Carina Gardner & Where Women Cook Magazine Article Spring 2017

IMG_9256 2Last July, I prepared several recipes and met up with photographer Justin Hackworth and editor-in-chief of Where Women Cook Magazine Jo Packham to take photos in my 1968 Jet Airway.

It’s now March. When I received the copy of the magazine I was completely surprised to see my family on the front cover! Well, surprised is an understatement. Delighted and giddy describes it better! My mom was in town helping me sew my most recent book (Sweetly Stitched Quilts available in Kindle and PDF format), and she saw how excited I was. Actually, she might have seen me jump right out of my chair in my office, lol.

There are so many wonderful recipes in this issue! I’m excited to try them out. There are also some gorgeous photos. Because so many photos I loved from the shoot didn’t make it into the issue I thought I would share a few here. Also be sure to check out the hastag #carinaglamps on instagram for more glamper goodness.

If you want to see more of my glamper renovation, check it out here.

Utah wedding and portrait photography

Utah wedding and portrait photography
Strawberry Basil Pie…available in Where Women Cook Spring 2017 as well as my new book Sweetly Stitched Quilts. 

 

Utah wedding and portrait photography

Utah wedding and portrait photography

Utah wedding and portrait photography

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This Peach Fizzy Drink didn’t make it into the magazine but is in my book.

Utah wedding and portrait photography
This is for my wonton blackberry salad.

Utah wedding and portrait photography

Get your issue of this magazine here or at your local craft or grocery store.

XOXO-Carina

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Weekends and Blueberry Crumb Cake

I always look forward to the weekend—I work a little less, have Josh around, and get around to cooking more. A couple of weekends ago, I started making the Barefoot Contessa’s Blueberry Crumb Cake. It’s totally divine, light, and could be breakfast or dessert (a major plus). A new cake is baking as I type so that when I get done with this post, I’ll be digging into a little bit of sweet.

This weekend, we finished setting up the tradeshow booth for Quilt Market. Sure, it’s a month and a half away, but this is my first time and I wanted to be sure to get it write. You can check out a couple of the instagram pictures on my sidebar or on my facebook page. Yes, I know that doesn’t give you the full picture of what we are up to, but I’m taking lots of pictures now and we’ll show off closer to the show.

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With the tradeshow coming up, you can bet I’ll be in full swing sewing soon with my new line Songbird due out in June. Of course in the meantime, I’m still sewing up some lovely stuff for Paris and Company (out this April!). The lines are totally different, which makes deciding how I want to use them that much more fun!

And there’s the oven timer going off! Hope you are having a lovely weekend too! —Carina

 

 

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Obsessions

I can almost hear Julie Roberts saying, “Benedict!” in Runaway Bride. I’ve been making these nearly everyday for a couple of weeks. I think you can safely call that an obsession.

I always order the traditional eggs benedict at our family’s favorite neighborhood diner The Blue Plate. Instead of hitting it up everyday for a week, I ran to the grocery store and picked up all the ingredients. I know that I personally have been scared of poaching eggs in the past. The real trick is PLENTY of vinegar in boiling water.  I’ve sometimes underdone the amount of vinegar and the egg goes everywhere. Stack the toasted English muffin, a slice of Canadian bacon, a slice of tomato, and the poached egg. Finally, I drizzle some not so homemade hollandaise sauce on top (I am lazy and just buy the premade packet. Add butter and milk, and it’s finished in a couple of minutes!).

I have plenty of other obsessions but this one is at the top of the list right now.

It’s been a delicious couple of weeks! Happy eating to you too! —Carina

 

 

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Fauktail Party Recipes

fauk  tail /fok-teyl/ noun 1. a faux-mock-cocktail party;
2. a festive event where non-alcoholic beverages and appetizers are served to adult friends as they mix-&-mingle in their christmas best; 3. involves dressing up in your favorite faux-mock-cocktail clothing for general hob-nobbing and chit chat; 4. a cocktail that does not require taxi service at the end of the night.

And yes, I threw my made-up-name party this last weekend. Good friends, sugary drinks, and lots of food…it makes a girl happy! We tried to invite folks that we have been friends with in different walks of life—friends from Minnesota who had also relocated to Utah, roommates from our undergraduate days at BYU, and people we work with. It was a wonderful group and it made me pretty happy to see friends that I haven’t seen for over 5 years!

It was a great way to kick off the holidays and I find myself wanting to throw another one!

If you want to throw a non-alcoholic but adult-like event, here are my biased rules for getting it done—1. Don’t have your cabinets laquered a day before the party (your house will be very cold from airing it out); 2. Buy all your food and flowers from Costco (It’s one trip and all the appetizers are easy to make); 3. Spend most of your time shopping for cute glasses (the part I enjoyed the most!); 4. Designate someone to take pictures (what you are seeing here is about all I got!); and 5. Once the first couple walks in, let it all go (as in I hadn’t finished cleaning my daughters’ bedroom and I knew people were going to walk through it. I got over it.).

