Road trip essentials

What do you pack when you are planning for a road trip? Skinny jeans and comfy shoes are a must in my book. I am currently coveting these Anine Bing jeans. Samoa's are old school, stylish and super comfy. A large tote by clare vivier, filled with sunnies, headphones and finally some great accessories to make you feel like you are not on the road, like the love bracelet by cartier (however, do bring your special screwdriver to take it off before running through the metal detector at the airport).

road trip essentials by sabinehogan featuring skinny jeans

KC Skyline

Kansas City has some amazing skylines. The other day I drove north of the city to the courthouse and the airport and saw the city from various angles (see pictures below). Also, the sky look different every day- bright blue, cloudy and sometimes ominous. Beautiful.

Plenty Party

Our friend Stephanie (who we are trying to convince to stay in Kansas City indefinitely) is in town with her charming French boyfriend (who paired amazing wine with the dishes AND wore a striped shirt). She is vegetarian so we thought it would be fun to have a dinner party based around some delicious vegetarian dishes. Both Plenty and Jerusalem are amazing cookbooks by Yotam Ottalenghi, who is based out of London and feature delicious vegetarian dishes. For several months now we have been talking about our upcoming "plenty party" (although when push came to shove we were more in the mood to drink Tank 7 all afternoon and order pizza but that is a complete different story).

The menu was as follows:

Surprise Tatin with potatoes, tomatoes, goat cheese and fresh oregano

Caramelized Garlic Tart with goat cheese, crème fraîshe 

Roasted butternut squash with red onion, garlic tahini, roasted pine nuts and za'atar

Spinach salad with lemon, dates and pitta bread and roasted almonds.

and of course.....another fig tarte (which turned out to also be a great breakfast option)

Surprise Tatin

Caramalized Garlic tarte

Roasted Squash Dish

Spinach Salad, Photo credit via Lottie and Doof

Fig tarte

Baby on a rug

Happy Friday!  Everyone needs a good ol' baby-on-a-sheep-skin-rug picture. We took some when Sas was little and now we have some (on the same rug) with the newest addition.  I love these tiny faux rugs and if it were up to me, I would have them all over our home. The best and most affordable ones in my opinion can be found at Ikea.  If you don't have an adorable baby to put on the rug, below are some other cute options.

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photo credit via the brick house

Fig tarte

A quick follow up to yesterday's post- I decided to go with Giada's recipe. It has all the right ingredients: figs, honey, almond paste, and mascarpone (which on its own is simply amazing, so smooth with a touch of sweetness) and its a breeze to make. The hardest part was getting the mixer out of the closet. You first prep the dough so it can rest in the fridge for an hour, prior to rolling it out, you make the paste and finally cut the figs and layer it all. The only addition I made was adding some almond extract to the pastry dough as well as a tablespoon of brown sugar.  Also, next time I would make the filling by hand, the mixer didn't seem to mix it quite right. The tarte is in the oven and hopefully ready by the time our guests arrive.

Filling: almond paste, honey, vanilla, sugar and mascarpone cheese

....and the result 

Figs are in season!

Do yourself a favor and run out to and get some fresh figs. While you are at it also buy some goat cheese and honey. I love figs as a late night snack. I am planning to make a fig tart for this weekend. I am still browsing recipes and can't decide on a pie or pastry crust. I am leaning towards this or this or this. Thoughts?

photo credit: Frangipane Fig Tart

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Is it really going to be time for winter clothes soon?

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I just got an e-mail notifying me about the new winter look-book from Zara. Unfortunately, KC does not have a Zara (yet?), but you can always order online. I love their women's clothes and also love love their kids line. They also have a line for "minis" now, although at 3 months, I don't think our little one still classifies as a mini.  Here are some of my favorite looks- I love the crop tops, pleated skirts and fishnet stockings.

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Do your kids dress better than you?

The first thing I do every morning is dress my little one. Together we pick out her outfit the night before, find shoes to match and the appropriate accessories (think head bands, bracelets, hats etc). Then the other day when I posted this picture of Paul and the wee one, one of our friends left this site as a comment. It reminds me that I too should make sure to dress well, not just my kid because the last thing you want is for them to always out dress you ;-)

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Happy 5 year Anniversary- prints on wood.

Wow, it has been 5 years since we got married at pikes place market in Seattle. We had such a great day but we don't have any wedding pictures of us up around the house, mostly because we both love great art and there is only so much wall space. My favorite picture was taken by one of our guests and shows us walking together. I love how it is not staged in the slightest (look at the ugly backdrop) and how it shows my dress in all its glory (it reminds me of when Paul first saw me in this oh-so-fun dress to wear).

Since year 5 is all about wood, I decided to have our picture printed on wood. I stumbled upon prints on wood and they did a great job printing and shipping it out. Not only can you have your own pictures printed on wood, they also have a large art collection that you can choose from. I like the print below which can be found in the "love" section. Happy anniversary Paulie.

Photocredit: prints on wood. Pixopop.

Inside out German Chocolate cake (GCC)!

I love nothing more than a fun baking project, especially when it is for a birthday party. Chocolate cakes are not (yet) in my repertoire so I hit up the ol' internet and searched.  I came across this inside out GCC originally posted on Epicurious.  I read all 328 reviews (I take this very seriously) and decided to go for it. I doubled the cake batter recipe and used 3 9" pans. I sliced each layer in 2 in order to obtain a total of 6 layers. I also doubled the filling and 1.5 the frosting.

The key to a great cake is patience, research and good ingredients.Then built the cake, it's as easy as 1. 2. 3.....

I will be out of town for the party so I don't have a finished picture but below you can see the bits and pieces.

p.s. Paul is happy that I did not go for the "boiling-the-cans-of-condensed-milk method" but rather went for the safer, "waterbath-in-the-oven-pain-in-the-butt-to-clean" method.

Woolly pockets

Photo credit: designed by Daniel Nolan for Maven in the lower Haight district of SF (my old stomping ground)

Woolly pockets- they sound so cozy and fun and they ARE. I first spotted them at my friends Stephanie's apartment. As you can tell from the picture below (sorry for the poor picture quality), she has a green thumb and an amazing sense for decorating. She combined 2 large woollies with a teeny tiny one.

When it was time to start decorating the baby room, I figured I would add a couple of pockets myself. It fills up the space on the wall nicely and adds just the right amount of pop. I opted for the black woollies and filled them with 2 giant ferns.

You can find more inspiring ideas for woolly pockets here. Also, they currently offer a 20% discount on mini wallies in black until the 19th of August.

p.s. How cool would it be to cover an entire wall with woolly pockets and let it all spill over. 

photo credit: Kitchen by Jardins de Babylon- Amaury Gallon