It's not that I don't care...oh who am I kidding , yes it is.

Ha!

So we went to the farm again this weekend, for a second walk through post eviction of the evil lady and also post some cleanup having been done. This was mostly for the benefit of HN, since I have already mentally moved in pretty much. This time though, the tour had a twist. We brought the whole damn family. Ok, not the *whole* family, but his mother and his very sensible, post modern styl-y sister. You can probably imagine that she was not much impressed with the ramshackle farm of my dreams. Which was fine, I didn't really expect her to be. Her house is different than a house I would want to live in, and I am happy to accept our differences and recognize that in matters of decor I probably don't want her input. Hence my never asking her.

HN however, being still a little unsure that the dismal pit he was looking at would in fact be transformed into the gilded palace in my mind, brought along Mom and Sister, for moral support I guess. I think he thinks my perspective is not realistic (if he only knew!) and wanted someone to give an opinion similar to his, to wit: report on what is there not what it will be when I'm done with it. Which is whatever: I haven't typically lived a life where I stop and ask everyone what they think about what I'm about to do. I go by myself, listen to my inner voice and pack the truck/write a check/head for the hills. It's jsut how I do. It's not how he does though, so I was trying to be sensitive. Plus, his mother informed my that that's how Latin American families do it. Everyone into the truck, someone is thinking of making a decision!

At the very least I thought it would be fun to watch. And it was, I guess. Ok, no it really wasn't. I am not a good compromiser, nor am I good at pretending to listen when people offer opinions I didn't ask for. So it went like this:

HN (to ME) What do you think? would this be a bedroom?
me: (opening mouth as to speak since I was directly addressed)
HN Sister: That doesn't make any sense! Why would you do that! This is the best room over here, but you must take down this silly fake brick (ed. note: now the brick stays! and I will show it to her weekly!)
HN Mother: Oh, HN, you should ask them if you can do this and this and this to the house. And ask also if they will take it off of rent! (ed note: she is Chilean. they can't not bargain. She tried to bargain the fabric lady at JoAnn's last week = HILARIOUS!)
me: (opening mouth as to speak)
HN Sister: And why are there 3 bathrooms! You should knock this all off, the whole back of the house, it's ridiculous!!!
me: (exit, stage left. Go hang out with Marla, house owner, F bomb dropper extraordinaire. A woman after my own heart)

This went on in some fashion for about 10 minutes. Then I just dissociated myself from the pack of them and went on my own tour. I still love it. I hung out with Marla, looking so very fetching in her carharrt coveralls with a sledgehammer and a crowbar. I want to be Marla when I grow up. I visited with Joyce, Marla's wife/ whatever lame legal term etc, who is super duper nice and was doing the non violent bits of stuff like pulling nails and spackling. I kicked it with their dog BoBo, toured the grounds, planned my room/new life on the farm and in general floated about smiling and leaving the room whenever a member of the HN clan opined. I have it all figured out.

After the tour, we departed (everyone back in the truck! Enclosed spaces are great for forcing opinions on people who keep leaving the room when you talk!), then I kicked them all out of my car, lock stock and smoking neighbor and went on an errand/shopping/alone time run and made many decisions without so much as a lick of input. So therapeutic. When I returned, HN and I were able to have a discussion about the day's adventure and what we had seen/were thinking, I was able to communicate that I love and plan to move to the farm and that next time he brings his whole family along I stay home. (i kid, i kid. Ok, I dont kid)

Bottom line= green acres is the place to be, and we're going for it! Sadly, I won't get Christmas on the farm just like I've always dreamed of, but gladly it's because more renovations are being done and it's just not feasible. There's also a surgery factor (his not mine) and a few other things to consider, but the wheels are in motion.

I can live with that.

you need to know this...

Oh man, we made the giant squash last night. My faculties were a bit impaired by the time it got to the table, I wish I had taken a pic. (crap, theres a theme here. I need to learn to think like a blogger)

HN's sister is in town from Portland, as is his mother from Chile. Local sister is having a kids birthday party today, so to give everyone a little break from the week, we had decided to have them over to his place for dinner. He's laid up with a bum knee, but Dr Sister and I went to town, and the masses were appropriately impressed. I'll tell you, a giant squash that has a trap door carved in it and is not only filled with food but edible itself is in fact an impressive centerpiece. Very.

