Wood-Fired

Jeremy has a dream--he has for quite some time. He dreams of his very own wood-fired pizza oven in the backyard.

So when I saw that someone in the community was offering a class about the design, construction and use of wood-fired brick ovens, I knew Jeremy had to go.  Coincidentally, it was offered the day before Fathers' Day, so we celebrated Fathers' Day, a day early and gifted Jeremy with this class for the afternoon.

On a side note: little kids can not keep secrets.  Luckily the boys kept calling it a "pizza class", because I  had told them that a part of the class was baking their own pizza's in the oven, so regardless the bits Jeremy did get from the boys didn't tell him exactly what we had planned for him--or how cool it was!

Unfortunately rain was on the forecast that day, and the class materials had said the class would be moved to the community center in case of inclement weather.  I was so nervous, and of course it started raining a half hour before the class was supposed to begin. 

I was totally bummed.

We drove by the guy's house anyway, because the whole point is actually seeing this guy's oven in action, anyone can go check out a book from the library to learn the theory of it all, and I was sure that the other participants would agree and wouldn't mind the rain.

Well, the other participants did agree.  And even though the organization the class was offered through tried to get him to change the location because of the rain, Matt wouldn't.  Besides, he'd already had his oven firing for a few hours before the class even began.

They ended up going down in his basement for the lecture aspect of the class, but came back out to construct pizzas, and luckily, the rain was basically done by then.

When we came to pick up Jeremy a few hours later he was waiting around with a few of the stragglers for Matt's oven to cool down enough for cooking some sourdough boules.  So we unloaded the boys to hang out in their yard for a bit.

(It was a new experience for us, getting the reaction to unloading our "four boys?!" --including the week and a half old Rory.)

The boys were a little disappointed to not get pizza (not that we'd promised them any), but they were generously offered slices of sourdough--which was delicious.  And we learned that the person we need to hit up for some starter is actually the dean of Jeremy's college! 

I can imagine this conversation: Hey remember how you just shook my hand when I graduated with a PhD. last month but I don't actually have a job, so I was thinking of taking up sourdough bread-baking instead.  What do you think, will you hook me up with some starter?!

Classic. 

Jeremy came home from the class super-excited.  One step closer to having his own wood-fired masonry oven.  Next place we move he says. 

And as for me--I was feeling generally on top of the world for being such a stellar wife, and sending him to this class. 

Homemade Valentines Gift for a Guy

I'm working on Jeremy's Lovanzuanukah present.  (The upcoming week long holiday festival of love in which we will celebrate Jeremy and my 11th anniversary of knowing each other, 9th marriage anniversary, St. Valentine's Day, and (last-but-not-least) national half-price chocolate day!)

I'm making him homemade aftershave, and since there's still time to make it before most people will be celebrating the more traditional lovers' holiday of St. Valentine, I thought I'd share what I'm doing. 

Homemade Gentleman's Olde Spice Aftershave Recipe:

Materials needed:
3/4 cup witch hazel
2 tsp glycerine
1 large pinch alum (found in the spices or canning section of the grocery store)
1 small cinnamon stick
10 allspice berries
10 cloves

1 half-pint jar
funnel
coffee filter
small dark glass bottle

Add witch hazel, glycerine, and alum to half-pint jar.  Witch hazel is an astringent.  It helps close the pores after a hot shave, it also has 16% alcohol which disinfects any cuts. The glycerine is a byproduct of soapmaking it's a natural moisturizer and skin protectant to soothe the skin after shaving.  Alum is a blood coagulant used to help stop the bleeding of any cuts (in it's bulk mineral form it is the newfangled deodorant crystals I keep hearing people talk about).  All these ingredients are rated 0 or 1 (a green) from the EWG (follow the links above) meaning, super safe for cosmetic use. 

You can add a teaspoon or two of rum to the recipe as well to add to the scent and the alcohol disinfecting properties.  We don't drink so I don't have any in the home.  I'm not opposed to buying it for this project, but I chose to use what I already had on hand imagining $25 bottles of rum that would break my budget ($0) on this project!  

Finally add the spices.  Break up the cinnamon into small pieces, and crush the allspice berries and cloves just a bit to release their fragrances. 

