Monthly Archives: January 2008

It was a chilly weekend this past weekend so I went into comfort food mode and made bread and a slow cooked pork recipe and a pound cake. Grace diligently watched everything go into the pots and pans and waited with equal diligence for anything to fall on the floor so that she might offer an opinion on my progress. Drew and I both really liked the pork recipe, and I’ve gotten some good recipe suggestions from here in the past, so I thought I would throw this out, and as always, please feel free to share anything with me!

I got this from the January Issue of Cooking Light and made some modifications–some because I didn’t have the ingredients and some out of personal preference, so I’m putting the recipe up as I made it, but if you would like the original, you can get it here. The Cumin is largely what makes it southwestern, although much to my surprise, I was out of cumin as I started cooking and Drew and I were both in agreement that it seemed just fine without it. We’ll make it again soon and I’ll see what we were missing.

Southwestern Pork and Sweet Potatoes
(more or less) From Cooking Light

2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin (well…you know)
2 garlic cloves
1 small onion, peeled and quartered (about 7 ounces)
1 pickled jalapeño pepper, stemmed
1 small onion chopped
Olive oil
2 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), trimmed (I think I used a 2.5 lb loin)
1 can on Guinness or other dark beer
1 (4-inch) cinnamon stick
3 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato (about 1 pound)
1 can of tomato sauce

Place first 6 ingredients in a food processor; process 1 minute or until a thick paste forms.
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat bottom of pan with olive oil. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove pork from pan.

Add chile mixture to pan; cook 2 minutes or until fragrant, stirring occasionally. Stir in beer and tomato sauce, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add pork and cinnamon; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours or until pork is tender.

Remove pork from pan; shred into large pieces with 2 forks. Stir shredded pork, sweet potato and chopped onion in with the leftover sauce in the pan; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Discard cinnamon stick.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup)

So Drew and I eased into the new weekend schedule–he was in early and out early, and I poked around with my various house and crafty projects during the day. We saw There Will be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis on Friday night which I thought was pretty excellent. As with most movies there are aspects that could have been a little more developed, and unlike a considerable number of movies, the score was used brilliantly. There are a lot of movies appropriately pointing fingers at our government, economy and us as consumers right now, but I liked that this one makes the old brain work a little harder to make the connections rather than having them spelled out. It’s good, I think, for all of us to see oil spilling out behind the whack of a pick axe and think of it as a tangible naturally occurring product and not just some mythic monster that we’re having a war over. That can be the next thought. Anyway, it comes with my endorsement, let us know what you’re think of it if you’ve seen it!

It’s a surprisingly quiet Thursday here in the office–I’m making a bajillion phone calls (read: 101) and thought I would give my voice a rest and take a minute to toss a couple of pictures up from our walk this weekend. We happened to move right next to our favorite dog park and there are tons of trails in the surrounding woods that we leave many a footprint on. We used to have to drive over, but now we’re minutes away! All Grace has to hear is the jingle of her leash (we only have to use it on the road, once we’re in the woods, she’s a free range mutt) and she hits the front door. She hasn’t quite learned the art of pacing herself and has been known to lay down for a little rest here and there on the walk home, but it doesn’t seem to curb her enthusiasm. In the pictures below she’s just finished digging in a mole hole and the evidence is all over her face.
Oh! And in other news–Drew just got his schedule for the Cardiac Care Unit (his final 7 month rotation) and we got the somewhat unfortunate news that he will be working 7-7 Saturdays and Sundays for the next 7 months so if anyone feels like coming to hang out with me and Grace, don’t hold back!
Love.

So…the powers that be are threatening us with gross weather, but my internal barometer suspects that milk and loaves are leaving the shelves in vain. I would love to be wrong and would even risk being unprepared if it would will a good, epic even, snow storm into existence, but for now we will settle for the very unsettling prospect of a wintery mix. A friend just pointed out that that we should take on making a wintery mix and I am currently reading a book called, Love is a Mixed Tape so it seems fitting that I should put my most recent mix here. There was a theme in mind, as there always has to be, so pardon any redundancy. There’s a chance that I’m going to figure out how to publish this as a list that you can download if you’re so inclined, but that’s something I will have to do from home as an inbox of client e-mails is woefully calling my name. Happy Tuesday!

