Blog Hop: Cheese Please

My dear friend of Sybaritic Pleasures is trying to start an international foodie blog hop after becoming frustrated that the many she encountered were goofily limited to a specific region or country. I thought I'd try to tackle these as another creative endeavor and hopefully start stretching my kitchen skills again. The challenge is simply enough: Cheese, Please

 I'm a day late getting this post up to actually participate but I'm not going to worry about it. I played with my new camera for the photos so it made me late while I figured out how to use the new software to get the photos OFF the camera. I still have quite a bit to learn.

Randomness: Things on My Mind

Here's a random post of things sitting on my brain taking up space at the moment, accompanied by a semi-creepy amalgamation picture because I felt like it.

Boozie Blackforest Brownies

Every year for our Oktoberfest party, I make some kind of dessert. I never make up my mind about what I want to make until a few days before the party, so it's always the guaranteed surprise. (Beer, brats, obatzda, and homemade soft pretzels are always a given.) I have made blackforest inspired cupcakes a few times, German chocolate cupcakes, and faux apple strudel in the past. This year, I had a lot of personal family things I had to deal with during the two weeks leading up to the party and was feeling stressed, so we decided to scale back a bit. I decided brownies would be a quick and tasty dessert for this year. However, being me, could I just make regular brownies? Of COURSE not! Thus I give you: Boozie Blackforest Brownies.

Yode-Lederhosen-hoo

1st Hauswarmen - Ballard
Me in borrowed costume

Six years ago I moved into my first solo apartment after a few years of house-sharing and a basement apartment that was mostly private but where had to go upstairs to use the kitchen. This apartment had a lovely loft ceiling and was only a short walking distance from the Ballard locks. I decided to hold an Oktoberfest themed "Hauswarmen" party. The next year, J and I moved in together in to a larger apartment in Magnolia and held another "Hauswarmen." We've kept up with the annual tradition of our own mini-version of an Oktoberfest since then.

The Sadness of Orange

I have had a good appreciation of a beautiful rusty autumnal orange for years, but last fall, orange made an unprecedented and unpredicted move up in my personal color ratings to second place. (First being maintained by my favorite of over 10 years: red.) That spring, orange started showing up all over the fashion-world and juicing its way into other facets of design. As I kept being drawn to it on the shelves and racks, I decided I wanted to feature orange as my accent color in my craft room, so the hunt began for the perfect shade.