The New House and Life in It

Mark and I moved into our new house just before Christmas. I think 2013 was the busiest year I've ever had. But now, in 2014, we're able to slow down. Our new bed should be arriving in the next couple of weeks (no more sleeping on a futon!) and we're figuring out what we need to make this house our home.

Mark's parents had been staying with us for the second half of January and took care of a lot of odd jobs around here. The guest bathroom is now perfect with the help of the boys getting the rod for the shower curtain and us girls getting the shower curtain for said rod. We have all sorts of shelves in the garage. We have coat hooks since we realized (after we bought the house) that there isn't a coat closet. We had a great day today and unpacked a bunch of boxes. I felt like a machine getting through so much laundry and making a (hopefully) yummy dinner! I think the three cups of coffee and Ireland's win over Scotland in today's Six Nations game helped.

So things are coming along. Life here is going ok. I know life isn't so great for other people and that makes me appreciate everything even more.

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A Bit of Reading: Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

I started William Kuhn's book on a flight to Boston for a friend's wedding. I then promptly left my book, that I had borrowed from the library, on the plane. Damn those seat-back pockets! I had been enjoying the book so much that I had to head straight to the bookstore to buy a copy. (I then went to the library to pay for the lost one.) I had another flight coming up and knew Mrs. Queen would be excellent company and she was! It was a bit of a silly story involving Queen Elizabeth II just walking out of Buckingham Palace and taking the train to Edinburgh to visit HMY Britannia. I just visited the Britannia a few months ago and I can understand why she would miss it but it doesn't make the storyline any more believable. It has made me wonder about the Queen a bit though. I wonder if she's anything like the way she's portrayed in this novel. She was very likable in the book but I thinkn that's because it made it easier to see her as a real person which I think is a fact that can be easily forgotten.

It was a great easy read and a very sweet story. It was worth all the money spent at the bookstore and at the library!

 

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The Dinner Party

We hosted a small dinner party last weekend. After struggling for two weeks with menu options and timings, I figured it out and it worked!

The day started out fine with Jamie Oliver's Creamy Mushroom Soup. It was super easy to make after chopping a couple of pounds of mushrooms. Once it got going the apartment was smelling amazing and I felt better knowing that if everything turned out horrible at least we would eat nice soup.

Right when I was about to start on my Apple-Pie Cake I had to run to the tailor for a dress fitting for an upcoming wedding. I called Mark in a panic from the car. I was hitting every red light! Doesn't that always happen when you're in a rush? Anyway, I asked Mark to peel and slice apples since I would never have enough time. When I got back there was a bowl filled with perfectly sliced apples. So that was dessert done!

For the main we had Pumpkin Mac & Cheese. It's practically a health dish. Pumpkin and whole wheat pasta! Ignore the butter and cheese and you're fine. It was super easy to make (I might've use canned pumpkin purée) and it made the whole hosting thing so much easier since I just had to throw it in the oven when we sat down for soup. They were all easy dishes but they boosted my confidence in hosting a dinner. And the company was pretty good, too! My only note for next time is buy more wine.

 

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What a week!

This week has been pretty boring for food and everything else, I guess. And isn't it always the case that when the week feels so long the weekend flies by. I thought I was coming down with a cold on Tuesday so Mark cooked. Then I thought I had the flu by Thursday! I didn't. Just a bit run down. And after the longest week it's already Sunday. I've got big plans for next weekend, though!

We've invited a few friends over for dinner. I've only hosted one dinner party and while it was a success (at least I think it was), it was a year ago. I've been working on a menu and I'm excited to try some new things. I'm not going to go crazy with anything but I'll probably have a panic attack at some point.

In the meantime, I've been knitting a hat for Mark. I realized once I started on it I was using the wrong size needles so I've ordered the correct ones and while I wait for them I'm just going to see how this hat plays out. I've been a bit desperate to knit recently.

