Beer at 30...

It's been busy around here the last two weeks. Last Wednesday was husband's 30th birthday (yay!), so I spent my time planning, cooking, and shopping. I was exhausted by Saturday, but the outcome was fantastic--we celebrated his birthday with a 'Tarts & Vicars' Dirty Thirty Party over the weekend. Here's a sample of what I've been doing:

(Top: Making Czech Goulash and bread dumplings.)

(Bottom: In honor of Husband's dual love for beer and jelly beans, I etched pub glasses and filled them with jelly beans for the party favors.)

Husband and I grew up in the Pacific Northwest--arguably the center of craft microbrewing in the United States. Portland, OR has more breweries per capita than any other city, and we grew up in a town with one of the best and most-well known microbreweries in the country: Deschutes Brewery. In college husband and I studied abroad in London, where he was introduced to traditional English beer and grew to love it above all but his PacNW microbrews. We stayed with a host family, and the dad was an avid 'Real Ale' fan (introduced us to CAMRA, and etc.). The very first night there, he took Husband out to the garage to make his first beer. Adam's Ale. Then he took him to the pub and gave him an education in cask-conditioned real ale. It's no wonder husband became such a beer lover. So for Christmas I got him his first beer-making kit. His second batch was finished just in time for the party this weekend.

A friend hosted the party at his house--his built-in bar and back yard were much more fun than our tiny condo. We ate and drank 'around the world' with food and beer samplings from various locales. The original menu included most of the major beer countries, but we had to whittle it down to avoid drowning in food and beer, so instead we sampled the following: England, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Pacific NW, California, and India (random, but our friend makes a mean curry, and wanted some Maharaja).The end result was quite a blast. Any guesses on my costume? Here's a hint: I went with a bookish stereotype, while Husband--standing next to me--decided that as the birthday boy he should be the pope. :)

Falling for Fall

...all over again.

I love autumn. I think it might be my favorite season. Of course I say that with the advent of spring and summer as well. And Christmas, if it can be considered its own season. (I love the snow of December, not so much February and March, so winter is out of the running.)

With the arrival of fall, all I can think about is pumpkin food!

pumpkins Pumpkins PUMPKINS

Pumpkin scones, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin frozen yogurt and ice cream, pumpkin muffins and bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli. Gordon Ramsay made a gorgeous pumpkin risotto the other day that had my mouth watering. (I found the recipe! Yay! Must try that next...)

My friend Kristen made a tasty pumpkin chili last night that was to die for. By the way, she just started a new blog called Frosting and Froth that focuses on food, fitness and books, where she also shares her yummy baking recipes and escapades. Check it out. She promises to try her September muffins with pumpkin puree soon!

The one thing pumpkin I don't like--brace yourself--is pumpkin pie. I didn't realize my love of pumpkins until later in life, because pumpkin pie clouded my judgment. Husband is one of the few others I know who doesn't like pumpkin pie. At Thanksgiving we have the fruit pies and the chocolate pie to ourselves, which is brilliant. However, we've discovered that we love pumpkins in just about every other form.

My love of fall foods doesn't end with pumpkins however. I've also developed a love for gourds. There, I've said it. Gourds. Particularly butternut squash. (And did I mention pumpkins?) And also sweet potatoes. None of these foods graced my family table growing up, so I've discovered them slowly over the years, and it's as if a gorgeous autumnal veil has been lifted from my eyes. Behold baked sweet potatoes (with marshmallows if I'm being naughty)! Butternut squash soup! Sweet potato fries! Butternut squash ravioli!

Oddly enough, despite this obsession with fall (and pumpkins), it's ridiculously hot outside, so I can't dive into the baking. It was 95 here yesterday, and today promises a high of 91. I think the autumn season became confused because it's late. I hope it arrives soon. I can't wait for the changing leaves and the arrival of gorgeous fall bounty at the market.

But while I wait, does anyone have any pumpkin recipes they'd like to share?

Random Assortment

...of Thoughts

I've been on a cooking kick lately. It happens. Every other month, or thereabout, I'm bombarded with ideas and the inspiration to cook from scratch. (Just to clarify: I do cook dinner every night, but often it's simple, thrown-together meals.) Last night I made a yummy turkey spinach lasagna--although I forgot the olives, which is a cardinal sin in my family! Today I pulled out some (healthy elk) steaks and have been marinating them in red wine and rosemary. I'm brushing them with fresh ground pepper and salt and then broiling them. (That inspiration was weird for me...I rarely eat red meat anymore, and I cook it even less. And yet I already had it once this week! Perhaps all the running has affected my appetite?) Next I want to make something--anything!--pumpkin. I think pumpkin muffins or bread might be just the thing.

