Schlepping Up to Boston (Whoa Oh Oh)

So how have YOU been? Things have been busier around here, but mostly, I just haven't had much that I feel driven to write about. This may also have something to do with my stupid computer, which has started bouncing the cursor around while I am mid-typing, throwing partial words into the middle of previously written sentences. That is SUPER FUN, believe me.

Anyway, let's recap my latest hiatus bullet-style, after which I will again make empty well-meaning promises to be better (although I am well aware that this matters to exactly no one), ok?

• Working Girl: I got a job! Yay! It is not a real (by which I mean "in my field") job. Boo! It turns out that being a stay-at-home housewife sans children/part-time consultant is insanely boring. I was starting to go out of my gourd never interacting with anyone beyond the grocery and dry cleaning clerks, and I also really missed having frivolous spending money, so I went and got myself a part-time retail job at a way over-priced kitchen store that I love love love. It turns out that working at your favorite store isn't quite as much fun as merely shopping there, but the FORTY PERCENT employee discount more than makes up for it. My already lengthy wishlist is growing longer with every shift. Overall, it's going well, although after having been in a professional environment for so long, it has been a mental adjustment going back to having a Boss and punching a clock and having my break times assigned. On the other hand, I go there, do my work and chat with people, and they pay me money for it. Best of all, when I punch out and go home, it is OVER until I return. This is the first time work hasn't followed me home since my teachers started assigning homework in elementary school, which also means I am free to continue working on building my consulting portfolio. WIN.
• Working (Harder) Girl: I was home with my family over the 4th (more on that in a sec), and while there, had a chat with my dad. My family owns a small pharmaceutical manufacturing company, which has been one of my clients for ages; in fact, they were my very first client in private practice. My dad was complaining about the amount of money he is shelling out for very reputable but rather inefficient outside counsel these days, and when I jokingly suggested his hiring me as the company's general counsel (as I do, most often when he is traveling to meetings in places like Milan, Paris, and Madrid), he was ... receptive. I would love to do it, as I am kind of desperate for the mental challenge. It would also be ideal, as they are MA based and I am MA licensed, plus it's work I can start now and continue with ease once we make our eventual move to MA. As a result, I am working on a proposal for him and simultaneously praying that this is not like the Jeep Wrangler he promised to buy me when I got my driver's license (I'm still waiting, 16 years later). Cross your fingers, ok?
• Cape Week: As I mentioned, Mark and I headed north for the 4th as we usually do, but this time we drove up and spent a whole week. I wait for this week all year, and it was awesome as usual. My parents have a cottage on Cape Cod, and I love love love it there. Our neighborhood is this very insular little community that has not changed much at all in the last hundred years. All of the houses are handed down through families, everyone seems to be related, and as a result, it is basically summer camp for kids and parents alike. We used to leave in the morning after breakfast, go to swimming/sailing lessons, hang at the beach, ride bikes, play at friends houses, etc., showing up at home for dinner, salty and exhausted. Because everyone knows everyone else, someone's parents are always watching, and word will always get back to your parents, so there is the kind of freedom for kids that is unusual these days. Now I love it because it's basically a week of lying on the beach, reading on the porch, and eating amazing meals with Mom and Dad. Every day, we sleep in in the salty air, stumble downstairs for coffee, then head around the corner to the beach. We come home salty and exhausted, then settle into the rocking chairs on the porch for cocktail hour. It is perfection. This year was made even better with a couple of additions -- a new baby in the family AND Mark's meat smoker (what, you don't throw the smoker in the back seat for road trips?).



So close you can see the top of the bridge! Should only take another 45 minutes to crawl there.



Made it!



Cocktail hour on the porch -- I wait for this ALL YEAR.



Lobster eatin' injury. Life is rough on the Cape.



A boy and his smoker



That there? That's a smoked brisket covered in a BLANKET OF BACON. It is what is referred to as "nirvana."

