Hook 'Em, Babies!

Remember how in the last post I commented on the number of blankets I've made lately?  So many precious babies entering the world this year! As one can imagine, many of the baby blankets I make are in that "lovely" maroon shade. Being from Texas, lots of friends made that fateful decision to go to Texas A&M.  Which means they spend the rest of their lives singing about how terrible the University of Texas is, and calling me weird names like "t-sipper".   But, all's fair in love and rivalry, I guess. I try not to hold it against them when they produce little Aggie offspring, and (against my better Longhorn judgement) I make them A&M colored afghans.

I just sent one such Aggie blanket to a friend of mine, who is having a little boy in late Spring. It's not been an easy road for them, and we have shared many an email exchange in tears and frustration as we both went through infertility and miscarriage. After our third loss, she sent me a beautiful cross and piece of scripture that I've looked at time and time again. I am so happy to now send her something as they prepare for Hunter's arrival! He is definitely a little miracle and the blessing they've waited for.  Hopefully he (and his A&M graduate mama) will enjoy being wrapped up in maroon and white.

Now, you're probably thinking something like "wow, that is one nice Texas Longhorn who really rises above!"  Well, friends, yes and no. I've got some school pride, too, of course.  Which is why I make sure to sew a teensy little bit of burnt orange in the Aggie blankets I make.  Just in case I can play a role in influencing the wee little one.

HAHA.  Hook Em, baby.  ;)

Two Birds, One Stone/Blanket

Man, I love being efficient.  Devoting myself to efficiency made me a good consultant, and also keeps things running smoothly in my house.  Why be wasteful with time/money/things, when you can be super purposeful in everything you do?  (And, no, I don't drive people crazy at all...)  :)

Here is a clear example of my super productive weekend, where I tackled not one, but TWO problems at the same time. But first, it requires me to share two seemingly unrelated stories...

Story #1 (The Boring One)
My crochet stockpile had become a disaster. So many people having babies lately that I have been making blankets like a machine!  This leads to some lovely gifts, but also lots of scraps and left over yarn.  Plus, now that I am a Michael's reward member (don't make fun), I get great coupons and use them to stock up on my favorite yarn brands.  Please observe - it was out of control!

One issue that I have is that I can't throw away yarn. What if I need to do a teeny tiny hat? What if I need to wrap a wreath? What if I do another blanket in that same color - I would only need to buy one skein!  I save even the shortest of strings, just in case...

...but then I never use them, and it ends us looking like this after a few rounds of baby blanket making.

Story #2 (The More Interesting One - hopefully, since it's not about YARN)
Here at the Sasser house, we are 2 weeks in to Operation Kick-Enda-Out-Of-The-Bed. What started out as innocently letting the furbaby sleep in the bed when one of us was gone has turned into her thinking that we share her queen bed, at her discretion. And she insists on sleeping in between us, under the covers, with her head on a pillow. And, sometimes she gives kisses in the middle of the night. Plus, as we've reported, she is gassy. All good reasons to move her out!

She has a perfectly nice bed in our room, but she doesn't seem to like it.  We realized one night that she likes to burrow her face in the bed (which makes sense, since she burrows under the heavy covers in our bed or on the couch), and also tends to shiver at night.   We decided that maybe a blanket would help her to enjoy her bed more (and, thus, STAY IN IT).

So, do you see where I'm going with these stories?

I decided this weekend that I would make Enda a blanket, using all my scrap yarn - solving two problems at one time!  SUCH A PRODUCTIVE AND EFFICIENT USE OF RESOURCES!   I mean, it's not like she cares about coordinating colors.  I could go with an easy peasy pattern in any yarn I could find, then call it a day.  Which is exactly what I did.  And came out with this:

LOVELY, right? (Don't worry, I know this is ugly and would never give it to a human being.) The whole time I was making it, I was singing Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors song in my head.  You know that song?

My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

Poor Enda:  sporting her blanket of many colors that her momma made for her... Although, as you can see, she seems to like it.

In fact, it has made bed time much easier.  She goes to her bed, we put the blanket on her, and she STAYS ALL NIGHT*!  (*Well, sort of; she wakes up around 5AM, and then paces back and forth from my side to James' side while we say "get in your bed".  Usually she complies, SIGHING quite loudly and plopping herself back down.  But sometimes, if James doesn't wake up, I pull her up onto my side and let her cuddle with me.)

On another positive note, getting rid of all that yarn helped clear out the clutter, and inspired me to organize a bit.  Here you go - a nice, organized yarn stock:

So many great yarns for an actual attractive baby blanket.  To all those 2013 Summer and Fall babies joining our friends and family - I'm ready for you!   :)

Wild Boar Ragu (Eww)

As much as I would like to spend this blog post gushing about the fabulous meal I've just made, I think you might find it more entertaining to know the truth:  for Valentine's day, I made James a pretty yucky meal.

