Moving Out

Hi friends! I'm moving. Actually, I already moved. Come and see me (and update your RSS feeds, too)!

xo!

Today's Special

Hee hee hee!!! This makes me so excited. When I first got hired as the cook at the sorority house, I immediately had this vision of having a big chalkboard on which to write the nightly menu, like a swanky cafe or something. I've also had a can of chalkboard spray paint that's been sitting around, unused, for like three years. At least.


The board I finally bought is not very big, but it can sit on the buffet table without being ostentatious. I just sanded it, gave it two coats of chalkboard paint, and rubbed the entire surface with chalk a few times.


Check out Martha's awesome chalkboard paint ideas here. R and I definitely want to give the bottom half of the kitchen wall (in our future permanent home, that is) the chalkboard treatment.

Okay. It is time to go make dinner, and L was supposed to be sleeping for the last 20 minutes, but instead, she was screaming. That should make dinner prep a breeze. Wish me luck!

Grocery Bags I Will (Hopefully) Remember to Use

I'm working on a theory that goes like this: Pretty things are not essential to sustain life, but they do make it much more enjoyable. Lately, I've been applying this theory to one of life's definite non-essentials: grocery bags.

For a while, I was using bags made from old t-shirts. They are serviceable, but not pretty, and they also tend to confuse grocery store checkers, who usually tilt their heads questioningly when they see what appears to be a pile of rags coming down the conveyor belt. I am also really bad at remembering to put them in the car when I go shopping, and if I do remember to put them in the car, I forget to bring them in the store.


So! Last weekend, on our way to the State Fair, we made a pit stop in Bountiful to visit Kim's mom, a.k.a. Mama Muffin, who can frequently be found at the heavenly Quilter's Haven. I picked up some luscious Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry, and Heather Bailey prints (meanwhile, R and L wandered the shop with great unease, but were such good sports!). Since then, I have been a sewing FOOL.


I made these bags with Spool's free Grocery Tote pattern. It is so easy, and they would make great gifts! The last bag comes from the scraps left over from my apron project. I wanted that bag to be a little more special, so I added some interior pockets (which took me blasted forever to figure out), thereby upgrading the bag from a grocery tote to a small-ish diaper bag. Wahoo!


R and I recently decided that our apartment could use a little sprucing up. We've lived here for a year and will most likely be here for another 6-9 months, so we might as well make it look nice. More projects coming down the pipe!

Breakfast and Singing

I love slow mornings -- the kind where you say things like, "Would you want some waffles?" or "How about some tea?" and where you think to step outside for a few flowers from the yard, just because they would look pretty on the kitchen table, even if some of them might be weeds.


Anyway, we did not have waffles on Friday morning, but we did have Pop-Up Pancakes, a.k.a. the easiest thing ever, and way tasty. No special ingredients, either -- just flour, eggs, milk, butter, and salt.

Okay, so about the choir! We've only had three rehearsals, but truly, it has already been one of the most wonderful and exciting musical experiences of my life. We already knew that Craig Jessop is a genius, but dudes, The Man Is A Genius. As a conductor, his style is impassioned yet efficient, loving but with high expectations, and so clinically precise. He makes you want to give him the very best you can. He is an amazing teacher -- and really, you'd have to be in order to manage 275 singers at once (the size of the choir, at last count).

This semester, the choir is performing a Veteran's Day concert as well as the Mozart Requiem (we will perform the latter with the USU orchestra). The Veteran's Day concert will feature lots of patriotic pieces, including an unpublished arrangement of "God of our Fathers" by Mack Wilberg (nyah, nyah!). 

It is so fun and invigorating to be singing in a really great choir again. The only thing that makes me sad is that I know we'll be gone in another year -- so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

State Fair

Tub Dreams

In addition to all the jumble and tangle of new-school-year craziness, R has a new work schedule: Thursdays and Fridays, 4 or 7 pm until 2:30 am. Ouch. For both of us. He is such a trooper, though; I’ve never known anyone who works so hard, yet has the innate ability to keep everything in such proper balance.


