Deviled Eggies

Made deviled eggs for the first time to take to a New Year's Eve party tonight. Used a recipe from a new tapas cookbook that my Mom gave me for Christmas. Made up my own little recipe for the second batch. Peeling boiled eggs is not easy! But after two dozen I think my technique is improved. Will provide recipes if anyone is interested.


Boiling the eggies.


Rolled anchoives and capers for one recipe.


Draining and cooling.


With anchovies, manchego, olives and lemon.


Traditional style with parsley pulled from the garden.

Secretary

We purchased another vintage, mid-century piece of furniture last week from a shop out of Chicago where we've had a lot of luck. The owner, Cintia, dropped this gem off before we left for Christmas travels, but we've only now had time to get it situated.

Our second bedroom serves as a little study/library/barely used TV room. We had a hugely tall IKEA secretary that I liked, but it was just too imposing for the space. Having something half its size really opens up the room.


It's solid teak in two separate pieces. Very sturdy and in good condition. The lighting in this room is strange, but you get the general idea from the picture.


The front opens up and has three perfect little drawers with original hardware.

I'm adverse to sharing the shop info because it's been so good to us and is fairly reasonable. But, if you ask nicely and you truly like mid-century furniture, I may tell you. Wink.

Preparing for the Party

We spent the day getting ready for my small birthday shindig we're hosting tomorrow. Cleaning, organizing, making pizza dough, shopping.


I did some significant liquor cabinet restocking or shall I say, building, which included a special treat for Ry: ingredients for Sazeracs and one for me: cocktail spears! Maraschino cherries here I come.


Beer, check. Champagne punch supplies, check. Soda, check. Enough homemade pizza dough for ten pizzas, check.


This strange little Germany beauty is a birthday gift from our friends Andy and Cindy. It's a honey liqueur with a names that translates to "bear hunter". Check out the freaky looking bear on the label! Andy stopped by for a nice little visit this afternoon, since they can't make the party :(

Ladies Day

I had a lovely afternoon with my mom, sister and aunt that included lunch, a pedicure and much talk. I'm not normally a big spa service person, but I had a wonderful time getting my toesies done. Thanks Mom! Ry says they look like bowling balls. Must be the purple glitter!

New Additions

I don't know if it's the lack of light or what, but I haven't felt much like writing and I have been cranky and stressed leading up to these impending holidays...and...my thirtieth birthday. All I can do at this point is post pics, hopefully soon I will be out of my funk. Or maybe I just need to get one of those winter happy lights.

There are a few new additions to our household this week. One is a lovely new piece of vintage furniture. Once we get it situated, I will definitely post pics. Merry Christmas to us on that purchase!

The others:

An early birthday present.




Lovely new hand embroidered dish towels from my boss.

A big ol' plant.


I offered to inherit a plant from some friends months and months ago when they brought it inside for winter. Apparently I failed to notice how absolutely HUGE it is. I think I'll need to get out a machete and give it a hair cut.

And lastly, all the new additions for other peoples' homes.

Christmas Tree

My Mom's 60th Birthday

Making Martha Stewart-style decorations.


Tissue paper madness.


The beginnings of creme brulee.


Water bath for setting the creme.


Finished product before the blow torch.


Pots de creme inspiration. Really, we just needed an excuse to buy more ramekins.


Finished product before the whipped cream.


Decorations.


Pink and purple confetti table.


Special sparkly birthday hat.


Baby birthday girl.


Greta, Mom and me.


Lighting the candles.


Pretty glow.

Sunday Afternoon Roast Beef & Garlic Mash

Here is a little photo essay of our Sunday afternoon meal. It's obviously a heart attack waiting to happen. Since we haven't had a pot roast in four years, I decided it was okay. So, yeah, we'll stick to that four year plan.

Cat Hospital

Our plans to travel up North to visit Ry's family this weekend were thwarted on Friday when our kitty became so ill we had to take him to the animal hospital. Call me naive, but I didn't even know such a thing existed. It does exist and it is very expensive!

Late Wednesday night after we had Courtney over for dinner, Silvio became lethargic and started vomiting uncontrollably. Poor little guy stayed up all night puking and trying to go number two until he had nothing left in him. I checked on him several times during the night and he was just downstairs trying to take care of business in his litter box. The next day he sat around in a sick lump all day and refused to eat.

We took him to our normal vet who examined him, ran blood tests and gave him fluids. Since there are no take-home kitty IVs, cats get subcutaneous fluids which is a fancy way of saying a big ball of fluid was shot into his abdomen. That night Silvio still refused to eat and spent his time in a lump either on a piece of egg crate in the basement or the plastic bag rug in the kitchen. He barely had his eyes open and wouldn't, probably couldn't, do anything due to his fever.

