An Update and The Things I've Learned from Apt. 6

Hello! I'm back! And I'm once again sorry for my long and mysterious absence.  Let me dust off these cobwebs and quickly catch you up on my life...

• Eric and are have been eyeballs-deep in wedding planning and prep...but we're fast approaching the big day (less than 60 days! It's so exciting and surreal and will it just hurry up and get here, thankyouverymuch!).  
• We've coordinated all the vendors we can think of (We're going to have party bus that could fit twice the amount of people we have...but that's what happens when my father insists on a the newest and nicest model. Hey, we're not complaining!).  
• We've designed, printed, and assembled our own Save the Dates and invitations.  I'm pretty dang proud of Eric's design abilities and our quick turnaround on addressing them.

• We've also designed and started working on the day-of crafts, like escort cards and their display, ceremony programs and whatnot. 
• We recently had our engagement photo shoot (only many months late, but whatever!) and are anxiously awaiting the images...! It was incredibly humid that day, so you might get some awesome pictures of my impressive sweating ability and my humidity-poofed hair (I literally felt it increasing in size as the shoot progressed). 
• My mother and aunt have gone all out on planning and preparing for the bridal shower. It's this weekend, and I am so darn excited for the food and drink (it's at one of my favorite restaurants).  I'm also eager to see the final product of my mother's crazy-hard work on dozens of giant tissue paper flowers (one of two photo backdrops....she took an idea an ran with it, DIY-style).
• I also cannot wait to find out what my bridesmaids have planned for my bachelorette celebration! It's a complete surprise to me, and the suspense is terrible!
• My mother has also become a jewelry maker and I helped her make the bracelet I will wear with my wedding dress. Let's just say we're ready for Etsy if we can increase our production capabilities (I'm sensing the cats will somehow be trained to work...)

• I've continued to teach TRX and other fitness classes at the University of Cincinnati, taking on more classes than ever this spring and summer. It's been tremendously fun, but it's been nice to teach and take fewer classes this fall. It means I get home early enough to make dinner and do something each night, even if it is a basic as hanging out with Eric. 

• A few more cookbooks have made their way into my collection, despite the lack of room on my new bookshelf. My two newest?  Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple by David Muniz and David Lesniak (thanks to the marvelous Shannon!) - it has red velvet cheesecake! rhubarb and strawberry coffee cake! rhubarb pudding!  A Year of Pies: A Seasonal Tour of Home Baked Pies by Ashley English.  I have her canning and preserving book and couldn't resist the variety of innovative pies she offered, both savory and sweet.  

• I have so many recipes to share with you! My collection of food awaiting a post is astounding...and I apologize. It will happen. And hopefully my long desired revamp of this blog will also happen, with Eric's savvy aid. 
• My rhubarb obsession is still going strong. I'm going to hit you hard with rhubarb recipes and I apologize in advance if you haven't stockpiled at least 3 freezer bags full of chopped rhubarb like I did. You're going to want to make these.

• Aside from wedding, the other huge event of these past few months was my move from my apartment in Cincinnati into Eric's house in Dayton.  I hate leaving my roommate, Kayleigh, but I have to admit it's awfully nice having all your belongings in a single location. I haven't done that in almost 6 years!
• That means I have a much larger kitchen of my own to play with! 

• And a beautiful bar and liquor cabinet (a wedding gift from my family and made by my incredibly talented and generous uncle) at which I can mix cocktails in style! 
  
  
  

• I have a garden, though I tried to take it easy this year since we had to rip out nearly all the old foliage and I wasn't moving in until halfway through the summer.  But I have some pretty flowers (I only completely killed one, that's victory!) and a few herb plants.  Next year, rhubarb and tomatoes! 
  

• And I have a home with excellent ventilation and central air conditioning!!!  You have NO idea how amazingly necessary these are in the hot, humid days of July, August, and early September.  I had no idea how much of a difference it made in my mood and productivity levels!
• I'm the proud almost-mama of a ridiculous polydactyl (she has thumbs!) cat named the Fonz.  She may be a bit bipolar (bite! pet me! bite! loooooove me!), but when she snuggles onto my lap for a petting session, it just melts my heart. 
  

