Wins & Losses

[caption id="attachment_296" align="alignright" width="249" caption="Their meringues. Sadly, these are not mine!"][/caption]

I'm going to count the three projects that I have in limbo as wins because they are all in some stage of progression.  None of them are collecting dust and that is always a good thing.  However, I am going to count my lack of posting and my almond meringues in the loss category.  I'd also like to note that my meringues go in the embarrassing, completely tragic loss category  (think along the lines of the Cowboys record this season).

I wanted beautiful, puffy, sweet meringues to keep around the house as a sweet snack.  So I found a recipe that I liked (read: a recipe that I had all the ingredients for) and started whipping.  Currently, I don't have a mixer so I had to whip these puppies by hand which went surprisingly well.  After being extremely gentle while folding in the finely crushed (by hand!) almonds, I piped them onto the wax paper and baked them at 225 for two hours and....

Nothing.  I got globs of sticky, almond smelling, glue that wouldn't come off of the wax paper and was the texture of day old paste.  It was awful.  I didn't even bother taking a picture because it made me sad.  They were subsequently balled up (while still stuck to the paper!) and thrown away.

So what did I do wrong?  Why exactly did they turn to clue intstead of puffy, light, slightly crispy meringues?

Let's end this on a more positive note.  My "House Rules" project is coming along well (and the blue paint turned out perfectly), my embroidery project is slow going... but it is going, and my living wall project has gone from a living wall to a living bamboo shoot.  Sometimes you just have to make due with what you can find... and sometimes chicken wire is as scare as water in the desert, or a hipster at a job interview.

Project #1

This project wasn't on the list I gave you last time.  This project is something that's been sitting next to my side of the bed for approximately 100 years.  I found a quote via a long trail of enthusiastic clicking that started on the Thinking Housewife and lead me to Out of Sleep.  When I read through the post one particular quote stood out and I decided I had to have it.  It's a quote from an article by Father Anthony Brankin:

“Beauty and ugliness flow naturally into the world from the content or emptiness of the soul.”

So here is step one and two.  Step three will comprise of actually finishing it and then framing it so someday my kids will like it so much they'll turn it into an heirloom.  A girl can hope, right?





 

 

 

 

I'm a complete novice when it comes to embroidery, by the way.  I've done a few things like the front of my wedding album, a purse or two and some pillowcases but I don't ever claim to actually now what I'm doing.

So if you've got any helpful hints or can see where I'm going wrong in the photos, let me know!

p.s. Take a look at William's blog.  There's a really cool photo of the fog that was taken from my office.

All Work and No Play

[caption id="attachment_275" align="alignleft" width="168" caption="I probably should have refilled that jar before snapping this, huh?"][/caption]

Most people's definition of play is something along the lines of getting out of the house and doing something for completely recreational purposes.  While I was sitting at 'work' today I was chomping at the bit to get home to be able to play.  After all, I had a kitchen to clean and heap of laundry to take care of and three projects to get started on (paintings pillows and hydroponic living walls!).  And while reorganizing your kitchen because you basically had everything out of the cabinet when you had company last night doesn't sound like a desirable start to the weekend... I was counting down the minutes until I could get out from behind that desk and have some real fun.

In lieu of pictures of my amazing kitchen (organizational tips provided by, none other than, my Mom) and a giant pile of laundry, I've decided to include this super healthy, incredibly inexpensive, remarkably delicious (and colorful) salad that I take to my 9-5 most days.

Have a fantastic Friday and please come back for updates on my projects!  I need someone to share them with since one is a surprise for William!

Blooming in January

I just wanted to share a few photos from our backyard.  It may be 30 degrees outside back home but it won't get below 60 tonight in Doha.  Also, I love my mint plant.  The kind of love where I'm not really sure what I'd do without it or how I ever lived without fresh mint tea in the mornings.

[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignleft" width="674" caption="Salvia, Fuji Mum, Baby Salvia and Mint."][/caption]

I'm considering going to the nursery this weekend to pick up some plants to start setting up and testing out my hydroponic wall. Thoughts?  Recommendations?

Cupcakes & Driving

First, I have another confession to make.  I love Pinterest.  I've been browsing and searching and wondering "should I pin this?" for days now and I can't help myself.  The upside of my obsession is that people pin all kinds of awesome foods and their other culinary projects.  One of them that has caught my eye and kept my attention is these amazing little cupcakes.

[caption id="attachment_250" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Photo courtesy of Pinterest"][/caption]

They're so delicate and pretty and (like most cupcakes) look almost too good to eat.    But I think I'm obsessed with them because the one time I tried to make roses out of icing they looked a lot more like the doodles you draw with your eyes closed while using your non-dominant hand.

