Maine-iac Popovers and My Favorite Coffee

Yes, thats right. This was made by me.

  

  Let's talk about popovers, or as my sweet native Mainer father-in-law would call them, "popovah's".  (For those of you who don't speak the fluent Maine tongue, replace your "R's" with "A's," and your "A's" with "R's."  For example:  Reba McEntire would now be pronounced "Reber McEntirah" and so on;)

Now, before I came to Maine, I had never heard of a popover.  I was first introduced to them at a restaurant  in Acadia National Park called Jordan Pond, and I have to say it was love at first bite.  They are a flakey, pastry-like roll made with an egg-based batter.  They are airy and hollow on the inside, making them the perfect vessel to hold copious amounts of butter and jam.  They are normally served with tea, but I like mine with coffee.  And they are so easy to make, a cave man could do it.

The Popover Recipe For a Caveman

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk- warmed for 1min

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup flour- unpacked and loose

1/2 tsp salt

*this recipe makes 6 popovers

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Grab a muffin tin and grease it with butter, including the top surrounding the cups.   In a bowl, whisk the eggs for about 1 min.  Add the warmed milk and stir.  Next whisk in the salt and baking powder.  Add the flour and whisk for about five minutes.

VERY IMPORTANT:  Use a ladle and fill the outer four corner cups first and then the two middle ones.  this is so that when the popovers rise, they do not touch each other. 

SUPER UBER IMPORTANT:  Place popovers in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 min.  KEEPING THE OVEN DOOR CLOSED, TURN THE OVEN TEMP DOWN TO 350 degrees and continue to bake for another 14-17 min, depending on your oven, until golden brown.  Open the popover and fill it with pools of butter and jam. Eat.  Savor.  Accompany with tea or coffee.

My favorite coffee mug from Anthropologie.

Now I am very particular with my coffee.  My favorite type is whole bean Brazilian roast.  Why, you ask?  Because it has a smooth, nutty flavor and is low in acidity, unlike some other strong coffees produced by a place that rhymes with Blarnucks, where "Venti" is actually Italian for "diarrhea" (that's their slogan).  And of course, I take mine with some organic hazelnut cream. 

Brazilian Roasty Goodness

Deckin' The Halls

A few weeks ago while visiting a friend in PA, I noticed a pretty Anthropologie'esque wreath that she had made hanging on her door.  It was staring me in the face, beckoning me.  I decided I had to have one too, and like her, I surely wasn't paying $70 for it.  I would make it with my own two hands.  TAWANDA!

Now, I don't necessarily think of myself as a crafty person.   In fact, I'd prefer the magic wand method.  I'm not a "scrapper" (that's slang for scrapbooking people), I don't sew, and I don't collect Beanie Babies. But I had gumption!.....and a super cute friend that I dragged into this.

So off to the craft store I went!  I meandered through scarecrows and potpourri satchels galore, picking up yarn, felt, and wreaths.

So finishing up my purchases (and being laughed at by a senior citizen for wearing my wreaths as bangles), I drove to my friends house to begin our "wreathing adventures."

 Step 1: We started out with some enchiladas and pumpkin spice coffee to help us focus.

Step 2:  Tie the yarn around the wreath, hot gluing the knot to secure it down.

Step 3:  Eat cake and drink more pumpkin spice coffee.......................

Step 4:  Wrap that wreath with yarn until the cows come home. 

Me.  Brianna.  Eli.

Now, the cows came home about 4hrs later, which was a lot longer than we had thought, hence the fake smile in the picture above.  We broke up the time by watching Heart of Dixie and taking "chip-eating breaks."  I'm pretty sure Eli wanted to dunk our wreaths in the toilette out of disgust.

So finally It was time to make the flowers, and we didn't have a sweet clue about how to do it.  So we did what any desperate person with hurt fingers and chip crumbs on their shirt would do.  We winged it.  We cut out circles of different colored felt and pinched those sons-of-guns with hot glue until they morphed into something beautiful.  We attached them onto our wreaths and

 VIOLA!

So the moral of this story is, if we successfully made ourselves something pretty nice to deck our halls with, you can too;)

Mine.

                                     

Hers.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I am a real estate agent in Portland, ME who wanted to write a blog dedicated to everything home.  I want to share with you some of my favorite things.  Whether it's recipes, crafts, art, design or real estate, my goal is to inform and inspire you with one end result in mind.  Warm Fuzzies. 
   
  Now picture yourself in your favorite spot at home, with your favorite book, eating your favorite food, staring at your favorite piece of artwork.  What do you get?  Warm fuzzies.  So grab your favorite frou-frou uber italian espresso drink and follow my blog.