Harry Potter

I first heard about Harry Potter in college in a White Elephant gift exchange.  The first book was part of the exchange and was the most passed around item.  I did not end up with the book as my final prize, but I said to myself, "I think I need to go read that".  So after Christmas I went to the book store with my gift card and bought myself a copy.  It was love at first read.

Now some 10 years later I am still eager to get the DVD on the first day out.  Since the release of Year 7, Part 1 did not come around the holidays, I went and bought it and plan to watch it later tonight.  I just love the story and the way it's told.  This is probably the one and only set of books I am really glad they turned into a movie.  They have just done a stellar job with the movies and all the special effects.  Of course, ask me this in another 10 years and I will say it will probably look like the 80s special effects to now, obvious and shoty.  :)  Although I hope not.

I am anxiously awaiting the final movie and the epic battles and just awesomeness.  I can't decide if I will read all the books again or watch all the DVD's again before the last installment.  I typically have re-read the entire series of books through to the one of the movie, watched the movie and then re-read the remaining books.  Who knows maybe I will do both?  I guess it depends on how much free time I really have with the new house and all.  Well, I will need some downtime.  :)

My Lovey Kitty

Recently, when I have been leaving the house at nights for things like yoga or errands I would like to run, Rob has been telling me that Sparky has cried after me when I leave.  I think it's really sweet and kind of pathetic at the same time.  Yes, this is the same huge cat that swipes at people (particularly not a fan of Mike D.) and has a generally meaner disposition around strangers.  I love him to pieces and even though I want to trade him for a hamster when he's walking on my head at 3am, I'll never do it.   He's a cuddle butt and incredibly sweet with me.  I know when I have had a bad day, I can pick him up and squeeze him and he'll let me.  I hope that someday they iron out that cloning thing cause I would make 10 more of him in a heartbeat.  :)

How most nights are spent with Sparky

Furniture is Expensive (or at least my taste is)

Rob and I have decided that we are pretty much over our IKEA phase of furniture buying.  Don't get me wrong, we are still going to be going to IKEA for all their cool accessories and decorating gizmos, but we are just not going to buy our bedroom set from them.  We are looking for more solid hardwood that has the potential to last more that 10 years. 

Of course, we say that, but on the hunt for this "real furniture" we have had a bit of sticker shock.  Apparently if you want lasting quality furniture, it costs a lot.  Sigh...    But it's pretty to look at!

Dining Room Tables

Bedroom Sets

Some day we might be able to get some of these pieces.  In the meantime, we will day dream and window shop.  :)

Old Recipes

As part of a wedding shower gift I was given a book from my dad of photocopied pages from my grandmother's cookbooks.  They are not the complete works, but highlights from both of recipes my dad remembers my grandmother making or any she contributed to these books.  I have decided to transpose these recipes from the photocopies I have to a word document which I can print or send to other family members who have expressed an interest in getting a copy of these recipes.

In transposing these recipes, I have realized a couple of things about recipes from the 50s.  For one thing, I had no idea what a yeast cake is.  From the Cooking For Engineers website I have learned that it is equivalent to three 1/4-ounce packets of yeast.  The actually yeast cake looks like this:

Another thing I have noticed with the dozen or so recipes I have done so far is that time and temperatures for baking seem generally irrelevant.  Instructions will read something like, "bake in a moderately warm oven until done" which is less than helpful.  I think these ladies just knew the lingo or they all got a decoder ring with this cookbook when it came out.    

As I was typing these up, they made me hungry and want to try them, so I took this one for a spin tonight.  This is how it was written in the original text:

Crumb Kuchen

1 cup sugar

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup butter

Work these together till crumbs form.  Save one cup of these and to the remainder, add 1 cup sweet milk, 1 egg beaten, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 teaspoons baking powder.  Put in shallow pan, sprinkle crumbs on top and cover with cinnamon.

Mrs. H. E. Hyattm, Farmdale

A few things that might make this recipe work a bit better include pan dimensions and baking times and temperature.  I baked this in a 9x13 pan and it turned out well.  I looked up a similar recipe on the internet and it offered up baking at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  I would say at least 25 minutes.  I used skim milk and I melted the butter to make things mix up easier.  Overall, this was super easy and turned out to be amazingly delicious.  Here's hoping I find another few gems in the recipes as I go through them.  :)

Our Song

It's been almost a year since Rob and I had the biggest celebration of our lives.  There was so much planning and figuring out details that I was sure I would never forget them.  Even the day of the wedding, I was chanting to myself, "don't forget" repeatedly.  Everyone told me it would become a blur and I thought, Ha, not me!  I will remember.  Sadly, I have realized despite my efforts that some have faded.

