Beets

Check out these beets from our garden.  We're growing different kinds of hybrid and heirloom beets including white, golden, bullseye, and your standard red.

Angry Birds

There's this app called Angry Birds.  Have you heard of it?  Chris is obsessed.  So there's these pigs that stole and fried some bird eggs.  This makes the birds angry. The whole game is about attacking the pigs. Not overly complicated, see.

Chris' favorite character is the bomb bird.   I feel like this says a lot about him.

For our two year anniversary, in addition to some garden clogs and a head lamp (so he can garden in the dark), I made him an angry bird.  It looks like the crafts project that it is.

Edited to add:  This would have a home on www.regretsy.com

The good word

My breath was stanking up a storm while I was at Hobby Lobby (the South's answer to Michael's Arts & Crafts) when I spied these mints:

I KID YOU NOT.  Of course I had to buy them.  Didn't you see on the cover?  It comes with a free passage from the scriptures.  Because I'm a little slow and take pictures literally, I was expecting like a mini fold-out bible-looking thing or maybe an inside cover coated with tiny little words of God.  No.  This is what they meant:

Oh fine.  But what a conversation starter.

Jello Shots!

I shared this blog post from Clockwork Lemon with Chris and he was psyched.  She used a petit-four pan as a jello mold.  We own the same pan! But you know what she was missing?  ALCOHOL.  Woo-hoo, we're classing up the joint.  Chris made some for a backyard BBQ.  Not as appropriate as pasta salad, but perhaps more welcome.

Ta Da!  I took these pics with Chris's fancy SLR, but have not yet mastered depth of field.

The flavors were rum & coke, orange vodka creamsicle, lemon vodka, fresh blueberry puree with rum,  sake with gummi bears, and strawberry with vodka cream.  Delicious.  Chris had made these before for a birthday party so he actually already had all these recipes.

Chilling in the fridge.  To create layers, he had to chill then pour then chill again.

We also made regular ol' jello shots in these little sample cups.  Chris layered these too.  Because they came with lids, they were fast and easy to stack on top of each other.  The molds are pretty but they're not quick.

Jello shot cups with the first layer of flavor.  Note the tupperware full of complete shots in the back.

Sake jello shots!  Chris floats a gummi bear in the middle.  It looks like the Japanese flag (sorta) this way.

Inevitably, there is leftover jello.  Chris poured whatever was left in layers in a regular bowl and chopped them up.
This was very tasty.

Making jello shots requires a lot of fridge space. By the end, our fridge mostly held jello and beer.  What did I tell you?  Classy.

Oh, and here's an attempt at artsy fartsiness.  While Chris was busy working, I was kind of hanging around, sampling, and, as a result, getting increasingly tipsy.  Those things sneak up on you.

Camera Bag

Needed-- ok, really more like wanted-- a new durable tote bag to lug a small number of books and such around campus.  I saw a cool bag on How About Orange and decided to replicate the bag there.  The original was attractive for its minimalism, but I had to compromise with sturdier fabrics and thicker straps.   As my mechanical guide, I referred to Simplicity's free online tutorial to get a sense of how to cut the fabric, where to attach straps, and fitting in the lining.  Had to adjust the dimensions and, crap, use math for that.

The finished product:

Measurements: 12x10x4.  Enough for my macbook and books.

The Process:

Cheap fabric:  Duck cloth (beige canvas, but way thicker) 1/2 yard, 1/4 yard blue upholstery fabric, dark blue fabric I didn't end up using, and 1/2 yd of cheap yellow cotton for lining.  I liked the brighter blue as a touch of Marc Jacobs-esque whimsy.

Sewed camera by cutting out shape, tracing lines I wanted in pencil and then stitching it in with white fabric.  Had to hand-stitch the lettering though.  I used this anti-fraying liquid around the edge to prevent unraveling.

One side done!  Backed the blue handles in duck cloth since I didn't think it'd be sturdy enough to survive my abuse.

From the backside!  You can see I didn't sew the handles all the way to the top.  That's cause I can't attach the lining easily without a bit of gap there.

