Happy Monday!

Hi lovelies,
Put on your glitteriest, spangliest, most sequiny outfit and head on over to Holiday, where I've gathered some non-alcoholic drinks for the adults' table. We hope you're having a fun-filled Monday, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow!
xo,
m

Happy Friday!

Hello friends. Aren't you excited for the weekend? We'll be moving my sister into an apartment a few floors above ours, preparing for visitors arriving on Tuesday, and doing some of the prep work for Thanksgiving. May I suggest laying out your serving dishes with little notes indicating what should go in them and making a cooking schedule?

Toasted Oatmeal and Bruleed Oatmeal from Martha Stewart

 Oh, and make sure you have an easy and wholesome breakfast on hand for Thursday, so you don't pass out before the turkey even makes it out of the oven. I think we'll be going with baked oatmeal (this recipe is similar to how I make it, though I usually use just a smidge of maple syrup instead of sugar and sometimes I throw in a couple whisked eggs for protein).

Are you visiting someone else for Thanksgiving? Even if you're going to your parents' house, we know you'd never show up empty handed. Here are some suggestions for host/hostess gifts that will make you a welcome guest:

 Small, inexpensive gifts

The very best of hostess gifts

  When it's time to meet the parents

Thoughtful goodies and tasty treats are lovely, but the best host/hostess gift you could give on Thanksgiving is a slide show of wonderful memories (though a photo book of past Thanksgivings would be pretty great as well) . It could be filled with photos of the family and friends you're celebrating with from the past year, images of the various things you're thankful for, or pictures from Thanksgivings past. You could even put a call out for multiple slide shows and have a post-dinner viewing party.

Miya posted instructions for how to put a slide show together using iphoto and included a pretty starting and ending image for your downloading pleasure right here. If you send us your slide show before Thanksgiving day, we'll post some that day (because you guys are one of the things we're thankful for!).

And finally, time is running out to sign up for our Spread the Cheer gift exchange. We have some fantastically creative people signed up already, so we can guarantee you'll have fun with this.  

Have an lovely weekend!

Variations on a Theme: Carrot Oat Cookies

Now, hear me out, everyone, before you get all "I can't BELIEVE she's posting that hippie BS right before Thanksgiving" on me.

I like my butter and stuffing (mmm, stuffing) and pie as much as the next girl, but there are tons of recipes out there for all of that stuff. Right around Thanksgiving, my life starts getting busy. Like, "Wow, it's already 5pm and I haven't eaten today" busy. These cookies are perfect to pack up and tuck away in your purse for when you're on the subway platform and are struck with a case of the ohmygoodnessineedtoeatNOWs. I can be a picky eater, especially when I've reached the point of extreme hunger (weird, I know), so finding something out and about that suits my fancy can sometimes be difficult.
These are vegan with no processed sugar, and are made with whole grains. Plus, they're super yummy, so it's a good bet that one of these will be just right for a snack on the go. Jordy loves it when I pack these, not because he likes to eat them (which he does), but because it guarantees that I won't turn into the hunger-induced monster who I've been known to become when I've waited a little too long to eat. I adapted this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, and these have been in heavy rotation with multiple variations ever since. Here are my two favorites. I've also been known to make these with sweet potato (be sure to mush out some of the moisture and use a little less sweetener).

Carrot Spice Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup whole grain pastry flour
1 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (if you have a fresh coconut laying around, you can shred it with your handy microplane grater)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup agave nectar
scant 1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
zest from 1/2 lemon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, coconut, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and then stir in the carrots and zucchini.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the agave nectar, olive oil, and lemon zest and juice.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until mixed.
Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfulls onto your baking sheet, and bake in the top 1/2 of the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops and bottoms are golden brown. 

Carrot Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup agave nectar, room temperature
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, and coconut, and then stir in the carrots.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the agave nectar and coconut oil.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until mixed.
Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfulls onto your baking sheet, and bake in the top 1/2 of the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops and bottoms are golden brown.  

Have a lovely Thursday, everyone! Be sure to sign up for our Spread the Cheer gift exchange (time's running out!), and keep sending in your Thanksgiving slideshows!