Pit a lit on the jar and put it in a dark cupboard. 

Store it for 10 days, giving it a shake every day.  You should see it take on color from the spices--it is also taking on the fragrances. 

After 10 days strain through a coffee filter and funnel into a dark glass jar (brown or blue).  This bottle is from vanilla extract.  When It was empty I saved it because I knew it would be useful for this kind of project.  The dark glass helps the aftershave retain it's scent for longer. 

My aftershave isn't complete yet.  I created this recipe from some different ones I found, and I'm not really sure how strong it will end up.  If it's too strong of a scent I will just add some more witch hazel.  However I have heard that many people when using the original old spice could only smell it for a little while and then it went away--not really like wearing cologne. 

I had fun making labels for it as well (even though I did it without my in-house graphic designers' help this time!

Let me know if you try the recipe--you can also use any assortment of essential oils in place of the fresh spices--there are so many possibilities. 

It's Official

Jeremy passed his preliminary exams.  He is now a "Candidate for PhD."  Hopefully in a year's time we'll be at last done with schooling.

New Year's (Infographic) Greetings

Our first year married I tried to do a Christmas card/family newsletter, I was lenient with my timing saying, "It's completely appropriate to morph it into a "New Years'" card/letter."  But the next year I decided: forget all that.  The holidays are just too busy to get that done.  I don't want to be stressed out the whole time that my cards aren't sent out yet.  So I decided that Chinese New Year letters were a much better idea and would leave my holidays more stress-free. 

Flash forward a few years.  I'm just not really got about follow through--with anything really.  If you (or your mother) gave Jeremy and I a gift for our wedding--I'm sorry for not getting you a "Thank you" card, I really am--can I just agree to give you a hug when I see you in heaven and we'll call it good?  Things printed, put in envelopes, individually addressed, needing stamps--I'm just not very good about it.  I usually end up after step 2 or 3 and it's May already and I finally just say "forget it" until next year. 

With the advent of the "green revolution" my situation has improved as it's no longer necessary to physically mail things, you can e-mail them (for cheap too) and it's all in the noble name of being ecologically minded; however I'm not really organized enough to have all my e-mail address books from my three e-mail accounts (y'know high school, college, and my grown up gmail account)  consolidated into one list.  So my point is:  Here it is--if you are someone I know personally, consider this your personal family newsletter from me--with all the love and affection appropriate to the nature of our specific relationship. 

This year's family newsletter was a lot of fun to put together.  It was a collaborative effort between Jeremy and myself.  Infographics are really big right now in design --probably because they are a lot of fun to make, and a reasonably fast project.  Jeremy and I got a kick out of coming up with different items of family information that could be used, and how to use as many different types of charts and graphs as possible.  And we even completed it without any cross words exchanged--though there were a few sarcastic ones, and a few really sarcastic ones.  For your viewing pleasure here is "Our Family 2011" (click photo to enlarge).

PhD Fever

Jeremy has been really buckling down to work on his PhD.

Last week he was up in the architecture library asking Maxine, his favorite head librarian, for a favor,  There was this book that one of his advisers had recommended for him to took at.  But when he looked it up in the catalog it said the book was already checked out and not due to be returned until January. 

"Is there any way I can find out who has it?" He asked.  "Just to see if they are actively using it or if I might be able to take a look at it.  Or can we have it recalled or anything like that?" 

"Well, let's just take a look at who has it and then maybe you can go ask them about it." said Maxine.  She sat down next to a student employee on the computer and typed a few things in.  "What's the book called?" she asked.  More typing and clicking.  Then the student employee looked up at Jeremy and back down at the screen.  Maxine looked closely, then up at Jeremy. 

"According to the system-- you have the book checked out Jeremy.  You picked it up last week."

=crickets chirping=


At least no one can say he isn't working--it's apparently his organizational system that is failing, that's all.  Or his brain is giving out.  One or the other.  Lets just finish up this PhD thing quickly--just in case.  

Grilled Cookies

The boys and I gifted Jeremy with a charcoal grill for Fathers' Day this year.  Since we were on vacation I just drew him a card to tell him.

("Fireball" is what Alton Brown calls his grill.)

