Christmas Wish List

We made a list, even checked it twice,

and then realized we didn't get ourselves anything nice. 

We that isn't entirely true - you can find our family amazon wish list at the bottom of my far right sidebar. However this Christmas does pose a challenge for us. Mark and I are planning to give each other a joint gift for our household. A bit of a splurge, something we need, but wouldn't just go out and buy on a whim. Over Thanksgiving we gleefully learned that the piece of furniture we were going to "get each other" will be generously coming from my parents. Wahoo! Thanks Mom and Dad.

So now we turn to option two, which was only option two because it required more decisiveness and research that we weren't able to invest. Hence why I am turning to you. We need cookware. Ours is woefully old, falling apart, and often not suitable for the recipes we want to make. But then this leads us to what kind of cookware...there are so many options. We want this to be an investment purchase. Something we can build upon.

I think we need either

 a great big 12 qt stockpot maybe with pasta/steamer insert
I am leaning toward all clad, remember I said investment. Thoughts?

 - OR -

a french oven/dutch oven/cocotte - why does this thing have so many names?

and which brand do I get -  Staub?  Le Creuset?
or another that I haven't heard of?

and what size? 5 qt? 7 qt?
We tend to cook for groups of 6-12 frequently, so I want to say the bigger the better,
but I don't want it to be so big, that it isn't practical for every day use.


Help! 

What is your kitchen workhorse?
Any advice or recommendation would be greatly appreciated.

Also accepting recommendations for other fabulous kitchen items.
My french press cracked, and I need a new one. Do you have a favorite?
Two of my melamine mixing bowls have shattered in the past year, so those need replacing as well...

Door Decor

Help a sister out!

These are the three door decoration that represent us throughout the year.  It is about this time, after the Fourth of July festivities, that my door feels stale and lonely.  We live in an apartment building at the moment, so live door hangings don't work.  However, I am desperate for something to fill the gaps:

December-the month of Easter 

and again from Easter-4th of July/Summer 

oh yeah and labor day-Novemebr could use some help too!

We are not huge fans of overly theme-y holiday oriented stuff.  But want classics that welcome us home from the other end of the hall.  Please send me links, suggestions, pictures, even people to follow on pinterest.  I need to find something.  The idea well is running dry.  

I would love a swing...

...today please.

As a kid, I loved swings.  They were my favorite!  Sadly, DC has a serious lack of swings in their parks because of some blabla liability issue or something boring like that.  Behr has yet to experience his first swing.  But fornow, let's forget about Behr and dream about these swings.

pin

pin

pin

pin

pin

Yes, these would all be nice.  Especially on a rainy day.  I am torn between the first and second one being my favorite.

Vacation Home

A few weeks ago Bridget posted this amazing "Swiss Family Robinson" meets dream vacation vacation home here.  Well, I added a bit of "Tarzan meets Jane" to the mix with this inspiration, taking this tree house to a whole new level:

{both images found here}

I wonder who I contact about booking my reservation.  Mark likes to camp.  If this could be considered camping, I am willing to give it a shot!

I am loving...

...all things Capiz!

It happens to me every year.  In an effort to hang on to every last drop of summer, I crave beach inspired decor.  This year, in my hunt for a baby mobile that didn't have fluffy animals, I turned towards capiz.  In theory in is "all-year" decor, but for me I think it is a last ditch effort to carry the beach into deep Autumn.

Here are a few lookers that have caught my eye recently:

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This number from target is a bit boring...and it breaks the bank at $400+!  Yikes!

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Perhaps a bit too formal for a baby room, but these West Elm lamps might end up in my formal dining room some day...if I ever have a formal dining room...

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Finally, this could work in our Nursery.  And for merely $49 from Urban Outfitters, I like it even more.  Now if only the colors were a bit brighter...

Johns Hopkins Weekend

Mark is at his second residency for his MBA, so I am flying solo for the weekend. We are on duty this weekend (because we are intern housing RAs), which means I am laying low around the building.

