Photo Friday

Next week, a photo that doesn't involve the dog...I promise!

Your Mom is here...

Actual transcript of a conversation I had with a school security guard on Wednesday:

(phone rings)

Me: Happy Wednesday, Mrs. Cakounes
Guy: Ummm...someone's here.
Me: Who?
Guy: Your...mom.
Me: Oh yay!
Guy: Yeah...she said she has clothes to drop off for you?
Me: Okay, can you hold on to them there? I'll come down and get them after this class.
Guy: Your mom drops your clothes off?
Me: Yep! See ya soon.

(Note: This is funnier if you consider that lately, with the onset of good weather, lots of parents have been 'dropping off clothes' for ladies who aren't wearing enough...)

Thanks for altering my dress and dropping it off at school, Mom! :)

Grandma E-mails Me About Chickens

Last week, I got the following email from my Grandma, an faithful blog follower: 

Hi Em & Chris,

 

I was just reading your blog about chickens !!  Had myself a great laugh !!  I don't know if your mother remembers but,  We had chickens in England !!  The place we lived in was the Gate house to a Mansion (  By the way,  where Kate, who just married William , is from, Buckleberry, England )  Anyway,  I had 6 Rhode Island Red  hens who lived in cages outside my kitchen window !!  They never left the cage - sad, but true,  and, layed the best eggs ever !!  Some of them were triple yokes !!  Unfortunatley,  Your mother and her siblings, would not eat the eggs because, they could see the hens and also saw where the egss came from -  yup -  they thought the egss were " poops "  -  too funny, but true !!  I had to sell the eggs !!  OH -  I did cook with them -  

 

They do smell a little but,  you just learn to clean, clean, clean -  and, enjoy !!!!!!!!

Not an entirely ringing endorsement for chickenry, but at least now we know that my chicken obsession is genetic if nothing else!

Mortgage Plot Plan

We waited. and waited. and waited. and paid $150. For this:

Wow. Impressive, huh? Cross your fingers and hope that this is enough for a building permit on Monday morning. A deck for Memorial Day would be perfect!

Photo Friday

Penny and my girl Jess!

Profiteroles at Last!

Some of you may know that I have been suffering for months under the heavy weight of a cream puff.

Chris made these a few months ago and they were perfect. PERFECT. Light, airy, slightly sweet, puffs of air in your mouth. And anything he can do, I can do better, right?

Wrong.

This was followed by three months of experimenting and three months of hockey pucks. Flat, nasty discs of dough that refused to puff up no matter what. I blamed the recipe. I blamed the oven. I blamed the lack of fresh eggs and creamery butter. But at the end of the day, I had only myself to blame.

Last Sunday, I took my last try and behold - perfection. The key here is NO SHENANIGANS - follow Martha Stewart's exact instructions or prepare the backyard ice rink for action. Even Julia Child's recipe for these falls flat. I wish you luck.

Profiteroles
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food
This is for two people - makes about 6-7 large profiteroles. Recipe doubles/triples easily.

You will need:
1/2 cup water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 425. Bring water, butter and sugar to a boil. Immediately remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour for two minutes until pulling away from sides of pan and forming a tight glob. *If using a nonstick pan, transfer to a glass/plastic/nonreactive bowl RIGHT NOW. Let cool for two minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely after each addition. This may take another two minutes per egg. Patience, darling. Batter should be sticky and stiff.

Transfer to a folded zip-top bag and zip to close. Cut the corner of one end and pipe puffs onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 mins until puffed and golden brown. Fill with ice cream, lemon curd, whipped cream...what have you!

Et voila!

Dinner Out Tonight: Lisa's Pizzeria

Just to note: some friends and I ate at Lisa's Pizzeria in Tewksbury, MA this Friday. All was well until this horrifying event:

Look closer...THERE'S A STAPLE IN MY SALAD. Tewksbury Board of Health, prepare to swoop in. Gross.

Deck/Door Update

Last week, we got a new back door! It is awesome. It replaced the old door which was a) a bizarre size, b) uninsulated and therefore permissive to all manner of 'the elements' getting in, and c) warped to the point that opening or closing it took all 125 (fine, 130) pounds of me.

This is phase one of our Summer Deck/Door project. You'll notice I haven't mentioned the deck. Sigh.

This is MY FAULT - I insisted on a building permit for this. Some guy down the street from us got fined a pile of money for not using a permit and I did not want to end up in his shoes. *Chris has a completely different telling of this story that he is insisting on - sucks that he's not the one blogging!