 

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A Bit of Knitting: Trendy Baby Hat

I have been itching to knit lately. I think it's because it's finally cool out. I've promised Mark a winter hat for AGES so on Friday night I ordered all sorts of yarn. I ordered two different colors of yarn so Mark will have at least two new hats this winter. Then I ordered a pretty yarn for a snood for me. Since that yarn won't arrive for a few days I needed something now. I thought about friends that are expecting a baby soon and decided that baby needs an orange hat. A trendy baby hat.

We went to the Texas Renaissance Festival yesterday (I didn't take a single picture!) and on the way there I started the hat. Three times. I think I've out of hat-knitting practice. But once I got going it was a great way to pass the time since traffic was quite backed up. I finished it this afternoon after making Joy the Baker's Mushroom and Brussels Sprout Hash. I swapped out the egg for fancy Whole Foods sausages but next time I might follow her lead with the eggs. The sausages were really good but it would be nice to see what it's like with eggs.

I'm going to start a new soup recipe soon and make quinoa stuffed peppers for tonight's dinner. I've made the peppers with couscous in the past but I thought it might be nice to try something different. We'll see.

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The Gnocchi and then some...

So, for a first attempt it wasn't awful. I'm debating getting a gnocchi board because apparently I'm going pro. I've been through this before when I thought the best way to become a better knitter was to own a sheep. I'll try it again now that I know more of what to expect. And maybe the second time I'll feel less panic. There may have been a little bit of cursing with this one. The pumpkin was just much stickier than I expected.

It doesn't look like much, I know

I also made braised leeks. I might have burned them a bit. I found the recipe in Louisa Weiss' My Berlin Kitchen (which I wrote about in my last post) and figured I have leeks leftover from a few nights ago that need to be used. I thoughth they'd go nicely with the gnocchi. They turned out ok except Mark thought they were part of the gnocchi dish and not a side dish so he threw them in to each of our bowls and then put the gnocchi on top. It was so tasty! I think it broke up some of the heaviness of the gnocchi. Which was very heavy. I'd serve it that way everytime.

I was going to use the remaining pumpkin for a magnificent Sunday breakfast of pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes until I realized I was out of chocolate chips (a sin in this house), the recipe called for buttermilk (which almost always refuse to buy), and it was raining out. I almost actually drove to the store in the rain to get everything I needed at 8am but it just hurt to much to go then and know I'd have to go back later that day to do the week's shopping. I can only stand so much Kroger in a weekend.

The rest of the week has been pretty boring. But I've made my weekend menu so starting tomorrow night things should get better. We'll see. I can get a bit inspired on Friday afternoons!

 

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A Book Review: My Berlin Kitchen

I've tried to get back to reading more this year. I used to read a book or two a month when we lived in Connecticut. Commuting by train is helpful for that. Once we moved to Houston and my commute is a fifteen minute drive I stopped reading as much. It frustrated me because I felt myself changing. I didn't feel as smart, I guess. So I got a library card and started reading again and I've felt so much better about myself. So, now I'd like to keep track of what I read and get a few thoughts down here.

My latest read was My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes) by Luisa Weiss. I loved it! I enjoy reading about lives in other places so that was great. What made it interesting was Luisa being able to share her experiences in a way that was relatable to an American even though she had such a multi-cultural upbringing. It also didn't hurt that she likes to cook. And that she's experienced kitchen failures. There was an incident with a bit of raw cake baked under meringue and as I was reading it I knew what the problem was. It reasured my insticts. The fact that I knew what the problem was befor Luisa made me feel so smart and so capable. It also made me want to try that recipe. And her one for a Christmas cake!

I very much enjoyed this book. It was hard to put it down at the end of lunch everyday. It also inspired to me to enjoy my own cooking and my own writing. I was left feeling a need to express my creativity that I think I had brushed a side recently. I'm very glad that I've read and now I get to enjoy Luisa's blog, The Wednesday Chef, and I don't have to worry about spoilers!

 

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