Homebrewed Beer

A few weeks ago, we started our first batch of homebrewed beer, a Hazelnut Brown Ale. The brewing part was fun, cooking a bunch of grains outside and then adding in all the extracts, hops, etc. I don't really understand the "science" of beer making, but it smells like baking bread which is always a good thing in my book! A handled the demanding parts of the gig.

Then, yesterday, after 2 weeks fermenting in the carboy, it was ready for one week in the keg/bottles before everyone drinks it. A spent the early morning bottling and kegging, I took a few snaps before I headed out to family fun. We'd only had about four hours of sleep after driving home late on Christmas night, so there was a pretty serious napfest later in the afternoon. Beer photos:

Beer in "carboy", so blurry

Empty Cornelius keg (5-gallon)

Sleepy Andy

Carboy, again

If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate...

I had this song in my head during the past week and 1/2. And, to be honest, I don't mind. I kind of want her to sing that at the Super Bowl. Also, hello! We just got back home after some holiday fun in my hometown, and so I thought I'd upload some photos from the past little bit of time, from holiday fun with friends and our families. There are quite a few photos here:

There was gift wrapping and tree decorating.

There was beer drinking with friends (not sure which friend took this?)

There were woofers.

Several woofers.

Up close woofers!

My step-dad's full grown holly bush, we decked the breakfast table with boughs of holly. Fa-la-la!

A and one of the many babies that were romping around. He's modeling jewelry.

Christmas breakfast!

There was a Papa Bear sighting!

There were more babies, and silly hats.

My grandmother's tree, full of ornaments from three generations of my family.

Now we're back home, with lots to do and enjoy still! I hope your holidays were spent enjoying time away from work, laughing and chatting with the people you love. Now, go listen to a bunch of old Madonna songs.

A cold

I've got a cold, which in general is a bummer. But do you know what's not a bummer? These:

These are the truth. Go find them. Don't have a cold? I kind of hope you get one so that you can see how nice these are.

I don't really hope you get a cold. I apologize for saying that. I'll go back to drinking soup now.

Satay Sauce, adapted

Sauce, jarred

Do you love really authentic Thai food? Something painstakingly reconstructed from an old recipe handed down through a family? Something just like what you'd get at a family house in Pattaya? Well, this is probably not the blog for you! Try out this because it looks pretty awesome. For the rest of you, welcome!

I like satay sauce (the peanuty sauce that comes with the moo satay at your favorite Thai restaurant), but the one time I bought a bottled version it was really dull. So, when I came across a recipe in my current favorite cookbook, I thought I'd try it out. It's awesome, but it does take a little over an hour. So last night I thought I'd try to adapt it some so that I could 1) make it before 10 pm  and 2) not have to use my food processor. I also adapted some of the spices and sugar so that it wouldn't be overly sweet.

Sauce cooking, pre-peanut butter

Satay Sauce, adapted from Ottolenghi's Plenty

A few of these ingredients might be hard to find if you don't have a good Asian or Thai grocery store where you are. Our grocery stores tend to stock their "international" sections pretty well, so you might be surprised by how much you can pick up. If you can't find tamarind paste, try using red curry paste, roasted if you can find it but plain will work too. You might need to add more if you use the curry paste, so taste as you go. For the lemongrass and ginger, you can chop them up fresh or pick up the pre-minced versions in the tube. If you want a smoother sauce, process the garlic, lemongrass, sambal oelek and ginger before you cook them and use smooth peanut butter instead of chunky. The whole recipe is really adjustable, so play around with the amounts of everything to find what you'd like most.

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbl lemongrass, minced

3 Tbl sambal oelek

2 Tbl minced ginger (or two small pieces)

1/3 cup grapeseed oil (or another mild oil you have, avoid olive oil)

1 Tbl salt

5 Tbl sugar

1 Tbl sweet paprika

2 Tbl tamarind paste, whisked with a bit of water to thin

1 cup natural peanut butter, chunky

In a small saucepan, whisk the oil with the garlic, lemongrass, sambal oelek and ginger. Bring it all to a medium heat, whisking frequently. You want the mixture to be uniform, with only minimal separation between the oil and the paste. Once it starts to bubble a bit, reduce the heat to medium-low. Keep stirring and let it cook for about 10 minutes. 

