Panic of the afternoon is over. The problems with my new site are fixed, thanks again to awesome Andy. I have asked him to Emily-proof the new site's content editor so I can't do anything like that again in the future.
So, after that false alarm, the site is now up and it's not even wonky anymore.
From now on, you will find me at www.fromchinavillage.com.
Thanks for being patient!
**Update** You'll have to wait til tomorrow to check out the new site - something's gone wonky with it! I can't be left alone with my own technology! Sorry!
Did you see that title and think I went away to Brussels for the weekend? No, no, but we're starting this Monday morning by pretending we're in Brussels. Almost as fun, right?
I can't tell you how long I've been asking Michael can we go to Brussels. I have no idea why, but it has always seemed like such a neat city to me. And when I went searching for a few photos I kept coming to this one: 
Once every two years, Brussels shuts down its main square and makes a flower carpet. This image is from 2010, when a 23 year old designer came up with this pattern, that includes St. Michael striking down the dragon as well as a symbol to honor Belgium's EU presidency. All out of flowers!
So I guess I was right in thinking it was a pretty neat city.
Right, beyond the dreamy flower carpet (coming up next in August 2012, and I'm penciling that in now!), I think Brussels and I think chic, structured, stylish clothing, everyone effortlessly riding bicycles down beautiful streets, and chocolate.
We'll pretend we're friends with this adorable lady: 
{Image from here}
And we'll rent a bike from the city's Cyclocity programme to explore the city.
But it might be a little chilly, so we'll grab this coat from Comptoir de Cotonniers - a beautiful clothing shop that's been featured in just about every style magazine imaginable. 
Or maybe this one, because I've been really wishing lately that I could pull off a capelet. 
Then we'd ever-so-stylishly dismount for a quick sampling at Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier. Just click there, explore the decadence and come back to me. We've a little more daydreaming to do!
We'll zoom by this bizarro structure, the Atomium. So odd, and reminds me a little of the bean in Chicago. 
{Image from here}
And linger on these beautiful streets. 
{Image from here}
{Image from here}
And then at the end of the day, we'd retire to the chic, boutique hotel be Manos. Would you check out the serious headboard and unbelievable bathroom? 
There, just a little (slightly random) taste of Brussels to start your day!
Did everyone have a nice weekend? Bake anything yummy?
Don't forget...BIG BIG news coming tomorrow!
It's been a busy week. So far, after 3 days, I love my job. It's been total information overload, but from what I can tell it's never going to be boring, which is great! But it's still been a bit of an adjustment, and I haven't had nearly the time or the energy for as much baking as I usually would. All I managed was a batch of zucchini bread on Wednesday night because I had to use them up!
But this weekend, I think I might make up for lost time. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I'm thinking sweet and I'm thinking mini. Michael and I have never celebrated Valentine's Day - we're both kind of blah on the holiday altogether - but I love an excuse for a themed sweet treat!
So how about peppermint patties? You can't get them over here, it's tragic. Wouldn't they be festive with a little red food coloring added to the filling? The only stumbling block for Irish readers will be finding a substitute for shortening. I think you'd have to just give either butter or lard a shot and see if it works. I've got a mother-in-law with a secret stash of imported American Crisco (doesn't that sound exotic??), so I'm hoping she'll donate some to a good cause! 
Peppermint Patties
{Recipe and image via Sweet Cheeks in the Kitchen}
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup (I'm going to use golden syrup)
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1 T shortening
10 ounces 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I'm going with Cadbury's Bourneville dark chocolate)
Make filling:
Beat 2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar with corn syrup, water, peppermint extract, shortening, and a pinch of salt using an electric mixer at medium speed until just combined. Knead on a work surface dusted with remaining 1/4 cup confectioners sugar until smooth. Roll out between sheets of parchment paper on a large baking sheet into a 7- to 8-inch round (less than 1/4 inch thick). Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Remove top sheet of paper and sprinkle round with confectioners sugar. Replace top sheet, then flip round over and repeat sprinkling on other side.
Cut out as many rounds as possible with cutter, transferring to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze until firm, at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, gather scraps, re-roll, and freeze, then cut out more rounds, freezing them.
Temper chocolate and coat filling:
Melt three fourths of chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove bowl from pan and add remaining chocolate, stirring until smooth. Cool until thermometer inserted at least 1/2 inch into chocolate registers 80°F.
