How To

DIY: Spooky Handlettered Halloween Menu

October 29, 2015 by Asharae Leave a Comment

I recently got asked to co-author a handlettering book, so I want to share a little sneak peek of what’s to come! For the book I’ve created a bunch of fun lettering styles along with little doodads and flourishes to spice up your handlettering. My fabulous co-author Melissa Averinos has created a ton of fantastic crafts that utilize the styles I’ve created and really bring them to life! I’m so excited about all the things we’ve been working on behind the scenes and can’t wait to share the book with you!

Until then, I’ll be sharing little teasers here! This particular craft is my own creation and won’t be in the book, but it’ll add a classy touch to your Halloween party this weekend! You only need a few supplies and a little creativity to get started!

The Tools You Need:

Picture frame (I found mine for 25 cents at our local thrift store)

Matte black spray paint and newspaper to protect your work surface

Paper of your choosing (I used two layers of black construction paper with some sparkly ribbon for the border)

Gold pen or marker – this kind is my current favorite

Steps:

1. Painting your picture frame. Remove the backing and glass from your picture frame, and set aside. (If the back of your frame isn’t actually removable but on a hinge instead, then you can wrap it in newspaper to avoid getting paint on it.) Working outdoors, spray paint your picture frame. Be sure to use newspaper or cardboard to protect your driveway or whatever surface you’re working on. When spraying your picture frame, light coats of paint work better than trying to cover all the surfaces at once. Let the paint dry between each coat, keep coming back and adding another coat until your frame is covered. Let dry completely while you work on the next step.

2. Creating your menu card. Measure the glass you removed from the frame to determine what size your paper should be. This is where you can get creative and choose different colors of paper to make this project your own. I used simple black construction paper, added a border of sparkly ribbon with tiny dots of glue, and then wrote my menu on a smaller piece of paper and glued it on when I was finished with the handlettering (that way, if I made a mistake, I could just start over on the menu portion without scrapping the whole project!)

3. Handlettering your menu. You’ll want to give your lettering a creepy Halloween-y kind of look to it. This is easier than it seems! Simply elongate your lettering, draw out the tails of your letters, and give your lettering an imperfect, scratchy kind of feel to it. Just imagine you’re hurriedly scrawling this menu down before scurrying back to your cauldron boiling over the fire.

4. Finishing the project. Once your picture frame is completely dry and your menu is ready, place your menu card in the frame and whip up a batch of this apple cider sangria from The Wholesome Dish! It’s optional to use the glass in your frame – if you want to protect your hand lettering, go ahead and use it. If you like the look of it without the glass (like pictured here) then leave it out!

This post contains affiliate links. That means I make a small commission off any purchase you make through that link, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support of This Wild Season!

DIY Handlettered Menu

September 3, 2015 by Asharae 1 Comment

Last Friday I shared a bit about the summertime dinner party I got to put together with Susannah from Feast + West, Julia from Tag & Tibby, and Katie from Twin Stripe. We had the best time brainstorming a fabulous menu full of in-season fruits and veggies, local ingredients, and delicious recipes.

While Susannah was grilling her delicious corn on the grill, and Julia and Katie were hard at work on the table decor for our dinner, I sat down and created a handlettered menu to showcase each recipe that we’d created.

As some of you know, I’m currently co-authoring a DIY Handlettering book. (I still can’t believe it!) So I figured this sweet little handlettered menu was a great way to give you all a tiny sneak peek into everything I’ve been working on!

Follow along below for a list of supplies you’ll need and some simple instructions for creating your own handlettered menu for your next dinner party!

The tools you need:

Pencil with a good eraser

Pen or Marker

Paper you plan to write your menu on (I used watercolor paper that had some texture to it and I glued that to a larger sheet of gold paper to give it a pretty border.)

Steps:

1. Using a pencil, gently sketch a general outline of how you’d like to layout your menu. Be sure to leave enough space for each item on your menu. If you find you’ve spaced your lines out too much, feel free to erase and start again.

2. Once you have a general outline, begin to sketch the lettering for each of your menu items. I chose a loose flowy cursive style for the title and recipe names, and combined that with a skinny upright all-caps style for the name of each course. I recommend very lightly sketching this in so it’s easier to erase later!

3. When you’re confident you’ve got a good layout for your menu and lettering, go over your pencil lines with a pen or marker. Be sure to wait till your lettering is completely dry before erasing your pencil lines.

4. Once your lettering is finished and pencil lines erased, feel free to use a pretty sheet of scrapbooking paper as a border or background to your menu. I simply cut the paper 1/4 inch larger than my menu on each side and then attached them together using a glue stick.

I’ll be updating the links below as each new blog post from our summer supper collaboration goes up! Be sure to check back soon for more great recipes! You can also follow along on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #sweetsummersupper

Appetizer

Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Bites // Twin Stripe

Entree

Bader Hill Farm Citrus Herb Roasted Chicken

Sides

Cathead Biscuits // Feast + West

Grilled Mexican Corn // Feast + West

Mojito Melon Salad // This Wild Season

Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad // Tag & Tibby

Drinks

Honey Lavender Gin + Tonics // Twin Stripe

Watermelon Orange Margarita Punch // Feast + West

Dessert

Oatmeal Peach Crisp // Tag & Tibby

How To: Store Cilantro

June 9, 2015 by Asharae 2 Comments

Summer salsa season is just around the corner! I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have fresh tomatoes, jalapeños, and tomatillos from our garden again. I really thought spring was my favorite season, but tomato season just might rival it.

