week 1: black & white

Last year, I planned to post a picture every week, based off of this list. It didn't happen. I decided to try again this year. I received a handmade calendar this year that I absolutely love. It's home is in my dining room. I heart my super creative friends!

a list for 2012

I can't believe the planner in me made it to January 4 without establishing any concrete goals / resolutions for the year. It's pained me a little, but I've really tried to work on attainable goals. You know, maybe those that will stick around pasy January 4.

1. Finish all the books I've started.
This is totally doable. And necessary. When we moved last year, I packed all of my books in progress. I didn't find them until a few weeks ago. Sad, I know. I could be forgetting one or two, but I know that these are on the list: Into the Wild, Bird by Bird, The Glass Castle, Cordelia's Honor, One Thousand Gifts.

2. Find a farm that provides fresh eggs.
As much as I would love to buy everything local and organic, it's overwhelming. I've decided to start with baby steps. We use lots of eggs, and I love 'em! I don't typically have time to make them for breakfast, but I love an easy dinner of roasted vegetables with a fried egg on top. We buy free range eggs at our grocery, but I really want to buy local eggs. Although we technically live in a small city, our home is in a more rural area. I've seen a 'fresh eggs' sign down the road from us. Now, I need to work up the courage to make my way up their winding drive!

3. Have friends over for dinner.
I wish that my goal were: have more friends over for dinner. Since we married, having people over seems to have come to a halt. I'm not sure why. But this girl loves having people over for dinner! We're stepping up our game this year. I'm shooting for once a month.

4. Unpack all boxes.
If you're counting months, we moved eight months ago. We have a room of forgotten boxes. Shutting the door does wonders! Over Christmas break, I emptied 9 boxes, along with organizing lots in our house. I'm giving myself until December to unpack the rest.

5. Read the Old Testament.
Technically, this could go under goal #1. I set out to read the entire Bible last year. I only read about 25%. I decided that I'd modify my goal. This year, I'll finish reading the Old Testament.

I like my list. I've thought about these goals for several days. These are all things that I can over the course of 2012. What about you? Anything you'd like to accomplish this year?

2011 Superlatives

There are just a few hours remaining in 2011. It seems like the year has flown by! Before the ball drops, ringing in the new year (and before we go to bed while celebrating midnight with the folks on the east coast), I thought I'd do a quick synopsis of a few favorites. Here we go:

Favorite Fiction: The Help, Half Broke Horses

Favorite Non-fiction: Under the Banner of Heaven, Unbroken, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Book Most Likely to Make Me Want to Leave my Job and Home for a Farm: The Dirty Life

Most Indulgent Dessert (TIE): White Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, Peanut Butter Cup Martini. Both at Lulu's Chocolate Bar in Savannah.

Favorite Food (Summer category): Watermelon with feta cheese and honey

Favorite Food (Winter category): Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash

New Favorite Drink (Summer category): Iced Coffee. Not iced cappuccino or iced latte. Just iced coffee with cream(er).

New Favorite Drink (Winter category): Hot Chocolate with marshmallow flavored vodka

Promise that We're Most Willing to Keep: Vacation destinations in the summer cannot be in the south. For the second year in a row, we visited lovely cities (Savannah, Charleston, Atlanta) during a heat wave. Canada, anyone?

Most Likely to Love Us Forever: Persephone. The neighborhood cat we stole from our previous house. (It was actually legal-ish. We talked to someone who lived on the next street over that approved of our adopting her.)

Best Game: Dicecapades. After eyeing it for a few weeks, I decided to buy it. Let me tell you: it's fun. Like really, really fun. In fact, it replaced Cranium as my favorite game.

Most Expensive Purchase:  In April, Husby and I took advantage of the buyers market and purchased our first home. So far, so good. Except when we wish we could call the landlord to replace a doorknob or dig the rogue crepe myrtle out of every single flower bed.

Best TV Shows: Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Castle, Top Chef All-Stars

Best DVD Series (you know, since we don't have cable): Veronica Mars, Alias, LOST

Happy New Year, y'all!

brussels sprouts & grits

Today is the first day of sunshine after three days of (much needed) rain. The light spilling into our home feels so nice. Husby is off this week, so we're enjoying time with each other. Mainly, we do our own thing for a few hours, and then meet on the couch to watch 2 or 5 episodes of LOST, and then repeat. Perhaps we'll go on the walk we've craved over the past few days, but avoided because of the wet weather.

