Cauliflower Fried 'Rice' (V + GF)

Serve this to EVERYONE. Vegans and Gluten Frees and Paleos (I think?) and grain free friends and people that eat everything because this is bomb and easy and just takes some chopping time. Add some honey if you’re not vegan. Use soy sauce if you’re not GF. Throw an egg in at the end and call it GOOD.

INGREDIENTS
(makes enough for 4 as a side, 2 as lunch)

1 bag frozen cauliflower rice (~3 cups)
1 tsp olive oil/coconut oil
1 shallot, diced
1” ginger, grated (optional- don’t make a special trip if you don’t have it)
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 large carrot, diced small
2 stalks celery, diced small
1 c frozen peas (or fresh, whatever)
1/4 c chopped cashews
2 TBSP soy sauce or coconut aminos if GF
1/2 tsp honey (optional, omit if vegan)
1 tsp miso (also optional)
1 1/2 tsp sriracha
1 lime, cut into wedges

Start by chopping all of your veggies and setting them aside in a bowl because once that’s done, the rest is QUICK.

Saute the shallot in the oil over medium heat until translucent. Add the ginger, garlic, carrot, celery and peas and cook for 5-7 minutes until the veggies start to soften. Add the frozen cauliflower, cashews, soy sauce, honey, miso and sriracha and cook for another 7-9 minutes or so until the cauliflower is warmed through and tender. Serve with a wedge of lime and cilantro if you have it.

Optional: Add two eggs in after the cauliflower is cooked through and cook for another 2 minutes, moving the mixture around constantly to scramble the eggs into the fried rice! YUM.

Sugar Mtn Catering x Rocky Mtn Bride

My work was featured in a PRINT MAGAZINE, friends! Rocky Mountain Bride created a whole photoshoot around the cheeseboards I’ve been perfecting for years now! I’ve known about this for about six months now but I’ve kept it under wraps because I really wanted to surprise my Mima with a copy of the finished copy in the mail. Thankfully, I was asleep when she got it and received the best voicemail of all time from her because of it!

I haven’t spoken about it much on the blog- but I own Sugar Mountain Catering, a catering company based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado as well as Long Island. We specialize in creating edible experiences. From 18 foot Grazing Tables and dinner parties full of surprise courses (even for the host!) to late night wedding popcorn and sweet/savory Fairy Floss, we have fun with food.

The ladies over at Rocky Mountain Bride reached out to me in the fall and pretty much said, ‘do what you want and make it beautiful’. So basically, my favorite words in the English language. I created a few of our Classic Grazes, one of our new Brunch Grazes, a Hummus Board and a Date Night Board. Here are some of my favorite shots from the extremely talented Meredith Soy Photography that didn’t all make it into the magazine!

Publication \\ Rocky Mountain Bride \\ @rockymtnbride
Photography \\ Meredith Soy Photography \\ @meredithsoyphotography
Venue/Cocktails \\ Asterisk \\ @asterisk_denver
Grazing \\ Sugar Mountain Catering \\ @sugarmtncatering
Boards \\ The Anders Collective \\ @theanderscollective

Things I Liked This Week vol.1

Things are starting to loosen up a bit in Colorado and while that feels a little scary, it’s also exciting to think that maybe it’ll be possible to do some things outside of our home this summer! Even if it doesn’t happen, just dreaming about it feels good right now.

Photo by Rivulet Photography. Oh boy I would not mind riding out the quarantine oceanfront. I would not mind at all.

Here’s some things I loved this week:

\\ turning our house into a rainforest in the evenings! I truly think this video slows my heartbeat down.

\\ I DEVOURED Little Fires Everywhere. The layers! The emotions! The ending was ridiculous but everything leading up to it, woah.

\\ really, really into the honesty/vulnerability/beauty shared by Amber Lewis.

\\ I’ve seldom branched out from an Italian palette when cooking and this quarantine has made me more adventurous as I’m nearly bored with pasta (GASP- don’t worry it’ll pass in 48 hours I’m sure). I miss samosas, I hate deep frying things- so I tried these babies out and goodness gracious were they delicious. I added some cumin and fresh ginger, doubled the batch and froze most of them. That chutney though.

\\ As I mentioned in the house tour this week, we have the worst couch known to man. Carl and I sat on this stunner almost a year ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about the cloud like experience since. CONVENIENT THAT IT’S ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME AS ONE STIMULUS CHECK, EH?