• I'm almost entirely unpacked and settled (there were many weeks of clutter and random piles of junk sitting everywhere...sorry, Eric!), which is a huge relief. I'm a tidy person, so I want things to be in their place. Just a few more stacks of papers...
• I've got the insatiable urge to start tackling the house's interior -- painting rooms, changing curtains, adding floor rugs, finding the perfect knicknack to put on that shelf...  It's hilarious to me, but I'm seriously excited to make this house our grown-up (but still fun and functional!) home.
• The only drawback is that I'm now commuting an hour each way to and from grad school (nope, I'm still not done, but there's more light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Maybe next spring or summer?).  I didn't think the commute would suck so much time out of my day, but it really, really does. Oof. I'll adjust, and it will get better. 

And in honor of my move, I thought I'd share a bit about my old home and my new one, including the important lessons I learned from living in Apartment #6 for 5 years...

1.  You can totally make too-small spaces work.
You just get creative with your storage.  That might mean you bring in a free-standing cabinet and an industrial grade metal shelving unit to house your food and cookware, but, by thunder, you made it work.  Until your excessive amount of food spilled out of the pantry and found a home on top of and underneath the "dining room" table (which we have never sat at). It's not a Martha Stewart-worthy solution, but it totally works.

top: the dining room/pantry/kitchen storage area of our apartment

bottom: the galley-like kitchen. outstretched arms can almost touch both walls.

and the refrigerator door cannot even open completely.

a wee kitchen where we worked marvels.

2a.  Air conditioners are clutch.
Even when you avoid turning on the AC as much as possible, there is nothing that can replace it on the days when you're dripping sweat just walking from room to room.

2b.  There is no number of fans that can compensate for AC.
Trust me.  We tried it for 4+ years.  Even draped in front of two fans, you're still overheated and sweating.  And your sinuses are constantly dry.

2c.  It's nice to be able to control the heat in your dwelling on nights when the temperature is below freezing.
It means you might not procrastinate your shower for several hours because its just too dang cold inside.

3.  Decorating your home makes you feel like a grown-up.
Alternatively, not decorating makes you feel like a poor college student just on the edge of adulthood.  Lesson for next home:  decorate!

4.  Got mold?  Use bleach!
It won't get rid of the mold, but it'll keep it at bay long enough.  Just to be safe, don't touch it without gloves. And don't remember the episodes of House where the person is almost dead from breathing in fungal spores (Aspergillis, anyone?).

5.  I can play a mean game of Tetris in the refrigerator.
It's not my favorite game to play, but, oh boy, am I good at it.
Make a note:  get bigger refrigerator in grown-up house.

6.  Neighbors are meant to be far enough away that you can't smell their cigarette smoke or hear them talking through your door.
Good thing houses have yards, even if they are tiny.

7.  Bugs can appear at any time and in any place.
The best way to attack bugs on the ceiling?  A Swiffer broom and paper towel combo.  Bonus points if you're casually talking to your roommate when you decimate a bug.  Bam.

8.  A window in the shower is a truly terrible idea.
Seriously. It's absolutely miserable in the winter.  It's fine in the summer, but just weird overall.  Lesson:  do not put a window in the shower.

9.  The lady who occasionally cleans the hallway stairs in the building has more clout with the landlady than I (or any other resident) do.
I'm fairly certain her complaints about the resident (well, resident's boyfriend) who continued to track mud up the stairs almost daily propelled the landlady into evicting that couple.  This happened within a few months of the mud trail starting.  Compare this to multiple residents complaining about no hot water in the mornings (and sometimes evenings) for a year or more, with no action taken. Bam. Beware the cleaning lady.


I've missed you, my friends, and I can't wait to be back here regularly.

Confessions of a Cookbook Nerd

At home, my mother and I share our cookbooks.
Probably the most used books on this shelf are Martha Stewart's
Cookies or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food. Giada gave them
a run for their money for a few months...but, alas, she did not win it all.

I'll willingly admit I am a dork. A nerd. A geek.  For proof, you just have to come with me to work. In a lab.  Where I become inappropriately excited when colored tubes arrive for me to use. Or when my proteins have fun abbreviations like dANK and mRA and TRX. You can't tell me you don't immediately think T-rex and picture a T-rex stomping around  in your head. I know you are. It's impossible not to!

