K Sarah Designs

Thirsty Treats // Moscow Mules

Two weekends ago, I was in San Francisco and had an awesome moscow mule at Paragon bar & restaurant... in fact, it was so good, I was determined to make one just like it! Their version has a super strong (almost spicy) ginger taste, which was balanced with a slight sweetness & a dash of tart lime.

It was so crisp & delicious, and was simultaneously refreshing enough to be a nice summer drink, and spicy enough to be a great fall & winter drink. Basically, if you like ginger, it's a great drink to enjoy all year round.

Anyway, in my mission to re-create their version, I decided to brew my own ginger beer. This is super easy to do, and I think really adds that fresh (and strong) ginger flavor - of course, if you're short on time or just want to buy some, D&G Old Jamaica or Cock'n Bull are you're best bets.

Hope you enjoy!

Ginger Beer Recipe
adapted from this recipe

- 1 quart water

- 3-4 oz. ginger, unpeeled and finely grated

- 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

- 2-3 Tbsp. sugar (I used a mixture of white & brown sugar)

Bring the water to a boil, and remove from heat. Add in the grated ginger & lime juice. Cover the pan and let sit for one hour. After an hour, pour the ginger & water mixture into a pitcher through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the ginger with a spoon to get all of the liquid out. Add the sugar to the ginger brew and stir thoroughly until it's completely dissolved. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Moscow Mule Recipe

- 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

- 3 oz. homemade ginger beer

- 2 oz. diet ginger ale (Canada Dry, Schweppes, or Vernors would all work)

- 1.5-2 oz. vodka

- sprig of mint & lime wedge for garnish

Squeeze the fresh lime juice into a glass. Fill with ice & pour the vodka, ginger beer, and diet ginger ale into the glass. Give it a stir and garnish with lime wedge & a sprig of mint. Enjoy!

HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY! Have a terrific weekend!

Golden Accessories // For the Home

I love decorating with metallic accents. Gold, silver, chrome, or brass - they all are a great way to add some sparkle to a space.

I'm especially loving gold accents right now - here are some of my current faves:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 

Tasty Eats // Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. I love everything about it - the crisp, cool air, bundling up in scarfs & lots of layers, drinking hot cider & hot chocolate, baking all kinds of fall treats... the list goes on and on.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, Fall also means that college football has arrived! And in my mind, this means a whole season of rooting on the Cal Bears, tailgating, good beer, and delicious food :)

One of my favorite foods to bring to tailgates are dips, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite dip recipes throughout the Fall.

I'm starting with one of my favorites: Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip. It's so tasty, and is always a huge crowd pleaser (you can always tell when it's one of the first foods to disappear).

It has all of the best elements of chicken wings - the spicy & tangy sauce, chicken, celery & blue cheese crumbles - and it's served piping hot with celery sticks & tortilla chips. Quite simply, it's absolutely delicious & totally addictive.

Here's how you make it:

Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip

- 1 1/2 cups light Cream Cheese, softened

- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (such as Franks hot wing sauce)

- 2 cups chopped chicken (I use the white meat of a rotisserie chicken - it's easy, already cooked, and already tasty, but you can easily use leftover cooked chicken breast or whatever you have on hand)

- 1 green onion, finely diced

- 3/4 cups chopped celery

- 1/2-3/4 cups crumbled blue cheese (depending on how much blue cheese flavor you want)

- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, mix the softened cream cheese with the hot sauce until combined. Add all other ingredients and mix together. Transfer the dip to a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips and celery sticks. Enjoy!

*As a side note, I find it kind of funny that this recipe totally fits in with my neon & neutral post from yesterday - that was completely unintentional on my part, I promise... I don't normally make a habit of eating neon food, but this one is so worth it!

Perfect Pairings // Neon & neutrals

Even though it's officially fall, I'm still totally smitten with the bright neons that were popular this summer.

Especially after seeing Christian Siriano's designs popping up all over pinterest during fashion week, I became even more smitten with the neon & neutral combination - because WOW, he truly designed some gorgeous dresses.

Anyway, I'm finding this mix of neons and neutrals especially inspiring right now:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 

I especially love the neon, graphic goodness of the second image. It's from this etsy shop (appropriately named neonandneutral!), which has some fantastic neon collage artwork.