In a small bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, paprika and thinned tamarind paste. Add these to the saucepan, and whisk thoroughly. It should look even more uniform. Cook for another 10 minutes. At this point, the mixture should be fairly thick. When you drag the whisk across the paste, it should take a few seconds for it to flow back into the path made by your whisk. If not, bring your heat up a bit (not past medium) and continue to cook. Once the paste is thick enough, bring the paste to low heat and whisk in your peanut butter. Whisk until it is uniform, then remove from heat.

At this point, I added the sauce to two jars and set aside for it to cool. It'll keep in the refrigerator for at least a week.

I like to use the sauce in a lot of ways. Thin a bit out with water and marinate tofu in it. Then grill or bake the tofu. I also like to whisk some with a few tablespoons of coconut milk and simmer vegetables in it. Or, use as is to dip vegetables, baked tofu or grilled meats. Mix it into soba noodles or whisk some into a soup. It's pretty versatile.

Weekend in Review

This weekend was a nice mix of relaxing and being productive. My step-dad and brother headed in to town and while my step-dad and A went to a soccer tournament in Alabama on Friday and Saturday my brother and I caught up, played around Jackson and spent lots of time drinking coffee and laughing. It had been awhile since I'd seen either of them, and it was nice to see them before I'm back in my hometown for the holiday shuffle. Also, my step-dad is now a blog reader! Hi!!

I didn't take many photos, but here's what I've got:

Unpacked shelves!

Coffee like this

Bailey and pacifier

Afternoon light

June harasses Noahman, Noahman loves it

Notes:
We're almost all unpacked, the office still needs some work. But that means like 98% of the house is done. Artwork isn't hung, but we're looking to buy a few more pieces before we hang any. It's so nice to be almost settled.
This method of making coffee is surprisingly fast but does take some manual labor. My brother and I liked it, my step dad and A deemed it "not good enough for all that work"
I hesitated to show you the Bailey and pacificer photo. It's a real toy and she loves it. I like to say things like "when you're 13 and in braces don't blame me" to her while she carries it around all day.
Also, there are no photos of people because 1) I'm not sure everyone would dig being plastered on my blog for tens of readers to see and 2) I'm not great at taking shots of people

November Favorites

Sunrise, Thanksgiving Day

I disappeared for awhile, to unpack, see friends and celebrate Thanksgiving with A's family. I also got sick. But I'm back, mostly. Some of A's family is still in town, but all the festivities are done and it's slowly back to the real world. Or, rather, the real world of the holidays. This year, I'm loving the chilly weather, long nights, and putting the fireplace to use. Here are some favorite things from November!

Reading: The Night Circus My sweet friend Ashley let me borrow this and it's been fantastic. I already can't wait for the eventual movie.
Wearing: This zip-front sweater, in Grey. It's a glorified sweatshirt. The softest sweatshirt ever. Clearly we're in no danger of this becoming a fashion blog.
Eating: Spicy Roasted Broccoli with Almonds from The Sprouted Kitchen. I made this as a side for one of the meals we shared with A's family this past week. And I then proceeded to eat it for the next three days. So good!
Seeing: The Mississippi Museum of Art has some pretty great exhibitions right now, I visited earlier this month and enjoyed it so much. Also, the Palette Cafe serves bangin' Cuban Black Bean Soup.
Hearing: A History of the World in 100 Objects audiobook. Such an interesting listen! I'm still not done with it, I think I'm going to save the second half for our holiday road trips.

Unpacking. Sort of.

