3 desserts and housewives hosting tips

Today it’s all about three desserts and a couple of my favorite go-to items that I spotted in unusual places. First let’s talk desserts…

I have a small apple tree in the backyard that I planted years ago, and it produces a massive amount of fruit.

The variety is called “Anna” and it’s a low-chill type of apple, perfect for our southern California climate.

 

We start getting apples at the beginning of June, and what’s great about this tree is that we’ll get two or three more crops later in the year, so we have apples all the way through fall.

 

In addition to just being a great eating apple, it’s also a wonderful baking apple. One of my favorite recipes is one I found from Martha Stewart, an Apple Galette.

 

The crust, aka in French as Pate Brisee, is so easy to make in the food processor and has the most delicious, fresh, flaky flavor. You can make this ahead of time and store it in the freezer for when your ready to use it.

 

This recipe yields two galettes, and you can substitute all kinds of fruits with this technique. In fact, my neighbor just gave me a huge bag of plums from her tree, so a Plum Galette is next on the agenda.

 

I experimented a little with this recipe and added a glaze of Bonne Maman raspberry jam on top when the apple galette was almost finished baking.

 

I just heated up a little jam in the microwave and brushed it over the apples to keep everything juicy.   

Here's just a quick snapshot taken with my phone...

Apple Galette by Martha Stewart

Serves 10 to 12

Ingredients

·   1 recipe Test Kitchen's Favorite Pate Brisee

·   4 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

·   2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges (6 cups total)

·   1/2 cup granulated sugar

·   1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

·   3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (we use Diamond crystal)

·   1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·   1 large egg, lightly beaten

·   Coarse or fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove chilled dough from refrigerator, unwrap, and place on a lightly floured work surface. Let stand about 10 minutes (to soften slightly). Bang on dough with a rolling pin (to begin flattening and soften a bit more). 

 

Dust top and pin with flour, position pin on center of disk, and begin rolling dough away from you. Give disk a quarter-turn and roll again. Continue turning and rolling in this manner until you have a 13-inch round with an even 1/8-inch thickness. Transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate while making filling.

 

In a large bowl, combine apples, granulated sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt, and cinnamon. Spread filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Fold edges of dough up and over apples, leaving most of fruit exposed and overlapping dough as needed. Brush dough with beaten egg; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

 

Bake until crust is golden, apples are tender, and juices are bubbling in center, 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes. Using a pastry brush, spread some of juices from center of galette over apples.

 

Transfer sheet to a wire rack; let cool 10 minutes. Using a large spatula, loosen galette from parchment and move away from any released juices (so it doesn’t stick to parchment as it cools). Slide galette (still on parchment) onto rack and let cool. Serve warm or room temperature.

 

Banana Pudding Pie

Just spotted in Southern Living magazine is this Banana Pudding Pie recipe. Once you’ve had Banana Cream Pie or Banana Pudding, you can’t stop thinking of it!

 

We occasionally get a really delicious Banana Cream Pie at The Apple Pan in West Los Angeles, which is out of this world.

 

I had to share this recipe with you all today, just in case you need to make a super scrumptious pie for your next gathering… or maybe we don’t’ need a gathering to make it. I certainly don’t.

Banana Pudding Pie

Ingredients

Brown Butter-Vanilla Wafer Crust

·   6 tablespoons unsalted butter

·   1 ½ cups finely ground vanilla wafer crumbs (from about 50 vanilla wafers)

·   ¼ cup granulated sugar

·   ½ teaspoon kosher salt

·   ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Filling and Toppings

·   1 ½ cups whole milk

·   ½ cup heavy whipping cream

·   ½ cup granulated sugar

·   ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

·   4 large egg yolks

·   ¼ cup cornstarch

·   2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pie plate

·   1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

·   4 medium bananas, divided

·   Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

·   Crushed vanilla wafers

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Melt unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium. Cook, whisking constantly, until butter reaches a deep golden brown and smells nutty, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir together brown butter, finely ground vanilla wafer crumbs, granulated sugar, kosher salt, and ground nutmeg in a bowl.

