Category: Home & Garden Thursday

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Spooky Dinner Party

I’ve made progress on my endeavor to entertain more!  The other weekend I had a few ladies over for a little dinner party.  A journey of a thousand miles and all that.

Since its October, I wanted to make the table setting festive for the season.  Since I don’t trust the kittens to not get into everything, I didn’t want to do any big centerpiece or ANY candles (it hurt my heart to have a dinner party without candles, but it would hurt my heart more if one of my kittens set themselves on fire).  Even though it wasn’t much of an elaborate table, it was still festive.

For the menu, I kept it pretty simple.  I have come up with a sort of formula that I like for dinner parties: protein, salad, crusty bread and then something nice for dessert. I like to make or at least prep everything that I can ahead of time so that I can relax, drink wine and enjoy visiting with my guests rather than being tied up in the kitchen.

This night we had lemon butter blue fin tuna, autumn salad with shallot vinaigrette and Martha Stewart’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. I was able to have everything prepped ahead of time, so when my guests arrived, I just put the tuna in the oven and threw the salad together and we were good to go.

Tuna in the oven, how could you!? Well, while I love to eat raw and seared tuna, I just don’t feel comfortable serving undercooked fish to guests.

Here are my tips for making delicious cooked tuna in the over: 1) coat the fish with olive oil or butter; 2) cook at very high heat (450 degrees) for not very long (these steaks were pretty thick, so I cooked them for 10 minutes).

The salad was a big hit and my friend asked that I share the recipe. I made the whole thing using the eyeball method, so here is the best that I can do for you as far as measurements go:

Autumn Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette

Shallot Vinaigrette:

  • one small shallot, minced very finely
  • some (1/3 cup?) apple cider vinegar
  • some (1 tbsp?) prepared mustard
  • few pinches of salt
  • few grinds of pepper
  • splash or so of olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a small mason jar (something with a trustworthy lid). Shake well to combine (it will emulsify thanks to the mustard, no need to drizzle and whisk). Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the Salad:

  • ½ bag of arugula
  • ½ cups of prepared spaghetti squash (can be roasted and “spaghettied” ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator)
  • Pomegranate seeds from one medium pomegranate (can be prepared ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator)
  • ½ cup(ish) pistachio nutmeat (I prefer unsalted)

To assemble the salad: Throw squash and arugula in a bowl, toss until combined(ish). Dump dressing on it, toss again. Throw pomegranate and pistachio in, one last light toss.  Serve immediately.

I had the coffee maker ready to make a pot of decaf, so once we were done with dinner, all I had to do was press the button (we still make coffee by the pot) and retrieve dessert from the refrigerator.  I totally reccommend Martha Stewart’s recipe for pumpkin cheesecake.  It was easy to throw together, and it came out great.  If you think you want to try it, make it at least one day before you want to serve it (I made mine two days before) because the baking and cooling takes a while and you’re going to want to let it sit in the refrigerator so that the flavors can blend.

After we were suitably wined and dined, I sent everyone home with a nice, big piece of cheesecake so that I wouldn’t eat it all.  Time to plan another get-together!

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The Pumpkin Report

Remember when I said that I would tell you how my pumpkin patch turned out?  Oh, I was so full of hope then. I was sure that we would be drowning in pumpkins, that I would have given as many as I could to my neighbors and explored many pumpkin recipes.

Well, I don’t have any of those problems.

I don’t know what happened!  Guys, it all started off so well.  Mr. Man plopped the seeds in the garden. We had sprouts before we knew it!

They were growing and growing.

So many plants, with so many potential pumpkins.

Our future was looking like it would be FULL of pumpkins.

Then it all started heading south.  This guy committed suicide, he just dropped off the vine onto the driveway.

Inspector Sally examining the evidence, he determined that there was no foul play

The one, respectable-looking pumpkin got this icky spot, yuck!

And then all the plants suddenly pooped out. It was a gardening massacre.