If you’re planning on making pico de gallo or guacamole or anything else with cilantro in it this summer, you should know the best way to store this delicious herb. If you’re skilled enough to grow cilantro in your own garden, well…tell me your secrets! I’ve tried growing it in containers with absolutely no success and this year in our raised bed garden with very little success – I haven’t figured it out yet.

If you can grow cilantro, you’re lucky enough to be able to pick a few sprigs as you need. If you purchase your cilantro from the grocery store on the other hand, you’ve probably tried placing that mass of leafy greens into your vegetable drawer only to discover them getting yucky a few days later. There’s a better way to store those pretty green leaves!

As soon as you get home from the grocery store, remove your cilantro from the produce bag, remove any wilted leaves (you can use them in your compost), use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife to cut an inch or so off all the stems, and place them in a glass or jar of fresh water. Keep the jar on a shelf in your fridge. If you change the water every other day or so, it’ll last even longer!

Favorite Apps for Finding New Recipes

March 31, 2015 by Asharae Leave a Comment

If you’re anything like me, you may find it difficult to keep track of your favorite recipes, get overwhelmed when browsing new recipes, or maybe you’re not even sure where to begin when it comes to meal planning.

First of all, if you don’t plan your meals at all, now is a great time to start! Planning out your meals (or at the very least your dinners) will save you money as well as immense amounts of time and stress wondering what you should cook for your next meal.

I’m not a stickler about planning my weekly meals every Sunday or anything like that, but before we go to the grocery store I do choose 3 or 4 dinner meals to cook, and a few lunch and breakfast items to fill in the gaps. We shop about once a week, sometimes more if I forget an item. But we always stick to the list. That’s what works for us – you’ll have to find your own rhythm to figure out what works for you and your family!

I have a few favorite tools that I use when searching for new recipes and making my shopping list. I’m a very visual person, so I almost always want to see a photograph of the dish I’m going to make before I make it. If a certain recipe doesn’t look appetizing, I’m much less inclined to want to try making it. The tools below are very visual-oriented, and I hope you’ll find them as helpful as I do!

Pinterest – This is my catch-all for finding recipes. I have my This Wild Season account for general food and kitchen inspiration, as well as a few boards on my personal account dedicated to food, drinks, and inspiration for that coffeeshop/bakery I dream of owning one day.

The beauty of Pinterest is that you can create as many boards as you like for as many topics as you choose. Want to split your food board into sides, main dishes, and desserts? You can do that!

I’ve even created a secret board to keep track of the recipes I’ve tried and loved. I use my public boards to collect ideas, inspiration, and recipes I might one day try. And then I’ll repin the best recipes to my secret board – making notes on what I want to try or change the next time I make the recipe. This is super helpful when I’m working on perfecting a recipe to share here with all of you!

Yummly – This is another great tool for collecting recipes you want to try. It’s Pinterest-y in its layout and each photograph includes notes on cooking time, how many ingredients are involved, and it always links back to the original blog post.

I personally love that you can install what they call the “Yum” button. When you’re browsing through food blogs and come across a recipe you want to save, you simply hit the Yum button on your browser. It automatically saves that recipe to your Recipe Box on their site.

Once you’ve “yummed” a recipe, you can place it in a “collection” such as breakfasts, dinners, or desserts. I imagine this would be a great way to keep track of large amounts of recipes and not run the risk of overwhelming your followers over on Pinterest with 872 “super simple slow cooker recipes.”

FoodGawker – This is a great site for recipes with beautiful food photography. FoodGawker has a submission process and they only accept blog posts that have high quality photographs.

Since I’m a visual person, this site is awesome for searching out delicious looking recipes! I just trust that if someone took the time to make their recipe look beautiful, they also care enough to make it taste delicious. That’s probably flawed logic, but it hasn’t gotten me into too much trouble so far!

FoodGawker also has a great search feature that’s super helpful to find what you’re looking for! You search by category or keyword, save favorites, and even look at the current popular recipes to see what others are enjoying.

Sticky Notes – Nope. That’s not the name of some new app. I’m talking about old school sticky notes. The ones you used to collect in wild colors and stick all over your walls and school notebooks in an attempt to keep yourself organized. What? You still do that? Oh good, me too.

Lately I’ve gotten in a habit of reading cookbooks from start to finish. I’ve made it through The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, The Yellow Table Cookbook, Fruitful, and I’m currently working my way through Off the Menu. Next on my list is The Chelsea Market Cookbook – Tim got it as a Christmas gift for me!

While I read, I try to keep a stack of sticky notes next to me, and I mark each recipe I want to make. My cookbooks all have little sticky-note-fringe poking out the top of their pages now. It’s perfect for meal planning because I can quickly flip back through a book to find a recipe I wanted to make.

What about you? How do you keep track of your favorite recipes? Do you have a recipe box – real or online – where you gather your favorites? Share it with me in the comments below! I’d love to follow you on Pinterest or Yummly or wherever you keep your recipe inspiration!

If you’re looking to find This Wild Season on the sites I’ve recommended, you can find me here on Pinterest, Yummly, and FoodGawker. See you over there!

This post contains affiliate links (to some of my favorite cookbooks!) but all opinions are my own.