I'm (Almost) Back!

I'm alive!

When I said that blogging was going to be kept to a bare minimum I really did not mean that there would be no blogging at all....it just sort of happened that way. After two days in New Jersey finishing things up at my old (!) job, Jason and I hopped a plane to Miami for a few days of much needed rest and relaxation. My plan had been to write up a few posts before we left so that you all wouldn't be left hanging for so long but by the time I got home Friday evening, unpacked my work stuff, and repacked my vacation stuff it was late and we had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our flight.

Excuses, excuses...I  know.

But the good news (for you) is that I am back and with some time on my hands....until next Tuesday when I start my new job at least!

I'll Be Back

Hi there! So you may have noticed things have been a little quieter than usual around these parts. I'm deep in the throes of my last week at my current (soon to be old!) job and things are a bit hectic as I attempt to cram several weeks worth of work into a few remaining days. Not to mention all the other life stuff to deal with (like trying to determine whether our renters insurance will cover any part of Jason's lost wedding ring.....it doesn't). All in all, I'm pretty close to being burnt out.

As a result the blogging is going to be kept to a bare minimum for the next little bit...but never fear! I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule next week with my usual food for thought on cooking and married life.

Stay tuned (and if you are on the East Coast, stay cool)!

287 Days

This weekend while I was shopping up a storm (more on that later), Jason was off on a canoe/kayak/camping trip with his father, younger brother, uncle, and cousin in West Virginia. This is becoming an annual outing for the men in Jason’s family and something Jason in particular looks forward to every year.  Not only does he get to spend some quality time with his brother and father, but he gets to practice his recently acquired whitewater kayaking skills.

He came home late last night with some great pictures and a bag full of stinky river clothes. One thing he did not come home with, however, was his wedding ring.

The New River near Beckley, WV...somewhere in its depths lies Jason's wedding ring

One minute it was on, the next it was gone, probably lost during a run down some rapids thanks to a combination of sunscreen and water which make for some slippery fingers.  It is probably on the bottom of the New River somewhere (unless a catfish got to it first).

 Look at him go!

Jason’s family members were worried that I would be mad. I actually wasn’t mad at all. Jason is not one to lose things (in the time we’ve known each other I can’t actually think of another thing he has lost) and while wearing an expensive piece of jewelry during  a day of physical activity might not have been the smartest thing to do in retrospect, he and I have both done it numerous times before.

If anything, I am a little sad to think that the ring that I gave him on our wedding day in front of all our friends and family will never be seen again. We will replace it, of course, but I wonder if the new ring will hold the same sentimental value as the ring that Jason wore for the first 287 days (give or take) of our lives together.  But then I remind myself that the ring is merely a symbol and that even though I am disappointed, all I felt was relief when the “really bad news” Jason had for me when he walked in the door last night was just a lost ring and that no one we love was hurt, sick or worse. At the end of the day, it is just a ring after all.

Also, sh*t happens. 

And now I don’t feel so bad about all the money I spent on new work clothes this weekend :)

Dress for Success

Almost as soon as I made the decision to take a new job and return to life as an office worker I started thinking about one thing: clothes.  It has been three years since I had to go into an office every day and in that time I have purchased maybe 2-3 articles of work appropriate clothing. Sure, I have plenty of clothes hanging my closet left over from my previous office-going days but…come on! they are more than THREE YEARS OLD.

So I have decided to go on a mini-shopping spree this weekend to augment my current work wardrobe and bring it into 2010. Now I am trying to be very thoughtful about this so as not to waste money unnecessarily. To that end I have made a list of the things that I would like to find. My list of must-haves includes the following:

• A couple of skirts, in particular I'd like a black or khaki (pencil?) skirt that I can mix and match with various tops
• A variety of sleeveless tops, shells, and camis that I can layer with cardigans and blazers—most of what I currently have are on their last legs and/or not really appropriate for wearing on their own. Since I am going to be commuting via metro for at least the first few months at my new job (you know, during the dead of summer) I want lightweight tops that can stand by themselves as well.
• At least one but maybe two blazers that I can mix and match with various skirts and pants (I have a lot of wintery blazers but not summer ones)
• New pair of black heels, preferably ones that are comfortable enough to walk to/from the metro in

I’m also on the lookout for a v-neck cardigan or something that I can wear with a couple of sleeveless tops I already have ( see below)...for some reason they don’t look very good with the mainly crew-neck cardigans I already have—any suggestions?

