CHAMPAGNE

One of my Philosophies of Life is.....

Life is simply too short to not always have a bottle of CHAMPAGNE chilling in the refrigerator!

Now before you say anything.... it can most definitely be a less expensive brand, or a cava (Spanish version) or a prosecco (Italian version)....but, you never know when a special occasion will arise, like maybe a good friend popping in, or your husband comes home after just having a good day at work! If we don't celebrate little things like this, when will we celebrate? Annual holidays don't come around often enough.....and Americans are overworked and overstressed so maybe it would help if we looked at more of the little things as worthy of celebration.

Now, for my "wine storage" - we have a small inside joke - when we bought our refrigerator, we were "forced" to get the KitchenAid Architect series (terrible I know) - because we have a door in the way in our tiny house which a deeper refrig would just out and be very much in the way, not to mention the aesthetics. We couldn't really afford a Viking or other "counter-depth" model. KitchenAid was affordable in comparison. Well, one of it's features is a "wine rack" which consists of a plastic thingy that hangs on the side of the shelf and holds one bottle of wine. You would not have thought to call this a "wine rack" if you had seen it. We found it quite humorous. Admittedly, it sounds impressive to tell your friends you have a wine rack in your refrigerator, and it works perfectly to keep a bottle of some sort of sparkling white wine on hand at all times. It keeps it up and out of the way, so it was partly my inspiration to do so. Anyone could buy one of these for their own refrigerator, probably through the Kitchenaid website - or I'd bet The Container Store or maybe even Target has something functionally similar.

My other inspiration for always keeping a bottle of Champagne (or sparkling white wine) in the frig is one of my all time favorite movies "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - because THAT is the life I really want to lead..... ;)
I strive for it. (ok, maybe not the call girl part, just the endless wild swanky parties wearing fabulous clothes part.)

One issue many have is how you open a bottle of champagne, drink a couple glasses, then what the heck do I do with all this champagne? I have two solutions.

1. Buy the little bottles. I think they are half liters - maybe even less. Enough for about two full glasses or 3 to 4 small "toast" size glasses. Even a few of the better Champagnes comes in these smaller bottles. I often purchase them for just the two of us, because Stefan doesn't like to drink ANY white wine. He will drink it when I make him, but not more than a glass, then I end up drinking the rest by myself! Not an entirely unfortunate scenario I suppose, but I can't say I always want to be drunk all by lonesome.

2. There are some very handy special stoppers (also available at many stores which sell that sort of thing - like Bed Bath & Beyond or Target/Wal-mart) which work perfectly to keep any bubbly beverage (I also use them for sparkling mineral water) fresh and bubbly for very long periods of time. Not the vacuum type wine stoppers, those won't work at all. These have a silver or metal thingy which bends down and tightens the seal. They work extremely well. The prosecco I used for dessert at Easter had been in there since New Years! I'm serious! It honestly, in my opinion, didn't taste horrible or anything. Especially since it was only used for dessert. It's not like I had a sommelier coming to dinner. It will only work if you have at least a quarter to a half bottle left. Anything less is not worth keeping anyway, make some Champagne vinegar out of it!

(money saving recipe for champagne (or any other) vinegar: take any amount of champagne (or wine or cider etc.) in any glass bottle or jar, I usually use the bottle the champagne or wine came in, and add a teaspoon or so of Bragg's raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar with "the mother" in it - available at many health food type stores. "the mother" is the living culture that will feed off the sugars in the wine and turn it to vinegar within a few weeks, depending on the temperature. Do not cork or keep the lid tightly closed. It needs air. I usually wrap the opening with a little fabric (like cheese cloth) and tie it with string or rubberband. This keeps fruit flies etc. out yet allows it to breathe.)

Now, I am certain a sommelier would cringe at the thought of this. However, while I know I have a fairly good palate, my taste buds are not QUITE that refined.... (and not to be rude, but neither are my guests', for the most part anyway! So I just don't think most of us need worry about this aspect.)

Honestly, if you are one who claims you are not crazy about champagne, I have found it is often due to having exclusive experience with nasty cheap Andre (or similar least expensive brand) often found with a plastic cork. Or maybe only having experience with that which is served at midnight on New Year's Eve in most clubs after already consuming a dozen other drinks, which is a most common cause of the "champagne headache" many of us have personal experience with on New Years Day! It is always amazing to me how anyone could proclaim they do not like "Champagne" when this is often their only experience with it!

