Menu Monday: Crostini Craving.

Menu Monday is one of the new blog features I have planned for the new and improved CHC! 

For this first installment I want to talk all things crostini. In my personal learning-to-cook experience, the success of a crostini is really in the correct amount of oven toasting time. You have to remember that the crostini will need some time to crisp up after you take it out of the oven, if you wait for the crispiness in the oven they will burn! Which is seriously upsetting.  I feel like I've mastered the basic bruschetta, tomato and mozzarella crostini, but here are a few others that I would love to try: asparagus? fruit? Wisconsin cheese? count me in!

Top Right: cherry tomato crostini
Bottom Right: asparagus and ricotta
Top Left: honeycrisp and gorgonzola
Bottom Left: nectarine and wisconsin

What about you guys? Are there any Pinterest worthy recipes out there that make you want to expand your cooking skills?

What I'm Loving!

What I'm Loving Right Now! 

(This is the it's-been-a-long-time, winter, want it to be spring, edition)

Everything Tortoise! 

Like this bangle set, statement necklace, 

and pendant necklace all from the magical, wonderful, Bauble Bar!

bangle set

statement necklace

pendant necklace

Next Up Is:

J.Crew's new dark green butterfly print. 

It is seriously the most perfect. Most Perfect. 

I love how Pink Peonies Styled it for NYFW here:

AND I love the shorts. LOVE the shorts. 

I want to own these shorts. I will own these shorts.

(that is determination my friends, pure willpower)

And Next In Line Is:

Food with Tomatoes!

WHAT? you say this doesn't seem right? 

Well, my Pinterest cravings disagree.

#omnomnom

1. Caprese Pops

2. Balsamic Skirt Steak with Roasted Tomatoes

3. and last but not least, Iowa Girl Eat's Tomato Basil and Spinach Risotto

What else am I loving? Well, Jamie King's Hair.

But for real, I love this messy but put together, curly but polished, up but down look.

My hair could do this right? I could pull this off?

I would totes put this in the line-up of possibilities for wedding day hair. 

That's all for now folks, but be sure to check back in soon, 

I'm slowly but surely getting back into my blogging rhythm. 

Thanks for reading!

What I'm Loving.

I've been feeling particularly inspired by some of the things I've found out and about around the interwebs and blogsphere lately, so I thought I would share them with you, my lovely readers!

    1. TOPKNOTS+ART    

I, like everyone else on the blogosphere am absolutely in love  with Elizabeth Mayville's topknot portraits.
I am especially smitten with this one, and am seriously considering a purchase from her Etsy Shop!

    2. PUPPIES    

Puppy 1. 

Puppy 2.

   3. FALL COLORS & TEXTURES   

I am enamored with this color scheme/combo. Enamored. 

Mint. Cableknit. Crewneck. Perfection.

   4. FALL FLAVORED FOODS.   

Apple Cider Margarita. Yums.  

Tomato Basil Cheddar Soup. Yums. 

    5. FALL FUN ACCESSORIES    

Booties. Seriously I'm obsessed. And seriously considering these black beauties from Sole Society. 

Ampersand Studs. Could there be anything more whisically-designed themed? Find them at Bauble Bar!

     6. AS ALWAYS, A REMINDER    

a reminder for these last few months at Drake. 

Foodie: Cheeseball.

This past Saturday my friend Molly and I went to the Downtown Farmer's Market in Des Moines bright and early to snag ourselves some watermelon and peaches, little did we know that there would be a cheeseball also in our near future. One of the stands at the Farmer's Market makes and sells various cheeseball and dip mixes and they are seriously delicious! 

At their stand at the Farmer's Market they have a bunch of their dips and cheeseballs premade with crakers and pretzels for you to try, I think Molly and I were there for at least 10 minutes when I decided to bite the cheeseball bullet and buy a mix. This time I got the more traditional Cheddar-Bacon mix but I think I might have to go back and get the Apple Pie mix as well as a few others!

Anyways, making the cheeseball is super easy. I had never done anything like it before so it was a mini adventure for me. you just need 8 oz of cream cheese and half a stick of softened butter. You mix together the cream cheese and butter with the step 1 mix and let it get more solid in the refrigerator, then you roll it around in the step 2, crunchy  mix and wha la! You have a cheeseball. 

   

Foodie: Apple Crisp

At work on Tuesday there were a box of leftover apples from an event. Recently I had been thinking/daydreaming about trying to bake something with the few apples I had at my apartment so I decided to grab a few more to experiment with. I looked up a few different apple crisp recipe options on pinterest and just used what I had on hand in my kitchen.

First I cut up all the apples (I used seven) and put them in a glass baking pan.

Foodie: Brownies + Cookies

When I was at home in Nebraska over spring break my friend Hannah and I were feeling a little crafty and a little hungry so we made these brownies/cookies. We found the idea on Pinterest and wanted to bring our inspiration into reality. We used a boxed brownie batter but made the chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch, then we swirled them together and baked!

the initial mixing state.