Author Archives: Victoria Vitale

Brookie Rookie

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I can’t tell if I’m late to the party or not, but I found out about brookies (part brownie / part chocolate chip cookie) only in the last few months. I was in awe when I saw them on Urban Bakes, and dropped everything to make them with Anne.

I was glad that Anne and I split the baking duties because it is essentially two recipes in one cookie. That’s a lot of prep work! Good thing brookies are hands-down worth it.

It was as if Brownie spent its whole life walking around believing it was whole. Later on, Brownie met Chocolate Chip Cookie, its other half, who complemented it in all of the ways it never knew it needed. Together, Brownie and Chocolate Chip Cookie made a new kind of whole. They are a match made in heaven.

What are you waiting for? Get baking!

The Ultimate Brookies (adapted from Urban Bakes)

Prep time: 30 minutes | Bake time: 10 minutes per batch | Yields 36 brookies + 18 chocolate chip cookies

Brownie ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Set aside. Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Once the butter and chocolate have cooled, add this to the sugar, eggs, and vanilla mixture. Stir with a fork. Add the flour mixture and stir again until fully incorporated. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Chocolate Chip Cookie ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream granulated sugar, light brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs until blended. Use a fork to stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips and incorporate with your clean hands or a spatula. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

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Once the two doughs are chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a 1″ spring-loaded ice cream scooper to dispense six mounds of brownies onto each baking sheet. Clean the scooper, and dispense chocolate chip cookie dough next to each brownie round. Join the two cookies using your hands to close any gaps. (This may require pinching or light molding.)

Bake brookies for ten minutes, switching rack positions at the five-minute mark. Let brookies cool on the baking sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container for up to one week. Enjoy!

Notes:

  • To keep the dough chilled between baking shifts, keep it covered in the refrigerator.
  • You will have ample chocolate chip cookie dough left over, as the two recipes are not quite even. I’m keeping my cookie dough in the freezer, so as to have it on hand for when friends and family visit!

From Scissors & Sage

DIY Self-Watering System for Houseplants

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Happy Monday! Did anyone notice I was absent last week? The bad news is I had bronchitis for a few weeks there, but the good news is that I’m feeling better! Philly is in full-blown spring mode, and I can’t get enough of it. My parents visited me and Anne this weekend, and we had a great picnic at the Japanese Gardens in Fairmount Park. The cherry blossoms were out of control!

As the warmer weather begins to take us out of hibernation, it quickly becomes the season to travel more. Day trips, weekend excursions, and longer vacations. All of this traveling means that those houseplants you so carefully take care of are soon left to fend for themselves.

When Anne and I took our road trip through the south last spring, we devised a self-watering wicking system to keep our houseplants happy and healthy while we were away for a week. I pride myself on my level of care for our houseplants, but let me say this: our plants have never looked better than that week they were watering themselves.

Here’s why a self-watering wicking system works so well:

  1. By using a wicking system, the plants only absorb the amount of water that they need. They will never sit in an excess of water.
  2. Different plants require different amounts of water. With this setup, you can keep all of your plants hydrated with one system.
  3. You don’t need to do a damn thing! This system will water itself and leave your plants feeling great.

Oh, and another tip: If you’re new to houseplants, or aren’t sure how much to water them, use this system even when you’re home. You can reap the benefits of keeping houseplants, but your black thumb won’t get in the way!

Are you convinced? Do you want to use this system the next time you’re away from home? The setup process takes about 30 minutes, and should be done the day before you leave in order to minimize stress and confirm the system is working. I’ll walk you through the steps to making your own at home.

DIY Self-Watering System for Houseplants

Materials:

  • 100% cotton string
  • Scissors
  • Paper clips
  • Pasta pot
  • Short stool

Step 1: Gather your houseplants in a location near where they usually reside. Cut the cotton string into two-feet segments (cut as many as you have plants). If you do not have cotton string on hand, take an old 100% cotton t-shirt and cut it into long, thin strips.

Step 2: Tie a paper clip to one end of each piece of string.

Step 3: Fill a pasta pot with water, about 4 quarts. Place the pot on a stool to elevate the water above the level of the plants. (Gravity will work with you to pull the water down the string.) Gather the plants around the pot of water.

Step 4: Place the paper clip end of the string in the pasta pot. (The paper clips will ensure that the string stays in the water.) Take the other end of the string and, using your finger, bury it about one or two inches into the soil of each plant. Press firmly on the soil to hold the string in place.