For all that I am a science nerd--just wait for me to excitedly explain how something works (based on the reactions of my typical audience of Eric and Manning, it induces spontaneous eye-rolling and feet twitching to escape)--I am an even greater geek about kitchen stuffs and cooking.  Alton Brown? He's my hero, combining science and cooking in an easily digestible format you're guaranteed to remember.  Harold McGee? Near idol status. (He's wrote On Food and Cooking, the source of much of Alton's fun facts. I asked for it for Christmas. And it's in my casual reading stack.)

On the bookshelf in my apartment.
The most used of these books are The Food You Crave (Ellie Krieger)
and Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.
The Vodka Cookbook is surprisingly good and always a treat.
It's not nearly as kitschy as you'd expect.

So it should come as no surprise that I read cookbooks like novels. For fun. For education. For expanding the horizons of my culinary knowledge.  And--I won't lie!--for the pictures. Though I didn't miss the pictures in Melissa Clark's two cookbooks (nor in Molly Wisenberg's book or David Lebovitz's book), because they offered a story so well told that I had vivid images from their stories. I want to write like that someday.

I'll admit I haven't read every single cookbook I own...yet. It's a newer habit of mine, pouring over each page while curled up on the couch or lying in bed. Each brings a little something different to the table (pun intended, so there!). Alton organizes the recipes by cooking technique and prefaces each new technique with some scientific explanation.  Melissa Clark sorts her recipes by month in one of her books, which has helped me focus on more seasonal ingredients.  Gesine Bullock-Prado separated recipes by the temperature state of the sugar required in the recipe, so I can progress in skill and confidence as I move forward.  But each one makes me want to dash into the kitchen and try out something new.

Another shelf of cookbooks in my apartment,
of my most recent cookbook purchases.
I already have a list of future purchases, awaiting
the next Amazon order.

In fact, I have a tremendous list of "food things I want to make".  Actually, it's beyond reason now. Oops. It's one major reason why I want more hours in a day--so that I can make more of these recipes.  Thank goodness I have coworkers, family, and friends who are willing to devour the finished products!

Random fact: one of my New Year's Resolutions was to cook at least one new recipe each week.  I've been cooking from the hip the last few years, and making the same handful of things repeatedly.  My cookbooks sat on the shelf, collecting dust and longing to be used.  This is my effort to go beyond the usual and learn new ways to prepare both familiar and unfamiliar ingredients.  It seems to be working so far!

At home, another shelf full of shared cookbooks.
My favorites are in a row -- Power Foods, Martha Stewart's Baking
Handbook, Baked Explorations, and Mario Batali's Molto Gusto.

Another random fact: browsing for cookbooks on Amazon is favorite way to pass time. It's led me to some unanticipated finds. And it's saved me from shelling out full price at Anthropologie (which is a surprising great place to find indie cookbooks...but I always flip through the entire book before purchase to make sure it's worth it!).

Random fact #3:  My wonderful aunt and uncle are tremendous foodies and have endlessly encouraged me in the culinary arena.  They also have a fabulous habit of gifting me or my mother with autographed cookbooks.  I love each one!

Yet another shelf of cookbooks (and other books) at home.
The prize here?  Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking. It's intense
but its awesome. I plan to start it (for bedtime reading) after
I finish Ruhlman's Twenty.
Also check out the three books on perfume on the left...
They're all hilarious and brilliant. 

Look for "By the Book" posts in the future, as I try recipes from my library of cookbooks.  I promise it will be full of adventures!

Time Warp

You know how some people have a theme for the month, like a lot of guys have a month where they don't shave their facial hair -- No Shave November or October Mustache Month.  Well, I apparently had No Blog November.  I wasn't aware of this fact until I looked at the calender, saw it was December (already???), and realized November had flown by.  It didn't feel like it was flying at the time, but it never does.  It only seems like it zipped past when viewed retrospectively.  Still, I think November moved along with a wee bit more speed than a month usually does.

This November, I...
(get ready, it's a list!!! yay!)

• Was bursting with pride when the new store space for Runners Plus & Soccer Plus officially opened on November 1st!!!!  The stores moved into a new space that was bigger and that they remodeled to their specifications. It looks amazing and I know how much hard work was put into this massive project, because Eric had some very late nights during the move. I'm so proud of Eric and the store and I'm so happy for them. If you're in town, you have to check it out. If you're not in town, check out their Facebook page. 