My advice, hit a wine store, talk to someone there and get suggestions. Try out an inexpensive, yet still decent bottle (avoiding plastic corks and screw caps). My rule for most wine is usually $10 or less, unless I splurge on good Champagne. And, don't be afraid to tell the person at the store your price range, otherwise how will they know? Just begin to experiment with a few sparkling white wines. Then, go home and have a glass with some fruit like say ...peaches, strawberries, raspberries etc....you might just be transformed!

Last Minute Easter Dinner

Of course, as usual, our life is crazy and I don't think ahead about any details as I am usually just trying to keep my head above water with a million or so things on my plate, so holidays always tend to sneak up on me. Every year I swear I'll plan better next year..... uh huh....sure I will.

I had the revelation (Saturday) maybe I should dig the Easter stuff out? Fortunately, I at least had the presence of mind during the week to plan a simple menu and make a grocery shopping trip Friday, but I had forgotten all about the decorations! Seems like every year I forget about many of the small treasures I have accumulated. I find stuff in July and think, oh wow, I forgot we had this (again) - I MUST remember this for next year.....

Maybe if we ever get out of the "renovation" stage of our house, I'll get things slightly more organized, but until then, it seems impossible. I suppose it's because nothing can be put away properly - things end up being moved around, and I can't seem to keep up with where it all ends up getting moved to. Plus, we don't have much storage space to begin with (800sf remember?). We certainly do not have enough space to store all holiday decorations in one place - so we have things in closets & cabinets...in the shed....and in our storage room we rent. I try to keep track of it in a notebook.....but it's no easy task (esp. for ME)

In previous years I have forgotten about using my good china, so I was determined to remember this year. We have never used it for a meal since I bought it. Well, only for coffee and cake a couple times. I did not opt for china when we got married, I went for nicer everyday dishes, because my mother and her mother and her mother all had gorgeous expensive china which was always packed up and never used! Maybe Great Grandma used hers sometimes, but not in later years. Her's might actually be worth something today as a collectible, it was Haviland Limoges, purchased around 1915, when she got married. Both her parents and my Great Grandfather's parents were big landowners, legislators and business owners, so they were well to do and the china was expensive for those days. However, it was lost or stolen (probably by one of the kids) after being stored above their store for years. I have no idea what happened to my Grandmother's china, and my Mother's was lost in storage during one of the many moves we made as I was growing up. I decided, what is the point to buy it, never use it, then lose it.


The catch is....we (the females in my family) all LOVE DISHES. My mother and sister in-law love them as much as my family. There is just something about dishes that calls to me. Beautiful objects which are as useful as they are decorative. Having just the right piece for each course etc. Collecting....or as Stefan says...."nesting". My sister-in-law always shops for china, during one of her quests, she got me looking on ebay for the same brand of china, made in a small factory nearby where her mother grew up in Germany. I was into ferns at the time. I still love ferns - and I found these dishes. No bidders. I couldn't let them go unloved. The shipping was more than the dishes...but the total amount was $100. There were 12 complete place settings and many extras were included: berry bowls, bread plates, serving pieces.....etc... an AWESOME deal. I would not have purchased such a thing at full price, but for $100? why not? I do not think it is the finest china, but it's delicate finely made porcelain and in excellent condition - almost no wear, no chips and the gold painted trim was still almost like new. I have one wall of cabinets, floor to ceiling with plenty of room to store them.....so why not? But I vowed to myself, "as God is my witness, we WILL USE THIS CHINA!"

I had thought last year at Easter, DARN - why didn't we use the china? It's perfect for Easter.....I told myself......ok, next year. I even planned to buy a new mint green hemstitch table cloth to use with them, but never got around to it. Then, I almost forgot AGAIN! But, at the last minute while I was beginning to prepare dinner....it came to me! YAY ME!!

Darn, no hemstitch tablecloth. Place mats just would not do, ugh, I have to iron the damask table cloth I have. So, while waiting on the potato galette in the oven I dragged out the ironing board and the damask table cloth & napkin and ironed them. You know, I always dread doing this, but in reality it only took about 10 minutes.

I then remembered....duh....I HAVE BAMBOO GOLD flatware I have been acquiring specifically to go with this china, which I also found on Ebay a few years back. (oh if you only knew how much bamboo flatware I have now, but that story can be for another day). I also remembered I had recently acquired some mix-matched vintage glasses that were given to my Grandmother as wedding presents in the early 1940's. There were only a few left, not a complete set, so my fussy mother and grandmother didn't want them.....oh well....their loss! They wouldn't use them anyway.