Those of you who know me understand that this does not mean I will be relaxing much. Being alone at home is a great time to get nitty gritty projects done. Here are my goals for the weekend:

1. Reorganize closet to give Mark more space - I have been dominating it
2. Complete invitations for the Kleeman Baby Shower
3. Brainstorm ideas for said shower, decorations, games, favors, the works!
4. Complete Neal Calligraphy project
5. Begin Kennebunkport Map for Foley wedding
6. Try 3 new recipes
7. Blog - both here and at Calligraphy by Shannon
8. Catch up on other blogs. Let me know if you have cyber reading suggestions!
9. Watch movies (likely in the background of calligraphy projects) that Mark would never watch in a million years! On the list so far: Once, A Philadelphia Story, & Ghosts of Girlfriends Past...because I have a girl crush on Jennifer Garner!

This is good news for you. It means I will likely be blogging about at least a few of these activities. Translation: my blog will not be stagnant for much longer!

In reality, all of this "busyness" is a rouse. The real purpose is to distract myself from missing Mark! We'll see how successful I am...

Sideboards Are Cool

And I really want one.

The Queen Anne's style TV stand (meant for a square TV no less) is simply not cutting it anymore. Case in point:

I really loath this piece of furniture. There are very few words to describe my dislike for this "piece." It would be fine as a nightstand/end table in a guest bedroom {if we had a guest bedroom}. Or even our bedroom. Just not in my living room - where we LIVE - get the point?!

My obsession: a mid-century modern sideboard that can serve as our entertainment console, but be multi-purpose as we move from one small capitol hill home to the next.

Delano Sideboard

from Crate and Barrel

|OR|

A host of sideboards from a mid-century modern collector in the DC area.

Choices, choices. What do you think I should do? Do you like the sideboard look?

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Well, some pictures. I received one from my mechanic:

With this message:

"Shannon, it's Russell. The light green is your power steering fluid/dye. Call me when you get this."

Not exactly the text I wanted. And not exactly descriptive. I had no idea what to brace myself for as I called Russell back. A few hundred dollars and a day later, my car is running smoothly. Fingers-crossed that this is not the beginning of the end for my little oldsmobile!

Mid-Atlantic Meltdown

...er, maybe more appropriately called a freeze? Ice and snow have been blanketing us since last week. I have not been to work since LAST Thursday. Today was the first time I stepped outdoors since MONDAY! I am getting cabin fever here people! Well, my work announced that it is opening on a two hour delay tomorrow - it is bad that I want to go in early?
What have I done with all of this time in my house?

• Recovered my iTunes (computer crashed months ago...and I haven't updated my iPods since then)
• Rejuvenate my calligraphy blog: Calligraphy by Shannon. It is still a work in progress, and I didn't actually add new content, I just updated the look and feel since I finally had time to mess with the html. It might still be ugly for PC users...sorry :-/
• Packed for our ski trip next weekend...well, at least I started to.
• Read a lot of books...more on that coming soon!
• Threw a taco party! I asked all of the interns on our floor to bring ingredients and it was a blast! (for those of you who don't know, we are RA's in an intern housing building...really)

• Watched chick flicks that I had yet to see: Made of Honor, A Good Year, and You, Me, and Dupree
• Prepped my cards (birthday, anniversary, and everything else) through the end of March.
• Went to the gym every day, and still felt cooped up. It is in our building...and the view is the same as our apartment, so it didn't exactly add a change of scenery.

Are you bored yet? Yeah, my "week" off wasn't really that exciting, but I got some much needed items off of my long-term to do list.

The Dutch Barn

On Veteran's Day, a few weeks ago, Mark and I drove out to the Eastern Shore. Why? To get new tires on our car. It was pouring rain, they forgot to schedule our appointment, and the day seemed to just keep getting worse. It a fit of restlesness, I treked about a mile down the road to a gem of a shop called The Dutch Barn. I avoided puddles and splashed from trucks passing me and eventually burst through the door to find some equisit furniture. I had a blast wandering the three building where they house their goods, imagining where I would put what and how to incorporate it into the home I have yet to buy. Here are some of the pieces that caught my eye:

This hutch has just enough character to make me want to bring it home. I can't imagine it in a city apartment, but it looks perfect for a place on the shore.

This Amish made table is close to the kitchen table Mark and I searching for (we don't know if the image in our head actually exists). We would like it to be a little less of a honey color, a bit darker and have simple taper legs. But this table was certainly beautiful.

I could not get over the detail of the grain of this chest. It looks similar to tiger maple, but the tone is deep and rich. It is absolutely stunning. I would struggle to lock it up in a bedroom - it looks like it should be on display.

