Maine, Revisited

People that build their houses inland,

   People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house, and build a house there,
   Far from the sea-board, far from the sound

Of water sucking the hollow ledges,
   Tons of water striking the shore,--
What do they long for, as I long for
   One salt smell of the sea once more?

People the waves have not awakened,
   Spanking the boats at the harbour's head,
What do they long for, as I long for,--
   Starting up in my inland bed,

Beating the narrow walls, and finding
   Neither a window nor a door,
Screaming to God for death by drowning,--
   One salt taste of the sea once more?

- "Inland" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Portland and Monhegan Island, Maine, May 2013

Another Successful Bramblefest

The fourth annual Berry Weekend has come and gone.  This year we were only four: Emmy, my mom, and my friend KD, all others having weddings or school to attend.  This year, thanks to local Philly blogger and canner Marisa McClellan and her amazing book Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year Round, we really felt like we got into the swing of things are were finally comfortable with the entire process.

We were so comfortable in fact that we ended up making about 8 batches of jam, including peach lavender, peach spice, blueberry vanilla, and of course bramble jam, which was made using the juice from the wild berries that grow on Emmy's property.

It rained most of the weekend, but we still got a chance to do the things we like to do on Berry Weekend other than jam - go antiquing and shoot guns.  And after the rains, we were rewarded with this incredible sunset on Saturday night.

Enjoy the very end of summer, autumn is on its way!

- Erica

P.S. Posts from Bramblefest 2009, and 2010, I didn't document 2011 :(

Barcelona!

I'm visiting Barcelona for about a week with my parents, M and my sister and her boyfriend! We're celebrating my parents' 40th wedding anniversary and my 1st wedding anniversary with M.
It's just too beautiful to keep to myself, so hopefully I'll be able to share some of it with you here.

We got in this morning and have already enjoyed some tapas and wine. I decided to attempt to order our meal in Spanish, which went well except for the fact that I ordered anchovies in vinaigrette instead of artichokes in vinaigrette!

Now we're settling into the apartment we rented for the week - here's a pic of the view from the room that M and I are sharing. There is a courtyard below us with many potted plants and brightly colored walls, and people are hanging their laundry out to dry across the way.

Hasta luego!

Baking Our Way

This weekend we celebrate both Passover and Easter. As an interfaith couple, this presents both challenges and rewards.

On Friday I made a flourless chocolate cake with berries for the Second Seder we hosted at our house along with M's family on Sat. M led the Seder for his family and some friends and did a wonderful job.

I also made Easter baskets for my side of the family on Sunday with jelly beans, chocolate covered blueberries, homemade chocolate chip cookies, eggs dyed with red cabbage and onion skins, and fudge soap (less fattening than real fudge but smells good enough to eat!).

I think we're navigating our two family traditions quite deliciously.

Be My Nerdy Valentine

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Possibly one of the most hated holidays, but I adore it. Making and sending valentines is one of my favorite ways to tell my friends and family I love them, and because I didn't send any last year I am twice as determined to get some out this year.

I found an old Biology text book in a free box on Baltimore Ave. and some friends helped me brainstorm these punny lines. They crack me up and I hope the friends who get them are equally as delighted. They'll be arriving late, as usual, but I don't think it makes a difference to most people.

So Happy Valentine's Day! If you don't have anyone special to share it with, just remember that romantic love isn't the only love that exists in this world.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

It's been an incredible year. Best wishes to everyone this holiday season!

Check out the fabulous cupcakes I made with ingredients from my lovely friend Casey in California, and the way my window snowflakes throw a shadow on a sleeping Moo!

Sweeping up the leaves

It's Thanksgiving already! October and November have flown by, but here's a little snapshot for you:

** Black Swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel at The Woodlands Community Garden **



** Tree delivery at dawn, followed by many many volunteer tree planting events for work **









** A trip to the Philadelphia Zoo (the oldest zoo in the country) with some new friends **



** Lots of baking! **





I'm continuing my quest to perfect my apple pie recipe this fall, along with tweaking my presentation (see how I made it look like an apple when you cut it in half? clever clever me).

** Sukkah! **



We built a temporary structure called a sukkah on our porch this year in honor of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The holiday is a celebration of the harvest (and other religious and historical events) - the sukkah is open to the stars on top and filled with plant materials. Ours was decorated with paper chains, gourds, fruit, chestnuts, mums, fabric and drying bunches of herbs.







After we built and decorated it, we invited all of our friends to eat with us under the sukkah. Even though it rained during most of the week long holiday, we shared two fabulous dinners with friends and family. And it only took us two extra weeks to take it down!

That's all for now, I hope to post more frequently once I get a new laptop. This little setup that I have right now is driving me crazy, and I think it's time for a new computer, don't you?

Baby's First Surprise!

Two of M's cousins had babies this summer and I had a field day deciding what to knit for them. I've been ogling the amazing baby surprise jackets that everyone seems to be knitting (especially the ones that Amanda Soule makes over at Soulemama), and decided to have a go myself. I picked up 4 skeins of Koigu for $20 (total!), so I figured if I messed up I wouldn't be doing it with expensive yarn. I picked up "Knitting Workshop" by Elizabeth Zimmerman, where the original pattern is, and struggled through the pattern. It took me about 5 months to complete (I got married in the middle so I don't feel so bad about it) and I relied heavily on the "Knitting Nuggets" tutorials from Lorilee Beltman at City Knitting in Grand Rapids, MI. And here it is!