Step 5: When you have placed the string into each plant, make sure that there are no “dips” in the string. The line of string from the pasta pot to the plant needs to be a fully downward slope. If the string dips below the planter, water will not travel back up the string and into the soil. To avoid this, gently pull the extra string into the pasta pot.

Wrong:

Right:

That is how to create your very own DIY self-watering wicking system! In about an hour, you will notice your plant beginning to receive water.

Depending on how long you are away, there will most likely be water still in the pasta pot when you return home. Gently disassemble the string from the plant, and go back to your usual houseplant routine in about ten minutes.

Or, don’t! There are other, more subtle ways to continue this system while you’re home. Keep your plants where you usually have them, and place smaller bowls of water–on a stack of books, say–near your plants. You can refill the water bowls and know that your plants are receiving just the right amount of water at all times.

Note: Our orchid and fiddle leaf fig are getting their own self-watering setups when Anne and I travel to Greece this summer. They are quite particular plants, so I will keep them right where they are elsewhere in our apartment.

Are you going anywhere this spring or summer? Tell me where you’re traveling in the comments!

A Peaceful Abode In Brooklyn

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One of my favorite things to read about on design and craft blogs is interior design. I am so interested in learning about how people live, and different ways to create a space that is simultaneously stylish, cozy, and inviting. One of the first times Anne and I ever hung out together, we studied for a psychology exam we drew up blueprints of our respective dorm rooms, and talked endlessly about the best furniture configurations for our spaces. I kid you not!

So, this week we are taking a closer look at my dear friends’ Brooklyn apartment. Brooklyn is special to me, and Heather and Maggie’s apartment is very much on my list of reasons why. They moved in together this past fall, and have been making their apartment a home ever since.

The photos and story below are from Heather, who is simply an all-around artist in my opinion. Her photographs do a wonderful job of capturing the tranquility and creativity that seems to flow freely from her and Maggie’s home. They are both actresses, and Heather is also a beautiful drawer, painter, writer, and baker. Her blog, See, Sort, File, is an incredible archive of her musings on daily life. (I especially like this post.) Anne calls her “a young Lorrie Moore by way of Walt Whitman.”

Below is Heather and Maggie’s story. I hope that you enjoy it, and that these two inspire you to do something creative this week!

From Heather: Maggie and I met when we were eighteen at NYU, where we both studied acting. In keeping with the nomadic New York City lifestyle, we’ve each moved six times in our eight years of living here. Sixth time’s the charm, because this past November we landed a home we both love (and our first home together!) in Bed-Stuy. These days we work as actresses and waitresses, and spend our time at home chatting endlessly, cooking, and moving the couch around. I hope to never, ever move again. (Wish me luck.)

Our new place is actually two blocks away from Maggie’s old apartment. It’s a beautiful thing to move within a neighborhood you know. Signing a lease can feel like a huge leap of faith, like opening a box that will be half full of what you ordered, and half full of something completely different (i.e. a roach problem and a crazy upstairs neighbor), so we were very happy to eliminate any possible unknowns.

We love Bed-Stuy. We’re a five-minute walk away from a yoga studio that Maggie loves, a bakery where we buy foccacia and cacio e pepe sourdough, our favorite pizza restaurant, and a bar where you can usually get a seat and can always get a good drink. It’s an area filled with people of all ages and all ethnicities, with block associations and community gardens and a YMCA. I’ve always said that Brooklyn made me love New York. This neighborhood sealed the deal.

So. Our house! Decorating this place has been all about synthesizing our design sensibilities, which actually just means going through all of our belongings and figuring out what at least one of us really, really liked. We ended up furnishing our whole place with stuff we already had. Much of our furniture is actually from parents, grandparents, or families that I babysit for (!)–hand-me-downs acquired gradually over the past four years. I think the only piece of furniture we bought upon moving was our couch.

Our apartment is on the top floor of a brownstone. It is a 1.5 bedroom, which means that we have a little extra room attached to our bedroom to use as an office and guest room. (This arrangement was a bit de facto… Neither one of us wanted to sell our bed!) Hopefully our guests like very small spaces filled with office furniture.

The thing I think about the most when setting up a living space is how I want to feel inside each room. The living room should be conducive to socializing, the bedroom should be calm and peaceful, the kitchen should be warm and convenient. That, and displaying the items that just make us feel great, are the lines of thought that have driven our space. Maggie has a blanket from her dad that we keep on the couch. We have a little radio that we basically carry from room to room. I have a desk from my parents’ house that I sit at to write. I really believe that if your space makes you feel good, then that’s all that matters.