That's right, my wild boar ragu with homemade pasta didn't turn out so hot.  This fancy schmancy dish I've dreamt about ever since I saw Chef Anne Burrell make it on her show two years ago was hardly edible.  Disappointing meals usually sour my mood, but this one has just utterly crushed me!

(Okay, okay, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic.  However, I am seriously pouting upstairs at the moment, while I leave James to clean up and get rid of "the carnage", as I called it.  I couldn't bear to watch hours of my blood, sweat and tears thrown out!)

Honestly, I don't know what happened. I had read and re-read the recipe a million times over the years (which may sound strange, but that's actually a quirky, OCD-ish trait of mine).  I had kept most all the ingredients in my pantry, minus the wild boar which I only recently got. In case you're wondering right now "where the heck does one procure a wild boar?", let me fill you in on a little secret. To get you some wild boar, you first need to find you one of these:

A gun-toting, game-killing Texan.  That is one of my three favorite brothers, who keeps us all hooked up with fresh wild game.  When I mentioned to him I was looking for some "wild boar", he matter-of-factly told me "Wild Boar? What?  You mean, HOG MEAT? (eye roll) I can just go shoot you some of that".  Which is what he did last year while out at the deer lease.  Wild hogs are nuisances, anyway, so it did us both  a favor.

So, once I had my wild boar (it sounds fancier so I'm going to call it that), I just needed an occasion to make it. Valentine's Dinner 2013 sounded perfect.

Things started out quite nicely today, as I set out on this cooking adventure.  My little mirepoix smelled delicious after a few rounds in the food processor:

The wild boar smelled quite yummy while browning up in my cast iron pot. (I was a bit nervous it would smell "gamey", which would no doubt make me worry from the start.  To my pleasant surprise, working with wild boar was just like working with a pork loin.)

The next set of ingredients were all very strange, but I had faith that Chef Anne used them for  reason - they must blend together beautifully!  RIGHT?!

Mine blended up into a nice, disgusting looking, brown paste....  But, I trudged forward, adding the  wine, the bay leaves, and thyme - just like the recipe called for.  It was then I took my first taste.  Something was off.  Like, WAY OFF.  I spent the next few minutes convincing myself that the three hours of braising would surely help the taste, added some salt, and decided to distract myself with the homemade pasta.

My Christmas present this year was the Pasta Press Attachment for the Kitchen Aid. It was a complete surprise, and I have been wanting to use it for months.  Although the reviews made it seem easy peasy, I can see why homemade pasta is an art.  Despite only four ingredients (flour, salt, eggs and water) I managed to make this much of a mess in a matter of minutes:

And that was just to make the dough itself!  After making the dough, it was time to make the little fuscilli pastas using the press.  James decided he would come help me, which was a blessing since the "easy pasta maker" was definitely a 4 handed job.

After a short long while, we had all our pasta made!  A quick 3 - 5 minutes in boiling, salted water, and it was delicious.

The pasta was done just in time to plop it in the sauce, which at this point had been simmering for 3 hours.  I had taken a taste here and there, adding in a little salt, some brown sugar, and a few pinches of self denial.  One last stir, and we were ready to eat!

This is me before, after spending the past 4 hours in the kitchen and excited to taste my handiwork:

And this is me after, after forcing myself to eat it:

Folks, I don't know what went wrong!!  The pasta was yummy and the meat was very tasty. But the sauce...oooooh, the sauce.  It had such a strange bite that you could hardly eat it.  Maybe the cocoa?  Maybe the juniper berries?  Maybe the wine?  I don't know, but it was pretty darn bad.

Even James, who had been encouraging all night while I worried about the food, said "Well, that was not my favorite.  At all". Such a sweetie, even in the midst of a bad meal.  (I can count on one hand the number of times he's actually not liked my cooking - and it was usually because I was making him eat something he doesn't like.)

Needless to say, I will NOT be making this recipe again.

I will, however, be making pasta again soon (worth the effort, and it can only get easier, right?).  And, asking my bro for some more hog meat.  I may be down, but I'm certainly not out.  Emril's got a wild boar recipe I now want to try - Valentine's Dinner 2014!?  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hoping that everyone had a wonderful day, spending time with all your loves - whether that be significant others, friends, animals, or boxes of chocolate.

I was happy that my honey got home from a trip today, just in time for a quick dinner and to open his present. (Please excuse the terrible wrapping - the idea to incorporate the Orvis sack into the packaging looked much cuter in my head!) Nothing special to eat tonight (minus a giant crunchy cinnamon cookie), as I will make our official Valentine's day dinner this Saturday: homemade pasta and a wild boar ragu. Cooking up something that adventurous is going to require a full day in the kitchen!

XOXO, y'all!

Craftin': Valentine's Day!