When you pack and move and then unpack with another person, you learn so much about them. For example, A is the kind of guy who works for hours on a task until it's completed. I'm the kind of gal who is easily distracted. That's a nice way of saying "I'd rather do almost anything than unpack."

But, we're getting it done! I mean, mostly, A is getting it done. But I'm helping. I'm also watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix. Are you? Why not? Oh, you already watched it? Good.

Magic Sauce

No new photos of the house yet, we've been busy! But, I have some photos I took before the move (and at other people's houses and events) that I'll share.

Magic Sauce, cooking

 I made this sauce recently, and it's amazingly simple and good. I like to stir it into veggies, or put a little in rice. I also use it in eggs sometimes. The key is to not overdo it, it's basically a flavored oil so a little will go a very long way. I keep it in a cruet so it's easy to just use a few drops. Heidi also suggests you use it as a cooking medium. I haven't tried that, but I'm sure it'd be great!

Lemon juice!

Bowl of black beans and quinoa topped with an egg and Magic Sauce

*These photos remind me that I now live in a place with way more natural light. I'll show you soon!

Morning Routines

Over the past year I've tried to develop a morning routine for myself that helps me kick off the day feeling comfortable and calm. That was laughably impossible when I was in school, but now that I'm not I think it's been nice to get into a different groove.

Morning fog

Anderson works nights (only 3 nights a week, and he's off the rest of the week), so once he comes home June follows him to the bedroom to sleep at his feet. That means Bailey is the only woofer around in the mornings, and she soaks up lots of love. Now that it's cooling off, we leave our windows open and she watches all morning long.

Bailey's day gazing

I drink coffee or tea, read a book or a magazine and eat some breakfast. In the warmer months it's iced coffee, fresh fruit or a veggie omelet. Now that it's cooling down, it's tea or hot coffee, steel cut oats or some kind of an egg. (never just Skittles)

Such a good book, very necessary coffee

All in all, mornings have slowly become my favorite part of the day. Like pushing reset on my brain and getting ready for whatever comes.

Moving

We're moving today! To a house! With lots of windows, hardwood floors and plenty of space for us and our sweet woofers. I've scheduled some random posts for next week since I have no idea when our internet is being set-up, and new photos will be around soon I'm sure.

We're literally moving seven minutes from our current apartment, but the change to an actual house will be lovely. Hope everyone has a great weekend, for some of you it's finally time to bust out those benchwarmers (hot cocoa with peppermint schnaps, right?), Irish Coffees and apple cider with lots of rum. For the rest of us...cold beer and margaritas will still do!

Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf

I made the Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf from The Post Punk Kitchen for a brunch recently. It was delicious. It's full of chocolate chips, pumpkin and just enough spice.

I made a few changes to the recipe. I melted 3 oz of dark chocolate in stead of using cocoa powder and used a mix of spelt and whole wheat flour. I was trying to clear some stuff out of our pantry, and since spelt and whole wheat tend to soak up more water than all purpose I think the melted chocolate worked. And, really, no one will complain that the bread is "too moist" or "too chocolatey."

Pumpkin, because fall is here

The boiling water trick works like a charm

Big mess!

Final product (the loaf pan is from Crate and Barrel, orange because it's fall)

Weekend in Review

Heavy-duty packing mode this weekend! Also, some family and friend hangout time, spending a little time at the new place measuring and looking around. The dogs love the backyard already. Also, some baking and attempting to clean out a fridge a bit. To the photos:

Adorable nephew

 

Vegetarian chili (recipe...sometime soon)

Pumpkins! (at my sister-in-law's)

Very early morning eggs with herbs (chives, tarragon, thyme)

Grey afternoon

Making a huge mess

Weekend Notes:
Nothing like laughing with Noah and eating a giant bowl of chili to take your mind off packing and moving.
Those eggs were seriously the best I've ever had. Well, I don't remember them super well since it was 5 am but I bet they were great.
Making a mess of our kitchen wasn't on the packing to-do list, but it resulted in a Chocolate Pumpkin Bread that brought the house down at a brunch. I'll post more about it later this week. Or I'll just post photos of packed boxes and impress you all with my overly involved packing procedure. By "impress" I mean, show you what a crazy person I am. Have a great week!

