In Conclusion...

I awoke this morning to snow covered trees, a bright blue sky, and frigid temperatures. It is 3 degrees outside right now, and that is officially the coldest temp I have ever experienced (for now). As Dr. H left for another 30 hour shift today, he said, "Happy last day of 2010." This got me thinking,  "What did I do in 2010?" While the whole world is focusing on what they want the upcoming year to be like, I would like to take a few minutes to reflect on what has happened in my little life this past year.

2010 in a nutshell:

Dr. H and I lived in Portland, OR;  Orange County, CA; Atlanta, GA; and Spokane, WA all in 2010.

We drove up and down the West Coast, visiting Napa wine country, Monterey Bay, Portland, Seattle and finally Spokane.

We traveled all over Western Europe, Spent a couple of weeks in NYC, visited friends in Boston, and looked for bears in Glacier National Park.

Dr. H graduated from Medical School

I earned my Masters degree

We grew our family with the addition of Monty the cat.

I went both skiing and snowboarding for the first(ish) times ever.

I both applied for, and got in to graduate school, and made the difficult and very grown-up decision not to attend.

I grew my first vegetable garden, and made plans for big improvements on this years garden

I wrote a bunch of songs, painted some pictures, and did a ton of crafting this year

I helped put on Dr. H's big graduation/birthday bash

I helped organize a major fund-raising event for a local environmental group

I searched and searched for a job, and when I found out the job I want doesn't exist here, I went out and made myself a position.

***"Designed the landscape plans for my aunt's back yard and did some very heavy duty construction projects like; rototilling, rock wall building, flower bed building, tree planting, sod laying, flagstone path making, and slate floor tiling" :) Thanks Aunt Molly

All in all, 2010 has been a pretty full year. Now I just need to figure out an appropriate way to celebrate the closing of this year, and the dawning of the next.

What were some some of the major events of your year?

Back to Real Life

The family has departed, Dr. H is at work, and I have chores on my agenda. It is back to normal ladies and gentlemen. Too normal in fact. I will be spending this lovely winter day getting my trunk fixed down at the local Honda dealership. Boo. The stupid thing won't stay stay closed. There are few things I dislike more than getting my car fixed, so to make up for having to spend my day waiting around for my car, I plan to treat myself to something warm, liquidy, and sweet.

Belated Weekend

My weekend in brief:  Busy, Physically demanding, Crowded, Tasty and Cleanly. This weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Dr. H had his golden weekend (a whole weekend off. gasp!) and we used this time to complete our holiday shopping, get our gifts wrapped and in the mail to friends and family in distant lands, go snowboarding (my first time. LOVED IT), bottle our first batch of beer, and bake up some super cute gingerbread houses. To glue the houses together I used Rachel's brilliant idea from over at HeartofLight. It was definitely a bit scary, but those suckers are stuck for life! Fun Fun Fun~ Last night we had a couple of friends over to decorate the gingerbread houses. It was so much fun, and the houses all came out so cute!

 And because our house is patrolled by a hungry kitty, our houses have to spend most of the time safely hidden inside the oven. What a lovely display case.

 Now my house is clean and trimmed, I'm redonkulously sore, and I have a nice pot of mushroom leek soup simmering on the stove for dinner. I'm digging this domestic DIY holiday.

Goodbye Snowman

Tragic, isn't it?

O Christmas Tree

This big guy was too cute not to take  home with us. I'm a sucker for tall, gangly men, er... trees!

I love how sparse this tree is. It brings a very woodsy feel to my house.  It is an alpine pine, and was harvested from below power lines. Usually the areas below power lines are basically clear cut, and the trees are discarded and left to rot, or are harvested for firewood.  Most Christmas Trees come from tree farms, and a few are thinned out of overgrown forests. Taking trees from under power lines was a new idea to me, and it seems like a pretty inspired one.

I also found a bunch of new (to me) ornaments from a cute antique store.  Bonus: they are made of wood so my crazy cat cannot break them! Not the best pictures, but you get the idea.

Crafting and Cooking

Outdoor Wreaths

This week  I have been crafting up a storm. Unfortunately though, since they are all Christmas presents I cannot post them on here. In addition to crating gifts, I have been able to squeeze in making some fake wreaths for the outside of my house, making some holiday cards to send out to distant friends and family, and cooking a lot of delicious meals. Speaking of delicious meals, last night I made a new soup that was fabulous and very veg friendly. Since I just made it last night for the first time, there are no photos, but I'll add some next time I make this.