It was also nice because we got to use all of the dishes he has that I like at the same time. His mom being from Chile, and him getting there or her coming up at least once a year (and a Chilean person never traveling without at least an extra suitcase worth of presents for those they are going to be visiting*) means that he has an amazing and extensive collection of dishes, handcrafted by his mother's husband's ex-wife the potter, who does incredible work. I do most of the cooking, and I do it at my house, so we don't get to use his cool shit nearly enough. So last night not only did we have dinner at his place, but we made enough food to feed a damn army and I got to break out all of my favorite dishes. Since I packed all the leftovers up in said cool dishes, I might sneak back over there and take some pictures before he dismantles it all. It won't look the same as it did last night, but it might do. Gotta be better than nothing, and you should all really see this. It was like early vegetarian thanksgiving. I did my famous roasted veggies, because HN always likes those, and I made forbidden rice (gasp!) and Dr Sister aka Dr J took over the stuffing and killed it. She used: apples, kale, almond, onion, some squash, raisins, wine, spices, mushrooms and more. Then we took the giant squash seeds, roasted them and put those and some pomegranate pods over a bed of lettuce and tossed with a balsamic for a very simple salad. Out of the park!

* = I am now in the present loop. Yay! Now I own some cool Chile dishes too! HN and everyone in his family all have these badass mugs from Lise (potter) and I'm always ogling them. HN's mother brought me 4 as one of my presents. Yay! Here are my 2 faves I think:
Lise does 3 glaze colors (that I've seen) and many styles. HN has tons with creatures on them, fishes, dinosaurs, etc so I asked for a creature one and she brought birds. The mug is circled with them and each is different but V cool. Coffee has never been so delicious. I also got another pura alpaca scarf. HN had brought me back a huge and beautiful pashmina when he went, because that's the kind of guy he is and this time his mother brought me a smaller scarf and in this crazy pink/red combo color. It's not a color I would necessarily pick out myself but she has impeccable tastes and it does work for me. Plus, it's so soft and it smells like Chile. mmmmmm

I will eventually get around to pictures of all of this. I'm going armed with my camera today, Dr J and I are heading to the farmer's market and then to the Charm City Craft Mafia's show to get our shop on. Add to that the fact that the first shipment of seahorses has come in, and it's shaping up to be a pretty ok weekend.

Unique and secret method in the history of preparing a treat for those who love spicy dishes.

Spaghetti squash, Blue Hubbard, Golden nugget and Acorn. Mm. I love my 35 lbs of squash.

I might be ready to admit I have a problem.

When you talk about squash so much that you bore the squash man at the farmer's market, you know you've gone too far. When he sees you coming and looks busy and sends his second man over to deal with you, you *really* know you've gone too far. This might make the feint of heart rethink their Vitamin A filled, fibrous wonder food obsession. However I -undaunted and unwilling to take a hint- waited his ass out, making sure to make eye contact and wave to let him know I was on to him and that I would hold, as it was sat morning and I had nothing else to do besides obsess over heirloom veggies. I won't settle for man # 2, because he doesn't know the names or the relative sweetnesses of the squashes, and these things matter to me. Plus, once you get the squash man going, he always steers you right. Luckily, I was able to pass the time quickly because I have a squash soul mate. Who knew! She presented herself at the booth, pulling the thoughts right out of my head when she announced "I need one of these because it would be fun to eat something so pretty!" so she and I spent a few minutes exchanging squashy stories and debating recipe ideas and fondling the fruit. The squash man came by eventually, and I do believe we made him consider going into the tomato business with our incessant questioning. Mostly it was just him looking completely dumbfounded as she and I nattered back and forth about how pretty it was, and what kind of meal you could design around eating out of your centerpiece. We tried to get him involved by asking what he thought of our plans, and in retrospect, I believe this is where it started to get painful for him. End results are thusly:

1)I am now the proud owner of a 15lb Blue Hubbard squash (I don't know what I'm going to do with it ok, but I couldn't just LEAVE it there!)
2)I am also now the proud owner of a Golden Nugget Pumpkin and an Acorn squash.
3)I already had 3 squashes at home.
4)I may no longer have the option of going to the squash table without HN, as he is beginning to realize I have no self control once I begin obsessing with something. He's still in the stage where it's amusing, which is good for him since I'm feeling like I'm just getting warmed up.