Last night was the first night of the new schedule, and I had myself slated for a whole lotta sewing, but when it came right down to it, I just didn’t want to. Instead, I drew up a mind-numbingly hot bath with my favorite lavender bath stuff, lit candles (I haven’t done that for years), and read Francis Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun (the most wonderful piece of armchair traveling) by candlelight while munching on some day-old ciabatta, rich aged gouda, and a perfect, honey-sweet nectarine.

The soak lasted a generous, beautiful hour – and the water was still warm at the end. It was so quiet; nothing but the crickets, the occasional car, and muffled bumps and conversation from the other apartments. Soothing.


I have a daydream, and it goes like this: Every summer, R and I pick a new place to explore and settle in for a few months – Normandy, the Swiss Alps, Tuscany, a quiet Norweigian fjord – and in the winter, we amble back to some funky and picturesque town on the California coast – Berkeley or Carmel, maybe. And every Sunday, R asks me, “Which night would you like to eat at Chez Panisse, my dear?”

Happy Things...

Tyler Florence's pulled pork sandwich recipe minus the mustard sauce, a.k.a. dinner tonight (I used normal bottled BBQ sauce). I am vaguely considering sneaking back into the sorority house for a midnight snack of...a pulled pork sandwich.

The babe is starting to sign a teensy bit more. In addition to "milk," which has been her all-purpose sign for many moons, she now also does "nap" and her own version of "all done," which involves her throwing her cup off of her high chair and putting her left hand over the left side of her face. Then today, I caught her looking at a picture of a dog in a book and doing the sign for "dog"!!! It was so exciting.


I'm singing again! It's been a looooong time and it took a fair amount of courage to go through with the audition, but I MADE IT and I'm totally stoked to be singing for none other than Craig Jessop (formerly of the MoTab) in the new American Festival Chorus! The choir is huge and sounds great already, and Jessop is honestly a genius. More on that later!

More than anything, the big happy thing is that life is good. God is good. I don't wax religious too often on here, but if there's one thing I know, it's just that -- that He knows us and loves us. Honestly.

Anthem to Summer

Cooking at the sorority house has been a great gig thus far, but there is one gigantic drawback: no leftovers. And in our house, that's tantamount to a cardinal sin.


So today, my big plan was to make a huge casserole that would give R and I lunch at least through Wednesday. But dudes, I don't think this bad motha' is going to make it past lunchtime tomorrow.


I've been wanting to make this casserole for a couple of years now, but I only seem to come across the recipe in the dead of winter -- not the best time for a dish featuring distinctly summertime produce. But today, I made it, and our tastebuds sang and danced to the tune of the Macarena. Okay, not really.


The casserole consists of penne pasta, pan-seared summer squash, sweet little cherry tomatoes, and copious amounts of basil and parsley, all bound together with a silky yet light garlicky cream sauce and topped with crispy bread crumbs. Honestly? You must make this essence-of-summer dish before summer disappears altogether.


See? Even L thinks so.



Baked Penne with Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Basil
From Cook's Illustrated: Cover and Bake

Topping
4 slices sandwich bread, torn into quarters
2 T butter, melted

Filling
1 pound zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 pound yellow summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
Kosher salt
3/4 lb penne
4 T olive oil
6 medium shallots, minced
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c flour
2 1/2 c chicken broth
1 1/2 c cream
2 oz Parmesan, grated (about 1 c)
3/4 c chopped fresh basil
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
Pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

1. Process the bread and butter in a food processor until coarsely ground; set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degree. Toss the squashes with 2 T kosher salt and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; stir in 2 T kosher salt and the pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain; return to the pot and toss with 1 T of the oil. Set aside.

3. Blot the squash dry with paper towels. Heat 1 T oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until smoking. Add half the squash and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and slightly charred, 5-7 minutes. Add the squash to the pasta and repeat with the other half of the squash.

4. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the now-empty skillet. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add flour and cook, stirring, until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in broth and cream; simmer and cook, whisking often, until lightly thickened, 2-3 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan, basil, and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Add the sauce and tomatoes to the pasta and squash. Stir to combine, then pour into a 9x13 baking dish and sprinkle with the bread crumb topping. Bake until topping is lightly browned and the sauce is bubbling, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

Food for My Little Yipiyuk

R and I like to refer to L as "my little yipiyuk" in reference to the Shel Silverstein poem (really, you must listen to his performance if you never have) -- in an affectionate way, of course. And when she started eating solids, I was totally gung-ho about making all her baby food myself: fresh, seasonal, and local where possible. That lasted for about six months, at which point I burned out.


Last week, though, at the Gardener's Market, I met the lady behind Logan's own First Foods. She makes baby food from locally grown and organic foods and freezes them in glass jars. I bought a few, and they were so delicious that I wanted to eat them myself (I can't say the same for anything you can buy at the store)! L was also way more willing to eat her veggies.


So, while it probably wasn't her intent, she got me excited about making my own baby food again. I hauled home a ton of fruits and veggies from the market today and have so far made peach-carrot and potato-squash-corn blends. I still have chard, spinach, more potatoes, some pears, more squash, and peaches to play with.


Like a lot of other things, I always forget how easy it is to make baby food: chop, steam, puree, and freeze. That's it. But in the event of a memory lapse, First Foods is going to be available at Sweet Peas this winter. Hooray!


And now for my little yipiyuk in action:

Brigham City Peach Pie

This might be my favorite part of summer: the nights and mornings get just chilly enough for tea and slippers, the afternoons turn golden, the students head back up the hill to school, and the peaches are ON! When we got our first bag of peaches this year, R and I stood over the sink, letting the juices fall from our chins, and we looked at each other, nodded, and said, "Yup. It's that time of year again."


I made four peach pies today (four!) for the sorority girls. 32 slices, 25 girls...hmm, what to do, what to do...


It's definitely time to stop hating on the pre-fab pie crusts. The hardest and most time-consuming part of piemaking for most people (that includes me) is the crust, and while you can't beat homemade, daaaaang, Pillsbury comes kinda close.


Brigham City Peach Pie
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Recipe

1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts
6-7 medium, ripe peaches
1 T lemon juice
1 c plus 1 T sugar
Pinch each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt
5 T Minute tapioca, ground for a minute in a food processor

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl filled with with cold water and ice cubes. Score a small X on the bottom of each peach. Blanch and shock the peaches by boiling them for 1 minute, then plunging them into the cold water bath for 1 minute. Peel the peaches and cut them into 1/2-inch slices.

2. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Line a pie plate with one of the pie crusts. Toss the peaches with the lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, spices, salt, and tapioca in a medium bowl. Turn the peaches into the pie crust and top with the remaining pie crust; crimp edges. Brush 1 T water over the top and sprinkle with the remaining 1 T sugar.

3. Lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake until the top begins to brown, 25-30 minutes. Rotate the pie and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees; continue baking until the crust is deep golden brown, 25-30 minutes more. Cool the pie on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before serving.

Stitch Geekery

If I had kids in school, or if I needed to pack a lunch every day for myself, I would definitely need to make these:


Kits are available from Spool. Tack it up on the list for "someday"!

Big, Hairy Men and Other Stories

Kim and I love our men, and this is why: they are big, hairy, and loud. We especially love them when they get together because they get to drink mate, go bezerk on the Wii, and talk politics together -- and it makes them so happy. (Smiley face!)


For Labor Day, R, L, and I visited Kim and Ben in SLC. We took a field trip to Liberty Heights Fresh for some schmancy cheese (Humboldt Fog -- we all sat around moaning as we ate it), bread, and sodas. Then Kim cooked us some tasty chili and cornbread, we played Ticket to Ride, and yes, the Wii.


Meanwhile, L chased/poked/pulled/ran away from Kim and Ben's two dogs, Tally and Sir Reginald (Reggie for short). Paired with constant munchies supplied by mom and dad, L was entertained and happy for a record SIX HOURS before we had to pack up and go home.


Thanks for a great Labor Day, you two!