A Valentine's Dinner At Home

Hello and happy Wednesday! 

This year, Boo and I decided to stay home for Valentine's Day.  We have typically celebrated with an evening out, but opted for a home cooked meal instead.  Here's a sneak peak at our evening...

I set a flower-free table, and used candles instead

water, wine and champagne glasses 

Our menu -- 

A champagne toast topped with a Simple and Crisp blood orange slice

 Garlic rubbed ciabatta with ricotta and balsamic burst tomatoes

Truffled Parmesan and lemon risotto with a seared sea scallop served with a simple mixed green salad

Individual molten chocolate cakes

What did you do for Valentine's Day?  Stay in? Go out? I'd love to hear! 

xx

Mrs. Wolf

The Style Up

G O O D  M O R N I N G and happy Monday! 

Today I'm featured on The Style Up's blog!  The Style Up is a free service that offers daily fashionable outfit suggestions based upon your location, lifestyle and style sense.  Every evening The Style Up sends an email with tomorrow's weather, and suggestions.  Couldn't be any easier, right?  

I met the founder and CEO, Kendall Herbst, and she is sweet as can be.  She's also super smart, with an MBA from MIT.  This girl knows what's up.  Kendall asked me a number of questions -- we talked life, fashion, food and entertaining.  All the good stuff in this world!  Here's a sneak peek: What five items do you get the most use of in your closet?  If someone wanted to cook a romantic Valentine's meal what would you suggest?  Read on to get my answers. 

here's the leather jacket I gush about

I look forward to their emails every night; you should give it a try too...

Hope you enjoy the write up and using The Style Up!  

xx,
Mrs. Wolf.

Style Your Space

Yesterday I was invited to a fabulous collaborative event between Real Simple Magazine and Staples to launch a great new product: The Staples Space-Saver Shredder. It comes in great colors and is perfectly compact. Bet you can't say that about a lot of things in your home! 

This little lady was the star of the show:

We were able to make DIY monogrammed paperweights.  And you know how I feel about monograms and DIY.  Well, if you don't...love them.  

The event space (which was white and shabby chic; right up my alley and highly reminiscent of my wedding venue) was set up with three vignettes -- one urban, one a suburban in-home office space, then another kitchen nook/home office with organization products and lots of baking tools!  Plus a few couches and chairs set up in sweet sitting areas. 

Did you know that Staples now offers cooking and baking supplies?  From marble rolling pins (!!!!!!!!!!!), to nicely sized stainless steel bowls and paper packaging for baked goods, there are so many great new and innovative options available at Staples.

Back to the decor: I'm a huge fan of white furniture -- and ghost chairs.  Lucite chairs. Acrylic chairs. Call them what you want...they are fab. And I need about a million. Right now!  This was a beautiful vignette for urban offices spaces. I can totally picture this space in the corner of a spare bedroom in our apartment. Using a corner space not only allows amazing light on both sides of the desk, but also it's the best utilization of space. And in NYC-sized apartments where space is always at a premium, the better we use our space the more efficient we will be!  And the nicer our homes' offices will look. No one can argue with beauty and efficiency.

Real Simple is the queen of organization! So this collaboration makes perfect sense. And, who doesn't need a little help organizing life?!  This desk option offers his and her (black on the left, white on the right) for an easily shared space.

And the kitchen nook -- in my next home, I would love to have a kitchen office. After all the time I spend in the kitchen, it would easily contain so many of my important papers. Including all the Real Simple Magazines I currently have stored elsewhere in my apartment. Why do I have so many? I love going back through old issues and re-reading recipes or articles. Of course I do realize that there is something called the internet. However, there is just something nice about thumbing through a hard copy book or magazine. Anyway back to this nook. A handsome, neutral tone desk compliments perfectly-organized wall units for added storage space. No one ever seems to have enough!  And the to-go style baked goods boxes are perfect for amateur or professional bakers. In my case, an easy way to gift candied nuts, brown butter banana bread, oatmeal cookies or a strawberry tart.

My list of absolute must haves from the event include a few goodies:

This ghost chair -- under $100?! Stop. The. Bus. No really, stop it. I need to get on this.  

This marble rolling pin 

This rug

These pillows and these pillows and these pillows 

Thank you so much to Real Simple and Staples for having me!  It was a great event.  What are your favorite products from the pictures I've shared? 

xx,

Mrs. Wolf 

Pink Sugar

To call this a recipe would be hyperbole.  But if you're anything like me, you'd rather make something yourself than buy it at a store.  I was in need of pink sugar for a recipe I'm making for a certain someone for Valentine's Day.

Remember these red velvet cupcakes from The Domesticated Wolf's first birthday? 

Well...we have lots of red food coloring on hand.  So, I put my thinking cap on and made pink sugar.  Easy as that.  Honestly. 

Ingredients for bright pink sugar:

2 tbsp granulated sugar (or more if you are baking in bulk...you lucky devil!)

1 drop red food coloring

Obviously the more food coloring you add, the brighter and darker your sugar will become.  I opted for a rich magenta, so I doubled the recipe and used a few hefty drops -- probably closer to two.  And I was off! I used this sugar for another recipe I made the same day.  But it will stay fresh if you need to make it ahead of time. 

