Postmodern Hostess

i see a red door

2013-03-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

... and I want to paint it black.

Yes, friends, it's time for a quote from one of my favorite Stones songs, and also for some daydreaming about exterior updates.

First, let me share this: We love our house. A lot. Just wanted to get that out of the way, since lately I think that saying I want to change something about our house sounds like I don't appreciate what we have. Not true. Love the house. Just want to make it its very best.

So, with that, let me introduce to you, the house we've known for all these years (sorry, can't stop the '60s musical quotes today...):

Our house's exterior in a warmer season

That's the angle I've shown the most on this blog. But here's another angle, and it's slightly less flattering:

We're planning to restain the house this summer, since it needs it, and I'm hoping to go with something a little bit less red. (Thinking either a darker, more modern brown, or a mid-tone brown with less red.) But here's what I'm not loving:

That red door.

And the giant white one.

But what if we painted both of them black?

(Also, are you ready to see the laziest Photoshopping of all time?)

In the long run, I'd love to go with a beautiful metal and glass garage door, but for now, paint is the more economical option. I'm not totally sold on the black, but I like it better than the white by a big margin.

What do you think? Leave as is or go bold and black?

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xoxo,

life on the farm

2013-02-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

Make that "my imaginary life on my imaginary farm."

I have long tried to grow food in challenging conditions, from my first apartment in DC and my failed windowbox tomatoes, to our pest-ridden peas in our LA patio garden, and now to our challenging climate in Truckee.

To paraphrase this post from last April, here in Truckee:

We can get frost any night of the year, and usually have fewer than 80 frost-free days each year
We have no natural topsoil
We have lots of wild animals who masquerade as pests and make a salad bar out of any garden
We are technically in hardiness zone 6, but can only really depend on plants that are hardy down to zones 1 and 2, which means: forget about ever growing a tomato or cucumber at home

On top of that, our lot is super shaded, thanks to some beautiful old Jeffrey pines.

But I'm still determined to create our own micro farm, even if it means lots more frustration to come. (I didn't even post about our garden travails last year, because we had so many visits from the local mule deer to our all-you-can-eat salad bar.) I have already learned a thing or two along the way, and here's what I will act on from now on:

Our best garden real estate (that is, sunshine) is in the front yard, and we just have to carpe diem and use that space for growing food. Some of our neighbors park cars in their front yard... our pretty little garden certainly won't look worse than that.
We need to grow most of our herbs indoors, to protect them from both the cold and the deer.
I just need to give up on warm weather crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and most beans. I'll focus instead on what are "cool season" or "spring and fall crops" in most places, like greens, carrots, peas and some herbs.
It's also time to think about fruit bushes and trees, including some apples that are extremely cold hardy. I have already begun the PR campaign against the underperforming and non-food-producing trees currently standing where I want the fruit trees to go. ("Look at that slacker tree, Mark. You know it never even put on a full set of leaves last year. Don't you think it's a waste of space and water?")
In the long run, I definitely want a greenhouse, like the one in this amazing story.

via

I've got lots of planning in the works...

...like mapping out an annuals raised bed in the front yard and a perennial bed in the back yard...

... and I have most of the seeds to get started on a heat mat, under some grow lights, in the kitchen window. They'll meet the soil come March.

Once the herb seedlings get big enough to transfer, they'll find themselves in new homes in EcoForms rice hull pots. (We're all trying to banish plastic from our kitchens these days, so why grow our food in plastic pots?)

I'm also considering adding some cold frames to our second floor deck so that we can grow some salad greens and herbs outside without risking them getting chomped by deer, and while providing them a little more shelter from cold nights.

Stay tuned!

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xoxo,

tutorial: making beauty products

2013-01-31T07:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I'm going to share with you one of my favorite recent discoveries. Here it is: making beauty products at home, from all natural ingredients, is all kinds of easy.

If you happened to be chatting with Mark, he'd be way too polite and loyal to tell you that I've been a spazz for the last year about ridding our house of any toxin-containing product (getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and having your mom be treated for breast cancer in the same year will do that to a girl... my mom is all better -- not to worry -- and I'm good so long as I never think about gluten ever again). But in the meantime I've become a rabid devotee of the Environmental Working Group's database on toxins in cosmetics, and a frequent user of the GoodGuide app.

The good news for you is you don't have to see me going on a rampage to rid the house of phthlates and parabens and sodium laureth sulfate and plastic. You just get some sweet recipes for natural products with nary a toxic ingredient in sight!

What you need:
1. The only specialized ingredient that you need is beeswax, which is a healthy, all-purpose emulsifier that will turn everyday oils into magical balms. I recommend going organic, with an unbleached, untreated, unprocessed, unanythinged variety. (Note: Any beeswax that is white is bleached. It should be at a minimum a light yellow color.) I order this from Amazon. If you're a vegan and aren't into using beeswax, I've heard that you can sub in candelila wax, but I haven't tried it myself.
2. You will need oils, to serve as the base for your products, and which the beeswax will emulsify. They can be fancy oils like sweet almond or apricot kernel oil, or basic kitchen oils like olive or coconut. Organic is better, of course, as are things like cold pressed and unfiltered. You can also include for part of your oils a bit of cocoa butter or shea butter, though both will make your final product thicker, as will coconut oil. If you're making products for your face, I've read that jojoba oil and grapeseed oil are the most friendly, because grapeseed is the least reactive to sensitive skin, and jojoba is the most easily absorbed. I use straight grapeseed oil on my face. No pore clogging or funny scents, and the shininess disappears after a few minutes.
3. Essential oils are nice for fragrance (and taste, in lip balms), but they're not crucial. Natural products smell and taste good on their own.
4. Also nice to have are small glass jars, to avoid having to put your finished product in potentially toxic plastic containers, but use what you have. Small jam jars or Mason jars would work perfectly well, too.

Getting ideas:
I've included some basic recipes below, based on my experimentation and adaptation of other recipes that I've come across. But if you want more, check out these three books:

Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (I LOVE this book. So many awesome ideas with great tutorials.)

Do It Gorgeously, by Sophie Uliano (Has some good recipes, but I do NOT endorse using borax in products that touch your skin, specifically all the cleanser recipes. The Environmental Working Group rates borax as hazardous, so I won't make any cleansers from this book.)

Organic Body Care Recipes, by Stephanie Tourles (Lots of good recipes, but same issue with the borax -- see above.)

Putting it all together:
The only real step for most basic products is melting the beeswax enough that it can combine with and emulsify the oils. Many recipes will tell you to do it in a double boiler on the stove, but I think the microwave is a faster, easier way to go. The key is going in really short bursts of 10 seconds, and stirring each time, so that you don't overheat anything.

Lip balm recipe:
In a glass measuring cup, combine 4 to 5 Tablespoons of the oils of your choice with 1 Tablespoon (.25 oz) beeswax (4 T of oil will give a more solid lip balm; 5 T will give a more supple balm). In the microwave, heat the mixture in :10 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the beeswax is fully melted. Then, mix in 2 teaspoons of raw organic honey, along with 5 drops of the essential oil of your choice (optional). While the mixture is still warm, pour into one 2-ounce container or several small tins, and allow to cool completely before using. You just made yourself a year's supply of lip balm in about three minutes!
Variations: My favorite oils for this lip balm are sweet almond oil and olive oil. If you want your lip balm to have a glossy effect, use castor oil for 1 of the 5 Tablespoons of oil. My favorite essential oils are grapefruit and sweet orange, but a few little drops go a long way. If you have it handy, it's also nice for your lips to add a few drops of calendula oil or vitamin E oil after heating, when you add the honey and essential oils.

Clay mask recipe:
Most natural foods stores will sell plain clay powders, most commonly red clay and green clay. Read the packages and choose the one that feels most appropriate for your skin. Then, in a small glass container, mix a few Tablespoons of clay powder with a few teaspoons of water until you have a smooth, thick consistency. Add a little more clay or a little more water to get the consistency you want. Stir in 3-5 drops of tea tree oil, which fights blemishes. Use the mixture as an overall mask or, as I do, as an overnight spot treatment.

