A Few of My Favorite Things...

I still assert that the best part about Christmas dinner is the bread pudding. I love all the other favorites that sometimes make it onto the menu, like green beans, brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes, and chicken liver stuffing, which I finally grew to appreciate - but bread pudding is notable because this is the one time of the year it makes an appearance. The subtle cloves flavor and finely ground onions contribute to this basic and yet surprising dish. Luckily, my mom only makes a limited amount or I'd be in serious trouble!

Posted by plehar at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the past year, I've been collecting food photographs (many on this site) and gradually pulling together the recipes for family favorites that my parents have been cooking for decades now. There are many memories attached to the standard dishes my parents have always prepared, and I wanted to document them all in a customized cookbook. A while back, my friend Aimee referred me to a site called Blurb.com where you can create books within templates using your own photographs and text. I had these collected for a Christmas gift to them this year, and was generally very impressed with the quality of the photographs that printed and the overall quality of the book Blurb produces. I opted for hardcover, and even then, the book was very budget-friendly. Despite the rush to cook some of the straggling recipes (for photos) at the last minute, it was completely worth it! I'd heartily recommend this site.

Posted by plehar at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

And the gluttony of the holidays begins with chocolate at breakfast! My mom has a tradition of dressing the table with little chocolate santas at Christmas, and, it turns out that people will pretty much eat whatever is put in front of them! It was a great few days of family and meals together, and I'll try to share a few good food shots over the course of the week. Happy holidays!

Posted by plehar at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So we finally got festive. Against our combined will. Yes, it's the 22nd of December, but better late than never, right? And Martha Stewart I am not. I don't just mean that we don't deck the halls and leave spiced cider simmering on the stove. I mean I see carolers on the street and keep walking. We didn't get a tree this year, not even a 15-inch tall shrub of a tree like we usually do, in the hallowed spirit of conformity. It's hard to believe Christmas is already upon us. But... I was cleaning the apartment yesterday and found a set of tree lights, which I quickly strung up over the arch in the kitchen to get them out of the way. When I saw them lit, I got a rush of sentimentality... And when Jason brought these bubble lights in from Home Depot last weekend to create a lighting effect over the bookshelf, I had to laugh. He looked more holiday than I'd ever seen him, with a string of lights wrapped around his torso as he clowned around, dancing. I've found my Christmas tree. And the rhythm of the season is, indeed, gonna get you.

Posted by plehar at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And while we're on the subject of creative lasses, check out this great idea for carrying around your travel tissue packs that my friend Marissa implemented most beautifully here. But you don't need my domain pimping to realize what a quality investment her crafts are. These puppies sell themselves. She was raking in customers when we went to check her out at a local craft fair earlier this month. I was sold on this tissue carrier - I like my Kleenex clean, thanks very much - and some great handmade gift tags for the gift-giving season. She also makes gloroiusly colorful pillows that would be fantastic on any unpatterned sofa.

Posted by plehar at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What better snow-bound activity than knitting? And what better place to witness it than in the South End, the apparent epicenter of all things crafty in Boston? Here's an action shot of my friend Joy deftly pulling together a red-orange miten with three separate needles. The one and only time I've ever tried knitting, the product was a dust-covered ball of yarn reluctantly attached to a meager clump of knots and chopsticks, stuffed under the bed to be continued "tomorrow." Suffices to say, it's not exactly my bag, but it's always intriguing to watch how people can get the stitching right even when they are distracted with other things. I watch people doing this in the bus, while talking, and once - even during a meeting at work! Joy tells me she's hoping to complete this to post it on: Ravelry.com, which is a knitting community website that allows you to share ideas and (clearly)motivates you to finish projects.

Posted by plehar at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Panic was palpable at the office today, as everyone tried to get their work done quickly to get out of the building and 'beat the snow.' The whole time I was thinking of Groundhog Day and "we'll have to leave now if we're going to stay ahead of the weather!" Which would have been possible, had the snow not arrived at noon. Evening plans were cancelled, backup sitters were called in to stand in for parents of kids being sent home early from school, and the day pretty much became a wash. It continued falling all day, and after an hour and a half of shoveling after work, I still felt we'd made no progress... or maybe that's my shoveling arm! I am somewhat proud to say that Boston is weathered enough (no pun intended) not to get in a fuss about an inch or two, but only get to this level of alert when it's expecting a full foot. But the logic behind actually living in a place that gets a full foot of snow on occasion might be the haziest part of all.