Given the emails I’ve received recently about the sales at stores like Ann Taylor, Loft, Banana Republic, and J. Crew I’m hoping I’ll be able to find what I’m looking for without shelling out too much. Fortunately I have a gift card or two left over from my birthday and am about to start a new job with a new salary :)

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Top Chef DC Instant Reaction

So the inaugural episode of Top Chef DC just aired (get it, inaugural cause it's in DC...ok, I'm tired and getting a little punchy...) and all I can really think about is what a jerk that Angelo guy is. I disliked him from the first name-dropping glimpse we got of him. (Also, did he really work with all those people-- can someone do a fact check on that, please.) He is obviously going to be cocky "villain" of the season. Also, I knew crazy John was going home the minute he said he was doing dessert-- don't these people know that doing a dessert on Top Chef is the kiss of death?!

But I am really enjoying being able to recognize the various locations they are shooting in and am excited for the season!

For more inside info on this season's Top Chef, check out Capital Spice. They are planning to do more of an inside scoop/behind the scenes type post after each episode (and have even been involved in one of the "public events").

The Jason Seal of Approval

Last week was very meat heavy what with the southwestern brisket (which we ate several times given the large quantity it made) and our first foray into Korean BBQ Saturday night with our friends Matt and Stephanie. Given that, we decided that we needed to balance things out with more veggie-focused meals this week.

Last night we did just that, enjoying my first attempt at making a summer (and vegetarian) favorite—Gazpacho.  This could not be a better (or easier) meal—chop up some veggies, throw them in the blender, add seasonings to taste, and chill in the fridge for a few hours until ready to eat. It’s even better when you have farm fresh produce to put into it (like the tomatoes we bought during Saturday’s trip to the farmers market). Serve with some toasted, garlicky bread and you’ve got yourself a real crowd pleaser.

My aforementioned friend Stephanie recommended Everyday Food’s recipe so I used that as a base although I made some significant changes to the amounts (given the recipe was part of its “Cooking for One” column) as well as added a few ingredients to make it more our speed.  I think it turned out pretty well. I wasn’t sure how Jason would like it (he had never had gazpacho before) but the first words out of his mouth upon tasting were “I really like it. You’ll have to make this again.” Consider this recipe to be Jason-approved!

Gazpacho with Toasted Garlicky Bread
Adapted generously from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
½ large red pepper, diced
½ medium red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 TBL olive oil, plus more for serving
2 generous shots of hot sauce
Salt and pepper
French baguette, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced in half

1.Place 2-3 TBL each of the cucumber, red pepper, and red onion in a container and set aside for serving.
2.Place tomatoes into a blender or food processor and puree until almost smooth. Add remaining cucumber, red pepper, red onion, garlic, vinegar, 1 TBL olive oil, hot sauce, and generous amounts of salt and pepper. Puree until you reach the desired consistency.
3.Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (I left ours in for about 3 hours).
4.Right before serving, drizzle olive oil on each side of the sliced bread. Toast under the broiler until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Rub each side of toasted bread with garlic clove.
5.Check gazpacho for seasonings. Divide into two bowls. Top with reserved diced vegetables and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with garlicky bread.

