Outdoor transformation

I mentioned earlier in the week (when discussing our wildlife preserve) that we spent quite a bit of time outside this past weekend. That's really a bit of an understatement. We worked our bums off! And I have mucho proof of that hard work.

We had a bit of a head start as both of us were not working Friday. The husband laid the sod while I ran a morning errand and we spent the afternoon prepping the large bed in the front yard. We dug up any remaining roots and worked some compost into the soil. We were able to plant most of the back row of bushes before heading out for Mexican and NCAA basketball watching.

Saturday was a busy and full day of outside work. We removed the rock wall to make room for the new plants and finished planting the bed. We began the task of putting in a new rock wall and started mulching. We ended a bit earlier to head downtown for dinner at T'afia (where we had a chef spotting - yes, I'm a total nerd - but Chef Monica Pope is awesome and it was really cool knowing that she was working the kitchen while we were there).

The end of Day 2: Covered in dirt and thanks to some poorly applied spray sunscreen Saturday - burned.

We finally finished up the front at 1:30pm Sunday. We spent the morning completing the rock wall and mulching the remaining part of the bed.

Before I give you the finished front, lets review how it started!

We started with this overgrown mess.

The husband despised the ivy so we removed it and added a rock wall border to the beds.

We pruned the bushes on the left side and painted the door.

 We had the trees removed.

We removed the bushes on the left of the door.

Can you spot the dogs?

And now for the finale!

Little baby bushes that you can barely see, a new rock wall, and grass!

Why did we do all of this when it seemed perfectly reasonable to have all of those bushes and trees in the front yard? Here are our main reasons:

1. We had a terrible time growing grass in most of the front yard because of the trees
2. Three trees planted within five feet of one another is pretty much a disaster anywhere, but especially in Texas where we have drought-like conditions
3. Each tree grew in its own strange way as a reaction to the others, thus removing one or two trees would still leave us with a mess of a tree or two
4. The bushes were so overgrown you could barely see the house and were so poorly maintained that pruning did not improve their appearance
5. Our house faces South East, so we get most of our really hot sun in the back corner and back of the house - removing the front trees does not affect our heating and cooling tremendously

We planted a row of Azaleas, a row of Mondo grass, and a row of Mexican Heather - here are some closer pictures.

Our first azalea bloom

Mexican Heather

The husband was outside playing blog photographer at my request when our neighborhood House of the Month committee members came by. The three women told him that they loved what we had done! That surely makes me feel a lot better about our first major outside planting project!

Spring in Texas

Spring weather in Texas (for those of you in other parts of the nation, this means highs in the upper 70's and low 80's) has meant a focus on grilling as a main way of prepping food. Really, any weather other than winter means we try to grill more frequently. One of those lovely quirks about our home is that the wonderful double ovens vent into the kitchen - yes, you read that correctly - some intelligent person build a house in Texas where the oven heat vents right on into the kitchen. It really is miserable to use the oven when the temperature gets above 75 outside. So I used my search engine skills on Epicurious and found a few grilling recipes to try for dinner this past Sunday. It was all quite yummy and all but the tomato jam were pretty simple and quick.

First, I needed a recipe for chicken breasts that we had in the fridge and found a Grilled Rosemary Chicken recipe.

Grilled Rosemary Chicken with Tomato Jam
Slightly modified from Bon Appetite via Epicurious

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise*
3/4 cup olive oil, divided
1/4 cup lemon juice (we didn't have lemons so I used lemon juice we had in the fridge)
6 rosemary sprigs, divided
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Kosher salt
1 large pinch smoked paprika (or more)
Tomato Jam

Arrange chicken in a serving dish (or in our case, a handy leftover container). Drizzle with 1/2 cup oil and lemon juice. Tear or chop rosemary sprigs. Toss rosemary and chopped garlic with chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika. Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight.

 Get your fire going on medium-high. Let the chicken come to room temperature. Remove the rosemary from the marinade. Grill the chicken, turning occasionally, until browned and almost cooked through, 6-8 minutes or so. Let the chicken rest for 5-10 minutes and then serve with the Tomato Jam. 

