How was your Halloween?

Ours turned out to be just the evening I was hoping for – a night of drinking beer and watching Jeff play video games while we each took turns answering the door.

We had heard from a neighbor that they had over 300 kids show up last year, so I dashed to the grocery yesterday afternoon to pick up some more candy. I think we ended up having about 75 to 100 kids, and only went through half the candy I bought. It was really hard to not just eat fun size Twix for lunch today. 😉

It was really nice to feel like part of a community. Jeff and I were talking about how much we feel at home here. Even though we’re renting, it really feels like this is “our house.”

And it’s coming along nicely. We’ve made huge progress in getting things put away where they belong and setting it all up to feel comfortable. We finished clearing out the second bedroom which is being used for an exercise room and place to do our art and electronics projects. It was so filled with stuff that you couldn’t walk around in it.

I got my office set up how I like it…

All the knick-knacks are on the bookshelves, so until we get a full size dining table, the dining room is mostly done.

And the basement, which was pretty dirty when we moved in, is getting much more usable as we clean it out. I’ve got a laundry area set up and we’ve moved a bunch of long-term storage downstairs as well.

And we’re getting a few projects done around the house to make it more comfortable. Jeff hung the curtains in our bedroom and I spent some time crafting a drawer organizer to make the silverware fit better in the narrow drawer.

And the cats are loving it too. Liam has apparently just rediscovered sunbeams (our last place was in a basement so it was kind of dim.) I can be sure to find him in a different patch of light each day.

Lucas gets too hot in all the direct sunlight and has to occasionally take a break by stretching himself out languidly to diffuse the heat.

Handsome devil.

Today I roasted the other batch of pumpkin seeds I had from carving the jack-o-lantern. I tried to do a Japanese flavor using toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, nori kome furikake, and togarashi spice.

They’re alright, not good enough to share the recipe though. I think the toasted sesame oil is just overpowering the other flavors.

This year is just flying by, I can’t believe that Halloween has already gone by and we’re headed straight into the winter holidays. It’ll be 2012 before I can blink.

November 1, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments

Jeff and I have joked before that right now we’re living in our “lost years” for holiday enjoyment. We’re not kids any more, so much of the magic has been replaced by general grumpiness at all the money spent around holidays and the work it takes to make things go off without a hitch. There aren’t as many raucous parties with friends anymore either and we usually end up doing a whole bunch of nothing on holidays. I know it’ll all change when we have kids and we get the chance to create the magic for them that our parents made for us on those few special days a year, but until then we’re just stuck in this lackluster “in-between” state.

It sucks because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and only in the last few years has it turned into a complete non-event for me. This year though, we at least have something to look forward to: Trick-or-treaters!

This is the first year that we live in a neighborhood with lots of young children and will surely be visited by droves of tiny ghosts and witches, superheroes and princesses. Maybe it’s a strange thing to be excited about, but it’s re-infusing this holiday that I love so much with the joy that it’s been lacking for years.

Yesterday, I carved a jack-o-lantern to put outside our door to let everyone know that YES, we do have candy!

After 2 hours of cleaning and carving, this:

Became this:

I don’t know what I was going for, but I kind of think he looks like a frog. Liam, of course, needed to sniff our new housemate…

Face. in. pumpkin.

I have named the pumpkin Robert; I have no idea why. Hopefully the trick-or-treaters will get as much enjoyment out of him (and the candy, of course) as we’ll get by being able to participate in the holidays again.

What was your favorite holiday as a child? Has your enjoyment of it changed as you’ve gotten older?

October 28, 2011 Alayna Discussion 7 comments

These days, I’m starting to understand the appeal of meals that can be made quickly. I still love to cook, but I don’t get the same thrill out of making some elaborate dish that takes 2 hours to put together as I used to. For a special occasion it’s still totally fine to put in the extra time and effort to make something special, but for regular weekly dinners I really just want to spend the least amount of time possible without sacrificing quality.

I’m learning that sometimes if I spend a little extra time on the weekend to prep something that takes a while, I can then reap the rewards of that time investment during the week when I’m trying to put dinner together quickly. Just last weekend I roasted 5 turkey filets and shredded them up to use throughout the week. Some of it was immediately used in the turkey and mushroom bake that I made and the rest was frozen for later.

Yesterday, I did the same thing by making a huge batch of gnocchi using this recipe. I did boil the potatoes though rather than roasting them as the recipe recommended, also in an effort to save time. With about an hour or so of total work, I had not only enough gnocchi for dinner last night, but also this whole tray of it to freeze for another time.

That’ll make at least 2 more future dinners!

So here’s what I used it for last night. I made a spicy tomato sauce with sizzled prosciutto and fresh green peas.

I started by heating up some olive oil and red chili flakes in a pan to let the spices infuse in the oil.

Then I cut up 3 slices of prosciutto into thin strips and sauteed them in the oil until just barely crispy. I topped it off with half a jar of tomato basil pasta sauce and set it aside while a pot of water was heating up to boil.

The gnocchi and frozen peas went into the boiling water and were drained as soon as they had all floated to the surface, indicating that they were done. Those got tossed into the spicy sauce and served with freshly grated parmesan on top.

The whole thing took less than 20 minutes to put together because of the gnocchi being made ahead of time.

Gnocchi with prosciutto and peas

A quick meal of fluffy gnocchi in a spicy tomato sauce with prosciutto and peas.

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 2 portions prepared gnocchi
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 3 slices prosciutto
• 1 cup or so of tomato sauce
• a hefty pinch of red chili flakes
• olive oil for sauteing
• fresh grated parmesan

Cooking Directions

1. In a pan, heat olive oil and red chili flakes on medium heat.
2. Slice prosciutto into thin strips and saute in oil until barely crispy.
3. Add tomato sauce and stir to combine.
4. Boil gnocchi and peas until they float to the surface, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and add to sauce.
5. Grate over fresh parmesan cheese and serve.

I love it when dinner takes almost no time at all but tastes like I spent ages on it. By investing the time in making a special component upfront, you can have the same experience of a special dinner in much less time.

Is there anything you like to make in bulk or ahead of time to save you time later?

October 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 4 comments