As soon as I saw this round library table I pictured in a front entry with a big bowl of tulips! What a nice piece of furniture to greet guests upon their arrival. Check out the details in the top below:

So...I am hoping to visit the Dutch Barn again soon. I will certainly find more treasures that make me dream, and just maybe they will have the table Mark and I have been searching for!

Top 10: Go Green for Earth Day

Top 10 things I have already done to “go green” and why it works:

1. Recycle – space is at a minimum in our tiny apartment, so I didn’t recycle when we first moved to DC. Then one day I hung a reusable shopping bag to stow some bread and realized it would be the perfect way to recycle.

2. Reusable Shopping Bags – greatest invention EVER! I love that rather than 15 small plastic bags (actually 30 because they are double bagged) that feel like they are about to break, I can bring my groceries home in 5 reusable bags that I have gotten for free! It is easier to transport my groceries, easier to sort my groceries, and therefore easier to put my groceries away!

3. CFLs – This was easy, and actually our first go green effort. Before moving to DC, Mark worked for Osram Sylvania, the light bulb company. When you work for a light bulb company it is hard to ignore the benefits of switching to CFLs.

4. CSA – we joined a farm share with Orchard Country Produce. From May-October we enjoy locally grown fruit and vegtables, reduced the carbon foot print of our diet, eat better for you foods (I even started to find edible ways to prepare brussel sprouts – see my recipe from last fall here) . Plus, our grocery bill has gone down. We get an entire cooler of vegtables each week for less than $20! To find a CSA near you, visit Local Harvest.

5. Walk – Mark and I both walk to work. It is a no brainer!

6. CamelBak – I consume at least 48oz of water each day from a reusable, BPA free water bottle. I love my CamelBak. It keeps plastic bottles out of my trash and helps me stay hydrated.

7. Cold Wash – I wash all of our laundry with cold water.

8. Cloth, Not Paper – Rather than reach for a paper towel, I grab a dish rag. And even for casual meals, we try to use cloth napkins instead of paper.

9. Organic Cleaners – We use Seventh Generation for our dish soap and laundry detergent.

10. Red Meat - we have reduced our red meat consumption to only once a week. In addition we make a concerted effort to buy organic meat and farm raised fish.


Top 10 next steps we hope to take:

1. Stop catalogs and unnecessary mail solicitations. I have called many of the companies that send me catalogs and asked to be removed from their list. Click here to learn more about opting out.

2. Smart Power Strips - I have been meaning to buy these power strips which automatically turn off when your appliances are not in use. In doing this, they prevent "ghost power" from being used, and in turn help you save on your electric bill!

3. I have been thinking about composting, but this might have to wait until we have a house.

4. Speaking of houses, when we buy one, if we need new appliances, we will choose Energy Star appliances.

5. And if we can, we will sign up for green electric from our power company. To research if you can sign up for green power, visit the Department of Energy.

6. I hope to rig up a water collection barrel like the one featured in This Young House

7. Buy Glass - Glass is easier to recylce and requires less chemicals. Whenever possible I am going to try to buy items I need in glass containers. (i.e. mustard)

8. Shorter Showers - I LOVE my long showers, but I recognize that this is an area where I need to be more responsible. But I am warning you, it is not going to be easy!

9. Walk MORE - I know I already walk a lot, but I want to continue to make a consious effort to walk or even ride my bike when I need to run an errand in the city.

10. Talk - One of the best ways to help the planted is to talk about ways to save it. So get out there and share with others what you are doing to make a difference! (And while you at it, leave a comment and let me know what else you do to go green.)

For more ideas, read David Bach's "Go Green, Live Rich" or check out Simple Mom’s recent post about Going Green at Home and visit Best Green Blogs.

Cooking: Tips and Tricks to Make Life Easy

As you may have noticed, I love to cook. I like trying new recipies, eating new foods, and getting to play with kitchen gadgets. Most importantly I like that cooking from scratch alows me the flexibility of eating healthy on a modest budget.

Coming from a large family, I grew up helping in the kitchen, but it wasn't until I was on my own that I had to committ cooking shortcuts to memory. Along the way, I have had many friends get married only to face their kitchen with a bit of uncertainty. I realized that not everyone loves the challenge of making dinner when there appears to be nothing in the fridge! Along the way I have developed a mental list of things that make my life easier and here they are:

I am convinced this milk frother would make my coffee taste better in the morning!