• Attended another science conference, this time in Cleveland and with more of my coworkers. To me, the highlight of the trip were our two dinners.  The first night we went to Michael Symon's B Spot Burgers, and I went bananas over the pickle bar (!) and fell in love with three of the six house sauces. They also had an entire wall covered in retro beer cans--including several brands I'd never heard of--making the logo of the restaurant. The second night, several of us students went to a fancy French restaurant.  While it was obvious we were not the typical clientele, the food was incredible! 

• Took a road trip with my guys to see two of our friends in Indiana.  We've been wanting to make this trip for over a year and it finally became reality. And it was awesome!  I wouldn't expect anything else from a visit with Jac and DB.

• Went on another road trip with Eric to Tennessee, where I attended my very first Tennessee football game! I'd believed it to be my first D-I collegiate football game, but I was wrong. I have a very hazy memory of attending a Notre Dame - Michigan football game in South Bend when I was a wee tyke. I can't recall any of the game, but I clearly remember being enamored and impressed with the incredibly cool football shaped menus at whatever restaurant we went to.  They even wrote the score of the game on the menu! Oooooo, right?  

• Discovered Trader Joe's Apple Cider. It's perfect. Go try some.

• Had two Thanksgiving dinners in one day...and didn't get sick from it. That's an accomplishment if I've ever heard one!  It probably helped that I ran the Turkey Trot race that morning, to make room for all that deliciousness.

• Re-discovered and most likely enhanced my love of drinking champagne. Kayleigh tried a new drink recipe (I believe we're renewing our weekly make-a-drink ritual, which is quite fun) that featured champagne. Now we're hooked. Here's the recipe (from Wegman's):
• Put about a cup or so of washed cranberries on a baking sheet. Sprinkle ground clove on top (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp) and roll the cranberries around to coat.  Put in a 450 degree F oven for about 10-15 minutes.
• While the cranberries are cooking, make a simple syrup on the stove. In a small saucepan, combine equal amounts of sugar and water (I used 1 cup each).  Over low to medium heat, stir until the sugar dissolves, then turn off heat. Avoid high heat or prolonged cooking, so you don't make caramel!  The end product should still be clear, with no visible sugar granules.
• When the cranberries are done cooking, put them directly into the simple syrup. Let them steep for at least 15 minutes (that's how long we waited) and up to an hour. The syrup will turn a lovely pink color.
• Ladle some of the simple syrup plus a few cranberries into the bottom of a class. Top with chilled champagne. Careful, it fizzes like crazy, so we added champagne in increments and held it over the sink.
• Cheers! 

• Helped host a dinner party in honor of my mom's birthday. We had a scrumptious Italian feast, with an antipasti plate, two pastas, salad, garlic bread, and chianti. And don't forget the desserts! Leftover Thanksgiving pies (I loved the elderberry, from a family friend's bakery in Columbus. My first taste of elderberry and it was glorious!), plus a flourless chocolate cake made with 70% chocolate. It was served with raspberry sauce (a la Ina Garten) and three ice creams (pistachio, vanilla, and Jeni's Queen City Cayenne).  My contributions to the party were a from-scratch marinara (using Mario Batali's Basic Sauce recipe plus some red pepper flakes), compound butter for the garlic bread (hot damn, garlicky!), the flourless chocolate cake and the raspberry sauce. I had so much fun working with my aunt and uncle to prepare this dinner and I believe everyone enjoyed themselves. This underlines the fact that I love dinner parties, especially relaxed ones.

• Finished my crystallography class, woohoo! Let me tell you, there is a lot of math involved in understanding how crystallography works.  Also let me tell you, Wikipedia can be awfully useful in reminding you about math concepts when you haven't taken a math class in over 10 years. Thanks, Wikipedia.

• Also finished my TRX  circuit class. After the first session, the only people who showed up to any (and to all) of the other classes were the instructor, myself, and the only other girl in the class.  Even though it kicked my out of shape butt, I had a blast and plan to sign up for at least one TRX class next quarter.  I have to admit that I'm on a TRX kick right now, so much so that I spent some time perusing their website.  I am even so crazy that I want to buy a TRX setup to use at home and I even want to take their instructional/certification classes. I'm obviously obsessed at the moment!