*Chicken breasts halved lengthwise cook much faster and more evenly than whole chicken breasts.

Tomato Jam
Slightly modified from Bon Appetite via Epicurious

4 pounds plum tomatoes
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika

Fill a large pot with enough water to submerge tomatoes (but do not put tomatoes in yet). Bring water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Cut a small, shallow X at the base of each tomato (the opposite end from the stem). Submerge the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds or until you see the skin begin to peel. Remove and place in ice bath for 5 minutes. Peel and seed tomatoes.

Mix tomatoes and sugar in a large wide shallow pot. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, occasionally stirring gently. Boil, stirring often, for 15 minutes.

Stir in salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook until thickened and reduced to 2 cups, about 10 minutes. At this point you could can them (Ladle into a clean, hot 1-pint jar. Wipe rim, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.) or you can store the jam for a few days in the fridge.

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Then I wanted to find a grilled vegetable recipe that used zucchini and red peppers (which we had both of) and I found a perfect candidate with the Grilled Vegetable Antipasto with Herbed Chevre and Crostini recipe. This recipe appears a bit daunting due to the large number of ingredients. However, most of the items are fairly common and it becomes even more manageable if you grow your own herbs.

Grilled Vegetable Antipasto with Herbed Chevre and Crostini
Slightly modified from The Foster's Market cookbook via Epicurious

 
Canola oil, for oiling the grill
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
5 fresh basil leaves, cut into very thin strips
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices lengthwise
2 yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch slices lengthwise
1 red onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds (we forgot this)
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and cut into 2-inch strips
7 scallions, trimmed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
2 ripe tomatoes cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 recipe Herbed Chevre (recipe follows)
1 recipe Herbed Balsamic Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Fresh parsley and fresh basil, to garnish, optional
Crostini (recipe follows)

Brush the grill with the canola oil. Prepare a hot fire on a gas or charcoal grill. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and basil in a small bowl until well blended. Brush the zucchini, yellow squash, onion, red bell peppers, and scallions with the olive oil mixture. Place the vegetables on the hot grill and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side until crisp-tender. Season with salt and pepper. Drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil and set aside.

Arrange the grilled vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, and sliced tomatoes on individual plates or a serving platter. Add a slice of chevre on the side of the vegetables. Drizzle the vegetables with the vinaigrette, and drizzle a little more vinaigrette around the place.  Garnish with the parsley and basil. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired, and serve with crostini. 

Crostini (Makes 25 to 30 crostini)
1 long, thin, good-quality baguette
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt or coarse sea salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Slice the bread on a slight angle into 1/4-inch-thick slices and place on a baking pan in a single layer. Mix together the olive oil, butter, parsley, dill and pepper in a small bowl.

Brush one side of each piece of bread with the butter mixture and sprinkle with the salt. Toast in the oven 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy. Let cool completely, then store in an air-tight container up to 1 week.

Herbed Balsamic Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons mixed chopped fresh basil, parsley, and thyme
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Combine the vinegar, lemon juice, herbs, and pepper in a small bowl and stir to mix. Slowly add the olive oil and whisk until all the oil is incorporated. Refrigerate in an air-tight container until ready to use or up to 1 week.

Herbed Chevre:
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped, or mixed fresh herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, and dill
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
One 8-ounce mild, creamy chevre log

Mix the parsley and pepper together on a plate. Roll the chevre log in the mixture, pressing lightly so the seasonings adhere. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours. Remove the log from the refrigerator and unwrap. Cut into 1-inch slices with string, dental floss, or wire. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve

Welcome to our wildlife preserve

Our short spring began a few weeks ago and it brought with it some much needed rain. As a result, the grasses are growing, the trees are blooming, and everything is GREEN. Apparently all this wonderful weather and natural growth has also prompted the members of our wildlife preserve to show themselves. I'll introduce a few here.

The largest population in our wildlife preserve are our lizards.

