Green Ideas for 2010

I recently read an article entitled 5 Essential Green Living Skills Our Grandparents Knew {via Apartment Therapy} that talked about two things, in particular, that I’ve been interested in trying.  One is starting my own garden and the other is preserving perishables that are plentiful in the summer months for use in the winter months.  The other green skills in the article are seed saving, cooking from scratch, and sewing – the last two I already do (or try my best to do) and seed saving seems like something to tackle when I a) have a successful garden and b) have enough space to have a large garden.

Ok, anyway, back to what I was getting at.  Gardening and preserving.  The gardening part, I have to admit, is a little scary for me.  I tried to grow herbs last summer – basil, sage, and oregano – and had some success (the basil thrived, the sage was okay, and the oregano died), but as soon as winter hit, dunzo.  I tried to bring it inside, but didn’t really have anywhere to put it where it could get sun and I would also see it often enough to water it regularly.  I opted for the powder room next to the kitchen, which was awkward because it’s not a very large space and you have to keep the shade open so the sun can get in.  Then we were away for two weeks and now it looks like this:

{my pathetic attempt at winterizing my potted herbs}

Sad, right?  Well, the article above references Mike’s fire escape garden and I think I’m going to try again.  If he can get that much green goodness on his fire escape, I can get some in my backyard.  The winter issue still lingers, but aren’t there some gardens that just regrow every year?  Am I imagining this?  Probably…  And if I am living in a fantasy land and I will have to replant next summer, I can use the next green skill to preserve whatever I grow this spring/summer and use it over the fall/winter.  Then maybe next year I can learn how to extract seeds and save them to replant.

The next green skill I want to attempt is preserving food.   There are lots of ways to do this: canning, freezing, drying/dehydrating.  I want to try all of them.  Every summer,  I go to my local farmer’s market and fret and fret and end up coming home empty handed because I’m scared to buy anything for fear it might go bad before I can eat the whole thing.  OR I buy something because I’ve already come home from the farmer’s market four other Saturdays empty-handed and I feel sad about it and it goes bad because I don’t get to it all.  What a waste, right?  And a little depressing, too.

So!  I’m determined to change this.  I can can.  I can freeze.  I think I might be able to dry (but I may need additional tools for this).  I’ve decided I’m going to read up on all this column has to say before the goodies get here in the spring and then, hopefully, feel confident to stand at the entrance to the farmer’s market with my reusable bag and purchase a perishable fruit or vegetable without a shred of guilt or apprehension.  You go, future me.

{all photos by Davidson Farmer’s Market, except where noted}

World Nutella Day

I just found out that today is World Nutella Day.  That’s right, a day in celebration of the chocolate hazelnut goodness that is Nutella.

Why am I only hearing about this now?  I didn’t even have time to prepare!  Guess I’ll just have to go by Teeter on the way home (ok, it’s not really on the way, but we’re talking about NUTELLA people, this is not the time to nitpick).

I’m a little worried that Brian won’t be ok with switching up our dinner plans to honor this glorious occasion… oh well, you can’t argue with international holidays.

Thank you to the ladies of Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso for seeing that this tasty treat was woefully under-celebrated.

{Nutella image source}

Spaghetti Squash as pasta?

Like most people, I enjoy pasta every now and then.  If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t run ten miles every day, I would probably enjoy it more often.  Then I saw a recipe for Mexi Squash on Sprouted Kitchen, a food blog that focuses on using seasonal, local ingredient to make very tasty, mostly vegetarian, recipes.

{from Sprouted Kitchen}

Doesn’t this look just like spaghetti?  Maybe I’m super behind, or maybe you’re thinking “duh, Natalie, it’s called spaghetti squash”, but I just never thought anything but pasta could be like pasta… Even though this recipe uses Mexican flavors, it got me thinking that you could use other seasonings and perhaps make a more traditional pasta dish with this poser veggie.

Then last week, Apartment Therapy’s Kitchn posted just about this – along with several tasty sounding recipes, including ones with Sage and Ricotta and Tomato Sauce and other ingredients typically combined with pasta.

