July 3, 2009

A two-fold celebration: anniversary and book release

In our family, celebrations of holidays and anniversaries tend to be a several day event.

Mainly because Tim has trouble waiting until the Day Itself for everything to get started. He's like a kid at Christmas time. Actually, it works out kind of well. Since we always seem to be with extended family for big events, we have our quietish little celebration a day or two before. And now he's influenced me.

But this week, we had two things to celebrate: our anniversary (today!), and the release of my first "edition," Stephen Collins Foster: Sixty Favorite Songs. I'm really giddy, can't believe that there's something with my name on it on Amazon. It has cause me to burst forth into doo-dah's several times over the past few days, though I've avoided any banjos on my knees or trips down the Suwannee River (to this point).

It was a project that I worked on for several summers while I was in Pittsburgh, working at the Center for American Music. The main benefit to my musical life is that I now can pick out obscure Stephen Foster song references from Looney Tunes cartoons.

So, last night was a combination of a pre-anniversary celebration and a very private book-release celebration.

Macedonia was on the menu. Kind of fitting because we had dreamed for years of being on that side of the world for our fifth anniversary, Italy to be specific. But we'll dream a little longer and enjoy our virtual travels through food and Rick Steves.

Tiramasu and Rogue chocolate stout rounded out the evening (Tim has indeed introduced me to the multi-faceted wonders of fine beers) (it tastes like adult chocolate milk, so yummy).

The beer theme will continue this evening for our real celebration--so stay tuned! In fact, I think this may be the theme of our anniversary this year. When I talked to Tim last night about celebrating five years, he thought I was talking about five beers.

And we watched North and South--that might deserve a post in itself one of these days. We *heart* Elizabeth Gaskell, she's like a synthesis of all that's best in Dickens, Austen, and the Brontes. I was thinking last night that while Austen is more like watercolors, Gaskell is more like a charcoal drawing, with thick, heavy, strong characters.

Jo , Tim , music stuff | By Tim and Jo | 11:00 AM | Comments (1)

My Kitchen, My World: Macedonia

Okay, here's my take on Macedonian foods, using some traditional ingredients (though I didn't use a traditional recipe, I just worked from some stuff we had on hand). The main dish was peppers stuffed with bulgur wheat, sausage, and feta. I served it along with olives (Greek and kalamata), pita bread with a garlic-yogurt sauce, and tomatoes with pesto. This is a nice thing to do with seasonal ingredients these days (a la CSA boxes, even though we took a short break from those with friends out of town and went to a farmer's market instead).

Stuffed peppers with bulgur wheat, sausage, and feta

8-10 small to medium bell peppers (I used green, use any color you'd like), with tops cut off, deseeded, and any large veins pulled out
1/2 lb. sausage (I used feta and sun-dried tomato chicken sausage)
1 large onion, diced finely
1 cup bulgur wheat
2 cups of water
4-5 sundried tomatoes in oil, diced (I use kitchen scissors for these)
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup golden raisins
Salt and pepper to taste
A few tablespoons fresh herbs (I used parsley--mint or basil would be nice)
1/2 tsp. all-spice (if desired--I added too much by hand, eek)
Some more feta for sprinkling, if desired.

1) Cook sausage and onions, removing casings and crumbling in pan. Drain if needed.
2) Add bulgur wheat and water, cook until water is mostly absorbed (about 5-10 minutes) (it will cook further in the pepper.
3) Turn the heat off, and stir in the other ingredients
4) Stuff the peppers
5) At this point, I froze the peppers, wrapping individually in plastic wrap, and dropping them in baggies (we have enough for several more meals).
6) Cook at 375 for about 40-50 minutes (longer if frozen), until peppers are tender.
7) Alternatively--I might do this next time--drop peppers in the crockpot, with an inch or so of water or tomato sauce, and cook on low for 4-5 hours. This would make the peppers more tender (I'll let you know when I try this out). Or I've seen some recipes that parboil the peppers for a few minutes so that they'll be more tender.
8) Garnish with crumbled feta

Feta and garlic yogurt sauce

2 cups Greek yogurt (this stuff is so thick and yummy, even the non-fat stuff)
1 head roasted garlic (I had some on hand, you can use fresh garlic, but use much, much less, maybe 2-4 cloves) (If you want to roast your own, peel the papery stuff off the garlic leaving the cloves intact on the head, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil, cook at 400 for about an hour, until cloves are tender and a little caramelized)
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
A pinch of chipotle powder or chili powder, if desired.