Friday morning the vet called me with the results of the blood tests and said Silvio's liver numbers were very high. He told me we had to take him to the animal hospital for an ultra sound ASAP.

We took him to the hospital in the early afternoon. He had his belly shaved for the ultrasound and was diagnosed with pancreatitis (aka super swollen pancreas) and anorexia. Seriously, cat anorexia. I guess in the technical sense in relation to cats it just means, "cat that's not eating", but cat anorexia just sounds like a funny concept to me.

They recommended he stay overnight but the price tag was so high ($1200!!!!) Since there was an intermediate step before cat hospitalization, we tried it. He got an anti-nausea shot, fluids and we had to force feed him liquid "recovery" food through a syringe for three days.

Needless to say, force feeding a cat is not an easy task. It borders on ridiculous, especially when he normally only nibbles at food. He's not a mow-down kind of feline. First we tried wrapping him up in a blanket as they suggested, but that proved more struggle than useful. It's definitely a two person operation and we got it down after the first day. He didn't like it at all but he complied and is slowly getting better.

Today we didn't force feed him at all and he choose to eat the liquid food and some of his normal food on his own. He's doing some of his normal things and has come up out of his "cat infirmary" (aka the basement) to spend time with us. He's not 100% by any means, but just today he meowed to be let into the linen closet where he chilled, drank water from the bathroom sink and made an unsuccessful attempt to jump to the top of our stacking washer and dryer.

I never thought I'd spend so much money on a cat or go to such lengths to ensure he eats, even when he doesn't want to. What can I say, I love the little bugger! I'm so thankful that he's on the road to recovery.

Spaghetti al Limone

Super simple and satisfying Cook's Illustrated recipe.

If you want a tangy, slightly creamy dinner in 15 minutes this is it:

table salt
1 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced
1/4 heavy cream
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup juice (approximately three lemons)*
1 ounce Parmesan cheese (we sub Pecorino)
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh shredded basil leaves

* My very important side note here is that if you are not going to use real lemons don't even attempt to make this. It's crucial for taste. Also, this recipe is best in winter time when you can get lemons in season.

Boil pasta with one t salt. Cook until al dente. Set aside. Reserve 1 and 3/4 cups pasta water. Set pasta aside.

Heat 1 t of oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallot and 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cook until shallot is softened. Whisk in 1 and 1/2 cups reserved pasta water and cream into pot. Bring to a simmer and cook two minutes. Remove from heat, stir in pasta until coated. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, cheese and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Cover and let stand 2 minutes, stirring periodically. Add additional reserved pasta water if needed to adjust consistency (you don't want it to be too dry). Stir in basil and add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with some additional freshly shredded cheese.

And...voila! The easiest, nummiest dinner you ever did put in your belly.

We Eat Like Kings

Tonight we invited my college friend Courtney over for dinner. We have rarely invited people over to our house in the past year. Mostly because it's felt like chaos and it made me anxious. However, this dinner was easy, joyful and delicious. It was a veritable feast of entirely homemade vegetarian goodness!

It also reminded me of the fulfilling nature of simple, homegrown hospitality. Forget all this hanging out in bars business; the dinner table is the place to be!

Unfortunately there are no pics of the meal because I've been too lazy to buy batteries for my camera. Soon enough, soon enough.

Here is the menu from our totally homemade meal fit for kings:

First course -
Romaine salad with apples, grape tomatoes, almonds, Pecorino and poppy seed vinaigrette (Courtney)

Main course -
Southern-style black eyed pea, collard green and brown rice soup made with fresh veggie stock (Megan)

Dessert -
Blueberry buckle - a simple butter cake - with vanilla bean frozen custard (Ryan)

Rows of Neat & Tidy Spices

After leaving my job for a less stressful one and more time at home, I'm beginning to realize just how many things I've been neglecting. From self-care to home maintenance to cleaning, I've been saying manana to all of it for a couple of years now.

I believe that it's important to take care of even the simplest of our possessions so that we use them thoughtfully and reduce waste. It's not always easy to put this value into practice in daily life because, frankly, it's not glamorous and isn't always fun.

But we are trying to turn our patterns around bit by bit, mostly by cooking more at home, having a mini weekly conference to plan for the week and creating a chore list. These might seem like "duh" kind of things, but I'm not in a regular habit of taking care of the details of my life.