• Baaaaabies!: My college roommate has been coming to the Cape as long as I have known her, and after she got married, her husband started coming too. She is the third daughter in our family, so they are just part of the tradition now, whether they like it or not. This year, B and her husband have a new baby, who is pretty much the greatest baby to ever baby. He is 7 months old and gorgeous, sweet, a perfect sleeper, and wins over pretty much everyone who crosses his path with one drooly, gummy grin. Our week was basically a series of interludes of 4-8 grown adults gathered around one wee munchkin, making goofy faces in order to entertain him. Even Mark, who loves kids but is kind of terrified of babies, totally came around and now wants one ASAP. It was hilarious and delightful, and I miss his fat feet and wrist folds palpably. They're coming to visit in two weeks, and I may need to kidnap him.



I really wish I could show you how adorable he is, but alas, he is not mine, so I won't post a clear photo of him online. This was pretty much our week in a nutshell though. It was awesome.

• Old Man is an Older Man: Mark's birthday was last weekend, so to celebrate, we went to his favorite place on earth: Fenway Park. We had spectacular seats (seriously, best I have ever had -- 3 rows off the field, just behind the visitors' on deck circle), but the game itself was pretty lackluster. It was a makeup game against the Yankees, the day game of a double header, and where most of the Sox are currently on the DL as it is, the team we saw was not even the B team; it was more like the C or D team. They got whipped, rather predictably, but even the worst day at Fenway is generally still a pretty fun day for us, so there you go. Once we got home, I attempted to make Mark's favorite dinner as a belated celebration, but I am a moron and forgot a key ingredient, so homemade pasta and chicken parm with a dessert of amazingly good birthday cake became just homemade pasta and amazingly good birthday cake because mozzarella-less chicken parm would just be silly. I learned two things here: 1) Mark will always be happy with just pasta, which he loves and I never make (carbs!), and 2) homemade whole wheat pasta is a sticky pain in the ass, and if you're going to all of that trouble, just stick with the damn refined white stuff and enjoy it. Lesson #3 was of course a no-brainer: birthday cake solves all problems. Happy Birthday, my buddy!



I could have done without having to stare at the Yankees all day, but really, how awesome are these seats? SO FUN.






Hello, Papi!



31, yo. It's emotional.



My decorating abilities are limited, but the cake is really good.



Hmm, which reminds me, there is more in the fridge as we speak. Excuse me for a sec, ok?

 So that's it: hiatus complete! Catch you back here soon. I'll bring the cake.

Clean Out The Fridge Night: Barbeque Chicken Pizza

Have I told you guys about Winesday? It started when I went up to Boston last month and left Mark to his own devices. That Wednesday, he decided to stop by Whole Foods on his way home from work and pick up a steak for dinner. Instead, he happened upon Whole Foods' weekly wine and food pairing night. For $5, you get a glass (bring your glass back and the tasting is only $4!), access to the five stations staggered throughout the store, and a booklet of the recipes for everything you're tasting. Each station has a food sample and gives you 2 oz. of wine that they think pairs well with it. Pretty great, right? Well even better is the fact that Mark was picked up by the funniest group of ladies who invited him to join their tasting group. We have been meeting them for the last month or so, gathering at 5:15 and chatting and sampling our way through the store. They are easily our parents' age and older, but a pretty sassy bunch.

Anyway, at Winesday last week, one of the food samples was grilled chicken in a blackberry bbq sauce, and it was awesome. I made it for dinner one night last week with just some salad and we both kept saying how good it was. BONUS: it is also stupidly easy. I seasoned some boneless, skinless chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil, then Mark threw them on the grill while I whipped up the sauce, then we tossed the grilled chicken in the sauce. That's it! The recipe made quite a bit more sauce than we needed, so I stuck the rest in a jar and popped it in the fridge.

Last night, I was so stuck on what to make for dinner. I did not want to go to the store, but nothing we had in really appealed to me, at least not anything that would defrost quickly. Then, while screwing around online, I saw this post on Food Lush talking about homemade pizza. I was still thinking pizza wouldn't work because all of my dough was frozen, but then I decided to give Annie's dough a try. This was a total crapshoot for me, seeing as I am completely yeast impaired, but it actually worked well! Believe me, no one was more surprised than I.