Return water in pan to a boil and remove from heat. Set bowl with cooled chocolate over pan and reheat, stirring, until thermometer registers 88 to 91°F. Remove bowl from pan.
Balance 1 peppermint round on a fork and submerge in melted chocolate, letting excess drip off and scraping back of fork against rim of bowl if necessary, then return patty to sheet (to make decorative ridges on patty, immediately set bottom of fork briefly on top of patty, then lift fork straight up). Coat remaining rounds, rewarming chocolate to 88 to 91°F as necessary. Let patties stand until chocolate is set, about 1 hour.
Okay, now just one more: zeppole. Little homemade donut holes, Italian style. So cute! Wouldn't that make a festive Valentine's brunch treat? 
Zeppole
{Image and recipe via Pictures and Pancakes}
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup for coating
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tbs orange zest
vegetable oil for frying
1 tsp cinnamon
In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the flour. Return to low heat and cook, stirring vigorously until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a medium bowl and using an electric mixer, beat in eggs one at a time. Add orange zest and set aside. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon with remaining 1/2 cup sugar and set aside.
Pour enough oil into a frying pan to reach a depth of 2-inches. Heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Using a small ice cream scoop, carefully drop small tablespoons of dough into the hot oil. Fry several at a time but be careful not to crowd the pan. Turn zeppole with a wooden skewer to evenly brown both sides and cook until golden and puffed, about 5 minutes. Roll cooked zeppole in cinnamon sugar and serve immediately plain or with melted chocolate for dipping.
***
Next week - I have a VERY exciting announcement, so make sure you tune in! You won't want to miss it! It's BIG, BIG news!
It occurred to me yesterday, as my new boss was talking a mile a minute about the upcoming meetings he needs me to attend and the projects I'm going to be working on, that I might need a little help keeping everything straight.
So I'm in the market for a planner, or a diary, as you Irish peeps call it. And since it's been ages since I've spent some time over on Etsy, I figured it was a great place to start. Have I mentioned how so many Etsy sellers have such low shipping? Even to Europe! 
I love the peaceful design of this one - comes in lots of equally peaceful patterns.
{2011 Pocket Planner from dozi}
I'm such a sucker for sand dollars, and pink ones? Come on!
{Sand Dollar Planner from lettercdesign}
Great layout in this one, huh?
{2011 Planner Book V2.0 from sande74}
How cute is this planner? Silkscreened onto book cloth. Adorable!
{2011 Weekly Planner from nicopapergoods}
This one looks so stylish and sturdy, no?
{Allium Day Planner from lmoss}
Aren't they all gorgeous?
And with those pretty bits to start your Thursday, I'm off to visit the ICA's facility in Termonfecken. Hilarious name. See you back here tomorrow for some sweet treats to get you through Friday. Have a lovely Thursday!
When I was bopping around the internets yesterday looking for cute planners, I got a little distracted. Now, we don't need a wall calendar at all (we have Obama's 4 year calendar!), but they're just so beautiful I had to linger.
I'll just file these away for when we've a house with lots of wall space. I might just fill a whole wall with pretty calendars. (I'm hoping we upgrade to a much bigger house because, as of now, I already want a whole wall of maps and a whole wall of little inspirational bits. If we tried to do that in our little apartment we'd already run out of walls!)
These beautiful calendars are from The Wild Unknown (via Design*Sponge). Just so delicate. 
Wouldn't this one be perfect for a kitchen? I love the idea of calendars as wall hangings. Am dying to design one...
This French desk calendar would be perfect for the desk in my studio, when it's finished. (How long have I been saying that?? I really think this weekend, but I've said that how many times now? So lame, Emily.)
What a nice tribute to the incredible things we can do with our hands when we add a little creativity. I bet I would get loads more done if I had knitting hands on my desk for a whole month. 
And finally, this lovely wall hanging calendar by Lisa Rupp. Makes me think of spring!
*You can click on any of the images and they should enlarge for you!
I promised you a Monday Visit, but it's just not going to happen this week. Apologies, but I'll make up for it with a whopper visit next Monday. I promise.
Instead, I was sifting through my bookmarks and thought I'd share some of the projects, recipes and other clever things I've saved over the last few weeks.