Wednesday Miscellany

Hello, hello. Thank goodness it's Wednesday. While sitting in the Apple Store waiting for my computer to get fixed at 9AM Monday morning, I turned to my sister and said, "wait, it's only Monday, isn't it?" For a moment there, I was convinced it was the end of the week. I think I'm just getting excited about Thanksgiving--only a little more than a week until one of my favorite holidays arrives!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we have some tips for making the day special on Holiday:
Recipe Resource Guide
Giving Thanks Slideshow Inspiration--Send yours in and we'll post it on Thanksgiving
Adding some extra fun to your day

When I need a distraction from planning our feast, here are some of the things that have been keeping me busy:

Scout and Catalogue

The dreamy photography may have a little something to do with it, but it's the hand-dyed Mexican textiles and gorgeous leather goods that are making me swoon over Scout and Catalogue (found via Wit + Delight).

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First read this and then tell me you don't want to run out and buy the book from your local independent bookseller. Sure, we can't all be as elegantly wasted in real life, but that doesn't make it any less fun to read about it.

 If I must be afraid of the dark to get these ceramic nightlights by Wendy Jung, then you'll find me cowering in the corner.

Hooray! I loved this show. I'm so glad it's coming back for a second season.

Oh, and time is running out to sign up for the Spread the Cheer gift exchange. Wouldn't it be fun to watch the handmade treats trickle in during the first weeks of December?

Please Welcome Jackalope Brewing Company!

Happy Tuesday, Friends! I would like you to give a warm welcome to our newest contributors, Jackalope Brewing Company! These fine ladies are keeping themselves busy down in Nashville getting their new brewery up and running, but have been gracious enough to stop by here every other week to cook up some adult beverage inspiration for you. We love, love, love them, and we just know you will, too.

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Hi You + Me* Readers!  Please allow us to introduce ourselves; we’re Bailey and Robyn, the ladies of Jackalope Brewing Company, a brand spanking new craft brewery in Nashville, Tennessee.  We love You + Me* for all of their helpful hints in gifting, cooking, and general amazingness -- in fact, we’d like to take this space to formally ask Miya and Elisabeth to be the creative directors of our lives.  We could use the help. So now I’m sure you’re wondering: what are you going to bring to the game, Jackalope?  The answer:  Alcohol. Every couple of weeks, we’re going to let you all know about what’s new and exciting in the land of adult beverages, make some suggestions of festive concoctions, or let you know about one of favorite things: food and drink pairings!  Now let’s get this ball rolling!  Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which makes us at Jackalope very excited, mostly because we love stuffing and pie.  We know that a lot of people think of wine when they’re breaking bread with their family, but we’d like to propose another option.

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Beer!  Yes, we’re biased because of the whole owning a brewery thing, but hear us out.  Beer has gotten a bad rap over the years (thanks a lot, Bud Light Lime), but there are more varieties of beer than there are of wine, and so much room for creativity that beer is becoming a real contender for the ultimate beverage to pair with food.  So let us present you with some brew suggestions for your Turkey Day festivities.

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We know that before the Thanksgiving meal comes the Thanksgiving cooking.  If you’re like us, you believe there is some particular magic about having something festive to sip on while in a kitchen full of ingredients.  To get in the holiday mood, we are partial to pumpkin ales (in fact, we’ve brewed Jackalope’s very first pumpkin ale, which debuted this weekend at Robyn’s birthday party), and there are some great ones out there:  Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale, and Elysian Brewing Company’s The Great Pumpkin, to name a few. 

Pumpkin beer is the easy festive answer for a pre-dinner brew, but what to drink during the meal itself?  To make a Thanksgiving feast truly special, try having different beers on hand to go with the different courses. Let’s start with a good rule to live by: dessert first.  Pie can be just as important as turkey on Thanksgiving, and if you’re a pecan type, I would suggest a creamy, toasty, stout such as Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, or if you really want to go big, Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout (watch out on this one, at 10% ABV it might make that post-dinner touch-football game a clumsy one). Stick to the sweeter stouts, rather than those with a strong hops profile, as the bitterness could overpower the flavor of the pie, and that would be a very, very big shame. For pumpkin pie, a winter warmer, such as Highland Brewing’s Highland Cold Mountain Winter Ale or the Jubelale from the Deschutes Brewery can bring out the pie’s spicy goodness while making you feel all warm and cozy inside.  

