Christmas Wishlist

Its the holiday season! Being my favorite time of year, i've loved seeing the storefronts slowly transform from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas (Target is officially all decked out Christmas style and i love it).

I was originally going to write a Thanksgiving post, but we'll be attending Thanksgiving at my in-laws so the "ideal menu" post i had in mind would simply taunt me...i think its something do to with being in our own house this year that stirs my desire to host a Thanksgiving feast. 

However, i do still get to make a dessert and have purchased 2 small pie pumpkins to make an actual not-from-a-can pumpkin pie. If anyone has a good recipe for such a pie, let me know! 

In the meantime, i will dive into the Holiday spirit with the every popular Christmas Wishlist:

For Silas:

1. These amazing baby socks:

He has a habit of yanking off his socks as soon as i put them on. Now that its winter, i need a solution other than "oh well" and i think these would do the trick. 

2. This gorgeous embroidered alphabet:

i've had my eye on this since Silas was a newborn. i love educational toys that are still beautiful and fun, and this shop fits the bill. It's incredible. There's beautiful felted numbers, an adorable ladybug mobile, and even a Hebrew alphabet set! The home-school mom in me swoons. 

3. A play kitchen, like this one: 

Looove this b/c its small and very quirky. It looks like a kids imaginary kitchen come to life.

No matter what, he'll eventually have a play kitchen...i have big plans for our short entertainment center once we get the tv mounted on the wall. 

Also, if you've never explored the world of felted/wooden food, i suggest you look in to it. so much fun. 

For Mona and Amadeus:

our mini-daschund and *great dane

*in a moment of pure insanity i decided to give him to Ryan as our anniversary present. 

i will, however, never be insane enough to be one of those people with a "I heart my Great Dane" sticker on their rear windshield. Just wanted to clear that up. 

This cute bed for Mona, minus the cat of course. 

2. A dog bed for Amadeus, with some sort of music note motif. 

3. The biggest bone i can find.  

Next time: me and my lovas lists. 

On my mind.

Every time i find myself losing time browsing the endless number of crafty blogs out there i wind up coming back to this one thought:

Creativity is not discovered in reading about someone elses creativity. It is found by DOING.

so im going to go do.

Back in action!

So heres whats been up:

First off, i am almost positive i have the best little traveling baby. We have been on 3 vacations this summer and every time he's done amazing. 

No screaming fits on the plane, putting up with new people and places for days on end, having to travel in his carseat for 3 hour trips to Maine, Denver and back, etc. 

Hes such a champ. 

Heres where we went on those vacations:

NYC for the Tony Awards. 

Amazing. Incredible. 

The whole little family went, were there for 4 days, and stayed at the classically beautiful Intercontinental Barclay on a top floor 2 room suite. The room had a fireplace people. I kept all the windows open the entire time so we could enjoy the beautiful sounds of the city, and thus found if you leaned out the bathroom window (which of course i did about 5 seconds in) you could see the entrance to the Waldorf Astoria! 

 family on the hotel bed. their first time in NYC! 

Sidenote: see how the yellow of babys shirt matches the yellow of my sweater? im officially THAT parent. On special occasions, his outfit always indicates towards mine....

We spent our days wandering and seeing the sights of the city. Ry had no real interest in doing the overly touristy things like going up in the Empire State Building or going to see the Statue of Liberty b/c Silas is still so young and waiting in lines all day is not our idea of a good time, so we skipped those. Instead we got real Italian in little Italy, marveled at the open air fish markets in Chinatown, walked around Times Square at night, visited with friends, saw Billy Elliot (for free thanks to the Broadway League!), rubbed elbows with Broadway stars, ate hot dogs from a cart in Central Park, & put Silas on a bunch of oversized stuffed animals at FAO Schwarz:

jungle baby. 

The trip was full of amazing, surreal moments. i especially loved saying "i'm here to pick up tickets from the Tony Awards and the Broadway League" and having the concierge study me for a moment. As we were staying at the hotel sponsoring the Tonys, i like to tell myself he was checking to see if he recognized me from a show :)  

After that, we drove up to Maine for my aunts funeral. She passed away after a long and painful battle with cancer, but is now in the arms of her Savior, which makes all the difference for those of us still here. 

here she is doing emergency surgery on my wedding cake, 

after it slid halfway off the base and semi-collapsed while being transported to the reception site.