\\ What the flipping heck.

\\ hahaha. “I can do anything for fifteen minutes!”…NOT

\\ Been eyeing this cutie for these deep mountain spring days where it’s 40 sunny and snowing at the same time?

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5 Ingredient Vegan Pesto

2-in-1 today babes! So much flavor with so few ingredients (if you don’t count salt and water).

We’re making basil oil and then turning what would be garbage into pesto!

Ingredients

1 1/2 c olive oil
3 oz basil, rinsed and picked off stems
zest of one lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 c sunflower seeds

In a blender, combine the olive oil and basil until the basil is chopped up teeny tiny! Strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth (you may need to squeeze the cheesecloth a bit to get the oil moving, you’ll end up with about a cup of strained oil total). This oil is FANTASTIC in omelettes, as a salad dressing base, to dip bread in and on top of pizza and pasta. It keeps best covered in the fridge for about a month.

For the pesto: Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry pan over a low flame, tossing occasionally for about five minutes until they are golden and smell nutty.

Scrape the solid remnants of basil back into the blender cup, add the lemon zest, two cloves of garlic, salt, sunflower seeds and two tablespoons of water and blend until smooth, about a minute. If you’re not using it immediately, place this in an airtight container with about an 1/8th of an inch of olive oil atop it so it doesn’t oxidize and turn brown.

I like pesto best with pasta. I generally melt a bit of butter, add some of the starchy pasta water to it with a big dollop of pesto and make a thinner sauce before tossing the pasta with everything combined. You can also add parmesan!

Conservatory Mood Board + Plans!

HOT DIGGITY IT’S SPRING IN THE MOUNTAINS!

So we’re building an indoor/outdoor room to celebrate! (by we, I mean the boys that live here are doing the building and I’m mostly daydreaming about it).

Here’s the mood board for the space:

EARTHY + BRIGHT is what we’re going for here!

Let’s start with This wall right here:

THIS IS WHERE OUR MOONBOARD WILL LIVE! A moonboard is a standardized training mechanism used in climbing gyms all over the world. Carl’s going to build one and attach the standard moon board holds which you can buy separately and it will be SO nice to have a place to train at home! The door will go lighter, Oyster Shoal is the color (which is also on the inside of that door and the door directly opposite. We might swap the sconce for one that goes above the front door, so it’s not in the way of the climbing.

Next up, the wall to the left:

Picture a streamlined built-in storage bench right above that wooden line there. To the right of the window will be hanging ski storage and to the left of the window will be some sort of stall bar situation leading up to MONKEY BARS ON THE CEILING! There will be a small landing in front of the door with a few steps leading up to it. And all of the ground will be gorgeous stained black and white pavers.

This is the view with your back to the last wall pictured above- and here we’re planning on putting our grill, pizza oven and a fireplace situation along with a cutie pie hanging chair and some more beautiful floors like you see in the mood board above. YEAR ROUND GRILLING AT 9000 FEET HERE WE COME BABY! We’ll also have some plants hanging from the greenhouse-like clear ceiling and some potted herbs probably over to the right in the sun there. You’ll see!

Also, Carl is going to create heated floors using some kind’ve magic I’ll talk about at another time. It’ll be made out of salvaged materials and it will mean this room is SO much more functional for us for so many more months!

WOOHOO! We are psyched. Our house is about 900 square feet and we are adding another 250 or so of usable space with this project.

House Tour! April 2020

*This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve lived with Carl in the mountains of Colorado for just about a year now and WOOF has it been a journey. We live on a dirt road about ten minutes from the nearest little mountain town and about a half an hour from the closest city- which is Boulder. We have bears and moose and hummingbirds and foxes all.the.time. It’s dreamy and cold and very different from the suburbia I’d lived in forever.

We’ve made big changes over the past year- like going from having three-four roommates depending on the month to just having one that lives in a tiny house in our backyard. It was reaaaaally cozy here for a while, and I cried a lot because I’m not good at sharing. We turned the master bedroom that was previously our roommates’ into a workshop for Sugar Mountain Catering, where I will host classes when we get to be around people again! Carl built the beginnings of our Treehaus, which was initially intended to be an Airbnb but after a brief stint hosting Hipcampers last summer we have different plans for now (on top of it being a sick guest house). Carl and Peter (the one that lives in the tiny house) also nearly finished building out the tiny house and it now has a functional kitchen!