Thanks to Pinterest, I now feel like our house is naked without a homemade wreath every season.  After recipes and crochet patterns, my most common pins are wreaths.  When James and I walk the neighborhood, I point out all the doors and say "I've seen that.  Do you like that? I could do that...", etc. Fortunately, I have a sweet husband who pretends to be interested in such things (when I know he actually doesn't care what I do - as long as it's not "chintzy".)

My first ones I made were the Fall wreaths, which I think turned out quite lovely.  Christmas time we had legit Frontgate wreaths, which did not allow for any creativity on my part.  Come January, I was ready for something nice and cutesy - Valentine's presented a perfect opportunity for some craftin'!

So, here they are, our current wreaths:

This cute little argyle pattern matches the house quite well.  I actually made two of them, one for each window on either side of the door.  (If we ever move to a place that only requires one wreath, someone is going to be the recipient of all this crafty goodness.)

Love them!  I would like to point out that I am crafty, but not creative.  This idea came from here.  I also noticed I wasn't the only one who liked them - I was blog-stalking and saw this gal made the same wreaths!  

Unfortunately, these will have to come down by Friday.  I'm torn by what to do next - St. Patrick's Day?  Is it too early for Easter?  Should I just do a standard "Spring" one and be done with it?  Ah, decisions decisions. Definitely something I should go bug James about...  :)

Sold to the Lady in the 2nd Row

Oh my, where to even begin about our Friday night... It all started when our friends, Geoff and Jon, invited us to Scott's Antique Market, a monthly market in Atlanta that I've been dying to hit up for years. I hear it's big, full of good deals, and flat out overwhelming. The day before our big Scott's plans, they asked us if, perhaps, we'd be a little more adventurous and hit up the Atlanta Antique Auction on Friday night, another monthly event that always coincides with Scott's (taking advantage of all the dealers in town). Well, you know the Sassers - always up for something new, exciting, with the  potential for swoops.   Off we went!

Folks, this place is in the 'hood. And not like the "transitional neighborhoods" we ate in last weekend. The only thing that made me feel more secure when we drove up to the large warehouse (with homeless people warming their hands over burning garbage cans outside - I AM NOT JOKING) was the fact I saw a lot of Volvos.  Volvo = Yuppies = Safe enough for me.

We finally found a place to park and walked into the cold, unheated warehouse, only to be overwhelmed by stuff everywhere. Furniture with knick-knacks and heirlooms piled on top, paintings on every inch of the wall, chairs and old signs hanging from the ceiling. Every single space accounted for.

And where there wasn't stuff, there were people.  EVERYWHERE.  All different sorts of people, too, from the high end dealers to country rednecks to Buckhead Betties, to...well...us.  Who just stood there at the door, looking confused.

People must have suspected we were new to this scene, because a couple of helpful folks ushered us in and got us to the table for check-in.  After taking our driver's license and entering all our info into a computer, we were given a printed piece of paper with a number on it. We then found the BBQ line (free!!) and the bar (also free!!) Obviously free food and drinks are part of their strategic business model, because I, for one, was immediately in a good / buying mood..

Free food, free drinks, free smiles.

We perused the inventory set to be sold that night, and I eyed a couple of things that interested me. Looking back, we should have looked at things more closely, as I didn't realize that we'd have split seconds to decide on a bid!

Once the auction started, people quickly took seats. (The seats were random pieces of furniture and couches covered by old blankets.  CLASSY.) We learned that people took this quite seriously, and anyone in the aisle or blocking the view of the auctioneer would be harassed. We squeezed in on a full couch with an intent boutique owner and a guy who looked like Will. I. Am. He was actually an organic farmer who owned a plot in Little Five (random), and was apparently friends with nearly every other person there. Super nice guy who filled us in on all the cast of characters and how to be strategic about our bids.

Let me tell you, y'all, they moved things fast and cheap. The auctioneer didn't wait around too long before yelling SOLD, and you had to be quick with your hand. He was skilled at screaming "I have $10, now $15, but I need $20, do I have $20, SOLD for $15 to number...hon, can you hold up that number?"...all before you even had time to figure out what you were bidding on.

We finally got up the nerve to bid on something, and once we won that first item we were HOOKED.  I mean, I should have foreseen how dangerous this would be for my husband.  Swooping PLUS competition?  Poor thing couldn't control himself!  I had to take away the card before we wound up with more than we could get home in the little hybrid.  (James thinks we should bring the truck next month - which is totally not happening.  Our small car is probably the only thing that kept us somewhat confined.)

The one thing we didn't buy (that will probably haunt James for the rest of his life) was a very old planting table, taken from a Georgia Plantation down south.  It was the one item that actually created a bidding war on the floor, and was the highest selling item that night.  I am super glad that thing was too big for any place in our house, or I suspect we would be the proud owners right now...