I was going through my squashes yesterday and realized I had 6. Taking a step back, I deemed 6 to be too many, and too much pressure, so I cooked 2 of them (pumpkin and delicata), pureed the flesh and tagged it and bagged it and stuck it in the freezer. Someday soon the pumpkin will become the glue that binds a delicious risotto and I believe the delicata is headed for some cookies or muffins but I have other, more pressing fruits to deal with right now. I don't honestly know what I'll do with Big Blue. It's bigger than most newborns, and undoubtedly way more delicious. One man told me to smash it on the ground, then roast the pieces but duh! If having it huge and whole wasn't the point, would I have bought it in the first place? Probably not old dude, but thanks. What I can't wait for is the seeds. HN and I are cucurbita seed connoisseurs at this point. So far, Jarrahdale is my fave. He's stuck on plain old pumpkin.

The other option is to cook and serve dinner in it for HN's family. The only downside to this is that in order to do right by the squash, I would probably have to go back to my nemesis, chestnut stuffing. And alot of it. And then there's pressure, because HN's family is chock full of good cooks. Effortless good cooks, which is a very high bar. I'm always picking up their tricks, but they've got nothing in the hole for something like this. I would be totally off the reservation.

And then there's the radish issue. I bought a Daikon because they were a buck, and it was huge, and I'm sure you see the trend here. I love giant produce, there I said it! The fucking thing won't die, and I'm *trying* to stop wasting food so I feel obligated to eat it. I shredded half of that with the rest of the watermelon beets,some carrots and some rice vinegar. I had some Sat, some Sun and some today. And I still have about a pound of that shit left. AND it was only half the Daikon! And you know what smells real bad? A cut Daikon! In truth, that little gem might account for my throwing the rest of it away free of guilt.

Not wasting food is pressur-ous. Although I suppose it's the buying too much to begin with that sets it off now isn't it. Yesterday I came home with my new produce, and took all the last week's stuff that hadn't made the grade (we had dinner out twice last week, totally messed with my food budget man) and made "kitchen sink soup" which is basically all the stuff that's nearing the end of it's crisp days thrown in a pot with a can of tomatoes, some rosemary and some BTB. I had that for lunch and dinner, and made HN have some too. I couldn't face it for lunch so I had MORE radish salad and some sweet potato fries. And some leftover mac and cheese because I needed something starchy and not veggie to eat.

Sigh.

peeking into the living room. Baltimore office is now FULL of sun!

yay!

That's all I have to say. I watched the election with HN and a cohort of cohorts at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser here in B'more. Righteous to be out on this night watching it happen.

Now if I could just hear about prop 8.

I always feel like, somebody's watching me...

Mail today at work:

------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is



You can WATCH people?! I must find out how to do this.

My Fancy Weekend by Kerry Smith

Dear both of my bloggy friends,

This weekend I was very fancy. HN and I were very fancy to be more precise. Friday night we had tickets to the symphony (a birthday gift way back when from HN). We decided since we were going to be dressed up anyway, we should have a fancy dinner first. We did, and it was quite delicious. We went to the Brewer's Art, which I was unaware had actual food, their reputation being centered mostly around Resurrection "THE BEST BEER EVER IN BALTIMORE"!!! (not my quote, though I concede it is not bad) But their other food was recommended to me by a friend who knows about such things, so on her suggestion we went. And it was delicious, as previously stated. We started with the pumpkin risotto with sage brown butter (and some wine), then I moved onto steak (ahem, and some wine), which was solidly flavored although I would not order that particular cut of meat again, and HN onto Butternut squash ravioli, with pear and chestnuts and something else that made him swoon. Dessert was some ridiculous chocolate/beer concoction that I want to marry when I grow up.

