It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas (2011 Edition)

I know I owe details on our first Thanksgiving in the new house...I'm going to recap that later in the weekend. But I couldn't help sharing a few pics of our new house all Christmas-y.

We, of course, went with a real tree again this year (another balsam fir, but this year's is a bit taller and a bit wider).

And from another angle....

But we also added some outdoor decorations into the mix! Check out my shiny new wreath (artificial so it will be a staple holiday decoration for years to come) and fun lit trees (courtesy of my parents' basement):

We also have some lit garland across the railing of our roof top terrace (I don't have a good picture of that yet).

I love Christmas decorations! And they've definitely been a bright spot in an otherwise long and dreary week.

Thanksgiving: Menu and Prep

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know what you are going to say-- it's been awhile. I could type 200 words on why I haven't been posting much lately but I won't. Let's just let bygones be bygones and get on with the good stuff. Sound good?

Because tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

TOMORROW IS THANKSGIVING!

How did that happen?

Y'all know how much I love Thanksgiving-- it is my favorite holiday. And this year I am hosting for the first time! I've been dreaming of this day for awhile now...when I would be able to plan my menu, cook the meal, and enjoy time with family in my own house.

In my mind, I thought this would be a leisurely process that I would begin in early October as the holiday food magazines arrived (you'll be happy to know I did not buy a single one this year-- only read the ones I already subscribe to!), that I would have so many things prepped the weekend before that it would be a breeze to get everything together in time for Thanksgiving Dinner.

In reality, I didn't even put my menu together until last weekend and only because I knew I needed to go to the grocery store before all the turkeys were gone. Sigh. At least I had enough foresight to request today off of work well in advance! In order to help me get organized, I've put together the following plan for getting everything done in time for tomorrow...but first my menu.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011
Roasted turkey with herb butter
Cornbread dressing (which my mom will be bringing)
Mashed potatoes (which my mother-in-law will be bringing)
Gravy
Onion pudding
Carmelized brussel sprouts with butternut squash and bacon
Cranberry-apple salad (which my mom will be bringing)
Sweet potato biscuits
Parker house rolls
Apple-brandy cheesecake (which my mother-in-law will be bringing)
Sweet potato pie (from the awesome Linvilla Orchards in PA--brought by my mom)

And here's the game plan:

Today:
1. Clean the house
2. Prep dough for the parker house rolls (yep-- I'm doing it from scratch!)
3. Get my haircut (what...it's impossible to get Saturday appointments when you don't remember to call ahead more than a few days in advance! I gotta take advantage of not working when I can)
4. Prep biscuit dough
5. Finish getting roll dough together and bake rolls and biscuits
6. Make compound herb butter for turkey
7. Blanch brussel sprouts and butternut squash for tomorrow
8. Make onion pudding (assuming I have room in the fridge to keep until tomorrow--otherwise make tomorrow morning when I pull the turkey out)
9. Wash and iron table cloth
10. Make sure china (which has been sitting in my china cabinet since we got married two years ago) is clean.
11. Set the table

Tomorrow:
1. Cook frozen quiche which I will be serving to my parents and grandmother when they arrive for lunch.
2. Cook onion pudding and cornbread dressing and wrap in foil.
3. Prep appetizers/afternoon snacks (baked brie and store-bought spinach dip)
4. Prep turkey and put in oven.
5. While turkey is resting, reheat sides in oven, warm bread, cook brussel sprouts, and heat gravy.
6. Carve turkey and get everything out
7. Eat!

Stay tuned for the details :)

Halloween (part 2)

Normally I don't get super excited about Halloween, but this year-- with a house and front stoop on which to display a jack o' lantern-- I found myself getting a bit more in to the spirit than usual!

You got a sneak peek of our jack o' lantern this morning....here it is before, during and after Jason carved it up yesterday afternoon:

While Jason was doing that, I roasted up the pumpkin seeds. Now we have a tasty treat for the whole week!