I desperately want to make these. So smart and thrifty!
This print cracked me up.
I hinted to my mom that I'd be her guinea pig if she took a whack at this.
A little Valentine's loveliness on this pretty site.
I love no-knead anything, especially tiles.
I love this journal idea - talk about getting points for favorite aunt! (That's a hint, Carolyn, Leah, Angie, might as well get some ideas early!)
And I ate at this cafe over the weekend - it's yum and the waiter was so nice. Their ham sandwiches are made with home baked ham, you can even taste the cloves. And they do a great hot chocolate. What more could you ask for? 
Happy Monday, friends!
Here's a little glimpse of my Saturday for you:
{Mini photo shoot in Temple Bar. Ha! You'll see why in a few days - all will be revealed!}
But now, watch out, I'm talking politics today.
It was a surreal weekend in the news here. Lots going on in our neck of the woods. On Saturday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen announced he'd step down as the head of his party, Fianna Fail, while remaining the leader of parliament until the March elections. He said he believed he was needed to steward the nation through the next few months. Debatable.
Then Sunday, the Green Party announced they were pulling out of the coalition with Cowen's party, meaning there will need to be an election sooner than it was scheduled for March 11th. I haven't figured out when the election will happen, but my guess is a few weeks? Eek, that's soon.
At the moment, it seems there's really no one leading the country. I'd probably argue that no one has been running the country since Mr. Cowen was elected, but at this very minute, I think we're up the creek without any hope of a paddle.
On Saturday morning, I heard a re-play of a radio interview with the Taoiseach from earlier in the week. I thought he was going to strangle the interviewer, he was so angry. There was no calm, cool, collected; he didn't inspire confidence. Instead, he sounded snarky and spiteful. He even defended his decision not to hire a public relations staffer because, he said, he was "in the business of substance," not personality politics. 
{Image from here. I had to stop myself from putting together a photo montage of Mr. Cowen. Not very nice to kick a guy when he's down.}
He also defended the interviewer's allegation that Fianna Fail is in bed with the developers, because high profile developers were invited to the Galway Races Fianna Fail tent, by telling the interviewers how many other race tents his developer friends were in. If I were any one of his staffers, let alone a PR staffer, I would have been standing outside the studio, banging my head against the wall.
If only Mr. Cowen could have learned to communicate his (alleged) work on the substance in a way the people of Ireland could have understood, appreciated or been inspired by. He might have had a fighting chance. Instead, he's been a joke for quite some time.
Only a few months ago, he could have used a minder or two - it might have kept him from staying out at the pub for too many drinks, leading a sing-along and then calling in to an early morning radio interview sounding like he hadn't been to bed the night before.
I hesitate to make judgments about Mr. Cowen's work on the substance, but I do take issue with his assertion that communication doesn't matter.
If I ever had a passion in my political career (it was short-lived, 3 years and too cut throat for this lady!), it was helping candidates express their stances and stories in such a way that voters could feel them. And I'd argue there's nothing more important. In my book, a politician has got to be able to express to constituents empathy, impetus or passion in a way that moves people. If you can't do that convincingly, when things get rough, you'll go down with the ship.
Even though Mr. Cowen isn't directly elected by the people, the people still need and crave leadership and direction, especially in this tough economic climate.
And there's certainly no way they're going to get it from the figurehead president or the figurehead Dublin mayor or the guy who knows he has a communication problem but refuses to get a little help in that department.
This weekend, I have been trying to get all this straight. It's very complicated. Once there's a new leader of Fianna Fail (I think I'm rooting for former minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin. He never seems angry or spiteful; he's always calm and seems to have the gravitas a leader should have.)
But then, I'm pretty certain after a new leader of Fianna Fail is elected, they've got to sort out what parties are aligning with each other, and then they'll elect another Taioseach?
In the meantime, with everyone running around, re-aligning, trying to get themselves into the leadership positions, who is actually running the show?
***
What do you think? Correct me if I've got it wrong! I'd love to hear your opinions!
A few people commented this week something to the effect of, "How do you bake all that stuff you put on your blog and you're not enormous?"
