Two Spoonfuls- a new chapter!

I'm excited to share some news about the new chapter of my blogging learning process! After experimenting with Three of a Kind and learning more about what posts I enjoy the most and what content would be able to reach more readers, Mary and I decided that making a joint food blog would be the best way for us to grow our blogging skills and make creative, original posts! Instead of just me posting most of the time, now both of us will have an equal role sharing our fun culinary adventures cooking and baking anything from fancy desserts to fresh, healthy meals! I really encourage you all to check out Two Spoonfuls, our new food blog, as it will feature even better content and a similar blog layout and design! Right now we are still working on a few layout items on the blog, but it is up and running with a fun first post!

I'm not sure what the future will be for Three of a Kind, but it has been such a great learning experience for me in teaching me about blog design, content, writing posts, and of course having lots of fun along the way! And while the third member of Three of a Kind, my best friend Bailey, has not been able to post on this blog, I am hoping she can share some of her great recipes on Two Spoonfuls since she is quite the foodie as well!

Macarons we made in our first post on Two Spoonfuls!

Please join us as we embark on our new culinary adventure, and don't worry I am sure we will have DIY or travel posts from time to time!

As always, thanks so much for reading and I can't wait to see where the new blog takes Mary and I!

xo,

Hannah 

Check out Two Spoonfuls via the links in this post or at two-spoonfuls.blogspot.com!

Final(s) Week in Boston

This past week has really been a crazy, occasionally stressful, but all around awesome final week in Boston, at least final week for my freshman year! It's been so fun taking breaks from final exams to spend time with lots of friends and eat out at some delicious places!

It will be so strange for me not seeing the new friends I have met here over the summer, as they all live all across the US! Summer will be a fun experience back at home with friends and family I have missed while at school, but I will really really miss my new friends and am already so excited for school to start again in the fall!

I thought I'd share some pictures of my friends and I while sharing about some of the delicious restaurants we have visited that are now some of my favorites!

1. Ribelle- 
Mary and I had to get brunch with with our amazing Intervarsity Christian Fellowship leader Olivia and had the best time eating at Ribelle in Washington Square! It was all of our first times, and I have been raving about the place since!  Ribelle has a small, inventive menu that changes weekly. The space has a minimalist feel but the flavors are bold and involve many unique and unconventional combinations! Really a cool place. 

We split three things, including my favorite, sourdough pancakes with lime curd, butterscotch, and freeze dried raspberries! (as seen in the beautiful picture below) Everything was beyond delicious and great for sharing!

Hard to believe, but tastes even better than it looks!

Egg Bolognese (left) and the tastiest kale ever (right)

Olivia and I!

2. Root-

My great roomie Hyewon and I decided to try out Root, a quaint, casual cafe with a rustic feel. Root has a small menu filled with creative vegan combinations, from your not-so-traditional black bean quinoa burger with a side of delicious herbed fries (which were irresistibly good), to a Crispy Cauliflower PoBoy and Eggplant Caprese Sandwich. The prices were great for the large portion sizes! 

Tostadas with chili spiced sweet potatoes and corn/black bean salsa! 

 3. FoMu Ice Cream-
After Root, we had to check out FoMu, a unique ice cream shop right next door! FoMu makes vegan ice cream (I know, sounds weird, but actually SO good!) with most flavors made from a coconut milk base. They have so many unique flavors from roasted cinnamon banana to avocado to sweet lavender! I got a combo of Purple Mu (raspberry, blueberry with dark and white chocolate chips and Magic Bar (vanilla ice cream with coconut flakes, chocolate, graham cracker, and vegan caramel) and Hyewon got half Magic Bar and half Sweet Lavender! Hyewon had never had vegan ice cream before, and actually said it tasted better than the original! Who knew!

4. Sweetgreen-

I have written about Sweetgreen a few times before and I can't emphasize how much I love their amazing, fresh salads. Sweetgreen has a menu of great, made-to-order salads, or you can make a custom salad from their endless choices of greens, toppings, and dressings! I love how they list the local farms where they get their ingredients and they are just an awesome company overall with great sustainability initiatives. I am so happy to have discovered Sweetgreen this year, too bad there isn't one in Chicago (yet!) My great friend, and fellow Sweetgreen lover, Mattie and I had the best time together enjoying our yummy salads!

Harvest bowl, the best!

Mattie and I!

It has been the best final week in Boston, finals and all! It has been so fun getting together with friends and saying goodbye for the summer! I can't wait for summer but there's so much to look forward to in coming back to school in the fall!

If you are anywhere in the Boston area, you must check some of these places out! Hope you are all having a great week!

xo,

Hannah 

Thoughtful Thursday

I truly cannot believe that today was my last day of classes. The end of the year really seemed to sneak up on me, and now that it's here I'm realizing how many things I have left to do between now and when I'll be flying home in 11 days, which of course includes taking final exams, and writing a 20 page paper, always fun!

One of my favorite (and very spontaneous) crafts I have made this year is a collection of some of my favorite short encouraging sayings that I strung on a string of twine using the cutest little clothespins (from the Target dollar section!) and hung on the wall behind my desk. It's hung in the perfect spot for when I need a little reminder to step back and view things from a different perspective.

