jam panic

Sometime in late August or early September I started giving away some of the jam I made, and Steven started having a panic attack.
I'd put 2 jars in a bag to take to a friend's as a hostess gift, he'd pull one jar out and put it back.
"What if we run out!" he said.

image here

I groaned and rolled my eyes but went to the farmers market to get supplies and made more.
"We still might run out!" he said.
"You're seriously going to eat more than a jar of jam a week for the rest of the year?" I replied (we had more than 52 jars of jam).
"I might!"
I started calling it, 'Jam Panic', ignoring him and continuing to give away jam with no problem. Well, until now.

I sent a jar of apricot jam to Chiara for Christmas and she's having her own mini Jam Panic because she's almost out! (recent email from her read, "4 tablespoons left. I'm getting worried.")

We only have 2 jars of apricot left (really 1 and 1/2) and Steven might divorce me if I gave one away.
(We still have lots of other kinds of jam. note to self: make more apricot jam this summer, less blueberry.)

here

Fresh apricots are impossible to get this time of year, so I figured making more wasn't an option, but Chiara thought you might be able to make it from dried apricots.
After some searching I found this recipe and decided to try it out!
(I'm using 1/3rd the sugar, which is what I did with the fresh apricot jam recipe this summer. I kind of wonder how jam recipes get published because whenever I read them I worry that the folks who write them would end up in diabetic comas after testing them.)

First thing you do is soak the dried apricots for 24 hrs.
Next thing you know they are nice and plump and round and you proceed as usual for jam making.

I don't know if it's as good as the summer stuff, but it's good. And 4 jars are on their way to Chiara.

say cheese!

Steven's parents spent Christmas in a small town in Italy called Branzi. (They live about 4 hours away in the south of France). It's a beautiful, tiny town in the mountains just upstream from San Pellegrino. It's a nice place to ski and snowshoe and hike, but the best thing about the town, the thing that makes it one of my favorite places on earth, is the cheese shop.

There they make and sell my most favorite cheese in the world, Stracchino. It's kind of like Tallegio, but stinkier and yummier.

Why am I telling you all about this now when I am in Ann Arbor, nowhere near Branzi? Well, because when I got home from the studio today I discovered that Steven's parents had sent us a box full of Stracchino as a late Christmas present.

A box full of 8 pounds of it!

I think we need to have a cheese party.

good fortune

My mom's friend gave me a fantastic present the other day, scraps of Fortuny Fabric!

Fortuny fabric is hand dyed and printed in Venice, with special techniques that were patented a century ago. Because it is handmade, every run is slightly different and all of them are way out of my price range!

There are pieces that are big enough to make some throw pillows, especially if I put a different fabric on the back side.



I think I might use the smaller pieces to make little stuffed animals like the delightful ones by Clive and Sunshine)

more info about Fortuny here.
Clive and Sunshine stuffed animals available from Rose and Radish.

happy father's day!

My parents are getting ready to drive from Chicago to Colorado to spend the summer, so for Father's Day I got my dad this book by Jane and Michael Stern.
Hope you guys find some good eats on the road!
Happy Father's day, and safe travels!!!

venti

Keith seems to think I need more coffee, and that I should drink it out of one of his giant, fantastic, pink (my favorite) earthenware mugs. He could not be more right!  These beauties and a gorgeous fluted bowl that's a part of the handmade Ponzi scheme I posted a while ago arrived on my doorstep last night.  

I can't tell you how much I love late birthday presents, just when you think all the hoopla's over, something comes in the mail and makes your day.  

Thank you Keith! 

His work available here and here.

pretty

Take look at this little number that the Milotts sent me for my birthday!  Isn't it beautiful?  

Thank you so much Chiara, Jackson and Jon (and the upside down little guy on the way), I love it!!!

(please excuse the really crappy photo, it doesn't do it justice.)

why blog, part 2

Because when your birthday rolls around you just might get some earrings that you've wanted for a long, long time!  

Steven got me these hydrangea earrings by John Iversen that I have loved in several different ways! (I know that sounds really weird, but you know what I mean so I'm going with it.)

Thank you Steven!  I love them!

available at twist.

Copper and Wool: the solution

so it turns out Steven was as stuck as I was about what to do for the 7th anniversary traditional copper or wool gift. The other night we started saying things like, "I'm gonna get you an orange wool sweater!" "I'm gonna get you $50 worth of pennies" etc, which eventually led to "I'm gonna take you on a trip to Copper Mountain!" and then "let's go to Copper Harbor!" and suddenly it wasn't just a game any more it was a great idea!

Copper Harbor is in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan. The U.P. is that part of Michigan that looks like it should be part of Wisconsin or Canada, but it's Michigan and is supposed to be beautiful. So to celebrate our anniversary we're going to act like real Michiganders and go to Copper Harbor for a weekend in August and explore the U.P. (yes, that's Michigan in that photo.)
We decided to wait until then because I think the snow just melted up there last week and Lake Superior is probably about 40º.

images here, and here.

copper

As you know, our seventh anniversary is Monday (traditional gift: copper or wool) and I am running out of time to find a present. Here's what I thought of so far (aside from a pomeranian.)

