Leaf peeping weekend

This is the last weekend I have free from work until Thanksgiving, so M and I decided to head outdoors and enjoy the incredible fall weather. We managed to catch the end of a grass-fed beef competition at Wyebrook Farm in Honey Brook, PA, enjoy a housewarming party at a friends' farm in Southwest Philly (complete with marshmallow roasting!) and peep some leaves at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge near the Philadelphia airport.

* Heinz NWR *

 

 

 

 

 

* Heading out to the Farm *

 

* Our jack-o-lantern didn't make it to Halloween :( *

 

* Wyebrook Farm *

Perfect Day

Yesterday was the first day of Fall! M and I spent the day at Highland Orchard, in Westchester PA where we picked a half bushel of apples that I plan to make into pies, butter, and preserves. When we returned we went straight to our friends' house for dinner, which turned out to be a surprise party for me for my 30th birthday! Yup, a perfect day.

 

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.

Resolutions

I'm making some common ones - exercise and time management. I was out at a work holiday party last month and I started talking to the wife of one of my coworkers. We were chatting about our morning routines and I laughingly admitted that I set my alarm for 6 am every morning and hit the snooze for an hour and a half. Her joking response was "so you start out every morning disappointing yourself."

Wow. It was a joke, but it hit me hard. I set my alarm every morning with a good intention that I never follow through on. It's a small thing, but it sets the tone of my day and it's a simple thing to change. So with that floating in my head this holiday season, here are the concrete things I plan to do differently in 2012:

• Get out of bed when the alarm goes off at 6am. Duh. I've been doing it for two days now and I actually arrived at work this morning at 7:50 AM (see the evidence in the picture above, taken in the front room as I was leaving the house). This means that I can leave at 4pm and get an extra hour to an hour and a half of stuff done in the evening. It's a new year's miracle.

• Do something good for my body every day. Even if it's just a brisk mile and a half walk on my lunch hour or twenty minutes of sit-ups in the evening.

And that's it. Just two little, manageable resolutions. With just two, I think I can manage not to disappoint myself.

P.S. I was greeted upon leaving the house this morning with a little dusting of snow, which promises to melt by mid-day. Mother Nature, let's have much more of this please.

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!

Happy Winter Solstice!

Here's what my beautiful city looked like last night. M and I had a fancy meal to celebrate the Solstice and walked home along the South Street bridge in the unseasonably warm weather.

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!

SNOW DAY!!!

I get excited about snow days even when I don't have a class or office to go to! We got about a foot and a half last night and I awoke this morning to the shimmering brightness of a winter snow day. Now I'm off to shovel the steps and walk down the middle of the street!

Christmas recap: candied orange peels

Alright, here's the last of the Christmas projects: candied orange peels! My future mother-in-law Ruth made these at Thanksgiving and I had to try it. (She got the recipe from Parade Magazine, Dec. 13, 2009). I wanted to make them to give at Christmas in jars like I did with the honey roasted nuts, but I was too afraid of them rotting while people stored them so I ended up just giving them all to my mom who used them at the holidays (or just ate them between her and my dad, I'm not sure!).



I also tried to dry them out a bit in the dehydrator to see if I could get them to a point where I was comfortable they wouldn't rot but that didn't work at all. They just got too hard and never quite dried out. So here's the recipe, make and enjoy in quick succession!



Candied Orange Peels
makes about 50

• 5 navel oranges
• 4 c. water
• 3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Slice the peel (including pith and a thin layer of fruit) and cut into 1 inch wide strips. Boil in water for 2 minutes, drain and rinse, Repeat twice more.
Rinse the pot, pour in the water, sugar, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Add the strips, lower heat, and partially cover. Simmer gently for 1 hour, until soft.
Pack in a heat proof jar, covered with cooking liquid, cool, then refridgerate. For dried peels, drain and leave on a rack for 1 to 2 days. Toss with granulated sugar.

Christmas recap: honey roasted nuts

I made these delicious nuts using Marisa McClellan's recipe in Grid (the perfect combo of two of my favorite Philly publications, Marisa's blog Food in Jars, and the free Philly magazine Grid).



And they were a huge hit! I adapted it a tiny bit by adding sesame seeds, and I've included it below with some tips I learned along the way. I also made candied orange peels, which I'll post about next.



Honey Roasted Nuts
makes approx. three pint jars

• 5 c. raw nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc.)
• 4 T butter
• 6 T honey
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• pinch cayenne
• flaky salt to taste (kosher or Maldon sea salt)
• sesame seeds to taste
  

Place the nuts in a large skillet or Dutch oven and toast over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and honey together. Once melted, add vanilla, cinnamon and cayenne (just for nuance, it's not enough to be spicy).
When the nuts are toasted (most have dark spots), pour the butter mixture over them and toss to coat. Use just enough to coat, there might be some still left in the saucepan at the end.
Spread the glazed nuts out on a silicon liner or parchment-lined cookie sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Watch them carefully, as they burn quickly.
When you take the nuts out of the oven, sprinkle immediately with salt and sesame seeds.
After they've cooked, pour into pint jars (or half pint jars to spread the goodness further).

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!

White Christmas

Well, at least I can pretend.







Merry Christmas!!!

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!!