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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Up and Down and Up Again

This week has felt like a bit of a roller-coaster. I'm not sure if it was because Mark was away for the week or because of the excitement of starting a new role at work but it's been a week.

I had planned out my menu for the week and was so excited about coming and cooking each night, which never happens while Mark's away. I stopped at the store on my way home from work on Monday and grabbed everything I needed for the week. I came home and made this beautiful spinach and tortellini soup.

I haven't had spinach and tortellini soup in years! It used to be the go to dinner on an exhausting day when I was growing up. I hadn't had it with onion or diced tomatoes added and they only improved it. Living in Houston makes me miss the changing seasons so I was desperate to just feel a little be cozy being the end of October and everything. So that was dinner for two nights and breakfast one morning. Things were good.

Then Thursday came around and at the end of the day I just felt tired. I ate ramen. And didn't add anything special to it or anything. It was just a lazy dinner. Friday morning seemed hard. Doyle and I had a fight before work, I had NOTHING to wear. Like seriously. Not being funny. Ok, I had something. But I didn't want to wear it. I made it work. But by then I was late for work and of course hit every red light between home and the office. I was worried that I'd be really grumpy when I got home which I didn't want since Mark was going to be back. I went to Whole Foods at the end of the day and bought some spicy Italian sausages and made another amazing soup. I think it had healing powers.

Tonight I'm going to try my hand at Pumpkin Gnocchi. I'll either get an amazing blog post out of it or I'll be spending the night cursing and drinking wine and we'll never speak of the gnocchi ever again.

 

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One month ago today...

Mark and I got married! Everyone kept telling me that it goes by so fast and I just kept saying ok. It goes by SO FAST. The day felt slow up until I started my walk up the aisle. It was so surreal. I had to tell myself that I was at my wedding and that it was all real.

I had the best time. The wedding felt very "us." It was exactly the way I wanted it to be. It wasn't perfect but it was as perfect as one could expect after planning the whole thing over email from across an ocean. I was quite pleased with the result since in the end I got to marry Mark.

Now we're one month in. Life hasn't stopped. Things are getting more exciting. It's just nice to know we have each other for this whole life ahead of us. Very exciting.

 

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Cheers!

Saturday night was our last date night before the wedding. It was perfect even though the taxi arrived ten minutes early which meant that how's quickly I slapped some makeup on. I'm not sure if that amount of time counts as high maintenance or not.

 

Dinner was at Hearsay Gastro Lounge. Neither of us had been before. It's all exposed brick and a huge chandelier. It was perfect. The food was good, too! And the bottle of champagne didn't hurt either.

 

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Been a bit

I got a fun new keyboard for my iPad so I thought since typing is easier now I should get back to blogging. I've been reading a lot of good blogs lately and I've felt inspired.

We've been in Houston for over a year now. When we first got here I thought we'd do touristy stuff all the time. Every weekend would be an adventure. That hasn't happened so much. Once I started working I just wanted to relax on Saturdays and then Sunday becomes grocery day and there goes the weekend. I'd like to change that. I want to come up with a list of restaurants to try and places to visit. And then I can blog about it.

I don't know if it's because September's coming (and I feel renewed in the Fall) or what but I'm just more excited about life right now. I'm reading more which I haven't done as much of since I stopped taking a train to work and I'm excited about knitting again. I've started practicing yoga once a week. Things are just good right now and I'm just going to embrace that.

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I did it!

I finally ran my first 5k! It's been on my life's to-do list for ages and today I was able to cross it off. And it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I was super nervous before the race started but once I got going I was fine. And I was surprised at how good I felt when I got to the first mile. At mile 2 a woman was running next to me and let out a "woo" which was nice because I was starting to get a bit tired and that gave me a bit of a jolt. When I got closer to the end I could see Mark and he was shouting and that got me all excited. It also made me a bit emotional because I couldn't believe I was running a 5k. It's always just been something I said I wanted to try so to realize that I was actually doing it was crazy and amazing. I tried to remember everything Brielly told me as I ran across the finish line and grabbed my medal. Jeanette's early morning text message helped, too.

Now onto he next thing on my list. Maybe tour Italy or learn to drive a manual car.

 

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Formula 1 and San Antonio

So, I'm not a huge fan of car racing. Whenever Mark watches Formula 1 on TV I get a pretty good nap in but when we found out that we were moving to Houston that meant we be a few hours away from Austin and the United States Grand Prix. So I went. It was an experience.

The event is three days long. We weren't able to go on the first day since it was a Friday and we work but we left Houston Friday night so we could be there bright and early on Saturday. The thing is there weren't any hotel rooms in Austin when started looking in late Spring. We stayed about 45 minutes away in New Braunfels, which I hope we get to explore more of at some point.