Lightly grease a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with butter, and press crust mixture into bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate. Bake until golden brown and firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool on a wire rack while preparing filling.

Whisk together milk, cream, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium, whisking often, until steaming, about 5 minutes (do not let milk mixture boil). Remove from heat. Whisk together egg yolks and cornstarch in a medium heatproof bowl until smooth. Using a ladle, slowly drizzle ½ cup steaming milk mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly until combined. Slowly drizzle egg mixture into remaining warmed milk mixture in saucepan, stirring constantly until combined. Cook milk mixture over medium, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and begins to simmer (about 200°F), about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding to a medium bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly on pudding surface to prevent a skin from forming. Let pudding stand 15 minutes.

Cut 3 of the bananas into ½-inch-thick slices; arrange slices in bottom of cooled crust. Top with pudding; spread into an even layer using a small offset spatula. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly on pudding surface to prevent a skin from forming, and chill until set, at least 2 hours or up to 12 hours. 

Just before serving, remove pie from refrigerator. Cut remaining banana into ½-inch-thick slices. Pipe Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream on pie. Arrange banana slices as desired, sprinkle pie with crushed vanilla wafers, and serve.

Also in Southern Living is another banana recipe that’s a fun take on Banana Pudding. Nilla Wafers are the key to any yummy banana pudding. And aren’t these so cute too?

 

Spotted on Instagram this week… Our absolute favorite restaurant in Hilton Head is Lowcountry Produce.

 

We travel to Hilton Head once a year, and always have breakfast and lunch at Lowcountry Produce. I’m talking 4-5 times a week.

 

Not only is the food delicious, but it’s also has such a nice vibe inside, and it’s so close to our house, which makes it so amazing. We can even ride our bikes there.

 

What’s so fun to see on Instagram is that they’ve recently started carrying Pacific & Rose tablecloths and tea towels in their indoor market shop. 

You know what a great affinity I have for Pacific & Rose, so it’s such a match made in heaven for me.

 

I can’t wait to visit later this summer and check out all their amazing linens, home-baked goods, and beautiful paintings they carry. 

They also have an even more beautiful location in Beaufort that I’d love to visit too.

Now on to some real realness… Haha, if you know me, you know that I’m a Real Housewives fan, and have been for years, so while watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last week, I spotted a real gem.

While entertaining Diana in her home, Kyle sets out a beautiful charcuterie tray and my eyes zeroed in on this beauty right away.

I recognized it as on of Vagabond House's gorgeous wooden trays with pewter olive branch handles! 

 

Known as Vagabond House Olive Handle Serving Tray, it’s one of the more beautiful items that Vagabond House makes. 

They even have a pretty rectangular version of this tray. 

 

I can’t get enough of this beautiful wooden serving tray and the way Kyle so effortlessly uses it with cheeses, crackers, grapes, and white ramekins filled with a variety of nuts.

 

 

This is such a versatile piece for anyone, and such a wonderful tray to have on hand for last minute entertaining occasions.   

I hope you enjoyed the recipes I shared today, in addition to the pretty table linens and wooden cheese tray I love so much. 

Baking is next on my agenda, and I’m off to get started on a yummy banana treat!

 

ciao! fabiana

 

 

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vacation highlights and styling projects

A typical sunrise at our beach in Sea Pines.

Summer vacation is over, and I really miss it. It's like we snapped our fingers, and it vanished into thin air! Over... so quickly. That's the way it goes with these sorts of things, I guess.

This year's two week vacation was spent at our home in South Carolina. Our first week there was dedicated mostly to DIY projects and updates in the house. 

We try to maintain the original 1968 style of the home but at the same time bring it up to more modern standards with the use of fresh paint and coastal accents.

 

Located on Hilton Head Island, our home is second row from the beach so coastal style and accessories are a must, but at the same time, we try to keep it from looking too kitschy.

