Save the Date!

So, I'm getting hitched. A lower key affair, where we are getting married, just us, in New Hampshire, and then heading to Pittsburgh for a party that is being thrown for us at my sister and brother in-laws house. We've invited about 85 people, with the objective being mingling, enjoying an indian summer late afternoon and evening and celebrating our union.

I started this post a long time ago, when I was actually going through the production of creating what looks like an incredibly simple save the date card! It took me WAY longer than I would have thought. But the result was a nice, crisp, pretty card. The fact that it took me two months to create is no matter;) The save the dates went out in April/May and now we are looking forward to the actual date. I've bought a dress, have a wedding band, so I guess I'm pretty much good to go. I hope the celebration turns out to be as fun as we hope. And a pic of my lovely man helping in the production process...

How sweet life is....

It's not thanksgiving, it's March madness!

Sometimes I really do question my sanity. My friend Delilah gave me a 14 lb. turkey a while back, which she wasn't going to use. I've never made a turkey before, so when John and I had a few days off to watch the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, I thought, what the heck, let's make turkey. But of course, I had to turn it into a whole production.

So, once again, I turn to Martha Stewart. Since I've never roasted a turkey before, it seemed like a good time to do a trial run. This past thanksgiving, all I heard about was brining, brining, brining, so I decided to brine the turkey. I used a recipe from her website that seemed simpler than the one that she was talking of this past thanksgiving holiday. The biggest challenge was to find a container big enough to fit the brine and turkey. And since it had to sit overnight, a lid was preferable as well. This is really gross, but I used a bucket that originally contained kitty litter, which was completely washed out, and then lined with a garbage bag. Worked like a charm.

Once the turkey was brined (and all the extras were removed, like the neck, heart, liver etc, it was on to making homemade stuffing. Again, a new experience for me, but I thought, what the heck. The recipe was actually quite simple. (And it's called 'simple stuffing', so that's the one I went for!) I used about 1/2 of the stuffing inside of the turkey, and put the other half in a pan to bake in the oven, once the turkey was almost done roasting.

Then it was on to actually roasting the turkey. John had a disposable roasting pan floating around since I moved in, so I decided to use it, since I don't have a roasting pan myself. The turkey barely fit! Since the recipe recommended to have the turkey itself suspended in the pan, I used some ingenuity. Here's the recipe for the roast turkey. The recipe calls for a layer of fresh cut vegetables on the bottom, of which I only used celery, onions and carrots (the only ones I had), which filled the pan. I then took a small cookie rack, that John also had, and turned it upside-down, over the vegetables.

It worked like a charm! The vegetables helped to hold the rack above the pan, and the legs of the baking rack acted like handles, which I could use to lift the turkey up. I found the process of soaking the cheesecloth with the wine and butter mixture pretty easy and interesting as well, and I basted the turkey with a brush every thirty minutes that it was in the oven, which was pretty intensive.

Then it was onto the homemade gravy. I used Martha's Riesling gravy recipe, which turned out really well, but once again, a labor-intensive process. Instead of spending money on Reisling, I just bought a large, inexpensive bottle of pinot grigio, which worked just fine, for both the marinade and the gravy. Then it was onto the giblet stock, which in all honesty, was pretty gross to prepare. But I'm a purist, so on I went! I had to saute the neck, heart and gizzard with other vegetables, and also saute the liver, cut up in small pieces, in another pan. The first saute had to reduce for 45 minutes, then the other parts had to be cut up and the whole thing strained - what a process. But I have to admit, the gravy came out great.

I then made some swiss chard, in a saute as well, and that was it! A wonderful meal that took me well over 24 hours to prepare in all. But it turned out great, especially the turkey, which was tender as hell. And turkey leftovers into eternity! The topper was that John was the winner of the basketball pool that we both enter, of over 35 people.

Happy March madness!

A new friend, and beer!

My brother lives in Portland, ME, which is great, because that means that we can see each other often. We made plans to meet for a day in Portsmouth, NH, which is a central location for both of us. The added bonus is that John and I were able to meet his new girlfriend, whom he's been dating since December. The twist is that she grew up in Peterborough, which is a completely random happenstance.

Since Matt is a home-brewer, the first order of business was to meet at the Red Hook brewery, have some lunch and take the brewery tour. We had a nice lunch in the brewery bar/restaurant, of course, had a few beers, and proceeded to tour the facilities. Since it was a Saturday, the brewery wasn't in operation, but we gained some understanding regardless. And of course, the most important part of the tour, the tasting! We were able to taste all of the current beers, and as you can see from the pictures below, we become jollier and jollier as the day went along. We then headed into Portsmouth itself, which is a great little port city, and frequented another brewing establishment, The Portsmouth Brewery. We then headed to the Portsmouth Gaslight Company, for some dinner. Not much sightseeing, but for a cold winter day, what's better? Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Katcha Leigh, not really MIA

Well, this blog started out as a co-authored blog, but has ended up really being my baby. But not to worry, Katcha Leigh is hard at work at her home in Elizabethtown, known as Aberdeen Mills. Katcha is an amateur real-estate mogul, and after searching for properties for many years, bought this gem at an auction. Surrounded by 40 acres of land, and created in the 1770's, Aberdeen Mills provides a look into our past. Her and her husband are now resurrecting this property to support raising animals, organic farming and recreation. Be sure to check out their website for current happenings!

A knitted hat for the birthday boy...

I made quite a few knitted gifts at Christmas, but didn't get around to making Noah a hat. I had knitted one for Fiona for her birthday, and then one for my mom at Christmas, so when I heard that Noah had said "Why hasn't Aunt Heidi made me a hat?" that made me very happy. Noah is a creative, super-smart, intense little boy and my feeling was that his appreciation of this gift would go up 5 fold if I waited. So for his birthday, I finally made him his hat. Here is how it turned out, which I was really, really pleased with.