Posted by plehar at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're tired of staring at all the sugary is-it-breakfast? is-it-dessert? concoctions I've been dabbling in lately, rest your eyes on this. Here's a shot taken by master photographer Jon at the Shore Break bar in Rhode Island this weekend. The bar has a cool story - renovated from an old movie theater, its central screen is now used as a backdrop to a main music stage at the end of the narrow room. The opposite side of the bar is set up nicely, so even when sparsely populated, it has a cool, living room feel. Narragansett seems like a pretty seaside town - but next time I hope to see the beach! You don't get much of a sense of the shoreline at 9 pm in December.

Posted by plehar at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... delicious. Nitasha's blog has once again inspired me to try something new. I've never made French toast with Challah bread before, although I must've ordered it somewhere once upon a time, because it was so familiar... But when Jason brought home a loaf of the stuff on Sunday morning, I felt compelled to take a stab. Although, Nitasha, I'm missing your very Frenchie mug of chocolat with my copycat breakfast.

Posted by plehar at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I found the recipe for port-poached pears in a men's magazine of all places! Not that men's magazines don't offer good advice, but I have never gone into one seeking a recipe, or much else for that matter! But we had a magazine called Best Life lying around the apartment, and this was contained within an article on how to impress your girlfriend with an easy four-course meal. I think I impressed myself. And it was easy! I'm just grateful our apartment has reached a state of entropy that forced me to finally dig into all our stacked up magazines and start tearing out scrap pages to keep. You never know what you might find!

Port-Poached Pears
(I halved the recipe, because I couldn't stand to pour out two cups of port!)

2 cups port wine
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped (keep seeds and pods)
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 tsp whole allspice
peel of a half lemon
2 pears

Combine all ingredients except pears in a medium saucepan. Bring toa boil over high heat stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Flame off alcohol.
    Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact. Slice the bottom eight-inch from each pear to create a flat, stable base.
    Reduce heat to a bare simmer and add the pears, laying them on their sides so that they are almost completely submerged. Cook, turning pears occasionally so that they become saturated on all sides, until they are just tender when pierced with a fork, about 7 minutes.
    Cool to room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream (or heavy cream).

Posted by plehar at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After spending a few tedious hours at the mall trying to get Jason's new cell phone synched and negotiated and gobbling down a plate of greasy food at the Magic Wok, we found ourselves in the unusual condition of craving apples. I'm not sure how it started - one of us mentioned apple picking season being over or something, and suddenly we really wanted apples. So we stopped at the store on the way home and loaded up. The next morning, I found myself in a morning after crisis of the impulse shopped - wondering what I was going to do with all these apples! So, for the last two days, we've been snacking on apples, eating them with chutney at lunch, and cooking up apple-filled crepes in the morning. I have to say that the apple crepes are my favorite - especially with a tart apple like the Pink Lady in contrast to sweet maple syrup drizzled over the top.

We have a stack of apple cores this week, which left me thinking about a funny childhood memory of a Donald Duck animated short by Disney featuring Chip and Dale, the curiously frustrating chipmunks. They prank Donald with the children's game "Apple Core," which goes: "Apple Core..." "Baltimore..." "Who's your friend..." It used to delight us when Donald screeched ME! and landed a wet apple core right in the face as the critters scampered back up the inside of the tree trunk, eluding him. If you haven't seen this cartoon, check it out on YouTube. While we're at it, here's another memoriable Chip and Dale episode; amazing how vicious some of those old cartoons were... but still funny after all these years!

Posted by plehar at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We saw this beautiful old mailbox on a walk we took out in Concord just after Thanksgiving. Despite how beat up it was with its dripping rust numbers and rickety little flag, it was still very cheery amid the fallen, breadcrumb-colored leaves and harsh late-November wind. 

Posted by plehar at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Armed with a pork tenderloin and faced with the question of how to prepare it in less than an hour (we had guests coming over on a Friday after work!), I called my dad for reinforcement. He suggested cutting the tenderloin length-wise and creating a stir-fry type sauce with the rest of the vegetables I had availalbe. His first idea, to wrap the pork discs in bacon and bake for hours in a casserole, sounded much more tasty and traditional to me, but up against the clock, I skeptically took his seccond suggestion and got to work. Jason also met the slashed tenderloin with raised eyebrows when he walked in the door, but I tried it nevertheless, and we were both amazed that it turned out! I suppose, at the end of the day, it's a very "tender" cut of meat, and therefore likely delicious in many variations, although, aftraid it would be boring, I threw in an entire jalapeno, which gave it the extra kick I think it needed to be something a bit less ordinary.

Posted by plehar at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)