Basic balm or cuticle cream recipe:
I'll do another post on creams and lotions, which get a bit more complicated with the addition of water, but you can make an all-purpose, all-over balm by following the basic balm ratio above: 1 Tablespoon of beeswax for every 5 to 7 Tablespoons of oil (or 1 part to every 5-7 parts). Jojoba oil and shea butter are especially nice to include in an allover body balm, as is cocoa butter -- or a mixture of the three. But don't underestimate the awesomeness of a balm made with any regular (preferably organic) olive oil. I leave scents out of body balms, but maybe you want to go crazy with all of your essential oils for this. Go nuts.

What do you think? Will you try making any of these? Have you already made some products and found recipes that blow these away? Care to share?

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xoxo,

preview: framing

2013-01-29T07:12:00.002-08:00

I'm already breaking my promise of posting less often (especially since I've moved up the tutorial on making lip balms and other beauty products at home to later this week), but this one isn't a real post anyway. Just a quick, little preview of some framing I've been doing lately. This grid is the first cluster of artwork I've hung on the wall this month, and there are a couple more you'll start seeing in updated house pics next month. Wohoo.

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xoxo,

getting more domestic every day

2013-01-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest surprises of living in a little town has been how much more creative and inspired I feel every day. (It shouldn't be surprising, I suppose, when we're surrounded by creative people like Heather and Sondrea.) I definitely knew, when we left LA, that I wanted to make more time to cook, sew and get crafty, and I was super excited at the notion of having an office and craft space just for me. What I did not know is how far down the handmade rabbit hole I'd go so quickly.

I've starting DIYing all of my beauty products, so that I know exactly what's in them...

I've been stamping everything I can get my hands on...

...from the cards I described making in this post (which are now for sale at Bespoke in Truckee)...

...to our holiday cards...

...to the labels on the peach jam and lemon curd I made and canned in bulk for the Truckee-Tahoe food swap. (And, oh yeah, canning is also a new thing for me since we moved here.)

I've also screen printed a bunch of shirts for my old spinning friends in LA...

...baked oodles of gluten-free goodies...

...and put many a finishing touch on our house.

Now I have plans to turn as much of our land (all 1/3 of an acre of it) into a food-producing mini farm (more on this soon), make more things at home from scratch, starting with kombucha (this will be gross and fun!), and even start raising chickens... some day.

I love that my whole mindset has shifted from "We need thing X, where can I buy it?" to "We need thing X, how can I make it? Or if I can't make it, how can I buy it from someone local who did?" It's really empowering to start thinking this way! And just like home DIY, you quickly realize that very little making is actually hard to do; it just takes the determination to learn the technique, and then actually do it.

Want to know more about any of the projects I just mentioned? Let me know, and I'll write a post about it.

What are you DIYing these days? Any new and exciting projects? Share share!

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xoxo,

living small, blogging less

2013-01-24T07:11:00.000-08:00

It was just about a year ago that we moved from Los Angeles (population: 50 bajillion) on the Southern California coast, to Truckee (population: 16,000) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California, close to the Nevada border.

Despite the obviousness of this statement, I'll say it anyway: Life is different now.

Much of that difference was exactly why we moved:

Less traffic and bustle, more quiet and peace
A bigger home that really feels like a *home*
Easier access to mountains, wilderness and skiing
More room to be creative, grow food, let the dogs roam, etc.
Ability to put down real roots, which is tough in the big city

Some of the differences are things I miss:

Our LA friends, of course
Flea markets
Farmers markets in the winter
Growing veggies in the winter
Whole Foods within a 5 minute drive
Warm days even in January (notice a trend here?)
The beach
My LA spinning and yoga classes (or, more precisely, the people in them)

Even though the list of things I miss is longer than the list of reasons why we moved, we're really happy here. All of the things we miss are things we can deal with (we still keep up with our friends on Facebook and occasional LA visits, we can visit antiques stores in Reno, there's a Whole Foods 30 minutes away in Reno, and the weather is beautiful in a whole other way here), though we do both still miss the beach.

What's been amazing is realizing all the ways in which life is different here that we never anticipated, but instead could only discover by living here:

Small town life brings out the best in both of us, and we feel much more relaxed
We see our friends so much more often here, like every week instead of every few months in LA
I'm a lot more creative and inspired here, and have been hand-making all sorts of things
We're more trusting of people, and we pick up hitch-hikers all the time. Not joking. It's a different world.
Living in the cold and snow isn't actually half bad. And there's something really satisfying about chopping wood and keeping the fire going.
I feel less of a need to share

That last point is really what this post is all about. I've come to realize over the last year that I'm much less interested in blogging than I used to be, I think because life is so different for us now. There's something very anonymizing (that's a word, right?) about living in the city, that I felt like my blog was my little place where I could shout, "Hey world! Look at me! Look what I did in my little home!"

But now, feeling so comfortable and relaxed, I have nothing to prove. I don't feel anonymous when I walk around Truckee. I recognize people. They recognize me, more and more every day. And people know we have a home that we've decorated with care and attention. I don't need to shout it. And I definitely don't want to be a show-off.

What I have always loved most about blogging, and what I still love about it, is connecting with other people. It's when I think about my blog friends like Ashley at Domestic Fashionista, or Kate at Modern Mountain Life, that I start itching to blog again. And that's why I'm here today, typing this to you. I really value my blog friends, and I want to make more... maybe you?

Ashley and me at the Sacramento Bloggers meetup

I'm still going to share projects, because I have loads of them. Just not as many or as often. I have always blogged for the love of it, and I don't want to lose that love by making it a chore. So even though my posts will be more sparse in 2013 than they were in 2012, or especially in 2011, I promise what you see here will come from a place of inspiration and excitement.

What's your blogging philosophy? Why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? Want to be bloggy friends? Shoot me a comment!

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xoxo,

winter via instagram

2013-01-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late in saying it, but happy new year! I hope your 2013 is off to a great start. I've managed to dodge the flu so far (knock on some non-Ikea furniture), so 2013 is fantastic as far as I'm concerned.

I've got a few little updates in the works, but in the meantime, here's a little snapshot of what we've been up to lately, via Instagram. Lots of making and doing, notsomuch in the blogging about it department.

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xoxo,

tutorial: making stamps

2012-09-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Lately I've gotten super into making stamps, ever since taking a class at my friend Heather's store Bespoke. Way back in high school art class, we made wood block prints, and it's pretty much the same process, so getting a refresher was nice.

I've been making stamps for a whole lotta things, like the labels on my jam jars.

I've been wanting to make a stamp for a greeting card cover, one to celebrate a wide range of occasions and congratulatory purposes. And I thought I'd bring you along for the ride as I make it, so you can try it yourself. Though a steady hand never hurts, the thing about making stamps is that it's super easy. And you never need anything to be perfect. That's the charm of stamps: they will always look a little imperfect, so it's best to embrace that and go with it. Here's what you need to know.

Stamp-making tutorial:

Materials: You will need a few things that you probably don't have laying around, namely: 1. Tracing paper, 2. A set of linoleum cutters, and 3. A block of carveable linoleum. (I recommend the Speedball types since they are waaaaay easier to cut than regular block linoleum, and are widely available at art supply and craft stores. For this project I used Speedball "speedy carve," since it's the cheapest and this stamp is pretty big. Buy the blue or pink stuff if you're doing a smaller stamp and don't mind a slightly higher price.)

This is what the cutter looks like, and it costs less than $10 for the full set, including several sizes of gouge blades.

I use the smallest size gouge blade almost exclusively.

Design: Using Photoshop, Word or the design program of your choice, lay out the stamp design as you want it to look, in the same size you want the final stamp to be. If you're going to be creating a stamp of an image, not words, you could print it out or just trace right from a book or magazine.