Easy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:
Fresh pumpkin seeds, washed and patted dry (about 2 cups)
2 1/2 TBL olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 275. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss seeds, olive oil, and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Spread prepared seeds in a single layer onto the baking sheet.
3. Roast for 25 minutes or until starting to brown.
4. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

That's our pumpkin!

Catching Up

New/additional work responsibilities + work travel + cold season + a new house that needs tendin' to = not much time to blog these days. Sorry about that. I'm going to *try* and be better about keeping up with things over the next couple of months.

In the meantime, here is a snippet of what I/we have been up to lately....

-Making no-sew faux Roman shades for the kitchen. I picked a cool geographic patterned fabric (in my favorite apple green) from Fabric.com and followed the tutorial I found on this blog. Apparently it is so easy even a non-crafty person like me can do it!

- Enjoying all things pumpkin! Pumpkins of various shapes and sizes for our front stoop, main level, and loft level; making pumpkin bread (got some in the oven right now!) and drinking pumpkin beer at a local Oktoberfest.

-Generally trying to make the house feel more like home. Everything is 99% unpacked and put away now so we're focused now on plotting out what other projects and purchases we want/need to make over the next several months. Jason's been focusing on the garage and has already put up a number of shelves to help make the most of our storage space. I've been looking for kitchen counter stools, living room chairs, rugs and some potential new art for the walls. We've made some progress but are trying to prioritize so we don't go too crazy all at once (which I am finding somewhat difficult).

At some point soon I hope to get back into the swing of things, cooking wise. Lately its been all about quick and easy and/or the grill....with some frozen food from Trader Joe's thrown in for good measure.

In other news....Food & Wine's annual Thanksgiving issue arrived last week. You know what that means...let the obsession begin!

The Move: Painting, Painting and More Painting

One of the great things about a brand new house is that you are starting from a clean slate-- no old or ugly paint jobs to have to cover up. But that clean slate can also be a blank slate-- plain, boring, or even blah. After living for years in white-walled apartments, Jason and I knew we wanted to add some (still neutral) color to our new place. And we knew that if we didn't do it before we moved our furniture in, it would never happen. So the week between closing and moving was spent taping, painting and more painting.

Here's what we decided to tackle pre-move: master bedroom, master bathroom, loft/family room, and the main level (dining room/living room combo). In retrospect, it might have been a lot for two novice painters to tackle at once. But we did get it all done...with a few hiccups along the way.

The hiccups were primarily around color choice. When trying to decide about what colors to choose, we constantly encountered the same piece of advice--paint generally dries darker than it appears on the swatch or in the can. So we took that into account when making our color choices-- however, this did not turn out to be the case with most of the paints we chose. So in both the master bedroom and our loft/family room, we ended up with great looking neutrals...that are not that far off from the off-white that the builder painted everything to begin with :( That means a lot of work that will likely go unnoticed by the majority of people.

The other hiccup had to do with our idea to add a horizontal stripe accent wall in the master bedroom. We painted the walls a greige (again, that turned out to be not all that far off from the what it was originally) with the idea that we'd paint a pale blue-green stripe that complimented the rest of our decor to add some interest. Well, that pale blue-green (which looked great in the paint can) ended up looking powder blue on the wall-- perfect for baby's room but not so much for an adult. After one coat we decided we couldn't live with it and repainted in the same greige as the rest of the wall-- this time in a semigloss-- so we ended up with a tone-on-tone stripe instead. A great and sophisticated look-- that would have looked even better if we had gone with a slightly different neutral. Fortunately, our master bathroom and main level came out just as we intended!

 Master bedroom accent wall--all taped up and ready to go.

Ummmm...no.

 

And here it is with the tonal stripe-- very subtle. But at least it's not baby blue.

 

Overall, I am happy with our painting experience but would probably consider actually painting samples on the walls the next time around.

