AAM Conference

I'll be in and out for the rest of this week (hopefully more in than out) because the big annual meeting for the American Asssociation of Museums is in Philly this week. This conference is acutually a lot of fun and this year I'm presenting in two sessions, which will be stressful and scary but (hopefully) rewarding. I'm also looking forward to meeting colleagues, hearing the two keynote speakers, Walter Isaacson and Malcolm Gladwell, and loosening up a bit at the opening party at the new Please Touch Museum (giant hamster wheel here I come!)

But even more fun and exciting than the conference is that a good friend of mine from grad school is in town for the conference. I took the day off of work tomorrow to spend with her - so we'll see what kind of trouble we can get into!

Flowers

We had summer-like weather in Philly over the weekend. I absolutely hate the hot weather, but luckily my small little garden loves it. In front of my house I have a very small postage stamp sized lawn with a flower bed that is about 2 1/2 feet deep and 6 or 7 feet long. It's not much space, but I do with it what I can, planting mostly herbs and some pretty flowers. In the beginning of the season I tend to it like it's my baby, but as the summer rages on, I tend to be come neglectful of my "north 40", as my father calls it.

I still need to go out and get some annuals, but here's what's blooming right now:

My rosemary has some lovely little purple flowers, and my tulip and daffodil bulbs are still going strong. Last year I picked up a small shrub that got these beautiful small bell-shaped flowers. Some of my other herbs from last year are coming back too, including sage and some lemon thyme.
I'm looking forward to filling up the blank spaces in my garden. So when my friend Anna and her husband Tony asked me if I wanted to go to Meadowbrook Farm with them on Saturday, I jumped at the chance. I only picked up one plant (the yellow one below, top left) but I had fun browsing.

I really horrible with remembering or noting plant names, so please forgive me and just enjoy the pretty colors. These photos were all taken at the nursery- I only wish I had room for half these plants!

Pretty yellows:


Delicate whites:

Vibrant pinks and purples.

Have a great week everyone!

P.S.- Thanks to Jean over at Renovation Therapy for introducing me to Picnik. All the fun things you can do with you photos is kind of addictive. As you can tell from above, I'm particularly enjoying the collage feature. Don't worry- I'll probably get tired of it sooner rather than later.

Office of the Tooth Fairy

I have very fond memories of the tooth fairy visiting me as a child. There were some very elaborate tales concocted by my parents (maybe I'll tell you some one of these days), but I don't recall having to fill out official paperwork!

The Office of the Tooth Fairy has instructions for the use of it Official Tooth Fairy Kit. From the web site:

"The Official Tooth Fairy Kit contains one letterpress Certificate of Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy and one reusable silkscreened cloth deposit bag for your first and all subsequent transactions. The official certificate keeps record of name, age, tooth lost, method of extraction and compensation information.

Simply place tooth in the attached envelope and insert your completed certificate in the deposit bag. Place the full bag under your pillow. The tooth fairy will collect the Certificate of Record and place your compensation in the deposit bag."

This is so cute though and wonderful memento to keep for your kidlets as they get older. If you're as enamored with this as I am, you can get it here. Found via Blue Bird Hill.

A Little Love

Looking to give someone you're heart- well give them one of these posters instead. These great posters from Ork posters are a bit of a departure from their city posters, but I think they're so quirky and wonderful (and are only $18!) I'm still waiting patiently for a Philadelphia poster from them, it's been coming soon for quite some time!

Work Bag, Take 2

This bag that I ordered last week is a no go- it's just a bit too big, so it's going back. I've decided to scour etsy for a suitable work bag. I've come up with four that I think will work, but I can't decide which one to make my very own. They are all very similar. What do you all think? Are there any shops you can recommend for getting cute bags for hauling around a bunch of junk?

Banyan Hippo

Also Banyan Hippo

Christy Studio

Tippy Thai

Watch This

Watch this video- it's a little over four minutes long but it's guaranteed to make you smile and to want to see this great big world of ours. This guy must have some amazing memories from his trip.

New Work Bag

Sometimes for work I end up carrying around a lot of paper and equipment. The cheapo work back that I've been carrying since last summer finally gave up the ghost last week so I had to find a new one. A friend I saw last Saturday had this great tote bag that she got from ebags, so I went to their site to see if they had something that might meet my needs. I came up with this great little number and it was on clearance to boot! It's not girly or very pretty but it is utilitarian and seems durable, which is exactly what I need for work. Plus, I'm already imagining all the junk I can keep in those pockets! It's schedule to arrive on my door step today so I'll get to see if the online image matches up with the real thing.

