My List Accomplishments

Max has no goals, which I feel this picture demonstrates.

Remember my list?

Okay, you probably don't remember. When my husband left to work in Germany for 9 months I made myself a bucket list of sorts. The goal was to force myself to live my life to the fullest, even though I was alone. I have not been recording it very well, but I am making slow and steady list accomplishments! 

That hole was so easy to dig, just like a big shovel test. 

I planted a tree. Do not worry arborists, I planted this tree in the fall when it was appropriate (I know all of my readers were deeply concerned). Her name is Wanda and she is a Brown Turkey Fig tree. I did my research (there is a Brown Turkey Fig tree up the street) and I know it will grown in my climate. It should also produce this summer, if I can manage not to kill it. She is small, but cute!

Wanda in the ground

Turns out planting a tree is just like shovel testing, meaning, I just had to dig a hole and put the tree in it. But, now I have a tree!

I went trail running last Saturday. It was beautiful and rewarding. The sun was shining and we were having a freakishly warm day (I mean in the 70 degrees Fahrenheit range). I liked it. Driving to run seems a little silly to me, so this will be a sometimes treat. 

This is totally a posed picture, I did not bring my camera running silly!

Okay, I am saving the best for last! This is actually the reason I have been an itinerant blogger lately. I have been obsessed with quilting. 

I can not believe I turned this fabric...

 into a bunch of little squares,

which I sewed together and added applique circles.

Then I trimmed the fabric,

 and added a border.

 And attached to a batting, then tried to add a backing. It turns out the cat loves quilting. It is the MOST fun thing a cat can do to slide across the living room on fabric. Tunneling under fabric is pretty fun too.

Sewing machines are less fun, but make great human hunting blinds.

After some intense cat battles and some actually quilting, I got this! (full disclosure: it is not actually done, it still needs trimming and binding).

It is a beautiful and rewarding thing. There are tons of mistakes and little things that will bug me. But, I am a beginner. I have gained so much confidence in my sewing! The reason the binding is not finished is I had to start my second quilt (I do have a solid start on my binding and I will probably bring it when I have to go to Savannah at the end of the month). The next quilt is going to be a gift for someone and I am operating on a deadline.

Unfortunately, that person reads this blog. So, no pictures until after the deadline.

Back to sewing! Happy Sunday!

What month is it again? Oh right, Happy New Year!

It is January 1, 2012.

This was our Christmas card, which I sent out by email at 10:00 p.m. on Christmas Day. Epic fail. 

What?!

I am going to start this post by apologizing for missing December. I am not even sure December happened at normal speed.

I am not going to try and explain the crazy. I will make a list. I like lists.

1. I worked. A lot. Let's see I think I was only in Tennessee and Georgia this month. But, oh the deadlines.

2. I made Christmas happen. I believe the holidays should be special and this was our first real, grown-up, "at home" Christmas. I got a tree, made stockings and cookies, wrapped presents, wrote cards (well, some cards), played music, and sort of nested. It was wonderful. I also watched the entire "Fireplace for Your Home" episode at least four times (it is on Netflix, check it out).

I made these stockings. Including the embroidery. It was intense. But they sure do look good with Fireplace for Your Home. 

The best baby Christmas Tree. 

Potica. A Croatian Christmas bread. 

3. I started and (almost) finished my first quilt. It will not be my only quilt. This was a magical experience and I am totally hooked. I am going to write a real post about this, for now I just need to say this process appealed to me creatively and aesthetically.

My quilt top. Clearly, I really like flowers.

4. I have spent a great deal of time with my friends who have become my family here in North Carolina. Then Derek's mom and step dad came to visit for New Years and we got to see them too!

Hi Julie!

5. My true love came home for two weeks (which are actually not quite over yet). There have been many meals, laughs, couch cuddles, episodes of Parks and Recreation, and long cups of coffee. I will miss him a great deal when he returns to Germany to work on his research.

My true love with the skin of a salmon we cured. Doesn't he look so manly?

Cured Salmon.

For now, I will just say Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012. It is going to be a great year. I know it.

I am going to come back soon (I know, show it, don't just say it) to share some of my treasured moments from the past couple of weeks and talk about the food. Oh the food! I have a brussels sprouts recipe that will blow your mind, without ruining any newly created resolutions.

Much love to all.

Anniversary Weekend Spectacular! Pizza!

Derek and I are celebrating our one year anniversary this weekend. Our actual wedding anniversary is on Sunday (July 10th). To celebrate this wonderful year, we are spending the whole weekend at home, eating and relaxing.

To kick off this celebration weekend we started with pizza and beer, Derek and Sarah style...

Blue Cheese, Shitake Mushroom and Pepper Pizza

It all starts with the dough... This can be done ahead of time. Please don't buy pizza dough, this is so easy. Buying dough is a giant waste of money.

The Dough

From My Bread by Jim Lahey

10 grams ( Active Dry Yeast

5 grams Table Salt

3 grams Sugar

500 grams Bread Flour

1 1/3 cup water (may need another tablespoon or so depending on the moisture content of dough)

1. Mix the dry ingredients (yeast, salt, sugar, and flour).

2. Heat the water in a microwave until it is warm to touch, but not hot (approximately 100 degrees).

3. Add water to dry ingredients and stir until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough (you may need more water at this point) using a spoon and your hands. The dough will be stiff and slightly sticky.

4. Cover and let sit in a warm place for about 2 hours, the dough should more than double in size.

5. On a clean, well floured surface turn out the dough and form it into a rough ball. Divide that ball in half using a knife or dough cutting thing. Gently form each half into a ball. Cover the balls of dough (spaced about 4 inches apart) with a non-linty towel and let them rest for 30 minutes.