Weekend

This weekend was busy busy and seemed to absolutely fly by. Fortunately, I was able to get lots of work done that had been on my to do list for a while, and was still able to relax a little, watch some football & make a quick trip to the bay area to celebrate a friend's Phd graduation.

Mostly, I was excited to make some art, finish some invitations, and add more items to my etsy shop - I'd designed some stationary ages ago, but only got around to uploading them this weekend.

Here are some quick snapshots showing some of the projects I was working on this weekend:

1. I was inspired after seeing Elise's awesome pinwheel painting, and knew I wanted to make one too. I made mine slightly off-center, and used shades of blue & green watercolors.

2. The completed watercolor pinwheel painting, shown with my "thumbs up" statue, large glass bottle & new cherry blossom branches.

3. I finished some custom invitations with my lupin flower design.

4. The succulents that I planted a couple of months ago are still going strong! I love succulents.

5. Speaking of succulents, I added some color options to my custom succulents stationary. They used to only be available in green, but after recently completing an order with custom colors, I decided to offer more color options.

6. I also added a handful of new stationary designs to my etsy shop - here's a peak at some of them.

*If any of the above designs strike your fancy, feel free to stop by my shop to get a better look!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thirsty Treats // My Favorite Margarita

Happy Happy Friday!

It's that time of the week again... you know, the one where a cocktail sounds pretty darn good - am I right?

In general, I try to make drinks that are lighter - yet just as delicious - as the originals. Because seriously, who wants to drink nearly an entire meal's worth of calories every time they enjoy a cocktail? I know I certainly don't.

Anyway, when done right, margaritas are definitely one of my favorite cocktails. Unfortunately, most margarita mixes aren't very good, and are super high in sugar & calories. This recipe is my favorite way to get around that pesky problem.

 

My Favorite Light(er) Margarita

- lime juice from 1/2 of a lime

- 1/2 cup prepared Crystal Light Pure Lemonade (make sure not to water it down. In fact, I usually only add between 1/2-3/4 of the amount of water the directions say to use so that you can really taste the flavor)

- 1.5 oz. tequila (any kind will do!)

- .5 oz. triple sec (I recommend Cointreau, but any will do)

Squeeze the lime juice into a glass & pour in the prepared lemonade. Fill glass with ice, and top with the tequila and Cointreau. Give it a stir and garnish with lime.

I have to admit, there's nothing fancy about these, but they sure taste good!

Etsy Finds // Natural Necklaces

My obsession with natural gemstone jewelry continues. I love the sparkle & texture they add to an outfit. Here are some of my favorite necklaces from etsy right now:

I already bought this necklace from this shop (and love it!)... Here are some others that I really like from the same shop:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Color Palette // Plum happy

Lately, I've really been drawn to the color plum. I've been noticing vibrant plum tones in everything from interiors to artwork, clothing, and flowers, and I'm really digging this dramatic color.

Plum is a great fall shade, and I'm looking forward to seeing & wearing more of it this time of year!

Here are some of my current favorite images that incorporate this beautiful jewel tone:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Tasty Eats // Toasted Coconut Banana Muffins

These are officially my new favorite muffin.  They're also officially my new favorite way to use too-ripe bananas.

These muffins have equal parts banana and coconut flavors, and seriously, what's better than combining banana with coconut? I love that these have a somewhat tropical flavor to them, yet also have the homey, comforting flavors of a classic banana bread as well.

Bottom line, these muffins are good... I may or may not be purposely letting my bananas get too ripe just so that I can make more of these muffins :)

Recipe found here.

Note: I kept everything the same, except reduced sugar to 1/4 cup.  Next time I'm going to try it with whole wheat flour.

Interiors i love // large gold mirrors

Sometimes, adding a little glitz and glamour can work wonders on a room. One of my favorite (and easiest!) ways to inject some instant glam is to add a large, gilded gold mirror.

I love that mirrors automatically open up and brighten a space, and having a mirror that's bright & shiny on its own will make an even bigger impact in this way.

Here are some of my favorite interiors with large gold mirrors:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 

As a side note, if you're currently on the lookout for a large gold mirror, I recommend checking out local consignment furniture stores - there are usually a ton of options for really reasonable prices!