Since we’ve found ourselves with so much time on our hands, we decided to tack a few new projects onto the pile and I thought I’d document them here! We still have a lot of stuff that has nowhere to go, so I recognize that a lot of these photos might look a bit chaotic. Please think of most of this as a heavy before.

FRONT PORCH

We’re mid a bunch of projects and this is where lots of stuff ends up living. The plan for this space is to build it into a ‘Conservatory’ which I will share all of the details for and a vision board later this week. It’ll function so much better for us as a rock climbing space and outdoor kitchen!! We are SOOO excited about this project, and will use a lot of the salvaged deck boards to build our Treehaus!

FRONT CLOSET

This area has already come a LONG way, from yellowed-wooden doors and dark brown 80’s paneling to this gorgeous green color with the prettiest coat hooks of all time. We still plan to build in a bench to hide the litter box, because nobody needs to see that right when they walk in the house. But overall, we’re really happy with how this looks right now!

THE WORKSHOP

Helloooooo, hot mess express of a closet. Eventually, I imagine this space as being super functional with shelving on both sides of the closet to house my various flatware/drinkware sets when this is actually being used as a food workshop. But for now, aside from the occasional IGTV video, this room is mostly serving us as a peaceful yoga room during our quarantine. We still have a few details to finish in here, like putting quarter round molding around the edges of the floorboards and hopefully one day some open shelves next to the fridge for dishes. I’d also like to paint the back door and window trim charcoal and do something fun on the gray door. We laid this vinyl flooring that they say is easy BUT I PROMISE YOU IT’S NOT! And painted the creamy dreamy Benjamin Moore Simply White since this is intended to be a food photo studio as well and we love it so much that I think we might paint the rest of the house the same color! How sweet is that little fireplace?!?! MY OFFICE HAS A FIREPLACE GUYS!

LIVING/DINING ROOM

Aside from an extremely crowded baker’s rack, I’d say we’re doing pretty good in this part of the house! I still love love these outdoor chairs I got when I moved into my place in Denver last year, and while they’re metal and cold to sit on sometimes (we just sit on blankets or pillows!), it’s so nice when we’re entertaining in the summer to have more seating that we can bring outside. It’s not rare for us to have 20+ people over for some sort of meal so flexible seating is really important to us! I love having the guitars hanging, both because it keeps the floor space a little more free and also because when Carl sees the guitars on the wall he’s way more apt to grab one and play a little CSNY in the morningtime. I’d eventually love a new light fixture, base molding, fresh paint and new blinds but otherwise this is pretty good!

I promise you, I will never cheap out on a couch again. I was desperate for a mid-range couch that we could train the cat to not scratch up before splurging on my dream couch and IT WAS NOT WORTH IT. We haaaaaate this couch and at this point I would’ve preferred the cat tearing apart a comfortable $2000 couch than sitting on this one any longer. We plan on upgrading to this one soon! The rug was a $20 find at Target that I’m not attached to but it’s a nice placeholder for now. I still have to dig some of my favorite artwork out from my storage unit to hang above the couch, maybe a picture ledge there too? The chairs by the fireplace, we love. They are SO comfortable and look good to boot! We’re not sure what to do about the TV, the room is too short to put it above the fireplace but it takes up lots of space being in the corner over there so it’s just weird. Ultimately I’d love to refinish the floors and fireplace and repaint.

KITCHEN

Yikes. This is definitely one of those spaces that feels like a blind spot- we’re using it so often that I didn’t realize how much there is to do until sitting to look at these pictures. We’ve done a few upgrades in here in the last year-replaced the fridge and range for much more functional versions that we love. Believe it or not the cabinets were WAY worse before, sort of a puke green with contrasting red trim?! Yikes. It was bad. We ripped down a cabinet above the sink on a whim and while we LOVE how much visual space it added, clearly we still need to do some kind’ve refinishing. Other things we’d love to do: new countertops, new single basin sink, new faucet, heated floors?!?!

LAUNDRY ROOM

Just through the kitchen is this laundry room space that could be…a lot better. Eventually we’d love a stacked washer/dryer next to a pantry situation here but the whole project doesn’t make sense until we’re ready to upgrade to an instant hot water heater which is $$$.

BATHROOM

Hello ~mountain~ bathroom. This is the bathroom. The one that handled 6 adults using it every day last year like a champ. There’s a lot to do. Like all of it. Probably not this year but we’ll see!

