Today I like ... Cabin Chic

Lately I'm really feeling that outdoorsy chic that seems to sweep the nation every time we have a little less money in our coffers. It probably has more than a little to do with my recent visit to my friend's family farmhouse and furthermore, to my hometown Wal-Mart, which sells plaid shirts, overalls and duck boots year-round, every year.

I could go for a cabin escape these days; I'm fantasizing about the Lost River Modern Pre-fab Cabin in Lost River, West Virginia.

Arts & Crafts Bridal Chest, $4500 at J. Peterman (yes, J. Peterman).

Men's Brushed Gingham Shirt, $30 (on sale!) at Gap.

Bristol accordion table lamp, $199 at Pottery Barn.
Duck boots, on sale for $75 at Sperry.

Spencer wing chair and ottoman, $2,495 from Sundance Catalog. Ouch on the price, but that's an heirloom piece if ever I saw one.

Bungalow check throw, $95 to $105 from Sundance Catalog.

Toffee Plaid throw, $108 at Pendleton.

So long, Tannenbaum

You may recall the saga of our Christmas tree, deemed "Thing 1" by our tree salesman.

First, we couldn't decide whether we wanted a real or fake tree. Our hearts and minds were leaning toward a real tree, but our wallets were saying "Don't you have a small fake tree in the closet?" And our laziness was coming out. You can almost hear the whining from our guts:

But we'll have to waaaatttteeeerrrrr it.

But we'll have to caaaarrrrryyyyy it.

But we'll have pine needles eeevveeryyyywheeerrreee.

Ultimately, we decided to go for emotion; we enjoyed every minute we spent admiring our beautiful tree, breathing in its scent.

What we never once considered was how we planned to dispose of it. Sean grew up in the kind of community where the city will pick up your tree with your garbage and do whatever it is they do with it. I grew up in the kind of town where the Wal-Mart hosted a chip-a-thon and you could bring your tree to see it turned into mulch.

Apparently, our community is not one of those places.

I did my civic duty and looked up where to drop off our tree to have it composted. The local newspaper and the city's press releases said to take it to the compost center or put it out for curbside pick-up. Since we live in a complex, curbside pick-up wasn't an option. So I told Sean he'd have to strap the tree to the top of the car and drive it 30 minutes to the compost center.

After wrestling with some bungee cord that I promised would not budge (it did), Sean drove out there only to find out the compost center is only available to residents of single-family homes. The woman who turned him away recommended he just toss the tree.

EXCUSE ME? The compost facility employee recommends we PUT THE TREE IN A DUMPSTER DESTINED FOR A LANDFILL?!

Sean returned home and asked the girls in our complex's office what to do. They were like, "Hm? That is a pickle. I guess put it beside the dumpster."

WHAT?!

Sean called to inform me that my plan failed and I was so furious I did something I always say I'm going to do and never do: I WROTE AN ANGRY EMAIL.

And guess what? After a few hours, I received a response saying we could call the compost facility manager's cell phone, meet him there and they'd make an exception for us. AND they plan to talk to our complex' s management about offering more recycling options. Unfortunately, our tree was gone by then, but at least we had the offer.

So forgive my long story, but I felt this was the essence of being Newly Domesticated. Sometimes it's not just about learning to cook; it's about learning to navigate adulthood. I did my civic duty, knowing I might not ever receive a response and guess what? I did receive a response. It was exhilarating.

Moral of the story: Write that angry letter you always threaten to write. You never know what the answer will be.

You want the moon, Mary?

Remember a few weeks back when I was taken with the idea of constructing a paper moon for my wedding?

Paper moons were very popular in the '20s and '30s. I love the sense of whimsy, the idea of being "over the moon" with someone and it reminds me of "It's a Wonderful Life," when George outlines his plan to lasso the moon for Mary.

Apparently, I'm not the only one with this line of thinking. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the most recent Martha Stewart Weddings, which featured the above paper moon. Glad to see my thinking is in line with the Martha Stewart staff!

Sunday Best v.8

I watched Baby Boom for the first time yesterday and was struck by how ahead of its time it seemed ... a Wall Street woman quitting the rat race to make organic baby food. If it weren't so classic, I'd suggest it's ripe for a remake, maybe starring someone like Reese Witherspoon. She plays tight-ass very well.

Anyways, here's the Sunday Best:

• A really hot royal portrait. When is Prince William gonna ever get married anyway? That's going to be the wedding of a century, for serious.
• A vintage dress + pomegranates + anemones = a gorgeous garden wedding.
• If I had somewhere to put it, I'd buy this midcentury cabinet in a second.
• I'm seriously, seriously coveting these sheets from West Elm.
• Perfectly tailored shirts, made by a pair of Virginians (one of whom happens to be the son of my college's president).

From the Deal/Shortt Test Kitchen

My good friend and former co-worker Jodi sent along this Betty Crocker recipe that apparently gets the party started wherever she goes. I meant to post this before Christmas, but life gets in the way of life sometimes, doesn't it?

Better-than-almost-anything Cake

Jodi says: "It might not be too high-brow, but it's DAAAAMN good. Keep it in mind for any events you'll be attending and bringing a dish if you want to wow the crowd - there was only one piece of the cake I made yesterday left by the end of the day, with many of my coworkers admitting openly to having enjoyed seconds and thirds. I got it from BettyCrocker.com, which has a lot of great, easy recipes."

