Category: blogging

Wines I Drank – The Front Yard Edition.

8 Comments

With spring and warmer weather comes our family doing more outside.   Including happy hour every day we can.  Is there really anything nicer than sitting outside on a beautiful day and just soaking it in?  We think not.

It seems we have plenty of friends and neighbors who agree.  From the first official outdoor happy hour of the season until we close it up for the fall, we have a steady stream of drop-ins.  Why yes, it has been much commented that in some ways, we live similarly to how we did in college, only we now have a mortgage, a child and are a bit more responsible.

DSCN1129

She just thinks that this is how people live.  Jam session in the front yard and all. Continue reading →

Something New.

3 Comments

I’m sick of my winter clothes, so I thought I’d make myself something new. And I’m trying out this blogger app on my new iPod touch. All sorts of new things.

4 days and counting….

4 Comments

It’s the Friday before Christmas and in the midst of today’s pre-Christmas meltdown, I didn’t realize I was running out to do last minute errands at lunchtime.  Oh boy.  If I wasn’t heading upstairs to sew one last quick gift, I’d be popping open a bottle of something.

I got some serious Christmas baking on last night, knocking a few items off the to-do list like sugar cookie dough to be baked sometime between now & then in Betty’s kitchen for Santa Claus, Christmas biscotti (cranberry & pistachio) for Pat,  chocolate pretzels for Edie and Rachel’s pumpkin granola.

I’m not completely done yet – there still is no menu for Christmas dinner beyond Edie’s requested brussels sprouts and a yule log for dessert this year. Greens and chocolate cake sound pretty complete to me though.  Nothing is wrapped, but I don’t like to wrap early anyway.  Gives you something to do while you drink Christmas Eve.  And just today I finally got the last of the necessary ingredients to make Grandma’s Fruitcake Cookies, which are a holiday standard.  I know you’re wrinkling your nose at the idea of them and let me tell you – they are awesome.  Graham crackers crumbs, dates, pecans, coconut, maraschino cherries, a can of Eagle brand milk, squish together in mini muffin tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  They are the bomb.

Edie still claims to believe in Santa this year, very likely the last year this will happen.  The older neighborhood boys have been cornered and told to not ruin this for her, as they will not get any treats from my kitchen ever again.  She’s heard kids at school talking and told me she still believed in Santa because she knew there was no way her parents would ever spend that kind of money on her for some of those presents she’s gotten over the years.  Who knew my renowned cheapness would keep her belief in Santa alive and well?

Enough procrastinating for the day.  I’ve got to go get my proverbial Christmas doo-doo in a pile.  There are only 4 more days people!  If you still need more things to help you procrastinate, head over to    Jen’s Holiday Homes Tour if you haven’t already. Cheers all.

The Oatmeal Post.

5 Comments

It seems every blogger in Charlottesville has at least one blog post on the subject of oatmeal.  This one is mine.

Oatmeal has been my go-to winter breakfast as long as I can remember.  It’s evolved from those instant packets that you just add hot water to, to cooking it on the stove in a pot to my current daily microwave version. 

I know, there are so many great ways I should try oatmeal.  I’m sure everyone has one they want me to try and while I’m quite sure they are lovely, my daily oatmeal is yet another one of those habits I have had my entire life and I do not feel the urge to mix up something that still works quite well for me.  That whole idea behind not fixing what’s not broken.  After all, I am the gal who’s worn the same thing since college – black tshirt, demin, boots (or clogs).  I am a creature of certain habits.

I like my oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar.  I eyeball the amounts every morning, a sprinkle of this, a pinch of that, and it tastes the same every day.  Well, except for the day I confused the jar of ground cayenne with the ground cinnamon.

I like quick oats – they cook faster.  Plop them in a bowl with the toppings, add water, and microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir and eat.  I actually have tried variances on this, but I always go back to what’s quick and what works. After all, I was a devoted instant oatmeal gal for the first 20 years of my life.  I want fast and easy in the morning.  I am capable of making other forms of oatmeal – the wee one in our house finds my go-to version boring, so on her behalf, I have mixed it up, getting so jiggy with it, I’ve used fruit butters in the mix.