Raveled.



I really enjoyed making it and I feel like there are many more in my future (oh those stripey possibilities!). At the last minute I decided to embroider my new cousin's nickname into her jacket, and use buttons from M's grandmother's sewing kit.



The other cousin got another item from "Knitting Workshop" but I haven't photographed it yet so you will have to wait, dear readers. Hopefully I will take a photo soon so I can send the gift to them before the baby outgrows it . . .

It's Fall!

That crisp is in the air again, it's my favorite time of the year! But before we can address any fall-type things, let's do a quick recap. The last time I posted I was working with UC Green to raise funds for their fall planting. Many thanks to everyone who helped us reach our goal, we raised more than our $4K target and UC Green will have plenty of funds for their fall planting. I was also starting my brand new job at Philadelphia Parks & Recreation where I've now been working for almost 6 months! It's a wonderful learning experience and I love the work and my coworkers. What more could a girl ask for?

In the intervening months a lot of other things happened . . .

. . . M and I got married!!!! . . .





(wedding pictures are by Tiffany Atlas, Atlas Wedding Photography)



. . . We went on a wonderful honeymoon to Maine . . .



. . . I spent the 4th of July at my friend Alex's family place on a lake near Ithaca, NY . . .



. . . Alex, Katie and I joined my mom and Emmy for another Berryfest weekend . . .



. . . plus two new cousins were born (baby knitting project posts to come), M and I joined his family for a lake vacation in Maryland, and we went to my annual family reunion at the Delaware River.

A very full summer indeed. I'm finding it difficult to balance my full time job and my outside-of-work life, so the blog and my reading of other blogs has completely fallen by the wayside. But I hope to pick it up again, especially since this cool weather makes it easier to spend time sitting at my desk at the computer (which was unbearable during the summer months in our un-air-conditioned home). My posts will certainly be less frequent than in the past, but I promise to check back periodically and I hope to start reading all of your blogs again soon!

I'm glad to be back!

Hamantaschen!

I made these lovelies on Friday with a recipe from my future mother-in-law. They're filled with strawberry rhubarb jam and blueberry preserves, yum! I doubled the recipe and stored half of the dough in the fridge so I hope to make a second batch this week (and make them smaller!).

Hamantashen
by Helen Mann

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 c. flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 T. orange juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar together and add the egg. Mix flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture, juice and vanilla to creamed mixture. Mix well. Add remaining flour mixture. Work in well and form into 2 balls of dough. Chill several hours or over-night. (Keeps well in fridge for a week).

Flour surface very well. Roll dough to desired thickness. Cut into rounds. Fill with desired filling (prunes or poppy seeds are traditional) and form into triangles by pinching up 3 corners of the circle. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until delicately brown.

Yield: 3 dozen hamantashen



That incredible orange color is due to fresh eggs from Aunt E's chickens!

Christmas recap: Quillows

I liked this project so much the last time I made it that I decided to have another go and I made not one, but TWO quillows this Christmas, one for my mom and one for Aunt E.



Unlike the one I made for myself, I didn't want to overload these with pattern, so I chose one large pattern and one solid for each, with matching but complimentary striped fabric for the pillow.





I think they came out really well, though if you look at the close ups of the fabric you can see that I have some issues with the fabric pulling as I sew it. Along the way there are all of these unexpected darts created that I don't know how to deal with. Any ideas?





Overall I'm incredibly pleased with how they came out, and after a bit of struggling it's good to know that my old sewing machine is still an incredible asset. I might have to try some more patterns soon!

Christmas recap: Mom's fancy socks

Now that most of my gifts have been received I can tell you what they were! Here's my second pair of socks, made for my mom using the same pattern as the first, but with a different variation. Raveled here. I used one skein of gorgeous Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn in Harmony Plum and I still have a large ball left over. I might try to make one more pair with it, with much shorter cuffs.



I made this pair with the "mini-faux cable" ribbing and a textured heel. I love the way the patterns came out; the only problem is that the entire sock is reinforced except for the bottom of the foot, which is the most important part. I told my mom she's not allowed to walk around the house in them because I think they will wear thin too quickly.



I'm so proud!

O Tannenbaum

We had our annual Wigillia dinner this weekend, complete with home-made pierogies made by me and my parents. This year we used the recipes we learned in Poland last Christmas and they were much easier to make. The key is that the filling has to have a cookie dough-like consistency so you can roll it up in a ball and it won't ooze out while you're boiling them. Here's the original recipe post, just adjust it to incorporate this new tip.





I also went with my parents to pick out their Christmas tree, at an actual Christmas tree farm that my dad found a few towns away from theirs in suburban New Jersey. We were all kind of shocked to find it and to see the acres and acres of trees that we never knew were there!





I'm also busy busy busy with other preparations, mostly secretive at this point. But some gifts have already been wrapped, which strangely is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I just love to plop down in front of the TV with my newspaper or paper shopping bags, scissors, tape, and ribbon and just go to town.





Four days to go!!