I decided to clean the fridge and organize the pantry this past weekend while listening to the Ueck cover a little Brewer play-off action. I disposed of ten jars of half-used, spoiled condiments and dug through layers of disorganized, flour-covered-junk in the pantry to see what we really had. These tasks took a damn long time and illustrated just how much we have and waste on a frequent basis.

I was amazed at how much wholesome real food we had in our pantry, especially after so many nights of looking in and saying "we don't have much, so let's just go out." Funny how tidying this small closet brought me a measure of peacefulness.


Rows of grains, legumes and other nummy whole foods.


Good thing we have so many empty jars because when you buy turmeric from the Indian store you are in for a commitment. But it's pretty to look at, so it's alright.


And since I've turned into some kind of totally psychotic cat lady, it's hard to resist a new pic of the feline. Plastic bag rug - a gift from my boss' 93-year-old mother. What a perfect combination of Silvio's two favorite things: rugs and plastic bags.

Big Leaf

Tonight when returning home from my bro-in-law Jon's birthday celebration I found the biggest maple leaf I've ever seen. Where in the heck did this thing come from?

For My Life and Simplicity's Sake

Today was my last day at work. I will be starting a new job on Monday. I've stepped off my intended career trajectory without understanding what it will mean for my future, which is a very challenging thing for me. Knowing I'm on a path forward, moving toward something definite and being dutiful to what I think I "should" be, have always been great comforts to me. Comfort in the sense that you believe you can see what's ahead clearly, which is of course, the illusion of control.

At the same time these "comforts" have also been so restrictive that I couldn't step off the path without severe anxiety. The irony is that I've put myself through hell trying not to stray from what I was "supposed" to do, which in turn caused the most extreme internal discord I have ever experienced. So much so, that it took a severe toll on my mental and physical health.

I've spent the last year feeling like a square peg in a round hole. No matter how much I wanted to do good or help people or persevere, I knew in my heart I could not continue. This was sad and a struggle to me, because under other circumstances, it might have been the right job for me. What I can say calmly now and with certainty is that it wasn't the right place and time for me. That's not something I can control or decide. That just is.

So, I found a new job and made the choice to take it for my life and for simplicity's sake. I need to be well. I need to find balance. I am looking forward to building my sense of self and living richly outside work.

That being said, it was hard for me to leave today. I cried when I had to move my boxes out of my office. I didn't expect that. I guess it shows my dedication and sense of duty, even when continuing to do something meant hurt.

I've learned a lot in a short time and for that I am appreciative. Right now I'm giving myself the freedom to not know what's next, down the road, or forever. I'm going to focus on being rather than doing.

Garden Fresh Tomatoes

We haven't done so well at nurturing our garden veggies this summer. I think we have learned things in the process that will assist us in making better choices next year all the way from seed to table. Tonight we enjoyed California BLTs made with a big, bright-red heirloom tomato. It was juicy, tangy, spicy, earthy all at once.

I Can't Believe I Live Here!

So, wow! Over the past year we have been living in a house with an essentially uninhabitable living room. It was the only room in the house we didn't paint justifying it by saying, "oh, we don't want to paint until we know what our furniture will be so it can all work together."

Then we started slowing amassing some vintage furniture pieces, but nothing you could sit on. After nearly a year we took a leap and bought an awesome mid-century couch. When we got it home it turns out it was less than awesome because it smelled and Silvio thought it was the biggest scratching post ever. While he slowly destroyed it, we took our time deciding whether we'd put it on the curb or reupholster it. Turns out upholstery fabric is super expensive and by the time we decided we'd be willing to sell it, it was not salable due to damage.

Then for a while, it was "well, we don't want to spend money on new furniture because it's soooo expensive and we are still afraid it will get damaged by the feline." Funny how we arrange our whole lives around this little being and he doesn't even speak back to us. One weekend, without much fan fare, we just drove down to Macy's in Schaumburg, IL and bought a new leather couch and two arm chairs. I will never look back!

Two lessons learned.

Lesson #1: Furniture that you can sit on is important! It doesn't matter if you have a huge beautiful living room if you never use it because you have nothing to sit on. Also, if you have nothing to sit on it's hard to invite friends and family over because sitting at the kitchen table will only do for so long.

Lesson #2: Even if furniture seems relatively expensive, and I'm at peace with what we paid, it is worth it! You can't live your whole life sitting on the floor, unless you're camping (smile)!

Before the furniture arrived we painted a color I've had on a swatch in the cabinet for five months. Purple, baby!

We still have to finish trim on the baseboards and windows and rehang most of our art, but we're almost there. Without further ado, our new and improved living room. I can't believe I live here! I just love it.