I found myself without raisins the other morning. Vaguely remembering my mother, not being able to find my preferred raisin cinnamon spice packets once upon a time, handing me an packet that featured dried apples with my preferred spices, telling me to try it, that I should branch out. It was a good substitute, but I prefer to eat my apple every afternoon as a snack, not in my morning oatmeal.  However, there I stood the other morning, with no raisins on hand.  Desperate times.  I reached into the fridge and grabbed an apple.  I chopped it up and threw it in the bowl in lieu of raisins.  I cooked it.  I ate it.  It was a good substitute.  I branched out.  I actually ate it that way two mornings in a row this week. And now that I have raisins on hand again, I might try combining the two.  Talk about getting jiggy with it….

The Boss.

4 Comments
4:00 pm yesterday afternoon the phone rang.  It was Guitar Shop Ryan (not to be confused with several other Ryans we know and love), wondering if I wanted to claim his spare ticket to the evening’s Bruce Springsteen concert.
Having already passed on a free Bruce show once that day (motherhood and schlepping someone to piano lessons took precedence), I saw this as karma for letting motherhood make me a better person without a lot of grumbling. Okay, so maybe motherhood was the excuse I used when really my main reason for skipping the free show downtown that afternoon was because it was also a political rally and I just simply cannot. stomach. any. more. politics. at. all. on either side.  I’m not a huge Bruce fan, but his concerts are legendary.  I did spring for a ticket a few years ago, spending more than I swore I would ever pay (and will ever pay) again for any concert, and it was worth it. And here a free ticket was being offered up.  Hell yeah I’ll take it.

The seats were terrific.  The last time I saw Bruce, we had nosebleed seats, I swear I could touch the roof of the arena we were up so high and they were off to the side, so down low, smack dab in the center, was perfect.  The first time I saw Bruce, I thought it was an amazing show.  This one blew that experience away.  Three solid hours.  And words absolutely escape me at beginning to describe it. 
A Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show isn’t just a concert.  It’s a mystical, spiritual, musical, patriotic and all that is right with the world happening.  It is an experience every music fan should have at least once.  Even if you aren’t a huge Bruce fan, you cannot walk away from that show without an overwhelming amount of respect for the musicians on that stage.  I fail to find the words that adequately convey the energy of last night’s show.  The entire arena singing the opening verse and chorus of “Hungry Heart” (a 45 I still have!), Bruce crowd surfing his way from the platform midway through the floor section back to the stage,  pulling audience members up to dance on stage for “Dancing in the Dark”.   Closing with a kick ass rendition of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”.  Very quite possibly the best concert I’ve been to, which I know is a strong phrase, but I stand by it.  Definitely.
I’m blogging for the C-ville Weekly today, on our adventures in beets. 
And just a reminder, you have one more day to enter the cookbook giveaway. Facebook comments, emails and blog comments are all accepted as entries. 

Tis better to give than receive.

7 Comments
Today has been the day of Becky. 
I heard the mailman come by and when I looked in the box, there was this:
A very fun creatively packaged treat from my friend Lesa.

Just a small, clear plastic box she had re-purposed.  Perfect.

Inside was a new apron pattern, a pickle recipe and a few butterfly and bee trinkets that I can’t wait to make into something – probably for Edie’s room, since she has a bit of a butterfly theme in there.  Thanks Lesa!
A few hours later, a UPS truck pulled up and dropped this off:

A new cookbook I’ve had my eyeball on. Thanks Michele!
I can’t wait to sit down with it.
They say it’s better to give than receive though. 
When I pulled out all my cookbooks this week in the name of biscuit research, I couldn’t for the life of me get them all back in.  Which meant one thing – time to purge.  I thought I’d share them with all of you out there in the world. 
I have 5 books I’m getting rid of.  Instead of sending the entire lot to one person, I thought I’d send 5 books to 5 of you.  Simply leave a comment telling me which cookbooks you’d like – you can choose more than one (and win more than one!).  I know sometimes the Internet can make it tricky to leave comments, so you can also email me.  I’ll leave the giveaway open until October 25.  And then I’ll dump all the names in a hat and pull them. 
All of these are good cookbooks, with at least one recipe that’s a regular part of my repertoire.  But they don’t get used nearly enough to warrant the space they take up.  So, out they go.
First up for grabs:

Breadtime Stories by Susan Jane Cheney.
Paperback.
Bread and things to put on bread.  She’s baked for Moosewood, that legendary vegetarian collective in upstate NY, so there’s lots of whole grain bread recipes.  This cookbook taught me how to make english muffins.  
The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. 
Paperback.
A classic vegetarian cookbook, my enchilada sauce is based on a recipe in here.  
Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin
Paperback.
This cookbook is set up in menu format, easy to use for those who love to have a menu.

The Great Vegetarian Cookbook The Chef’s Secret Recipes by Kathleen DeVanna Fish.
Paperback.
Some very lovely chef recipes, including ones from Emerile Lagasse and Alice Waters.

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Lousiana Kitchen Cookbook.
Hardback.
Cajun AND Creole and the difference explained between the two in this essential cookbook.
Also contains hands down, the best, quite possibly the most decadent oyster stuffing you’ve ever had. 
So, fire away.  Leave me comments, shoot me emails, drop me a line on Facebook and tell me which one of these gems you want before I change my mind and find more room for cookbooks.

Crazy Busy.

2 Comments

There are number of things I want to blog about right now. 
There are also a number of things going on that have me completely distracted.
There are also only so many hours in the day,so many days in the week.
It’s the end of school year, so I only have 3 days of lazing around this house by myself left.  Not that I have alot of those anyway, with a husband who’s office is based out of the same house, but we do have the house to ourselves all day, with no not-so-little-anymore feet in & out all day.  That’s about to change for the next few months.
There are activities galore I’m expected to attend.  Piano recitals, chorus concerts, field day, moving up ceremonies, there are so many end of the year celebrations for this, that and the other I can barely keep them all straight.  I’m organizing the class picnic for the 5th and final year in a row.  
My dear sweet baby girl is off to middle school.  How did that happen?
I finally made it out strawberry picking.  I really need to remember to leave time for that earlier in the season.  I picked 20 pounds, froze some whole for the smoothies all winter, made strawberry butter and a strawberry rhubarb crisp.  Up next, blueberries.

I also helped organize the second Cville Swap this past Sunday, which you can read about here.  I scored some more raspberry bushes, so I’ll definitely have a nice patch come next year. 
Turns out Boots, our corn snake, is a girl.  And she’s laid eggs. 
Stay tuned to see what hatches.
I took some time to organize the recipes I’ve posted over the years and created a page for recipes with a link across the top of this blog.  Some of them are original.  Some of them are just links to other recipes on other blogs and websites.  You’ll have to skim through the whole post to find them, but they are in there.  It’s been asked if I will do the same for my wine columns and I might, I just need to get around to it. I can only do so much procrastinating right now.
There’s lots of other behind the scenes stuff going on as well.  Firming up summer schedules.  Edie’s only doing one week of day camp in addition to three weeks at away camp.  She hasn’t had this much time home with us since she was in preschool.  I’m a little nervous about that. We have our city pool passes, we have some great roadtrips planned to the beach, to the lake and to the beach again.  I’ve got some great projects I’m working on right now that I’m super excited about that will keep June pretty busy for me. 
And the chickens arrive the week of June17.
I guess that means we need to finish the roof of the chicken house.
I’m really looking forward to sleeping in next week and not having to have anyone in bed at a decent hour for the next 10 weeks.  Not that she’s been to bed at a decent hour in a month, but at least I won’t have to pry her out of bed in the morning for awhile….

Send Something Good

4 Comments
It’s time for the big reveal on the “Send Something Good” Project that I first read about over at Kristy’s blog. 
I had Jessica, who said she loved blue & purple and zebra print, among other things.  So when I stumbled upon the blue zebra print tissue paper, I knew I had found the perfect wrapping.
I tucked all sorts of goodies into that sweet little blue basket, including
A kindle envelope I whipped up, out of purple toile with a zebra print lining, so that her kindle has a little more flair when she carries it around.  (I realized I need to make myself one, with a pocket for my glasses for the pool this summer!).  I loaded some of my favorite books onto a disc for her, got her some of my favorite local made chocolates (and some yummy ones they were sampling next to them at Feast! that day that ended up in my basket) and a Starbucks gift card. 
After I dropped my package in the mail, all there was to do was to wait for mine to arrive.  I couldn’t wait to find out who my secret pal was!  Turns out it’s Teagan over at Kyookyoo. 