The Burden: Volume 2
1. Since I Fell for You-Dinah Washington
2. Beautiful-Aimee Mann
3. The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down-The Band
4. All I Want is You-Barry Louis Polisar
5. Sundress-Ben Kweller
6. She’s Always a Woman to Me-Billy Joel
7. All I Really Want to do-Bob Dylan
8. Let’s Get out of Here-Broken Social Scene
9. Till the End of Time-Devotchka
10. Sea of Love-Cat Power
11. Strangers- Ed Harcourt
12. Pills-Gary Jules
13. Better Man-James Morrison
14. Pavement Puddle Stars-Jason Collett
15. Crazy in Love-The Magic Numbers
16. We Gathered in Spring-Midlake
17. Dimming of the Day-Bonnie Raitt

It finally snowed in Charlottesville! We woke up yesterday to the beginnings of what promised to be a sightly bigger storm than the one that actually arrived on our doorstep, but it was enough to cover the grass and make the tires spin so I was satisfied. Yesterday was kind of a crazy day at work and other stuff so I wasn’t able to take any pictures, but I did take some this morning. Grace is a fiend for the snow, she loves “catching” snow balls (and Drew gets some satisfaction out of hurdling snow at her) and lapping it all up as she runs around. This is at our house, please excuse the sleep in our eyes, it was very early!

Ok, so I’m all about a good cause, (highly subjective, of course) and I also have a small fascination with dictionaries and the colloquial development of words, so imagine my delight when I came across this website this morning when I was looking into the origin of the word stationary (don’t ask). For those of you that aren’t inclined to go to the website, I’m pasting the information here just for kicks. No, I didn’t sign…I’m exercising my right to choose those battle wisely, but if this might be something that you feel passionately about, sign away!

Stationary or Stationery: we’ve got both

Twentieth century dictionaries define stationary as not mobile, and stationery as writing paper and envelopes.

The word “stationery” however was originally spelled with an “a” in English. It derived from the fact that such products were sold in “stationary” shops and not from travelling peddlers. Both spelling derive from the Latin stationarius defined as a place where something is located.

The earliest documented appearance of the word stationary is in the early 1400′s. The word stationery, as an alternative spelling, does not appear until the late 1600′s.

A look at Internet search patterns indicates that more users search for stationary than stationery (see table). This ranges from over twice as many searches for “email stationary” than “email stationery” to an approximately 6% preference for “business stationary” over “business stationery”.
It’s probably about time to return to an early age and correctly spell the word as stationary.

If you agree, please sign the petition to change stationery to stationary.

At first we called this site just “Stationary”. We tried “Stationary Station”, “Stationary Canary” and a few others, but have settled on “Stationary Nation”.

Ok, so those that know me well, and perhaps not so well know that I’m a fiend for cheese in my life…both of the stinky or creamy persuasion and also of the campfire-bad pun-corniness variety. There is a part of my brain that naturally heads in that direction even if I don’t always approve. Given that, I came across a website today called Learning to Love you More that is sort of similar to the “For this I Believe” and archival projects that NPR has been running. It was started by two artists that, if I understand correctly, want to share the work at the Whitney. Basically it’s a series of assignments that people can follow and submit to website. Given my nosey-nanny southern nature, I admit that I enjoy reading others completed “assignments” more than I am compelled to do my own, but I like the concept and the provocative nature of it. Some of the assignments are introspective, some require public action, some involve pictures. The thing that I like most (well second to the snooping that I just mentioned) is that even without completing any of the assignments, I started to think about them which occupied a more interesting space in my brain than a lot of the nonsense that I spend my day thinking about. Check it out, see what you think!