Then it was time to figure out toppings. I didn't want to do just a plain tomato and mozzarella, but again, I did NOT want to go to the store. I hunted through the freezer and came up with two marinated chicken breasts remaining from the Great Meat Truck Debacle of 2011, and that was when the plan crystallized: BBQ CHICKEN, MMM.

I tossed the chicken in a bowl of warm water to defrost while I diced all of the remaining onion products in the house (half of a vidalia and a few large shallots). The onions and shallots went into a pan with some EVOO and butter to caramelize, and a little later, I threw in a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme. Yum. I also used the caramelizing time to grate some mozzarella.

Once the chicken defrosted, I tossed it on the grill to cook. When it was done and still hot, I diced it into little pieces appropriate for pizza bites, then poured in a generous amount of the leftover blackberry bbq sauce. I wanted to be pretty generous with the sauce, because this was the extent of the sauciness for the whole pizza.

Mark had a meeting with his boss last night, so he was pretty late getting home. This gave me a good lead time to preheat the oven and pizza stone as Annie directs (I have no idea if this made a crucial difference, but it all turned out pretty well). While I was waiting for Mark, I rolled out the dough and put down a layer of thinly sliced provolone cheese. Next up, I sprinkled the caramelized onions and saucy chicken pieces evenly across the pizza. Finally, I sprinkled on the mozzarella and we popped it into the oven.

Sure, it wasn't a traditional bbq chicken pizza, but this clean-out-the-fridge meal was pretty easy and really delicious!

Cheese, cheese, and dough. How bad could that be?

Caramelized onions, anyone? OH, YES. YES, PLEASE.

Mmmm, pizza.

Clean Out The Fridge BBQ Chicken Pizza

You'll need:

• Dough (I used a 1/2 batch of dough from Annie's Eats)
• Cheese (I used a layer of grated part-skim mozzarella and a layer of thinly sliced provolone)
• Caramelized onions/shallots (see above)
• Chicken (I grilled two small, marinated pieces of chicken breast, but the marinade was completely unnecessary; it was just what I had in)
• BBQ Sauce (see below)

1. Make the dough according to recipe instructions and let it rise for at least an hour and a half. Once dough has risen, separate into two portions. If only using one, wrap and freeze the other. Let the portion you're using sit on the counter to rest.
2. Prep and cook the onions.
3. Grill, dice, and sauce the chicken.
4. Preheat the oven and pizza stone to 525 degrees.
5. Roll out the dough to desired size and transfer to parchment paper. Roll some more, as the dough will shrink back during the transfer.
6. Top dough with provolone, onions, chicken, and mozzarella and transfer the pizza to the hot oven. 
7. Bake for 5-10 minutes, but keep an eye on it. It's done when it's all golden and bubbly. Enjoy!

BBQ Sauce

• 1/2 c blackberry preserves
• 1 c ketchup
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (I used smoked chipotle powder)
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1. Combine all of the ingredients and simmer. That's it!

Reason #846948674096 why I need a job ASAP

So, my bedroom, you guys. Ohhh, I hate it. HATE. And this kind of sucks, because I have put not a small amount of work into it. In fairness, I haven't exactly put in a lot of work either, but still. I would really like to create a space that feels peaceful and relaxing. Instead, I have this:

I'm keeping it really real here -- this is exactly what the room looks like today, clutter and all. It's sheet changing day, so it's extra lovely right now, but in general, it's just a whole mess of UGH, you know? There are a few elements I am happy with, starting with the wall color.

Quick detour re: wall colors. We have discovered through revealing paint layers during the course of renovating that the previous owner of the house had absolutely zero taste whatsoever. The whole freaking house must have looked like a box of primary color crayons. Obviously when he hired a realtor, the first piece of business was to make the house presentable, so he had the place painted top to bottom in the most bland shade of decorator white ever mixed. The only rooms with color were the kitchen and bathrooms, which were a lovely shade I like to call "Govern-mint Institution Green." Oh, and the powder room? That was a lovely shade of electric peach. He also re-carpeted the whole place with the cheapest beige carpet ever made, which has stretched to become all wavy, and comes complete with padding so thin that we frequently step straight through onto the tack strips. I curse the cheap bastard on the regular as you might imagine.