Jeremy's reaction is always really hard to read when he opens presents, but I'll just say that eventually he was really excited about the prospect of buying a grill when we got home. 

One problem with our little house is that it's 1100 square feet segmented into 8 little rooms and we have just two window air conditioning units.  What that means is that we never turn on our oven from June 1st through August 30th.  It's just not worth it.  But that can be a bit limiting to our menu. So Jeremy and I have been excited to use his grill to expand our summer-time culinary options. 

Everyone has heard of grilled pizza.  There are different methods for doing it, but after reading of one person using their pizza stone inside their grill I suddenly had a strike of inspiration about what else a pizza stone inside a grill would allow us to do. 

Grilled Cookies!

I will begin first by saying we have a very well-seasoned pizza stone.  So the cookies had no problem with sticking, but may have on a newer stone.

Second, some of the cookies got very burned bottoms before we came up with the pancake method.

Third, I still think the method could be improved a little.  Perhaps by having a terra-cotta pot that we preheat in the grill and then invert over the top of the cookies to help them bake from the top as well as the bottom. 

 We began by preheating the pizza stone over hot coals.  Then we quickly placed the cookie-dough balls onto the stone and closed the lid.  After a few minutes we checked on them.  Then we checked on them again.  The bottoms cooked super fast on the hot pizza stone but the tops were totally melty, so we improvised by implementing "the pancake method."   In other words--we flipped 'em.  

 What we ended up with were grilled chocolate chip cookies that looked more like pancakes, but were delicious, and did not involve raising the temperature inside our own home any more than opening the door once to go out and once more to go back in. 

So we sat ourselves down in front of our window-unit AC with tall classes of crisp, cold milk and enjoyed our grilled chocolate chip cookies. 

Cookies on a grill--perfect for the man who taught me to love chocolate brownies so dearly. 

Bacon Brownies

Jeremy is on a roll with his brownie-making skills. We had another church picnic Monday, like we do every Memorial day and Labor day. 

As promised in the comments of his key lime brownie recipe this time Jeremy made a slightly less universally appreciated brownie.  Don't be confused by the striking resemblance to mini German chocolate cake brownies-- these are Bacon Brownies topped with Onion Confit.

He actually won a ribbon this time as well.  It was the 2nd place ribbon, (There were only two entries in the brownie category--Shhhh!  Don't tell him I told you!) and we're all very proud of Jeremy. 

I decided not to enter the dessert contest this time.  Since I went all out on the Dali Steampunk Cake I decided to sit out this time and let the other girls have a chance to exhibit (=snort!=).  That and I was in charge of drinks for everybody, so I was busy with that.

But since I can't help myself in regards to Jell-o for festive occasions, I did make a side dish (ok really a dessert) molded red white and blue Jello. 

And although it is not real food--I have to say I am beginning to understand why a beautiful molded gelatin "salad" was a trophy piece on the table of the 50's homemaker. There really are some tricks to having success with it.  So although most of the time I set my culinary sights a bit higher--I do enjoy dabbling in the field of molded desserts.

A Tale of Two Clocks

Jeremy and I married with a joint dream of having a really awesome library.   We each had a selection of cool books that we brought to the marriage, and we sat together lining them up on a sleek new shelf bought with Target wedding gift cards.  My books next to his, we arranged the books on the shelf by category.  No longer were the books "mine" or "his" they were "ours," and together we dreamed of the future library the books would inhabit. 

Our clocks, on the other hand, have not provided us with such an easy integration.  Apparently alarm clocks are an extremely personal devise--which I never would have guessed, but experience has most undeniably taught me.   When we first were married I took a look at Jeremy's old alarm clock and thought, "That old relic is one "snooze" short of the junkyard." 

It was obviously some "family heirloom" that had been rotating bed-side tables for at least a few decades. 

Not only that, but it bore the brands of cheesy not-really-applicable-though-I-wouldn't-go-so-far-as-to-call-Jeremy-a-'poser high school counter-culture groups, via the "skateboarding is not a crime" sticker. 

. . . You tell 'em Jeremy. 