Properly full to the gills, we headed for the symphony, where as a bonus they did the Mickey Mouse thing from Fantasia. Yay! The other stuff was fun too, but the Sorcerer's Apprentice was def my favorite part. There was a very impressive foreign man as a guest first violin, but being as I am fancy and he is not my broker or my lawyer, I do not recall his name.

Saturday I went to the Waverly market (see the fancy thing going on ?) and procured a Jarrahdale heirloom squash, for which I had very fancy plans. The dude from whom I bought this thing and I had a quick pow-wow on things to try and I gathered the rest of my produce needs and headed home. Being as this was my fancy weekend, I decided to stop and catch sunspots in the grass at the sculpture garden near the BMA. Always a good time.

I went home and put some primer on the living room walls in preparation for their covering with a color we'll just call "I had a temper tantrum and decided it needs to be brighter in the living room" (it worked. Alot, like WOW) and then HN came and rescued me from the boredom and workiness of it all by insisting I join him on a motorcycle ride in the northern direction, possibly to places we'd never been before. It was 75 and the sugar maples are turning, how could I resist?? HN's eagle eyes happened to catch a "Winery" sign, and together with his quick brain that knows how I like the juice, he decided we should stop in for a wine tasting. (Handsome AND smart!) So we did. We came away with 4 bottles, all very delicious. We also came away heading in the wrong direction and proceeded to chart previously uncharted parts of Northern MD for the next 2 hours. I was shocked, as I was *sure* we were heading South. Which should have been his first clue that we were not.

Yesterday I painted a coat on the living room, read/got to know a beer while I admired/cringed at my handiwork and then cooked a very fancy dinner, which recipe I will share below. It was delicious, but chestnut stuffing is a pain in the not fancy area. This might be relegated to "special occasions" or "bored and have time to kill" type dinners.

I used:
1 Jarrahdale squash (picked because it's big enough to stuff and pretty enough to put on the table and serve out of). You could do a couple of smaller ones (acorn), or also a turban squash or a fancy french squash for pretty's sake.

1 package of sun dried tomato sausage from Whole Foods
Forbidden rice (also from whole foods)
Onion
Garlic
Thyme
Chestnuts


Put the chestnuts flat side down on the counter and cut an X in the top. If you don't do this they will explode. (cool but not necessarily desirable)
Put the Chestnuts and the whole squash (seriously don't even try to fuck with this thing raw. It's fortified, just ask the bloody stump of my thumb from when it spat the knife back at me) in the oven at 350. The squash should be on a pan of some sort for easy handling.

After 15 minutes -or when the skins are peeling back from the Xs- take the chestnuts out.

Leave the squash in there.

Start cooking the rice.

Saute the Onion in some Olive oil until translucent on medium heat or so. Add the garlic, and after 1 minute, add the sausage meat, removed from it's casing and increase the heat. Stir occasionally, and poke to break up the meat. Commence peeling and cutting up the chestnuts.

Once the sausage is browned, add the chopped chestnuts to the dish and cover so they can continue to cook and absorb the sausage grease which is delicious and good for you.

Take the squash out of the oven, and be careful its HOT<- fact. Put some gloves on, cut off the top- be generous, you want a big opening. I just hacked the whole top off so it was flat, and then pull out the seedy bits (put them aside to cook later like pumpkin seeds if you want)

I also scraped out some of the interior flesh to make room, putting aside what I get into a bowl. (if it's not soft, toss it in the microwave for 2 minutes while you do this next part)

Mix some rice with the sausage stuffing until you get your desired ratio. I like a little rice, just for looks.

Spoon the sausage/chestnut/onion/garlic/rice into the squash. Now mash the removed squash innards, mix with a little cayenne and some butter and put on top of the stuffing. Put it all back in the oven to cook until the top is browned. 20 min or so. During this time, your squash will also ooze squash juice into your stuffing and vice versa, so it gets extra tasty. Don't be impatient.

Monday, monday

The whole house has "dont wannt get outta bed-itis"