Tangent aside, I still really love the wall color. I was so delighted to be rid of the bland beige that was swallowing the whole room, and I love how crisp the blue is with the white ceiling. I also loved how the blue made the photos above the bed pop. I bought them when I lived in Chicago, back when I was free to accessorize with pink (see also the pretty lamp on the dresser). We needed some decent sized art for over the bed, so we stuck these up there as place holders. However, once the room was painted, we were stunned to discover that they looked worlds better. We're super lazy and have VERY different taste in art, so they got to stay. The bedside lamps were the most recent addition, and I really love them too. They free up so much nightstand space, and even better, where the ceiling in the room is so high, the lamps help to ground the bed.

Other than that, though, the most I can muster for this room is a big ol' MEH. The furniture is the ubiquitous Ikea Hemnes stuff, but it is serving its purpose cheaply until someday when we can figure out what we actually want. The quilt, which totally clashes with everything, was from back in the pre-curtain days of beige walls, but was called back into service when I sent off the duvet cover I love to be made into a coverlet. I hate how messy duvets are, but loved the fabric; it's the Crate and Barrel "Claire" pattern. I just wanted to separate the top and bottom of the duvet and lightly quilt them back together. Unfortunately, I bypassed Etsy for the conversion in favor of Mark's aunt, and there does not seem to have been any progress since I gave it to her in October, so here we are in Clashfordshire.

I made the curtains last year, using fabric my mom spotted on the sale table at the fabric store. I think I was swayed by the fact that my mom liked it and that the fabric was on sale for a total of $30 instead of all of the $30/yard fabrics I had been seeing (and loving). I was so overwhelmed by the fabric hunt by that point, so I went with it, despite not being a red person AT ALL. I followed Janell's tutorial over at House of Fifty (formerly Isabella & Max Rooms), and while the tutorial was excellent, even for this novice, I made one crucial mistake. Where I was working with red fabric, I wanted to use a light blocking material to line the drapes to prevent fading. What I did not realize was that some light blocking material, i.e. the stuff I bought, is stiff and almost plastic-y, kind of like a shower curtain. It did not occur to me that this would inhibit my curtains from hanging in pretty little folds, and it certainly did not occur to me that my tying the panels up to train the folds would result in messy, quasi-accordion pleating. The curtains just look sloppy, which pisses me off because they were so much work and yet I really don't care for them.

Every so often, I would halfheartedly peruse fabrics online, but I hadn't come across anything that made me want to pull the trigger and go to the trouble of sewing new panels. However, around Christmas, I was picking up a few little gifty odds and ends at World Market and spotted a tablecloth that looked familiar. It was the same fabric that they had been selling as curtains last summer but that sold out before I could get my hands on them. I found four 120" tablecloths and snagged them with the intention of sewing curtains for my kitchen. They (and the nice, pliable lining fabric I purchased this time) have been sitting in the office upstairs for nearly six months now while I dithered and debated about what to do in the kitchen. And then it hit me: HEY, THAT FABRIC MIGHT WORK IN THE BEDROOM. I grabbed one of the panels and threw it over my bedroom door to see it against the walls. It's been hanging there for a few days, and I think I'm liking it. The blue isn't exactly the same, but it blends nicely.

See the lovely Govern-mint Institution Green in the bathroom there? I cannot WAIT to gut that bathroom.

I think some panels and some white wood blinds* would be simple and pretty and will look great with the goddamn coverlet if I ever get it back. I will also have enough fabric for a little cornice in the bathroom whenever we finally redo it. Can you imagine? A cohesive master suite? DARE TO DREAM.

So that's the seriously long winded story about my decision to make new bedroom curtains. What do you think? Improvement or mistake?

*Oh, forgot to mention -- we have been living without shades since replacing our windows A YEAR AGO; oh my god, we are slackers. Also, my sincere apologies, people of the completely separate neighborhood behind us who we thankfully will never meet, at least not in a manner that will identify us as Those People Without Shades In Their Bedroom. We are as grateful for the large trees in our backyard as you are, believe me.