this whole process--that ugly light over the former owner's dining table was one of the first things to go. Before we had our table there, I can't tell you how many people nearly ran into it.  

I'm working on a final post so you can see the real finished kitchen. (Maybe soon I can post more with the wood floors too).

~Karli

Spring is just around the corner...

That means I'm thinking about my second year of gardening. (I think the topic fits in the scope of this blog, right? I mean, it adds to the beauty of our backyard landscape and impacts my style of cooking. Is that a stretch? I guess I don't care. I'm going to continue writing about the garden...)

When we moved into this house last winter, I was so excited about the garden that was already set up out back. They had a long plot of dirt, a few barrels and a drip watering system. My inner hippie was jumping for joy!

I consulted lots of friends who garden here in Denver to get some pointers, I checked the internet and basically just winged it. I think I did pretty well for just throwing my hat in the ring. I sure did learn a lot along the way and have plans for bigger and better this year.



You can see the garden plot in the section on the right. The barrels held the herbs. (Seriously, I can't wait for this yard to come alive again. It is so beautiful!)


Last year we had zucchini, butter lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, green onions, two green peppers, one jalapeno, one strawberry, parsley, mint and basil. That may sound sort of lame, but I was seriously thrilled. It was my first try, people! I was surprised I had anything!!



One of the first harvests. I made a zucchini gratin with a salad. Amazing how much better food tastes fresh from your backyard!


I think I may look into getting some large troughs to put in the garden, so things are up off the ground and I can control the soil better. Here's what I'm going to do this year:

One regular tomato plant

One grape tomato plant

One heirloom tomato plant

One zucchini plant

One yellow squash plant

One cucumber plant

One row of green onions

One sweet pepper plant

One green pepper plant

Butter lettuce (staggered planting)

Spinach (staggered planting)

Cilantro, basil, thyme, parsley, mint (all in barrels up closer to the house)

The blog, onehundreddollarsamonth.com, has been inspirational to me this month. Look at all she's doing with her backyard space! Because of her, I may just try out some kale and beans too!

Visit onehundreddollarsamonth.com and be prepared to kill about three hours.

I've also put a bug in my dad's ear that I think he should help me build a trellis for the tomato plants. Last year I had some fall over from weight.

Are you starting to think about your garden? What plans do you have this year? If you live in Colorado, what plants have done well for you?

~Karli

Kitchen Overflow...Organizing My Pantry and Cookbooks

I swore I'd organize all the miscellaneous stuff that had been shoved in our dining room hutch and kitchen pantry shortly after we moved. Fast forward 11 months and I finally did it!

My old house was lacking good storage for "paperwork" so I'd gotten in the (bad) habit of putting items like taxes, instruction manuals, old photos, etc. in the lower part of my hutch. That wasn't really a problem until I got married and received a ton of kitchen goodies. The overflow of cheese knives, tupperware, cake plates, and serving pieces had been relegated to boxes in the garage or basement. What a shame!

So this weekend I set out with a mission:

1. Move the paperwork and office junk to the office (what a concept, right?!) from the hutch
2. Move the cookbooks off the pantry shelf into the new-found hutch space
3. Move less frequently used kitchen items to additional new-found space in the hutch (I seriously had a LOT of junk in that thing!)
4. Clean out the pantry
5. Cover the pantry shelves in new contact paper
6. Re-organize the pantry
7. Do a happy dance

I wish I had taken a "before" picture of the mess that was in the hutch. I think I was too embarrassed. Here are a few of the "before" pantry pics:


Here's the pantry door with one of my favorite old reinvented pieces (it was a tea tray that Mom turned into a chalkboard!)



And here's the messy disorganized contents. I'd already moved a couple things to the bottom shelf where all the cookbooks had been shoved.

At this point, it was time to empty out EVERYTHING so I could see what I really had in stock as well as clean the shelves and re-cover the lovely yellow.


Here you can see it all empty--ahh, the yellow!

 

Everything that had been in the pantry

I took all the shelves out and recovered them in a graphic gray and white chevron.

Then it was time to reorganize all the contents. I put all the cereals and breakfast goodies on the top shelf. The next shelf is full of grains (rice, pasta, barley, etc). The next and easiest shelf to access is filled with snack foods like almonds, granola bars, and crackers. The fourth shelf holds the items that I don't need to access frequently like breadcrumbs, pancake mix, bread mixes, etc. I was also able to carve out some space here for water bottles that had been clogging up space with our glasses. And the bottom shelf now holds all of Porter's goodies like bones, peanut butter, green beans, etc.

The door unit holds canned goods, back stock of items like ketchup, dried fruits, etc. It makes me happy to be able to see what I've got and know which shelf holds the items I'm looking for!

Ta-da!

  

And for good measure I added this week's menu on the board as a finishing touch.

I know you're really curious to know how the dining room hutch looks now that it's organized. Here you go:


It's a work in progress, but at least all my cookbooks are in one, easy-to-see place now. (Don't mind the frames leaning on the side and stuff on top--that's for another day)

 

I love this old hutch. Mom found this for me years ago. We took out the screens that were in the doors.

 

And finally, the lower portion holds overflow kitchen items like paper goods, tupperware, tins and cake plates.

 I can't forget the real final step: the happy dance! I love organization.

~Karli

Unique Recipe Storage

I realize that in this modern day and age most young cooks, my daughter included, merely pull up a recipe from online, but I, and probably anyone else born around the 1950's or before, still love their old recipe cards and cookbooks. I have numerous recipes I love. Some are so covered with smudges and stains that I can hardly read them. Some were neatly printed on cards as a new bride in the 1970's. Some came from a family member, neighbor, or church friend. They are all precious and take up a lot of room.

My storage solution is an old oak four drawer file cabinet. It actually holds more 3 x 5 recipe cards than I have. It sits on my kitchen countertop, holding all those old tried and true recipes just waiting for my next culinary adventure.

How do you store all your treasured recipes?

~Kandy

Style Will Never Go Out Of Style

Webster defines style as:

1. a particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character

2. a mode of living, as with respect to expense or display.

3. a mode of fashion, as in dress, especially good or approved fashion; elegance; smartness.

Our name, Kindred Style, is all about style. Your personal style develops over time as ours did. For our very first post we decided to take a look back, reflecting on how our style developed and changed through the years.

This was Kandy's birthday in 1986. Believe it or not, we were quite in style at the time. Check out the big hair, country decor and our dog, Reagan.

Speaking of country decor, during this time Mom created country crafts...by the hundreds. She traveled throughout the state selling her crafts at shows. "Country" was in style back then.  

During the same time period, Karli had early aspirations of culinary excellence. She was developing her own style for creativity in the kitchen.

Warning: style gone wrong! This is Karli's first attempt at decorating her own room as a teenager. She sponge painted the walls herself, picked out her own bedding and decor...much to Mom's chagrin. Eventually it drove Karli crazy and the room was redone again.

These photos provide insight into early Kindred Style. We are happy to leave the past in the past (and really enjoyed finding these old photo gems). Now we move foward with new projects, plans and designs.

Happy New Year!

~Kandy and Karli