By the time the auction was over (well, or when we finally decided to leave), we had spent 4 hours in that cold warehouse, James drank enough free beer from the keg to feel a little tipsy, I had a million new ideas for our house, James was convinced we needed to come every month, and I about had a heart attack when they rung us up at the exit.  Actually, I don't feel too guilty about the purchases because 1) they were very good deals, 2) the things we bought are all part of the strategy to keep the 1930s-feel of our home, and 3) we didn't pay for drinks/food on a Friday night.

So, what did we come away with, I'm sure you're dying to know.  Here is a picture of our loot which I so nicely displayed the next day:

1) Old Fire Extinguisher:  This was our first purchase, and it. is. cool.  It's actually SUPER old (not a replica) and looks very good next to our old fireplace.

2) Vegetable Crates:  I pinned an idea to make a coffee table using crates, with plans to put it out in the sunroom (that we've been redoing forever.) I found some at Michaels, but - thank you, Pinterest - they are never in stock.  These were actually much cheaper, much better quality, and, well, much cooler (in my opinion.)

3) Crystal Light Fixture:  We had been on the hunt for an antique chandelier for the dining room for about 6 months, until we finally bought one last month with the look / price we were aiming for.  It looks fantastic.  However, it then made us hate every other 2000-era light fixture we had in the house.  Although we weren't planning to swap them out anytime soon, no one was bidding on this lovely light - we got it for a STEAL.

4) Antique Wind-Up Clock:  Another one of James' impulse buys!  I actually think this dates a little younger than our bungalow (it's 1950s art deco), but it still looks pretty cool.  We bought it for $20, but when we got home and opened it up we found a sales tag from an antique shop for $225.  I'm thinking of taking it to this antique clock shop in our neighborhood, to see if we can make a little money. (Although I like the look, the ticking is very loud - which DRIVES ME BATTY.)

5) Colorful TV Trays:  This was the one purchase I waited for patiently all night, after eyeing them during our drive-by before the auction began. I need TV trays for those nights I don't feel like eating by myself in the dining room, but I was not happy with any we found at Target - about the only place you can get them these days.   These go with the house PLUS the green goes with the painting in the living room.  I love them (while James tolerates them).

Pretty fun stuff, right?

While I still find the perfect place for all of these things, I can show you where the light fixture ended up.  First, the new/old chandelier that we found for the dining:

And then the old light fixture (which wasn't terrible, of course, just circa 2005...) vis a vis the newest lighting addition to the old Sasser bungalow:

Such fun times, and I can promise you that this won't be the last trip to the Atlanta Antique Auction.  If you're in the ATL-area and like to swoop, make sure to put this event on your calendar.  You'll probably see the Sassers on the second row.  :)

Good Eats

CNN reported today that women look their worst on Wednesday afternoon. (Obviously slow day in the news room, if Soledad felt this was interesting enough to discuss with a round table). The rationale was that lack of sleep from the weekend catches up with you by Wednesday. I don't know if I look bad from the weekend, but my clothes are a little more snug due to the fact that we ate some darn good food. And, since it's a slow day in our own newsroom, too, I felt like I should share some pictures from our meals on the blog.

Both places we visited were in parts of Atlanta you probably wouldn't have ventured into 10 years ago. "Transitional areas" = cool right now. Look at the Sassers being all hip and exploring the latest scene! Both were also in a warehouse, had similar menus, and allowed mixologists free reign to make up some very cool old school cocktails. (Not that I ordered anything other than a Pinot, but I still enjoy reviewing creative drink menus.)

Friday night we celebrated friends' birthdays at Serpas. We shared some darn good mussels, fancy "pigs in a blanket" and tuna tartare. James had the trout, and I had the BEST VENISON EVER. (Excuse the terrible pictures, but I dug in so fast I forgot to take a picture until I had devoured half of it. Plus, only had the ole iPhone.)

For dessert, we shared the beignets with homemade marshmallow and chocolate sauce. They probably serve this in Heaven.

The next night, we went on a double date to 4th and Swift. Tempted to get the venison again, I ventured out a bit and got the Three Little Piggies dish (or pork, three ways). I am not a huge pork fan unless it's "bad" types of pork, but since two of the ways were homemade chicharrones (pork skins) and fried pork belly, this plate was screaming my name. It also came with pork loin, grits, and spinach. I subbed out some sauteed mustard greens, which should be a permanent change on the menu because it. was. awesome. James got flank steak. Not as exciting, but he said it was delicious. I even got him to try some Brussels, and he enjoyed them!

Again, we had dessert. (Who are we lately?!). This time, an ice cream trio: honey, chocolate, and pumpkin. All very good.  I want recipes.

So, there you go - the reason why I had to run another 5 miles and sport Spanx all week under my dress. It doesn't help that I am back in New Jersey for workshops, which pretty much guarantees non-stop munching all week. Healthy eating starts back next week, 'k?!  :)