 

Since we're only able to get out there for about two weeks a year, the rest of the time, the home is available on VRBO for vacation rental. 

The laundry room wall is updated with a variety of vintage baskets.

It’s been two long years since we’ve been able to travel back east, so the house needed major attention! 

We hired a painter to help us spruce up the fence, repaint the kitchen cabinets, walls and all the doors for a much overdue facelift. We tackled the more fun jobs like adding new artwork, accessories, bedding and organizing the kitchen.

An easy way to add texture and coastal charm to a room is to display a collection of baskets on the wall. 

The photo above shows our laundry room. It’s the first room that guests see when they come through the carport door, so we wanted to make it fun.

 

Most of the round baskets are thrift store finds that cost between 50 cents and $2, and I also found a couple of nice ones at Home Goods.

The wall of coat hooks is perfect for hats, bags and beach towels. We actually put that together over 15 years ago, and it's proved to be a great addition and very user friendly. 

 These vintage travel posters were thrift shop finds.

We traded out some tired artwork for bright and more appropriate beach house art and sprinkled in some new pillows and other goodies throughout the house.

 

The Savannah brick fireplace is original to the house.

The living room is a big, bright and cozy room. We simplified the look, added a few fun accents, and reupholstered two vintage slipper chairs. The bookcases did need some attention, though.

Spotted these at a consignment store, but they weren’t cheap.  

We needed a pair of vases or urns to fit into the top of the bookcases that feature arched openings. After scouring several thrift stores, Home Goods and consignment stores, we found the perfect pair.

This pair of vases were the perfect size, shape and color 

for the top of the bookcases.

I also restyled the books in a more informal manner and only used books that were in blue, green, beige, white and black tones.

 Lowcountry Produce is our favorite restaurant in Sea Pines.

Even though the DIY stuff did seep its way into our second week of vacation time, we did spend some nice beach days and dining time with our boys. Biking and fishing are also favorite activities.

This is the view from our favorite high-top table.

Here’s a peek at our top choice for dining, Lowcountry Produce. It’s really close to our home, and the food is always good. It’s more of a breakfast and lunch place, but they are open a few nights for dinner.

 

Besides the great food and surroundings, they have a relaxing playlist of music, mostly good 80’s songs. 

Their homemade baked goods are out of this world. Amazingly delicious giant peanut butter chocolate chip cookies always seemed to make their way home with us.

 

Our friend Tad came to visit us one weekend and brought his portable pizza oven, so we each got to make our own custom pizzas, which was really fun! The most unusual one we made was topped with mango pineapple salsa and local shrimp, yum!

 

Pizza night was finished off by warm plum pie from Lowcountry Produce, served à la mode, of course!

Our time in Hilton Head was really busy with all the projects we had to do, so there was no time to visit Savannah this time around. I was looking forward to visiting my favorite store and coffee house, The Paris Market, but it’ll have to wait until next time.

 

One funny thing is that while perusing The Paris Market on Instagram, I noticed that they carry a few tablecloths by Pacific & Rose!

 

The REALLY cool thing is that their website features some of the photos I styled and photographed… it's so funny how the world revolves, and then comes back compounded with the things you love most!

 

Among the pile of mail that was waiting for us when we arrived home was the new October/November issue of Cottages & Bungalows.

 

It was fun to see the little Laguna Beach project I styled back in March. We actually styled a summer look first that you can see HERE, and then we put together this quick outdoor vignette for fall.

 

We used the homeowner’s existing furniture, rugs and pillows, and I brought in the pumpkins, baskets, plaid throw, orange feather napkins, and HELLO PUMPKIN pillow.

After moving some things around, the pretty orange Birds of Paradise flowers and palms made a nice backdrop for the photo. The sunflowers really do liven things up too.

 

It was a quick “let’s just shoot something fun for fall” moment. Turned out pretty cute, I’d say. 

ciao! fabiana

 

 

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