Unfortunately, the people who built the deck 25 years ago did not get a permit. Which means that it never ended up on a plot plan for the city. So the city won't give us a building permit unless we can show them a plot plan including the existing deck, which requires a survey of the house for $1500-2000 -or-  a mortgage plot plan, which we declined at closing. Crap.

Luckily, Christopher married himself a wee winsome wife - I called our closing attorney and was told that we could get a new plot plan for $125. Of course, when push came to shove, it ended up being $150 for 'office time' (his emails were literally 3 word answers to my carefully crafted questions - nice life). But, by the end of this week, we should have a building permit in hand, at which time our contractor can finish the door and get going on ye olde deck demo.

Moral of the story: Not sure. Chris feels that it is NEVER DO WHAT THE MAN TELLS YOU TO DO. I still feel like following the rules is a good thing. I guess we'll see what the week brings.

Breakfast This Morning: French Toast Casserole

Exact transcript of a phone conversation my Mom and I had at about 9:30 this morning.

Me: Chris had a rough studying day yesterday so I'm making him a surprise breakfast. You'll never guess what.
Mom: Ooo, what?
Me: Well, I was cruising the Day Old Bake at Market Basket yesterday...
Mom: Oh my goodness did you see the cinnamon swirl brioche?! I just made french toast with it this morning. It was delicious!

You know what they say about apples and trees...I bought the chocolate swirl brioche only because I didn't see the cinnamon until my second pass around the cart. Please note here that my Mom and I live in DIFFERENT STATES. Bizarre that we ended up with the same delicious breakfast!

This is a two-day recipe that requires a bit of advanced planning. It's worth it.


French Toast Casserole
Serves 3-4
Adapted from 'Cover and Bake: Best of Cook's Illustrated.'

1 loaf day-old brioche, french bread, challah, baguette (whatever they have in the Day Old) sliced into 1/2 in slices.
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half and half
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1/2 stick butter, softened (not melted)
1 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (I used oatmeal because I had no nuts...pecans would be better!)

Heat the oven to 325. Arrange the bread in one layer on a baking sheet and toast for 25 mins until golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x9 baking pan. Layer the dried bread in two layers, packing in the corners.
Whisk the eggs, milk, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla, and spices in a large bowl. Pour evenly over the bread. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, pressing down for full absorption. Refrigerate 8-24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Combine the butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and nuts with a rubber spatula. Smooth over bread mixture. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet to avoid a giant mess. Bake until puffed and golden, 55-60 mins. Cool for 10 mins before serving.

Remember...my improvised topping was not so successful. Oatmeal and chocolate chips did not pecans replace. Ye be warned!

Chickens: Day 2

Yep. I'm still on chickens.

First of all  - the neighbors are into it! I talked to one of our next door neighbors this morning and he was totally enthusiastic. He had been trying to convince his wife about it for weeks! (Chris: Geez, maybe you guys should have married each other and lived in craziness.)

Also, I cruised the City Ordinance website in my town and found that while we're not allowed to have roosters (eh, who needs 'em), we can have up to 5 laying hens in proper housing. Awesome.

Chris suggested that we each make a list - pros and cons of having chickens.

Mine looked like this (notice my uncharacteristic lack of cons):
1) Chickens are great!
2) We spend about $3/week on eggs because I buy specific organic eggs...no eggs from legless birds for us.
3) Fresh eggs have changed my life.
4) It would be a superfun project.
5) It would give our future kids a connection to where their food comes from.

Chris', on the other hand, looked like this:
1) Chickens smell.
2) You will then smell like chickens.
3) We will get divorced.

Hard to argue with. All joking aside, he did bring up a good point - having chickens would 99% ruin a small section of our very meticulous lawn. We don't plan to be in this house forever (tear) and I'm not sure that 'chicken coop' would look tempting on a real estate run sheet. He promised that he would reconsider with me when we move to 'the country'.

For now...I'll start trying to convince our neighbor's wife!

Rooftop Garden: Week 3

This week, the rooftop garden moves indoors due to the prediction of 4-5 days of raw, cold rain. We rigged some garbage bags on the porch and lugged everything downstairs. Our front porch is an absolutle sauna in the coldest of weather, so it'll be nice for the plants to have some greenhouse-effect warmth for the next week. I'll put them back outside when the nights are back over 50 degrees again.

That said, everyone is growing nicely! The peas will be ready for caging soon and I've already got buds on tomatoes. Chris and I snacked on some of the teeeeensy baby lettuces this morning and they were heaven. Can't wait to stop spending money on greens for a few months!

Oh yeah...guess that means I'll have to eat them??