It was henceforth known as "the pisa cake".

A full, emotional week - but wonderful to spend with family. We traveled as a pack that week, laughing and crying all together. We picked strawberries, celebrated Ryans birthday, made donuts (ScareList check), saw the house my mother grew up in, made a New England clambake with 5 lobsters and 7 pounds of clams (ScareList check), went to aunt Paulies for a 4th of July cookout, & went out to great uncle Pauls farm where Silas saw horses and chickens for the first time: 

A few weeks later Ryan went on a business cruise while i was back in New England for the wedding of my cousin Sean and his beautiful bride Kim:

Lovebirds. 

sleepy baby at the wedding, 

and further proof of "that parent" syndrome. 

another first. 

The final trip of the summer was to Florida for my best friends wedding and THAT glorious occasion gets a post all its own. Stay tuned! 

Ghost.

See? i knew i would be negligent at this blogging thing.

Although i have an excuse: i dont like to post without photos and my iphoto is currently full.
i didnt even know that could happen.

So, i'll have to track down the elusive external hard-drive and move them all.

Until then...

...you saw me standing alone!

In 2007 i had a job traveling all over the country - from San Diego to Miami to Minnesota and back. 
My team of 3 and i cruised the highways and got into a fair amount of mischief. 


and we ate. 
a lot.  


While the 4 of us had vastly differing palates, one area we could all agree on was barbecue. Fortunately our tour kept us in the South quite a bit, and we were able to get more than our fair share of it. 


*High-five to church pot-lucks in Alabama!* 


We spent the last two weeks of our 5 month tour (yes, i lived in a van for 5 months. and it was glorious. most of the time.) in Atlanta - and it was here we found THE bbq joint. Daddy Dz.


                                           


Just loooook at her! If being on the road taught me one thing about food - its that places that look as though they would fail the heath code rating - almost always have some seriously good eats. 


Daddy Dz is very small. It has a dirt floor in places, picnic tables inside, bags of water hanging from the windows (to keep the flies away), a lawn mower in the bathroom, live music every weekend, and if you foolishly try to go there between lunch and dinner time - youll be told there will be no meat ready for at least another 3 hours. 


It is the best bbq i have ever had. 


Now, living in Florida for most of my life, i am well aware there is a debate among Southerners that says Florida is not "the south". 


While I'm sure those in favor of this argument have some valid points - all i know is i once worked here: 
                                                   
and it doesn't get much more Southern that that. Even smack dab in the middle of FL. 
Jimbos is the next best bbq i've ever had. They too have only picnic tables inside, a bowl full of pickles on every table, beans from a pot that never gets washed, a sketchy ice machine that meant sometimes warm sweet tea was served, hushpuppies that melt in your mouth, and a kitchen full of women who spend their days dishing out ribs and singing gospel. I loved LOVED that job. 


Jimbos introduced me to that Southern classic - pulled pork sandwich. 
Since moving to Colorado, i haven't been able to find decent ribs or pulled pork anywhere - much to my dismay - so i cracked open a bottle of beer. 




For Blue Moon pulled pork of course! Cue the oldie: "Blue mooooooon! You saw me standing aloooone!" 


First, assemble ingredients. 

Not pictured: pork butt or shoulder, carrots, potatoes. 

• Blue Moon
• Beef broth
• Brown Sugar
• Cayenne pepper
• Lawrys seasoned salt or regular table salt
• Pepper
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic

The measurements for this recipe are flexable, because it all depends on the size of the pork butt or shoulder you are preparing. As long as the liquid covers the top of the pork and is split 50/50 broth and beer - its correct. 


Turn crock pot on low setting. Roughly chop garlic - pierce pork with knife in several spots and insert pieces. Rub a good amount of salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne into pork. 
Place the pork fat side up, cover with equal parts beer and broth. Mix in brown sugar (i used 1/2 a cup for my 3 pound shoulder).


Chop up a few carrots and potatoes and place in crock pot

 

Cook low and slow until the meat easily pulls off when tugged at with a fork. Taste and season as needed. 

I was preparing mine for a lunch, so i started it the night before and left it to cook overnight. 