Weekend in Review

Not many photos of our weekend, it mostly consisted of packing, lounging around and seeing a few friends and family. I did not see Real Steel, because it seems silly. I can't actually tell if the filmmakers are "for real" about that plot? That's neither here nor there!

Pumpkin bread (recipe coming tomorrow)

Bailey, window

China, packed

We can leave our windows open now, the weather has finally started to turn a bit crisp. It tends to warm up by mid-day, but the change is still nice. Packing is kind of a hilarious enterprise at this point, I'll post more later but for now let's just say A and I have already had one pretty silly fight about it.

Friday Five

Woofers

I'm not feeling very positive or optimistic these days, and I'm working on being alright with that. I'm just starting to figure out how I even feel, so we'll see where I end up with all of it. In any case, these small things have made me feel a little less down, and in some cases have at least offered some distraction from "what the hell am I doing with my life?" questions. Always a good distraction. This weekend I'm packing, pumpkin-patching, puppy play-dating. I haven't really seen or talked to A all week since he's been working every night, but it'll be nice to hang out some.

Foggy morning*

Stock photo of Essie's Chinchilly**

Thread, organized***

Petit Pains au Chocolat from here****

*Fall is coming, slowly but surely, here to Mississippi. It's mostly only noticeable in the mornings when it's mild and sometimes a little foggy and at night when it's just chilly enough to need a light sweater to be outside.
**I'm breaking out the fall nail colors, and I'd completely forgotten about Chinchilly. It's really flattering on fair skin folks, and it works on warm and cool skin tones. It's a bit darker than it appears here, but not vampy at all.
***I'm trying to organize the sewing/fabric materials in our spare bedroom, and I've discovered that I've got a ridiculous fabric collection going even though I only sew maybe once a month. And when I say sew I mean "I made pillows and simple a-line skirts". The upshot here is I have a-line skirts in every length, pattern and color I'll ever need.
****A ridiculously easy recipe, I used Valrhona Chocolate and whatever random puff pastry Kroger sells. I think Pepperidge Farms? I brought these to an early morning meeting and the response was almost equal to if I'd walked in with a basket full of yawning puppies. Except they didn't pet the pastries, they ate them. All. Quickly.

Mawwiage

Our marriage is like a recycled tire monster: odd but lots of fun!

As of Saturday, A and I have been married one full year. And it’s been a pretty full year! I wrote a few reflections that I want to share. This won’t be the kind of thing you all dig. So feel free to skip right over it!

My marriage isn’t really a fairy tale, and I don’t generally feel called to describe it as “magical” or “breathtaking.” I think it’s fine for people to do that with their own story, each marriage is probably different. I don’t think Andy is necessarily my “soul mate”, because I don’t really think that’s real. Or maybe for some people it is, but not for us all.

I generally think that I got really lucky to meet and connect with a person when I was pretty young, I was open to a relationship at the same time he was. Somewhere along the way we decided that being with each other was so much better than not. I guess that seems like I’m leaving things out, and I kind of am. But nothing out of the ordinary (we dated, we fought, we made up, we fought louder, we made up, rinse and repeat).

I think that might sound dull, but it isn’t. Or perhaps that it lacks romance or grand, sweeping dramatic gestures. But, really, it’s just honest. Our relationship just has it’s feet firmly placed on the ground. It’s been that way for a long time. So, we got engaged, we planned a wedding (I am leaving a lot out here, planning the wedding was THE WORST) and we got married. And it was beautiful. Our friends and family were there and the whole wedding weekend was kind of like a 48 hour hug with all of the best people in my life. And then our marriage started. Here’s a little of what I learned:

1) Our issues are best solved over beers.
2) Our marriage isn’t about two people becoming one. It’s about two people sharing their lives while  still being individuals.
3) Whatever hard work our marriage requires, we get it back tenfold.
4) Marriage made me a better person. I’m slower to judge, I’m slowly learning to listen more and I am slower to assume I know what another person needs or wants.
5) A and I will never like the same TV shows. Except for Dexter. But everyone likes Dexter.
6) Plenty of people set their expectations for our marriage. The only expectations that actually matter are ours.