I've been looking for tutorials, instructional videos, anything on how to make them but everything I've found seems to be pretty lacking.  Almost without fail they have three steps.  1 - make the center a tight spiral on a rose pin, 2 - make the petals outside the center spiral overlapping and progressively large, 3 - slide the rose off the pin.

Am I wrong to ask for more than that?  Should I just be continually trying my hand at it instead of looking for more detailed directions?

Please tell me that someone out there has something I can use to learn this skill.  Otherwise, my husband is going to be appalled at the amount of buttercream I can cover the kitchen in while trying to be skillful.

In other news, I love my new Jeep and I hate driving in this country.

Confession

Friday's in Doha are like Sunday's in the US.  It's a day of rest, worship and... the day when my cleaning lady, Rohini, comes.  Yes, this so-called "professionally domestic" lady has a cleaning lady.  The reason I feel the need to confess this is because right now, while we're waiting to leave for church my husband said something to the effect of "we're laying here checking Facebook and Rohini is doing our chores." (That bit of conversation may, or may not have, been less polite than that)

So now I feel like I should confess.  I have a cleaning lady.  She does the floors and the bathrooms once a week.  And I'm okay with supporting the local economy, I'm okay with not being able to spit shine my house myself, I'm okay with having a very nice Sri Lankan woman do the dirty work and I'm okay with typing a bunch of platitudes and hoping that you'll understand.

We're going to leave for church now.  And when I come home I'll have beautifully clean floors with perfect, shiny bathrooms.  Luckily, there will still be dishes and laundry for me to do so I can assuage my guilt for not being able to keep up with my own house.  That stupid hobby of mine is taking up entirely too much of my time.

Amazing Chiles, Average Muffins

[caption id="attachment_235" align="alignleft" width="344" caption="Thank you Ms. Livermore!"][/caption]

I've never made savory muffins before.  I've heard all about Sausage & Cheddar Muffins, or Bacon & Chive but never anything with a vegetable in it.  Doesn't a Sun Dried Tomato and Garlic muffin sound awesome?  I think that would be perfect with a bowl of vegetable soup... or something else warm and cozy.    I've also been feeling a good deal homesick.  And since "home" is a relative term around here ("Home is where the Navy sends you"), I decided to start with the place that we lived last.  New Mexico.

After searching for a while I realized I wouldn't find a muffin recipe that wasn't a corn muffin.  And I wanted a fluffy, warm in the middle, no grainy corn meal muffin.  And then I had trouble finding a muffin recipe that didn't use a mix (not that there's anything wrong with that!) or require potato flakes.   Hence, the recipe I finally used tastes good... but they're not fluffy.  Far from it.   And I think its because I took a stock muffin recipe from my Good Housekeeping cookbook and then just tried to adjust the sugar/salt and spices accordingly.  I'm not disappointed with the results.

Have a look at the recipe and let me know where you think I've gone wrong... or maybe you have a  savory muffin recipe I can use?  Because now, I'm on a mission for them to be perfect.  Before we continue, I'd like to say thank you, thank you, thank you the Madeline for sending me a New Mexico care package.  A Qatari care package is headed her way!

It's a family affair.

I went to take photos of my most recent creations and when I was loading them on to my laptop I found an additional food-themed photo on there.  My amazing husband is turning my blog into a joint effort.

His Mediterranean-style dinner includes (clockwise from left):  Sun-dried tomato tortillas, some kind of Arabic white cheese that I can't pronounce, tomatoes, smoked chicken breast slices, fresh cucumbers, and his own 'home-made' hummous (the recipe of which is available below).

[caption id="attachment_238" align="aligncenter" width="452" caption="I like his creative plating."][/caption]

I love it.  Finding this on the camera makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

How do we have so much laundry?

Almost everyone wears at least two changes of clothes a day (unless you don’t wear pajamas and then we’re down to one).  And let’s assume, because it happens with alarming regularity in my world, that on some days its just one change of clothes (it’s really hard to get out of my pajamas on Saturdays).   Either way, that’s seven pairs of clothes a week, at approximately four pieces of clothing per pair.  Do you know how much laundry that is?  A lot.  I’d show you how much but the photo is frightening.  Instead of doing laundry I decided to make green bean bundles.  Makes perfect sense, right? Instead of washing clothes let’s make another apron dirty.

Update: Mount Laundry has been tackled with enough time to make Green Chile Muffins.

Hands Off My Kitchen, You Awful Excuse for a Woman

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="318" caption="This took me hours. Guess I should have been picketing instead."][/caption]

I don't have kids.  I hope to have kids but currently I don't.  I do have a full-time, 60-hour a week job.  So when I came across this article while looking for recipes on the Tipsy Baker (Love your work. Call me.)   Suddenly, I was seeing red and completely appalled for all of the Moms out there and wanted to entirely disown my full-time-job-having-status.

