Willa Cather... my favorite author of the moment (again)

Willa Cather has always been one of my favorite authors ever since I read her work in a modern literature class in college. She has a way of writing that is effortlessly poetic, as if every thing she describes seems instantly dignified and intriguing. But recently after I purchased a collection of works entitled "38 Short Stories by American Women Writers", which included 5 short works by Cather, I found out that we actually have something in common. Like myself, Cather moved from the South to the rural midwest. Cather was born in Back Creek, Virginia in 1873 and moved with her family to Catherton, Nebraska in 1883. The following year the family relocated to nearby Red Cloud, the same town that has been made famous by her writing. Cather won a pulitzer prize for her writing and is known for her great ability to describe the midwest as an outsider looking in. I especially appreciate her detail to landscape. Just a little something that I have found interesting to read in this stage of my life. If you have not read any of her works, I highly recommend her.

Pomegranate Sangria

Well it is about that time of year! Thanksgiving is on its way and then in a blink it will be christmas. One thing that I love about the holidays that I can start enjoying now is my Pomegranite Sangria. I love this drink so much, obviously I would there is wine it, but also I think it's healthy because there is the great antioxidant booster pomegranite juice in it. I triple or quadruple the recipe and just keep it my fridge through Thanksgiving. I let everything rest at least one night before drinking so that all of the fruit gets completely saturated. The little pomegranites look like floating jewels in this drink. This is not only a beautiful cocktail but it is refreshing and utterly fabulous. I only wish Thanksgiving was year round. I hope you will share with me my tradition and try this libation.


Ingredients for Sangria

1 bottle fruity red wine
2 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/4 cup simple syrup (equal amounts sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves, cooled)
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1 large orange, halved and thinly sliced
1 green apple, cored, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup red grapes, sliced in 1/2
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 48 hours before serving. Serve over ice.

Roux's first Snow

It has been a little while since i have blogged, but I am still around and staying busy. We just had our first snow fall last week in Iowa and "Big" baby Roux had her first wintry experience. Roux officially loves snow and waits longingly until she can get outside and run around in it. For everyone back in New Orleans; the Beast (now 85 pounds, however someone told me that she looks skinny) is coming home with us for Christmas so be prepared for some slobbery fun.

Fall Inspirations...

Fall is in full effect here. The leaves are golden and falling everywhere and with that comes sqash and pumpkin season. Luckily we live in a town that has a large pumpkin patch and every fall they turn it into pumpkinland. I had to get a pumpkin for carving, but I don't cook with a lot of pumpkin (because it is such a large scale process), so I bought a bunch of squash. After looking for some recipes, I found one for a pumpkin humus, but instead of pumpkin I used acorn squash and doctored the recipe up a bit. This lead me to also exploring making my own pita bread, since our town DOES NOT SELL PITA BREAD AT ALL. However, this turned out to have a pleasant outcome. I used a recipe for Pita Bread from the Joy of Cooking and it wasn't really that difficult. The fresh pita bread was great with the humus and it was a fun cocktail hour at our house that night. Here is the outcome






RECIPE for Acorn Squash Humus

1/2 Acorn Squash roasted for one hour at 375 degrees
16 oz can of chickpeas
3/4 cup of tahini
the juice from 3 lemons
3 tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic
bunch parsley
bunch green onions
1 tsp tamari
1 tsp agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste

Blend all together in a food processor and enoy with pita bread, tortilla chips, or with fresh vegetables.

Another Great New Orleans Find...that I can get Delivered.

It is getting cold here, blah! And if you are like me at all, you like to get geared up for whatever comes your way. For winter however, it always seems like a struggle to find warm clothing, and what better way for fighting the cold than fabulous sweaters. LIA MOLLY is my new amazing discovery for the cutest sweaters I have seen and best of all they come from a New Orleans designer. If you love Anthropologie and all of its romantic girlie charm than you will love Lia Molly's style, she even has a line of children's sweaters at Anthropologie exclusively. As stated on her website www.liamolly.com, "Lia Molly is a sweater collection deeply rooted in the art of knitting." I have never found myself gravitating towards knitting, maybe because I don't like doing intricate work with my fingers and hands, but I would rather let the experts do it, and that is just what Lia Molly does. Check out a few of her pieces.

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Well If you are looking for Christmas present ideas, I will take any of the above, but i hope you enjoy this great discovery.

A Real Fall Season... Beginning with Apples

I am starting a baking kick, now that I have a little more time on my hands and what better time than Fall. I am not accustomed to seeing a true fall season, usually it is still in the high temperatures and humidity in New Orleans, so I am taking advantage this year of all that Fall has to offer, and yesterday it meant Apples. My favorite apple is the Pink Lady, but for baking golden delicious Apples are usually one of the best choices. So last night I made Anthony Bourdain's Tarte Alsacienne. It is a tarte usually made in the Alsace region of Europe, bordering France and Germany, where almost all of my heritage happens to come from. To my credit this was my first attempt at this, and I was pretty satisfied, but have some ideas of how to make it better. I will keep you posted on my next Fall baking adventures, I am trying to tackle some breads.

Martha Stewart makes my life so much easier

I am usually adamantly opposed to ever going to Walmart, due to the fact that I do believe it is the corporate devil and has no soul or substance or heart, but since moving to the Midwest I have given my old enemy Walmart a chance, not willingly, but because I literally have no other choice. Walmart is the only place around here (in the next town over- we aren't even big enough to have a Walmart in our town) that I can get the things that I need, groceries, toiletries, etc... Target (my love) is 45 minutes away, so it makes it difficult to just run there after work. So on my recent excursion to the bully of all mega-stores I found something I could not believe, a Martha Stewart Section (for any woman who is into being domesticated and crafty, Martha Stewart is literally a God- she is crazy yet, perfect). I was shocked by this mostly because, I know that Martha has a line of goods at K-Mart and this seemed like it would be in direct competition to that, but it is not. The line of Martha stuff at Walmart is called "Martha Stewart Create" and has only two sections; one for crafting and scrapbooking and one for wedding goods. In the crafting section I found these great puppets, like the one pictured above. They are so wonderful for many reasons, but mostly because there is no glue, scissors, or colors required; all of the pieces come with self-adhesive on them and are super easy to put together with any child. We made Mr. Frog earlier this week with the children that I work with and we sang frog songs and did puppet shows with him and our other homemade puppets (remember the old sock puppets- they are still cute). I am definitely going to get more of these puppets for the children, but also keep tabs on what Martha might put out there next, because she is really making my life much easier (glue and scissors and kids is never neat and nice), so Thanks Martha.