RECIPE OMG

Guys, my pride knows no bounds.  I read cooking blogs like there's no tomorrow, but I don't venture out on my own!  But then I did!  And it was outstanding!  With too many radish leaves to compost and a beckoning butternut squash, I googled soup recipes.  Well, first I just googled those two foods together, but got several sites for what to feed your bunny rabbit.  When I added 'soup' to the terms, I got several for radish leaves and several for butternut squash, but none I liked that combined the two!   So I went with the radish leaves one (from Epicurious, from Bon Apetit) and pretended the butternut squash was four russet potatoes and a few other swaps like that.  Here goes, for your cooking pleasure and for my ease of finding again.

Butternut Squash and Radish Leaves Soup

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and 1-inch-cubed
bunch of radish leaves, well washed (mine were all the leaves from about 8 radishes)
3 cups chicken stock
1 T butter
1 onion, chopped
2/3 c milk, room temperature
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Melt butter in large saucepan, add onions and sautee until soft, about five minutes.
2. Add radish leaves and heat until wilted, about two minutes.
3. Pour in chicken stock and add squash, simmer until tender.
4. Puree squash and leaves in blender in batches, and temporarily store the puree in a different bowl or pot for a second.  You'll be left with the stock and maybe some onions still simmering in the main pot.
5. Once everything is pureed, add it back in to the main pot; add milk and stir until smooth.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve, or serve with dollops of soft cheese, like that triangle cow Swiss cheese, because life is awesome.

Someday I'll have a real camera and take preposterously good pictures and then my recipe posts will be as sexy as everyone else's.  Until then, IMAGINE WHAT THIS FOOD LOOKS LIKE

It's that time of year! Plus, NRM update!

So the calendar says summer is over, the weather is about to agree (high of 72 is in the ten-day!), and we will finally have a five-day week of school (barring, of course, tornadoes, volcanoes or the black death).  You know what that means!  I love fall as much as anyone else who says her favorite season is fall, but I AM PUMPED FOR CHRISTMAS.  Getting excited too early is par for the course, but it is kicked up a notch this year because it's our first Christmas with a house!  And real neighbors!  And our own appliances!  I am going to combine these three awesome things into one by baking tins of delicious treats for our very welcoming neighbors.  We're going to have a tree!  And real stockings!  AND A DOG OMG

But it isn't even Halloween yet, so I'm going to try to chill my gills over here.  Speaking of which, I literally realized The Greatest Halloween Costumes for Justin and me last year on NOVEMBER 1 (I'm sure you can imagine how mad I was at myself for such horrible timing, but it was a pretty sweet Halloween anyway), so we're just hanging out waiting for the Halloween party invites to come pouring in.  Any day now, that non-water-proof mailbox of ours will be bursting with them, I know it. 

For those of you keeping track at home, we are currently 11 days into another No Restaurant Month.  But!  We like to be neither insane nor lonely, so we make exceptions when we're eating out with friends, like I did with my birthday friend Kathryne the other night at everyone's favorite birthday restaurant, Guardado's!  I could eat their tapas every day and be happy about it.  In fact, I decided to recreate one of them at home, so Justin and I hit up the cheese shop in Wegman's, and, well, we may have spent some money on some cheese.  And!  Justin's been sick this past week, so sick that one day he bought a breakfast sandwich in some kind of woozy haze, completely oblivious to NRM.  Haha, oh well!  AND we're going out with MORE friends on Thursday, so this NRM is a little more lax than last year.  But for just the two of us, we're doing great!  We've had picnics with friends and packed lunches when we knew we'd be out all day, how adorable is that.  I just made this and I'm about to combine these two recipes, who even am I!  Wish us continued luck!

PS - I meant to introduce There Should Be last time.  Sometimes we have good ideas that we're pretty sure don't exist yet.  If they do exist, please let one of us know.  If they don't exist, but you can invent it, PLEASE DO SO.  Here are some more!

You know what there should be?  There should be an app that uses GPSes so precise and so powerful that they can guide you to available street parking.  Can you even imagine driving in DC or any other over-trafficked city?  It would be SO MUCH BETTER.  There should also be a function on cars where your wheels turn 90 degrees and drive perfectly sideways, and those people who are terrified to parallel park need fear no more.  There should also be an app where you take a picture of a dog, and it spits out its breed(s).  Bonus for what percentage of what breeds it is.