Steven is on a paella kick these days so I could get him this paella pan from Williams Sonoma.

I could get him this chair, because I got him a chair for our fifth anniversary (traditional gift: wood) and he liked it.

I could get him this tea strainer because we're growing some mint in containers in the backyard and we can make our own tea.

I could get him this plate because it's pretty.

I could get this bathtub from Waterworks, because we are planning on redoing out bathroom one day.

I could get him any of these things, except they are all a bit ridiculous and ridiculously expensive. (a $70 tea strainer? I could make that. A $40,000 bathtub? really?)  

I am still totally stuck.

play house

I gave my nephews Colin and Declan this darling Nume cardboard playhouse. A few years and a little sister later it was a little worse for ware and when they moved, it ended up in the recycling bin.

They still talk about it, love it and seem to want a new one, but I don't really want to just get them the same thing again. I thought about getting them a teepee, but when I saw the cardboard playhouse, Villa Julia by Javier Mariscal, today, I thought it might be the perfect thing.

Isn't it cute?

via dezeen

copper and wool

Our 7th anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks (I can't believe it's been 7 years!).  We have always stuck with giving traditional gifts, first anniversary is paper, second is cotton, etc (whole list here) and I love it.  My favorite was the fourth, fruit and flowers.  Steven gave me a dogwood tree and I gave him a service berry tree.  (The service berry is blooming right now!)  

But this year the traditional gift is copper or wool and I am stumped.  Spring has sprung so wool is unappealing, and the only things I can think of that are copper are pennies (even though they aren't really copper anymore) and plumbing. (image here)

 

If I decided to think of copper as a color,  I could get him a Japanese Maple (image here), but we don't really have a place for one in the yard.  

Or I could get him a Pomeranian puppy!  But I'm pretty sure Steven would kill me because two dogs is enough, and I'm pretty sure he's not a Pomeranian kind of guy. (image here)  

If anyone has any ideas, help! 

cut it out

If somebody (Steven) were thinking about what to get me for my birthday in a few weeks, he or she should really think about getting me a Silhouette Digital Cutting Tool.  

It's like a printer that cuts instead of printing.  It comes with 50 patterns, but much more importantly you can make your own with their easy to use software.  

more info on Craft Critique 

hint, hint

My garden shed obsession continues.  

Heather Cameron's husband built her this lovely little greenhouse/garden shed as a wedding present.  more info and photos here.

have I mentioned that our anniversary and my birthday is coming up in a couple months?

slip

steven keeps falling on his fanny while walking the dogs in the snow so I am thinking of getting him a pair of yaktraxs for a late Christmas/early Valentine's Day/don't end up in the hospital present.  they are nice because you just slip them on your regular shoes, kind of like tire chains for people.  

all sewn up

For Epiphany Steven got me a sewing machine to help with my new years resolutions!!  (not this one)  He found this great store, Ann Arbor Viking Sewing Center, where they will teach me to use it and offer lots and lots of other classes.  

For Steven I got coal.  

I'm kidding!  

But I thought he was too about the Epiphany presents, so I didn't get him anything and have to go find something by the time he gets home from work.  

alphabet soup

my nephew Colin starts kindergarten next fall, but he's already learning his letters and starting to try and read.  Maybe I'll get him this great alphabet stamp set for Christmas.  

via swissmiss

guess who's coming to dinner

Ever wish you could have a person over and cook them dinner for their birthday but couldn't because he was in, say, Colorado and you were in, say,  Michigan?  

Well I have, and right now I wish I could cook my dad dinner for his birthday, so I came up with a plan. 

 I made sweet potato ravioli from scratch (ok, I used store bought won ton wrappers for the pasta) and froze them.

Then I packed them up with some sage from our garden, some walnuts and all the other ingredients to make a brown butter, sage, walnut sauce (yes, even butter), all frozen, threw it all in a cardboard box with a few ice packs and shipped it over night.  

I guess, technically, my mom is going to cook my dad dinner, but this way at least I got to help.  

And hopefully he'll like the ravioli as much as Steven did on his birthday!  

Happy Birthday Dad!  See you soon!

(I was going to try and send you a cake too, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work.)

fore!

I hate golf.  (to be honest I've never really played) but my brother likes it so I was thinking of getting him these cufflinks I saw on 1stdibs until I read the price was "contact dealer".  

what's that saying, "if you have to ask you can't afford it"?  I am assuming that's true and continuing the search.

almost perfect, but not quite

thanks to A Cup of Jo I thought I'd found the perfect gift for my brother: Dots gloves that "enable winter iphone usage without direct finger contact." but they are sold out until after Christmas.  drat.  

toasty

I am going to make a scarf like this one from Pip-Squeak Chapeau for my mom for Christmas.  Pip-Squeak Chapeau makes lots and lots of lovely handmade things from natural yarns and fabrics in Brooklyn. 

I am going to start as soon as I finally finish Jackson's sweater.  (only half a sleeve left to go!)