 Main level all taped up and ready to go-- by the end of the week I was a pro at taping.

Main level-- painted!

Here are some other tips we picked up a long the way: frog tape is amazing and you can never have too much and edging tools making cutting in a snap.

Master bath: before....

...and after. We also replaced the single large mirror with two smaller, framed mirrors.

 

 

Color list:

-Master Bedroom: Benjamin Moore Tapestry Beige (in flat and semi-gloss)

-Master Bathroom: Benjamin Moore Nantucket Fog (in semi-gloss)

-Main Level: Benjamin Moore Stonington Grey (in flat)

-Loft/Family Room (not pictured): Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan (in flat)

 

A View from the Top

I know that I still owe you more about the move and the house. I also recognize that I haven't posted any sort of recipe in ages. And I will get to all of that, I will.

But first I wanted to share one thing I really and truly adore about our new place....having some outdoor space. The old apartment had a tiny little balcony that was just big enough to house Jason's bike and some plants. The new house, on the other hand, has a whole roof top terrace. Big enough for real outdoor furniture and a brand new grill!

 The view from our terrace

Finally-- a grill!

Tonight was one of the first times that we've been able to really enjoy it given all the rain of late. So we decided to try out our pizza stone on the grill and eat al fresco...with the first Punkin' Ale of the season to boot (thanks Mom)!

I can definitely get used to this :)

Croissants anyone?

Guess what I did this morning?!

I made croissants!

Here they are---straight out of the oven!

Ok, so they weren't exactly homemade... I actually got some help from my new friend Joe. That's right folks-- we are now within a five minute walk of a Trader Joe's! And I couldn't be more excited. In addition to these awesome mini-croissants (more on those in a second), we've also tried several frozen entrees (which made the week we moved in a lot less stressful)-- all of which were very good.

So, about those croissants. So easy. So delicious. Step 1: take out of freezer. Step 2: place on lightly greased baking sheet. Step 3: go to bed. Step 4: wake up the next morning, be amazed at how much the croissants grew overnight and preheat oven. Step 5: bake for 15-20 minutes. Step 6: enjoy.

Big fan of Trader Joe's....big fan.

My Kitchen--Take 1

I took today off so I could get a solid day of unpacking done before it gets relegated to nights and weekends. So of course I focused on the kitchen. Aside from the fact that I am generally excited to have a shiny new kitchen full of shiny new stainless steel appliances, it made sense to start there for practical reasons as well. There were so many there I thought if I could get that out of the way, I could get rid of a bunch of boxes. Plus it was pretty difficult to pour a bowl of cereal with the way things stood let alone anything else.

Here is what I was working with at about 8am (my apologies for the bad cell phone pics):

At about 11:30 I had made a lot of progress but still had a ways to go:

By about 3:30, I was pretty much done:

Not too bad for a day's work. Once it's all together, I'll give you a tour. In the meantime, I'm researching pantry organization and split box springs (more on that later).

Moving on Up

After a LONG weekend of painting and packing, we are finally officially moved into our new house. Well, almost. We still have a couple of things to get back at the apartment that we didn't want the movers to move (e.g., Jason's kayak, a large unpacked mirror, etc.), but for the most part we're in. Now for the unpacking....and all the updates via blog. Although we made it through, the painting and moving were not without some shenanigans along the way. Lots more to come!

Homeowners!

It's official.....

We have a house! All went well yesterday with closing and we've already started bringing things over and taping off rooms that will be painted later this week.  Stay tuned for more pictures and details soon :)

Eat, Think, and Be Married--Now with Recipe Browsing Capabilities!

One good thing that comes from waking up (before) the crack of dawn? I actually get around to organizing recipes within my handy-dandy new recipe categories at the top of my blog. I'm still only through 100 or so posts (133 or so more to go) but this is at least a start in terms of being able to browse my recipes by category. More organization to come!

