Ruffly kitchen curtains!

I'm not craftsy. When I see how-to-make-curtains tutorials on blogs, I just get discouraged. If it weren't for my very creative big and my art-major little, I wouldn't have made it through Pi Phi big sis week. When I taught arts & crafts for a term at camp, all I could do was rinse paintbrushes and start lanyards. But I've always enjoyed craft projects, especially the very simple kind I can actually pull off. When I was little, I would hand-sew scraps of fabric into clothes for my bear and American Girl dolls. I imagined myself as a Laura Ingalls Wilder or even a Felicity Merriman. A month before my wedding, I helped my "other mother," Cyrene, make a lovely sundress that I wore to my rehearsal dinner. She did the vast majority of the work, but I pinned some hems and learned a lot about the process. Look how beautifully it turned out!

Here I am in my garnet & gold dress, surrounded by my beautiful bridesmaids!

With the dressmaking experience behind me and my lovely new sewing machine in front of me (a graduation present from my incredibly talented Auntie Flo!), I have embarked on a mission to make curtains for my cute little house.

I started with what I thought would be the simplest: short ruffly curtains for my kitchen windows. Our kitchen has two windows that look into a closed-in porch. You can see straight through the glass wall of that "Florida room," as it is apparently called, into the garden. I didn't want to block that view too much, but I wanted something that would frame the window and make the kitchen look a little more lived-in. These turned out to be very forgiving, which is wonderful for a novice sewer who is still working on sewing in a straight line. I think anyone who can figure out a sewing machine could probably make these.

I made the first curtain (above) on Thursday, before Andrew and I left for Mike & Kate's wedding. I made the second one today--it's a little shorter, since it's sitting above some potted plants. Or maybe just because I didn't measure well enough. Take your pick.

 If you're interested in making your own kitchen curtains (and you are, aren't you?), cut your fabric into a rectangle that is a couple inches wider and about 1/3 longer than you want your final product to be. Pin and hem the sides so it is more or less  the width you want. One of the things that has stuck with me from home ec class is that you sew a little back-and-forth business to cement the beginning and end of your thread. Go forward an inch or so, reverse and then full speed ahead. So do that... this time.

Next, fold down the top so that it is (allowing for the bottom hem, when we get there) the height you want your curtain to be. Pin it all the way across. Set your stitch length to the longest option and don't do the forward-reverse thing to cement your thread. Sew all the way across. Leave plenty of thread on both ends.

Now you're going to pull the ruffle. This is the part that takes a while, but it's pretty mindless. Put something good on TV (the Tsonga-Raonic match today was perfect) and just inch the fabric down along the thread. I switched between the top & bottom threads, as well as both sides, when the ruffle looked stuck. Go slowly and carefully so you don't break the thread.

This is what it looks like when you're getting started

This is what it looks like when you're done!

 Once you're done with the lower ruffle, use chalk to draw a line about halfway between the lower ruffle and the top. This line demarcates the upper limit of your curtain rod, so make sure to leave enough space. I worked in segments, since the ruffling makes it difficult to see what you're doing.

Sew along the chalk line just as you did for the first ruffle, and pull it through in the same way. I anchored my ruffle edges with the forward-reverse deal, just a couple inches on each side. Finally, pin and hem the bottom--it'll look like it's a little ruffled, too, which I think is nice.

And you're done! It's ready for hanging. I used suspension rods from Home Depot and a tall husband.

Comfort food for when you don't want comfort food

It's been a shamefully lazy day. Although I had an absolutely wonderful time catching up with old friends this weekend, I think I caught some unpleasant bug and have been reduced to watching the Olympics all day on the couch while I think about all the cleaning and organizing and job-hunting I should be doing. I didn't get any kind of appetite until almost 3, when I had a tuna salad sandwich for a very late lunch. It's the kind of day where I would love to rationalize ordering pizza or Chinese, but being away from home means I've been eating out for three days, and I was at the point where I really want a healthy, homemade dinner. Even mac and cheese isn't that good for me... But here we are with a blog post, which means I had an absolutely delicious dinner and am now feeling loads better. Tonight's dinner came together in about an hour, and it was so easy.

Andrew and I both went to Washington and Lee, which is known for its many formal events: Fancy Dress Ball, Christmas weekend and about four sorority formals a year. We'd have parties before formals, where everyone would gather at an off-campus house to enjoy appetizers and drinks. I made coconut shrimp before New Member Formal in February, and it was a huge hit. This coconut chicken is basically the same thing, but with chicken instead of shrimp. Andrew loved it--and he doesn't normally like coconut anything! I also dressed up green beans, my favorite vegetable of all time, into a beautiful summertime salad.