Our photographer did a phenomenal job recording it all on her camera, but there are still some details that just don't quite get captured.  I know we have a video recording of the day in all it's wonder that we will eventually get (and by no means is this a hurry up request).  But no matter what's been recorded there are still some details that flicker.

One of these should not, but for some reason has.  At Cassie and Shannon's wedding we quickly realized we can't remember our song.  We know generally what it sounds like, but get it confused if we hear another song by the same artist.  How embarrassing!  We can google it and watch it on YouTube practically any time and hear it on the radio occasionally.  At least we kind of know it.  So here I am putting it down for the archives.  Sigh... :P

Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat - Lucky

Project List

Rob and I are about to take the plunge into home ownership this month (Wohoo!) which means all kinds of awesome things.  One of which is we can paint and decorate and remodel our home any which way we want to.  After years of being suppressed by apartment living and bland walls, we are determined to put paint of them and change stuff around immediately.  

Since we have been through the home a few times and have taken a LOT of notes and pictures, we have been able to daydream about what spaces could look like.  And because we are engineers, we made a pretty comprehensive list noting each project we have come up with, what room it's associated with and a tentative figure for how much it will cost.  The good news is, we are new at this and very optimistic.  The bad news, we are new at this and very optimistic.  We at least recognize we will be bounded by money for our ability to gut the house and redo everything all at once.  So that's helping keep us grounded a little bit.

In any event, our list is over 100 items long which might make you want to pass out, but it's by project in each room.  So changing out the 3 wooden toilet seats is 3 projects on this list.  Still, there's a LOT of things that are on here.  Some of which are future projects and some are like, this needs to be done yesterday.  For example the short shag carpet in the basement.  Umm no, not staying, no way to how.  And this bathroom:

is definitely not going to make it.  Thank god the wall papering was confined to one tini tiny room.  This might be what I work on once the champagne opens. Although, we can't forget the lovely chair lifts.

Those will be removed the day we get the keys as well.  So there's a small list of musts, but hopefully manageable.  Those in the area, you might get calls from us asking if you have a particular tool on hand.  Standby!  These might count towards our "before photos" because you better believe there will be "after photos".  I can't wait to share how well (or not) some of these projects turn out.  We are in for some serious learning.

Another more immediate projects is painting.  We know we aren't going to be able to paint the whole house in a day, but we want to paint as much as we can.  At first this task sounds simple, but then you start thinking about how each room will flow into each other and how the colors will blend.  Perhaps we are over thinking the process, but I also don't want a house that looks like an uncoordinated mess.  We finally came to an agreement on what colors the main floor will have and we are pretty pumped about that.  Now we would like to figure out a color for the basement and our master bedroom.  I do know that paint is not forever and we don't have to get it right on the first try, but it certainly would be nice.  Hopefully paint samples and careful selecting will help us get there.

This blog is going to be hopping with all the project news in the coming months.  Consider this the trailer for the summer smash hit - "Renovation Smiths" coming April 2011!

Summer BBQ Food

Ok I know it's not quite summer out and it barely feels like the spring we were having a couple of weeks ago, but you are going to want to take a note to try these recipes out.  We stumbled across these in our Cooking Light book of recipes from 2003.  A couple of years ago we decided to try it for the first time and it now comes into regular rotation during the warmer months of the year.  What says summer better that burgers and pasta salad?  Here's a new twist on the classics!

*You will need to own a food processor to make the burgers and mayo.

Chicken-Chorizo Burgers with Avocado Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise:

1/3 cup fat-free mayonnaise

¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves

2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

¼ teaspoon salt

½ ripe avocado seeded

Burgers:

½ lb. Spanish chorizo sausage

¼ teaspoon salt

5 – 6” corn tortillas, torn into bite size pieces

1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast, coarsely chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, chopped

Cooking Spray

8 (2 ounce) onion rolls

8 (1/4” thick) tomato slices

1. Prepare grill or preheat broiler
2. Mayo: combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor, pulse until combined.  Cover and chill.
3. Burgers: remove casings from sausage.  Place sausage, salt, tortillas, chicken, and jalapeno in food processor.  Process 30 seconds or until mixture is coarsely ground.  Divide mixture into 8 equal portions. 
4. Place patties on grill rack or broiler pan coated with cooking spray.  Cook 7 minutes on each side or until done.
5. Cut rolls in half, spread with 1 ½ tablespoons of mayo over top half of each roll.  Place tomato slices on bottom halves of rolls.  Top each with 1 patty on top half of roll.  Yield: 8 servings.

Orzo Pasta Salad

 3 cups hot cooked orzo (about 1 ½ cups uncooked)

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

¾ cup (3 ounces) feta cheese

¼ cup chopped parsley

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, toss well to coat.  Cover bowl and chill 1 hour.  Yield 8 servings.