[this would be tzatziki sauce if you added some shredded cucumber. It would also be lovely with some fresh herbs, mint or parsley, or tomatoes]

1) Squeeze the garlic cloves into a bowl. Mash together with the salt until pasty
2) Stir in the yogurt, crumbled feta and any herbs, spices or vegetables you'd like.

Tomatoes with pesto

Not even going to bother with a recipe here! I just sliced a few cherry tomatoes in half, and dolloped them with a little bit of prepared pesto (lemon, basil and caper pesto from the Dekalb Farmer's Market). They would make lovely appetizers for a party, they're so bright and fresh looking.

CSA , My Kitchen, My World , cooking stuff | By Tim and Jo | 10:31 AM | Comments (0)

July 2, 2009

First tea party at (Great) Grammy's house

Complete with water (which promptly was poured out), and rice cakes (which were devoured).

deux bebes , family | By Tim and Jo | 1:11 PM | Comments (1)

June 29, 2009

Best puzzle ever

This Melissa and Doug set is the best puzzle ever. Ever. Our kids love it.

It has 10 puzzle sides with interchangeable shapes. It's recommended for 2 and up, but our kids love it already. Elanor will pick up a shape and if it doesn't fit on the puzzle she's working on, she'll scan all the other ones until she finds it's right place (is that really smart? or is that normal 19 month old behavior? 'Cuz sometimes they do these things that seem really intelligent to me, but I try not to think about it too much because I don't want to pressure them to be super smart). Not only that, the triangles can be put together to fit in the square places and the squares can go together to fit in the rectangles (Ian discovered that last bit) (triangles still have them a little perplexed, though, but that's a challenge that will keep them working on it into the future).

And if you lose a puzzle piece, the whole puzzle isn't ruined, unlike many puzzles.

And they love putting the pieces back into the box and taking them out again.

And the pictures are some of their favorite things, an oof-oof, a pop-pop-pop (my attempt at their fishy sound), a fire truck, and so forth.

And there are enough puzzles that two or more kids can work on the same toy at the same time without fighting (ahem, not that that ever happens in our house)

And it has bright colors that you can use to talk about as you're directing them, "Can you pick up the green oval?"

And it's interesting enough to engage mommy's attention for a long span, too.

deux bebes | By Tim and Jo | 12:49 PM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2009

Ian on the chopping block

Tim: Ian got his first haircut! He was starting to look a bit Einsteinian, especially when held upside down. We deliberated for over a month if we should cut it ourselves or if we should take him to our next door neighbor (a cosmetologist).

One night I just said, let's do it, it can't be that difficult. So we kept Ian in his feeding chair after dinner, sprayed his head with a spray bottle and (after singing "welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop, let me shave your crop!") I began.

The first attempt was disastrous....

So was the second. My factotum skills were in serious question.

The third was acomplete success! Look at that boy!

He cried a little because he didn't like having a wet head, but didn't squirm. He's quite a sporty looking chap now. He looks like a little toddler boy and not a baby. We'll let Elanor's hair grow a while longer to see what it does. She has some major curls going on and we wouldn't want to impede progress.

Ian's idiosyncracies , Tim | By Tim and Jo | 4:04 PM | Comments (4)

June 26, 2009

'Cuz we all know that sforks are sfunny

They're at the age where they *know* when they're trying to be funny. The other morning, when I would feed a bite to one, the other would sneakily put the sfork in their mouth to surprise me when I turned to them. Only, they were giggling so hard that the practical joke never quite came off.

By the way, Ian still laughs so hard that he gets hiccups. Think of "Hahaha-HIC-haha-HIC-hahahaha-HIC" as the soundtrack to this whole event.

deux bebes , funny | By Tim and Jo | 12:52 PM | Comments (2)