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Want to throw your own fauktail party? Here are my recipes…but be warned, I made these up and the quantities are simply estimates of how I made them. They are all super (may I add dooper?) delicious. Feel free to add or subtract from these faux-mock-cocktails. Most make about 3/4ths of a pitcher (about 4-6 glasses depending on the size of the glass).

TROPICAL FIZZ (inspired by Planter’s Punch)

2 1/2 cups orange juice

2 1/2 cups sprite (or ginger ale)

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice

2 cups of orange sherbet (you can also substitute pineapple sherbet)

1/2 cup of sweetened lime juice

garnish with 2-3 cubes of fresh pineapple on a skewer

Blend all the ingredients together and garnish with the pineapple skewer.

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TOMMY COLLINS SLUSHIE (inspired by Tom Collins)

1 package of slightly melted Edy’s Lemonade Fruit Bars (Use all 6 Popsicles in the box)

4 cups of Minute Maid Lemonade

2 1/2 cups of Ginger Ale

1/2 cup of Wildberry Martini Mixer

Raspberries (dropped at the bottom of the glass)

Blend all the ingredients together. Drop a few raspberries at the bottom of a glass. Pour in the blended drinks.

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3 cups of Martinelli

3 cups of Ginger Ale

1/4 to 1/2 cup of Sweetened Lime Juice

Granny Apple wedge

Stir together the ingredients and garnish with a Granny Apple wedge on a martini glass.

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CARINA’S SHIRLY TEMPLE (obviously, my take on this recipe..because I didn’t feel like mixing sprite and gingerale:)

4 to 5 cups of sprite

1/2 cup of Maraschino cherry syrup

2 Maraschino cherries on a pick or 1 Maraschino cherry with it’s stem dropped in the bottom.

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My fifth drink was just a number of different bubblies from Costco and the supermarket that was garnished simply with a strawberry on the rim of a wine glass. That gave guests another option and freed me up to make more of the other drinks.

At the end of the day, “fancying up” a fauktail is all about the garnish or some salt/sugar to the rim of a party glass. Messing around with recipes just made it alot more fun for this hostess.

Hope you get to make a fauxtail for yourself soon!

Cheers! Carina

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Dinner with the Family

img_6233_sm11We had dinner with Liz and Tim (my sister-in-law and brother-in-law) tonight. I love when we plan a last minute Sunday dinner at their house because it is whatever the two families can throw together from their combined pantries. Sometimes it is pancakes and sausage while other nights, we are able to put on a serious Sunday feast. Tonight, Liz supplied the chicken and grilling team (go Tim!) and I provided the marinade. It’s a just a simple citrus and herb combo that I’d recommend letting the meat sit in, but as this was a quick get together, Tim just dropped it on the chicken and grilled away!

img_6213_smCarina’s Citrus Marinade

Throw together the following ingredients and let meat (chicken, pork, etc) marinade for an hour and bake or grill:

juice of 1 lemon

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 orange

zest of 1 orange

3-6 finely chopped garlic cloves

2 springs fresh rosemary (finely chopped)

handful of basil leaves (finely chopped)

spring of thyme (leaves pulled)

salt and paper

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Double Dessert Night

img_5462 Just as Siri, Felicity, and I had finished whipping up the vanilla pudding for our Puddin’Pie, our next door neighbor left this lovely green thing on our porch. I just looked at it and said, “Well, I guess I’m making zucchini bread.”

For you know, that this is all you can do with a zucchini of this size. So it was double dessert night and nobody was complaining at my house.

Zucchini Bread

img_5463This recipe was taken from All Recipes.com. The user comments were really useful. I ended up using 1 cup of brown sugar to replace one cup of white sugar and doubled the zucchini used (4 cups). It turned out to be TWO zucchini breads (We did one for the neighbor without chocolate chips and one for the kids WITH chocolate chips). Visit the original recipe here. This is my variation on it:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 1/4 cups white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract (or more)
  • 4 cups grated zucchini
  1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
  3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
  4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

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Puddin’ Pie

I know you’ve had this dessert before. It’s so easy and delicious. My favorite backup for a yummy summer treat. It’s vanilla pudding, cool whip, graham cracker crust, and fresh berries. I tend to go for the premade pie crust but I admire anyone who makes it from scratch. I mean, it is just graham crackers and butter afterall. I also buy the no-sugar vanilla pudding and the fat free cool whip.

  • 1 Graham cracker crust
  • 1 vanilla pudding package/2 cups of milk
  • 1 cool whip
  • package of strawberries (and or blueberries, raspberries)

img_5473Put together vanilla pudding as instructed on the package. Pour into crust and let sit in the fridge for an hour. Top with Cool Whip and cut Strawberries/Berries on top.

