A Saturday, in Pictures

Snapshots of our Saturday at home. There was cheesecake with strawberries and mint flavored simple syrup simmering for juleps and projects and lots of light and warmth. Isn't April just the best?

Around Here

Things are coming together around here. I've been in the process of painting every room in the house different shades of white, and it feels wonderful and full of light. I love bright colors, but I'm also very fickle--my tastes change constantly. So, I'm learning that I need to use bright color sparingly, in special ways, and in temporary ways, so I can change my mind without too much investment lost! Little lessons...

P.S. I finally found a home for my favorite painting. It hung in my grandmother's house while I was growing up, and then I inherited it. 

march

I keep thinking it's still late February, and that means I've repeatedly been relieved that it's finally March. The two photos above basically sum up February: dark, cold, rainy weather, short days spent inside teaching and practicing, little encouragements along the way, working on sprucing up our home, and learning my way around my DSLR (which is almost never out of my sight now). One of my favorite things about the process of learning to take pictures is when I realize, "Oh! I can take a picture of that...from that angle!" For instance, my violin. Which basically has personhood status in this household, anyway, so I may be taking a lot of portraits of it. Long story short: welcome, March! (Although it's half gone now.)

P.S. I just learned to make a Favicon. I didn't even know what that word meant until today, when I thought to myself, "Hey, I wonder how you change that little tiny icon on the tab next to your blog title?" Thank you, Google. It's the little things.

north georgia snapshots

Oh, what a lovely weekend of resting, shutterbug-ing, walking, and watching movies by the fire! Many thanks to Bunky for letting me bribe him with horse treats so I could snap his photo, and to a wonderful mother-in-law for wandering around with me to explore nearby hills and valleys. Counting down to the next mountain house trip...

Outdoors

Spring is coming...I can feel it. (And, of course, the calendar confirms my intuition.) That means wood fires in the backyard, parties around the time the dogwoods bloom, and planting vegetables. We poked around in the yard this afternoon to scope out our future garden, shuffle the compost pile around, and practice with my camera.

Roasted Chicken Soup

Lately, I've been on the hunt for: a) healthy, not-bland comfort food recipes, and b) any excuse to use my immersion blender (Read: best Christmas gift ever. The words "working one batch at at time, blend..." always struck fear in my heart because I knew I was in for a goopy disaster and lots of dirty dishes, albeit a deliciously creamy result. No more! I'm not much of a gadget person, but I'm pretty sure everyone should have one of these. You can even whip cream with it, and all you have to do is rinse the blade when you're done! All right, shameless plug over.)

Hence, an invention: Roasted Chicken Soup with Beans and Greens.

This recipe makes one large pot. None of this "serves two" business. Because I firmly believe that if you're going to go to the trouble of making soup, you should have enough left over for a few lunches in the fridge and two containers in the freezer for reserves (one for an emergency rainy-day dinner, and one for when you hear that your friend is sick. Just don't forget to date the containers! They keep for 3 months.).

gather.
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 leeks, chopped and rinsed well
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
8 cups low-salt chicken broth
2 14 ounce cans white beans, drained
2 14 ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
¼ cup parsley, chopped
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
6 oz baby spinach leaves
8 oz chopped kale, tough stems removed
Grated Parmesan cheese

prepare.
Preheat oven to 450.
Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, leeks, 4 cloves of garlic, celery, and carrots and sauté until tender, about 15 minutes. Add rosemary and stir 1 minute. Add 5 cups of broth, along with all the beans. Bring soup to boil; reduce to medium-low and simmer, covered, until flavors blend, about 30 minutes.

meanwhile:
Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Roast, basting occasionally with broth (about 1 cup total), for 30 minutes, or until cooked through and slightly golden. Cool and shred chicken.

Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a separate (medium-sized) pot over medium heat. Add kale and 2 cloves garlic and sauté until kale turns bright green. Add 2 cups broth and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low, and steam for 10 minutes. (I like to cook the kale and chicken separately because they are way more flavorful that way.)

assemble.
Remove soup base from heat and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Add kale and chicken (along with all the juices from both), parsley, and spinach. Over low heat, stir until spinach wilts. Check seasonings and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with grated parmesan for sprinkling.

a perfect dutch baby

Our latest breakfast adventure: Gingerbread Spice Dutch Baby. 8 ounces of deliciousness in the form of an oversized and rumpled pancake, topped with berries, sprinkled with sugar, and drizzled with honey, maple syrup, and heavy cream. Three cheers for the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, and for a husband who's always game for trying new breakfast foods. (Photo credits: Myself! Yay!) (Recipe: find it here)

guess what the mailman is bringing?

For years, I've been talking about getting a good camera and setting my mind to learning it. For years, I've been putting it off as too daunting of a task.

Two days ago, I ordered it.

Tomorrow, it's coming in the mail.

I can't wait to look that shiny little Canon Rebel T4i square in the viewfinder. I'll have a lot to learn, but I'm ready to tackle a new adventure. I'm enjoying this very, very rare phase of life where I actually have some available mental space (what a novelty!). So, here goes: pestering my brother and other talented photographer friends with a steady stream of questions, accosting unsuspecting people to snap their portraits, letting the dinner get cold while I try to photograph it, and totally geeking out over one more thing. And I hope, too, that this will give me a new platform from which to engage a different set of people. I'm ready.