Saturday was not the best day of my life. I spent an hour in line waiting to buy a $15 set cushion. Things almost got violent. But Saturday night was great! We went to San Antonio and had dinner on the Riverwalk, saw the Alamo, I wore my cowboy boots!

Sunday was race day. They did a race of just Porsches and another of just Ferraris. Those were very exciting to watch! For lunch there was a truck selling sausage and peppers. The sausage was huge! We split one and that was plenty. Most bought one for themselves and I don't know how you eat that much and still function, I would've needed a nap!

It was a great weekend. I'd do it again (now that I have my cushion). And November in Texas is a really ice time of year to sit outside all day!

 

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So much has been going on!

My mom came to visit a couple of weekends ago. Doyle came with us to pick her up at the airport and he was so excited to see her.

We brunched at Max's Wine Dive with mimosas and grits, had a little snooze, and went for a walk in Memorial Park. It was a great weekend!

Before Mom got here we saw Snow Patrol at the Bayou Music Center. I only knew a couple of their songs but I want to know all of them. They were amazing! I was laughing, I was crying. I don't think I've felt so many emotions at a concert before. Bless their hearts!

Doyle waiting for dinner

 

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Gosh, it's been a while

 

I haven't blogged in ages! Things have been busy since I started working in August. We've had a few guests so far. A couple are pictured below.

A little bit blurry

 

It was nice to have a little bit of home here. And a weird reminder that I live in Houston.

The only other things going on here is training for my first 5k, lots of knitting, and some new recipes are being tried. Hopefully I'll have some pretty food pictures soon!

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The Big Day

 

After hunting online and all over Houston our furniture is arriving! Our dining set has arrived and I enjoyed a homemade bagel(!) at it this afternoon. Our sofa should be here this any minute! Very exciting day.

The new dining set!

But anyway, I finally finished my bagels yesterday. The dough making part is definitely the harder part. Yesterday was just a few minutes of boiling and a few of baking. The only downside was picking the day that happened to be 100 degrees outside. Even with central air I was roasting! I was planning on making lasagna for dinner last night but after spending some time over boiling bagels I decided against it.

And it tastes like a bagel!

 

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And Wednesday

So I went to meet with some of the knitters in the area. I got there a little bit late and no one was there. I wasnt sure what to do so I did what I always do in those situations and I called Mom. We chatted while scoped out the seating area and then I found a woman sittins at a large table with yarn. She ended up being the only one that turned up last night but it was still a really nice time. She told me about different areas to check out and which museums to visit. It was to get out for a couple of hours and talk to a local. It made me feel like I'm becoming a part of the community.  

I had plans to post a picture of my bagels and let you know if they were a success or not but with the morning I've had I have no desire to turn the oven on. I just want to unpack another box and watch an episode of Brothers & Sisters on Netflix. Well, I really just want to watch Brothers & Sisters but I need to unpack a box so I'll do that too. Maybe I'll have bagel pictures tomorrow.

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Oh!

And a really cool thing happened at Ikea!

They have spots for hybrid cars! For those who might not think of the Prius as awesome just check me out superclose to the front door! Ok? Ok.

 

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Just Tuesday

I've decided to try making bagels. So far mine don't look anything like the ones in recipe I found on Pinterest. I'm going to need to refrigerate them overnight so we'll find out tomorrow how I did. 

Tonight I'm meeting up with a local knitting group. I'm a little nervous because I hate meeting new people by myself but I'm sure it'll be fine. Knitters are usually nice people.

 

And the proudest moment of my day was emptying another box! Well, that and getting to Walgreens without using my GPS.

 

It looks like another storm is rolling in. I have never seen storms like the ones here and I spent four years on the Rhode Island coast. Which means I spent four years underwater.

It's hard to see it but the blue sky is being pushed away by some dark clouds

 

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Furniture shopping and food

This past weekend was busy! We went all over searching for a dining set and a sofa.

On Saturday (during a huge rain storm) we looked at a table at West Elm. I love the look of their stuff but the price tag, not so much. So we left empty handed.

On our way to the grocery store we drove past a cute little deli and decided to stop and grab some lunch. I had the tastiest peach and prosciutto salad! The deli's called Relish. I'm in love.

They even made the bags look nice

On Sunday we went to furniture store called The Dump. Everything was very Texan to me. Just big and covered in leather. We eventually found a dining set we like and I'm very excited for its arrival on Friday! We also found a sofa at Ikea which is coming Friday, too. I feel like I'm going to have a million people knocking on my door. Doyle's going to be SO excited!

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