sarah friedlander

Imperfect perfectionist living life to its fullest.

  1. Key Lime Pie


    I think I’ve finally found the best outlet for my cooking – bringing delicious things into the office. It all started innocently enough back in March when I brought in Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day. From then on I realized how nice it was to bring in other things muffins, cupcakes, etc… At our 18th of September (Dieciocho) barbecue I made a cheesecake and tiramisu.

    So now I present you with tonight’s creation – a delicious key lime pie. Graham cracker crust made by me. Fresh lime juice squeezed (thanks to the Kitchen Aid). Can’t wait to bring this into the office and watch it disappear in a matter of minutes!

    For anyone that is interested here is the recipe: Key Lime Pie VII

  2. Dining in Santiago: Quinoa Restaurant

    There aren’t quite a lot of vegetarian restaurants in Santiago, mostly because people in Chile have quite the love affair with their steak.  And I totally get that because quite frankly the beef in Chile is way better than in the United States.  All that’s needed for a great steak here is a little bit of barbecue salt to make the true flavors shine.  But I digress …

    There are days where I don’t want to eat meat.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a meal where you leave feeling “full” with just crisp vegetables, tofu or cheese.  There’s a fantastic restaurant in Providencia, El Huerto that is pretty much the vegetarian place in Santiago.  When my parents visited in February we went there twice in the same week – yup, it’s that good.

    I heard about a new vegetarian restaurant (open only lunch hours and closed on Sundays) in Vitacura – Quinoa Restaurante.  Supposedly it’s owned by the daughter of the owner of El Huerto (not sure if this is true).  After a pretty grueling workout at the gym this Rod and I decided to check it out.  We were absolutely blown away.


    My über handsome date.  Yes, I just used the work über!

    For starters, the restaurant is gorgeous.  They spent a lot of time with the decor so it feels warm, cozy and at the same time organic.  So many little touches made this place great including:

    • Blankets on each of the outdoor chairs (to keep warm)
    • Fresh flowers on each table
    • An herb garden that was both pretty to look at and useful
    • Dried roasted red peppers as decoration in the restaurant
    • Beautiful wood wall interiors
    • The door handle to exit the restaurant was a large spoon painted red
    The list goes on … (and I haven’t even gotten to the food!)

     

    Gorgeous seating (both indoor and outdoor).  You can see some of the design touches I mentioned above.

    The food, oh my god, the food.  It was heavenly.  I was trying to explain earlier today to Rod why I both like and dislike going out to restaurants for a steak.  At a steak restaurant you know exactly what you are getting – there’s no “surprise” element to a good meal.  At a great restaurant you are blown away by the food combinations.

     


    A photo of the full menu can be found here.

     

    We were both blown away by the food – lots of “mmmmms” and “oh soooo good” were muttered throughout the meal.  I can’t recommend Quinoa enough – I know we’ll be coming back here soon.  It will probably be our “place to go” after a good gym workout.  Total price for 2 natural juices, appetizer, 2 entrees and dessert (with 10% tip) was $25.300.

     

    Pictures below for your enjoyment.

    Fresh warm bread and “pebre”

    Goat cheese with olives (Appetizer)

    Spanakopita and Tiropita (Main Course)
    Duo of two empanadas with phyllo dough accompanied with a Greek salad.

    Crumble of Apple, Pear, and Quince (Dessert)
    Accompanied with ice cream

    Quinoa Restaurante
    Luis Pasteur 5393
    Vitacura, Santiago
    Reservas al (56) 2 9540283
    Horario de Atención: Lunes a Viernes (8:00 a 19:00 hrs) Sábados (9:00 a 17:00 hrs)
    www.quinoarestaurante.cl/

  3. Custom, Modern Furniture in Chile: IKEA Hemnes Bookshelf (Hack) + Kitchen Shelf

    I wrote a post at the beginning of February called Interior Design in Chile & IKEA Hemnes Shoe Cabinet (Hack).  I’m still blown away by its popularity and the amount of people that continually write to me and ask for contact information for my maestro (the man that makes my furniture).  If you do want his information just fill out my contact form!

    At the end of May I finally organized myself enough to ship all of my possessions from the US to Chile.  The goal I had in mind was to consolidate my life in one place.  My apartment in Santiago is not large by any means and shipping a full palette of items simply was not going to fit.  A lot of the things that were shipped went into my storage shed in my apartments’ garage (think music books and Christmas decorations) but a lot of items (favorite books, music boxes and of course my beloved kitchen pots & pans) needed a new home.

    Once again I enlisted my incredible maestro, Miguel to help create the furniture.  My plan was to have all of the furniture built and installed before my palette from the US got to Chile so I would have space to organize and put everything away.  June and July seemed like a whirlwind.  Between designing the furniture, installing it, going to France and Greece for vacation, and work it didn’t feel like a long wait for all my “things” to finally make it down south!

    I had Miguel create two items for me: (1) bedroom Bookshelf and (2) extra kitchen storage shelf.

    Bedroom Bookshelf
    The first item was a very slim bookshelf.  I wanted something across from my bed that could hold a few picture frames and then store books, knick knacks, CDs and DVDs.  Apartments in Santiago are not large so I needed the bookshelf to be super thin.  I ended up making it 8 inches (20.32 cm) and a little bit shorter in length than the bed frame.  It matches perfectly with the bed frame and I love being able to look at the artwork on top of the bookshelf from my bed..