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist German chocolate cake mix.
Water, vegetable oil and eggs (as described on cake mix)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 jar of caramel, butterscotch or fudge topping
1 container (8 ox) of frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 bag of toffee chips or bits
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cake as directed on box for 13x9 inch pan.
Poke on top of warm cake every 1/2 inch with handle of wooden spoon. Drizzle milk evenly over top of cake; let stand until milk has been absorbed into cake. Drizzle with caramel topping. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.
Spread whipped topping over cake. Sprinkle with toffee chips. Store covered in refrigerator.

For the Boys

Having just gone through Christmas, I'm wasn't sure I was ready to tackle boy-shopping for Valentine's Day. First of all, boys don't like stuff the way women do. At least, no boy in my life.

But I was happy to find a really great source for boy-friendly gifts that follow form AND function at Gent Supply Co., a god-send. Here were some of the best items I spotted:

Hand-blown shot glasses, $158.50.

The Gambler set, $42.08.

Wood iPhone cases, $39.50.

AND, a really great idea from another blog:

A gift box for the groomsmen, an amazing idea from Ruffled, a vintage wedding blog. It's like a dude picnic with liquor.

New Elizabeth Dye Dresses

Meet Giselle...
and Beatrix. The prettiest girls at the ball.

New dresses by Elizabeth Dye.

In other news, my wedding dress came today; it's beautiful and fits great, but of course, will need some tweaks. Sean's here, so I didn't get to gaze to the degree I'd like. Sounds like I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Contest Winner!

The winner of my Cookware.com giveaway is ....

Laurel!

Laurel left a comment about her cooking-related New Year's Resolution that said:

After seven years of living on my own, I am preparing to move back in with my parents. While the initial thought of this scares me stupid, there is one aspect of it that I am thoroughly looking forward to: the opportunity to cook for a family! Cooking and planning meals for one can be difficult and surprisingly not all that cost efficient. It's almost not worth the effort considering all the ingredients that must be purchased to put into a dish regardless of the number of people you plan to feed with it, and all the leftovers that will go to waste when you simply cannot eat the same casserole another night in a row. Cooking only for myself has severely limited the number of balanced meals I eat per week. This year, I vow to pull my weight as a "Boomerang Kid" by planning out meals in advance, preparing a weekly shopping list to take to the store with my mom, and taking the initiative to start cooking dinner so it will be ready by the time the family gets hungry. After all, deciding what to eat can be half the battle, and I want to do all I can to keep my parents from giving into the temptation to spoil me and take me out to dinner.

I let Sean pick the winner and he said he chose Laurel because it seemed like she could really use some new cookware and he liked that she was making a commitment to learn to cook for her family. I think he especially likes that she plans to make herself useful while living at home, unlike many a boomerang kid.

Thank you all so much for entering my first giveaway! I was so happy to see your interest and I think you all had really great resolutions; I, too, have struggled with baking, packing lunch for work, cooking for one and getting in a rut.

In other news, I managed to practically rub my eye out of its socket today, so I'm going to take a break from staring at a computer screen for the rest of the day. I ended up going to Emergicare, where they numbed my eye and examined and all seems to be generally okay, but it sure does sting.

Sunday Best v.8

Anne Bancroft, dancing with her niece in 1958. Photo for LIFE by Alfred Eisenstadt.

• I love Christina Hendricks' wedding pictures. Love the mismatched bridesmaids!
• I'm thinking these Lightweight, puffy frames could be a great photo booth alternative at a party or wedding.
• Do you recognize this chubby-faced celebrity when he was a baby?
• How to grow the perfect beard.
• Have you been dying to buy the Lohan clan's cast-offs? Oh, don't worry, you can!
• I'm probably the last person to find this, but were you aware of the Muppet wiki?

2009 Year in Review

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S GUYS!!!

For pretty obvious reasons, 2010 is going to be a very big year in my life: I'm getting married. 2009 was pretty great — I finally moved in with my best friend, I got engaged, I learned to cook, I started a blog. I thought I'd share my favorite top 10 entries, so here you go:

1. What the What?!: Our engagement story, with pictures! We got engaged on our anniversary on April 19, thus beginning the wedding planning that threatens to overtake this blog. I hope you keep reading until October, when we get hitched!
2. Moroccan-spiced Chicken: Probably my favorite chicken dish I tried, full of exotic spices and easy as pie. I need to make this again very soon.
3. Chicken Mulligatawny: One of the most popular recipes I've featured is Sarah Leach's recipe for chicken mulligatawny. I'm ashamed to say I still haven't tried it...must get to that ASAP.
4. The Great Tuna Disaster: This was a controversial post in that everyone was so angry with me after they read it. I still feel guilty about the ruined tuna, and I'm also trigger shy about cooking fish now. That needs to be part of my cooking resolution!
5. Our Wedding Palette: Very trendy turquoise and red; sometimes I regret it, but I know it will be me.
6. A Citrus Summer Meal: A thrown together meal I still dream of; it was delicious and easy and something I expect to be making for years.
7. The Best Short Wedding Dresses: I've hunted and hunted for my short wedding dress; one of these is the winner, but I'm not telling.
8. Our Engagement Portraits: By the fabulous Ryan Burke.
9. Olive Oil Cakes: One of my favorite early baking experiments; came out absolutely delicious.
10. My Wedding Hairpin: The only thing I've ever had custom-made, a hairpin by K. Autumn.