Support the Locals like Amy Merrick

The other day I stumbled across the Brooklyn based florist, Amy Merrick's website. Not only is she a floral designer she is also a writer and stylist (and the occasional teacher out of her Brooklyn studio). Her work has most recently appeared in Kinfolk where she partnered with photographer, Parker Fitzgerald on the cover shoot (the floral ice cream cones). Below are examples of her work, take a look!

Blogs to Fancy: Kinfolk Video

One of my favorite independent magazines is Kinfolk, a Guide for Small Gatherings. You can buy it at you local Anthropologie or at their online shop! They recently posted this beautiful video on their website on making bread, it's not too long and inspired me to make some bread of my own!

What's in Now

Thomas just got in a gorgeous mix of Australian ferns, come in and get inspired!

                         

Five Cheese Farms in Vermont

Here's a cool video I stumbled upon yesterday. It's random, but really lovely and I've already watched it three times! If you have a few minutes to spare watch the video below, where photographer, Christopher Baker captures the stories of five cheese farms in Vermont.

Five Cheese Farms Vermont from Christopher Baker on Vimeo.

Food: Breakfast Panini from Sprouted Kitchen

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and my absolute favorite gift was the Sprouted Kitchen cookbook that I received! It’s full of tasty whole food recipes. Every recipe is one that I haven’t heard of before and usually includes some weird combinations that I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. (Every attempt has been a success!) The Breakfast Panini, that I tried today was actually off of the authors website, I really recommend that you check it out!

BREAKFAST PANINI // Makes 2
If you don’t have a panini press or grill pan, you can use a saucepan and wrap something heavy in foil, to use as a weight to press down on the sandwich.
4 Slices Whole Grain Bread
½ Cup Fresh Spinach Leaves
2 Scallions, Chopped
3 Eggs, 2 Egg Whites
2 tbsp. Milk
½ tsp. Garlic Salt
Cooking Spray

Spread:
1/2 Cup Goat Cheese
1 tbsp. Grainy/Dijon Mustard*
3 tbsp. Basil, Chopped (any green herb of choice will work)
1 tsp. Milk
1 tsp. Lemon Pepper

Directions

1. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium heat. Combine eggs and egg whites in a bowl, add milk and garlic salt and whisk them until well combined and frothy. Spray the pan.
2. Add the scallions to the eggs and pour them into the pan. Let them cook about 2 minutes with the lid on, lift up on the edges with a spatula and let the liquid egg drain beneath, cook another minute. You are trying to make a rectangle of this egg mix, like an omelette.
3. When it begins to set, fold over both edges towards the middle and flip it over, cover the eggs and turn off the heat.
4. In the meantime, add the spread ingredients to a bowl and combine with a fork.
5. Toast your bread slices on the panini or grill pan for a minute for a very slight toast. Evenly spread a generous tbsp. on each slice of bread. Divide the spinach leaves on two slices. Cut the egg rectangle in half so you have two squares, and put one half on the spinach leaves. Press the other slice of bread on top of the sandwich goodies.
6. Heat your panini press/ grill pan, rub a lil olive oil on the outside of the bread and sprinkle with salt, put in the panini and warm through for about 6 to 8 minutes. If you are using a grill pan, flip the panini half way through.

*Dijon has more of a ‘mustard’ flavor while the ‘whole grain’ is more delicate. Hugh prefers the delicate, I think it would have been better with Dijon, but that’s you’re call.

Flowers: Bridal Bouquet

Hello all! It's been a busy season here at Christoffers, hope everyone as been having a very happy holiday so far! On a different note here are some photographs of a bridal bouquet that we created recently. I  really love the color scheme, it's rarely used and is therefore all the more special! Yellows, whites and greens are a perfect combination for Spring or Fall Weddings!

20% OFF All Tea Towels TODAY ONLY!

Christoffers 12 Days of Christmas

This year Christoffers is celebrating Christmas in a whole new way! Each day we will be featuring different giftware in the store, make sure to check our blog or facebook everyday, there might be a few surprises for our customers along the way!

Food: Five Spice Gingersnaps

Here's a recipe for the cookies that I made last year for Christmas! They're tons of fun to make and taste good as well!

yield: Makes about 3 dozen cookies

active time: 1 hr

total time: 10 hr

Ingredients 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg

• Special equipment: parchment paper; a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter; a piping tip with a 1/4-inch plain round opening (if making cookies into ornaments); pastry bags or several small heavy-duty sealable plastic bags (optional)

• Garnish: decorative icing (optional).

Dicrections

Make dough:
Whisk together flour, five-spice powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Pulse ginger with 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground.

Add syrup, butter, egg, and remaining 3/4 cup sugar to processor and blend until mixture is thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add flour mixture and pulse just until a dough forms. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 8 hours to allow flavors to develop.

Bake and ice cookies:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Quarter dough. Keeping remaining 3 pieces wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled, roll out 1 piece of dough on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper with a lightly floured rolling pin to 3/4 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on wax paper until firm.) Cut out rounds with cutter and transfer to 1 lined baking sheet, arranging cookies about 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until slightly puffed and a shade darker, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheet. If desired, make holes with piping tip near edges to hang cookies, then transfer cookies (still on parchment) to a rack to cool completely. (Cookies will flatten slightly as they cool.)

While first batch is baking, roll out and cut another batch, arranging cookies on second lined sheet. Bake in same manner, then gather scraps and chill until dough is firm enough to reroll, 15 to 20 minutes. Make more cookies with scraps (reroll scraps only once) and remaining pieces of dough, cooling sheets and lining them with fresh parchment before using.

If using icing and coloring it, transfer small batches of icing to small bowls, 1 for each color, and tint with food coloring. Spoon each color of icing into a separate pastry bag, pressing out excess air. Twist bag firmly just above icing, then decoratively pipe icing onto cookies. Let icing dry completely (about 1 hour, depending on humidity) before serving or storing cookies.

Cooks' notes:•Cookies are best when dough is chilled 8 hours to allow flavors to develop, but if you're in a hurry, dough can be chilled just 2 hours. Dough can be chilled up to 3 days.
•Using a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip results in cleaner lines of icing, but you can use small sealable plastic bags. Spoon each color of icing into a separate sealable bag, pressing out excess air, and snip an 3/4-inch opening in 1 bottom corner of each bag.
•Cookies keep, layered between sheets of parchment if iced, in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.

Recipe courtesy Epicurious.com

DIY: Print Your Own Gift Tags

For me wrapping gifts was always a drag, that was until I made it into a sort of creative challenge. Now every year I discover new and fun ways to decorate the gift. And no gift is complete without a cool gift tag! Below I have a few different ways/concepts/inspirations for your gift tags this season! You can also click here to view our Pinterest Board!

Here are some great ones that you can print out at home that I found on Poppytalk! (Click on image to enlarge and print)

If you don't have a printer but happen to live near a Trader Joe's this is a great way to recycle those festive brown bags! (Click on image for more information)

Or if you're tight on time you can always stop in at Christoffers and purchase this lovely pack of twelve Christmas Tags!