While cooking, I sent Stefan to the field near our house to pick a few wildflowers for the table. Shhh, don't tell the neighbors..... of course, the city will come mow the field soon anyway :( but actually, that's a good thing...sad for the wildflowers, but they'll be overtaken by taller weeds soon anyway.

My mother-in-law (as I mentioned) is German, and it is typical to have a decorated Easter tree (she usually uses pussy willow branches, which might be traditional, but that takes far more effort, finding and buying them....somehow it seems to elude me every year)

We have two little trees which produce some type of very sour cherry, so I have been cutting branches to use at Easter the last couple years. Last year, Easter was early enough the blossoms were still blooming! I decorated them with little Easter ornaments I bought at Target in college (you can see, I am in the process of recovering our dining chairs in white leather - I have one and a half done so far - I'm taking photos of that process to document soon)




I also managed to dig out my "Easter" bin from the shed, so I laid out a little spread of all my little Easter treasures I have slowly collected. I thought I had given that blue/green basket to Goodwill (I made that bow YEARS ago), but it was one of the items I found through the year. I had been storing it at my Grandmother's house and forgot all about it.

Next, I died some Easter eggs. Now if I were organized, I'd have made some fancier ones.....oh well, maybe next year. At this point, I was glad to have anything. Many past years I haven't bothered.

Note the black egg - actually just made a mistake when trying to make purple, but it's Stefan's favorite color, so it's especially for him!


One year, when one of my nieces was about 6 years old or so, she spent a few days with us before Easter so we made these little bunnies and chicks out of cotton balls. I saved them and put them out every year.


Ok....now for the food.

Ham with Apricot-Mustard Glaze
Potato-Leek Gruyere Galette
Asparagus-Pea-Radish Medley

VOILA



Impressive...if I do say so myself!

but, honestly....looks can be deceiving....and presentation is EVERYTHING

How 'bout those bunny napkin folds??

While Stefan was out picking wildflowers, I quickly looked up how to fold them....a new addition to my Easter repertoire.

The most difficult thing about this meal was..... buying the groceries and digging out all the decor/china/linens etc. Thank-you Martha Stewart for the menu which came straight to my inbox the week before.

A big time/mess saver: I didn't follow the recipe for a big ham...it would have been too much for the two of us anyway, so I decided to buy one of those pre-cooked hams where all you do is slice and warm. The glaze was simply apricot preserves and mustard powder, and was quite tasty. I served it warm on the side. The potato-leek galette, while it looks very impressive, was merely a matter of slice/shred and assemble. I used a Zyliss mandoline - a slicer I got a couple years ago at Bed, Bath and Beyond - which is AWESOME and will cut perfect slices (including your fingers, so use the finger guard gadget!) super fast. I used the thinnest setting. If you don't have one, I really think it's worth the investment of about $50, mainly because of the time it saves. Use your BBB coupon, and it will be 20% off! Also, check ebay!

Just a note:

If you go for another brand, just be sure to get one with various thickness settings, a sturdy stand and get one with a hand protector thingy!!! Yes, I have sliced my finger. Luckily not too severely, but enough to make me really careful now. I was not using the hand protector thingy, now I ALWAYS do.



Here is the galette fresh out of the oven, before it was flipped onto the platter

I even sliced the leek on the mandoline.



To serve, I flipped it out onto a plate, then took a second plate (the one you will actually use to serve it on) and flipped it again (if you try this, be sure to do it over the sink and have a cloth ready to wipe the drips off the bottom of the plate so you don't get the juices on your table cloth)

The veggies only required steaming. The peas were frozen. I sliced the radishes on the mandoline also.



Now for Dessert

I didn't plan this too well....ok...I didn't plan this at all......but it worked out beautifully.

I had some fresh raspberries intending to make a cake or cupcakes to serve them with. Well, I didn't have time for all that.....I spent half the day Saturday with neighbors in the park killing poison ivy, then some good friends stopped by for a quick visit.....then I had an Ebay issue come up (have been selling on ebay on the side), and finally decided decorations had priority over cake. So, this afternoon after dinner (yes, as in after Easter dinner) I wondered what the heck I could make that would not be too complicated. I was kind of thinking some type of pudding like thing. I remembered how much I like sabayon, it definitely should be good with fruit. Is it hard I wondered? Will I need 25 ingredients that I don't have? So, I pulled out my trusty "Joy of Cooking" and discovered - WOW - 3 ingredients! Sugar, egg yolks, and champagne..... I can do this

So this brings me to one of my PHILOSPHIES FOR LIFE

I know many people don't usually have champagne on hand - but YOU SHOULD.