With attached lining.  Added pockets to the lining to keep track of wallets, keys, etc.

One more for good measure!

Procrastination = new apron

Maybe I didn't need an apron (so much to do), but after looking at Anthropologie's aprons, I suddenly craved one.  Imagine, a frilly pretty girly way of hiding the fact that you spill everything on yourself always?  I need an apron for life.

So I took an old summer dress that I like to say was falling apart but really was way too tight to zip up anymore and a pair of khaki's I don't wear and made me an apron.  Figured khaki was good because it was made of firmer stuff than the filmsy summer dress.

Here's the result of an afternoon successfully avoiding my other work:

Khakis

 Original Dress

Khakis + Dress = Apron

Back of Apron

Some Yum Eats

Here's some recipes I've tried over the past few weeks which are fab and delish. You'll note that the Indian dishes aren't from actual Indian people... well... what can I say? Traitorous. Or maybe these dishes are best described as "inspired by" rather than straight-up authentic. They taste just like how I remember them when I was in India. Or do they? It's been five years. Let's just go with "delicious" and leave it at that.

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food Vindaloo
I make this with chicken or pork or whatever's in the freezer without marinating. It takes me 2-3 hours to do this thing because it involves toasting and grinding spices. But this is ohmigoddelicious. So pungent and flavorful. I'd even go so far as to say it's the best vindaloo I've had. Someday soon, I'm just going to go ahead and make and freeze the vindaloo paste so that this can magically become a quick meal.

Here's the recipe: http://offthespork.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

The picture is from Off the Spork too.

Emeril Lagasse's Tandoori Chicken

This calls for a grill. Baking in an oven at the highest possible temp followed by 3 minutes under the broil under high gets a close approximation of the tandoori oven.

Recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/grilled-tandoori-chicken-recipe/index.html

Photo from Mad Man the Mighty. His photo is how tandoori made at home looks like rather than the bright red that you get from food dye at restaurants. You can get those crisp burnt edges from the broiler.

Cold Thai Salad

This is an adaptation of other recipes using whatever vegetables and pasta I had on hand. It's quick sesame-spicy deliciousness with a hint of lime tang. Perfect for hot days.

Dressing

I prefer a lightly dressed salad. I ended up only using maybe 3/4 of the dressing for an 11 by 5 inch bowl of thai salad.... that was like 3/4s of a box of pasta.

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

5 tbsp dark soy sauce (any will do, dark is a bit nuttier)

1-2 tsp of chili garlic sauce (or whatever spicy thing you have on hand)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 lime (2-3 tablespoons of juice)

2 garlic cloves minced

1 green onion, thinly sliced

Make pasta. Stir fry whatever vegetables you like until done; sprinkle with a pinch or two or salt. I had zucchini and tomatoes on hand from the garden. I boiled green beans too because they have such a slower stir-fry time than the other ingredients... can never get the timing right on those. Drain juices from vegetables if there is any. Chill everything for a few minutes or until it's not hot. I do this to avoid cooking the pasta further via the slightly hot juices of the vegetables. Toss together with a cup of chopped thai basil (really, this is much better than italian basil for this) and a cup of cilantro. Serve when cold.

Strawberry Chocolate Tart

Oh my god this tart is decadent. It's delicious amazing tingle-inducing crazy yum. The recipe says it serves 9... but that's only if people aren't greedy. I had two slices and thought I'd never move again.

The recipe is originally from Ms. Martha Stewart but is shocking in its simplicity. This is super super easy. The original calls for raspberries, but whatever fruit tastes good with chocolate (um, all of them) will make a fine topping. A friend and I did this in lieu of bar hopping... and finished in time to feed it to our friends that did go out to the bars. The best part is the next day: the fruit juices sink into the tart and flavor the chocolate extra.