Next up, the main course.  For the traditional stuffed roast turkey, I would go one of two routes.  Either a crisp, refreshing pilsner such as Victory Brewing Company’s Prima Pils, with an effervescence that will enhance the turkey flavors, or a robust brown ale, such as Goose Island’s Naughty Goose, or Dogfish Head’s Indian Brown Ale, which would highlight the heartiness of the meal.

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Now, understanding the importance of stretching your stomach out before the getting to the main event, you may have a cheese and hors d’oeuvres course to get the whole thing started.  While there are enough cheese and beer pairings to literally write an entire book about, if you want to get the celebration off on the right foot, start with a Bière de Champagne (aka Bière Brute).  When this Belgian beer is brewed, it goes through the same finishing method that Champagne does, where the bottle is racked upside down for many weeks, the neck of the bottle is frozen, and the yeast is collected, leaving the brew crystal clear and sparkling.  While Bière de Champagne can be harder to come by than other beers, try Deus (Brut Des Flandres) from Brouwerij Bosteels or Malheur Bière Brut (Brut Reserve) from Brouwerij De Landtsheer. 

So there you have it, Jackalope’s guide to Thanksgiving beer.  These are our suggestions, but this is holiday beer drinking, not calculus, so go ahead and try some of your own experiments.  As a good rule of thumb, you want to match your beer and food flavor strengths so that one doesn’t overpower the other.  The other most important rule – have fun!

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We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and thanks again to You +Me* for giving us a platform to talk endlessly about our favorite drinks!

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Alright, friends, that concludes our little beer lesson from Robyn and Bailey (they're so great, right?); we'll see you right back here tomorrow. Oh, and speaking of Thanksgiving, we would be tickled if you would share what you're grateful for in our first annual Thanksgiving Slideshow! And not to rush you, but time is running out to sign up for our Spread the Cheer gift exchange!

A Sneak Peak and The Giveaway Winner

Happy Monday, Friends! We hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Here are a few photos that Kay English took at our shoot the other week. We put together a 1950's-inspired elopement shoot for her, and when we release the full set of photos, you will not be disappointed!

Photography: Kay English Photography
Fashion & Prop Styling: You + ME* Lifestylists
Florals: Poppies & Posies
Jacket: Starkweather Vintage
Glasses: Vintage 1950's Glasses and Mom & Pop's Vintage Eyewear
Dress: Fancy
Veil: Preston and Olivia
Blue Suitcase: vintageparade@yahoo.com

Congratulations to Jessica of Living the Swell Life! According to random.org, you are the winner of a pile of pom poms. Please email your address to hello[at]youplusmestyling[dot]com and we'll ship them off to you straightaway.

We love visiting with you here, but we think you're going to want to spend some time hanging out over on Holiday this week. Starting today, it will be full of fantastic Thanksgiving ideas (from recipes to gifts for your hosts and traditions you may want to start with your little ones). Check out our favorite recipe resources today.

Queenie Cooks: Roasted Tomato Salad

Hey there, cats and kittens! While Miya and Elisabeth have been tempting you with visions of sugarplums and whatnot, I've been dreaming of summer's long-gone produce, and obsessing in particular over a salad I ate about twice a week in August and September: Frankies Spuntino's tomato and avocado salad.

The Frankies (there are two of them, you see) describe it as "making gazpacho in your mouth," and they're right. Even though there's no avocado in the traditional Spanish soup, the ingredients (tomatoes, avocado, red onion, olive oil, sherry vinegar, sea salt and pepper) somehow combine in each bite to create an experience akin to, yes, gazpacho.

But, obviously, the time for this salad has passed. It would be pointless to make it with an early northeastern winter's listless, anemic tomatoes, even if I could find any at the market. And so, when I was whining to Miya a few weeks back about craving the salad and not knowing what to do about it, she suggested I try creating a version with roasted tomatoes.

