A Boy And Girl

Peas and Herbs

Abby — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:49:30 +0000

I got a pretty good start on my garden beds this year, but I still decided to keep things simple: a bed for peas (‘snowbird’ and ‘early perfection’), and a bed for herbs.

Is it any surprise I chose to make an “A” frame trellis for my peas? I found plans here, and put it together pretty quickly with some scrap wood. My peas have yet to take advantage of all that twine-y support, but I think they’ll like it.

I stocked up on herbs and planted them, knowing my basil would have to suffer through a few more cold nights.

I really want to make fancy plant markers, but I haven’t found just what I’m looking for yet.
So far I found sweet little clay animal markers, simple twig markers, and of course it’s hard to go wrong with chalkboard paint.
Someone is not very impressed with my garden efforts…

but I say- It’s still early .

The Bee Sting

Abby — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:06:52 +0000

We have pretty high standards for sandwiches around here, so I decided to feature a few recipes we’ve tried and really liked.
First up: The Bee Sting (Remix)-(the actual name of this recipe) which I found here. I found this recipe when I was looking for a way to use up some leftover sopressatta and was intrigued by the basil infused honey and red pepper flaked butter. Bee sting. Clever, right?
Begin by slicing up some basil leaves and stir them into a few tablespoons of honey. You can let it sit overnight as the original recipe suggests, but I didn’t and it still tasted great.
Next, stir crushed red pepper flakes (as many as you can handle) into 1-2 tbs. of softened butter.
Then, begin building your sandwich, starting with the basil infused honey:

A few slices of fresh mozzarella:

Enough tomato slices to cover your bread:

Soppressata slices:

And another layer of mozzarella:

Spread the red pepper butter on the outside of each slice, and slide into a low to medium heat pan.
As Mackenzie points out in her recipe, keep the heat low or the red pepper flakes will burn and get bitter!
And besides, low to medium heat does lovely things to buttered bread:

Remove when golden on both sides, and enjoy!

I love this recipe cause it’s hearty without being too heavy. The honey is intriguing and the red pepper flakes are unexpected. You don’t feel the need to take a nap after eating this… but Finn and I did, anyways.
Josh and I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Ranunculus and other loves

Abby — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:21:31 +0000

Josh and I are busy bees right now, spending every free moment priming or painting or spring cleaning. I have been able to squeeze in a little time for gardening, which I’ll share more of in the next day or so, but first:
I took these photos a week or two ago when I planted a container on my deck with ranunculus and pansies… they don’t go particularly well together, and the whole container lacks height- but I am in love with the cheery colors that greet me each time I come home.

And for someone who works in a garden center and spends most of her days assisting people in having weed-free lawns, I sure do love my weeds.

Lehigh Valley Style Herb Garden

Abby — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:53:18 +0000

Back in January, my talented friend Alison Conklin asked me if I’d like to be involved in contributing to and styling an herb garden shoot for Lehigh Valley Style. I think I said something like- “Of Course!!!!!!!”… give or take an exclamation point.
So the idea for the shoot was supposed to be based around a windowsill herb garden, which I love. I remember back in high school when Jamie Oliver was relatively unknown in the U.S. and I had to stay up late to watch his cooking show, he would implore his viewers to grow their own herbs by the kitchen window, assuring us of their relative simplicity. Since then, I haven’t had tons of luck with windowsill herbs due to a north facing window and narrow sills. So I started thinking about an attractive small piece of furniture you could move to the sunniest window, and then even on to your deck in nicer months, and the idea for the sewing table-turned-herb table was born! I found the sewing table at one of my favorite thrift store chains 95 cents, and I think it turned out lovely.
The best part of this project, to me, is that I’ve visited this table since I gave it to my mom a few months ago, and it is beautiful! The oregano is spilling over the edge like I’d hoped, and the lavender is creeping up and giving height to the whole container. I may have to make myself one.

We shot this in January… like I said, Alison is amazing.

The other project we shot was a little picket fence herb centerpiece set in rusty old loaf pan. I love the worn metal and sweet little fence.

I loved working on this with Alison since she is able to make everything look good, and because she is so talented, I was intimidated into trying really hard to do a good job! Haha.
Special thanks to Alison and Meghan Decker, thanks for the opportunity, ladies!