Print out the image. It doesn't matter if it doesn't print perfectly, as mine didn't, thanks to low toner (we keep printing until the last hint of toner is gone -- waste not, want not!). It just needs to be clear enough to be traceable.

Tape tracing paper over your image to keep it all lined up nicely, and start tracing in pencil.

Graphite will transfer magically onto the Speedball speedy carve (not as well onto regular block linoleum -- another reason why I recommend using the softer stuff). Line up the traced image FACE DOWN on the speedy carve in the way that conserves the most space. You can get a lot of stamps out of one block if you position your cuts economically. Holding the image still, rub with medium pressure all over the back of the image.

Remove the tracing paper and you'll see a nice transfer of your image that you'll follow for cutting the stamp. It should appear backwards, so that it will print forward. If you accidentally reversed the image, start over at this point, and just use the other side of the lino block.

Carving your stamp: As a first step, use the smallest gouge blade to trace around all of your graphite lines, outlining the elements of the stamp that you'll want to see on the finished stamp (as opposed to the negative space, which you're removing). Try to stay close to the line, or even on the line, depending on the design. Go for what I did on the outer left portion of the Y below, not what I did on the right side (which I later cleaned up).

A tip on technique: For letters with corners, start in the corners and cut outward. For letters with curves, hold the blade still with one hand and turn the lino block with the other. You'll get the cleanest lines that way.

You don't have to go deep with your gouges, and it really depends what kind of final look you want. I personally prefer clean-edged stamps without the grooves visible in the negative space, so I tend to go down a good 1/8 inch. But I have seen a lot of really cool stamps with the gouges visible, so it's just a personal preference. The gouges between letters or images don't have to be pretty. All that really matters is trying for clean edges on the visible positive space portions.

Repeat the process until your whole stamp is carved, and then do any clean-up you think it needs. After your first stamp, you'll also see if there are any areas where the lines are too thick and you can trim them down then. A bit of advice: You can always go thinner with the lines, but you can never go thicker. Start thicker and gradually thin the lines down.

Now you're ready to print.

Printing: There are two major methods of printing with stamps: 1.) Traditional ink-and-brayer, and 2.) stamp pad. Stamp pads are way easier and more convenient, but I'll show you both just for fun.

To print with liquid ink, start by mixing up your colors (you remember your color wheel right?) to make the final color you want. I was looking for a teal print, so I started with blue, white and metallic gold.

I mixed it up with a disposable chopstick and then rolled the ink on my small brayer.

Then I rolled the ink on the stamp...

... and positioned the card over the stamp, getting a fairly crooked result. Because this type of ink is a little bit tacky, it's hard to lay it over the card without making a mess, so lining the card up over the stamp is what's easiest. It's also more error-prone.

The other method is to use a ready-made stamp pad. I recommend buying stamp pads that have the sponge part sticking up from the base of the pad, so that you can use the pad to ink up a stamp much larger than the pad's surface area. Just lay the stamp out and press the stamp pad all around it, being careful to blot away any lines of ink that pool around the pad's edges.

Starting with any background design you want, print your layers from back to front. Here I used some tree-texture prints in the background (that's a store-bought stamp), with my new handmade stamp as the foreground. If you use a really dark or opaque ink for your background, you may want to use pigment ink for the foreground (instead of regular dye ink) so that it will be opaque. In general, only use pigment for the foreground, since pigment over pigment usually doesn't look so good.

Repeat the process for the foreground. I used regular dye ink in black for the foreground. Pigment would have been overkill.

And you're all done! Yay for you!

For bonus points, you can glue your stamp to a block of wood (flooring samples from Home Depot or Lumber Liquidators work especially well -- don't pay the high price for the stamp mounting blocks at the craft stores). That makes printing a whole lot easier.

Another tip: wash and dry your stamp between uses, or anytime you want to switch colors. You'll be glad you did, and you'll avoid ruining ink pads.

P.S. When Mark saw me laying out this text on my computer, he assumed I was making it for silk screens (I've been screening some other things lately) for t-shirts, and he said, "Well that's awfully mean and sarcastic." Haha. Mean and sarcastic card, anyone?

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xoxo,

ultimate comfort food: tortilla soup (gf)

2012-09-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

My favorite foods have always been real foods. So much of my issue with gluten-free eating is how much fake food there is: fake "bread," fake cookies that are supposed to be like Oreos but are a far cry, fake everything you can imagine. There is nothing comforting or healthy about fake. It's the worst of both worlds.

So I find myself drawn to foods that are naturally gluten free, and which don't require any weird substitutions (xanthan gum, anyone?). That makes a lot of Mexican food, already one of my favorite cuisines, pretty much ideal. Anything with a flour tortilla is out of the question, of course, so I'm not chowing down to my heart's content on burritos (sniff, sniff). But most anything built around corn tortillas, provided they are gluten-free, is a-okay.

Good thing, because I was recently craving tortilla soup in a b-a-d way recently. I'd never made it before, but decided to try my hand, and it turned out amazingly well. As in best-I've-ever-had well. Lucky me. And now lucky you, since my recipe is right here. Disclosure: This isn't a super quick meal to prepare, but you could easily break it into stages (broth one night, soup the next) so that it would still be suitable to a weekday dinner. If you're tempted to make it from storebought broth, I won't try to stop you, but it won't be as good. You'll also need to add a little garlic to the soup since it probably won't be noticeable in the broth (maybe a little onion, too).

Chicken tortilla soup (naturally gluten-free)
12 cups water
4 large chicken drumsticks or 2 large breasts on the bone
1 white or red onion, halved (skin on is okay)
1 celery stalk
2 carrots, cut into 3-4 segments each
2 garlic cloves (unpeeled is fine)
1 T. salt
2 cartons (or cans) diced tomatoes with Mexican seasoning
1 can of corn, or kernels from two ears of corn
2-3 cups masa or finely ground corn meal
1-2 t. cumin powder
Cilantro, chopped (optional), for garnish
Avocado, sliced (optional), for garnish
Sour cream (optional), for garnish
Thin tortilla strips, deep fried (optional), for garnish
Extra salt as needed

1. Cook the chicken and make the broth.
In a large stockpot, combine the water, chicken, onion, celery, carrots, garlic cloves and 1 T. salt, and bring to a bare simmer (barely bubbling). Continue simmering uncovered for approximately one hour to 90 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, and water has turned the color and flavor of the broth. Skim off foam that accumulates along the way. Once cooked, remove the chicken, and then strain all of the other ingredients out of the broth. Salt the broth enough for it to taste yummy, and not like dishwater (salt makes all the difference!), and return to the burner on medium heat. Remove any skin and bones from the chicken, and roughly chop it into soup-sized pieces. Add to the broth.
Note: If you wish to make the broth a day ahead, strain and salt the broth, and then put it into the fridge. Keep the chicken pieces whole to prevent them from drying out until right before you make the finished soup.

2. Make the soup.
In the large stockpot containing the broth and chicken, add the cartons or cans of tomatoes and the corn. Heat the soup to a simmer. Slowly and carefully whisk in the masa, starting with 1-1.5 cups and gradually adding more only if the soup is still very thin. Whisk in the cumin, again starting with very little, and tasting along the way. Bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10-15 minutes to combine the flavors. Before serving, add salt salt to taste.

3. Serve and enjoy.
Serve the tortilla soup, garnishing it as you wish.

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xoxo,

thankfulness thursday / why i took a break

2012-09-06T05:08:00.001-07:00

Today I'm linking up with my friend Ashley, author of Domestic Fashionista, who had this wonderful idea to practice thankfulness in order to be more thankful and happy. It's happening every Thursday until Thanksgiving, so get in on it! What are you thankful for? Plenty, I'm sure, so add your voice.

