Tuesday, November 30, 2010

gratifying november!

gratifying november
I got back in the cooking saddle this month - not only did I try 12 new recipes in November (without cooking Thanksgiving dinner - my newly retired mother tackled the whole meal on her own), but I hit my 100th new recipe for the year. (Yes, I keep track. This should surprise no one, given my obsession with list-making!)

It appears it was another month of beige (and orange!) food, but what can I say - beige food can be delicious! Despite the seeming lack of green, we did eat a lot of vegetables this month - parsnips and carrots and peppers - and I tried a lot of vegetarian recipes from my Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health cookbook.

I was obsessed with making soups this month - mostly because I always seem to have problems making soup - I can't ever seem to find a good recipe.  The Curried Pepper Soup was good - but only when served over rice, and the Latin Corn Soup was foul, so I guess I'll keep looking.

What we were eating and cooking this month: preparing for winter with some one dish comfort foods - mushroom lasagna (which I actually posted on Vicious Dishes) and the beef pot pie that as mentioned before, was so delicious it appeared in my dreams. Vegetarian dishes - soups, pizza, and black bean confetti salad. Chicken Meatballs. Roasted pumpkin seeds. Larry was out of town so that meant making chocolate pudding from scratch (Larry doesn't like chocolate pudding and yes, I think that's weird). And although I didn't make it from scratch, I finally found a delicious grocery store olive hummus and have rekindled my love for my favorite snack - hummus and pita bread - I eat it on a near daily basis. And the grand finale - cheese-filled pumpkin bread - oh yes!

Friday, November 19, 2010

my life in postcards

postcard collection
I've been collecting postcards for as long as I can remember.

It started when I was little and my dad would send me postcards from his business trips. Here's my very first postcard. It's from 1983. I was four.
postcard collection
postcard collection
I love this one from 1986. I was seven (and evidently the same size as a striped bass!).
postcard collection
Here's another early postcard my dad sent when visiting my grandparents, Mimi and Papa, at their house in Belmar, New Jersey. The cool thing about this card is that you can see their house in the aerial view (see the arrow). My dad still spends his summers in this house.
postcard collection
When I was in elementary school, an elderly friend of the family became my postcard pen pal. Uncle Charlie and I exchanged dozens of postcards. I saved them all and my collection really took off. Uncle Charlie died when I was a teenager, but I'm glad I have all these funny little notes from him.
postcard collection
In this one, he told me to tell my brother that if a toad pees tobacco juice on him, he will turn into a leprechaun!
postcard collection
Here's a postcard he sent me in 1990 that says he just "popped over to Paris for a few days." Note that the card is postmarked from Baltimore!
postcard collection
postcard collection
I have a lot of postcards...
I have postcards that people sent me.
postcard collection
I have postcards from places I've been. And places I haven't.
postcard collection
I have blank postcards from when I started collecting them on my own. My parents were happy to buy me a few postcards from our vacations (which were always to New Jersey) - since they're a cheap souvenir (the postcards, not my parents...). I started amassing hundreds of them. For some reason the New Jersey postcards always had seagulls on them.
postcard collection
I have postcards from my kindergarten BFF who moved away when we were six. We haven't seen each other since then (it's been over 25 years!), but we kept in touch all this time through letters and postcards.
postcard collection
I have postcards from my sweet Mimi. She died nine years ago.
postcard collection
And my dad kept sending me postcards from his business trips even when I was a teenager. The only difference was that he wrote them in cursive now and he signed his name Dad instead of Daddy.

Here's three that he sent me all in one week from a trip to California in 1996. I was seventeen.
postcard collection
I have postcards from when I spent a summer in college traveling through Spain and Portugal.
postcard collection
postcard collection
postcard collection
I have postcards from when I spent a semester abroad in Florence.
postcard collection
postcard collection
Evidently, I really liked this postcard of Pisa.
postcard collection
I have oversized postcards and postcard books.
postcard collection
I have postcards with stamps from all over the world from Postcrossing.
postcard collection
When Larry and I started dating, he sent me postcards from all the places that he went on business trips - just like my dad did 20 years earlier.
postcard collection
I have postcards from places that Larry and I have traveled together.
postcard collection
As a child, I kept the postcards in the desk drawer in my bedroom. They have holes in the corners from being tacked to bulletin boards. They have sticky stuff on the backs from when I wallpapered my dorm room with them. For the past few years they've all been stored in a shoebox in the closet.postcard collection
Recently, I decided that I should do something with all the postcards and I've been sorting through them. The ones with messages on the back are the most precious, and I want to archive and display the notes I've received throughout the years and the places I've been. Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in postcards and travel memorabilia (that clear spot on the floor is where I was sitting)...
postcard collection
This might take a while...

Monday, November 15, 2010

where I get it from

I was lucky enough to get to see both my parents this weekend. A few memorable quotes:

Mom: I get such pleasure out of childish things!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Larry: Is Merlot your favorite red wine?
Dad: Red wine is my favorite red wine!

Childish sense of humor? Lover of red wine? Yep, that's me.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

weekend adventures: mason neck state park

hiking at mason neck state park
The dogs have had crazy cabin fever lately, so we got them out for a hike at Mason Neck State Park on Saturday. Holy crap, they both acted like they were training for the Iditarod and didn't stop pulling the entire way. I think we need to get a dog sled - or at least a wagon - so Larry and I can sit on our butts and let the beasts pull us! Mush!

This photo cracks me up - Gravy, always so enthusiastic about everything and ready to go go go, and Banjo, my curmudgeonly little bear sitting on his butt. Gravy would walk 500 miles if we let him (and whines if we pause to tie a shoe or get a drink), while Banjo runs upstairs and hides in the closet when we get the leash out.
hiking at mason neck state park
hiking at mason neck state park
hiking at mason neck state park
Flooded bridge and squishy socks.
hiking at mason neck state park
hiking at mason neck state park
hiking at mason neck state park
hiking at mason neck state park

Friday, November 12, 2010

a glimpse of fall

From our yard:

The sky has been SO blue lately.
yellow!
crescent moon
I love photographing the pampas grass in our front yard.
pampas grass
pampas grass
Burning bush.
burning bush
burning bush
This guy has spent hours in the yard lately looking for squirrels. He's been obsessed ever since he caught one last month.
looking for squirrels
gravy
gravy
gravy
If his taste for blood isn't satisfied, he settles for grass.
gravy grazing
Rotten.
rotten
A little surprise I found in the garden after three months of neglect...8 little peppers! In November!
(Gravy will be so pleased.)
november garden surprise
november garden surprise
Happy Fall!
yellow tree