{from Kitchn}

What do you think?  Have you ever tried using spaghetti squash as pasta?  Any chance I could trick Brian into liking this? {He allegedly hates all forms of squash…}

Happy Engage-aversary!

One year ago yesterday, Brian proposed.  If we weren’t saving up for a million and one other things for our house and future, I would totally be getting him this:

{from Uncommon Goods via Unplggd}

So, what’s the plan?

I like to plan.  I need to plan.  Plans make me happy.  Now, this doesn’t mean that I can’t be spontaneous – give me an impromptu dance party anytime! – and I, surprisingly, don’t freak out if things don’t go according to plan, I just like to have an idea of what we’re thinking we might be doing.

So, when I came across this website, I did a little jump for joy.

{from Laterbro.com via swissmiss}

But then I wondered, doesn’t that defeat the whole idea of a tweet/status update?  Aren’t they supposed to be about what you’re doing now, not what you plan to be doing?  What if something comes up and you don’t end up doing what you thought you’d be doing?  It’s a logistical nightmare.

Sunrise in Davidson

I happened to be driving around Davidson very early one morning and decided to snap some photos while I was out and about…

Pretty beautiful, no?

Roast Chicken

In my last cooking class with Nikki we made roast Cornish hens, which, in addition to being very tasty, got me over my fear of cooking a whole bird.  They are tiny and relatively unintimidating and made me realize that prepping and cooking a whole bird is not all that  different from cooking bird pieces (except the whole bag of innards, ew).  So, I decided to try this on my own with a larger bird, meant for two as opposed to just one.  I got a small chicken at my local grocery store and went to work.

I took the advice of Zuni and seasoned the trimmed chicken with salt and pepper, inserted some thyme leaves and a little butter under the skin, then covered it with tin foil and popped it in the fridge to season while I prepared the other parts of my dish.

Then I got to work on the apples and shallots I was going to cook with the chicken.  I sliced them in to wedges and added them to a tupperware with a little bit of melted butter and minced thyme leaves.

I shook them up until they were well coated then let them sit to soak in as much as possible.

After preheating the roasting pan over medium heat (on the stove), I added the chicken and popped it it in the oven.  Once it was a little over half-cooked, I should have add the onions and shallots (I added them too early – at the beginning – and not only did they stick to the pan, but they were mostly charred… fortunately their sweet flavor added to the flavor of the chicken and I was able to salvage a few tasty pieces).  Once the bird was done (the internal temperature should register 165 degrees), I removed it from the oven. {P.S. – I didn’t have twine to tie up the bird and, though it’s not as pretty as it probably would have been, it didn’t seem to a negative effect.}

If they had been less singed/stuck to the pot, I would have removed the chicken, apples, and shallots and set them aside.  Then I would have made a sauce with the drippings by tilting the pan, skimming off the fat, and swirling the remaining juices in the pan until the sauce was reduced (and intensified!) a bit.

You can serve this tasty chicken with any sides you like – I have a pea obsession, so that’s what we had!

Chambers thinks it looks pretty tasty…

Roast Chicken with Apples and Shallots
Adapted from Zuni’s Roast Chicken recipe

One small chicken, 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 pounds
7 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon butter
Salt
About 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2-3 medium-sized apples (I used Gala)
3 shallots

Procedure

1. Seasoning the chicken (you can do this up to 1 to 3 days before serving): Make sure the chicken is very dry inside and out. Be thorough–a wet chicken will spend too much time steaming before it begins to turn golden brown.

2. Approaching from the edge of the cavity, slide a finger under the skin of each of the breasts, making 2 little pockets. Now use the tip of your finger to gently loosen a pocket of skin on the outside of the thickest section of each thigh. Using your finger, shove an herb sprig and a tiny dab of butter into each of the 4 pockets.

3. Smear the rest of the butter over the top of the chicken.  This part can be omitted, but your bird won’t brown as nicely as mine did.  Season the chicken liberally all over with salt and the pepper. Season the thick sections a little more heavily than the skinny ankles and wings. Sprinkle a little of the salt just inside the cavity, on the backbone, but don’t otherwise worry about seasoning the inside. Twist and tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders. Cover loosely and refrigerate.

4. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Depending on the size, efficiency, and accuracy of your oven, and the size of your bird, you may need to adjust the heat to as high as 500 degrees or as low as 450 degrees during the course of roasting the chicken to get it to brown properly. If that proves to be the case, begin at that temperature the next time you roast a chicken. If you have a convection function on your oven, use it for the first 30 minutes; it will enhance browning, and may reduce overall cooking time by 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken, or use a 10-inch skillet with an all-metal handle. Preheat the pan over medium heat. Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan. It should sizzle.

6. Place in the center of the oven and listen and watch for it to start sizzling and browning within 20 minutes. If it doesn’t, raise the temperature progressively until it does. The skin should blister, but if the chicken begins to char, or the fat is smoiking, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. After about 30 minutes, turn the bird over (drying the bird and preheating the pan should keep the skin from sticking.) and add the apples and shallots.  Roast for another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size, then flip back over to recrisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes. Total oven time will be 45 minutes to an hour.

7. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn off the heat. Lift the chicken, shallots, and apples from the roasting pan and set on a plate. Carefully pour the clear fat from the roasting pan, leaving the lean drippings behind. Add about a tablespoon of water to the hot pan and swirl it. Slash the stretched skin between the thighs and breasts of the chicken, then tilt the bird and plate over the roasting pan to drain the juice into the drippings. Set the chicken, apples, and shallots in a warm spot (which may be your stovetop), and leave to rest. The meat will become more tender and uniformly succulent as it cools. Tilt the roasting pan and skim the last of the fat. Place over medium-low heat, add any juice that has collected under the chicken, and bring to a simmer. Stir and scrape to soften any hard golden drippings. Taste–the juices will be extremely flavorful.

8. Cut the chicken into pieces and pour the pan drippings over the chicken.

Christmas Crafting – Candles

After reading about them in Real Simple and Bonzai Aphrodite, Brian and I decided that we would make candles for his grandmothers.  Our plan was to take Real Simple’s advice and find interesting containers for the candles and then follow Sayward’s easy peasy instructions to actually make them.

We went to our local antique store to find containers and ended up with a silver cup with a beautiful etching on the side and a small silver cream pitcher.  Then we stopped by our local Michael’s to buy the candle pieces (wax, essential oil, and wicks).

We were unable to find an amount of wax or essential oil that would work for us.  You can only buy A LOT and we didn’t know how this was going to turn out… if we ended up being candle-making losers, we didn’t want to be stuck with a lifetime supply of stuff to make candles.  So, we went semi-homemade and bought white candles that had a scent we liked (i.e. not vanilla, which is harder to find than you may think!).  We’d just shave pieces of wax off and put them in the containers like we would with official candle-making wax.

Once we had our containers filled with yet-to-be-melted max, we put them in our slowcooker, just like Sayward told us to.  Glitch number 2: we couldn’t put the lid on because the little pitcher was too tall.  Hmm.  Well, the next best thing would have to be a big pot with a lid, right?  We guessed so.  So, we put them in a big pot and covered ‘em up – in just a little while, voila!, melted wax.

We had to keep adding hard wax to fill up our containers, but in the end we got what we were supposed to.  We added the wicks and let them harden.

Cute, right?  We thought so.  Now we may actually go buy wax and essential oil (perhaps dye, too!) to really make candles from scratch.

Wedding Photography Preview

Right before Christmas Angela sent me a preview of some of our wedding photos and when I first saw them I teared up… She has such an amazing gift to not only find beautiful locations to shoot, but also somehow make Brian and I look our best.

I feel so lucky to have had her document my wedding – I can’t wait to see the rest!

{All photos by Angela Stott}

Christmas Crafting – Mulling Spices

The final homemade gift we gave went to my parents, who went on a tour of the NC wine country with us last fall and loved the mulled wine we were served at one of the vineyards.  My only regret with these little guys was that I didn’t make one for Brian and I!  They smelled SO good.

I was able to find bulk spices at my local Healthy Home Market along with a few clementines and some cheese cloth.

Allspice, Clove, Star Anise, Cinnamon, Orange Zest

I basically just assembled them and tied them off with baker’s twine (an obsession leftover from my wedding).  How cute are they?!

Finished Mulling Spice Packets