Confession: I want chickens.

Americans are taking back their food supply. People everywhere are gardening and enjoying the fruits of their own labors. About six months ago I heard a story in NPR about people in city apartments who raise chickens on building roofs in coops only about 150 sq ft. That got me thinking.

I'm also lucky enough to work in a district where I have some kids who are inner-city born and bred and teach me all sorts of stuff about city living. However, we also have kids who have 4H projects involving their own chickens and cows. I'm getting about a dozen eggs a week from one student who just can't get rid of the things fast enough. These farm eggs are DELICIOUS, I'm telling you, and the baked goods - oh, swoon. The baked goods. You haven't yet lived until you've tried fresh eggs.

Chris and I discussed. Read: I whined and begged and Chris said no. But then about two weeks ago one of our neighbors (he looks JUST like Mike Holmes and seems to spend all his time doing incredible construction projects to his house...he's awesome) was bantying about his backyard. Penny and I watched on our twice-daily walks past his house as - lo and behold - there arose a chicken coop! His girls are beautiful and already producing eggs. Already!

Our lawn is incredible. We're talking about some sort of outdoor patio/living space back there. Could it be that I might be able to talk Chris into sharing it with some feathered friends?

Today was the first day of Dog School (more on that later) at our local ASPCA. Chris begged out of coming seeing as he's still studying for The Big Test on June 4th. I told him that his punishment for missing this important moment in Penny's life would be that I was going to peruse the dogs for adoption on my way out of Dog School. Never made it that far. I found those chickens and was mesmerised.

If I can adopt a dog, I can adopt chickens, right? I'm thinking this though and doing some internet research and found out that yes, Americans are raising their own chickens. Just some are doing it more crazily than others.

There's a great website here on getting started. What I like about this website is that it treats chickens as livestock, not as family members. You can also check out this website for more info on the Urban Chicken movement, whose blog I have now become obsessed with. They make it all look so easy.

Then, there are the crazy (in my opinion) "my chicken is my pet" people. I eat a lot of chicken so I'm not sure I could ever get to this point. Sure, I may be picking out names for my unhatched chickens already (Petunia!), but they will not be living in my house. This website helps you maintain this wild lifestyle, including this helpful gadget for keeping things tidy. (Horrified yet? THERE ARE MULTIPLE OPTIONS AND STYLES. That is the most horrifying part.)

There was also this website offering a 'husband free' option for starting your own flock...it's called the Omlet and it basically looks like a playpen for chickens. Something tells me it will not hold up to our robust New England winters.

Any thoughts? Should we expand our empire and start spreading our wings? Or have I gone off the roost?

Half Marathon Fun!

Last weekend, I traveled with my Mom and sisters to the great white North of New Hampshire to watch them run a half marathon. This is old hat for my mom, who has been running 'before it was cool', but it was the first long-distance run for my sister Karen and she did an amazing job. I am so proud of both of their achievements!

It was also the first time in a LONG time that my Mom got to yell at all three of us at the same time. Ahh, touching moments.

I hope to run this next year. I'm up to a 10k on my own training (6.2 miles). If I can manage to double it in the next year, I should be good to join them next May!

Anneka and Steve, Karen's boyfriend, waiting at the finish. 

Hey! Who invited that moose?

Alton Bay, NH

Here comes Karen! Juuuust under 2 hours!

Here comes Mom! Juuuust over two hours!

Victory hug

We survived!

Rooftop Gardening Experiment

Chris and I both grew up with gardens. It's always been part of our plan to have one eventually. Standing in our way, however, is that nasty critter I've been talking about. So I decided to thwart him for once and for all by gardening on the kitchen roof, accessible from Chris' study window!

Last weekend, I planted tomatoes, basil, green peppers, sweet peas, spring mix/spinach, and strawberries, all in containers of 75/25 ProMix/Organic potting soil with regular organic container fertilizer. I also mixed some compost into everything, but mostly the tomatoes. Did you know that your local town probably has free compost that you can go get? I came home from our 'city yard' with a 5 gal bucket of the good stuff for free.

Last week, my plants looked like this:

L-R: Strawberries, spring mix, peas, peppers

Peppers, tomatoes/basil

View from Chris' window

This is Penny spotting me from the window for safety reasons. Safety is her #1 priority.

Probably the coolest thing about this garden is our watering system. Chris found some trashy pieces of old hardwood flooring in our basement and used them to level the containers and provide drainage. It also helps spread out the weight to make sure we're not damaging the roof. We DID have our friendly local contractor give his okay to this project before we started, so do your research before diving out onto your roof!