My chicken-breading station

Coconut chicken and apricot chile sauce
I found this recipe ages ago via Pinterest (here's the original), and was so excited to finally make it! It's breaded chicken with a hint of sweetness from the coconut. I fried it, but think next time I will just bake it--it takes longer but is much less stressful. The blog where I found this recipe recommended serving it with sweet chile sauce. I just made the same sauce I first used for my coconut shrimp: mix together 1/2 cup apricot preserves, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and some crushed red pepper flakes. Easy! I did this first so the flavors had a chance to mix together.

Cut 2 lb chicken breasts into easy-to-manage strips. The thin-sliced cutlets were on sale, which meant my work was done. Lucky, lazy me! Dip each strip into three bowls, in order:
- 1/2 cup flour and a dash of salt
- 2 eggs and (if you have it) 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup bread crumbs (panko if you have it) and 1 cup coconut, blended in a food processor so the pieces are smaller

Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the chicken strips in batches. Drain them on paper towels before serving. Yum!

Green bean salad with goat cheese, tomatoes and almonds
My mom emailed this recipe to me this afternoon (here's the original), and it looked so beautiful and delicious. What a great summer side dish! The goat cheese melts a little around the green beans, and the almond flavor takes it up to the next level. I used fewer almonds and less garlic than the original recipe wanted. I also used grape tomatoes; the bigger cherry tomato probably wouldn't hide in the bottom of the bowl quite as much.

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 1/4 cup sliced almonds in a single layer in a shallow pan for a few minutes until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. I used my toaster oven.

Cook 2 lb. green beans in boiling water 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. Run cold water over them so they stop cooking. Cut 1 pint cherry tomatoes in half and mince 1 clove garlic. You can also add 2 sliced shallots, but I didn't.

Whisk together 3 tablespoons sherry or white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and a little salt and pepper. I used red wine vinegar, which is what I had on hand. Add 1/3 cup olive oil. Pour over the green beans, tomatoes and garlic. Serve with the toasted almonds and 2 oz. crumbled goat cheese.

Product placement: I made the dressing in my emulsifier, which is truly incredible if you're at all interested in making your own salad dressings. It whisks oil and vinegar together in no time at all. It's from Williams-Sonoma, and comes with handy instructions for measuring out your own vinaigrettes! My sister-in-law, Anne, gave it to me and it is just amazing (just like she is).

"And in the morning, I'm makin' waffles!"

I'm traveling up to Pittsburgh for a wedding this weekend! My friend Mike, who I've known since second grade, is getting married! My brother is in the wedding and my dad is performing the ceremony, so it'll be a mini-family reunion in addition to a great wedding. So this weekend, I'm giving you Thursday's breakfast. Waffles are a breakfast classic, but--wow, are they a lot of effort! I probably should have had coffee before I got going. Maybe I should have subtitled my blog "the misadventures of a newlywed," since I made a teensy mistake with my recipe. I was making 2/3 the recipe... except for the eggs. An additional egg white made the waffles a little too light and thin, but they still tasted great. Look at this full and nutritious breakfast!

Waffles, from the Joy of Cooking
To make 6 waffles:

Sift before measuring: 1 ¾ cups flour. Resift with 2 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 1 tblsp sugar. Beat 3 egg yolks and add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1 ½ cup milk. Make a hole in the center of the sifted ingredients and combine all with a few swift strokes. The batter should have a pebbled look similar to muffin batter. 

Beat 3 egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold them into the batter so they are barely blended. Cook in a waffle maker.

To make 4 waffles:
1 1/6 cup flour
1 1/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 eggs, divided into yolks and whites
1 tblsp, 2 tsp vegetable oil
1 cup milk

The Joy of Cooking recommends adding before the egg whites:
1/2 cup fresh fruit or berries
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts, coconut, raisins or dried fruit
1/4 cup grated semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup shredded cheese or ham (if so, omit sugar)

I stuck with the classic plain waffle, and Andrew was happy!

Christmas sugar cookies and frosting

Christmas in July is my favorite holiday. It reminds me of camp, when we have a carnival and fireworks and a movie at night. We used to put our shoes out the night before and wake up to candy and a dusting of "snow." When raccoons started showing up in junior camp, the candy was replaced with little bottles of sunscreen and bubbles. Christmas in July is the slightly tacky younger cousin of actual Christmas. My family's time-honored Christmas recipes--egg nog, bon bons, candied grapefruit peels, 10 dozen ginger cookies--didn't make an appearance yesterday. Y'all will have to wait until December for these secrets! But it's a great time to wear bright red and bright green (I even pulled out a favorite tartan ribbon), drink hot chocolate and indulge a little. Andrew brought in flowers from our garden to decorate the dinner table. Look how beautiful they are!