The Cutest Hair Clips EVER

A few weeks ago I had mentioned that I bought these cute hair clips from Etsy seller Lou and Lee. They came over the weekend and I think they might be the cutest hair accessory ever. When they came, I just had to clip them in my hair right away.
I can imagine wearing them with a cute summer dress to work or just to fancy up jeans and a t-shirt.

And lately- no post is complete without a kitty.

How Do You Know You Have Too Many Cats?

When you roll out of bed for about two minutes on a Sunday morning and find that there's no longer room for you in the bed. From front to back- Buddy, Rusty, and Zoe.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Last but not least from the Seder, Flourless Chocolate Cake- also from the Gourmet Cookbook. This cake tasted cook but looked awful. But I'm not one of those bloggers that will only show the successes and the pretty things. Oh no- I show you my failures too!

Start by preheating your oven to 350. Melt 0 oz bittersweet chocolate with 1/2 pound of butter. The recipe says to use a double boiler, but I'm lazy so I melted mine in the microwave. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups of sugar.


You'll need six eggs for this one.

Mix in the eggs into the chocolate mixture one at a time. Sift 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder in next and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into a spring form pan and bake for about 40 minutes, until a skewer comes out with moist crumbs attached.

I baked mine and bake it and the center would just not cook through. I ended up baking it for nearly an hour. And when I inverted it onto a plate (as per the instructions) it collapsed. I have no idea what I did wrong, but it still ended up tasting good, so I guess that's what counts. I certainly don't get any points for presentation though!

That's it for the Seder posts. On to other more mundane things for my next posts. Thanks for reading. For all those who celebrate- have a great Easter.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

I made Martha's chocolate chunk macaroons- although I substituted chocolate chips. They were good, although rather sweet.

You basically just mix all the ingredients together, form the mixture into little balls and bake. Easy peasy. I did take issue a bit with the recipe though. I needed to add another egg white to have any hope for these puppies sticking together. Unsweetened coconut it hard to find- look in your organic/whole foods aisle. And lastly, the called for 2 1/2 cups of coconut took my entire 8 oz bag, not the 3 oz stated in the recipe.

Here they are all ready for the oven.



And, the final product.

Passover Apple Sponge Cake

I made this Passover Apple Sponge cake and it wasn't half bad for a Passover cake. I would almost...I said almost....eat this even if it wasn't Passover. The recipe is from the Gourmet Cookbook.

To make this cake, start with 1/2 cup matzo cake meal and 1/4 potato starch mixed in a bowl. Mine here is a bit lumpy- but you get the idea.



You'll need 6 eggs separated for this cake. The eggs are what give it the light, fluffy texture.


You'll also need 1 teaspoon each of lemon juice and lemon zest.

Also 2 thinly sliced Golden Delicious apples. Mix the apples with a tablespoon of sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon and set aside.

In a mixer beat together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until they turn pale and thick. This should take about 5 minutes. Beat in the lemon zest and juice.

Transfer the yolks to another bowl and clean your mixing bowl and beater. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add 1/4 sugar to the egg whites and beat until the peaks are stiffer and glossy.

Fold the matzo-meal mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

Fold the egg whites into the yolks in three batches. Be gentle- you don't want to flatten your egg whites.

Spoon 1/3 of the batter into a spring form pan. Top with half the apple slices. Repeat with another 1/3 of the batter and remaining apples.

Gently put the remaining batter on top of the apples and make as smooth as possible.

Bake for about an hour at 325.

There you have it- a palatable Passover cake!

Brisket

Seder still continued.....

For the meat main dish I made a good, ole, traditional brisket. My father declared this the most tender brisket he's ever eaten. The man is 68 years old and weighs over 300 pounds- he's man who knows his brisket. So I'll pat myself of the back and take the job well done on this one! Here's the recipe if you're interested. The recipe calls for cooling and storing the brisket in the refrigerator overnight, so you have to put some planning into this one. I'm not sure what cooling and reheating the brisket does, but since it tasted good, I'm not messing with the recipe.

To start you heat a pan (preferably a dutch oven, which I don't have- hint hint to the hubby who's always looking for a good gift idea) with a little bit of oil in the oven for about 10 minutes. Pat the brisket dry, season with salt and pepper, and put it in the hot pan and roast for about 30 minutes.

While the meat begins to cook, brown about 4 or 5 decent sized onions on the stove top with some oil. Add garlic and paprika towards the end. The should be golden brown when they're done. Here are some yummy golden brown onions.



Once the onions are done, add three cups of water to the onion mixture and then pour the entire mixture over the warmed up brisket. Cover the brisket and put it back in the oven for a while. The recipe says 3 1/2 hours, but mine was fairly well cooked through after about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Here it is, looks yummy already.