.............becuase life is too short NOT to have a bottle of champagne always chilling in the refrigerator!

Seriously!



Sooooo, I had some prosecco leftover from New Years, just waiting for the right occasion. Yes, it keeps that long....


for more info, see my post about CHAMPAGNE


Back to dessert.......I literally "whipped up" a half recipe of champagne sabayon (zabaglione if you are in Italy) in about 15 minutes. I had no idea it was this easy. You whip egg yolks, sugar and champagne (or other wine - for zabaglione, it's traditionally a marsala wine) over a double boiler for 10 minutes. I don't have a double boiler (partly for space reasons) so I use a glass heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water.

I served the light as air concoction over the raspberries in Grandma's lovely glasses and it was a wonderful end to a nice meal.



Maybe next year I'll really plan a little better.....

(naaaaahhhhh)

HAPPY EASTER!

Grand Entrance

Ok, I'm bad.....didn't I tell you I rarely stick with anything? My latest obsession, Facebook, has had me very distracted. I received a post on my blog recently, and realized I definitely have some projects to show off. Time to post something new!

Since last post, nearly a year ago, we have actually accomplished quite a bit! This picture is a representation of "before" we had much done to the exterior of our house. Taken in July 2007 when we had just had the cedar shingles replaced, but they weren't quite finished yet....you can still see some tar paper on the roof peak.

Here is a nice "transitional" photo of the front. We have fixed the fascia, upgraded the trim around the door, replaced and painted the columns. Also, the front door was scraped and sanded. Unfortunately it remained like THIS for waaaayyyy too long. UNTIL.......















TA DA!! House all painted!! The two windows shown have now been restored and the front door finally painted (just last week). Of course we still have lots to do.... I just wish those darn shingles would fade...but the plan is also to add layers of smaller higher quality cedar shakes. This is just the "rough" base layer. Landscape is also needed, of course. Plus our new gutters and lamp were installed summer 2008. It took some time for me to adjust, the lamp seemed so HUGE at first....but most of the lamps we saw while shopping were gigantic like this..... I am have come to accept it and decided it actually makes a bold statement. Landscape will help hide the very unattractive "cement" skirt - common to all these old pier and beam houses. I suppose as a side task I should at least paint that piece of plywood grey - as we just used an old stray piece of plywood to cover it up when we had to tear a hole to get under the house right to replace the water main. We had a great deal of work done July 2007, right around the time we were planning a major trip to Germany (talk about stressful), and it wouldn't stop raining so our contractor was behind schedule. Of course, now we WISH it would rain like that!

Me Painting (proof)

the wrens built a nest so we painted around them and waited until all the babies were raised and left the nest before we could finish

The back deck last spring - looking forward to sprucing things up again this year, it's been awfully dry so hopefully we'll get some more rain to help green things up!



Resident lizard living behind our new Electric Panel - many of may recognize this as "Geico" - but those commercials are incorrect! We have lots of these here - and this type of lizard is not a Gecko - it is an Anole which is related to the Chameleon - and yes, these do change colors depending on their background and the temperature outside.

Below is the new Electric panel - not pretty - but highly important!


Below - more proof I DO actually work on our house! Here I am working on the baseboards - taping and painting. (According to my husband, this is rare, men) I also countersunk all the nails, filled, and sanded all those little holes


Next photos are of the crown molding. Then I'll stop for today! I do have most of the seams filled and sanded, as well as nails countersunk and filled but not quite all sanded - as soon as I finish sanding the molding, I can finally paint it. We have one window complete, which I will post soon, and the 2nd window is in process.


Stefan installing crown in living room

you can see how we layered and built up the crown and the door frames


Here is a corner seem which I then fill with putty and sand - I have already filled and sanded the nail holes here.



and here is a picture of the carport - you can see the new roof also



The newly painted black front door made a HUGE impact!



LASTLY....BUT NOT LEAST

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEFAN!

I love you!

Ok! That's all for today...stay tuned!