I have three tricks, two kind of sneaky, third not so sneaky:
1. A 6'4 basketball playing husband with a pretty good sweet tooth and generally great appetite
2. An extra freezer in our back garden shed
3. About 3 pairs of running shoes a year, a good, chatty walking partner (thanks, Mama Lo!), and Miss BodyRock herself.
I can't say there aren't times when I eat every last morsel of what I bake, but my favorite part of baking is sharing it with friends, family, neighbors, unsuspecting strangers. After a reasonable amount of something yummy, I pop it into the freezer and break it out whenever a need arises!
And when I do happen to eat the whole batch myself (those darn flapjacks got me this week), I pop this lady on the ipod and head out for some fresh air.
{The original version is better but it wouldn't let me embed, grrr.}
Right, so, back to business. Some savory baking for your Friday. Last week I made stromboli. And I even managed photos (that's two in a row this week, but who's counting!).
Stromboli
Feeds 4-6 people
Dough
5-6 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water (but not hot)
2 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
In a large bowl, soften together the water, yeast and sugar. Let it sit for a few minutes so the yeast starts to do its thing. Add in 5 cups of flour and mix until it starts to form a ball and get sticky. Turn it out onto a flour covered surface and knead it, adding the last cup of flour as necessary, for a few minutes. When it comes together into a ball, put it in a greased bowl in a warm spot for about an hour. 
While the dough is rising, put together the filling ingredients. Think of it like a pizza - whatever works on a pizza will work in the stromboli. For mine, I usually do two different kinds, vegetables and pepperoni, and one with spinach and butternut squash. Sounds weird, I know, but it really works!
Filling:
2 large onions, chopped
2 cups frozen spinach, thawed
1/2 butternut squash, roasted and diced
3-4 tbsp cream cheese or goat's cheese
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 tsp oregano
pepperoni, sliced
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
Chop the onions and divide them into two pans. Cook them until they start to get translucent. Add the peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and oregano to one pan. Let them cook until they start to get soft and then take them off the heat. With the other pan of onions, just toss them into a bowl with the roasted butternut squash and thawed spinach. 
Now, divide the dough into two chunks and roll one of them out into a rectangle. Spread one of the fillings down the middle of the dough and top with cheese. 
Fold the bottom side up over the filling, tuck the ends in, and fold the top side to close it. Use a little water to seal the edges together. Flip the stromboli onto a lined baking sheet so the seam side is down. Brush the top with some of the beaten egg - this isn't essential to the taste, but it makes it golden instead of floury. Really up to you.
Pop the strombolis (what is the plural there?) into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or until they're golden brown. Give them a minute to cool, then slice them and serve them! I like to cut them on the diagonal so they look a little fancy. 
There you go! Full on stromboli tutorial (with photos!) for your Friday. Have a lovely weekend!
Sometimes I forget when I'm sharing recipes that not everyone bakes, and that maybe some of you get a little intimidated by lots of steps or processes.
So here's a recipe that's easy whether you're starting out or have been baking for ages. The measurements are in grams, so work away, Irish bakers! 
Flapjacks (like homemade granola bars, Irish style)
{via Sarah!}
250 grams porridge oats (oatmeal)
1 can condensed milk (use the light version if you can find it)
and your choice of the following, adding up to 250 grams total:
pumpkin seeds
dried cranberries
raisins
almonds
hazelnuts
pecans
coconut
{I used roughly 3 cups of oats, then made up about 2 more cups of seeds, nuts and berries. I'm not sure if it added up exactly but it worked!}
Pour the condensed milk into a saucepan and heat it up, take it off before it boils. The idea is just to loosen it up so it coats the oat mixture more easily.
Stir the oats, nuts and seeds in a large bowl. I used hazelnuts, almonds, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and coconut. Pour the condensed milk over the oat mixture so it coats evenly. Spread the mixture into a greased baking sheet. Bake it at 150 C for about 25 minutes. Once it cools, turn it out of the baking sheet and chop it up with a sharp knife. Enjoy!
These might be the first Irish recipe I've made and they're just delicious. I've been avoiding Irish recipes because I really didn't want to buy a weighing scale and nearly every Irish recipe is in grams. But converting grams to cups or ounces all the time isn't very exact. I haven't been avoiding buying a scale because they're too expensive, really it's just because I'm not totally on board with the system. But that's not very grown up now, is it?
As one friend recently put it, "So you're letting a €10 piece of kitchen equipment keep you from an entire country of recipes?"
Well, when you put it that way...