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Our Take On Fall

Fall and its earthy and warm colors are the source of inspiration of sisterMAG issue No. 59! In a big sisterMAG feature we present you how we see fall. Find recipe ideas, inspiration for table decorations and flower combinations from our favorite florist BOTANICART, quick DIY ideas and much more!

Our Take On Fall

Recipes, Floral School, Table Decoration & Entertaining

Every fall we experience the phenomenon of how we suddenly thirst for cookies, beige tones and cozy Netflix series tips. October brought us colorful leaves and icy temperatures and since we cannot plan any major trips to warmer climates this year, we make the most of it and set ourselves up at home with cookies, grape leaves and pumpkin pie. On the following pages everything revolves around the »leaf«. We recommend a large bouquet of brightly coloured leaves, because it will definitely lighten up your mood!

»Pumpkin Pie with leaves«

Ingredients: 

  • 300 g all purpose flour
  • 46 g vegetable shortening
  • 140 g unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 80-150ml cold water
  • 20cm Pie tin 1 hokkaido pumpkin (plus olive oil, a star anise, a few cloves, and half of a cinnamon stick for baking)
  • 400g Sweetened Condensed Milk
  • 2 large eggs, plus one for eggwashing
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Whisk together the salt and flour and cut in the shortening and butter- you’re looking for the flour mix to appear like »fat peas in sand«.
  2. Add the 80 ml cold water and mix with your hands. Continue adding, up to 150 ml cold water total until the dough just comes together. Form two disks and chill the dough while you bring together the pie filling.
  3. Cut the hokkaido pumpkin in half, deseed and dress with a little olive oil, a star anise, a few cloves, and half of a cinnamon stick in each cavity. Roast for 45 minutes until softened and lightly caramelized.
  4. Scoop 450g of the pumpkin (Eat the rest on its own- chefs treat!) and mash. Whisk in the remaining ingredients.
  5. Roll half the dough to 3-4mm thick. And line the pie crust, crimping the rim as you like.

DOWNLOAD HERE

»Decorated Molasses Snap Cookies«

Ingredients: 

  • 145 g unsalted butter, softened
  • 150 g white sugar
  • 1 packet vanilla sugar
  • 210 g unsulphured molasses
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 450 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground clove
  • 2 cups royal icing or decorating icing of your choice

Steps: 

  1. Cream together the butter, sugars and molasses with a hand mixer until lightened and well combined. Beat in the egg.
  2. Whisk the dry ingredients together and fold them into the wet ingredients. Chill for 20 minutes before rolling out.
  3. Roll to about 6 mm thick and cut into pretty fall shapes.
  4. Decorate with royal icing as desired.

DOWNLOAD HERE

»Lamp Dolmades« 

Ingredients:

  • 300 g rice
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 500 g ground lamb
  • 100 g walnuts
  • 160 g golden raisins
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 jar of grape leaves
  • 200 g of diced tomato
  • 0.5 l broth of your choice
  • Serve with feta cheese
  • Olive oil, lemons, salt and pepper

Steps:

  1. Small dice the onion and mince the garlic and sweat in ⅓ of the olive oil. Add the ground lamb and cook until it begins to brown.
  2. Add in the rice with the sumac and oregano and toast. Remove from heat.
  3. Roll the rice up, about a tablespoon and a half at a time in the grape leavesyou roll them like burritos and place them seam side down in a casserolepack them in kind of tight so that they maintain their shape in cooking.
  4. Pour the diced tomato and the broth over the grape leaves and cover with some leftover whole leaves. Make sure the grape leaves are covered in liquid, otherwise the rice on top will come out crunchy.
  5. Cook in the oven at 180 °C for 45 minutes. Dress with the rest of the olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
  6. Serve them with chili flakes, and if desired feta cheese.

DOWNLOAD HERE

A floral fall bliss – Table of the Month

After preparing the whole meal for a fall feast, we decorated a worthy fall table full of orange goodness and with a special surprise hanging over the dining table. As DIY nerds we prepared a lot of ideas that you can make yourself for such a fall table beginning with little placecard boxes with beautiful illustrations by our own Ezbah Ali, continuing with a huge leaf wreath that you can make out of foliage and last but not least different ideas for floral bouquets that our florist Hürriyet Bulan prepared for you. You can find the DIY tutorials at the end of this feature. And as for the table, we‘ve curated a lot of links and decoration ideas that you can buy right now to brighten the mood during gloomy October and November days.

A hanging centerpiece 

Okay, we know that you might not create this huge flower installation for your living room. But take it as inspiration. You can recreate a smaller version for your home. The base is simply a piece of chicken wire that is formed with clippers and by hand (don‘t forget to wear sturdy gloves for that job). Below you can see the creation process in a little timelapse:

For our table decoration we asked florist Hürriyet Bulan for help. Her idea: a lush fall arrangement floats over the table and also flows down on one edge of the tablecloth. The flower arrangements on the table itself are very delicate: individual strands of grass and dahlias are tucked in so-called ikebana »Flower Frogs«. The small round pin cushion are hidden by apples, leaves and pinecones. The candlesticks are handmade by our grandpa, all other props can be found in the credits below:

01 Vase – Zara Home | 02 Small candle plates in Gold – BOHEI Shop Kreuzberg/Berlin | 03 Flower Frog for flower arrangements – via japanischeprodukte.de | 04 Cutlery – Zara Home | 05 Tablecloth – via Amazon | 06 Salt shaker – Zara Home | 07 napkins – H&M Home | 08 Main plate – iitalia | 09 Smaller plate – made.com

Table of the Month 

Box DIY

Our place cards do not only show guests their place at the table, they are also cute boxes for small gifts like our gingerbread molasse cookies. Illustrator Ezbah Ali prepared seven different fall leaves for you:

How to

1. Download the template from sister-mag.com

2. Print illustrations on sturdy paper and cut to 8×8 inches / 20x20cm

3. Trace the template for the box folding, prepare all fold lines and incisions

4. Write names on box side with calligraphy pen

5. Fold boxes

Tip: We used the memory keepers Gift Box Punch Board to make these boxes. The tool can be used to produce boxes in all different sizes. It is available via amazon (~23€)

BOTANICART Floral School

Wreath DIY

A large wreath is not only during Christmas time a real eye-catcher. It can embellish the home at any time of the year. In our case, Hürriyet used a lot of fall leaves as well as dried hydrangeas and hanging amaranthus.

See in the video below how @botanicart works and the XXL wreath is created.

What you need:

• Large wire ring, e.g. via amazon

• Plants, e.g. foliage, dried hydrangeas, amaranthus and everything that dries very well

• Floral wire & wire scissors

• Planting scissors

Bouquet DIY

Whether huge & luxurious or small & graceful. We wanted to bring some colour in our fall home with these flower arrangements. And that‘s what we prepared for you: From a large bouquet that would look great in the entrance area of a villa to an eye-catcher vase with a few delicate flowers. Which of these three arrangements would you choose for your home?

What you need:

• Beautiful vases: old or new – we‘ve selected some suitable ones for you

• Flowers from your trusted florist

• Wire mesh/chicken wire, which is put into the vase as a ball so that the stems hold better (much more sustainable than flower foam)

• Plant scissors to trim any stems and cut off excess leaves

PLAY TIMELAPSE

The flowers

• Sunflowers

• Leaves (these can already be coloured, we used green leaves here)

PLAY TIMELAPSE

The flowers

• Dahlia

• Ilex in orange

PLAY TIMELAPSE

The flowers

• Chocolate cosmos in a dark red