Eye on the Prize

I know we must be getting close to moving into our new house because it is 6:30am on a Sunday and I am wide wake. In fact, I have been since about 5:30.

Yep....the stress-induced insomnia has officially begun. Sigh.

I first noticed this unfortunate habit in college when every semester around finals time, I'd wake up at ridiculous hours (regardless of what time I had gone to bed or when I actually needed to get up), my mind unable to stop running through all the work I needed to do between then and the end of the semester. And so, whenever it comes time for some sort of big life event or other important activity that requires significant work or organization on my part, it becomes impossible for me to sleep past 5 or 5:30am. So fun.

Another sign we are getting close? There are so many boxes around here that it is hard to walk in certain areas of the apartment. We've now packed the dining room, most of our non-hanging clothes and shoes (everything but what we will need for the next couple of weeks), almost all of our linens, all desk stuff, some electronics, all pictures on the walls and decorative items that sit around the apartment (picture frames, candles, etc.) We've also taken care of most of the rest of the "other" stuff we need to do before closing/moving-- utilities set to turn on at the new place and off at the apartment, movers set, etc.

And yet, despite all this progress, I can't help but feeling like there is still SO. MUCH. TO. DO. Maybe it's because I haven't yet tackled much in the way of the beast that is the kitchen. Or the bathroom (which may seem strange but for some reason the cabinets under the double vanity in our apartment bathroom are overflowing with stuff).

The good news is, the end really is in sight (and I just have to keep reminding myself of that and keep my eye on the prize, so to speak). Tuesday is our final walk-through where the builder shows us where everything is and how to contact them if we have issues (particularly in the first year when EVERYTHING is under warranty) and so we can make sure that they've completed everything and cleaned up after themselves properly. More importantly (for us, anyway) it will be our first look at the finished product! Then, one week later, we officially become homeowners and the fun part begins-- painting (more on that in a later post) and moving.

Maybe then I can get some sleep.

Welcome to the Jungle

Our apartment is officially in total chaos. It was bound to happen sooner or later (though I must admit I thought I had another week or so before it got to this point).

As you can see, we are now living in a jungle of the boxes—both empty and filled—and other assorted stuff. But the good news is that it means we are getting closer to our new house!

As chaotic as this all appears, there really is a method to the madness; it’s all part of the moving process. And I should know—I have been a part of many (MANY) moves over the course of my 30 years and while I may not have been an active participant during the first half, I have picked up a few things. Namely, that planning and preparation is everything.

Here’s how I like to approach the process:

1.   1) Get a game plan together. The very first thing I did was put together a spreadsheet of all things we need to do between now and closing/moving and assigned due dates and leads for each task (can you tell that I have a lot of program management experience??). I put our spreadsheet on the fridge so we can stay on top of what we’ve done and what we still need to do. This process has worked pretty well so far- we know what we need to get done each week and it’s kept us track. 

Other things to tackle first—movers/truck and boxes. Our realtor recommended My Truck Buddy for our move--a DC area based company that has its own truck and you can pay by the hour for three people to move your stuff. Seems like reasonable prices-- I'll let you know how it all works out. When perusing MTB's website, I came across information for a place where you can rent moving boxes-- cheaper than buying them from Uhaul (or the like) and they deliver the boxes and come and pick them up when you are done. Convenient and green....done and done.

       2)  Clean out. Moving is the perfect excuse to purge all the old/unflattering/out of date clothes (and shoes and other accessories) you still have in your closet/drawers. Same goes for other household items (books, dvds, music, knick-knacks, etc.) you may have collected over the years. Get rid of the waste—sell it on craigslist or donate to Goodwill or the library. Don’t move anything that you don’t need or use.