So, now that it’s too late to do anything about it, I decided to do some research. The top Google result, The Old Farmer’s Almanac (https://www.almanac.com/plant/pumpkins), sure had everything that I needed to know about growing pumpkins.  Too bad that I didn’t read up before we started!  Here are my top take-aways:

  • Pumpkins like hot soil, which explains why they took off so well in our raised planter bed. You’re supposed to build little “hills” for your pumpkins to grow on to help keep the roots stay warm.
  • You also need to keep the soil moist – mulch, mulch, mulch.
  • And feed, feed, feed – manure or compost plus high nitrogen fertilizer (during early plant growth) and high phosphorus fertilizer (once blooming begins).
  • You need to be careful about getting the plants wet. I think this is the biggest booboo that we made since Mr. Man likes to water the garden from across the lawn.  Once the leaves got powdery, it was over.
  • If/when you start to get fruit, place something (ex: cardboard) under the fruit to keep them from getting icky spots from sitting in damp mulch.
  • If/when you pick them, keep 3-4” of stem to help them last longer and cure them in the sun for a week before storing.

Now that I’ve armed myself with some knowledge, I think we can attempt pumpkins again next year with the potential for better results.  As far as this year goes, I see a trip to Trader Joes for pumpkins in my near future.

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Halloween Decorating

What can I say, I like decorating my yard for Halloween! We live near an elementary school, so the effort totally pays off in appreciation from little children.

When I first started decorating for Halloween years ago, no one else in the neighborhood was playing along.  Nowadays I’ve got the next-door neighbors making a point of out-doing me and a good number of the houses all the way down the block getting into the spooky spirit!

Headless Mr. Man isn’t scared of vampire lawn flamingos

My cornerstone decoration is Headless Mr. Man.  He sits out on the front porch every year and probably startles me and my living, breathing Mr. Man more than everyone else (what is that guy doing on my front porch?!). Originally, Mr. Man did not appreciate the awesomeness of some of his old clothes stuffed with newspaper sitting in a chair, but one day a junior high kid walking to school let him know it was cool and since then I get slightly less grief from him about it.

 

I used to make a point of putting all my decorations out at once and then that was it.  This year, I’m taking it a bit slower because I don’t want to put out the gravestones until I get the witch who crashed into the wisteria bush fleshed out a little bit better.

 

 

 

Next door apparently has a giant spider invasion.  This guy will probably catch himself a kindergartener or two before the month is over.  Come to think of it, I haven’t seen my neighbor much recently.  Hmmm…

 

 

 

Now, I’m going to show you some photos of my all-time favorite decorations.  I thought this house was the BEST and would go out of my way to drive by as often as possible.  I mean, this shipwreck! You should have seen it at night!  There were lights and a fan – I mean the wind – that would whip through the tattered sails.

This was the next year:

Apparently Wyle E. Coyote lived here

I always wanted to stop by or send them a card letting them know how much I appreciated their AWESOME decorations, but I never did.  And they moved away. I still wish that I had taken a moment to let them know.

Maybe someday, I will have an incredible pirate shipwreck and sea monster in my front yard.  I’ll add it to my list of things to do in-between things.

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Beach Day

An important standing appointment on my calendar these days is Beach Day Wednesday.  There is something wonderful about spending time contemplating the ocean, it really puts everything else in perspective. I particularly enjoy having beach days at this time of year, when there is a hint of fall. In California, you can tell that it’s fall because the quality of the sunlight changes, the hot part of the day shrinks, and the air feels heavier.

Hot sailboat action on the bay

When I was in college, we didn’t go back until late September. I came to really appreciate that period from mid-August to late September.  It’s been nice to be able to enjoy my favorite time of the year with those quiet beach days again.

Even when you don’t have somewhere that you have to be every day, it’s still important to have a schedule.  I still get up and go to the gym first thing pretty much every morning.  It helps me get my day going and I feel that I’ve accomplished something. Having my standing beach day appointment gives me a benchmark for my week.  Have I made progress on the things that I want to do this week?  It also gives me a break from feeling that I need to be doing something. When I’m at the beach, its ok just to be at the beach.