See what I mean?  SUCH GOOD IDEAS THAT WE ARE INCAPABLE OF INVENTING :'(  I feel like we should team up with that commercial about getting your idea patented, with the caveman and the guy who invented an off-brand slip-n-slide.

Eight things a-thinkin!

HELLO EVERYONE.

Here are some things I can't stop thinking about.

1. Our wildly successful Costco trip in which the store FINALLY had mango slices!  On G+ I said one of the truest things I've ever uttered, "costco mango slices = prodigal son. i loved them, but they left me, but now they're back, and i have slaughtered my fattest calf in celebration" AND I didn't even mention this ridiculously delicious (Costco brand, no less!) Lavash flatbreads with rosemary, olive oil and sea salt.  I don't even understand how good these are.  We also got a 30-PIECE SET OF ADORABLE TUPPERWARE.  My life is complete.
2. I am majorly jealous of people who can just look at a camera with no expression and look super hot.  Like, when they're not making any face at all, even smiling, and they still look smokin'.  When I'm not smiling in a picture I either look confused or pissed off.  I feel like French people do this particularly well.
3. Someone is mysteriously sending us a Newsweek subscription.  Not even kidding.  This happened a year or so ago, and here it is again.  I entered the info from the label into Newsweek, and I am like 95% sure I did not pay what it says I paid when it says I paid it.  So mysterious sender, thank you!  This is lots of fun and takes me back to my childhood of devouring Newsweek.
4. There should be a way to find friends on facebook simply by how many friends you have in common with one other thing you know, so that if you have NO idea what a person's name is, you can use your stealth skills of knowing where they went to college and the fact that you will likely have a million mutual friends, without embarrassing yourself by asking anyone.  Except facebook, and facebook doesn't care.
5. Bellow is getting ridiculously good at not jumping on our bed at night, but jumping on our bed in the morning; so good in fact, that we don't have to shut her out!  Her cries were devastating, but it was also devastating to get leapt on in those precious grey moments of falling asleep, and then have to shove her off.  So anyway, great job, dog!  She is also waiting for her food, even after it's poured!  What a champ!
6. FALL.  How do I love thee!  Let me count the ways!  Aside from that ferocious hailstorm two weeks ago, earthquake last week, and hurricane this past weekend, we have had AMAZING weather, with no crazy last-ditch heat stroke.  Starts out 60, gets to maybe 87, goes back down to 73.  Gorge.  Coming up: increased amounts of tea, candles, baking, and tights!
7. Guys, guess what.  September is... NO RESTAURANT MONTH!  Faithful readers may remember this attempt last August and its questionable success.  This year we are armed with P90X resolution, a money-sucking house, and a homebody dog!  And two more CSA shares!  And with Costco mangoes and flatbread, who needs restaurants anyway.  Cinchy.
8. Also, if you're somehow friends with me but not with Mickey, may I direct you to this.

also, who needs restaurants when you have these two on your team.

Goodbye summer, toilet seat

Oh man, This Summer.  Everything happened!  I danced with Matt!  I made then gave away lots of bowls, we had lots of friends over, we acquired a companion animal, our cabinets got their doors, I read Hemingway with an eleventh grader, we cleaned and cleaned some more.  Pretty much everything we do now makes me feel more adult!  We got a handheld vacuum!  I bought fabric and hastily made temporary (?) curtains!  I organized my collection of hotel-stolen toiletries and am USING THEM.  I am flossing.  FLOSSING.  WHO EVEN AM I.  I can't even list all the things we accomplished in the last eight weeks.  But, you guys know me.  The things that I'm most proud of, the things that have made me the absolute happiest, were these seemingly tiny changes that vastly improved the quality of my life.  And all I can think now is of being free, being liberated, to fix the things that bothered me on such a miniscule level that it was tempting to forget about them.  But of course!  They all reached a tipping point, I fixed them, and now I am constantly filled with joy.