    The IKEA Hemnes Sofa table in black-brown mixed with the Pottery Barn Chloe Console table were my inspiration pieces.  I loved the slimness of the Chloe table and the lines of the Hemnes table.  With photos of these two pieces, precise measurements and a few quick sketches I got my dream bookshelf.


    Here are two pictures (above and below) of the bookshelf showing the contents + design.  I love how it turned out and how much I can fit on the shelves.

    Kitchen Storage Shelf
    My kitchen is setup so that technically you could fit two stools on each side of the counter.  I opted awhile ago to buy only two stools and on the inner part of the counter use it for storage space (Aidan’s food storage, food and water bowl, garbage can, step stool).  With all of the additional pots and pans arriving from the US I wanted something that would match the wood color of the kitchen and not look like an additional piece of furniture.  I also needed a shelf that didn’t have to be nailed into the wall – I am a renter!  Miguel was great at matching the color exactly – I’ve had many people think it is part of the kitchen (and not an afterthought).


    The shelf in all its glory.  The color matches perfectly and I think its actually pretty cool to showcase off the Le Creuset and KitchenAid Mixer.  I also love how much the shelf looks like it came with the apartment as opposed to being an addition created by the renter.


    Shelf side view – kitchen porn!

    ~

    As always Miguel’s furniture is solid, looks great and is extremely well priced.  Living in Santiago and are dying for some IKEA or modern inspired furniture?  It’s not impossible if you have a great maestro!

  4. Dining in Santiago: Ají Seco (Peruvian Food)

    In terms of Peruvian food in Santiago, Tanta in Parque Arauco has always been my favorite.  I’m particularly fond of their milkshake smoothies but the high price tag you have to pay to dine in Parque Arauco (one of the nicer malls of Santiago) leaves my wallet feeling a little empty.  A few weeks ago Rod convinced me to try a new place – El Ají Seco in the downtown.  There are various locales and the place we went to a few weeks ago I actually would not recommend for the ambiance – (La Leyenda del Ají Seco) unless you enjoy the “eating at a pumping club feel”.

    On Saturday night we went to original locale, El Ají Seco Restaurant 1 on San Antonio and the dinner was wonderful (and cheap!).  The restaurant has a great family feel to is relaxing and comfortable.  Between the two of us we bought a bottle of white wine, agua minera sin gas, appetizer and two main courses all for $26.000 (around $55.00 USD) including tip.

    Pictures below for your enjoyment.

    Octopus Cooked in Olive Oil
    Octopus marinated in lemon and spices accompanied by an olive oil sauce.  
    This was the octopus appetizer we ordered.  I wish that there wasn’t such a heavy sauce on it and instead just lemon juice.  The octopus however was delicious and soft and we ate it up pretty quickly.

    Rice with Seafood
    Rice in spices with seafood, peas and corn kennels.

    This is my go-to Peruvian food dish that I normally order in every restaurant and Ají Seco’s is the best.  They don’t short you with the seafood and give you more than enough and the portions are large – in fact I have a container ready for work tomorrow with leftovers.

    Beef Ají Seco
    Filet of beef marinated and grilled with the chef’s secrets and bathed in a reduction of balsamic vinegar and red wine, accompanied by risotto.

    Rod’s choice this time – he loves his beef like any good Chileno.  I tried a little bit of his risotto which was cooked very well and he said the beef was delicious also.

     

    El Ají Seco Restaurant 1
    San Antonio #530, Santiago
    Reservas (56 – 2) 6388818
    (56 – 2) 6648324
    www.elajiseco.cl

  5. Interior Decorating Geekdom: Amazed by HOMY’s New Product Offerings

    I haven’t been back into HOMY (think designer IKEA) on the 4th floor of Homecenter in Parque Arauco in probably 5-6 months.  I happened to go in today, not figuring much had changed and I was blown away.  While I know this is only a reflection of life in the “barrios altos” I really do feel Chile is pushing itself in terms of bringing in stylish options to the interior decorating spectrum.  The prices at HOMY still aren’t competitive with IKEA but overall it didn’t seem that bad – I saw some of the pretty large picture frames retailing for ~$10 USD which is what I would pay at Target in the US.  A lot of newer furniture and ornaments I saw had a very Pier 1 Imports meets Crate and Barrel meets IKEA feel.  I dig it.

    Here’s some pictures from the store – if you had been their prior I think you can appreciate the large selection of awesome.

    Enjoy!

     

    (To the uninitiated or people who live outside of Chile you may be thinking – Why are you taking photos of a large selection of pretty home products?  While I love living in Chile, it has always felt that there are a small amount of stores that offer great interior decorating products.  It’s great to see stores realize that it helps to have a large variety of offerings to help encourage personal style and taste so that every single apartment I visit doesn’t look/feel the same.) HOMY is definitely doing this and its great (at times) to set foot in a store that makes me forget I live in Chile and feel like I have the same offerings as I would in the US.


    Even though I really don’t need more coffee mugs these were too cute not to buy with the built-in spoon.  I bought two of the smaller ones in red (not pictured are the same style mugs, but twice the size and much taller).


    More picture frames than I’ve ever seen in my life!


    Vases and other pretty colored things.


    Candles galore!


    So many different kind of basket and pillow varieties.


    Art, whiteboards, clocks – so many cool designer finishing touches.


    Light gallery – this picture came out pretty awful but it was actually a really cool setup with a lot of options.


    Pillows!


    Just like IKEA – they now have an as-is section.  Love!

     

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