I like to pack a lunch, my chair, and my floppy hat. Then I head down to my usual spot, stick my toes in the sand and watch the world go by. If it seems like it might be a little cool, I will bring a sweatshirt. When I’m done, I head home; it’s not a big, day-long production, just a little break.  Beach day doesn’t even necessarily have to be on Wednesday. I don’t mind being flexible but I know that if I didn’t have something blocked out on my calendar, it probably wouldn’t happen at all.

I like to drag along friends who have free time, let me know!

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Sheet Pan Chicken Dinner

Here we go again!  Cooking without a net.

I keep seeing “sheet pan dinners” on the internet.  I’m not even sure where – Facebook? Pinterest? All of the above? But often enough that I decided that it might be worth trying out.  And it was cool enough last week to consider using the oven, so why not!

Instead of starting by looking up some recipes, I started by going to Trader Joes and grabbing a few things that caught my eye.  So I come home with chicken breasts, brussels sprouts and butternut squash – should be ok, right?

Now that its time to start cooking, I decide to see if I can find a recipe or at least some help with regard to temperature and cooking time.  Also, do you have to do it on a sheet pan? Why not a baking dish?

I find a recipe on Pinterest for chicken with brussels sprouts and butternut squash.  Seriously?  That’s a good sign!  Ok, now I’ve read it once and gotten some direction on time and temperature and a good enough explanation as to why a sheet pan.  There are a bunch of other instructions, but I ignore those and get to work.

Trim the brussels, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, dump them on the pan.  Check.

Squash gets tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, then on the pan.

For the chicken how about some Herbs de Provence, mustard and honey?  Sure, why not!

Alright, this looks respectable.  Into a 425 degree oven.  How long did it say?  Um….how about 20 minutes then check?  Sounds good.  Ok, maybe another 20 minutes, that chicken doesn’t seem quite cooked enough.

 

Tada!

It turned out pretty good!  Mr. Man said that he would eat it again (that is always a victory when it comes to kitchen adventures).  It was easy to clean up. We got a good serving of veggies in.  The leftovers weren’t too massive.  I will try this again for sure.

Do you make sheet pan dinners?  What do you like to use?

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Gracious Living?

When I started conceptualizing this blog, I wanted to come up with catchy titles for each day’s theme.  Thursdays were going to be “Gracious Living”. Unfortunately, I was not clever enough to come up with comparable titles for the other days, so we’re just going to go with “Home & Garden”.  This day will be my opportunity to share decorating projects, entertaining tips, and kitchen adventures – the things that we all do to enjoy our time at home.  Don’t think that you’ll be hearing from an aspiring Martha Stewart. I’m more of a domestic survivalist than a domestic goddess. This is just another area that I try to make a little bit of an effort when I have the opportunity. Whether or not our pumpkin patch turns out, I will tell you all about it.

baby pumpkin

I’ve only recently gotten back into cooking on a semi-regular basis. My specialty is turning leftovers into tacos/burritos.  If left to my own devices, I would probably only eat things wrapped up in a tortilla.  When I do attempt cooking from scratch, the results can be interesting. I have a bad habit of not letting the fact that I don’t have all of the ingredients for a particular recipe stop me. What’s worse is that I can’t seem to stop myself from skipping steps or thinking that I don’t need to look at the recipe if I have already made something once (this never ends well).

I love to host little dinner parties and casual get togethers.  For one thing, I feel that it’s an obligation to retaining my collections of fancy china and vintage glasses. Aside from a way to rationalize having too much tableware, bringing the right mix of people together for a simple meal and interesting conversation always leaves me with a renewed sense of well-being.  I am working on getting back into the habit of hosting some sort of get-together at least every few months instead of only once or twice a year.

Other than the pumpkins which are currently taking over, our vegetable garden has been sadly underutilized.  By virtue of being accountable to you, I hope to make a better effort to grow an interesting variety of things that may wind up in my cooking trials.  I am also in the process of rebuilding a fairy garden at the roots my wisteria bush.  Because isn’t it nice to invite a little magic into your life?

This post concludes my first week of bloging.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings so far and will stick with me a bit longer.