Remove cooked pork from crock pot and separate into sections. Place one of the sections on a plate or in a large baking dish, take two forks, and begin shredding the meat. 
                                     

                                      

Move shredded meat into an oven safe casserole. If the shredding/pulling process takes a while, after you're done, cover the dish with foil and stick it in the oven to re-heat before serving. 

                                    

Heap a generous amount on a hamburger bun, slather on some bbq sauce and enjoy with a side of potatoes and carrots. 

                                    

                                    

If you have a lot of prep time, remove potatoes and carrots from cooking liquid, wait till they have cooled, chop up and mix with some mayonnaise, peas, chopped onion, salt and pepper and make a blue moon potato salad!

For dinner - serve the pork just as it is on a plate with the potatoes and carrots. 

You can also take some of the leftover cooking liquid, stick it on the stove, mix in a little flour, and stir until it thickens to make a gravy for the meat that is insanely delicious. 

Enjoy! 

Julia Child. Amen.

I'm currently reading Julia Childs book - My life in France.
Its fantastic. The way she describes food makes me wish the recipes were right there in the book.
Naturally, i wanted to make her most famous recipe while reading it - so i tackled it.

The recipe is time consuming and detailed, but oh so worth it!
I made it over the course of 2 days (as i foolishly started at 8pm) but it turned out amazing so i dont think it was a problem!

Before we get started, i think its important to note i am not a food photographer :)

Beouf Bourgenonne. <--link/source!

Assemble your ingredients

• 6oz salt pork - i could only find a 12 oz package, so i just cut it in half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 3 pounds lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes
• 1 sliced carrot
• 1 sliced onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups Chianti wine
• 3 cups brown beef stock 
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves mashed garlic
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• A crumbled bay leaf
• The blanched bacon rind
• 18 to 24 pearl onions 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• salt & fresh ground pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig thyme
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Parsley sprigs

Yes some of the ingredients repeat themselves - the recipe is done in stages, so thats how its written out. You'll use them all! 

Remove rind, and cut salt pork into lardoons (sticks, ¼-inch thick and 1 1/2-inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 ½ quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Now - here the recipe calls for you to use a French oven: 

swoon!

As i dont (yet!) have one of these beauties, i used a frying pan and then my crock pot - worked out just fine! 

Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

                                      

Ya know that grits recipe i posted 2 days ago? Yea, there they are boiling away while i fry the bacon. 

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the onion and carrot. Pour out the sautéing fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the veggies (move into oven safe dish) and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour. Set uncovered in middle of pre-heated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust. Remove dish, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

(Move meat and veggies into stock pot on stove) Stir in the wine and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole (or in my case, move into crock pot) and set in lower third of pre-heated oven (turn crock pot on low). Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 ½ to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

Remember what i said about not being a food photographer? Yikes. 


This is where i stopped for the night. After it cooked for 3 hours, i took the crock-pot out of the base and stuck it in the fridge on a pot holder.


Next (or while the beef is cooking) prepare the onions and mushrooms.

The onions i bought had the skins on, so i boiled a few inches of water and stuck them in there for a minute or so. This loosened up the skins and made them much easier to peel.

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet and add the onions to the skillet. Sauté over medium heat for about ten minutes, rolling the onions about so they brown as evenly as possible, without breaking apart. Pour in the stock, season to taste, add the herbs, and cover. Simmer over low heat for about 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape and the liquid has mostly evaporated. Remove the herbs and set the onions aside.

                                      

For the mushrooms, heat the butter and oil over high heat in a large skillet. As soon as the foam begins to subside add the mushrooms and toss and shake the pan for about five minutes. As soon as they have browned lightly, remove from heat. Set the mushrooms aside until needed.

Hm...apparently i didnt take any photos of the mushrooms. 

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it (i skipped that step - as you can see). Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.

Skim the fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 ½ cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. 

For immediate serving: Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Place parsley springs on top and serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles, or rice and decorated with parsley. Or simply serve in a bowl with a piece of fresh bread. 

yum. 

Bon appetit!

For later serving: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Thank you Julia Child. Amen. 

Simple Eats.

Before i left for New York and Maine (impromptu trip added to the end of the NY trip) i made Julia Childs famous Boeuf a la Bourguignonne and Poulet en Cocotte Grand-Mere from Le Cordon Bleu at Home. I didn't take any pictures of the poulet process, which was not complicated but certainly time consuming, but i would encourage EVERYONE to give it a try. The end result is out of this world. 