Mushroom Leak and Orzo Soup

8oz mixed mushrooms. Use whatever kind you like
2 medium leaks, sliced thin and cleaned thoroughly
1/2 cup uncooked orzo
1/2 lb (1 bag) baby spinach
2 tbsp butter
1tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Melt butter in large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and leaks. Saute until leaks begin to soften, then add mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms begin to soften and leaks are translucent. Add 1/2 cup dry white wine, and cook until liquid is reduced by 1/2.  Add chicken or veggie stock, and add fresh garlic. Season with a bit of pepper and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

15-20 minutes before serving, bring soup to a rolling boil and add Orzo and Spinach.  Orzo will take about 9-10 minutes to cook through,  but be sure to check every few minutes to see if it is done. When Orzo is cooked through, reduce heat to low, and you are ready to eat.


Seriously, this is good and really really simple. If you are a mushroom lover, you can always add more mushrooms too!

Christmas Mashed Potatoes

Today is a post-call (30 hour shift) day for Dr. H, so he will be spending the rest of the day snoozing away. While he regains his strength, I intend to do some serious cooking. On this weeks menu we have a mushroom, spinach and lamb shepherd's pie, a mushroom and leek soup, potato soup served in homemade bread bowls, and tofu tacos. Guess which one is easiest. I still have a ton of potatoes in cold storage, but they are starting to go bad; hence all the potato dishes. Right now I have a couple pounds peeled and cubed and ready to be turned into delicious mashed potatoes to top tonight's shepherd's pie. In honor of this tuberous bounty, I am going to share my special Christmas Mashed Potato recipe. These can obviously be enjoyed at any time, but they were the first dish I ever contributed to a Christmas dinner, so they got stuck with this moniker.

Christmas Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
Roughly 5 pounds of your favorite potato (I like red)
3 carrots
1 stick salted butter
8 ounces sour cream
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
1/4 container of onion cream cheese


Peel and cube potatoes and carrots. (hint:as you peel potatoes, toss them into a bowl full of cold water to keep them from turning brown while you work on the other potatoes) Put potatoes and carrots in a large pot and cover with water and a dash of salt. Boil until potatoes are fork tender. Drain and mash until mostly smooth.

In a large bowl, mix together sour cream, softened butter, cream cheese and parsley.  Mix in hot mashed veggies and season with salt and pepper to taste. The heat from the veggies should help wilt the parsley. If making this recipe ahead, place mashed potatoes in a crock pot and keep on low until ready to serve. I make mine the day ahead and they are perfect by dinner on Christmas.
Enjoy!

Beer Glorious Beer!

For a long time now, I have been planning on getting Dr. H a beer making kit for Christmas. Well Christmas came early, and we now have five gallons of (hopefully) delicious IPA brewing in our guest bedroom closet. We had set everything up in the basement, but Dr. H worried that it would be too cold down there for proper fermentation, so the whole shebang has been moved upstairs. Beer making is actually a fairly simple process. It can get quite fancy depending on the type of beer one is trying to make, but the essentials are pretty straight forward. You steep some specialty grains (barley) in a pot of hot water until it reaches a boil, add in super condensed malt extract and dry malt  and let boil for a while. Then toward the end you add your hops. Once you cool this "Wart" down you add it to your "Carboy" (basically a big glass water jug) and fill the thing up with cold water. Add your yeast and that is basically that. I have skipped some steps here (like making sure everything is sterilized) but you get the general idea. Now on to some pictures!

heating up  malt syrup

the beginning: steeping the specialty grains

steeping

supplies

I intend to take some pictures of the beer while it is fermenting, when we rack the beer to the secondary fermenter, and then when we bottle. So many fun steps!

Decorating on the Cheap and Playing in Snow

It is a balmy 33 degrees outside, and the two feet of snow we have accumulated over the past week and a half is starting to melt. It is hazardous to walk under the trees around here right now, because every couple of seconds a small avalanche crashes down from the branches above. I got caught in one of these snow showers while venturing out to take a picture of the snowman Dr. H and I made yesterday.

Since I have essentially been snowed in since our return to Spokane, I have been making Christmas decorations from some of the supplies in my craft-stash. I am also sewing up some presents, and getting a lot of good tv time in. Here are a couple of the little items that are currently decking my halls.

Once I find a ladder, we will get our outside lights up and this place will start to look festive!