So, naturally, I wrapped the cord around Jeremy's alarm clock and packed it away in a cupboard, opting instead to utilize my own sleek, attractive model of an alarm clock that I had picked up four years earlier during my first semester on my own at college.

This worked fine for a while.  At least we could both agree that never under any circumstances should one use the buzzer feature of a bed-side alarm clock.  The radio, set to a low volume, was sufficient of a jolt to the senses to induce a morning rousing from slumber.  But I could tell that my clock bothered Jeremy, and every once in a while I could tell something had gone wrong --in the form of (his) user error-- as the set time and alarm times would be all jumbled up and not anywhere close in alignment to the GMT. 

So finally, out of love, I decided to set up Jeremy's alarm clock instead.  Jeremy had never slept and roused, with such little fuss.  I--on the other hand--did not have the same success with his clock.  How was I supposed to get the alarm set, and where in the world was the magic button that turned off the alarm so it didn't just keep "snooze"-ing every 10 minutes all morning long?  It wasn't really that big of a deal, since I didn't need an alarm very often--just once in a while for an early doctor's appointment or something. 

This year with Jeremy in school and me responsible for getting Owen to school on time--I needed a reliable alarm clock.  I didn't want to have to wake up with Jeremy and reset his alarm for later.  And it wasn't his responsibility to do it either.  So I pulled my clock out of a back cupboard and set it up on my nightstand. 

And there it now sits--staring across the bed at Jeremy's clock, the two of them glowing red in a perpetual digital duel.  Though Jeremy and I have tried over the years to develop a seamless joining of our dreams, and goals, and practices to allow our life to progress unhindered together --we found the one that was just too hard to accept. 

What ever they may say the keys are for a successful, happy marriage--joining book shelves or bank accounts--don't ask either of us to give up our own alarm clock. 

All-Natural High

 It's been a little over a week since Jeremy installed our colony of bees.  Jeremy contemplated the task while brushing the sides of the "package" with sugar syrup to calm the bees.  He chose to go suitless and gloveless for the install.  Bees in a package are less defensive than ordinarily because they don't technically have a home to protect, and if you feed them some sugar syrup they feel even better about life.

In a different vein Jeremy wanted to feel "in control" and not clumsy when in stalling the bees.  The gloves particularly make that more difficult.

 I stayed outside to watch Jeremy, along with the baby who would not allow me to put him down after the 6-hour car ride.  We didn't stand too close, but we did send the older boys inside to watch from the window.  Just in case.

 It was a little tough to get the syrup can out of the package, but once it was out bees started flying out.

 We chose the "chicken method" of installing our colony which involves taking out a few of the frames and just placing the whole package of bees inside, putting the hive lid on and leaving them to get out on their own.

A number of people have asked us how you know the bees are going "like" their new home and take to it.  There were two things we did to encourage this.  We installed the package in the early evening when the bees have a natural inclination to want to bunker down for the night as opposed to gather the whole colony to go swarm in a nearby tree or something.  Also we brushed down all the inner frames with the sugar water--and what bee can resist that?

 Jeremy took a few minutes to watch the little bees start exploring their new home just a bit. Then he came inside riding an all-natural adrenaline high.

He paced back and forth in the front room telling me how it felt to be there and open the package with his heart racing.  To have the bees fly out and around, some of them landing on his arms just as curious about him as he was about them.  And to have done it, completed the task, done something real that was a goal we've been scheming about, and supporting a modern idea of food production that we believe in. 

He said this must be why boys these days play video games and jump out of airplanes--they are missing out on the types of experiences that mankind used to participate in simply to provide for their basic physical needs.  People today don't get that rush of exhilaration from interacting with wild but beneficial insects, or hunting down an animal to feed your family, or looking at a shelf full of the fruits of their labor guaranteed to provide for the-as of yet unseen, but guaranteed to come-needs of their family. 

Here's to hoping that our children don't feel the need to seek out man made highs, but that can experience the natural thrill that comes from wrangling nature to directly provide for some of their own needs. 
 

Nerdy Cake

Jeremy designed his own birthday cake this year.  He told me all about it and I complied to the best of my abilities. 

 It's based on the video game "Portal."

The little chocolate cake is going in one portal and coming out the other. (You're going to have to just trust me on that.)