Dessert was sugar cookies--and of course, you could make any shapes you want. I always made arrows and angels for Pi Phi cookie shines. My apartment in college didn't have a smooth countertop, so I used a big cutting board--easy cleanup! I usually take a chunk of dough at a time and dip it in flour all over so that the cutouts come up more easily. You can also use a paring knife and a thin spatula if the dough gets stubborn. Andrew and I bought these Christmas-themed cookie cutters three years ago, when I convinced him to let my pledge sisters use his house to bake cookies during finals. I threw in a few angels, too. I used his favorite sugar cookie recipe and let it sit in the fridge overnight. It doesn't have to wait that long, and it doesn't really have to go in the fridge at all, but it does roll out better if it's cold. These quantities make a LOT of cookies, so you can always cut the recipe in half or freeze part of the dough for later.

Rolled sugar cookies
Cream 1 1/2 cups softened butter and 3 cups white sugar until smooth. Beat in 4 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Stir in 5 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Cover and chill at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough onto a floured surface 1/2 inch thick (who would actually measure this? Just know that the thicker it is, the more you risk spreading) and cut into shapes. Bake 5-8 minutes. I know I roll my cookies thin, but I only baked them for 5 minutes. I like to keep them on the cookie sheet for an extra minute--they solidify a little more--before I transfer them to the cooling rack.

You could leave your cookies plain, or toss sprinkles on before you bake them, or cool and frost them. I did a bit of all three. My frosting recipe came from Joyce Winchester, whose daughter Cat is one of my best friends from high school. She read Psalm 121 at our wedding and it was beautiful. Our families are close--we've gone on vacations together, and I consider Cat and Lauren to be my sisters. My cousin and bridesmaid Julia (who is also Lauren's new roommate!) sent out recipe cards in the invitation to my shower. It was a lovely idea and a great way to kick-start my recipe collection. Joyce got this recipe from the mother of one of her friends and says it's her absolute favorite.

 I've tried several buttercream frostings over the past few years, which all have varying proportions of milk, butter and confectioner's sugar. This one is definitely unique, but it made a smoother and better-tasting frosting than any of the others.

Yummy buttercream frosting, from Joyce Winchester
Combine 5 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk in a saucepan. Whisk together well then place over medium heat. Continue to whisk until the mixture is very thick. Cool completely. Cream together 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add 1 tsp vanilla and the milk paste. Whip it with an electric beater until it resembles whipped cream. Yum!

Spinach & artichoke dip

Tonight, I attended the first meeting of the Tallahassee Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi! I was a Pi Phi all through college and LOVED IT, so I am so excited that they're starting an alumnae club here. It was a potluck dinner, and of course it turns out that everyone brought some kind of dip with some kind of cracker, myself included. And despite the overabundance of food, guess who brought home an empty dish?

I modified this recipe from The Bride and Groom Cookbook by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford, which is really wonderful--it has nice, creative renditions of classics. Our maid of honor (and my big sister in Pi Phi!), Allison, gave it to us for our engagement. The recipe was originally just artichoke dip, but I had to have spinach. I swear it tastes just as good as what you'd get at an Applebee's or somewhere. This is comfort food at its best. The cookbook also suggests thinning the recipe with milk to use over chicken, fish or pasta. Yum!

I made one and a half times the recipe so Andrew could enjoy it as well--that's the appetizer for tomorrow's dinner--but here are the original quantities. It will fit in a 8-inch square dish (or any baking pan that holds 4 cups). They say it serves 8-12. I'm still working on the whole take-pictures-while-you-cook thing, so the only picture I have is of the dip waiting to go in the oven. It was much more beautiful with the cheese all bubbly and golden brown, but at that point I was slapping foil over it and running out the door!

Spinach & artichoke dip
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine in a large bowl:

2 cans (14-oz) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

10 oz frozen spinach, defrosted and drained

1 cup mayonnaise (the recipe originally called for an extra half-cup, but I think that's too much)

1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1/3 cup sliced green onions

2 minced garlic cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, or 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Adjust the seasonings as necessary. Transfer the mixture into a baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until heated through. Increase the heat to broil and cook until the top is bubbly and golden brown, 2-3 more minutes. Garnish with 2 tablespoons sliced green onions before serving.