BEDROOM

Hey so we really live here. Is it obvious yet? Also, I really like clothes and especially clothes with stripes. Our bedroom is TEEEENY tiny. We considered making the ‘workshop’ our bedroom but decided it’s waaaay better as a room that would get used during the day because of the big beautiful windows there and you know what? I don’t mind having a tiny dark bedroom! I actually sleep really well in here! This room could still use a lot of love but it’s way far down the priority list.

So there you have it. The whole entire house. I’m sure I’ll share more about the tiny house and Treehaus one day soon too, but this is where we’ve spend 99% of our time for the last month. Far from how we want it but also far from where we started a year ago! I’m so excited about how it will look six months from now.

Gift Guides 2019

I love a good gift guide and I’m hoping you do too! Today is a roundup of all of the guides to come in the next couple of weeks plus 12 different gorgeous and unique advent calendars to kick off the giving season with.

You can expect a guide for:

Sisters + Brothers + Dads + Moms + Best Friends + Coworkers + Grandmas + Boyfriends + Girlfriends + EXPERIENCES FOR EVERYONE!

These guides will have gifts at options to fit lots of different budgets. Over the past few years, my favorite gifts to give have been experiences- I am really excited to share that one last since they are also great as a last minute gift since you don’t have to have something physical to give!

Here’s the roundup of advent calendars that are all 300x more exciting than the ones with too milky milk chocolate in them from the grocery store:

1. Dyptique \\ ohhhhh just the dreamiest candle company of all time, filling our December days with luxury scents for our homes and bodies.

2. Yawn Coffee \\ for the pour over lover in your life, single servings of proper craft coffees!

3. Dior \\ I know, I know. This one is a reach. Maybe you are a millionaire trying to find some arm candy and you know that designers with g o r g e o u s products are the way to her heart?

4. Godiva \\ Relatively reasonable and unbelievably delicious chocolates!

5. Train Set \\ This cutie pie train set that comes together throughout the month is such a delightful non-secular scene for those that celebrate but aren’t super religious!

6. Botanical \\ For your nearest and dearest tree hugger, this calendar is full of pretty little florals and a necklace to boot!

7. George & Viv \\ Full of travel-size versions of actually useful products, not just 24 different shades of lip gloss.

8. Wine \\ 12 nights of wine! Self explanatory in a beautiful package.

9. Walnuts \\ Finally put those nutcrackers to use to open these each day and find out what’s inside! Kind’ve like a grown-up wonder ball!

10. Vosges \\ Extravagant twist on the classic chocolate advent calendar.

11. Tea \\ For the zen love in your life, offer them 24 moments of peace this season.

12. Caramels \\ Classic caramels made with real milk and cream-yum!

13. Walnuts \\ I accidentally put up two pictures of this one haha. whoops!
    

The Best Crumb Cake of All Time

If you’re ever wondering how to do very well in high school without carrying any books ever, this crumb cake is the answer. Well, this and chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe comes together in under an hour, doesn’t require any fancy tools or equipment, and is perfect for a weekend breakfast when you’re craving something sweet and only have a few ingredients around.

This is straight up Martha Stewart’s recipe, I haven’t changed one single thing because not one single thing needs changing. However- I have made this in many different ovens and sometimes it bakes for 20 minutes and it’s done and sometimes it needs 30 minutes, so just keep an eye on it after 20 and poke it with a toothpick every so often until comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached.

Take note that while this cake is DELICIOUS straight out of the oven, it’s most authentically eaten at room temperature, when the crumbs have had a chance to cool and congeal. This is one of the only times that we’re happy about things congealing and not grossed out by it. Once this cake is cool, the crumbs will have that beautiful melt-in-your-mouth texture. This cake keeps really well for up to a week stored in an airtight container!

Perfect Crumb Cake
Recipe from Martha

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 c milk
2 TBSP canola/veg oil
2 tsp vanilla

1 c light brown sugar
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 c confectioners sugar

Preheat the oven to 325.

Grease and flour a 9x13” cake pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 c flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until combined. Spread into the 9x13” pan and set aside.

In the bowl you used the dry ingredients for, stir together the light brown sugar, remaining flour and cinnamon. Stir in the butter until combined and using your hands, break crumbs of the mixture off and cover the entire cake with crumbs. Bake for 20-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

When the cake has cooled slightly, dust the top with confectioners sugar.

xo,
Audrey