Freaking Adorable

Considering how much milk I cook with, and my desire to master cheese making (let's not get into how much of THAT I cook with), I find the idea of keeping milk animals appealing. Not that cows really hold much interest.

So imagine my delight when I stumbled across Nigerian Dwarf Milking Goats on a homesteading site! Friendly, productive and about the size of a dog - how fun! I have added them to the mental homestead I am building for future development. (Yes, I know. I have issues.) But really, aren't you smiling just to look at them? You're welcome for the entertainment. :0)

Open Letter

Dear fellow shoppers,

This is the second time this year one of you has seen fit to imply that I am not competant enough to accurately assess the needs of and make decisions regarding my border collie. First it was the sticky note on the windshield. Now it's a page over the store p.a. system to return to my vehicle. Because it's hot outside. And there's a dog in the car. And I am clearly not intelligent enough to realize that all dogs should be left at home, alone, in a house air conditioned down to 50 degrees at all times.

Nevermind that my dog LOVES to ride in the car and HATES to be alone. Or that he has water. Or that I have been in the store less than 10 minutes. To say nothing of the fact that I take better care of my dog than most people do of their children.

As infuriating as your behavior is, I am willing to make a good faith effort to compromise. I propose the following resolution: if you see a dog in a car on a hot day and disapprove, either decide that it's enough of an emergency to call the cops or leave the situation the h*ll alone. Alternatively, you may personally wait at my vehicle with your stop watch and we can discuss the matter when I return... Either one is acceptable, but passive-agressive crap will no longer be politely tolerated.

Sincerely,

Jamie

CSA

We joined a CSA! Astonishingly, there’s a farm stand in easy walking distance of our apartment. When we stopped by for strawberries and asparagus, we discovered they’re running a CSA this summer. We signed up on the spot! It should start next week, so I’ll keep you posted on the results!

I'm very excited because I have wanted to try one of these since I heard about them two years ago. Going to the farmers' market is fun, but this is like playing Iron Chef at home for a whole summer!

For those of you not familiar with the term, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You essentially buy shares in a farm at the beginning of a season and get a box with a pre-agreed weight of vegetables every week. (We signed up for 5# a week, which is considered half a share and appropriate for 2 people. A full share at 10# a week would feed four.)

In addition to being great for farmers, CSAs also allow people to expand their culinary horizons. It's like Food TV (not that I have cable and get to watch it much)... you get a box and have to figure out creative uses for whatever you got! Some CSAs are more like community gardens with a farmer as overseer and actually allow or require participants to spend time on the farm each week helping out. I personally think that would be great for a family with kids who could use to learn where food comes from these days!

For more information on CSAs and finding one near you, go here. For more information on how our adventure turns out, check back later!

For the Record

For the record, I hate formatting on blogger. No matter how many times I adjust it, and how many times it shows up perfectly in the preview, it never posts as correctly formatted... Grr!

Getting Settled

Not quite a week has passed since we got our keys to this new home, and the last tote was opened and unpacked yesterday! Plenty remains to be done, but it already feels more lived in than any of our previous apartments.

I, of course, started with the kitchen. (It takes up the most boxes...) Can you tell I like cookbooks and olive oil?

Eric hung all the pots and pans on the wall around my beloved white board. Just looking at all my lists and things to drop off various places in one neat spot makes me feel like the whole world is organized. I've even gotten a menu put together for the week with new recipes to try!

Eric also did the hard things like evenly hanging everything that had to go on a wall (I can't hang things straight to save my life) and crafting beautiful shelves to hold our library.

This apartment is rather different from any of the ones we've lived in before, and I look forward to seeing how it works out. It's near everything and comfortably far enough out from the city proper. There will be lots more to post as we add more personal touches, but hope you enjoyed the sneak peak!

Wine Sauce

While typing this recipe up to pass along to a friend, it occurred to me that for someone who likes to cook I never post cooking related material on here! So, as a first step towards remedying that, here's a light and delicious sauce for your summer grilling from the Cibi Deliziosi restaurant. (Hint: if you make extra, you can freeze it in plastic bags for an easy meal in the future!)

Wine Sauce with Mushrooms & Onion

3 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 lrg onion, thinly sliced (may sub ¼ lb chopped leeks or shallots)

Pinch of dried herbs (marjoram, thyme, sage and/or rosemary recommended)

½ lb mushrooms, thick sliced

Pinch of salt

½ cup wine (red or white, non-oaked!)

2 cups broth (chicken, beef or veg)

2 tbsp flour dissolved in ¼ cup water (slurry)

2 tbsp unsalted butter (optional)

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (garnish, optional)

In a 10” sauté pan put 1 tbsp olive oil (do not allow to smoke). Add the marjoram/thyme. Cook 20 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the onions and cook them until they are slightly golden (about 5 minutes), stirring twice. (Don’t toss or salt caramelizing onions.)

Toss with a pinch of salt and remove to a plate.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook over med-high heat stirring only occasionally until all the liquid has evaporated and mushrooms are browned.

Return the onions to the pan. Add the wine and cook uncovered for 5 min.

Add the broth. Bring to a boil.

Lower heat and simmer 5-10 min to reduce the broth slightly. Stir in the dissolved flour.

Bring back to a boil, stirring frequently. If desired, whisk in cold butter for a shiny, velvety texture.

Add parsley and remove from heat. Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve warm.

Short Notice

My Prince is back from Greenland and had a wonderful time. Hopefully we'll get a chance soon to get some of his pictures posted, because he took some amazing ones! After two days in Albany, we've returned to Rochester for a few short days to pack - we're moving!

It's rather short notice; one of those situations where you think about something for a while but can't move forward and then - abruptly - things fall into place. Naturally we picked the hottest week of the year so for this adventure, but at least it won't be raining!

All the driving over the last couple days plus the packing process has me throwing a quick post up here with my latest read/don't reads before plunging back into the packing process. For a couple who's moved and streamlined their stuff as many times as we have, you'd think I'd have this down to a graceful process already... but I definitely don't...

Reads: Malcom Gladwell's Outliers and Let Me Go by Helga Schneider. Don't reads: Encouraging One Another by Nicole Johnson, Trust by Lydia Brownback and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I feel slightly heretical telling you not to read those three, since they're popular in Christian circles, but I just couldn't connect with them. There's plenty of mind-blowing stuff out there to read, I have a hard time making myself read things I don't love.

Anyway... back to packing. Wish us luck!