A few weeks ago, I posted that I was taking a little break from blogging in order to be less tempted at every turn to buy more stuff, which is an occupational hazard of writing a home blog (and a lot of you agreed with me!). While it's certainly true that I've been feeling the need for a break from the home blog part of things, that's only part of the story. After all, this is also a food blog, an entertaining blog and a DIY/crafts blog.

The truth is that I needed a break from having a public self. (Now, having actually typed that out, it feels a bit dramatic, but it's true.)

I wrote a few months ago about the discovery that I have to be gluten-free for the rest of my life. I'm generally a pretty matter-of-fact person, and tend to meet challenges head-on. So at first I thought, "No problem. I'll just figure this out." But soon I realized that giving up such a fundamental part of the American diet is fraught with complex emotions. And I think I've been in a type of mourning.

I love food, and food is certainly important to me. But it's really not just that. It's not just knowing that I'll never again get to treat myself with a Dunkin Donuts Boston creme donut, or that cookies and creme ice cream is permanently off the menu. It's not giving up daily sandwiches since I was never much of a sandwich person anyway.

Food is social, food is tradition, and I've never been more aware of that fact than I am now.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year. I love the planning, the cooking, the hosting, the tradition. All of it revolves around food, around doing things a certain way, and all of that has to change now. We also used to love going out to eat, but now I'm so hesitant to even set foot in a restaurant after having learned the hard way how sick I can get from mere cross-contamination in a restaurant kitchen. We're talking about something as small as toasting gluten-free bread in the same toaster as regular bread. There are still times when I have to eat restaurant food, especially when traveling, but a major part of the joy is gone for me, at least for now.

On one hand, yeah, whatever. I have to eat different foods. Big deal. On the other hand, it's a major life shake-up, and one that's forcing me to rethink things every day and constantly mourn the traditions, family recipes and ways of entertaining that are no longer a part of my existence.

But here's the thing: I'm still super grateful. (I knew I'd get back around to thankfulness at some point here...)

Despite how tough the transition has been for me, even when I haven't wanted to admit it, I still wake up every day so thankful that I've finally figured it out. After 20 years of mysterious, seemingly disconnected symptoms, many of which doctors refused to acknowledge, I finally have the answer that I've been seeking. And I can't even express how grateful I am that my solution is truly a solution, not just treating the symptoms. And it's drug-free! Amazing.

My health still isn't perfect, but I feel a thousand times better than I used to, and I'm on my way to total healing. I will tell you, though, that going gluten-free is not a great weight loss plan.

Recently a woman I know was diagnosed with breast cancer. A tiny stage 1 lump that had shown up in several mammograms and didn't appear to be growing, but her doctor decided it warranted a biopsy, and it turned out to be malignant. Her reaction was, "Why me?" I wonder what my reaction in the same circumstance would be. With total sympathy for her, and how tough it must be to get that diagnosis, I can't help but think that I'd feel really fortunate to have caught it that early, and to know that it's completely treatable.

We don't often get clear answers when it comes to our health, and we don't always get them quickly. But when we do get them, it's worth being thankful. Real answers -- not just bandaids and drugs to mask the symptoms -- are few and far between in life, and when we have them, the real healing begins.

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xoxo,

jammin'

2012-09-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

If you have some annoying pop song stuck in your head (I'm talking to you, Carly Rae), perhaps this post will inspire you to swap it out for some classic Bob Marley instead.

By some definitions, namely those of schoolchildren, summer is over. And I've barely posted at all this summer, so now I've got a backlog of homemade stuff I'm pretty stoked to share. We've definitely had a lot of summer going on lately, with loads of backyard barbeques, camping and enjoying the best of the season's produce.

Nothing says summer to me like peaches. Unfortunately, in the west, we usually get pretty mediocre peaches, nothing like the ones from the south that I grew up enjoying. But this year, maybe owing to the high heat we had super early in the summer, or just discovering the joys of the Sierra foothills peaches now that we live close enough to buy them, we have been getting some phenomenally juicy, delicious peaches. So delicious that I found myself buying cases of them.

I hope you like jammin' too.

That meant, of course, that it was finally time for me to learn how to can, since cases of peaches won't last nearly long enough to eat them all, especially in our bulging household of two. I had made jam before, to great effect, so the jam making part of it was easy. But canning always seemed scary to me -- too many chances to mess up, numerous ways germs could sneak in and spoil the batch, the chance that I could give contaminated food away. Really, though, people have been canning food and mostly not dying from eating it for quite a few years now. Once I reminded myself of that, it became a lot easier to sack up and try it.

A few notes on method:

1. Scores of nice folks have covered the basics of water bath canning, which is what I do, so I won't reinvent the wheel. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has also the info you could want about safe home canning, if you want to give it a go (you should!).

2. I am way too lazy to peel and slice a zillion peaches, so I use the food mill method: 1. Roughly crush the peaches (reserving 1 or 2 peaches for every 10), leaving skins on but removing pits, and place them in big pot. 2. Cook on very low heat for 45-60 minutes until most of the juice has come out of the peaches and the flesh has become very soft. 3. Process the juice and pulp through the medium sized plate on the food mill. 4. Return resulting skinless pulp to pot. 5. Peel and slice reserved peaches and add them to the pot. 6. Add sugar and pectin, if using, per the recipe. 7. Can or preserve accordingly.

I decided to try a test batch, and to make it interesting, I threw in a handful of fresh mint. It was super yummy, and I definitely recommend adding fresh mint to your jam. I would have done it with the bigger batch, but didn't have enough mint to make it happen. Notice in the pic below how the skins are in there and the peach chunks are all irregular. Thank goodness for the food mill. If you're skeptical of milling your jam, I understand, but one nice benefit is how much redder and fuller flavored it gets from being cooked with the skins. That's how red wine becomes red wine, after all. If they take the same grapes and don't let them sit with their skins, then it becomes rose wine, which is widely scorned by many with bad memories of white zinfandel. (I happen to love rose wine, especially the stuff from the south of France.) So think red wine and cook with the skins on. You'll be happy you did. Also, milling is not straining. You won't be making jelly. Just a smoother jam.

Here's the resulting peach mint jam, which didn't last too long (because we ate it, not because it went bad). But, I didn't like the handwriting-on-green-tag label (green tags are code in our house for both "gluten free" and "don't stick your gross gluten-tainted knife in my pristine jam!"), and didn't love the lack of chunks in the jam.

Time for the real deal.

For the big batch, I followed the steps in my food mill method above, namely reserving some of the peaches and chopping them up, then adding them late in the game so that the resulting jam would have some pretty chunks.

Then I filled up a whole slew of half pint and pint jars. Here are some waiting for their turn in the water bath.

Feeling like a voyeur, spying on the bathing cans.

I pulled them out and let them sit overnight...

And then discovered, to my shock and sadness, that the jam was too bland. I had gone way too light on the sugar. (What? A cup of sugar in a whole pot of jam isn't enough?)

So, back to square one. Or possibly square two.

If you do what I do and dump out all of your jam, it's important to start with new lids. You can reuse the jars and screw rings, provided you re-sterilize them, but the lids are meant for single use only.

The jam went back in the pot, this time with the proper amount of sugar. Then another round of sterilizing jars, filling them, processing them in the water bath...

This time, though, I wanted the jars to be a little bit more attractive than with my first test batch. And thankfully I also took a class this summer in stamp making (more on this to follow soon) at the amazing store owned by my friend Heather, Bespoke. So I busted out my linocutters and my speedy carve, and made a little stamp to adorn the jam.

The next day, after resting the jars appropriately, I tasted the jam and found (hooray!) that I had fixed the sweetness problem and it was now worthy of giving away to friends and family. So on the labels went.

Of course, even with the pretty labels, the jars are still only half dressed. So I made another couple stamps, tied on some ribbon, and then deemed the jam gift-worthy.

Jammin' and stamp-making. That's probably the story of my summer. Have you made any crafty projects lately? Any interest in a stamp-making tutorial?

