Sea Salt

 

{delish.}

Here's a little photo of my delicious lunch at Sea Salt Eatery in Minnehaha Park this afternoon. I ordered the crab cake sandwich and Karl had his favorite--peel and eat shrimp. If you live in Minneapolis, the food at Sea Salt is definitely worth waiting in the always long lines for. The amazing views of the Minnehaha Falls aren't bad either. :)

norwegian nut cake

My sweet co-worker Diana made this delicious Norwegian Nut Cake several months ago. It was a perfect combination of flavors and density---almost a cross between biscotti and coffee cake. Kind of hard to explain but oh so easy to eat more than one piece! 

Here's her recipe:

Norwegian Nut Cake

Cake

2 (2 ½-oz) pk. pecans or hazelnuts

½ cup butter

3 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Frosting

(use your own recipe, or try this glaze)

½ cup whipping cream

1 (6-oz) pkg. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Lightly grease bottom only of 10 inch springform pan.* 
2. Process nuts until ground (about 1 ⅓ cups); if desired, reserve 1 Tbsp for garnish. Melt butter; set aside to cool.
3. In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar and 1 tsp vanilla; beat 2 to 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and ground nuts; mix well.  Continue beating, gradually adding cooled, melted butter until well blended.  Mixture will be thick.  Spoon and spread batter into greased pan.
4. Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes.  Remove sides of pan.  Run long knife under cake to loosen from pan bottom; invert onto serving plate.  Cover with a cloth towel.  Cool 30 minutes.
5. In medium saucepan, bring whipping cream just to boil; remove from heat.  Add chocolate chips; stir until melted and smooth.  Stir in ½ tsp vanilla.  Spread glaze over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides.  Sprinkle reserved ground nuts around top edge of cake.

*A 9-inch round cake pan can be used. Line pan with foil; grease well. Bake at 350°F for 45 to 55
   minutes.

a celebratory edible arrangement

It's been a {semi} lifelong dream of mine to receive an Edible Arrangement. Karl made my day last week when I came home from work and saw this on our porch! It was the perfect treat to celebrate an exciting new opportunity and so yummy! The chocolate strawberries were the best ever. Major props to my husband for surprising me with this delicious beauty.

 {the chocolate started to melt a bit in the warm weather}

{the pineapple and cantaloupe flowers were so pretty!}

easy rag wreath

 

 Lately I've become a huge fan of crafts I can do while simultaneously watching a baseball game, House, or maybe the Kardashians on TV (it's so hard to turn away!) I picked up a styrofoam wreath form at the craft store a few weeks ago and tied on all sorts of fabric scraps from my leftover bin. This was a fast, easy, and affordable way to add some new color and punch to our front porch! {Fun fact: The ribbon hanger was left over from a Bachman's purchase!}

happy mother's day!

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

Happy Mother's Day Momma!

 

 

 

painted pottery

Several weeks ago I went to The Paint Pot in Plymouth to use a Groupon with two dear friends. Here's the before and after images of my brand new vase:

{before}

 {after}

And here's a little dish I painted on vacation in Mexico several months ago:

 

{yep, that's snow in the background...}

I heart DIY pottery shops so much!