Known to scare the crud out of me by shooting by my hand or head at a most inopportune time, they prefer to hang out on our screen door (especially the handle), our screen porch in general, along the gate to get outside, and all along the side of the house and garage surrounding said gate. So, basically, they scurry about wherever we are!

We spent a great deal of time outside this weekend and became quite acquainted with our lizards, which at this time, we believe include at least eight little guys (and ladies I presume). Thankfully they move too quickly for the dogs. Well, except for the time Shadow decided to pick one up in her mouth. Poor thing had its tail and one leg dangling out of Shadow's mouth! No worries though, Shadow was only holding the little guy and it scurried away when I told her to drop it!

But the lizards are not our only wildlife preserve inhabitants. We also have a frog (or toad)! He was a little camera shy but I managed to catch him just before he blended into the rocks.

 Although our wildlife neighbors make enjoying the outside rather entertaining at times (especially when they scare the crud out of me), we are grateful for them because we assume they are eating bugs. And bugs are the devil!

Our home

When the husband and I began our house hunting we faced a bit of a challenge. We moved to Houston because the husband was relocated for work and as such his employer paid for two house-hunting trips to Houston. Commence marathon house-viewing weekends in July and August in Houston. If we weren't already aware of what we were getting ourselves into, those two weekends sure did give us a glimpse into the heat in this part of the country. Aside from the heat, house hunting in two weekends is overwhelming, much less for a couple looking for their first home.

It's interesting to think back on those weekends and what led us to the house we live in now. Over the course of two 3-day weekends, we looked at more than 60 homes. What we were drawn to were neighborhoods that had some familiarity - older, established neighborhoods with trees and larger yards. In some ways I wonder if we sought something familiar because we were about to move so far away from what we knew and loved.

I wish we had pictures from our house-hunting adventure. You might begin to understand why we chose a house with such unique wall colors. After so many houses with so many interesting features, a few odd paint colors didn't worry us. However, painting an entire home is not so much fun! :) Oh well!

Thinking back, I'm not sure I realized how much I would love our home. There are things about it that irritate me - the 40-60 minute commute to work, the air conditioning that doesn't pump air into the master bedroom as well as in other areas, that the landscaping was not well maintained and needs tons of work, etc.

But those are all things that come with a home, and an older home at that. What I love about our home isn't so much an architectural element or the design, but rather that it is our home. That we have worked to create a home for ourselves and we continue to work to maintain it (sometimes not as hard as we should).

There are days when I think things would be easier in an apartment or condo in town. But there are many days when we are working on the garden (or whatever other project) or watching the dogs run around outside or sitting on the back porch or enjoying a meal with friends that I am grateful for the home that we have found and made our own.

A new cookbook means...

Over the weekend I tried out a recipe from a new addition to our culinary book collection. One of my SILs gave me Good to the Grain for Christmas and I've been waiting to try out some of the recipes. The book is very cool if you are looking to cut down on your AP flour use and get a little more creative in the kitchen. It features chapters with recipes using each of the following flours: whole wheat, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kamut, multigrain, oat, quinoa, rye,  spelt, and teff.

I knew I could easily get my hands on buckwheat flour, so I decided to make Poppy Seed Wafers.

Interesting little things. Definitely not the simplest cookie recipe but the result were crunchy and light cookies. These are not probably for everyone but the husband and I liked them! They are a dark brown color because of the dark color of the buckwheat flour. Some of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made had buckwheat flour in them so I would recommend giving the flour a try sometime!

A local diamond

One of my favorite blogs is Chookooloonks. I started following her blog for many reasons - she's a great photographer, and a very creative and passionate person - and then discovered that she lives in Houston! I have not sited her around town (nor have I tried), but its neat to read her occasional stories about life in Houston.

My MIL and FIL gave me a book she co-authored for Christmas: Expressive Photography. I love it. It is all about the art of story-telling through photography.

She writes about many more things than Houston and photography and I really enjoyed reading her post yesterday. You might too. Here's a quote from the post:

From Chookooloonks "random thoughts: the parent trap and other musings:"

In other words, when corporations not only make it acceptable, but encourage their employees to focus on their personal lives in addition to their professional ones, it can only help to enhance the productivity of its workforce.  Moreover, when Corporate America  finally makes it okay for ALL its employees to be parents, then no one will have to sacrifice career for family (or vice versa).

