New Bathroom

It is 100% finished, as of today. Jesse just finished and hung the medicine cabinet, and yes, he made it. He also made the sink cabinet. I am blown away on a daily basis by his amazing skill. We were super bad about taking before pictures of the bathroom, but if you have been to our house you know how ugly it was. It was a total gut job, Jesse ripped everything apart, down to the original studs. We left the exterior wall as exposed brick, and painted it white, as well as the rest of the bathroom. The stackable washer and dryer were a new addition, which has been amazing! (No more going to the nasty ass basement to clean laundry.) The tiles in the shower are matte subway tiles, and the tiles on the floor are 2 inch green matte hexagons. We gave up our tiny closet that we had, to fit the washer and dryer, but we have SO much storage in both of the cabinets that Jesse built. That is the glorious thing about custom work, you get to make things as big as you want! Well, as long as it will fit. I have yet to find a fabric that I like to make a shower curtain, so right now there is just a clear shower curtain liner. I think I need to fill a basket with toys to keep in there, because it is really hard to take a shower with a 14 month old in the room..... the shower curtain is basically open the whole time (because Maple is trying to climb in), resulting in a very wet floor, and a very wet Maple.

A little about this blog.....

Sorry, I just had to post a picture of her. I realized this afternoon I should preface this blog. Obviously I will be sharing a lot of recipes, my own, and other people's. I will probably also share some about my life, a lot of which revolves around being a mom. So if you are weirded out by things like breastfeeding, or poop, or crazy mom rants, you might not want to read my blog. Just sayin'. I will also share projects I do (this does not happen that often), like the quilt I am working on right now for my niece. I am sure that I will also share projects that Jesse does, because let us be honest, he is an insanely talented carpenter. That is probably about it. Probably.

Dinner for the Gerig's

Last Wednesday I had the honor of being at the birth of little Veda Gerig. There are really no words to explain how special this was. Bess is one of my best friends, and was there for the birth of Maple. It was amazing to witness a birth, since becoming a mother myself, and to be back at The Birth Center! People kept asking me if I was going to be Bess' doula, and I never quite knew how to respond to that question. I considered myself a friend more than a doula, but I guess I was doing what a doula does also :) Anyway, Jesse, Maple, and I went for a visit Friday afternoon, and took them dinner. New mamas that are breastfeeding need lots of yummy, nutritious, high protein foods. I made this dish of sweet potatoes, kale, onions, and black beans. I also hard boiled a few eggs, chopped them up to be served on top of this, and made a loaf a fresh bread. This was about six servings..... I sent half of it for Matt, Bess, and Bess' mom who was in town, and kept half of it for us to eat for dinner that night.

1. Cut the sweet potato into cubes (I leave the skin on, because we try to always buy organic produce, and the skin has a lot of nutrients). Put a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, throw in the sweet potato, add some salt and pepper, and cover with a lid. They will get nice and golden because of the heat, and soft because of the lid. Every five minutes or so, stir things around. Do this until the potatoes are done. Real specific, right? Sorry guys, this is as specific as I get. Transfer to a serving bowl.
2. Slice some onion and throw it in the pan you were just using with a little more olive oil. While it cooks, chop some garlic, and throw it in there too. Then add some cumin, some coriander, and some salt. Everything should be soft, and smell amazing. Add this to the bowl with the sweet potatoes.
3. Chop up some kale and throw it in, yes you guessed it, the same pan with a little more olive oil. Add a splash of water, some salt and pepper, and cover it with a lid. Just cook this briefly. You want it to wilt a little, but not get over cooked, no one likes soggy greens. Add this to the rest of the goods.
4. Drain and rinse some black beans, and add them to the bowl.
5. Toss everything, gently. I used a rubber spatula, which worked great.

Okay, I gotta go now, my kid is rubbing Trader Joe's white cheddar cheese puffs all over the couch. (I had to mention where they were from, because come on, I do not feed her total crap, just kind of crap.)

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

 This book changed my life. I highly recommend you go out and get it, but for now, I will share on of my favorite recipes with you.

European Peasant Bread
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix all of the ingredients together. You will have a loose, sticky dough, which is exactly what you want. Cover the dough (not airtight), and let it rest at room temperature for two hours. This dough is easiest to handle after it has been refrigerated, so do that! Ready for the best part? It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 14 days! This recipe makes four loaves, so you just have dough in your refrigerator for two weeks, and take some dough out whenever you want a loaf a bread, or a pizza, or whatever. When you are ready to make some bread, the first thing you need to do it sprinkle some cornmeal on a pizza peel, and set it aside. Or, if you are like me, you use a thin flexible cutting board, because you do not have a pizza peel. Next, dust your work surface with some flour. Cut off a quarter of the dough, and plop it down on the flour. The dough is still going to be very sticky, so roll it lightly in the flour (without kneading), until you can shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all sides. You want to do this fairly quick, so you do not handle the dough for too long. Place your lovely little ball of dough on that cornmeal covered surface you prepared, and let it rest for 40 minutes. 20 minutes into this resting period, crank your oven to 450 degrees, and have a pizza stone in there heating up. When you are ready to bake, dust your dough with flour, and slash a cross in the top of it. Pour some boiling water into an oven safe dish, and place it on the lowest shelf in your oven, and take out the pizza stone. Slide the loaf onto the hot stone, and put it in the oven! Bake for about 35 minutes, until the loaf is deeply browned and very firm. Now comes the hardest part..... let it cool completely before slicing (or tearing if you are me).
This might seem like a lot of instructions, but this is the easiest, best bread you will ever eat. I just typed all of this out, without reading the book. It is really simple once you get the hang of it, and I really recommend going out and getting this book. Oh and like I said, this recipe can be used for just about anything. I have made simple loafs, pita, pizza dough, flat bread..... the possibilities are endless.

Watch out Pizza Brain

I have been trying to perfect pizza dough for as long as I can remember, and on Thursday, it happened. I do not know why it took me so long to figure out the obvious: make pizza dough out of my favorite bread dough. On this pizza I put, in this order:
fresh mozzarella
sauteed shitake mushrooms
chopped fresh tomatoes
goat cheese
I baked this baby for about 12 minutes, and then topped it with green onion and chopped parsley. It was a major success in our house..... like really, we were practically cheering. I will post a separate blog about my favorite bread dough/book. Thanks for reading this!