Ever since setting up the guest bedroom, I hated our own bedroom.  The bed left three awkward feet or so on all sides, and it felt childish and clumsy.  I talked a skeptical Justin into switching walls to leave a big open floor at the foot of our bed, and he eventually humored me, and it instantly made it mature, sleek and friendly!  Score one for the rearranging-furniture-changes-your-life argument.  It just makes so much more sense, even though I am panicking a little about when we upgrade to queen size, complete with bed frame :( .  WILL ALL MY FURNITURE ARRANGING DREAMS BE CRUSHED AGAIN

But this change, this one cannot be undone, even with certain future upgrades.  If you've been to our house, you have certainly seen, if not used, the World's Worst Toilet Seat.  I humbly apologize to everyone for its existence ESPECIALLY if you used it.  If it makes you feel any better, I used it way more than you did, and was furious about it every time.  If you haven't seen it, or if you have and would like a refresher course:  It was one of those cushion ones, except it had a slice in a side from which the yellow (original color I THINK) foam burst out, especially with shower humidity.  The foam was also dysfunctional in one side so that you felt some weird plastic grid in the seat when you sat on it.  The white was starting to fade into a weird bluish (I know) glow (?).  By this point I know you're thinking, Pam, what is wrong with you, that sounds like the grossest thing in the world.  And you would be right.  But you know what else was the grossest thing in the world?  EVERYTHING IN OUR HOUSE UNTIL LIKE THREE WEEKS AGO.  It got lost in the shuffle of the chopped-up five-layer floor, rotting cabinets, marker on the walls, chewed up bathroom door, and the various holes (ranging from scores of nail-size to 4" diameter) in bedroom walls and ceilings.  But ANYWAY.  You also probably know that this whole process is taking eons longer than we imagined, so you may not be surprised to hear that I realized this was one super-gross thing I could fix, so I bought a reclaimed wood toilet seat at 7 am one morning.  It was the best $10 I ever spent.  After some finagling with weird, cheap plastic screws and nuts, I eventually, triumphantly tore the wretched thing out, scrubbed where it was on our pink and teal (no joke) toilet, engineered some parts to fit, and screwed the new shiny seat in.  And I nearly wept with delight.  It is SOLID and REAL and WHITE and CLEAN.  I still look at it admiringly when I pass it by. 

So, another silly event, another life lesson learned.  Let your anger stir you into change.  The longer you're angry, the more time you're wasting that you could be happy.  I was limiting myself and didn't know it; this creativity and possibility with the whole house reminded me just how much power we have to make these minor adjustments that renew us.  Best summer ev-- well, since last summer.

SPT: Guest Post

Welcome (or should I say Willkommen!) to today's installment of Sad Paragraph Tutorial.  I came across a stellar example of a sad paragraph, and, with the author's permission, I have reposted it below.  (Read the rest of his irresistible prose here.)  This piece might take the classification "vignette;" it is more than just a paragraph, but it's not quite a story.  Unlike in my description, the sadness only becomes clear in the last sentence.  See, my children, there are as many ways to write a sad paragraph as there are sad authors' sad concepts.  It was written on a Tuesday, the saddest of days.

Up or Down

by Mickey Mangan

A man was walking down a road. In his hand he held a rope. The rope was very long and one end of it dragged behind him for hundreds of yards as he walked. The other end rose, gently, up from his grip and into the sky. It was attached to a hot air balloon. The hot air balloon floated delicately above him, moving across the land with him as he walked. There were many sunny, cloudless days when the balloon was the most beautiful thing in sight, and the man wanted nothing more than to climb into it and float off into the sky. Other days, however, were not so beautiful.  The man was glad to have the firm ground beneath his feet. Even so, he knew that someday he would work up the courage to climb that rope and see the world from his balloon. Eventually the ground he walked on began to slope downhill. The change was very gradual and, at first, he did not notice it. After many downward steps he was clearly able to see the road ahead.  It stretched gracefully for miles and miles and miles. He admired his view, and saw that he would be safe on this road no matter what happened. Still, he found himself looking longingly up at his balloon. He knew that the view from up there would be far better than any vantage the ground could give him. One day the man found himself looking back on the ground he had covered, and thought he noticed that the rope dragging behind him was shorter than it had been before. Looking up, he realized that the balloon had gotten further and further away from him as he walked down the slope. He tried to pull it back down toward him, but he simply was not strong enough. He tried climbing, but he knew that his arms could not carry him to the top. He knew that he might have been able to climb it before, when the balloon was closer. So instead he kept walking, and kept readjusting his grip to let more of his extra rope out, and kept reassuring himself that the balloon was still there if he really needed it, and that one day it will be close enough to climb to again. He did this for many days, until one day he didn’t hear the rope dragging behind him. He looked down and found that he was holding onto the last feet of rope. He looked up and could barely see his balloon. Was it red? Was it blue? He couldn't even remember what it looked like. If he held onto the rope any longer, it would lift him off of the ground. He let the rope go and kept walking further and further down the road.