Week/Weekend in Review

After a week of traveling around, A and I arrived Friday in Pennsylvania to celebrate a dear friend's wedding along with some of my closest friends. It was a weekend full of giggles, sneezes, drives to and from the Pittsburgh airport (in what might have been the best car rental choice ever),  some dancing, some drinking and some much needed catch-up chats.

I always miss my best friends, but it seems like the days right after a weekend with them are the days when I remember just how much I love being near them. If you have friends who are scattered about and who you don't see often, you'll know what I mean I think. This weekend was tiring and I'm sure we all arrived back home exhausted. But in another sense, I came back home feeling more like myself, happier and more balanced.

I don't have any photos to share, I think a grand total of one photo was taken the whole weekend. So, just take my word for it: Everyone looked great, we smiled a lot.

A and I also celebrated our one year anniversary on Saturday, and I'll share some more thoughts about that in another post this week.

Fall Favorites

"Fall" is slowly creeping in around us. Honestly, I'm not totally sure what the weather has been like. I've been seriously under the weather for a few days now which has equaled almost no time outside. It's actually pretty much equaled me cuddling with Bailey on the couch. It's not so bad I guess.

In any case, here are a few things I've seen around and kind of fallen in love with:

This recipe for Brown Sugar Rosemary Walnuts. I'll be making these to take with me on a few flights next week.

Pumpkin waffles from Smitten Kitchen. We got a waffle iron as a wedding gift and thought we'd never use it. We were so wrong! A sometimes bakes a big batch and freezes them so I can warm them up during the week for breakfast.

These Honey Tobacco Tea Lights. I'm not sure why, but I feel like these will smell perfectly comforting. I love the smell of pipe tobacco, but am highly allergic to smoke. These seem like a nice solution.

The Self Evident Truths Project. A photographer is trying to catalog as many people who identify in any way other than 100% straight in order to capture the incredible diversity within the LGBTQ community in the US. I love the openness and inclusiveness of this project, and can't wait to see more of what's produced.

Make your own Pumpkin Spice Latte. I love these seasonal treats from Starbucks, but now I'm free to delight in it whenever I want! So come May, I'll still be drinking pumpkin coffee, thanks very much.

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka. I'm about halfway through this book, and it's incredible. You've probably heard of it from other people, and pretty much all the great things they say are probably true.

Adorable stationary. I can't decide if I want to order these or attempt to make a similar thing with my sewing machine's embroidery settings.

Clare Vivier Foldover Clutch. I'm partial to the Navy and the Poppy. In person they are so soft and perfectly made.

Weekend in Review

Weekend notes: Friday was A's birthday, and after spending most of the day running errands we were able to slip away for a little time together and some delightful burritos and margaritas. Saturday was time for errand running, a reunion with old religious studies friends (no pictures, unfortunately I forgot the camera), and a new addition to our little family (of the non-child variety). Sunday was a bit of cleaning, shopping and cooking in prep for the coming week. Photos? Why, yes!

Ikea fabrics ready for new projects*

Let the sunshine in

Nature drive**

Goodbye herb garden***

Sunday is Wii time in this household

June and Bailey, romping

*Fabrics--they'll have to wait awhile, I think. I have a ton of ideas for these fabrics, but I feel bad making anything new when we'll be packing it up eventually.

**Whenever my errands take me in the general direction of the Natchez Trace, I try to hop on for at least a little bit to get some fresh air and a little greenery in my life.

***No windowsill herb garden in the fall/winter. I know, we could.