 "Portal 2" came out about a week before Jeremy's birthday, and like a good responsible father he didn't rush out and buy it the first day, but waited patiently for his birthday.

You can see the little robot on the package jumping between the two portals.  Of course I'm sure it's technically an "android" or something like that.  I never can keep up with that sort of thing. 

Jeremy blew out his candle with the help of Owen and the steampunk garden gnome. 

The mini cake is a big joke from the first "Portal" game.  Or should I just say, "The cake is a lie"?  (There are just too many layers of nerdiness to Jeremy's cake.)

The star candle doesn't really go with the cake.  It was supposed to be a plain white basic birthday cake candle, but star candles are what we had around the house leftover from Jonas' birthday cake. 

He had a video game cake this year too.  Super Mario Galaxy.  Like father like son I suppose. 

Ridiculous Injuries

In case you missed us at church on Sunday.  Here's a sneak peak into what our weekend looked like:

Yes, it looks like some fabulous male-bonding time over the Wii.  And this particular five minutes was; however, Jeremy was in that spot more than five minutes --he spent the entire weekend laying on the floor.  Or our bed, and then back on the floor again. 

You'll also notice, junk all over the floor, a nekkid baby, and three loads worth of laundry that my wonderful friends came over and folded.  Yep, because a girl with a laid up husband can only do so much.

So Monday we took Jeremy in to be evaluated.  His diagnosis:

Right-side Radiculopathy

That's right and Jeremy and I both busted up laughing when she said it.  Trust Jeremy to have "Radicular" pain. Because we all know it's just a joke anyway, just one more convenient injury to get out of doing chores.


No, really Jeremy's been in tons of pain.  It just sounds a little ridiculous when you tell your doctor, "I hurt my back somehow, and it made the side of my leg hurt, and my ankle too."    Turns out that is a 100% accurate description of the "referred nerve pain" associated with radiculopathy.

Who knew?

Freezer Paper Stencils

Yesterday was pink day.  For the last two weeks in Kindergarten they have been reviewing colors with the new students and so they invited the children to wear clothing according to the color of the day.  So, yesterday was pink day.  Owen doesn't own any pink clothing.    So we decided to get creative.

I've wanted to try freezer paper stencils for a long time.  I even had a roll of freezer paper back on my craft desk just waiting for my first project.  Jeremy took creative lead on this.  It's always his job to make sure my projects for the boys aren't too girly.

"Artsy" they may be--we're ok with that--but "girly" is right out. 

First create your design and cut it out.  Simple designs are always easier to start out with.  

 Center the stencil with the slick, shiny side down on the fabric.  And press quickly with a hot iron making sure the inner edges in particular are stuck. 

Paint the design.  We used screen-printing ink since we had it, but people use fabric paint, and even acrylic as well.  I stamped the paint on with a stencil brush.  If you are brushing your paint on always brush from on top of the stencil and over the edge towards the center of the design.  Don't brush from the middle of the design outwards or you'll push paint out under the edges of your stencil. 

Let dry completely and peel off stencil.

Wear with pride.

And a happy pink day to you. 

Steampunk Cake

 When they announced a cake decorating contest with the church Labor Day picnic I was excited.  Time to bust out my "skills."

However, my ideas are always more grand than what I actually end up producing.   

 I was going for a Steampunk aesthetic.

 I think what I ended up more with was a Salvador Dali aesthetic.

 Yep--That's about right.

I need a better cake recipe that wont sink, and frosting that won't slump.

Oh well.  I still won the second place ribbon for my cake.  I was pretty proud. . . until Jeremy won the blue ribbon in the "Unusual Brownie" category for his Key Lime Brownies. 

Jerk.

Just kidding--I still love you.

Bread

The other morning Jeremy left early without eating  much breakfast.  Mid morning he was feeling a bit peckish so he walked down to the union bought a bagel, and took it back to the studio to eat.

From nearby he heard a scoff.  He looked over at two undergrad girls.

"Oh, a bagel." one said matter-of-fact-ly.

"Yeah, a bagel."  Jeremy said, a little confused.

"Carbs."  She said emphatically, thick with underlying meaning.

". . . "



People are so weird.