Roasting those same plain Jane tomatoes turns them sweet and smoky, you see, the heat lending them character where once there was none. And even though I didn't have any avocado on hand, I decided to put the plan in motion, roasting some plum tomatoes with olive oil, sherry vinegar and slivers of red onion. A shower of flaky sea salt and a few turns of the pepper mill later, I had a plate full of winter-turned-summer.

Unlike most vegetable-based salads, this one is easy to make ahead; just roast the tomatoes up to two days before serving them, place them in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, and cover everything with plastic wrap. When the time comes, take the tomatoes out of the fridge about 45 minutes before you want to serve the salad. Just before serving, toss the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients. Boom. Salad. Done.

(This salad is also great as a pasta; just toss the salad with hot pasta and a little extra salt. Boom. Pasta. Done.)

Roasted Tomato Salad

6 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs. sherry vinegar
1/3 small red onion, sliced as thin as possible
Sea salt

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Use aluminum foil to line a pan or skillet just large enough to hold the tomatoes in one layer (I used an 8-inch skillet). (A too-large pan may lead to a very smoky roasting process.) Arrange the tomatoes in one layer and drizzle with enough olive oil to lightly coat the tomato halves on all sides. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt and pepper.

Roast the tomatoes for 35-45 minutes, until they are softened and just beginning to char. If you plan to finish the salad later, place the tomatoes in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, and cover it with plastic wrap. When the time comes, take the tomatoes out of the fridge about 45 minutes before you want to serve the salad, and continue with the recipe.

In a small bowl, whisk together the 1/4 cup of olive oil and the vinegar. Place the tomatoes and onion in a large bowl. Pour the oil and vinegar mixture gently over the tomatoes. Salt generously with sea salt, and sprinkle with a bit of pepper. Toss the salad gently (use a silicon or rubber spatula if you have one).

Transfer the salad to plates and serve with additional sea salt and pepper at the table, because everyone's different.

Serves 2-3, depending on craving levels.

Kicking off our Un-Gift Guide!

Happy Friday, Friends! Put on your party hats and head on over to Holiday today--we are kicking off our Un-Gift Guide, and I put together a little un-gift for Thanksgiving that I hope you'll like. It's easy, it's meaningful, and I've even done some of the hard work for you. And you'll get to see lots of previously-unpublished pictures of me, Emi, and Jordy, for those of you who are curious.

Also, just a gentle reminder: don't forget to sign up for our Spread the Cheer gift exchange!
Have a fantastic weekend, everyone! See you on Monday!

Wednesday Miscellany!

Yay, Wednesday! We hope you ladies and gents are having a happy and productive week! Let's get right to the goodness, shall we?

Kathryn Amberleigh's shoes are ridiculous. As anyone who has seen me dress myself can attest, I am in love with the following things: metallics, navy. These shoes are the perfect combo of both.

New Aussie magazine alert: Have you guys seen Toffee? I haven't had a chance to flip through it yet, but Nancy of Wolf and Willow contributed, and her stuff is a-freaking-dorable. I swoon over her header every single time I go to her blog.

Santo & Dewi Prewedding Film (Say Yes) from Paper Cranes Productions on Vimeo.

I ran across this video while researching some videos for an awesome project we've got in the works with Trent Bailey, and oh my goodness, get a tissue. You can read the full story over on Style Me Pretty, but these kids do these films for a living, and then made their own about their own engagement. I just love when one person in a relationship captures the other person on film--you can just see the affection he has for her. Sniff, sniff.

And also:

essica Hische is a genius. Sure, she's an AMAZING typographer (check her drop caps, where I got this nifty J here) and illustrator, and sure her portfolio is what every other portfolio wishes it could be, but really here's why she's a genius: she gets the freaking internet to send her CAKE! I mean, come ON. It's one thing to be an insanely talented designer, and quite another to use your talent to get the internet to send you cake. People, let it be known: if you want to send us baked goods, we will gladly accept them. 

This wedding over on Brooklyn Bride is killing me.

