Spring-like weather = 3 season porch!

Oh, the glory that is Spring!  I had almost forgotten how wonderful these first warmish days can be (what with living in Southern California for a couple of years and all). Winter was really starting to get rough on the ol' psyche, when suddenly, Spring arrived!

Joe has been out of town, so Bacon and I have been spending some quality time together. He's started to actually enjoy taking walks, which means we're venturing out further and further each evening.  The extra hour of daylight is helping, too, since we've got at least an hour between the time I get home from work and the time it gets dark.  We've met many neighbors (dog and human) and Bacon has yet to meet anyone he did not love at first sight. This dog loves people.

Anyway, back to the original reason for this post - our 3 season porch!  This space is a big part of what interested me in our apartment (Joe was texting me and emailing pictures as he looked at about a dozen places last spring - I didn't actually see our place until we moved in, yipes!), so I am thrilled to be able to spend time out there!  I've tweaked the space several times since we moved in, but I think now I've got it preeetty much how I want it.

The photo above shows the view looking straight from our back door, through the porch, out to the deck (I know - a porch and a deck?! How awesome is that?!).  It's a small space (dimensions are 5'8" by 10'11"), but we've packed a lot into it!

(Standing about as far to the right side of the porch as possible) I "shopped" our apartment for two red dining room chairs (we have no dining room, but love the chairs, so these chairs are strategically placed in pretty much every room) and a small occasional table (which I see from the photos needs to move to the right a couple of inches). That planter on the floor will eventually have a plant in it, and might move out to the deck.  No plants yet, though, since I don't want to kill anything in the inevitable brief return of winter weather.

Again, I shopped our apartment for some accessories for this table.  The glass hurricane is one that I purchased at TJ Maxx for $5 (or was it Marshalls?) at Christmas time, and filled with bulb ornaments and that same candle). Some of you may recognize the stones that now fill the container; we had a bowl of stones that everyone signed the day after our wedding when we were lounging around our apartment. We've been trying to have our guests continue to sign stones, but I think we're out of blank ones.   Anyway, it's something special to us. The Capiz plate is from World Market, I believe.  I liked the color, which goes really nicely with the teals in our apartment.

A few tea candles on the window sill...

My favorite BIG canvas print, purchased at IKEA (I know, art from IKEA, kind of lame...) when I moved into the Chicago apartment with Al.  It's such a happy print!  I originally had it hung next to my TV in the living room, but I tried it here and love it!  Good think I've got some other things for the living room.  All good.

Also, you can see the door leading into the apartment on the left in this photo.

More tealights, and a pretty little coaster that my Boston cousins (Natalie and Rebecca) picked out for Joe and I for Christmas while we were celebrating Thanksgiving in Door County this year.  I love the colors!

This is the other side (so, to the right as you stand in the doorway). We keep tools and other utilitarian items in the red cart with Joe's Very Manly Toolchest on top of it.  Not so pretty, but in a small space with no garage, you've got to do what you've got to do.  The chair is VERY comfy, though, and I plan to spend many an hour reading and lounging in that chair with Bacon this spring. The chair used to be in our bedroom, but it got banished when I set up a mini office for myself in there. That's all - except for this:

Who's cuter that Bacon, carrying an ice cube? No one, that's who.

Roasted Cabbage with Bacon

thekitchn.com

I thought I'd post the recipe for one of our favorite foods.  It really should be a side dish, but we eat it as the main event (lately with quinoa, Joe's newest obsession)

Roasted Cabbage with Bacon

1/2 head of green cabbage
4 strips bacon, sliced
salt and pepper
a drizzle of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cut the cabbage into wedges. Line them up in a baking dish.  Sprinkle the bacon slices over the top of the wedges. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Roast for 15 minutes, then, using tongs, flip the wedges.  They should be browning a bit.  Roast for another 15 minutes or until they are tender.

Ta-da! Serve with quinoa, rice, pasta, whatever!

Sunday Soup: Fennel and Tomato with creme fraische

This Oscar Sunday we had a really nice, rustic, full-o-veggies soup.  Delish!

Fennel and Tomato Soup with Creme Fraiche

4 medium fennel bulbs
one medium onion
2 carrots
6 sprigs fresh marjoram
salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium)

Creme Fraiche
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Make the creme fraiche first - whisk the ingredients together and let sit until time for serving.  You would ideally make this about 6 hours ahead, but I've never actually managed this.