Easter-stuffed Eggs

Abby — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:46:26 +0000

Inspired by Melanie’s easter in a box, I packed up my own little Easter packages for my 4 amazing nephews. I wish I could have seen my family this Easter… we had such a fun time playing baseball, finding morel mushrooms(!), and dying Easter eggs with them this time last year.
I would have liked to find the perfect-sized egg to fit all these goodies inside of, but instead each nephew got 2 eggs each. Also, would have loved to find those little metal tubes of goo that can be blown into (temporarily) solid balloons, but my shopping trip only offered up punching bags.
I also included a hand-painted Polish egg for each of my sisters (+one for my mom and myself), I found them at a farmer’s market and hope to make it an Easter tradition so we eventually have a bowlful of colorful eggs.
Happy Easter Everyone!

Peachy Roses

Abby — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:53:25 +0000

For a full week now I’ve been swooning over these roses that Josh bought me last weekend when he was in New York. We unearthed the (giant!) Ball glass jar from his late, beloved, great-Aunts’ basement, and I know it will be well-used by us for years to come.

Thanksgiving in March

Abby — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:02:35 +0000

A few weeks ago (before we experience 80 degree temperatures…), I cooked a turkey dinner as a belated birthday present for my dad. It was my first turkey so I asked Josh to take a couple photos. I used a “dry brine” and it turned out really well- I would definitely recommend it to anyone trying to pump up the flavor.
I love this photo, my dad really loves crispy turkey skin .

Along with the turkey we had standard Thanksgiving dishes- stuffing, mashed potatoes (with my mom’s perfect gravy), green bean casserole, and some oddball sides like pickled beets and banana bread.

It was a really nice, relaxing Sunday, and I feel so lucky and blessed to have such an awesome dad and amazing mom.

For some reason, which I will never fully understand, my dad truly loves my dog. I find it both baffling and heartwarming. I mean, I love my dog, but he’s my dog, you know? Anyways, it’s pretty sweet.

‘S no problem

Abby — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:24:35 +0000

So maybe you got all excited about spring seeming to be tremendously near, maybe you even blogged about it. It wasn’t until you were walking the dog you noticed the ominous blue tarps your old neighbor had fastened onto his cars- a sure sign that snow was on it’s way. No need to despair, just put that snow to work! The other day, I recalled an old blog post I’d seen on my sisters’ blog that explained how my sister Laura used snow to clean her rugs, so I decided to try it out myself.
There are a few places with more specific instructions, but here’s how I did it*.
First, put your rug outside for a half hour to get it acclimated to the temperature. The instructions I followed said to do this somewhere sheltered, but I just laid it over my deck railing.

Next, lay down your rug on a cleared spot.

Wait while the snow does the dirty work.

I tested a section of the rug, but decided to let it accumulate a little bit more.
The next step is to sweep the rug entirely clean. I don’t have any photos of myself sweeping since my assistant lacks the necessary photography skills/thumbs. A firm bristled broom works best, mine is beautiful handcrafted Berea College broom that was a wedding present from my sister!
After that, I hung the rug over the railing and beat it to remove any remaining clumps of snow.

Once I felt like the rug was sufficiently dry, I brought it inside and let it hang and air out before putting it back into position.
This method definitely made my rug noticeably cleaner and brighter, and I was happy with the results given the small amount of work I had to do. Unfortunately, it didn’t help me get rid of the short, pointy Finn hairs that burrowed into the carpet and are impossible to remove, but I think I’ll just have to learn to ignore them, cause I guess he’s kinda worth it.

*Note: Dry snow works best! The snow I used got a little soggy towards the end, and a soaking/freezing rug would be a disaster to deal with! Also, since we weren’t expecting that much snow, I let the rug get snowed on, because we didn’t have enough accumulation for me to place the rug face down in the snow.

Almost there…

Abby — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:49:52 +0000

I know it’s a little too early to call this spring, but stuff is totally happening over here.
For example, daffodils have poked through the soil…

Forsythia is willing to bloom, indoors…

And it’s warm enough outside that I can open our back door and let Finn take a nap in his favorite spot.

Finnegan eats a snack

Abby — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:58:25 +0000

When I was recently visiting my family in Kentucky, my 2 youngest nephews and I spent an awesome afternoon watching funny animal videos on my iPad. Bizzle eats some dunkers was definitely the crowd favorite, so I attempted to make my own movie with Finn for my nephew Avery’s birthday. Happy Birthday Avery and Happy Groundhog’s day my other awesome nephews- Julian, Eli and Isaac!