Stuffed Peppers

Published on January 7, 2014January 5, 2014 by twinswithoriginalityLeave a comment

Growing up, T.W.O. grew up with a traditional Russian dish called Golubzi, which are cabbage rolls stuffed with ground meat, rice, carrots, and garlic. This dish is definitely a favorite, but we decided to change things up and stuff peppers instead! Check it out!

Ingredients

-1 to 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, lean
-1 cup basmati rice, cooked
-1 cup carrots, shredded
-1 can (8oz) tomato sauce, seasoned with herbs
-1/2 cup Crimini mushrooms, chopped
-4-5 Large Bell Peppers
-1 can stewed tomatoes
-Mozzarella Cheese
–Crazy Salt
-Garlic powder
-Ground Pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F. Begin by mixing the ground beef (uncooked), rice, carrots, tomato sauce and mushrooms together. Season with salt, garlic powder and pepper.

Next, cut the bell peppers in half and remove seeds. Stuff each pepper half with meat mixture and place into a Pyrex.

Pour the stewed tomatoes over the peppers. If there are large pieces of tomato, cut them into smaller pieces.

Cover Pyrex with foil and place into oven. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove peppers from the oven and place slices of mozzarella cheese on top and place back into the oven on broil. Once the cheese is melted and slightly brown, take the peppers out of the oven and serve!

If you are not stuffed now, you will be after eating these!

Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Southern California

Published on January 6, 2014January 5, 2014 by T.W.O.Leave a comment

After nine and a half years, it was time for T.W.O. to be back in the same city. We went to college in different cities – San Diego and Santa Barbara- and then we began our careers in different cities – San Diego and San Francisco. Five and a half years of living in San Francisco, K will be now moving back to the sunny, sandal wearing, coastal part of California. San Francisco was a great chapter and this post will be dedicated to some of the best moments K had in San Francisco. Along the way friends were made, goals completed, became Vice President of the Walk to Work Club, volunteered, experienced city living, shared many laughs, captured many moments with the camera and most importantly learned more about myself. I am truly going to miss my family and my friends that still live back in SF, but I know that I will be visiting. You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t keep her from visiting! Cheers to memories that will stay with me forever!

The Views Bay to Breakers

Fleet Week

Union Street + North Beach Festival

Bay Area Sporting Events

Friends + Family

Ciao Ciao San Francisco!

Artichoke & Spinach Pizza

Published on January 3, 2014December 31, 2013 by T.W.O.1 Comment

Do you know what night it is?? Yep, that’s right…Friday Night Pizza Night! We are featuring an Artichoke & Spinach Pizza this week. It’s a hearty pizza with a béchamel-style sauce and fresh spinach that will please any crowd. Check out how to make this delicious, gourmet pizza below!

Ingredients

– Pizza Dough*
– Cornmeal
– Flour
– 8 oz fresh spinach, divided
– 2 Tablespoon butter
– 2 Tablespoon unbleached flour
– ¾ cup milk
– ¼ teaspoon onion powder
– 2 cloves garlic, diced
– 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil
– 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
– 2 ounces Pecorino Romano, grated
– 1-8 ounce can of marinated artichoke hearts
– Krazy Salt
– Fresh Ground Pepper

*T.W.O. used pizza dough from VJB Deli.

Preheat oven to 425ᴼF.

Roll out the pizza dough on a floured/ cornmeal surface. Once the dough is evenly rolled out, transfer the dough to a greased cookie sheet.

In a large sauté pan, heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add ¾ of the spinach and sauté for 3 minutes or until wilted. Remove from heat and place on paper towels. Once some of the oil is drained, chop the spinach and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and onion powder and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly add the milk and increase the temperature to medium-high heat for about 4 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Make sure you are stirring constantly, so the sauce doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and stir in 1 clove of diced garlic, pepper, Krazy Salt and sautéed spinach.

Chop the remaining fresh spinach and set aside.