These things make our space feel like home:

One of the wildest things about our apartment is our view. Even though we’re smack in the middle of Brooklyn, we’re high enough up to see the Manhattan skyline. The sight of the Empire State Building, which towered above our acting studio in college, made this move feel like it completed a circle. These buildings have been with us all the while, and now they continue to accompany us as we change and grow, lighting up the sky with that same strange city magic.

Heather (left) and Maggie (right)

All photos taken by Heather Thiry

Mile-High Coffee Cake Muffins

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If I had to answer the If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you bring? question, coffee cake would probably make the cut. It’s been a life-long love affair, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I was the child who picked at the crumbs so all that was left was the naked cake. Don’t get me wrong, the cake is great! But I could nibble at those crumbs like it was my job. (Sorry, Mom!)

I decided to bake this coffee cake in muffin cups to make single servings (recipe adapted from this great blog). These would be great to bake if you ever have family or friends staying overnight. Imagine these on the breakfast table with coffee! You’d have one happy guest.

As the muffins came out of the oven, it slowly dawned on me that I had no idea how I was going to get them out of the pan. You can’t exactly turn them upside down! What I found to work best was to very gently turn each muffin in its cup before sliding it out. It worked surprising well, and I didn’t sacrifice a single muffin!

You’ll notice that a lot of crumbs were left behind in the now-empty muffin pan. Don’t you dare throw those away! I placed mine in a glass container to keep in the fridge for a few days. I have a hunch they will pair nicely with vanilla ice cream.

Now that I am in a full-blown crumb comma, I will leave you with the recipe below. Are you baking anything special this weekend?

Mile-High Coffee Cake Muffins (adapted from Offbeat + Inspired)

Prep time: 25 minutes | Bake time: 20 minutes | Yields: 12 muffins

Ingredients for the crumb:

  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
  • 3 1/2 cups cake flour

To make the crumb topping, combine sugars, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter over the mixture and stir with a spatula until fully incorporated. Stir in the cake flour until a sugary dough is created. Set the bowl aside to cool.

Ingredients for the cake:

  • 1 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 6 tbs unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk*

Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Use an electric mixer to add in the softened butter, and beat until the mixture forms small, moist crumbs.

In a small bowl, combine the egg, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Lightly whisk ingredients until smooth, and then add this to the dry ingredients. Mix together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup about 1/3 of the way up. Next, cover each muffin cup with a generous amount of crumbs.

Bake muffins for 10 minutes in the bottom third of the oven. Switch to the upper third, and bake for an addition 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you’d like browner crumbs, turn the oven to broil for the last two minutes. (Warning: Do NOT leave the kitchen during this time, as the crumbs can easily burn!)

Remove muffins from the oven and let cool for five minutes. Transfer muffins to a cooling rack with a cookie sheet placed underneath. Once they are completely cool, dust muffins with powdered sugar and serve!

*To make 1 cup of your own buttermilk, measure 1 tbs of lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup. Fill remainder with milk. Stir, let sit for 5 minutes, and use what you need!

From Scissors & Sage

Flip Clock Screen Saver e-DIY

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For years, I have seen this black and white flip clock screen saver all over Pinterest. I searched my computer’s settings high and low for this screen saver. Where could it be? I thought. I gave up after some time, thinking it was just something I would never figure out. It haunted me because every cool blogger and interior designer seemed to have this screen saver. It makes photos of your desk look so much cooler.

A few months ago, I decided to dive back into this screen-saver-finding quest. Lo and behold, another blogger, Katrina Chambers, wrote a tutorial on how to download and install it! It’s quite easy once you know where to find it, so let me walk you through how I did it in under five minutes.

Flip Clock Screen Saver e-DIY (for Mac user*)

  1. Visit Fliqlo and click the three little lines in the top right corner of the webpage. Click “Download for Mac.” Close your Internet browser.
  2. Open the downloaded “fliqlo_161.dmg” icon, which should either be on your computer desktop or in your Downloads folder. Double click “Fliqlo.saver” and press “OK” if it cannot be opened due to security preferences.
  3. Open System Preferences on your computer and click “Security & Privacy.” Click “Open Anyway” and then “Install.”
  4. When the screen saver page opens in System Preferences, scroll down and click the “Fliqlo” icon. Click “Screen Saver Options…” to adjust settings like digit size and 12- vs. 24-hour clock.
  5. Once you are finished, you can move the downloaded items to the trash, as they are no longer needed!

*For Windows users, follow Katrina’s tutorial here. The steps vary slightly.

 

That’s all there is to it! You can also download the flip clock for your iPhone and iPad from the App Store here. Now go forth and get this screen saver! It is sure to liven up any workspace.