True to my advice, we have gone through all of our clothes, shoes and accessories as well as books and dvds. I got rid of a bunch of other extraneous household stuff when Jason and I got married and he moved in a couple of years ago but I anticipate that there will be some additional fat to cut when I start packing up the kitchen (coffee mugs, utensils, etc.) Over the last several weeks we have donated 10 bags of stuff to Goodwill and 5-6 bags of books/dvds to the local library. It’s a pain in the butt to do, but I find this cleaning out process to be almost cathartic.We also put a few things on craigslist including my desk and filing cabinet, an old bookshelf, bar stools, and my old Dell desktop. So far we've sold the desk/filing cabinet and the bar stools.

3)  Pack in chunks. Packing can take longer than you think. You may look around and think “I don’t have that much stuff”….but when you start emptying cabinets, closets, and drawers it starts to add up. I like to start the process 3-4 weeks ahead of time (after you’ve done the bulk of your cleaning out) to ensure that I can break it down in to smaller, manageable pieces and do a little at a time. On tap for this weekend-- my dining room stuff (china, good glassware and all my extraneous serving dishes, etc.) and books.


What moving advice has served you well in the past?

The Countdown Begins

Exactly four weeks from today, Jason and I will be homeowners! That's right, our house is almost our house. It's amazing to think that just four months ago, we were looking at this:

And now, we have this:

And this:

Yup--that's the first look at our new kitchen!

With only a month left until we close and move, there's a whole lot to do. And between the working, the cleaning out, the packing, and the general house-obsessing, there's not a whole lot of room for cooking or menu planning these days! But I hope you will stick with me as I share the method to my moving madness as well as the trials and tribulations of new home ownership in the coming weeks. Lots of change and excitement ahead!

Ratatouille Tart

Wow-- my resolve to post every day this week didn't last long, did it?! I really need to find some motivation to do something other than watch HGTV when I get home from (what is usually a long day of) work.

Anyway.... a couple of weeks ago I made a ratatouille tart for dinner using a simple yet elegant recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Ratatouille is french dish typically made with eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes (among other things). Smitten Kitchen's recipe deconstructs the ingredients and makes it into a sort of fancy pizza;  puff pastry (instead of the regular flour and yeast based dough) is topped with tomato puree (or sauce) and then thinly sliced vegetables with a healthy sprinkling of herbs and cheese at the end.

In general the meal is pretty easy to put together--once you've got the vegetables thinly sliced that is. Fortunately for me, on the day I made this for dinner Jason was home from work early and got things started by prepping the vegetables (using his favorite kitchen tool-- the mandoline). Once I got home all I had to do was put everything together and pop it in the oven.

All in all, a healthy, delicious and surprisingly elegant summer meal.

Ratatouille Tart
From Smitten Kitchen (recipe cut in half but other than that made as outlined on SK's website)


Ingredients:
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed in the fridge overnight
1/2 small eggplant
1/2 zuchinni
1/2 yellow squash
1 red pepper
1/4-1/3 cup of pureed tomato or tomato sauce
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Dried or fresh thyme
Crumbled goat cheese


1. Heat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place puff pastry on the parchment paper and prick pastry all over with a fork.
2. Spread tomato sauce (in desired quantity) evenly over the pastry, leaving a one-inch border around the edges.
3. Slice vegetables thinly using a sharp knife or mandoline. Arrange slightly overlapped slices of vegetables in rows over the tomato sauce, alternating vegetables as you go.
4. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh or dried herbs (all to taste).
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and veggies look soft. Sprinkle with goat cheese and cut into squares. Serve with a mixed green salad and enjoy.

 

Summer Caesar

I'm so behind on posting it's pathetic. And I actually have some recipes to share! So I'm going to challenge myself to post every day during the week this week and try to get caught up.

First up---a summery shrimp Caesar salad.

I found this recipe on Everyday Food's website last week as I was browsing around looking for some quick and easy culinary inspiration. Work has been even more ridiculous than usual lately (last week was HORRIBLE) and I've been on the lookout for super quick and easy meals-- too often recently I come home too late and too tired to spend much time in the kitchen and we end up ordering pizza or going out to eat. Which is not good for my wallet or my waistline. So I'm try to find some easy dishes that take very little effort to put together.