Remove the fennel fronds, quarter, and remove the core.  Chop to a 1 inch dice. Onion and carrot should be chopped to a similar size.

Heat the oil in a medium sized soup pot.  Add the fennel, onion, and carrot; cook until the veggies start to brown, maybe 10 minutes.

Add about a teaspoon of salt, the marjoram, and the red pepper flakes.  Stir and let it get fragrant; add the tomatoes and broth.  Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

Use your immersion blender (Yeah!) to puree the soup, or use a regular blender very carefully.  Leave it a little chunky if you like (I like).  In a small bowl, combine 1/3 c. of the creme fraiche with a ladle-full of soup.  Stir this into the rest of the soup.

Serve in big mugs with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of fresh marjoram.  I served with a slice of a rustic, seedy bread.  It was delicious.

Enjoy!

Sunday Soup: Curried Cauliflower Soup

This one was a hit - Joe took one bite and uttered a resounding "mmm!" He then stated that this soup was one of his favorites.  Nice.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 large-ish cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
about 3 tbsp curry powder
1 head cauliflower, florets roughly chopped
4-5 red skinned potatoes, chopped
4 cups chicken broth (ideally low-sodium)
low-fat/non-fat greek yogurt
lemons
Salt and pepper

In a large saucepan (I used my larger Le Creuset, maybe 5 qt?  I don't really know), add enough olive oil to cover the bottom, heat until shimmering. Add the onions, cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for about a minute. Add the curry powder. If you're worried about the mixture being too dry (I was, since the powder seemed to soak up all of the oil), add a little more oil. Cook for a minute or so, until the curry powder is nice and fragrant (don't let it burn). I realized at this point that I wasn't ready to add the rest of the ingredients (I hadn't chopped the veggies yet), so I took the soup off of the heat until I was ready.

Add the cauliflower, potatoes, broth, and enough water to cover the veggies. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the veggies are fork-tender. If you have an immersion blender (I do!  Thanks, Joe! Thanks, Costco!) use it to carefully puree the soup in the pot (you can leave some chunks for texture, which is what I should have done).  If you don't have one, use a food processor or blender; just work in batches and be careful, the soup is hot!

Taste, and season with salt if needed.  I didn't need any, since I did not use low-sodium chicken broth (plus the soup tasted flavorful enough. You only want to add salt to enhance the flavors in the dish, not to taste the actual salt.)

To serve, ladle into bowls and add a dollop of yogurt (using greek yogurt is great since it's thick and creamy without having a lot of fat) and a squeeze of lemon juice. This is key. Do not skip these ingredients. I firmly believe that the yogurt and lemon were directly responsible for Joe's "Mmm!" response. Crack some fresh pepper over it.  We think it would be good with some chopped, toasted walnuts as well. And, as always, you could add some chopped, crisp-cooked bacon (but we're partial to bacon. And Bacon.)

I served this soup with one of my favorite salads: arugula with a drizzle of olive oil,  a squeeze of lemon, a little salt, and a crank or two of freshly cracked pepper. It rounded out the meal very nicely.

Enjoy, and have a good week!

My absence

Dear Rowdy,
Thanks for letting me come to your house to play.  You taught me that I shouldn't bite.  My parents really like that.
Your friend,
Bacon

Hi all!  I think I'm just going to pretend that I didn't disappear from the blogosphere for a month.  I'll just jump right back in, like nothing ever happened...after this post.

The past month has been pretty busy, since Joe resumed classes and added some responsibilities as the president of the GBA (Graduate Business Association, for those non-MBA folks out there).  I'm still working full time, cooking dinner (usually from scratch) each evening, staying on top of the housekeeping as best I can, and spending lots of time with Bacon.

By the way, Bacon is doing great.  He's probably the best decision we've ever made together (aside from the marriage thing). He's so fun, cute, and cuddly!  He keeps us on our toes with puppy-proofing and training. He also loves our attention, so when he's not sleeping, he wants to be with one of us and he generally wants to be playing or in a lap.  Thus, things like blogging get put on the back burner...