Once again, from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, what is still my favorite of all knitting books. I thought that the army green with the orange was just precious. My sister left me a message on my phone saying that when he opened his package (which also included a kid's gardening book), he immediately put the hat on and had the goofiest smile on his face. This made my week.

And here's the other one, sporting her hat at Grammy and Gramp's house. Too good.

Crafty Valentine

So I heard alot of bitching and moaning in my world about Valentine's Day....that's what happens when y0u work with primarily single mothers. One friend thinks it is ridiculous (although I have to suspect that it is because she's only been in one seriously dysfunctional relationship for the past five years (but not really b/c he will never commit to her), another is single right now and can't see past it and the other is in a good relationship, but has two stalker ex-husbands. But I'm sorry, I like Valentine's Day, Hallmark holiday or not.



I got crafty for Valentines, making cards for the kids and Johnny, from a segment from what else, MSL. The directions are here.



The outside of John's card is the same as the kids, but you aren't allowed to see the inside because that's private;) I also gave him a picture of moi, since he lacked one. This picture is from my friend Marty's wedding in 2004, I think, on the coast of Mexico.

I also tried to make a paper craft for cutting out shapes from paper with an exacto knife, but I failed miserably.

My mother got crafty too, I received this in a package from her. God bless my mom, I just love getting packages, especially ones that contain gifts like these.

And she also made Valentines mobiles for the kids. She is just plain awesome!!

Retroactive Immunity for Telecoms

I have to admit, that to a degree, I've sheltered myself from a lot of the 'news' in the media since moving to NH. No news programs, no newspapers, unless you count the local paper that comes out twice a week, with no real national news. I do check out the headlines every few days as I log into an older yahoo email account. It just seems like an easier way to live, being slightly ignorant of all of the bad stuff that's going on out there and the media's take on it.

But I did receive an email from someone from the former Chris Dodd presidential campaign...yes, I was a supporter, but unfortunately, the campaign didn't seem to get too far off of the ground. By the time the NH primary rolled around, he was out of the race. Anyway, it mentioned that the retroactive immunity for telecoms passed in the Senate by a healthy margin. So it seems that the Bush administration is pushing for immunity for these large telecom companies that wiretapped us illegally, and the Senate bought it hook, line and sinker, with just 29 voting against (all democrat). It just goes to show, to me, how deeply congressman reside in the pockets of large companies, and that money just makes everything go away. Here's John Edward's take before the vote from reclaim the media and an article from the Minnesota Monitor, post-vote. *sigh*.

Snow Hampshire

It began snowing at the beginning of December and has been on the ground ever since. Here are some snapshots of my environment.

Our first snow in late November

And again in early December

The Nubanusit River

And even more snow...

John doing one of his favorite things, snow blowing the driveway (Not!), in mid-January

Downtown Peterborough

John's bird feeder

I love the snow and I love New Hampshire!

Peterborough homes, S1

Handmade

OK, so I'm a cliche', to a degree. There's no question that there is an arts and crafts movement afoot, my sense is in response to the over-commercialization of our goods. People just want to feel more connected to what they own and buy, at times. Knitting is my main muse in this arena, but I also enjoy jewelry-making, general crafting, cooking from scratch, and am starting to do more sewing. I also intend to learn how to embroider. It really makes sense though - my mother made many of our clothes, and we did much cross-stitch together, as well as tended a nice size garden. Ok, my mother tended it, but we reaped the benefits. It was the 70's. But I'm finding a lot of the 70's ideals coming back around, like homesteading, growing your own food, canning, knitting and sewing your own clothes. Generally being more self-sufficient in these times of super-stores, global warming and receiving our food from 1500 miles away. John says I'm a 70's girl anyway, in look and thought, and I think he's right. So here are some pictures of my handmade X-mas and a few other projects that I'm working on.

My family exchanges stocking gifts - so most of mine were knitted. I'm pretty proud of myself, because it was my intention to knit most of my stocking gifts the past couple of years, and it just didn't happen. So I'm making progress. Here's a scarf that I made for my brother in law - a simple pattern of increases and decreases made in a beautiful Noro yarn - silk garden, I think. Not only did I like the results, but Drew loved it, which is great! I didn't get to witness him opening the gift though, and I think he was scared, based on the other gifts that he witnessed. See below for what else he saw.
These wrist warmers actually have a cable on the outside and are pretty cool, but definitely a bit intense. I need to make myself a pair of these in a bit calmer color, which I already have. For some reason, my knitting always ends up going to someone else! This pattern is from Rowan, a fall issue from several years ago. Awesome!

I also made a hat for my mother out of manos yarn, from a pattern from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, one of my favorite knitting books. Creative and simple patterns. In addition, I made two scarves from the book, one for my Aunt and one for my grandma. In the link above, you can see an example of the pattern that I used.

And finally, evidence of sewing! My mom and I started curtains for my old home and didn't get them finished by the time I moved to NH, so I modified them and they are now hanging in our spare bedroom. Bucking broncos on one side and sweet yellow and cream gingham on the other. Grommets at the top and bottom, hanging on hooks so they can open like a flap and be turned around.

Here's evidence! I finally set up my sewing machine and got to it. This is actually a picture of me making long tubes of fabric sewn together to keep the draft out from the bottom of our doors, filled with inexpensive macaroni.

Here's a glimpse of a final products. The curtain is folded up once and secured on the hooks - the gingham is on the underneath side. Now it is time to move onto other projects, like painting the bathroom a pretty light turquoise color instead of hideous maroon! A terrible color in a small space with no windows. John got his motivation going and actually did all the primer painting, which is half of the battle. A vast improvement already!