Have you signed up for our Spread the Cheer gift exchange yet? We've been perusing the sites of folks who are signing up, and let me tell you now so you aren't disappointed later: you are going to want to get in on this. Stat.

And finally, we're giving away a crap ton of pom-poms. In case your life needed to get more fluffy & shiny.

That's all for today, party people! Meg is up tomorrow (you will not be disappointed--her recipe sounds AMAZING!), so we'll see you over on Holiday on Friday. Don't worry--I'll still stop by here to remind you that we're all drinking spiked eggnog (except for Elisabeth, who will be drinking some pretty juice and sparkling goodness that I've had mixed for her by one of our dashing tux-clad bartenders behind our Holiday bar) over there in case you forget. We hope you have a lovely, lovely day!

A New York Birthday Outing

Hello YOU + ME* Ladies,

I have a question for you. My friends in DC are planning on surprising another friend of mine by taking her out for a special birthday "Day in New York City" in a couple weeks, and being a New Yorker myself, I want to make sure that day is indeed special. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make this little outing into a memorable event? All suggestions welcome!
Many thanks,
C.

Dear C.,
Your friend is so lucky to have girlfriends like you to take charge of her birthday! A surprise outing to New York is pretty much guaranteed to be memorable, but it's the little details that will make it feel like the day is actually a celebration in honor of her.

- Surprises are the best. No, we don’t mean the embarrassing, make your friend want to hide under a rock kind, but rather the “I can’t believe you took the time to put this together” kind. Now, we don’t know when your friend’s New York outing will be unveiled, but setting the tone for the event by telling her in a clever way is the perfect way to begin the fun:

Mail her postcards from New York the week before her outing with clues about the trip,

 

send her a box of black and white cookies with a note tucked inside, or deliver her a tote a couple days in advance or the morning of your departure with clues about the day's activities: a metro card, mittens and a ceramic version of the iconic disposable coffee cup to represent an ice skating expedition, a mini empire state building or brooklyn bridge if those activities are on your list, pretty wooden chopsticks if you anticipate dim sum in Chinatown, or new nail polish if manicures and pedicures are in the works (They totally should be--as expensive as New York is in almost every respect, for some reason it has the cheapest/best manicures and pedicures).

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- Because a festive day in the city doesn't always involve eating at typical meal times, consider Mario Batali's Eataly for some lunch/snack/happy hour nibbling (this is probably best on a weekday since the weekends are jam packed). Um, 50,000 square feet of cheese, pasta, fruits, veggies, pizzas, baked goods, coffee, and wine. Yes, please. We're not sure when exactly this birthday surprise is taking place, but if the birthday girl is a foodie, you may even want to check out La Scuola at Eataly for a food or wine class. The classes are still getting off the ground, but we're big believers in making things happen for the sake of a birthday. Give them a call. I bet you could arrange some sort of private class that perfectly suits your group's tastes.

While we're talking Mario Batali, we also want to suggest the weekend wine classes at Otto. It's only steps from Washington Square Park, so you can't beat the location in terms of proximity to other activities and we can both vouch for the food and wine (in fact, Otto was my first meal out after having my daughter).

- In terms of specific activities, we know you'll be able to come up with something fantastic. Although it will probably be pretty chilly a few weeks from now, the city will be starting to embrace the holidays (yay!). It's a perfect time to take advantage of some of the seasonal activities New York has to offer--like ice skating! You have three rinks to choose from: Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center (shown), and Wollman Rink in Central Park. Take a few spins around the ice and then dive into some Irish coffees or spiced cider.

- Oh, and make sure one (or more of you) is the dedicated photographer for the day/night. There is nothing worse than ending a fantastically eventful day with your girlfriends only to realize that everyone left their cameras untouched the whole time. Plus, you have a special reason to be a diligent photographer--making a photo book of your day together is a great gift for your friend. Some of our favorite photo books come from Blurb and Shutterfly.

Give your friend some birthday love from us and do let us know if you need some more specific tips. Making birthdays special is one of our favorite things!

xo,

ME*

P.S. Have you entered our 100th post giveaway or signed up to Spread the Cheer? You definitely should!