The boeuf took me 2 days to complete....this could be because i started it at 8pm, but nevertheless it was intense. Complicated and time consuming. It was also easily one of the best things i have ever eaten.

While i will be posting that step-by-step recipe here, i thought i would start with something simpler - which i made WHILE i was cooking the bourguignonne recipe. insane.


This whole recipe happened because the first step of making the boeuf is to cut up a slap of salt pork and then boil those pieces. So i did. Then i had this pot of nicely flavored water, and it seemed a shame to just throw it out.

So after i removed the salt pork, i threw in a cup of grits - polenta for those not from the south. 

                                       

After these boiled away tightly covered for 5min. i removed them from the heat, stirred in a half cup of heavy cream, a few pieces of smoked provalone, salt and pepper. 

Heres all the ingredients: 

                                        

And thats it! 7min. from start to finish! 

I sprinkled some cayenne on top and the end result was cheesy creamy grits with some heat and just a hint of smoky bacon. Yum. 

I stuck the leftovers in the fridge, and if i had though of it the next morning, would have made grit cakes! To do that you simply form the cold grits into 1/2 inch thick patties and fry them in a skillet with some butter. It would have been so fantastic with a fried egg laid over the top of the patty...im sad i didnt think of it before! 

Off to upload the photos i took in the past 2 weeks...theres over 1500 of them. yikes. 

I'm lame...

for not updating in so long.

Alternative title:
I have about 100 post ideas...
nearly all complete with photos, that i just need to type out and stick on up.

Alternative title:
Julia Child. Amen.

Alternative title:
I made the top 5!!...
and went to NYC for almost a week!

Alternative title:
Aunt Bet(t)...
whom i miss dearly.

Alternative title:
Scare List checkup...
2 items checked off in the past week.

Its been a very intense past 3 weeks.

Going home tomorrow. Posting every day till...forever. or until the typing has caught up with my brain.

and my photobucket.

New York and the baby.

Voting for The Tonys contest has ended, and results will be in Thursday.
If I'm honest, i don't see how i could have gotten it, as i know at least one other competitor stayed up voting for 21 hours straight.

I have a baby. I can't do that.
So we shall see.

Speaking of that baby, he wont sleep. or eat. or be happy. and i hope he's teething, or this 8 days of continuous crying will be the end of me. Today we tried teething gel, teething tablets, ice, baths, walking, driving, a frozen washcloth, sweet baby foods, singing, clapping, every toy he owns, etc. Nothing helped.

Does anyone have any remedies i've missed?

....i really hope that wanting a break doesn't mean im a bad mother.

moving quickly past that nagging thought:
My french press broke today. Silas would not fall asleep and was most certainly not going to stop crying, so i finally packed him up and stuck him in the car. Sure enough, he fell asleep as i drove to a little bakery i've been wanting to check out. Bought a loaf of sourdough* and a ham and cheese croissant**.  Decided what would make me feel a bit more sane would be to curl up with coffee, the croissant, and Julia Childs book "My Life in France" - which i picked up a few days ago from the library.  Backtracked and drove all the way to the school to pick up the press, drove home, and as i opened the passenger side door, it tumbled out and shattered at my feet. I watched the whole thing happen and couldn't do anything about it as i was holding a car-seat. To top it off, as soon as we walked back in the door, Silas started screaming again.

i may or may not have called Ryan crying, demanding to know "if this day could BE any worse?!"
i have a flair for the dramatic.

He came home and let me escape outside while he made dinner.
Love that man.

Feeling more sane now. My mini-escape let me work on some chairs for Silas' room, and pull some weeds from the backyard garden. Which is doing FANTASTIC! i ate the first ripe strawberries tonight :)

These are the chairs im currently re-vamping:

And a hint as to their intended outcome:

I found them at a yard sale and the lady just gave them to me! She also told me they were used as barstools in the old downtown diner - which closed years ago and is now a RiteAid ("like a baby Gap" Anyone?). That means Ryans father sat in them when he was a little boy!  I'll post pictures as soon as they're done. 

Off to bed! 

*Lovely, though not what i was expecting. Not your typical sourdough.
**Meh. Decent, but simultaneously crispy and chewy pastry - and unidentifiable cheese.
Seriously, how difficult is it to pair ham with swiss or a strong cheddar?