In honor of the coming of finals and the wrap up of my freshman year (crazy typing that!) I thought I'd share some thoughtful and encouraging quotes, in the form of some lovely art prints I have found! 

via Abby Hyslop Lettering

via Abby Hyslop Lettering

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the bit of inspiration! Sometimes I really need it!

 I've got some great blog posts in the works, stay posted! 

xo, 

Hannah 

Meeting My Favorite Baker!

Hi Everyone, it's Mary here! I am so excited to post for the first time! I just couldn’t wait to share with you about an awesome event I had the opportunity to attend last night! One of the bakeries/cafes Hannah and I LOVE frequenting in Boston is Flour Bakery, an adorable little café with a diverse menu ranging from freshly baked pastries and cakes to delicious sandwiches (on homemade bread!) and salads. Since its beginning in 2000, Flour already has four locations in Boston, and the owner Joanne Chang, a Harvard grad, has already published two cookbooks! Just yesterday,
Chang released a brand new book, Baking With Less Sugar, which I had been anticipating for many months! Though I love to bake, I have been significantly cutting back on sugar recently, and was so excited to see an entire book dedicated to using other natural sweeteners from my favorite bakery!

Chang (left) and Greenspan (right) sharing some of their best stories!

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a Conversation and Q&A session not only with Joanne Chang herself, but also with distinguished baker Dorie Greenspan, author of six James Beard Award winning cookbooks! It was amazing to hear the two of them discuss their adventures in baking, from their first jobs to publishing their first cookbooks, as well as sharing some of their best tips and most important lessons! While Chang received a degree in Economics and Mathematics, she always had a passion for baking and became inspired to open up a bakery after a taking a “How to Open a Bakery” class at the same place I attended this event tonight, the Boston Center for Adult Education! What an incredible story!

Joanne Chang and I! 

After hearing many great stories and discussing many delicious recipes, everyone was invited to sample some delicious creations from both chefs! There were lots of little dessert samples presented so elegantly, it was so hard to choose what to try! I sampled Chang’s Carrot Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, a recipe from her new cookbook that is sweetened only with apple juice and the fruit in the cake! It was absolutely delicious, I cannot wait to make it for my friends and family to try sometime soon!

    

 Limoncello Cupcakes from Greenspan’s book Baking Chez Moi

Mini Indian Pudding Cups (made with Molasses) from Chang’s Baking With Less Sugar

My new signed book! 

I’m so excited to embark upon all sorts of no sugar and low sugar baking adventures this summer! What types of sweeteners have you experimented with and been successful with? If you’re like me and love baking but want to cut back on sugar, I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of Baking With Less Sugar as a great place to start!

Mary

Shop Seasonally: Spring Edition

As I am writing this post, the sun is shining through my window and I can hear birds chirping in the background. Flowers are starting to pop up all across campus, and I think from the looks of it that spring has finally sprung! Spring is probably my favorite season (though fall is a close second!) not only for the beautiful weather, flowers, and sense of refreshment that it brings after a cold winter, but also for the great fresh fruits and veggies that are in season during the spring months! Though some of these fruits and vegetables are sold year round, they taste so much better when eaten during their peak harvesting time! I have seen so many great recipes showcasing seasonal spring produce and can't wait to share these with you all! Unfortunately I do not currently have a kitchen in my dorm to try my hand at some of these delicious recipes, but I am already looking forward to doing a seasonal summer post when I will be cooking and baking like crazy in my kitchen! 

1. Peas and Asparagus Pasta- The combination of peas and asparagus is a great fresh spring combo that can be used in so many recipes! Whether it's a green salad, a quinoa or rice salad, mixed with pasta, or simply sautéed together, these veggies complement each other well and make a quick and easy combination! This recipe from Martha Stewart adds avocado to the mix, and the flavor combination sounds great! I would probably opt for wheat pasta or try it with quinoa! 

2. Strawberry Rhubarb Galette- Strawberry rhubarb is such a classic spring/summer combo that is so tasty and can be made into such a variety of delicious desserts! There are so great many recipes for pies, oat bars, crisps, tarts, cookies, and more! I love to make galettes, as they have all the essentials of a great pie but not too much crust! These mini galettes from The Kitchen McCabe are so pretty and calling my name! 

3. Bright Spring Greens Salad- This recipe from Love and Lemons is a wonderful example of how great spring produce combinations can be! It has peas, radishes, asparagus, salad greens, mint, and other great ingredients! I just discovered the blog Love and Lemons, and boy I am in love! Everything looks so tasty and the photographs are beautiful.

4. Broiled Grapefruit with Honey and Bananas- I love all things citrus and grapefruit is probably my favorite of them all. It is always so fun picking fresh grapefruit off the trees whenever I go to Palm Springs, CA for spring break! I love having grapefruit for breakfast, tossing grapefruit slices in salads, and broiled grapefruit is something I need to try! This recipe from She Wears Many Hats looks so tasty! 

I hope everyone has a Happy Earth Day and enjoys these recipes! I'd love to hear if there are any spring seasonal combos or recipes you enjoy!

xo,

Hannah