Let the brisket cool on the stove top for about an hour. Once cooled, scrape the onions. Wrap the brisket up and refrigerate overnight. Put the onion mixture into another container and also refrigerate.

The next day remove any fat from the top of the onion mixture. Put it in blender and add enough water to have 3 cups of liquid (I didn't have to add any water) and blend until smooth. Slice the brisket and heat in a skillet with the gravy.


Once heated through, serve on a big platter and let your guests enjoy. This photo is kind of messy since it's after the platter made its first pass around the table.

There were many leftovers from the 5 1/2 pound brisket. We sliced it up and stored it in a pot with the leftover gravy. The next day is heated up well in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Moroccan Salmon

Seder dinner continued.....

In my family we have meat eaters and fish eaters so I usually end up making a little of each. For the fish, I decided to make this Moroccan Salmon recipe from Cooking Light Magazine. I've made it several times before and the fish always comes out moist and flaky. I used a whole fillet instead of the smaller fillets suggested, so I did have to increase the cooking time in the recipe by about 10 minutes.

If nothing else it is a very pretty dish that starts out with colorful peppers.



It then sits for a while in the yummy marinade.

All the peppers, along with some tomatoes and lemons get piled on top of the fish and it is baked. This is a before photo, but this is pretty much what it looks like when it's done too. Frankly, by the time that it was done, I was just ready to sit down and forgot to take a photo.

Next post...brisket.

Welcome to Our Seder

I've decided to give you a little pictorial tour of our first night's Seder dinner over the next couple of posts. Some things I documenting well (the deserts) and other things I didn't photograph well in the last minute flurry of getting everything done and on the table.

Due to illness, there were two fewer people that we had originally planned. They were both sorely missed and I hope to get to see them soon. So, our celebration turned out to be a bit smaller.

Here's our dining room all set up, awaiting guests. Crappy lighting, but what are you gonna do?

Here- have a seat.

We had a goodie tray(s) of cheese, eggplant, peppers, olives, and artichokes in the living room for people to snack on before the main meal. And do you see those two little egg-shaped things leaning against the cheese tray? Those are Kinder eggs that my uncle brought down from Canada- I LOVE those things.

Once everyone sat down, the first course was matzo ball soup made by my mama. It's so yummy and she makes the matzo balls on the harder side, which is how my family tends to like them. None of that light fluffy crap for us, we like our matzo balls to sit in our stomachs like lead (in a good way!) Happily- this is also one of only a handful of times each year I get to use my soup tureen.

Next course, gifilte fish. There just isn't a way to make this stuff look pretty. And likely, unless you grew up in a Jewish household, you won't eat it. Hubby is up to eating about half a piece at a sitting as long as is there is a lot of horseradish! I eat the stuff but can't stand to take it out of the jar (it grosses me out) so that job always waits for my mom to arrive.

For side dishes with the main meal, we had potatoes (no photo) and roasted asparagus. Here are the lovely green spears waiting for the oven. I, unfortunately, didn't get a shot of them before they were consumed. But trust me, they were perfectly brown and very tasty.

Main dish posts coming next!

Flowers

Last night's dinner was very nice. We kind of skipped over the Seder part (bad Jews!) but it was nice to spend time with family and friends. With hubby's help and reminders I did a fairly decent job of documenting the cooking and baking, which I'll share with you tomorrow. We're actually going to attempt to do the Seder tonight, so I'm off to start getting dinner ready. But I just wanted to pop in and say hello and to share the pretty flowers that I have scattered around the house for the holiday. I love flowers, but try not to splurge on them too often, however, when it's a holiday or I'm entertaining I like to pick up a few bunches.

Right now my favorites are rinoculous- I love their grace and softness.

When I have company, I always like to have a few flowers in my downstirs bathroom. It just adds that little something something.

And you can't NOT get tulips this time of year. I put some on my mantle and on the coffee table.

Food posts coming soon!

No Closer To My Goal

My activities last night got me no closer to getting anything ready for tomorrow night's celebration. I had intended to make macaroons, but yeah, that didn't happen. Instead I ended up watching last Friday's episode of Oprah on my DVR (it was about sex and sexual attraction, interesting and annoying at the same time), made dinner, loafed around, caught up on some of my blog reading, and played a few rounds of Mario Kart on the Wii with hubby. I'm telling you that Mario Kart is fun, but a time suck like no other.

However, while wasting some time online instead of making macaroons, I stumbled across these two wonderful Seder plates. They are completely different from one another, but I love them both. They are also both completely out of my price range.