Summer: So far, so good

So you may have heard that, one week ago, we got a dog!  Her name is Bellow, and she is a springer/spaniel mix who will turn two in two days.  We got her from the place I used to volunteer, until I had a run-in with a frustrated, chomp-happy dog who I think got put down for being unadoptable.  But Bellow was anything but!  We actually went to see another dog by the name of Dizzy, who turned out to be interested in anything but us.  Fine, Dizzy!  Be that way!  See if we care!  We also got The Look from this other dog, Wink, who, when outside with us in her interview, cuddled up to us as well as pranced around with a ball.  Interested in toys, the outside world, AND us?  We were sold, and her super soft fur sealed the deal.  Two days later, we went back and got her and renamed her after Justin's favorite author.

We took her home to construction of bookshelves and installation of major kitchen appliances, and she was super psyched even amid all the potentially scary noises.  She ran from person to person, totally frantically happy.  I think she sat or lied down twice that day, and as soon as someone blinked, she was up again.  We were a little concerned for her heart.  But since then!  She has calmed down considerably, except for when we come home, when she wags her tail so hard and falls into you so much that her tail actually whips her snout.  Oh Bellow!  She also doesn't eat very much, which is good for our budget and her extra few pounds for now but we'll probably want to stabilize that in the future.  We think she's learned her name, she knows 'sit,' and kind of 'stay,' and she's definitely housebroken.  In progress: Not pulling us all over creation when we walk her.

here's a pretty typical picture.

When I'm not couchin' with the dog, I'm making glass (!) dishes and throwing (!) bowls!  And also tutoring!  And, you know, dancing.  And eating copious amounts of succotash.  And trying to compost (ha, I almost wrote 'compose.'  I am definitely not trying to compose), but neighborhood animals know we don't get out the the meadow that often and they eat all my carefully saved scraps!  I hate nature.  I bought a compost crate and everything.  I should write a sad paragraph about that.  Anyway.  Here are my things so far!  Maybe I can sell them on Etsy for millions.

that hole was the fault of the person firing it, i guess?  in exchange, they gave me a free class!

group shot of my FIRST attempts at pottery!

For more, see 'sculpture' and 'other'!

Stay tuned for another post later this week, after my life will be forever changed, for I will have danced badly with Matt in Baltimore.

Also: BE MILD and HEARTS.

One year ago

One year ago today, we were getting ready for our We Didn't Know You Party, where we invited fairly new work friends to celebrate our week-old marriage.  We were planning the lasagna, beef barbecue, pierogies, quiches (that's right, plural quiches), and desserts; getting some ribbon-y decor together; finding songs and pictures and revisiting our guest book to host this mini wedding party with people we really liked but weren't close enough with two months prior to invite them to the actual event.  One year ago, we were realizing more and more that we were together, finally, forever.  One year ago was also the last time we saw our happy friend Aundre.  We were walking around our neighborhood, our newly-wed selves, as we so often did.  And we found Aundre!  And we heard that we were an inspiration to him!  And he asked for our number so we gave him mine and he put it in his phone under Justin's name and Justin mentioned whatever game system he has or something.  We told him our address and said to come over any time, someone's always there!  And since then, I half-waited for a somewhat awkward text from an unknown number wanting to hang out.  I double checked every youngish kid with a big smile and lots of dreads just in case.  I kept my eyes open on walks, remembering the intersection we saw him at most often.  As the weeks and months went by, I stopped looking so carefully.  It occurred to me every now and again, you know who we haven't seen?  He wasn't at CVS at all anymore, not that we went there very much now that we both had jobs and a 24-hour pharmacy was way better.  Did he move?  Did he go to school somewhere?  Were we just uncannily missing him all the time?  Then.  Then, in a flash, we were talking about moving.  Then, in a much slower flash, we found a place, bought it, and moved.  A five-minute drive away, but in a totally different neighborhood with no tennis courts, no winding sidestreets that end in cuddly sacs, no foresty paths that take you to elementary school playgrounds, and no Aundre.  But, this year!  The house is coming together slowly but surely and becoming more and more ours every day.  We had a lovely time celebrating our first anniversary with paper presents and a Richmond B&B.  We have come so far from one year ago!  Who knows, maybe soon we'll meet as happy of a character as Aundre with an even bigger smile and cooler dreads and a quicker wit.  Maybe our gardens next year will be better than any foresty path, and maybe whiffle ball in the meadow will be more fun than any tennis.  But my heart will always have that proverbial special place for Aundre, one year ago.