At the moment, he's enjoying a long nap in his crate. Today was the second-to-last class of "Puppy I," which is always super-fun and super-exhausting.  He's still the class clown, but he's really well liked. Especially by the kids in the class. One of them brought a camera to take pictures of Bacon today.  Four of them asked if they could get Bacon to "sit" and give him a treat.  Yes, please! We read that, up until 14 weeks old, puppies get optimal benefit from socialization. The more he's exposed to different kinds of people and animals no, the better.  That includes kids, which is great, since we plan to have a couple of those within Bacon's lifetime.  Get ready, Bacon! You won't be our "baby" forever, sorry to say!

Bacon week 2, and off to puppy school!

As of today, we've had Bacon for two weeks.  We've been having many fun adventures, and learning many new things!

Bacon says...
1. I know "sit" now!
2. I love my crate!
3. I can go up the stairs, even the ones that are covered in snow (on the porch).
4. Down the stairs is toooooo scary right now.  I prefer to stand at the top and bark.  When I tried going down a few, I felt pretty out of control (like my butt was going to pass my head!), so my mom gave me a ride.
5. I FREAKING LOVE PUPPY SCHOOL!!!!

That's right, everyone. Bacon had his first day of puppy school today.  We were all excited and a little nervous, and Bacon did beautifully while waiting for the class to start.  He was so relaxed.  Then, we started some training exercises, and we quickly found that Bacon is quite the little class clown!  He was so excited to see the other puppies, and REALLY wanted to play. He did not do well with practicing redirecting his attention to us - the teachers say that he is "not really food motivated," i.e. treats are not that helpful.  He does not care about treats when there are people or other dogs to sniff and enjoy. We tried several different treats, and they worked for about two seconds each.  Toys seemed to be more motivating, so we borrowed some toys from the teachers and rewarded his successful behavior with a few seconds of play with the toys.

After working on redirecting attention and "sit," the puppies got to have some free play time.  Bacon was placed in a play group with two other dogs (although he was the smallest, they placed him in the "medium" group because he was so excited, unlike the other small dogs), and he tore around, sniffing butts and inciting the other puppies to play.  He was the ringleader of the bunch.  I could not believe how energetic he was!

I think the low point came when the instructors were trying to demonstrate how to do the "come" command, and they debated using Bacon for the demonstration (he and maybe two other dogs were still awake at this point). The instructors seemed to be talking in some sort of code about why NOT to have Bacon demonstrate (we see right through you, teachers!), so they chose another of the puppies. We're not offended or anything...

No harm done. Bacon was clearly well-liked by the instructors, other dogs, and other dog parents. They thought he was hilarious. I kind of felt like the parents whom I see in my work: they talk about how excited their children were to start kindergarten, then their kids end up in trouble all day long.  What? My dog? The class clown? Nooooo....

It was a very exciting day.  We have a lot of practicing to do.  Too bad Bacon has been sleeping since we got home....

Bedroom decor

Sunday was a lazy day around here (think, PJs all day), but we got one little project accomplished.

Up until now, our bedroom has been pretty simple: we painted it a nice, neutral shade of cream (Benjamin Moore's Sail Cloth) when we moved in, since it was periwinkle before; but we haven't done much else. No art on the walls, nothing. We have stuff to hang, but that part takes me awhile, since it feels like a bit of a commitment (even though it's really not).

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for some creative, easy, inexpensive decor ideas that work for both of us. Joe tends to be a little leery of girly stuff, which includes most bedding.  Our duvet and shams are a natural linen fabric, thus, the bedroom is pretty neutral.

I saw this post at Apartment Therapy, and showed it to Joe (the man loves sticks).  He liked it so much, he went out and bought a bundle of sticks that same day.  Crazy, I know.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/diy/megs-diy-wall-art-10-10-minutes-136114

We played around with the arrangement, and came up with this:

We went for horizontal sticks to de-emphasize the short ceiling height and contrast with the vertical lines of the bed frame.

The sconces were added a couple of weeks ago.  I found them at Home Depot, and was drawn to them because they plug in (and therefore are do-able in a rental!).

I added a black-framed sepia photo from our engagement shoot. The colors tied in nicely with the decor.

This is a tiny room (though not the tiniest that we've shared - that would be the one in Chicago), but there's not much room for anything other than the bed! So, this makes a nice focal point.  Love it!