It looks pretty and it’s effortless! Very summery with the berries on top, huh? If you wanted to get fancy you could add glaze to the top of the strawberries (It would also make the strawberries last longer). img_5487

And of course, the best part, eating it! Yes, it makes a mess:).

With all these recipes, I have been compiling them in my little recipe box. Pretty soon I’m going to take them to get laminated to keep them from spills.

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My Cauliflower Soup: Yummy Summer Soup Recipe

My newest kit came out yesterday at 2peas, Sproutlets! The Collections Team have put together some fantastic layouts for this kit so go check them out here.

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I wanted to share my Cauliflower Soup recipe. It’s really good…packed with vitamins and a bit of fat. I love using fresh herbs in this. It makes the whole thing really fresh! This is really yummy in the fall for an evening treat.

Carina’s Cauliflower Soup

1 head of cauliflower

1 pint of half and half OR cream

4 cups of chicken broth

1/2 cup of chopped onion

3 cloves of chopped garlic

olive oil

2 Springs of Rosemary

2 Springs of Thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese

Bacon (optional)

img_5343What gives this soup all it’s flavor is roasted cauliflower. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. On a baking pan hand toss the cauliflower head (roughly chopped), olive oil (drizzled over it), salt, pepper, and 2 springs of rosemary. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Be sure and move around the cauliflower half way. You’ll get a nice brown color. on the edges. While the cauliflower is in the oven, saute 2 tbs of olive oil, garlic, and onion in a large pot for about 5 minutes. Add the thyme (chopped). Pull the cauliflower out of the oven and add to the pot. Saute all together for another 5 minutes.

img_5339Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. I sometimes like to let it sit and simmer at this point for about 20-30 minutes so the cauliflower gets soft. Sometimes I’ll let it sit longer or short though depending on when I started the pot. Add the half and half (or for a creamier soup use cream). Take portions of the soup and blend in a blender or a hand mixer until you get a smooth consistancy.

Let the soup simmer for as long as you want. Add a sprig of thyme, a little parmasian, and even some bacon bits to the top before serving. Yum, yum!

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Photos are Copyright of Carina Gardner

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Another Parfait Day…

Last night we had parfaits again…a new tradition as of a week ago at the Gardner house. Siri was watching a Pee Wee Herman episode where he makes parfaits. She told me that SHE wanted to make a parfait, which sparked an outing to the grocery store. Our parfaits are made of vanilla pudding, bananas, cookies, and whipped cream. A whole lot of healthy.

img_3491 And last night when we had parfaits again, Siri declared the parfaits inedible due to the bananas. So, I guess my attempts to get some fruit in this dessert are now thwarted. Besides, Felicity really only eats the “cream” part anyway. Like daughter, like father. Well, maybe next time we’ll just make ice cream parfait and call it good! Then everyone will eat the cream! 

 

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Slow roasted Salmon with Spring Herb Sauce

I got this lovely recipe book from the library a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to using it last night for dinner! I think the recipes are relatively easy and the photos are inspiring. There are probably 10 recipes I have marked in this book.

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I really think this is a very easy recipe as it requires very little work and ingredients I generally have in my kitchen.

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There are basically two parts: Cook the Salmon (and I did Chicken too because I knew my ids would prefer that) and Make the Lemon sauce. Let me see if I can decipher these ingredients from the picture…

 

SLOW-ROASTED Salmon with spring herb sauce

1 1/2 pouds fresh wild king or sockeye salmon fillet

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup mixed coarsely chopped soft-leafed herbs such as basil, chervil, chives, dill, fennel, lovage, mint, sorrel, or tarragon, plus additional small tender herb springs for garnish

Coarse sea salt for finishing

(and remember that if you have my kitchen recipe digital kit that you put this one on a recipe card for your kitchen! It’s a keeper! I’ve been pretty good about documenting all my recipes as I have had many new ones recently and my little recipe box is getting nicely filled!)

So I’m sure you don’t have ALL those ingredients in your kitchen. I just bastardized it a bit, heehee. I only had flat leaf pasley and I used dried thyme to help. I did have the lemons and butter, but no shallots. I substituted a finely chopped red onion instead. I also threw in pasta as our carb…I know, not traditional with Salmon, but I knew that’s what my kids would eat.

For the salmon and chicken, you just let the meats sit in olive oil for about 30 minutes and then stick them in the oven until done. Salt them before they go in the oven. I then put the pasta on and made the lemon sauce. All you need to do is mix the wine, lemon, shallots, and a teaspoon of salt in a pan and let it boil until it reduces to half. Then whisk in the butter. Easy peasy!

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And that’s it! Combine the pasta with some of the sauce, throw on the fresh herbs at the end (for the dry ones, I think I threw them into the sauce…once again bastardized).

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