Summer Berry Pie

The first thing that I thought off when we got home from the farmers market yesterday (and I realized that we bought more berries than we could realistically eat in the few days before some of the more delicate ones—ahem, raspberries—would start to go bad) was pie. One of the best things about summer is the ability to make wonderful, fresh fruit pies.  While a lot of you might associate the holidays, and especially Thanksgiving, with pie to me nothing says summer like homemade pie. Maybe that is because I like fruit pies more than pumpkin and pecan (the traditional fall pies) or maybe because I make blueberry pie every June as part of my Father’s Day gift to my dad. Regardless, my thoughts were consumed with pie as soon as we walked in the door.

 Look at how gorgeous these berries are!

I’ve made many pies before but never my own pie dough. Shocking, I know. Usually I opt for the Pillsbury dough that you find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store—the one that you just unroll and drop in a pie plate. Pie dough has always seemed a bit intimidating to me for some reason—maybe it’s the need for cutting the butter into the flour or the fact that I have limited counter space on which to roll out the dough. But using the premade stuff with those glorious berries seemed wrong somehow. Like I’d being doing them a great disservice by using it. So I decided to suck it up and try my hand at homemade crust.

Fortunately, my old friend Smitten Kitchen had a number of great step-by-step tutorials on making pie crust that made it all seem a bit more doable.  Since I followed her instructions to a “t” I won’t go into the step-by-step here. You can find her all-butter pie dough recipe here and her tips for rolling and crimping here. I will, however, offer a few suggestions/things I learned in my initial attempt at making pie crust from scratch:

1. Make sure you don’t leave your butter in too big of pieces. I thought I had achieved “tiny peas” as SK recommended but as I was rolling it out it looked like some pieces were a little big. As a result, when I pulled the pie out of the oven it seemed like some of the butter had melted/oozed out of the crust more than it probably should have. (Still tasted and looked good though—but the pie plate was a bit greasy feeling).
2. It is really important that you shape the dough into real discs before chilling it. It is much more difficult to get a true round during the rolling process if you are starting with an oblong.
3. SK’s rolling tips of “roll, lift, turn, repeat” really do make it so much easier to get a good, even circle (assuming you did number 2 correctly)
4. Definitely flour the heck out of your rolling surface and your rolling pin. Make sure to re-flour the rolling pin every so often.

 Don't those look like "tiny peas" to you??

Notice how not round these discs are.

In terms of the pie filling, I ended up using another one of SK’s recipes as a general guide for my Summer Berry Pie.  All in all the pie (crust and filling) turned out phenomenally. Given the juiciness of the berries I probably could have added a bit more cornstarch to the filling but even though it ran a bit, it still tasted incredibly good. Really. Words cannot accurately describe how good this pie is—all thanks to some exceptional fresh and local berries.

Summer Berry Pie
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 recipe of SK’s All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough
1 ½ cups fresh raspberries, rinsed
1 ½ cups fresh blackberries, rinsed
1 ½ cups fresh strawberries, rinsed and quartered
4 TBL cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Juice of half a lemon
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream (optional)

1.Gently combine berries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Set aside.
2.Roll out half of chilled dough (use the larger one if you divided them unevenly)on a well-floured work surface so that you have a 12-13 inch round. Gently transfer rolled out dough into a 9 inch pie plate. Trim so you have a ½ inch overhang.
3.Using a slotted spoon, transfer berry mixture into the pie shell-try to leave as much of the liquid that has collected as possible (otherwise your crust will be soggy).
4.Roll out remaining chilled dough so that you have a 12 inch round. Gently drape over top of pie. Trim so that you have a 1 inch overhang. Fold the overhang (from both top and bottom crust) under to seal the crust. Crimp decoratively.
5.Cut slits in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
6.Bake on a cookie/baking sheet at 400 for 20-25 minutes (the baking sheet is key so you don’t end up with boiled over fruit juice/melted butter burning on the bottom of your oven). Make sure the oven rack is positioned in the center of the oven so you don’t brown the top too fast. Lower heat to 350 and continue to bake for another  25-30 minutes until fruit is bubbly and crust is golden brown. If the edges start to get too brown before the pie is done, you can cover them with aluminum foil to prevent burning. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you’d like.