The basics...

Homemade Buttermilk: Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to regular milk.

Peeling Garlic: press down on garlic with the flat side of a knife or spoon and it will crack the peel right off.

Peeling Bananas: If you peel it from the bottom (like Apes) then you don't have to pick out the stringy bits.

More Bananas: Separate them from eachother as soon as you get home from the market, they will stay fresh longer!

Going Bananas: If your bananas do happen to go brown on you, peel them into a zip lock bag to freeze until you are ready to make banana bread!
Chopping Onions: If you pop the onion in the freezer for a few minutes before you chop it, you won't have to cry so much.

Strawberries: use drinking straws to core or hull a strawberry. Just push the straw through the bottom of the berry!

Storing Cheese: If you wrap an opened package of cheese in aluminum foil instead of plastic wrap, it stays fresh longer...but then you have to remember what that ball of aluminum foil is!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweet and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firm and better for cooking.

If I am going to take the time to make a cake, I am going to make it pretty, therefore it should be able to be on display until it has been eaten!

On to cooking...

Roast a Chicken - (this recipe came from Simple Mom - and I love it!)
A roasted chicken is one of the most versitile items to make meals for a week easier! A roasted chicken could feed 2 people 4 meals for a week! (Speaking of...I should write more about this later...)

Saute Ground Beef - if you do this on the weekend, and then season and store portions separately, you have cut your after work meal making in half! While you are cooking the ground beef, add a teaspoon of water to help pull the grease away from the meat.

See Double - whenever I make soups, stews and cassaroles, I try to double the recipe. These dishes are typically easy to double, and they store well for reheating later. This makes lunches for the week a no brainer, or sometimes I freeze half for nights when there is too much going on to plan a meal!

Avoid the Garbage - keep a scraps bowl on the counter while you are cooking to keep your working area clean and prevent you from walking around the kitchen with peels and scraps that need to be tossed. BONUS: Use these scraps to start a compost! Here are two articles that provide background info to get you started: The Greenest Dollar and Simple Mom.

Part of my love to cook is cooking for a large group...and this would be perfect! We actually got one for our wedding, but needed to exchange it to get plates. Plates were higher on the priority list.

Going through this list was a lot of fun...I will have to run another edition soon! In the mean time, be sure to comment if you have a tip or trick you use that is not on this list!

PS The pictures throughout this post are all items that are on my kitchen gadget wish list, but they all require me to have a larger kitchen...someday...

First Signs of Spring: Calla Lilies and Chives

This time last year, I was itching for Spring. It had rained a lot, I was working long hours, and the winter had seemed to drag on. There should be no complaining since I had just moved from New England, but the promise of a Mid-Atlantic summer seemed as thought it would never come to fruition. And then it happened.

I found a mystery plant growing in a patch of dirt along the path to my door. Little shoots sprouting up holding promise of spring. But I could not for the life of me figure out what these plants were. They were too pretty to be weeds, but I certainly did not plant them. Nor did I expect that my landloard had planted them since the area around the house remained largely unkept. (it actually remains unkept for fear of disturbing my beautiful surprise!)

And then they bloomed, beautiful calla lilies. Some green and some white, they came out of no where. Well...now they are back, greeting me each afternoon as I walk home. Welcoming me to my apartment.

I love them. They are my first sign of Spring.

This past weekend was a bit rainy (to say the least) and it was the first time I really noticed that my Chives were growing back too! I planted them last summer and was so happy to have fresh herbs through the fall. But for some odd reason, it did not occur to me that they could come back. Well, they are sitting out back, looking beautiful, catching the rain drops. And in my own excitement, I am cooking every recipe I can think of that includes fresh chives! Sunday night was potato soup. Probably the last potato soup I will make until it gets cold again during football season. But boy did those chives taste good!

Lancaster County Farmer's Market

One of the highlights of being home is visiting the Lancaster County Farmers Market in Wayne, PA. It is an experience in and of itself. With farm fresh eggs being cooked for breakfast and delicious Bucks County Coffee plus stand after stand of fresh fruits, veggies, meats, pies, and pastries! It is where my family gets the ingredients, turkey and all, for every special meal. Here are some photos from our Christmas Eve Morning Trip to the market:




(It was a dark and rainy morning, and it was packed, so these pictures do not do the market justice. You will have to visit someday for yourself to understand why I love it!)