November, I'm sorry I didn't take the time to savor you, but I certainly had some fun!

December, I'm looking forward to all you have to offer!  Family and friends, getting into the Christmas spirit, binges of baking Christmas treats, dressing up for holiday gatherings (I promise to continue to wear my collection of leather boots at often as humanly possible on the weekends), Christmas ale/Winter ale (try Christain Morlein's Christkindl!), planning Christmas gifts to delight my loved ones (I'm seriously addicted to that), hot cocoa, hot cider, and champagne toasts!  

Happy December!!!

wait, what am I doing?

This is a question I ask myself about a dozen times a day, most while I'm at work. Bouncing between three or more projects every day is a little crazy, but I like the challenge, even though it's exhausting. Well, maybe I'm not always thrilled about doing it, but it's way better than having a mindless, repetitive job. I like the constant change and challenge, even if it frustrates me.

I know it's been awhile since I last wrote...sorry! As seems to always happen, I plan to do something (you should see my "to-do" lists!) and never get around to it. I don't know what keeps me from getting to things (okay, I strongly suspect TV, exhaustion, and trying to juggling way too many things at the same time), but I really have meant to write.

What have I been up to the last month or so?

~Searching for a new qualifier topic, with increasing desperation.
Okay, it's downright panic right now. I have to submit the first part of my qualifier (a two page document with a rough outline of what I propose to do) on Wednesday. That's 6 days from now. And I still haven't decided on a topic. Considering I spent over a month the previous two times doing what I need to do in 6 days...yeah, I'd say I'm seriously screwed. The stress levels and emotional tumult are increasing exponentially. As is my desire to do any task that does NOT involve my qualifier (This is a often discussed theory held by me and one of my former co-workers, Andy. The theory is that if you have a task you don't want to do, you will do any other task before it. In order to do this undesirable task, you must be presented with an even more odious task. Sadly, I don't have a more distasteful task than a qualifier. I even WANT to clean and organize my closet!).

~Cleaned my closet out.
Please see above for reasoning. I'm not done yet, but it is better!

~Helping my mom prepare food for my Aunt Norma and Uncle Charlie's birthday fiestas.
We had a friendly cook-off (okay, it wasn't a competition at all) where each guest made a Bobby Flay recipe to share. It was like Thanksgiving--soooo much food, all of which was delicious! I ate so much (just like Thanksgiving) I was in pain for the rest of the night and very nearly entered a food-induced coma.




~Made grand plans to get back on the exercise train...and not (yet) follow through on them.
Okay, this is starting to sound like a record. My most recent idea was to go to the gym at work in the morning, then do a workout video (either the Brazil butt lift or creepy yoga) at night. The rationale for this plan is that I am incredibly good at finding reasons not to go the gym at the end of the day...so if I do it first thing, I will not have time to find an excuse. One snag in my brilliant plan-I have to wake up early. I strongly dislike getting out of bed, particularly to perform physical activity. I think I have some work to do!!!!! I really want to get in shape!

~Hung out with my two best friends, Megan and Moe.
Megan was in D-town for a week and the three of us went out to dinner to one of the most delicious restaurants, Thai9. Then we wandered around Target, which is another of our favorite past times. I miss spending time with them!!!!

~Done some baking. And cooking.
I tried out a few new dishes - tart with figs and almond filling, iced brownies (I'd never iced brownies before!), salad of celery root + fennel + apple (didn't get to try any before it went bad, though), and some more stuff I don't remember. :)

~Organized school events.
As the new president of our department's grad school organization (which means next to nothing), I am in charge of running our bi-monthly meetings. And I am co-in-charge of organizing and setting up our monthly happy hours. I did both! Call me the department social director!


I'm going to bury myself in the qualifier for the next week, but once I turn it in, I will hopefully be able to talk about something more fun! I do have a lot of amazing things to look forward to (and write about!) -- hopefully going to a Tennessee football game, seeing Eric's band play at the Air Force Marathon (I love this outside morning show!), running a 5k, trying some recipes from my new cookbook, playing with fall activities (octoberfest, saurkraut festival, pumpkins, apple cider, football watching, earlham homecoming risotto!), some awesome new movies and tv shows coming out, and hopefully getting through the qualifier without losing my mind! So here's to fun...starting in one week :)