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xoxo,

i shop less when i blog less

2012-07-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Mark and I have been making an effort to spend less. And this is what I've learned: When I blog less, I shop less. Is this true for you too?

We could get all semantical and talk correlation versus causation, but I know in my heart it's causation. When I'm blogging a lot, I'm thinking about house projects, thinking about stuff we need to buy for said projects, and I'm perusing lots of other blogs for ideas, which of course make me spot other stuff that we can't live without.

But I wouldn't be a person living in 2012 if I didn't say that I want to have less stuff, not more stuff. And I mean it. But somehow, in that moment, the desire to have less stuff is completely disconnected from the object I am dreaming of acquiring, or actually acquiring.

My most recent purchase, a midcentury chair from the Long Beach flea market. It's a great chair, and was an awesome deal, but I won't be blogging about it anytime soon.

This I know: When I take a step back and unplug from blogland, I think about stuff a whole lot less. I spend more time with friends, I spend more time outside, I cook more. I spend less money.

I have a biiiiiiiiggggg backlog of recipes to share, so stay tuned for those. I'm going to keep going on my summer vacation from home/stuff blogging, though. And I'll totally support you if you do the same.

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xoxo,

a modest proposal

2012-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that this post will rustle some feathers, and that's not why I'm writing it. I just keep seeing the same thing happen, and I find it, if not heartbreaking, at least a major bummer. So if you read this and want to scream at me, know that I'm trying to help. Of course, I think a lot of you will agree, or I probably wouldn't be posting this!

I peruse a lot of blogs, and have met a lot of young women over the years, and all too often I hear them say or see them write, "He still hasn't put a ring on my finger." What's worse, this is usually a public statement, which you know the guy can hear or read, and that makes the ultimate proposal at least partially the result of nagging and passive aggressive hinting. Why are so many women okay starting their marriage on this foot?

Here's what I believe:

Marriage is not about the ring. (It's also not about the wedding, but that's another post.) Marriage is a serious commitment, and while the symbol of the expensive ring is meant to demonstrate that a man is serious about providing for you, I get really sad seeing so many young woman talking about the ring like it's THE thing that's important. Even for women with an otherwise healthy view of marriage, I think just TALKING about the ring so much subtly shifts the focus to the wrong stuff: this expensive thing you're entitled to, instead of this partnership you're about to enter into that will require hard work but will yield mega rewards if you view yourself as a partner, not a princess.
Marriage is a partnership, and it shouldn't come about because of nagging or pressure from one party. A romantic proposal is wonderful, but if it's not coming on your ideal timeline, talk about it directly, and stop "dropping hints," especially publicly. Even better, question whether your timeline is based on any real need, or if you just feel like you should be married by such and such an age or milestone. In the long run, those types of deadlines fade into unimportance, and it's so much more worthwhile to begin your marriage on healthy, equal footing, instead of one party feeling pressured to act. When I see a women playing this game with her hoped-to-be-fiance, I can't help but scream in my mind, "Why would you ever want to wonder if the person you're married to only married you because you shamed/guilt tripped/nagged him into it?!"

I'm not saying diamond rings aren't nice. I love my engagement ring, and have a major sentimental attachment to it. But it doesn't define our marriage or anything about us, other than yielding a rather hilarious proposal story (in my opinion, anyway). The problem is expecting a diamond ring, and focusing on that instead of what's actually important.

So here's what I propose: No more ring talk.

The "No Fat Talk" movement is definitely gaining steam after starting several years ago with (I think) the Tri Delta sorority. Then it got picked up by magazines and bloggers, and now it's all over the internet. I think No Fat Talk is a great model, and the whole idea is retraining our minds and viewing ourselves more positively by refusing to give in to the downward spiral of negative self-thoughts.

So let's change the frame for this issue, too. Let's talk about marriage instead of "putting a ring on my finger." Let's talk about the people and the partnership, and not the jewelry.

What do you think? Who's in?

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xoxo,

when the little mermaid craves asian (gluten free sesame noodles)

2012-06-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Look at that stuff. Isn't it neat? Okay, sorry. I'll stop with the little mermaid references.

Lately, I've gotten really into kelp noodles, made entirely from seaweed, and anytime I eat them, I start thinking about Ariel, and it makes me want to dash over to our new/old piano and bust out some "Part of Your World."

These noodles are awesome, though. And welcome. Though the gluten-free diet is often talked about as a surefire way to lose weight, the reality is that it's only healthier if you not only nix all of your gluten-containing foods, but then don't replace them with gluten-free lookalikes. Most gluten-free pasta replacements are even worse for us than regular pasta. It's just more refined starch along with more oils than in wheat versions, and sometimes even sugar. Seriously.

So I've been trying to cut back on grains overall as a part of my new gluten-free situation. Not just replace them. Enter these kelp noodles, which are naturally low carb and low calorie, as well as free of all major allergens. They're also paleo-friendly, which makes me think about the Flintstones, and wish I could jump out of my window onto a slide that's actually a brontosaurus.

Clearly I watched too many cartoons as a kid.

I first got the idea to make sesame noodles from Serious Eats, but I would have made them with mung bean threads. Then I saw the recipe for sesame kelp noodles on Elana's Pantry. I took what I liked best from each -- the noodles from Elana and the sauce from Serious Eats, with the sugar reduced -- and put together this homage/mash-up recipe. It gets major comfort food points, but with minor caloric impact (and all the calories are from healthy fats). And it takes all of two minutes to make. Enjoy!

Nearly Instant Sesame Kelp Noodles

Ingredients:
1 package kelp noodles
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
6 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup water, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
4 tablespoons soy sauce (gluten-free if needed)
1/2 teaspoon agave nectar (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
Sriracha hot sauce or chili oil (to taste)
1 scallion, thinly sliced (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions:
In a colander, drain and rinse the kelp noodles. If desired, chop them coarsely. Toss them in the sesame oil.
With a whisk or in the bowl of a food processor, mix together the tahini and water until smooth.
Gradually mix in the vinegar, soy sauce, agave, garlic and ginger.
Stir in the Sriracha or chili oil, and most of the scallion, if using.
Combine the noodles and sauce, and toss to coat well.
Garnish with remaining scallion and/or sesame seeds.
Serve and smile.

Have you tried kelp noodles? Any great recipes you can share???

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xoxo,

a prettier pantry

2012-06-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

First off, I should say that I'm thrilled we have a pantry in our house. Not every house has one, and it's awesome we do. Of course I'd love a walk-in, but ours totally works.

It works, but it doesn't exactly look good.

Here are some angles of what basically amounts to a cubby hole in the wall.

Once upon a time there was apparently a door covering the cubby hole opening, but that evidently got in the way, and it's not hard to see why. So we don't want to put another door there. Also, we'll for sure be doing a big kitchen update in the next couple of years (wohoo! guaranteed blog content into 2014!), so we didn't want to do any pantry beautification that we'd later wish we hadn't spent all that time or money on, since we'd be re-doing it anyway.

Maybe if the whole pantry was just bulk foods in pretty jars like the one shelf, I'd be okay showing it off. But the world does not need to see Mark's Chef Boyardee.

Solution: curtains.

I'm not always a huge fan of curtains as doors for closets and such, but our downstairs is definitely in need of some fabric softness. All of our windows downstairs in the great room have wood blinds, not curtains, so the pantry curtain would be the only fabric one in sight.

Here's what we chose. (Okay, what *I* chose. Mark is very easy-going like that.) It's the Gazebo print in "cloud" by Braemore.

I love that print, and it was a crazy long process to track it down after I found it hanging as a sample in a fabric store in LA, even though they didn't actually have it in stock. (There was much Googling involved, and in the end I even got it for a great price.)

Stay tuned to see the finished, hanging product!

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xoxo,

guest post at decor adventures

2012-06-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Howdy y'all. Like my southern spirit? That's in honor of my my blog friend Jessica, from Decor Adventures, who's down in Atlanta at the Haven Conference. And while she's away, I'm guesting over at her place. Check it out!