That, my people, is how to make pink sugar.  This technique will work for any color, which makes this "recipe" completely amazing. Blue sugar! Purple sugar! Green sugar! Which you will obviously need with St. Patrick's Day is coming up...

xx,

Mrs. Wolf

Wedding Recap: Our Signature Cocktail

No food or recipe posts today.  It's been about two months since Boo and I tied the knot...so without further ado: we're back to Wolfingham.  

photos by the crazy talented Carly Michelle Photography

We decided it would be fun to have a signature cocktail at our wedding, and with a last name like Wolf, how can you not make a play on it?  I'm a big fan of vodka sodas, extra lime. Very highbrow, I know, but it's lower calorie than many other mixed drinks.  And since it's clear, makes for an easier tomorrow...AKA -- improved hangovers!  But we wanted to turn up the volume at our wedding.  

Carly Michelle Photography

I bring you...The Howling Wolf: vodka, soda water, a splash of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and a wedge of lime.

Carly Michelle Photography

And what's a signature drink without signature straws?  We ordered these pretty ladies online.  But they weren't without DIY roots.  We painstakingly attached hundreds of personalized drink flags onto the pink and white straws.  What I will do for a good monogram or Howling Wolf.  Dedication, I tell you!  

Carly Michelle Photography

But we didn't stop there.  We needed pink and gold personalized M&Ms, too.  

Carly Michelle Photography

Carly Michelle Photography

And pink and gold glitter personalized lollipops. 

Carly Michelle Photography

The bar was outfitted with lots of goodies, including truffle popcorn and candied nuts.   

Carly Michelle Photography

But we couldn't help bringing some more glitz.  Gold Jordan almonds.  Beauties! 

Carly Michelle Photography

One of our favorite vendors, Julia Bez did all the calligraphy for our wedding including our  menu, table assignments and of course, the drink and hashtag signs.  She is amazing. And so talented and sweet.  

Carly Michelle Photography

What's your favorite mixed drink? Are you having (or did you have?) a signature cocktail at your wedding? 

xx,
Mrs. Wolf 

Wedding Recap: Welcome Bags!

Our welcome bags were a labor of love. Both literally and figuratively. We wanted our bags to reflect us as a couple. My hubby is from the Washington DC area, I'm from Boston. We decided what represents us better than food? I love cook and we both love to eat and we wanted a taste of our hometowns in each bag. So we compiled a grocery bag of sorts, complete with a few of our favorite items including goodies from some great companies generous enough to share their bounty with us.

Being the environmentally friendly folks we are, we opted for brown paper grocery bags, with an m&s embossed white hangtag. Personalization was a theme throughout our weekend...

We presented each guest with a brown paper package, tied up with string:

Here's what we filled our grocery bags with:

Water -- My beverage of choice for hydration, always.

Pain killers -- For those who may have imbibed a few too Howling Wolfs (more on that later...)

Nature valley granola bar -- Who doesn't love this old standby?! And these single bars are pre-portioned. Yes!

Personalized pink, gold and silver m&ms -- They read: Megan & Stewart, The Wolfs, New York City and 11.9.13, packaged in a clear cellophane bag, sealed with twine and a small sticker reading "love is sweet."

Homemade old bay seasoning sealed with an embossed m&s sticker (same embossing as the hangtag) -- we love a well seasoned crab boil with Old Bay. 14 cups of this stuff later, we'll likely never run out. Or ever have to buy the commercial stuff again.

Dunkin' Donuts coffee -- A New England staple!  I grew up with Dunks, so the small 2oz containers we included felt like a taste of home.  And is there any better hangover cure than a good cup of coffee?

NYC magnets and a NYC map -- A memento to remember their visit, plus a little help getting around the city.

Flatout bread -- Who can resist a good wrap, sandwich bread or flatbread? Not us. Plus these babies come packed with fiber and protein: two stay-full components to any good food item. Have you ever made pizzas with these flatbreads?  They.Are.So.Good.  We especially love the foldits. And, they fit veggie burgers so perfectly.  

Peanut Butter & Co peanut butter -- Peanut butter may be my favorite food of all time (I know I say that about a lot of foods...but I'm serious about it this time)  I love peanut butter.  And this particular brand is amaze-town, USA. The flavors!  I don't think I can pick just one. But...if you twisted my arm it might be Cinnamon Raisin Swirl or White Chocolate Wonderful. OMG, they are so good.  The three is us have been hanging out for ages.  We're BFF. You know who else is BFF? Peanut butter and bread. Our guests could easily compile their own sandwich in no time at all. Lucky, lucky people! 

The Chia Company chia seeds -- These chia shots were too cute. Chia seeds are packed with healthy fat, protein and fiber and when they're mixed with liquid, they form an amazing gel.  We like ours best added to smoothies, oatmeal or yogurt. Or in chia pudding. Could this be any more convenient? Pre-portioned packages of health!

Popchips - If there's one thing I really love  in this world, it's salty, carbohydrate rich snacks. And I can gladly indulge in Popchips because they are a healthy alternative to regular potato chips. At 100 calories, they add a tasty crunch to many a lunch at our house. That aforementioned veggie burger on the Flatout bread? A perfect match with Popchips. Our favorite flavor is BBQ.

Thank you so much to each of our sponsors. Our grocery bag wouldn't have been the same without you. And our guests got a healthy dose of our favorites. Head on over to their sites and give them some love. But don't take my word for it...go out and sample the different variety of products. Find your fav and let me know!

xx,

Mrs. Wolf