I am a consummate night owl. For about two months I have been on a late night bender. I could not fall asleep, so I never went to bed early. Last week I was a bit under the weather, and therefore finally able to sleep at a decent time. I decided to take advantage of that and slowly transition my schedule to a slightly more normal one. I was in bed before 12:30 last night - quite good for me! However, I started a new book: Sarah's Key. It's a page turner, and it's one of those books with super short chapters, so you keep telling yourself, 'just one more'. Next thing I know, it's 1:45am, and I'm still reading. *sigh* So much for my early night. There's always tomorrow right?

Lastly, my brand new cell phone arrived in the post today. Yay! Now if I can figure it out, I will be a messaging, mobile web-browsing master.

Another Monday

Just a short post today. I'm going on nearly two weeks of almost daily migraines, so I've been resting up today trying to get energy back.

Since I know you're dying to know: The cake turned out okay. Ugly as usual, even with my early planning. The raspberry filling I made from scratch and drizzled on top made it look like it was swimming in jam. It tasted pretty good, but it was a little dry, which irritated me even more because my cakes aren't usually dry. My homemade frosting was good, but it didn't ice well because I didn't let it set long enough, and that's why everything looked amateur (besides the "jam" around the edges). So much for my baking skills. *sigh*

After more thought, I've decided to completely remove the word counter from my sidebar. Frankly, it irritates me. When I do a new post and haven't taken the time to count my words, I feel guilty and I think it makes me worry more about updating my word count rather than focusing on the task at hand: writing.

Since we were gone last weekend, the husband took me to celebrate my birthday this weekend, which was great fun. We went to tea (my favorite), saw Miss Potter--which I liked not only for the storyline, but also for the beautiful cinematography of the Lake District--and went to the bookstore. I got three new books, including Giada De Laurentiis' new cookbook Everyday Pasta. I don't buy cookbooks very often, but I'm really excited about this one because she's got a great mix of recipes (quick, light fare, fancy, etc.) and I want to expand my pasta knowledge. My grandmother was Italian, and I've always loved Italian food and felt the most adept at cooking Italian, but I want to learn more. The husband was obviously not complaining about getting this book for me since it means more Italian food for him. ;)

Okay, so not such a short post. Happy Monday all.

Just a note:

I haven't updated my wordcount tracker in awhile, but I have been writing. Lately I've been writing on paper a lot to spark my creativity. Otherwise I've been editing and filling in my first chapter, which incidentally I want to throw out the window. It will be much easier to track my progress when it is typed and I can compare the wordcount for the original file to that of the current file. I'm not handcounting my words and updating just to keep you lot happy! Plus I don't want you to see how slowly I progress. This way one of these days you'll see my numbers jump drastically *surprise* and think "Well well, she's been writing like crazy, just look at that word jump!"

Oh, and I hate cakes. I am actually a good cook taste-wise, but I fail 100% on presentation. Since we have quite a few friends stopping by I wanted the cake to look good. Normally I fail at presentation because I have no patience. I start icing the cake before it's even cooled. This time I baked the cake a day early so I couldn't allow myself to ice it too early. So what does the stupid blighter do? It goes and falls into three pieces when I ease it out of the pan. Eurgh! Luckily only one layer did that so I can sneak it onto the bottom without too much attention. Of course those slices with "cracks" may not come out well. Oh! I almost forgot to mention, I'm making this cake special for the husband. Turns out he's been not lying to me exactly, but not admitting the truth all these years. I always thought German chocolate cake was his favorite and he never denied it, so of course I went on thinking that. This year he admitted he prefers lemon cake, or white cake, basically any cake over chocolate. He requested a white cake with raspberry filling, and dammit he's going to get it this time. Pretty or not.

Tired

Not much to post about today. I'm baking a cake and trying to clean up the place for our little belated b'day/housewarming party tomorrow. Last night I went shopping for drinks for the party and was (slightly) offended the cashier didn't ask for my ID. I bought 4 bottles of wine, 3 six-packs of beer and various mixers, and she didn't even blink an eye. I'm hoping it's because I have a BevMo card and you have to be 21 to get the card? I would've been thrilled not to be carded a few years ago, but now I wonder how old that makes me look because they're supposed to card anyone who looks under 30. And I've got 4 years to go! Ah well.

Had a fun Drew outing today. He had to get two booster shots at the vet, and started shaking and whining as soon as we walked into the office. I'm sure he recognized it and remembered getting left all day last time. (Joey will say it's because he lost his "manhood" there, but I don't think he realizes that, he just hates mommy leaving him.) He whined the entire time we sat in the office waiting for his turn, but he did really well with the vet when she came to get him. He's a big baby, but he was partly whining because there was another dog in the waiting room and he really wanted to play with him; he just doesn't understand that his whining scares off the other dogs! Dork. I do hope he calms down more as he gets older. He's calmed down significantly since we first got him, but he's got a long way to go and he's eight months old so I'm not sure when exactly he'll mature more.

I'm glad it's Thursday so I can watch The Office and my other comedy night shows. I'm feeling really drained today. I'm not as stressed about the job/writing dilemma I had a few days ago, but I am struggling with the writing again. I know I can do this, but sometimes I really start questioning myself.