Here's the gist:  Jennifer Steinhauer wrote a fantastic, if not a little uppity, article about how baked goods that are purchased at the grocery story shouldn't be Bake Sale items and are, in fact, the ruination of the bake sale tradition.  I, of course, completely agree with her.  In the time it takes you to drive to the store, pick out cookies/cupcakes from the bakery and repackage them you could have packed cookies from pre-packaged cookie dough.  Then at least you've produced them in your own oven.  However, some awful with named Ayelet Waldman decides to tear Ms. Steinhauer apart for being "anti-feminist".

Among other gems, the one that really stood out for me (and was also quoted by the Tipsy Baker) is:

"When are these women going to figure out that this fetish for raising chickens and baking the perfect bundt cake is retrograde, oppressive, and nothing more than latter-day Phyllis Schlafley (sic) bullshit? You know what you don't have time for when you're obsessing over the candied lavender on your Christmas Cookies? Outrage over the political and economic crisis, that's what."

You know what I don't have time for, Ms. Waldman, when I'm simmering my own soup stock, making my own bread or embroidering my own pillowcases?  Your bullshit.

Hands Off My Kitchen, You Awful Excuse for a Woman

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="318" caption="This took me hours. Guess I should have been picketing instead."][/caption]

I don't have kids.  I hope to have kids but currently I don't.  I do have a full-time, 60-hour a week job.  So when I came across this article while looking for recipes on the Tipsy Baker (Love your work. Call me.) Suddely, I was seeing red and completely appalled for all of the Moms out there and wanted to entirely disown my full-time-job-having-status.

Here's the gist:  Jennifer Steinhauer wrote a fantastic, if not a little uppity, article about how baked goods that are purchased at the grocery story shouldn't be Bake Sale items and are, in fact, the ruination of the bake sale tradition.  I, of course, completely agree with her.  In the time it takes you to drive to the store, pick out cookies/cupcakes from the bakery and repackage them you could have packed cookies from pre-packaged cookie dough.  Then at least you've produced them in your own oven.  However, some awful with named Ayelet Waldman decides to tear Ms. Steinhauer apart for being "anti-feminist". 

Among other gems, the one that really stood out for me (and was also quoted by the Tipsy Baker) is:

"When are these women going to figure out that this fetish for raising chickens and baking the perfect bundt cake is retrograde, oppressive, and nothing more than latter-day Phyllis Schlafley (sic) bullshit? You know what you don't have time for when you're obsessing over the candied lavender on your Christmas Cookies? Outrage over the political and economic crisis, that's what."

You know what I don't have time for, Ms. Waldman, when I'm simmering my own soup stock, making my own bread or embroidering my own pillowcases?  Your bullshit.

I can still read CNN/FoxNews/WSJ/NYT and bake.  Imagine that! 

In the time it takes for my bread to rise I can write a letter to my congressman. 

While I'm watching my souffle ever so carefully I have time to blog on my other, highly political blog.  (And by highly I mean I focus almost entirely on politics and how truly awesome it is to be an American.)

Someday, Ms. Waldman, your children will ignore you the same way you've ignored your home in order to "provide for them."

I'd like to add a sincere thank you to the Thinking Housewife (for constantly challenging my train of thought) and the Tipsy Baker (for her blog and the article).  Long live baking, anti-feminism and homemade cookies brining shame upon every store-bought item out there.

(Disclaimer:  I know, I know... it's just the internet.  I'm one of a billion people sitting on their high horse angrily saying condescending things about someone else on their high horse.  But if that isn't what the internet is for then I'm obviously not well versed in the usage of such new fangled technology.)

http://www.tipsybaker.com/2011/12/so-whos-really-slagging-who.html

http://www.tipsybaker.com/2011/12/so-whos-really-slagging-who.html

Cookie Therapy & Laundry Lines

There is something about cookies that can change your entire day.  Even more so, the perfect cup of tea and a cookie can make a whole weeks worth of difference.  Christmas is officially over (the whole family is back at their respective homes and ours is left woefully quiet) and I’m jonesing for something warm, homey and chocolate.

Enter Emily’s Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies.  And a cup of Lady Gray.

Anti-Resolution Recipes

Happy New Year, everyone!  I’ve got a list of resolutions about a mile long and, just like everyone else, one of them is to eat better in order to drop a little weight.  One of my other resolutions is to write more… keeping up with this thing has got to become a priority.  While going through photos to see what I wanted to post I found this (see delicious photo above).  It’s a Lemon Chiffon cake with fresh Whipped Cream-Coconut Icing that I made months ago.  And now I want to make one again… and eat the whole thing and throw resolutions out the window.