Ingredients:

8 oz box of whatever graham cracker thing you have (MS suggests chocolate wafers... we used chocolate Teddy Grahams and both agreed that you couldn't taste the chocolate in it)

2 tbls sugar

Salt

6 tbls unsalted butter, melted

12 oz chocolate chips (Ghiradelli 80% cocoa is perfect)

1 1/4 c heavy cream

fresh fruit for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine cookies, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process until very fine crumbs form. Add butter and pulse until mixture just comes together. Press crumbs firmly into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Place on a baking sheet and bake until crust is dry and set, 20 minutes. Let cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine chocolate and a pinch of salt. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a bare simmer over medium-high. Immediately pour cream over chocolate and let stand 1 minute. Stir gently until chocolate melts and mixture is completely smooth. Pour chocolate into cooled tart shell and refrigerate until set, 30 minutes. To serve, remove tart from pan and scatter fruit on top.

We're having our second annual bbq rib-off at our house this weekend. So looking forward to the good eats! YUM.

Junking

I love me some junking-- flea markets, antique shops, yard sales, and the front of houses where people dump their broken furniture for the city to pick up. Chris's family encourages this desire. When we visited them in Michigan, we went a-junking. I grabbed a couple handfuls of change from his mom's giant change jar, woke up extra-early, and was rearing to go. Those

little old ladies didn't stand a chance against my mad bargaining skillz.

This is Chris's face of groggy happiness (early morning)...

For there were gloves... and he needed gloves...

Must be where various ne'er-do-wells go to buy finger-print concealing gloves... gloves of all shape, color and function...

This was a weird flea market. There were lots of unused convenience store products for sale. On the whole, this was a working-class kind of place that was high on the functional stuff and low on the decorative.

They also sold guns and weapons of various sorts. I tried to get a picture of the shady guys selling unmarked guns to even shadier looking guys, but Chris wisely told me "that's a bad idea." So I took a picture of this wagon cause, someday, those nervous-looking fellas might end up in The Detroit News:

The gems were few and far between. But check out this vintage cooler! I liked that it's labeled "Magickooler" and "Leisure Chest". If you owned this, you could say things like, "I never go to the beach without my magical leisure chest whilst wearing my leisure suit." Alas, they wanted $15 which is more change than I had. But man, you know that thing would've been $70 in Provincetown.

And here's a framed Jesus art print. His mustache is made from an image of his corpse bent backwards.

Or, instead, you could hang up a smiling Betty Bop purse on your wall!

I like the drive back and forth between NC and Michigan. There's lots of fun billboards to read. Saw one in West Virginia that was anti-evolution. No, seriously. It was advocating against the idea of evolution because that's not how God does things.

West Virginia's a conservative place, no doubt. They are excellent at shock... here's an extremely disturbing old-school anti-abortion display in an antique shop. The modern version is those planes that fly over popular beaches trailing gruesome pictures:

But Ohio, dear sweet blunt Ohio, is a less strident place. We picked up this vintage vibrator at an antique shop there!

The original advert... it "gives strength":

Yeah, he's kind of amazing.

When Chris and I first talked about moving to North Carolina, one of his first comments was, "Finally, land for a garden." We had a small garden in Boston, but man, that must've felt like half a sneeze to him. Because this is what he's done with our land...

This is the real estate photo of the house (note that landscaping consisted of two trees on the front and driveways on either side):

Front of the house a few months before we moved in, January 2008:

One year later... 2009:

Taken early Spring, 2010... no lawn, all paths and garden:

Then there was the side yard, previously gravel and weeds. The house came with two driveways since it was formerly a two-family.

Here it is with a side garden and fruit trees. The gravel driveway was covered over with grass and various weeds mowed down to grass-level. You can't even tell it was a driveway! 2009:

Close up of side garden, 2009:

Late in the summer, Chris added a raised fountain. We're currently working on the raised garden beds that'll flank this fountain. 2009:

Here it is as it looks now. The grass and weeds have been turned under and piled with dirt in preparation for the raised beds:

And this is early Spring.... wait until the summer hits and these plants take over in a forest of lushness. There's even fruit on our peach, pear, apple, and apricot trees!