Serve warm with tortilla chips (what I used), bagel chips, French bread slices or crackers.

Peach lazy cake

Living next door to Georgia in the summer means peaches, and lots of them. One night, I just had sliced peaches and cheddar cheese for dinner. This is a summer staple from my childhood called "lazy cake"--you'll see why! It takes about as long to  throw together as it takes to slice a couple of peaches and melt some butter. You can bake it while you're eating dinner, and it's done by dessert. Growing up, we'd often eat it after Daddy grilled something for dinner. Barbecued chicken, grilled zucchini, fresh tomatoes and lazy cake: what could be better? It's my brother's all-time favorite, and I think it's up there for Andrew as well. It develops a crisp crust and a light center punctuated with delicious peach pieces. You can really use any fruit you have around; blackberries are great in it. I had peaches, so that's what I used.

I got this recipe from my mom, who probably got it from the angels.

I don't bother measuring the fruit; this was two peaches.

Lazy cake
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Melt about 6 tablespoons of butter in a casserole dish. (You can use up to a stick, but you really don't need that much.) I toss it in the oven while it's preheating because I'm extra-lazy, but microwaving is faster. Mix together: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Add 2/3 cup milk and pour batter on top of melted butter. Dump 2 1/2 cup peaches or other fruit on top. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

It's that easy!

Don't mix the fruit in with the batter--really.

The finished product

YUM!

The "I would do anything for..." meatloaf

We are up to our ears in leftovers at the moment, so I've been exercising all my self-restraint to not cook recently. So today I will rely on an oldie but a goodie, which I recently passed on to my friend Neville. Neville went to W&L with Andrew and me, and was the 'Quasimodo' in our wedding: he rang the bell during the recessional, which was just lovely. He just started his own blog, which features a crossword every Friday. Make sure you check it out--it goes live tomorrow!

Meatloaf is not the most glamorous meal, I know. I think of it as a relic of the 1950's, the era of canned pineapple in Jell-O and frozen TV dinners and Julia Child hasn't yet re-taught Americans how to cook. As a French major, I can be a little snobby about food sometimes. But there's some charm in meatloaf's simplicity and modesty. Ground beef is about the cheapest meat you can find, and the recipe is super-simple to prepare; I think it might take you five minutes from start to oven.

This is the meatloaf recipe I grew up with--the recipe that compelled even my daddy, who obstinately declares that he hates meatloaf, to come back for thirds every time. Andrew requested it during our first week in our little house, so Mommy emailed me her tried-and-true recipe. I chatted on Skype with Neville while I was cooking, and he confessed that he was not much of a meatloaf eater--so I sent the recipe off to him and he has now made it several times. Neville is the one who started referring to this as "Katherine's 'I would do anything for...' meatloaf" because, well, you know.

The natural companion for meatloaf is potatoes--I mashed them, but I also love roasting them in a little butter--and whatever fresh veggies you have on hand. I love my meatloaf pan, which has a removable insert so all the fat drains out, but any loaf pan will work.

My magical meatloaf pan

Meatloaf from my mother, Sallie Roberts

Mix together in a mixing bowl:

1 egg
1/2-1 green pepper, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup oatmeal
2/3 cup tomato juice (she notes: you can buy small cans)
1 tsp pepper (I would use less)
1 tsp salt

Add 1 lb uncooked lean ground beef or mix of ground beef, pork and veal
Bake 45 min at 350 degrees.

How easy is that? Andrew is not a green pepper person, so I substituted half an onion to keep the same consistency. He found that to be a little oniony, although I wonder what would happen if I sauteed it first. But Andrew still went back for fourths...

Introductions and Banana-Chocolate Tart

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein

I am convinced that my husband (it still feels strange to call him that!) mostly decided he liked me because I wanted to join him and his friends for one of their many failed attempts at a Lord of the Rings marathon. (They did finally complete a marathon during his bachelor party.) We are both hobbits, although at 6'4" Andrew is really too tall to claim the title. I am much littler at 5'2", and second breakfast is my favorite. Andrew and I got married just a month ago, on June 16, and now live in a cute little midcentury house in Tallahassee. We have a huge, wild garden with fig trees and oak trees and foxes, so we named our new home the Shire. So that is why I have named my blog "Food, Love and Hobbits," at least temporarily until I think of something more clever.