Enjoy!

Finishing projects

The husband and I tend to be terrific project starters and project workers but not project finishers. Oh well. The challenge is that we often enjoy the bigger parts of projects but dislike the parts like sanding and painting.

I finally took the initiative to finish the kitchen console (part 1, part 2) this past weekend. You might recall that this project started many moons ago. I think we'll just leave it at that.

As a refresher, we started with plans from AnaWhite.com.

Photo from AnaWhite.com

The husband worked on the building part.

Then the summer heat and all kinds of other things took over and the console sat lonely in the back room (i.e. projects-in-progress-room). That was until a few months ago when I painted and stained it and then the husband attached the back - without telling me that I needed to paint it. So it sat semi-finished in the kitchen for a few more months until this past weekend. Yay! Here it is, finally!

The details:

• I decided to paint it plain old white because I think this is a little more versatile in the event that we want to move it somewhere else in the house
• The stain is Minwax Ebony - two coats plus two coats of polyurethane
• I don't love the feet and will likely change them out but it was the best we could find at Home Depot and Lowes
• The pulls are from Home Depot and I chose them because they are the same style as the kitchen cabinets and were cheap - easy enough to change out when needed

I love the finished product and look forward to really using it. Despite having sat in the kitchen for all this time, we haven't done much more than pile things on it. So the next project is to get that thing organized and clean up some of the other clutter in the kitchen!

Changing it up

After my week long trip to NC, full of lunches and dinners out with family and friends, I needed a bit of a food adjustment. Feeling a bit uninspired by our food lately, I looked over a few of my favorite cookbooks for something different. I found a simple but tasty recipe for a baby spinach and prosciutto salad from Donna Hay's The New Cook cookbook.

For this recipe, I baked the prosciutto and tomatoes and blanched the asparagus in advance. With the main cooking taken care of, prepping this salad for dinner took about 10 minutes, most of which was spent making the fresh dressing.

There are so many things I love about Donna Hay recipes. The most important is that I know that with one of her recipes I can make a great-tasting meal or dessert with very few ingredients. Plus, her recipes use primarily every day foods, so nothing you will likely have to find at a specialty store. Although I love cooking of all kinds, for busy weeks, Donna Hay is a great go-to for us.

An update on that which is rarely spoken of

Sorry for the huge radio silence here at the messes blog. The blog has received little attention in the past few weeks because of school stuff. I had my dissertation proposal seminar last Tuesday. With the preparation for that, I've been unable to devote much time to anything else.

The whole dissertation and PhD thing is kind of confusing so I thought I would give an update on where I am in the process.

Last week was a big milestone. In my department, you write three chapters of the dissertation (introduction, literature review, and methodology) and complete a pilot study before proposing. At the proposal seminar, you present your pilot data to the faculty of the department and receive feedback. That is what I did last week. And it went well! It feels great to know that the work I've done on this has resulted in some progress.

The next steps are to make any changes (recommended during the seminar) to my research study, complete a full study, analyze the data and write a chapter on the results and a chapter discussing all of that mess.

I don't often speak (write) about what this process has been like for me because it has felt like one of my greatest disappointments (maybe even on the verge of failure). Everyone including myself expected that I would finish in three years and every month since then has seen a little bit more of my confidence dwindle away. I have become abundantly aware of the fact that often this process has nothing to do with me and that I have no control over any of it, which has only made this so much worse.

Proposing this past week gave me back a little of what I've lost over these years. I am so relieved to be one more step further along in this process. In many ways I feel so much better. The weight of this process has diminished a bit. I have renewed confidence in myself and in my ability to finally finish this thing.

I am so very grateful for the support from the few who knew in advance. Sometimes I'm a little superstitious and felt like if I told everyone it wouldn't happen or I would fail. So, I apologize for not putting it out there but with the way this process has gone, I needed luck on my side!

I'm glad to be back and I'll be sure to update you more often here!