Aimee Golant Rejoice Seder Plate

Needle Felted Seder Plate from Portland Fiber Gallery and Weaving Studio

I have no choice tonight- I have to start cooking since the brisket has to sit overnight once it's cooked. I'm also going to try to bake the macaroons tonight too. Hopefully I'll have a cooking post for your viewing pleasure tomorrow!

Holiday Prep

After much dusting, mopping, scrubbing, and general decluttering my house is nearly ready for my family and friends for the first night of Passover. Now that the cleaning is nearly done, it's time to start thinking about all the cooking. Hubby and I spent a romantic Saturday night grocery shopping and $239 later, we have nearly all the supplies to put together a tasty Seder dinner. Fair warning- this is likely to turn into a food blog over the next week.

So, now that you've been warned, here's the menu for Wednesday evening. Our table of 10 will be served the following:

Starters
Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls (made lovingly my my ma)
Gefilte Fish with Carrots and Horseradish
Cheese
Various olives, mushrooms, peppers, and other marinated goodness from the Wegman's goodie bar
Green Salad with Vinaigrette

Main Course
Slow Cooked Brisket
Moroccan Salmon
Roasted Potatoes
Glazed Carrots
Roasted Asparagus

Dessert
Martha's Chocolate Chip Macaroons
Passover Apple Cake
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Fruit Salad

There will also be much wine flowing and lots of matzo consumed. If this isn't enough food, then I give up. Any leftovers will be served for a smaller group of 6 for the Seder the second Seder the following evening.

I'm going to do my best to document my cooking/baking between now and Wednesday. We'll see how I do. I'm sure at one point the camera will get dropped in the soup or my kitchen will get just too messy to take a photo, but I'll see what I'm able to capture!

Have a great week everyone!

Weekend Cleaning

I'm not much looking forward to my weekend. Yes, I will not be at work, but instead I will be tidying and preparing my house for the guests and family that will coming over next week for Passover Seder and doing the shopping and prepping for said dinner.

I love having people over to my house and enjoy being a hostess, however, every time we have guests it becomes a bit of a production since I want to present my home in a certain manner. So here's my little confession - I love the LOOK of a tidy and clutter-free home, but in reality I don't seem to have to skills to MAINTAIN a tidy and clutter-free home. Papers pile up (I've tried various filing systems) and the dining room and kitchen tables become magnets for random stuff. The kitchen is a continual work in progress and without a dishwasher there always seem to be dishes or silverware in the sink. The bathrooms usually get cleaned little by little- the sink/vanity today, the toilet the next, the shower after that - so it never feels sparkling. The bed is only made right before I get in it at night and my small closet in combination with my clothing habit means that there clothes and shoes just about everywhere. Although I rarely post photos of my home, when I do, there's a reason why the photos are closely cropped!

I always ask that people give me a call before coming over, I'm not a fan of the random drop by since it doesn't give me a chance to stash all my clutter. However, I am amazed by folks that have the ability to maintain a neat looking home. For me, it just doesn't seem to be in my genes, but I'm not sure if this issue is nature or habit. Are some people just naturally neat freaks while others seems to attract clutter? Or, is keeping a tidy home a behavior that is learned? For those of you out there that have overcome your cluttering tendencies- how did you do it? Do you have any tips?

What I'm Reading: One Nation Under Dog

One of my co-workers and friends is married to the charming gentleman that wrote this book, which was just released this past Tuesday. One Nation Under Dog is a great look at America's obsessive dog culture. Read it, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll learn something.

I haven't had a dog since I was about eight years old, but hubby and I are absolutely "pet people." We have three kitties that are spoiled rotten and we have, from time to time, had hamsters that have also become part of our little family. The cats usually get more room in the bed than we do, we buy them fancy food and treats, and they have more toys than many three-year old children that I know. Those little creatures are truly a part of my family and bring hubby and I much joy and love. While Shaffer focuses on dogs in his book, I can attest that the points he makes are also spot on for all different types of pet owners. It's a worthy read- and with a cover that cute, who could resist?!

If you're interested in hearing more about One Nation Under Dog, Shaffer was on NPR's Fresh Air yesterday and you can listen to it online here. He's also going to be on Marketplace on Friday and here in Philly he'll be on Marty Moss-Coane's Radio Times next week. Basically, he's all over and if you see/hear something you should stop and watch/listen, it'll be interesting, I promise!

More Etsy Cuteness

The other day I made an impulse Etsy purchase. I was wanting something cute, and springy, and whimsical. I came across these little hydrangea hair clips by Lou and Lee and quickly added them to my cart. They're so lovely and perfect that it's hard to believe they're hand made. I can't wait to get them and I think these little cuties will look great in my dark brown hair and give me a little bit of spring flair (that rhyme was completely unintentional by the way!)