Some of my high school friends told me that I should start a blog about my new life, especially all the food I've been making. I have always considered myself a good cook, especially when it comes to helping my mom and my aunties get ready for Thanksgiving. I lived in an apartment my junior and senior years of college and made myself dinner most nights, usually without much of a recipe. But having my own house and cooking for two on as much of a budget as I can handle is definitely a different experience from defrosting a few shrimp and making some pasta every night. I've been reading cookbooks and recipe blogs a lot more, trying to find recipes that are healthy, cost-effective and not too complicated, but still flavorful. I believe that gourmet food is not out of anyone's reach, and it certainly beats takeout or cheap restaurants.

So here we are, and here is a blog. I'm going to start with this delicious dessert I made last night. It was our one-monthiversary, so I promised Andrew I would make him something special. (Disclaimer: he is also a good cook and makes me yummy dinners all the time. He is worried that I would use this blog as an excuse to ban him from the kitchen, but I would never.) He had a long day in the lab--he is a biology grad student--so when he came home I poured him a glass of milk and put the finishing touches on...

• Baked herbed goat cheese with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil, served on baguette slices (leftover from our Bastille Day celebration). This was our appetizer
• Rosemary chicken, which has been my favorite since I was little
• Oven-roasted tomatoes provençales
• Green beans almandine
• Yeast rolls (I used some of the dough to make cinnamon rolls for second breakfast today!)
• Banana-chocolate tart

The following recipe is from Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan, which is an amazing cookbook. I've organized the recipe in a way that makes more sense to me and added my own commentary, but I do not claim to have invented it.

Banana-chocolate tart: This tart is made of four components prepared separately, which you can do earlier in the day. It's a long recipe, which looks intimidating. I promise it isn't. The finished product is so beautiful, and none of the steps were particularly challenging. I timed out the different components, which need to cool or set, and used them as a break from preparing the rest of dinner, cleaning the house, etc. I did them in the following order, and then it sat in the fridge until dinner was over.

Chocolate shortbread dough: This is more of a cookie dough, but you make a crust by pressing it into your tart pan (or pie pan, if that's what you have). I got to break in my Cuisinart food processor... although I was on the phone with one of my best friends at the time, which impeded my ability to get the lid on correctly. It cut in the butter perfectly! I may actually start using it to make my own pie crusts, something I foreswore when we had to make them by hand in eighth grade home ec class.

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put the above ingredients in the food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter 9 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces) over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely. For me, this took like a minute. Stir one large egg yolk just enough to break it up, and add it to the dough. When the egg is in, process in long pulses--about 10 second each--until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly knead it to incorporate any dry ingredients that may have escaped mixing.
You can either press the dough into a tart pan (this is what I did) or roll it out for a pie-style crust, or maybe for cookies. If you want to roll it out, flatten it into a disk and refrigerate it for a few hours, or up to 5 days. Once the dough is in the tart pan, prick it all over with a fork and freeze it for at least 30 minutes before baking.

To bake it, put it in a 375-degree oven with a buttered circle of aluminum foil over it for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 8 minutes. Let it cool on a cooling rack before filling it.

Caramelized bananas: This is the layer closest to the crust, and it is such a nice surprise when you dig in! I found that my caramelized bananas only covered the center of the crust, so you could increase these proportions (maybe double them). I would also be more careful than I was about arranging the slices when you take them off the skillet--once they've cooled in a clump, they're stuck.

Cover a plate with parchment paper. Slice 1 ripe but firm banana into 1/8-inch-thick slices and toss them with a little lemon juice to keep them from blackening. Put a large nonstick skillet over high heat, melt 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter and add the bananas. When both sides of all the slices are covered in butter, add 3 1/2 tablespoons sugar and cook, turning the slices until they are golden and caramelized on both sides. Transfer the bananas to the parchment-lined plate, dab them with a paper towel to remove excess butter and let them sit until they reach room temperature.

Chocolate ganache: Chop 1 pound bittersweet chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Bring 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour it over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for a few seconds, then mix it together with a whisk or a spatula. Stir gently, and when the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into four pieces and at room temperature. If you refrigerate the ganache before using it, reheat gently in a microwave.

Arrange the caramelized bananas in an even layer on the crust, then pour the ganache on top. Gently rotate the tart pan so the ganache covers everything evenly. Refrigerate everything for 30 to 60 minutes, at least until the ganache has set.

Banana topping: Cut 2 or 3 bananas into 1/4-inch-thick slices and toss them with a little lemon juice. Arrange them on the tart in concentric circles. Bring 1/2 cup apricot jam (or less) to a boil and brush it over the bananas. Allow the glaze to cool and set before serving.