This shrimp Caesar was even easier than I thought it would be. I bought frozen shrimp that had been already been peeled and deveined so all I had to do was thaw, toss with the garlic-lemon zest-olive oil mixture and roast in the oven with cubes of crusty bread. While that was cooking away, I made a quick and easy homemade Caesar dressing with an unlikely ingredient-- hard boiled egg yolk! It sounded so odd, I almost skipped it but I am so glad I didn't. Mashed up and then whisked into a mixture of garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and olive oil, it was the perfect emulsifier. Tossed with a little grated Parmesan and Romaine lettuce and you had a quick, easy, and delicious summer meal.

 

Shrimp Caesar Salad

Adapted slightly from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
3/4 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lemon
1/2 baguette, cut into cubes
1 hard-cooked egg yolk, mashed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2-3 TBL grated Parmesan (to taste)
2 large hearts Romaine lettuce, chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. In a medium bowl, combine zest from lemon, 1 TBL olive oil, and 1 clove of minced garlic. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Add bread cubes. Cook until shrimp are cooked and bread cubes are golden and crunchy, about 7-8 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine remaining garlic, juice from the lemon, mustard, egg yolk and 2 TBL olive oil. Whisk until smooth. Stir in Parmesan. Add Romaine and toss to coat. Season with salt and lots of pepper.
4. Divide salad among plates and top with shrimp and croutons. Serve! (Makes 2 large main salads or 4 smaller side salads).

Our House is a House!

Our house is really starting to take shape:

And we have walls too!

With only 45 or so days left to go, there are a lot of things to do:

• Give notice to our apartment (going to do this weekend)
• Select lender and finalize details of our loan (hope to have things locked in within the next week or two)
• Get homeowners' insurance
• Schedule move
• Start packing!

We're also starting to think about things like paint colors and blinds-- stuff we will want to take care of as soon as we close and before we move-in. Sometimes when I think about everything we need to do, I get a little overwhelmed....but it is all really exciting! And I can't wait.

Patriotic Treats: Berry Crumb Bars

How lucky are we that there are so many naturally occurring red, white and blue foods this time of year?! I mean what the 4th of July be without a flag cake decorated with whipped cream, strawberries (or raspberries) and blueberries? I am sure that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they chose July 4th as the day on which to declare their independence (It is also worth noting that Canada Day and Bastille Day are also in July. The Canadian flag is red and white. The colors of the French flag? Blue, white and red. Are you seeing a pattern here?)

Although I decided against the traditional flag cake for my contribution to our friends' July 4th BBQ, I did decide to keep the patriotic vibe going with red, white, and blue berry crumb bars. In this recipe (a slightly adapted version of Smitten Kitten's blueberry crumb bars), you start with a shortbread-like dough that serves as both the crust (when patted into a 9x13 pan) and crumb topping (when sprinkled over the top) and add in a layer of your favorite berries tossed with lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch. SK also shared the following tip-- these cut a lot easier when chilled so stick them in the fridge for 30 minutes or an hour after they've cooled to room temperature if you have the time. A perfect patriotic treat that Washington and Jefferson would have been proud of.

Berry Crumb Bars
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
3-4 cups fresh berries (I used a mix of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
1/2 cup sugar (more or less depending on the sweetness of your fruit--always check first!)
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, stir together, flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix in lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in butter and egg. Pat 3/4 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. In a separate bowl, toss berries with sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Spread evenly over crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry mixture.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into square. Enjoy with fireworks or your favorite John Philip Sousa anthem.

Eat, Think, and Be Married 2.0

Check it out! With a little help from Jason I've given this here blog a little makeover. One of the things I'm most excited about is the recipe pages-- now you'll be able to browse recipes with ease. Note, however, that the pages are still under construction but I hope to have them fully functional soon!