Yesterday, we braved the mist and headed to buy real food. It seems that with holiday treats and meals and busyness, fruits and vegetables and non-processed foods hadn't been in our home for some time. That ended yesterday. For some reason, even though I don't (or won't) shop at WalMart, I do go to Sam's Club. I mean, who can pass up those prices? Our only intent was to buy clementines. But as we walked through the fruits and vegetables, I couldn't stop placing things in our carts. We have two pounds of Brussels sprouts, a huge tub of organic baby spinach, cubed butternut squash, mushrooms, apples and clementines. That's a lot of fruits and veggies.

As evidenced by purchasing two pounds of Brussels sprouts, we love them. I saw a recipe on Pinterest recently for a similar recipe, but it calls for frying the sprouts. Because I didn't want to dodge the splatters of grease, I decided to try roasting them. It worked, and they were fabulous. I served them with some garlic cheese grits and a fried egg. It was a perfect supper: filling, but not too heavy.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Sriracha, Honey & Lime
Adapted from food52.com
Serves 2-4

Ingredients
1 lb Brussels sprouts, cut in half
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon sriracha (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon lime juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil and sesame oil. Spread out on jelly roll pan so that all sprouts are cut-side down. Roast until browned, about 15 minutes, turning once.

While Brussels sprouts are roasting, whisk together honey, sriracha and lime juice. Once sprouts are done, remove from oven. Pour sauce over sprouts, tossing gently to coat. Serve immediately.

Garlic Cheese Grits
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup quick cooking grits
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth, salt, garlic powder and onion powder to a boil. Add grits. Cover and turn heat to low. Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in butter and cheese.

merry christmas

-ing

Last weekend, Husby and I attended the annual Bailey Christmas Party. It's an occasion not to be missed. Each year is a food theme. {Yes, they are fabulous friends who develop a party around food.} This years them? Dessert. So, after our drive to the big city, we feasted on desserts and chatted the night away. During one conversation, I confessed that I am the queen of copying. I don't have many great original ideas so much as I find great ideas already had, and then copy them. It's an issue of which I'm well aware, and I don't know that I intend to change it anytime soon. So, I shall copy a blog idea from the hostess of said party, and perhaps a link or two.

{COOKING}

For me, cold weather is perfect for soups. Last night, I made Chicken & Dumplings. They warmed us up as the temperature dropped just a bit. We'll eat on the leftovers for the next few days.

Last week, I had a hankering (not a craving) for Vegetable Beef Stew. Having never made it before, I called my mom who advised me on the cut of meat and type of potatoes that are perfect for beef stew. My first attempt was super successful. I'm making it tonight to take to a family, and I plan to write the recipe this time. I'll share sometime soon.

We'll be at my parents on Christmas morning. I've requested that my mom make kolaches filled with raspberry or strawberry jam. Of course, she'll make her favorite: poppy seed kolaches. Along with these amazing sweet rolls, I'm making this Southern Brunch Casserole, which is a tradition with Husby's family. I'm pretty sure my family will love it!

{READING}

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. This is a challenging read for me. I love the premise of the book and have started by List of 1000 Things, but her writing is a tad too poetic for me.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. My college roommate and I decided to read this together. A year later, I'm finally reading it. And it's wonderful.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I loved her Half Broke Horses, so I'm excited to be reading this.

{WATCHING}

LOST. I've shared before that I'm 6-10 years behind on a few series. About three weeks ago, Husby and I started LOST, Season 1. Last night, we started Season 2. Oh my goodness! This show is good, y'all!

Christmas movies. I love Christmas movies that are not of the Hallmark variety. My favorites: Elf, Home Alone, Love Actually, Christmas Vacation, Four Christmases and A Christmas Story.

{CONSIDERING}

Blessed are the entitled? Just perfect in light of the goings-on in my hometown and my recent blog post about the nativity.

Santa, Strategically I like this. Santa remains in Christmas, but a minimal part.

When Christmas Gets Radical I love the idea that a family chooses gifts for those who are desperately in need. For those who would be more thankful for receiving than perhaps I ever could.

Monday Miscellany

• One perk of working in education is all of the breaks. Today begins two weeks off. I have a list of things to accomplish. I've spent today working in our office / library. About every 18 minutes, I get overwhelmed with all of the books we have. But then I come up with a [new] plan. I have most of the books shelved.
• I inherited my grandmother's sewing machine. If you're wondering: no, I don't sew. But I want to. I figure just having it in my house brings me one step closer to actually sewing. Along with it came a small chest where she kept notions. I have the perfect place for it in the office, near the sewing machine. I've cleaned out two of the three drawers so that office materials will have a home.
• It's taking all sorts of self-control not to carry it out to the garage and spray paint it. We have three dark wood bookshelves, so I don't really want a chocolate brown chest, as well. But I will wait for another day.
• My mom introduced me to a new cracker. Have you had these? Fab-u-lous!

• This video is great. An 82 year old grandmother eating Pop Rocks. So cute!