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xoxo,

secondhand white baby grand

2012-06-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

Though we feel right at home in Truckee, where we've now lived for six months, there are certain things I'm still getting used to. The demands of having a house, instead of a condo or apartment. The quiet (most of the time). The fact that, YES, we really can go right out the door on a mountain bike ride or hike, or we can be on water in under 10 minutes, and so I need to stop dragging my butt and just get outside already. Those are just adjustments, and I know I'll get there.

There are few things, however, that I really and truly miss, sometimes longingly so. My friends in LA. My old spinning and yoga classes. Great sushi. And flea markets.

For the first few months that we lived up here, I was going down to Reno almost every week to scour the antique stores. And while Reno actually has some amazing antique stores, it is so not the same as being able to hit up two or three world-class flea markets every month. Other than the Alameda flea market down in the Bay Area (and almost 200 miles away), there's really nothing in NorCal that compares to the flea markets I was spoiled by in LA. I think of those first few months of Reno antique store scouring as my time of denial. I'm not really sure what the anger part was, but the bargaining was a phase I went through of planning out imaginary trips to LA to coincide with flea markets, or dreaming that I could leave at 3 AM on a Sunday morning, drive to the Alameda flea market, and somehow be home to go skiing by noon. It was lunacy.

Now I've reached a much healthier place of acceptance. But even still, you can't begrudge me a passing glance at a garage sale now and then, right?

Well it was a passing glance -- literally, while Mark was driving at high speed past a neighbor's garage sale -- last weekend that made this beautiful creature the newest member of our family.

Me: "Babe! They have a piano!"
Mark: "Screeeeeeeeeeeeech." (Just kidding. That was the sound of the brakes. Or maybe tires.)

A little haggling later, and this classy lady was all ours. And not just any haggling. We actually haggled the seller UP (there's a first time for everything, I suppose). Here's why: The seller, Stephanie, started a nonprofit to provide funding for arts and music in schools, and every single Saturday she holds an all-day garage sale to raise money for it. People donate things to her to sell, but she does all of the work herself. It's kind of amazing. Apparently, the weekend before, someone had pulled up with a big trailer, and unloaded this piano for her to add to her wares. And she clearly didn't know what a piano is worth. So when she said she was asking $100 for it, we told her that wasn't enough, and offered $200, since it's for a great cause. And it's hard to imagine ever haggling someone up again!

According to the serial number and Google, it's a 1961 Winter Musette spinet piano. (Not white or a baby grand, as the post title suggests. But I can't help singing that song from Smash every time I look at it. Anyone else with me? Anyone?) And other than needing a tune on the high and low ends, and a little touching up on the finish, it's actually in great shape. And see how it fits so perfectly under our windows? It was definitely meant to be. Nothing screams TOUCH ME like a piano, especially one that's not too fancy or in perfect condition, so that it doesn't look too precious to play. Perfect for the warm, welcoming vibe we're trying to cultivate. And of course we also love to play the piano. It's not just a prop.

Sidebar: In case you're a geek like me, here's some info to feed your geekdom: a spinet is the smallest type of piano, though it's still a real, full-size instrument. It has a much shorter back than a traditional upright or more common studio piano, which means that the sound quality is ever so slightly compromised. But this was the only place a piano would fit in our house, and any other kind would have obstructed those windows, and we have no daylight to spare as it is. Plus, neither of us is that good at playing that a slight reduction in sound quality really matters.

In another major stroke of serendipity, right as we were trying to figure out how on earth we were going to get this thing home, even though we live only two or three blocks away, the nicest man in the whole world pulled up and offered to help us. So he and Mark wheeled the piano down the street to our house on a hand truck, with me "supervising" (code for "being a girl"). And he even insisted on helping us get the piano all the way into the house. (Did I mention we had never met or even heard of each other before?) Needless to say, we bought him a very nice case of beer that night. Gotta love generous small-town neighbors. We never would have found that in LA... something I definitely do NOT miss. That means that $200 was our all-in cost (not counting the beer). If we'd bought a piano in much worse shape off of Craigslist, it would have been at least $300 plus several hundred more in piano moving fees to bring it home.

Of course, welcoming the newest member of the family into the house meant having to rearrange some furniture, since there had been a small console table where the piano now lives.

But since we had always envisioned putting a piano there, I had also always envisioned moving that console table to live beside its twin as a buffet next to the dining table. And we still gained surface space since the top of the piano isn't too tall.

Of course, when I tried to take a picture of the whole great room, the back half of the room was flooded with light and the camera refused to cooperate. I'll snap a better photo soon.

I officially count this as our best vintage find ever, and one of the best deals imaginable. Pretty crazy that it all went to a great cause, too.

Found any unbelievable deals lately? Any good finds? Any moments where you've said to yourself, "Holy crap, generous neighbors are so amazing!"? Tell us all about it.

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xoxo,

new obsession: chia pudding (with recipe)

2012-06-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

Have you tried chia pudding yet? Holy wow, you must. Like today. Now.

Okay, that's probably overstating it.

Chia pudding is not as good as, say, a Dunkin Donuts Boston creme donut (which will forever be my symbol of all the gluten foods with which I no longer commune). But it's yummy and comforting and 100 percent good for you. And gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, sugar-free and a lot of other stuff free. Perfect when you just need a little dessert but don't want to feel bad about it. It also takes about five seconds to make.

Chia seeds still make me sing "Ch-ch-ch-Chia!" to myself whenever I use them, but they're loaded with healthiness, and it turns out that they will go all tapioca on you if you soak them in liquid (in a good way).

They're definitely a bit on the spendy side, so I'm not advocating starting every day with a huge bowl of this stuff. But a few seeds go a long way.

Easy Chia Pudding (gf, df, sf)

Ingredients:
2 cups almond or coconut milk (unsweetened if you don't want sugar)
2/3 cup chia seeds
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 T. shredded, unsweetened coconut

Instructions:
In a quart-sized jar or container, combine all ingredients.
Put on the lid and shake to combine.
Store for four to five hours, or overnight, in the fridge.
When ready to serve, either serve as is, or add a little more almond/coconut milk if it's too thick.
Makes two to three big servings, or a ton of little servings

I love that this stuff is actually good for you. Not in the "hide some vegetables in those brownies and then they'll be healthy" kind of way. The legit healthy way.

Any new healthy obsessions you've come across? Any cool ways to use chia seeds? Please share!

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xoxo,

gf zucchini carrot bread (with recipe)

2012-06-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

We have recently started doing more entertaining in Truckee, which took a little time since we didn't know anyone when we moved up here. And with entertaining comes feeding people, and with feeding people comes the need for dessert.

Enter this awesome recipe for gluten-free zucchini carrot bread that I adapted from Gluten Free Pantry's recipe, changing up some of the flours, adding the carrot, reducing the sugar by half and reducing the oil by half too. This is definitely a recipe that no one would ever suspect of being GF if they didn't already know it was. It's super adaptable, working equally well for dessert or brunch. The texture is fantastic: light yet moist. And did I mention it's pretty darn healthy, too?

If you don't have the flours I mention here, or don't need it to be gluten-free, just use 2 cups of a gluten-free flour mix or all-purpose wheat flour.

Gluten-Free Zucchini Carrot Bread

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar)
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut oil)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 t. vanilla extract
1 cup gluten-free flour mix (including xanthan gum)
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans (or double the recipe and grease a bundt cake pan).
Combine the first five ingredients (eggs through vanilla).
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients (flour mix through cinnamon).
Combine egg mixture with flour mixture and beat just to combine.
Fold in the grated zucchini and carrot.
Transfer to prepared loaf pans.
Bake 60-70 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I doubled the recipe and made a bundt cake out of the batter, in addition to making two small loaves, one of which I sampled before people came over to be sure it was edible (it was!), and the second of which came on the road with me for a week of business traveling. And it kept really well in just a single layer of aluminum foil, staying moist and light for almost a full week.