The other thing that Chris did was to rig up a hose system so that I can water up there without multiple trips in and out of the window. The hose actually snakes through the gutters along the kitchen and up to the roof! Someone does have to turn the water on first, unfortunately, but it does eliminate the awkward trips in and out of the window. 

 This week, they're doing great! Everything is growing along nicely. Next week, I'll probably put cages around the tomatoes and peas as they get leggy.

Spring mix/spinach and baaaaby peas (can hardly see them but there are 6 sprouts!)

Note: I have been told, firmly, by more than one person, that my tomatoes are doomed. NO ONE in New England has the AUDACITY to place tomatoes outdoors in May. Well, you're looking at one audacious chick. If they die, they die, but they're out there and thriving now! I may live to rue these words but so far, so good.

Beautiful Spring

Chris and I have mentioned to each other several times in the last few weeks that this has got to be one of the best springs we've ever experienced. New England has a nasty way of skipping spring altogether some years and going right from snow to humidity. But this year, we've been graced with a few weeks of relatively lovely weather, slow-blooming trees, and juuuust today, the lilacs! It's been a beautiful spring and we've been out enjoying it!

Photo Friday

Me and my girl, watching hockey...at one point she yawned and ended up chewing on my ankle. Seeing as she's toothless, I ended up with drool in my sock instead of holes in my foot. Life is hilarious. 

Dinner Tonight: Cheeseburger Pie

I have a very clear memory of my mother making something like this when I was very young. I remember it involved beef, corn, and Bisquick. I of course developed a serious craving for this while my mother was away on vacation and incommunicado, so I had to make due with creating my own version:

Filling:
1lb ground beef (85-90%)
Rainbow peppers, sliced*
Onions, sliced*
1 can tomato paste
A few shakes garlic powder and cumin
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Topping:
1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 can corn

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cook and drain beef. Add peppers and onions and cook until soft. Add tomato paste, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Spoon into a round pie plate (Pyrex glass plate is perfect).

In a seperate bowl, combine all topping ingredients and stir until no lumps remain. Pour over beef mixture. Bake 35-40 mins or until topping is browned and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

No pictures to post of this because it's GONE! DELICIOUS! Chris approved!

*I am an obsessive do-aheader. I like to buy discounted produce, bring it home, slice it and freeze it. I always keep bags of sliced green, red, yellow and orange peppers mixed with sliced onions in my freezer. The ratios aren't always equal but it's usually 1/2 of each pepper mixed with 1/2 an onion. Most veggies freeze beautifully - right now I'm sitting on corn, peppers, zucchini/summer squash, and tomatoes. When I'm ready to cook, pull out the bag and go! Weeknight dinner accomplished.

Dinner Tonight: Quesadilla Pie

I figured that while I was posting Pie-Dinner recipes, I'd have to throw this one in. Sometimes Chris gets a look in his eye and I just know...it's Quesadilla Pie night.

You will need:

Filling:
1 12-inch tortilla
A pile of cooked and chopped chicken*
1/4-1/2 cup pepperchini peppers, chopped
1 can corn
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
(Recipe calls for 1 tsp fresh cilantro but I think it tastes like soap.)

Topping:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine all filling ingredients. Place tortilla in greased pie plate. Dump filling mixture on top of tortilla. Combine topping ingredients until they are the consistency of pancake batter. Pour over filling. Bake 25-30 mins until nicely browned.

Serve with hot sauce (Chris) or ketchup (me). Heaven.

* I tend to buy chicken on sale and freeze. I do all sorts of stuff with it. Sometimes if I have to get rid of some, I'll just roast it for about 25 mins in a 400F oven and then store it in the fridge. I chop that up into this recipe, or chicken salad, or tacos...use your imagination. The freezer is your friend!

Workin' on Decoratin'

I have a favorite spot in all the world. It is, creepily, a cemetary.

We live in a city, so green space is a bit hard to find. But we do have a beautiful, sprawling cemetary close to our house that is meticulously maintained with both old-growth and perennial/annual plantings. I love the whole 2 mile loop of it, but my favorite part is to look right down the main drag at the path between all the old trees. Like this:

One of my future plans is to stand in this very spot and take pictures of this path in all four seasons, and then frame it for the living room. So far I've only got Spring and Fall...Summer and Winter still to come!

March for Babies

On July 23rd, 2011, I will be walking in the March for Babies in Lowell, MA. This fundraiser is intended to support research for unborn and premature babies to ensure that all babies are born healthy. Please consider donating at my page, and thank you for reading!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/emilycakounes