She made me a paracord survival bracelet with materials and instructions to make more.  I had every intention of doing them with my girl scouts, but well, those girls have tossed the plan for months now, so we never did get around to it. 
Sporks, which you can never have too many of on hand, as we use them for every lunch, picnic and tea party that gets packed and planned around here.  Desk toys, an Amazon gift card and best of all,

Cascarones!  Confetti eggs!

Which I was going to share with my girl scouts, but as rain dampened our outdoor end of the year party last week and I was not cleaning up confetti inside, didn’t happen.  (There is a definite theme there with those girls, isn’t there?).  Edie wants the cascarones for her own and I’ve caught her a few times staring at them, plotting how she’s going to make her own version of them.  Inspiration indeed.
Thanks for the fun box and inspiration that came with it Teagan.

document.write(”);

document.write(”);

Housekeeping Notes and Other Stuff.

4 Comments

I’ve done some housekeeping on here.  I changed the comments settings, taking away word verification and moderation.  There was a stretch in which I was receiving some snarky and rather insulting comments, from someone who wanted to remain anonymous which seemed to have stopped.  I don’t mind snark, but own it, you know what I’m saying?  I’ve realized from commenting on other blogs what a pain the new word verification settings have gotten to be.   Some of you have thought blogger has been eating comments lately, but through the magic of the internet, they’ve shown up and been published.  Well, the ones I know about.

I’ve changed some things around on my side bar too.  I hadn’t updated my blogroll in quite some time, so I added a few new ones. My friends Ryanne, Julia, both of whom are new bloggers and quite entertaining.  I’ve also added Suzicate’s “The Water Witch’s Daughter”, which I find inspiring.   Suzicate, I’d love to go winery hopping with you next time you’re in Nelson.   There are a slew of other blogs I read, so I hope to be better about swapping them out a little more frequently on my sidebar. 

The conversation on Facebook that sprung out of the link I posted to my canning class yesterday led to it being restructured a bit.  Instead of tomatoes and peaches, I’m going to teach canning tomatoes and pickles.  I’m even more excited about this now.  If you’ve paid attention to my posts over the last couple of summers, you’ll know how much I love to pickle things and that I will pickle anything.  I plan on doing bread & butter pickles in the class and I will be sharing some of my other favorite pickle recipes.  There’s a link sign up for the class on the sidebar now too.

I’m pretty sure I’m the last person out there to discover First Aid Kit.  I can’t even take credit for discovering them, my dearest babydaddy heard them, realized I needed it and he made it the tunes I cooked to one day.  I do love that man.  Best Coast has a new album out, that I’ve heard great things about.  I haven’t listened to it thoroughly yet, but I do like what I’ve heard.  Anyone catch “Birth of an Album” on NPR this morning with Neko Case?  Totally made my morning. 

In a year of non-parties, the Oxford Road Block party was last weekend.  I was worried when I wasn’t hand delivered my invite and instead happened to catch a flyer on a telephone pole.  Turns out they didn’t invite anyone, it was all they could do to get the flyers up. At least they had the party though. There was a wonderful ‘mom circle’ that happened that refreshed my spirit that day in a much needed way.  I heard other women that were there say the same thing.  Maybe we need to do those things more often ladies.  D- I’m totally serious about Wine Thursdays, just hollar.  Also, I want that recipe please.

The best part of the evening though may have been watching Edie give the Fein boys a firehouse bath in the driveway.  All is always right with the world when there are boys who understand she holds the hose and stays dry while they get soaked.  I blame all older neighborhood boys who catered to her so much in her toddler years that she now expects all boys to do exactly what she tells them to do.  The male portion of humanity has no idea what they have wrought upon themselves.