I'm still new to gluten-free baking, but this recipe is a definite keeper. Yummy, healthy and easy.

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xoxo,

hanging any curtains on a track

2012-06-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

I've been getting some questions about how we did the wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling curtains in our yellow guest bedroom, so today I'll tell you all about it.

The look of the room was directly inspired by this gorgeous room by Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise Interiors:

Designed by Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise, photo via

I love how in Vanessa's room, and -- thankfully! -- in the finished room we put together, the curtains lend both softness and drama to tiny rooms, and they help small, off-center windows look much better.

But I won't lie. Getting the curtains to look like this was kind of a headache. But now that we figured it all out, it won't be nearly as tough if you decide to do something similar.

We started with the Kvartal curtain track system from Ikea. First we drilled little mounting brackets into the ceiling, then set up a track that ran the width of the room minus an inch on each side, so that we've had room to insert the curtain runners. Getting the track to the correct length required a little hacksawing, but that's not so bad. The mounting hardware attaching the track to the ceiling was not centered or equally spaced across the ceiling, because we had to use one partial rod, but I knew that the hardware would be hidden by the finished curtains, and didn't worry about that.

With the track hung, we slid in all of the curtain runners.

The set came with some interlocking pieces that would hook to the curtain and then hook to the runners, letting the curtain slide easily on the track.

So far so good.

We bought two packs of the Ritva curtains that were a basic linen color and heft, to have four panels total, and a full, drapy look. The signs on the Ikea display swore UP AND DOWN that these curtains would work with the Kvartal track system.

Cue the WOP WOP trombones.

I opened up the first package and found this: no way for the hooks to attach, only pockets for a curtain rod.

Ikea has a strict return policy that disallows any opened packages from being returned, even if the product inside is defective or not as described, and even if the person who is trying to return said object cries (don't ask me how I know this). Needless to say, I knew that we had to make these curtain panels work. Time to get sewing.

I got out my trusty seam ruler, and set it for two and a half inches, the distance between the ceiling and the bottom of the hook that would hang on the track (minus a little, to account for sagging).

Then I pinned a tape measure to the curtain and, starting at inch one, marked dots at regular intervals (five inches) so that they'd be equally spaced all the way across.

The finished dots.

I bought some nylon cord that was the right thickness to hang on the hooks without popping out.

This is super low-tech, but it works! I sewed the cord to the panel on each dot, doubling back to make sure that it was sewed on strongly...

Then made a little loop with the nylon cord, and sewed it again so that the loop would let the hook attach...

The thread was barely visible from the front, and definitely not visible once it hung all the way up at the ceiling.

And I worked my way across all four panels, just sewing loop after loop after loop.

After I had sewed the loops onto one panel, I tested it out, to be sure that it worked. You know what they say about measuring twice and cutting once. Well my adage is test as many times as you need to, so you only do all of the work once.

Fortunately, it worked!

So back to measuring and sewing it was, until I had all four panels complete. With two panels hung...

And three panels hung...

Then I hemmed all the curtain panels using the iron-on hem tape that came with the curtains, and followed that with a good steaming to get all the wrinkles out. A little bit of tweaking later, and the room looked like the finished product that it is today.

Several months and a few visitors later, the curtains are still going strong, so I can confidently assert that this approach will stand the test of time.

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xoxo,

meet our guest bathroom

2012-06-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

There's one room in our house I've been keeping from you. So you'd be totally justified in assuming that said hidden room is some sort of hideous, disfigured embarrassment. But it's not.

Say hello to our guest bathroom.

The previous owners renovated it, so all of the materials are pretty new. Some might say it's actually pretty. There's really nothing wrong with it. Although it would be nice if it had at least one window.

Oh wait. Did I just say nothing wrong? Scratch that. Check out this accent tile that rings the whole shower:

I know, I know. Some people will inevitably think that tile is cute. Otherwise the reasonable previous owners wouldn't have chosen it, my lovely husband wouldn't say he thinks it's fun, and I wouldn't get a comment or two defending it (it's okay... bring it on). But I kinda hate it. Tomato, tomahto.

Otherwise the bathroom packs a lot of storage into a small space, including that deceptively huge triple-compartment medicine cabinet, and a big closet hidden behind the mirror on the opposite wall.

I would also personally prefer a closed vanity with more storage for guests. Maybe someday.

So as for that shower, you already know my feelings about the accent tile. And generally I'm not a fan of muddy-toned field tiles either. Plus those shower doors have just gotta go. When we renovated our condo bathroom, we got rid of some patterned glass doors in favor of clean, clear ones, which we could definitely opt to do here.

Good quality shower head. A keeper.

Storage niche in the shower... and more goofy tile.

The tub is actually really deep, which several guests have told us is great for bathing.

And speaking of bathing, see that tall track the shower doors are on, that you have to step WAAAAAY over in order to get in and out of the tub? Not to mention how hard both the track and the doors themselves would make it if you were trying to bathe a little kid in there. (Don't read into that. I'm talking about guests' kids.)

The verdict: While a bathroom re-do isn't in the cards anytime in the near future, I do think those doors are gonna go... soon. And assuming the walls and tub aren't in too terrible shape from having had the doors mounted on them, we may just eschew doors altogether and go with a shower curtain. Better look, easier to clean, and not such a hazard when getting in and out. Oh, and did I mention about 10 times cheaper?

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xoxo,

gf coconut cake, take 1 (with recipe)

2012-06-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my quest to make the perfect gluten-free coconut cake, since it turns out that gluten and I don't get along so well, but coconut cake and I are BFFs. Coconut cake was even the cake of choice at our wedding. (And ours, from Downtown Bakery in Healdsburg, was still crazy good when we ate the piece we'd socked away in the freezer on our first anniversary.)

I'll end the suspense right now and tell you that I have not yet found the perfect recipe (that wouldn't be much of a quest, would it?), but I feel like I'm off to a good start.

I started with this recipe from Baking Love, but made about a million tweaks. I also only made a half batch, since I had no idea if it would turn out at all edible.

What I love about the recipe from Baking Love is that it uses actual coconut for half of the bulk of the cake. Of course, I was skeptical about whether that would work texturally. But I shouldn't have worried about that.

These were the main ingredients I used... hey, it's a coconut cake, so why not use coconut sugar and coconut flour (and coconut oil, coconut milk and actual coconut)? As it turns out, all of those coconut ingredients are good decisions, with one exception: coconut sugar. The reason why not to use the coconut sugar in this cake is all about flavor and color. More on that in a sec.

The coconut sugar has a bit of a caramelized flavor, in addition to being dark in color (the "blonde" label is not what I would call accurate). Of course, I didn't know that about the flavor until after the sugar was baked in.

Coconut flour is popular with the Paleo Diet set, and I'm a huge believer that coconut is actually good for us. But you can only use a little coconut flour, or the recipe will come out a little sandy in texture.

Here's the recipe I ended up with:

Gluten-Free Coconut Cake (half batch/small cake)

Ingredients:
1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup gluten-free flour blend (including xantham gum or similar)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/8 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons egg whites
3/8 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
your favorite frosting (optional)
shredded coconut for topping (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a small cake or loaf pan.
Sift the flours, salt, sugar and baking powder together.
In a separate bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, egg and egg white.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ones alternately in three parts with the coconut milk (dry, wet, dry, wet, dry).
Add the coconut and mix until well blended.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-40 minutes (depending on size of pan and altitude), until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool on a cooling rack.
Optionally, frost and top with shredded coconut once cool.

The verdict:

The texture of this cake was actually really good. I loved having the shredded coconut as part of the "flour" (see the detailed texture in the picture above). And it worked well with or without frosting.

Taste wise, it was yummy, but there wasn't actually a ton of coconut flavor. That is mind-blowing when you consider that the cake was more than 50 percent coconut! It contained shredded coconut, coconut flour, coconut oil, coconut milk and then more shredded coconut! Maybe next time I'll sneak in a little bit of coconut extract.