Add the white béchamel spinach sauce to the top of the pizza dough. Add the fresh spinach along with the remaining 1 clove of chopped garlic. Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella and Pecorino Romano cheese on top.

Let the pizza rise for about 15 minutes. Note – you don’t want to put the pizza in a cold oven, so make sure your oven reaches 425ᴼF.Once the oven is ready, place the pizza in the oven and watch closely. Do not open the oven door, as you want to keep the heat in. The pizza will take 15-20 minutes. Once done, take the pizza out of the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes prior to cutting.

Happy Friday Night Pizza Night!

DIY Greeting Cards

Published on January 2, 2014January 1, 2014 by twinswithoriginality1 Comment

Now that the Holidays are over, it’s time to sit down and write those “Thank You” notes for the gifts received, the hosted parties you attended, the kind words you received or even a “Just Because” note! So instead of heading out to spend more money, why not make your own! T.W.O. has a great idea that will add a little personal touch to each note and can be used for a variety of occasions! And the best part is that you get to pick the colors, design and save money!

Supplies

-Greeting cards, plain white
-Acrylic paint (or stamp pad)
-Chinese cabbage*
-String

*Treviso radicchio or any other leafy vegetable can be used

Begin by cutting off the end the stem of the cabbage or leafy vegetable. Secure the head of lettuce by tying a string around it.

Dip your cabbage into the paint and stamp onto the greeting card. (You might want to stamp it on a scratch piece of paper before you stamp the greeting card to get any extra paint off.)

Repeat process to create more flowers. Allow the paint to dry for about 30 minutes. Once dry, it’s time to start writing those notes!!

Tips for Thought in 2014

Published on January 1, 2014December 31, 2013 by T.W.O.Leave a comment

Tip #1: Saving a Cell Phone

If your phone accidentally ends up going for a dip in the water, don’t freak out right away. The old trick of rice does actually work if you use a mixture of brown rice and basmati rice. Uncle Ben’s doesn’t make the cut! The mixture of brown and basmati rice soaks up the water that is in your phone. NOTE – T.W.O. does not guarantee this will work for every phone, but its worth a try, right? Thank you to a special someone for the science experiment project!

Tip #2: Fast Track to Drying Painted Nails

Have you ever left the house with wet nails? Or too impatient to let your freshly painted nails to dry and decide to move onto something else that causes the polish to get ruined? This mostly likely has happened to all of us at least once or twice in our lives. But don’t worry, T.W.O. has a solution! Cold water! After painting your nails, place your fingers into a bowl of ice cold water for about 1-2 minutes. If you don’t have a bowl handy, run your hands underneath cold water from the faucet. Wah-lah! You are ready to walk out the door without messing up your nails!

Happy New Year

Published on December 31, 2013December 4, 2013 by T.W.O.2 Comments

Have a safe and Happy New Year!!!!!

Cheers,

Christmas Recap

Published on December 30, 2013December 27, 2013 by T.W.O.1 Comment

T.W.O. had a wonderful Christmas spending it with family last week. We were fortunate to have been able to celebrate for an entire week with our family. Check out some of the highlights of our holiday.

Pre-Christmas

Chrismtas Eve

Christmas

New Years Eve Tablescape

Published on December 27, 2013December 26, 2013 by T.W.O.4 Comments

T.W.O.’s Inspiration

T.W.O.’s Design Board

1. Charge-It-By-Jay. Black Round Chargers; 2. Solaris Dinnerware; 3. Stainless Steel Sphere; 4. Miranda Flutes;5. Vega Star; 6. Spike Napkin Ring; 7.Mercury Tealight Holders; 8. Ella Napkin

9. Mercury Glass Logs; 10. Pascual Mirrored Tray; 11. Nest Runner

Post-Christmas Workout

Published on December 26, 2013December 26, 2013 by T.W.O.Leave a comment

T.W.O. is up early and ready to burn off the Christmas calories. We put on some of our new Nike gear we got for Christmas and took it for a test run followed by a Pilates class. Check out our new workout clothes below. Hope you all get out there and shape-it out too! #weruntoeat