6. At this point, you can either make pizza or store your dough. If you are storing the dough put a generous amount of olive oil (2-4 tablespoons) in a gallon size zip top bag and place the dough ball inside (1 ball per bag). Now it can be refrigerated for 1-2 days or frozen for a month. We usually use one dough ball and freeze the other for later. When you are ready to use the frozen or refrigerated dough allow it to come to room temperature before you make pizza.

The Pizza

1 pound Shitake Mushrooms (stems removed and sliced)

Sea Salt

1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter

1/4 cup plus 2-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (with more for oiling the pan)

10 cloves of Garlic (chopped)

2 jalapeño (thinly sliced, seeds removed if you are wus)

2 tablespoons Cream Sherry

1/2 pound Blue Cheese (crumbled)

1/2 pound Mozzarella (sliced)

1/2 Onion (thinly sliced)

1. Mix about 1/4 cup of olive oil with 5 cloves and sliced jalapeño. Add a heavy pinch of salt and allow it to marinate for about 30 minutes. Longer is better...

2. Heat a large saute pan at medium low heat with 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Add the sliced shitake mushrooms and another pinch of salt and saute until they are beginning to caramelize (5 to 10 minutes).

3. Add the cream sherry and cook off the liquid (5 minutes).

4. Sprinkle the half sheet pan with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Using your hands, spread the the room temperature dough out in the pan to evenly cover most of the pan.

5. Brush the infused oil on the stretched out dough make sure to spread out the garlic and peppers evenly. Spread the onion out evenly across the pizza.

6. Next, spread the cheese and the mushrooms across the dough.

7. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes, rotating the pizza half way through. Now slice and enjoy.

Then we feasted. We also made a tomato salad (remember all of those tomatoes?), poured a delicious Belgian farmhouse ale, and began feasting. Pizza with no tomatoes, and then we serve them on the side... strange people that we are...

This was pretty delicious. Yum, pizza and beer.

For some people it is tomato salad and pizza, for some cats it is kibble. Everyone is happy.

Freeze Dried Haddock: An Endorsement

We have a cat named Max. I try to refrain from talking about him too much on this blog, because my irrational love of this fuzzy mammal starts to make me sound like a crazy cat lady. Plus, this is supposed to be a food/archaeology blog. I will start this blog post by clarifying a few things. Yes, Max is incredibly spoiled. No, we only have one cat, he does not eat at the table with us. I promise he has no clothing and I try to avoid anthropomorphizing him.

Believe it or not this blog post is about food (sort of).

At a very, fancy, very ridiculous pet store in Chapel Hill, we discovered Max's favorite treat. This is something I need to tell other cat owners about as a public service. Firstly, I need to make a point of saying we do not make a habit of frequenting this ridiculous yuppie pet store. Max has plenty of toys and he eats a regular mainstream(ish) cat food. We first went in there when Max was a small kitten and I was feeling empowered by my ability to finally buy cat stuff (I wanted this kitten for a long while before I obtained him).

Wow, look at that kitten

Now we mostly just go there to get this product. It is called Simple Catch for Cats and it is a giant bag of dried haddock chunks.

As far as I can tell, these chunks of fish have not been processed much at all. Just caught off the Icelandic coast and dried. Then packed up for my fuzz to enjoy. Warning, they smell like fishy grossness and handling requires hand washing.

A piece of haddock, an incredibly hard picture to take. I am fending off the cat with one hand.

Before you judge me too harshly for feeding my cat wild caught Icelandic haddock, know this is a sometimes food for him and a bag lasts a very long time. When you read this illustrated reaction to the treat being offered you will understand why we do it.

Note: Max is normally a fairly aloof creature who deigns to allow us to occasionally worship him. Crazy abandon is reserved for haddock treats only.

Max getting haddock fillets:

1.) The bag rustles and no matter where Max is in the house he hears this and is able to tell the haddock is on the move. He does not react like this from the movement of any other plastic bag, including is other (less desirable) treats. Max immediately comes running meowing intensely.

2.) The bag opens and the intensity of meowing increases. Max immediately begins jumping and attempting to decrease his distance from the bag.

3.) A treat is removed and Max jumps to obtain the treat.

Note the look of intensity

4.) Rather than immediately eating the treat in an exposed position, Max takes the precious fish away to somewhere safe and munches happily.

Cat thought "I am so exposed up here, must retreat to lower ground"

So much safer down here... (from what, we may never know)

5.) Max returns to either the human or the bag (if the human has been so stupid as to leave the bag accessible) to attempt to obtain more. He has been known to attempt bag capture. Presumably he is trying to take the bag somewhere safe where he can work out the problem of opening it in peace.

See the cat in the right of this picture, he is waiting for me to let down my guard so he can carry off his prize.

6.) Human must hide the bag, preferably in an airtight container. Max is not very intelligent, but he is just smart enough to find it and feast.

This all sounds funny, and I assure you Derek and I find it really amusing, but to Max haddock is no game. It is a serious procurement of food and it is wonderful to watch.

That is why all cat owners must find out how to get this. If you live in the Chapel Hill area, Phydeaux, by the Whole Foods carries it. If you have a dog, I believe the product is also marketed to dogs. I cannot vouch for the canine reaction. I can say, I gave some of this stuff to a friend for his cat and Orange Peel was also smitten.

Oh by the way, in case anyone read this, then thinks this is the kind of blog where people might pay me to hawk products, it isn't. I am not entirely sure anyone reads my nonsense. But in case someone does this was not sponsored, I just love watching my fuzz go crazy and think every cat owner should have that chance.