And in unrelated news…
I just got the Ed Harcourt album, Strangers, yesterday and can’t get enough. He reminds me a little of Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright, but of course he’s got his own thing going on. Check it out!

So we headed to NC this weekend to catch up with everyone and have a baby shower for Winborne, Josh and their baby girl who might be coming into the world anytime in the coming weeks. Winborne is, of course, a stunning mama-to-be and thinking about the shower got me looking for unusual or unique baby gifts. I came across this alphabet poster locally and some further reading led me to their website which I am a little bit in love with. I love the line drawings and the fact that one of the designers has her son contribute to the artwork for the cards.

Another small obsession of mine centers around things made or cutout of paper and dinggly-dangly business. This website has some of the most incredibly paper artwork I’ve ever seen. This guy, Mister Rob, out of UK is much cheerier and makes me wish that I could jet to across the pond for some paper oogling.

Anyway, as usual, I have paper products on the brain…feel free to share in paper insights/sites that you might know of, and happy Monday!

Oh! Also…if this is even remotely interesting to you, check out:
http://www.paperforestblog.com for boatloads of interesting paper stuff.

It’s January! Wasn’t it November a couple of days ago? Drew and I had a wonderful Christmas that kicked off with my parents in Virginia. My brother Drew came up with his wife Meg and the most precious 10 month old on the block and we tore through gumbo and wrapping paper and didn’t stop laughing the whole time. A few short days later (after putting a double issue to press in record time and zipping out of the office) we hopped on a plane and headed to Louisiana for a week of family, more delicious gumbo, sweet kisses from Caroline and more laughter. We had a super fun Christmas morning (my family will be glad to know that we even got our requisite cinnamon rolls in on Christmas morning!) and the whole day finished around Gail’s table and a turkey dinner.

Drew and I both were showered with gifts and love this year, but one thing that stood out particularly to me and that I’ve been thinking about a lot was a binder of family recipes that my aunt Vicki put together for our family and extended family. Many writers far more eloquent than myself have waxed poetic about not only the virtues of cooking, but the relationships that develop in the kitchen so I will leave that to them, and focus instead on the nature of the family that is created in the kitchen. Unfortunately a lot of the family on my mother’s side has not been blessed with the longevity gene and so most of my elders are vague memories and spirited stories. There are pictures and well worn tales, but for me it is a cabinet full of ghosts, not tangible people. Vicki took the time to pull together recipes from her side of the family and ours and with each one she wrote a little story or memory that suddenly brought so many of these folks back. They made food. It seems so simple, but there was something about both her labor of love as well as the notion that my grandmother, whom my only memories of involve and oxygen tank and a cavernous house around her hospital bed, had a recipe or two that she was proud of. I’m not trying to romanticize my grandmother here, but I couldn’t help but think about that book as we were standing around various kitchens in Louisiana stirring pots and chopping vegetables, and pulling out old standby recipes to celebrate with. When we came home from Louisiana, we had people over to dinner on New Year’s Eve and again on New Year’s day and the food was a mix of past and present, but everything came from family. We made Vicki’s grandmother’s pound cake (to which I added a citrus glaze), gumbo that Drew learned at his family’s side, green beans from my mother, Aileen’s mac and cheese (what a score having that recipe is!) a modified version of Gail’s Pinenut Pilaf, salad presented in a bowl that was made for us as a wedding gift and served with spoons that our friend Glade made, and Ruth’s roasted potatoes. We invoked so many friends and family in the kitchen this year, in multiple states and with such full hearts and I couldn’t help but think about unique thread that we were weaving into the beginning of our own traditions.

It goes without saying that I am a wicked sap and always moved just a little too much by my nostalgia, but this year the memories felt whole and good. While I am certainly so grateful for the gifts given to us, I think that my favorite memory of this holiday season will be of standing or sitting in different kitchens with so many new faces and old friends and filling up on the metaphorical and literal sustenance of love.

And now I’m off to the gym.

Happy New Year to each of you~