But ultimately, my whole issue was with the coconut sugar, though I would definitely not say the result was bad. It just wasn't what I'm looking for: something closer to a white coconut cake, with a clean, coconutty flavor. The dark color of the coconut sugar made the cake pretty dark, which just threw off my mojo. And the caramel flavor of the coconut sugar was definitely not right for this recipe... it was almost like if I had used molasses, which anyone would know does not belong in coconut cake.

So I think I'll try this recipe again, but with regular old white sugar. It could be that that fixes the whole problem. Stay tuned!

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xoxo,

jubilee jubilation, aka gf english muffins

2012-06-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

It's a total puzzle to me as to why this is, but I am borderline obsessed with the British royals. Last year, I woke up at midnight west coast time to watch the William and Kate wedding live (plus the hours of extra coverage surrounding it), including many weepy moments along the way. (I also made a special, yummy jam for the occasion.) And the Royalist column on the Daily Beast is among my everyday reads (okay, maybe I check in a few times a day...). I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I could name at least the top 15 people in line for the British throne, in the correct order. Well, okay, maybe only the top 14.

Mind you, I could tell you basically nothing about any celeb gossip in America.

But needless to say, I have been all over Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which culminate today. I'm a big fan of Queen Liz, and not just because she's a tough lady. I love all that she's done to modernize the monarchy, including welcoming commoners into the royal family (eventually), supporting the change away from male primogeniture (I'm voting for Will and Kate to have a daughter who will be the first female heir apparent, instead of heir presumptive, as female heirs always are), and even reforming the way that royal titles are given out, so that more people can grow up with slightly more "normal" lives. So hooray for her for holding that thrown for 60 years! Let's keep it away from Prince Charles as long as we can.

Of course I had to do something to celebrate QEII's Diamond Jubilee, and given that I'm still in the figuring-out-gluten-free mode, it seemed like a perfect occasion to try a new recipe. Gluten-free English muffins, anyone?

Following Gluten Free Goddess's recipe, but using egg whites instead of egg substitute, I got pretty far along. The only problem: no English muffin rings, which are apparently a thing (see GFG's recipe post for a picture). The only thing we had around resembling the rings were ball jar lid rings.

Not quite so pretty...

English muffins are a yeast bread, so you'd be right to ask, "But what happens when the muffins rise inside those jar rings and get stuck? Didn't she think of that?" Well, I'm glad you asked! Yes, I thought of it, but figured it wouldn't be too big a deal. Ha!

They pretty much just rose around the rings in all directions.

Next time I'll skip the rings altogether and just form them with my hands. The ones I did that way came out just fine.

Again since I'd never made these before, I decided to try two different cooking methods: on the stovetop and baked.

The baked ones were good... great texture (though no browning, like all things gluten free, but nothing a toaster can't fix), and soooo tasty.

Nothing could beat the skillet-cooked muffins, though. Those are awesome, and actually pretty quick... way less than an hour from start to finish, including time to rise.

While the muffins baked, Mark and I enjoyed a thrown-together take on bangers and mash:

That would be a chicken apple sausage and sauteed cauliflower. Basically the same thing, right? ;-)

Then, with my cooked muffins in hand, it was time to bust out my special occasion jam:

There's a whole funny story about acquiring this jam by mail order from Lebanon, but I'll save that for another time. After Diana and I had it at when we went to tea at Liberty department store in London, I was pretty focused on finding some to have at home, and the seller in Lebanon was the only source I could find at the time.

From our tea at Liberty, complete with clotted creme and wild rose jam:

My homemade tea party wasn't quite so pretty, but it was still a lovely way to celebrate the great monarch's 60 year reign.

God save the queen! :-)

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xoxo,

for a limited time only: outdoor dining

2012-06-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Summer came early here in the Sierras, and to say we've been eager to have a place to sit outside is an understatement. Our empty back patio was no longer cutting it.

Thankfully, Mark, gentleman that he is, offered to hit up Ikea in West Sacramento while I was at the Sacramento blogger meetup all the way on the other side of town in the southeast suburbs. While it was a bit of driving for him, it was still better than doing two 200 mile round trips from Truckee, and we're all about economizing.

Now, our once lonely back patio looks like this.

The trees have come back to life, including this little apple tree...

... and the aspens, my favorite of all of our trees...

... making it a very scenic place to enjoy a meal.

Of course, we also have that upstairs deck off of the family room and master bedroom, and we definitely wanted some lounge furniture up there. The only problem: the space is pretty tight, and we wanted both a place to dine and a place to put our feet up. We definitely did not have space for a bistro set and separate lounge chairs, and though I briefly considered Adirondack chairs with pullout foot rests, I ultimately decided that I wanted to be able to sit fully upright when having breakfast. The only solution was one I could not have imagined purchasing until we were retired: recliners. But hey, we call this our retirement home, so why the heck not.

We found these stylish outdoor recliners from La Z Boy at Target, on sale for $225 each with reduced shipping.

We have to keep them away from the wall so that we have room to recline, but they still fit perfectly in the space.

The el cheapo table is from Ikea, and is definitely a get-what-you-pay-for moment. I don't expect it to be a permanent fixture on the deck.

And you know what that power outlet means: I can work outside! Pinch me. Seriously.

Here are a few more pictures of the recliners with gratuitous dogginess.

We got so spoiled by the great weather in LA that we hardly ever ate outside, at least at home, because we took the climate for granted. Up here, though, I know we will be eating outside every chance we get. The summer is much shorter, and how could we resist looking out at all that green?

The yard itself still needs definite work, but we're slowly making progress. In the meantime, we will be getting a ton of mileage out of our two new outdoor hangouts.

Have you added any outdoor living space lately? Any good tricks we can borrow for quickly sprucing up a yard???

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xoxo,

sacramento bloggess meetup

2012-06-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend marked a first for me: the first time I met people in real life whom I previously knew only from their blogs. If you haven't had a chance to do a blogger meetup (in our case, I'm going with bloggess meetup, since it was all women), I highly recommend finding your way to one. Besides getting to meet people whose blogs you enjoy, you'll definitely learn some tips for making your blog better.

Organized by Tracy at Then I Got to Thinking (the cutie in bright blue in the middle of the photo below, whose recap here is much more detailed than mine is!), our meetup was for the Sacramento area, and those of us from the Tahoe area got to pretend like we qualify for that designation (what's 100 miles anyway, right?).

Beside Tracy and me (hiding out in the back), the lovely ladies pictured include:

Shannon at You Me and Baby G

Ana at A + M

Hayley at See Hay Fly

Tiffany at Living Savvy

Ashley at Domestic Fashionista

Kimberly at Lush Deez

Stephanie at The Sweet Life

Trish at Trying to do it Gracefully

Amy at Limit Reached

Kristen - The Happy Hour Queen

Jane at In the Pink and Green -- Another Tahoe blogger

Margaret at Nanny Goats In Panties

Jennifer at West Sac Honey

Heather at Country Girl's Journey from Ms. to Mrs.

Jessica at Dreaming of Dimples

Leslie at Gwen Moss Blog

Check out their blogs! So much good stuff.

My favorite part of the meetup was getting to meet in real life someone whom I've already considered a friend for a long time: Ashley at Domestic Fashionista. I've had Ashley's blog in my blogroll for as long as I can remember, so you may already be a regular reader. But if not, do yourself a favor and check it out. Besides featuring cute home decor and super inspired party decorations, she has the most poignant reflections on life and love that will make you want to slow down and simplify your life.

Ashley and I had a good laugh when taking these photos because, being typical bloggers (or maybe just typical women?), we know what our "good side" is, and because ours are both the same side, we had to take the photo both ways. Naturally on my blog I'm being selfish and showing the one with me in the preferred position in the photo. ;-)

I'm really looking forward to the next meetup in September!

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xoxo,