Shelf Life: Dream Kitchens

I do not currently have my dream kitchen. In fact, our apartment is so tiny, we have a miniature kitchen with shrunken appliances. Yet this doesn't stop a girl from dreaming. Here is a collage of some of my favorite kitchen inspirations. When I come across pictured I like I clip them and copy them and file them in hopes of the day that I get to design my dream kitchen from scratch. (unfortunately this means that I cannot attribute many of these images to their original location - I apologize)


P.S. This is a prelude to pictures of my actual kitchen and a recent mini renovation with my shelves!

Dinning Out

With the storm clouds looming, food became a highlight of our Amelia trip this year. Here is the brief rundown of our eating habits:

Saturday: Fresh Steamed Shrimp and Pizza at the house - mmmm...

Sunday: Brett's Waterway Cafe - Mark had the Prime Rib, I had the most delicious Seared Diver Scallops and Ben had Grouper! It was all fantastic.


Monday: The Crab Trap - I had 1lb. of Dungeness Crap Legs.

Tuesday: Ameilia Island Plantation's Ocean Grill - probably the best meal I have ever had in my life! I enjoyed the Alaskan King Crab Stuffed Avocado and Steak Amelia. Mark had PEI Mussels for his appetizer and Lobster Two Ways for his main course. We ate and drank like royalty. This place by far topped the charts for each of our favorites. Dessert was delicious too! Here is a picture of my Steak Amelia:


Wednesday: La Bodega - This is truly a jewel hidden on the island. La Bodega serves the most authentic southern cuisine you can imagine. Every dish is prepared to perfection and served with collard greens and cheddar cheese grits. Everything is delicious, always!

Thursday: Low-key night at the house, spaghetti.

Friday: Joe's Bistro - the perfect ending to the perfect week of eating!

Clouds of Doom

Ominous clouds of doom have been threatening our vacation each afternoon. This is the view from our deck. Storms roll in looking like they will terrorize anything in their path. Twice now, Mark and I have gotten caught in a sudden thunderstorms (more like flash flood downpours). Fortunately, these storms have become quite predictable, begining between 12 and 2 and rolling away by early evening. So predictable that we are planning our days around them. We won't let a little (or quite large) rain cloud dampen this vacation!

Note: I just posted this and noticed that the picture looks black and white. However, this is not a black and white photo, the storm just literally sucked all the color from the sky!

Garden Update

Our (somewhat pathetic) garden is really thriving! Just in time for us to go away and let it all die. Hopefully it will rain while we are on vacation (there seems to be a dry hot heat wave). Hopefully the plants don't completely die. Our tomatoes have been so delicious. It has been such a blessing to have homegrown tomatoes. What an added plus that we could have fresh and safe veggies in the middle of this salmonella outbreak. I cannot imagine summer cooking and grilling without tomatoes! Anyway, all of this blab is an intro to showing you pictures of our garden, so here they are:

Wild Flowers ready to bloom on the left, Cherry Husky Tomatoes, Beefeater Tomatoes, and then on the far right, Basil and Chives

Bike Riding

Mark got me a bike for my birthday last year (pictured above). My first thought: it is blue and beautiful. Then the cynicism set in and I speculated that he was gearing up for the mountain biking season and wanted to drag me along so he didn't feel guilty going out gallivanting all day. You see, John Backiel was having a busy year, so Mark needed a new biking buddy, so he bought me a bike. What a selfless gift!

In all seriousness, Mark foresaw the fun that we would having biking together. Surely you have read about some of my biking expeditions, namely when Sarah came to visit. Some of our biking highlights in Massachusetts included the Apple Street Loop, a quick ride after work, and riding to Cranes Beach, only 12 miles round trip. However, since we moved to DC, we have been in a riding slump. We made the mistake of storing our bikes on the Eastern Shore and missed opportunities where we may have gone for a ride.

The last few weekends we have gotten out more and I hope in continues. We went for a leisurely ride with Ben on the Eastern Shore and this past weekend we rode to and around Hains Point. We estimated that ride at about 13 miles. None of these rides are very long. We aren't training for any big race/triathlon. We just like to ride our bikes together. Now all we have to do is make the time.