Afghani Food Treat

This weekend my restaurant/wine club ventured out to a place called Khyber Pass ... and I forgot to take pictures. However, the food was great. It's not the first time I've eaten at Khyber Pass, so I knew what I was getting into.

We started off with some aushak. Basically, they were this square ravioli dumplings that had leeks and beef in them. They were topped with a yogurt sauce that had a very strong and distinct mint flavor to them. It was not at all what I was expecting, but definitely was a good way to start the evening off. Refreshing and promising in about three bites.

For my main course, I selected the vegetarian special: kadoo borani. It basically was a lot of butternut squash love (and for those who know me ... that is a very good thing!) Thick chunks of squash were placed on a bed of basmati rice and then drizzled with a yogurt sauce. The spices on the dish were very flavorful ... and let's be honest, I ate more than I should. I have to take advantage of being able to order butternut squash ... because for some reason ... I am completely inept at cooking it on my own. I paired my entree with an Australian sauvignon blanc (they didn't appear to have any regionally appropriate wines on the menu, and I was just grateful for wine on the menu!)

So, knowing full well that I was full ... I did it anyway ... I ordered dessert. I ordered a milk custard treat called fimi. The menu explained that it was made with cardamom and rose water ... when I took my first bite ... let's just say I got a mouthful of rose. At first I wasn't sure if I would like it or not ... but two bites later, I decided a floral dessert is a great way to end the evening.

Khyber Pass is a nice quaint little restaurant that doesn't have a too overwhelming menu and provides good simple food and a really amazing price.Cheers!

It's Almost Here

Tomorrow is the first day of the annual Great Minnesota Get-Together! Yes, the state fair is upon us. Of course, like most folks, I wanted to get my tickets in advance (hey, saving seven bucks means one extra treat at the fair.) Well, of course, everyone else had the same idea yesterday ... so I actually had to wait in line - that was crazy.

My parents always go to the fair on the first day (we'll be making our yearly trek next week, and for the first time, it will be just me and my boys ... no other family members ... so we'll have to be our own cruise directors - it will definitely be interesting, because I think we kind of default to what other people want to do and now, one of us will need to take the lead. I have a feeling it will need to be me.

Now ... I love the state fair for all its people watching glory. Yes, the food is fun, and the music is lively, but when it comes down to it, it's all about the people. The state fair is a non-discriminating event ... every type of person imaginable shows up ... and what I love most is seeing how the people respond in a crowd. For some it brings out the best, they're more courteous, friendly and outgoing. For others, it brings out the worst (D kind of fits into this latter category ... which is while I am going to probably have to be the one who plans out the agenda.)

But let's put it all out there ... next to the people watching ... what I truly love about the state fair is what it signals: the end of summer and the beginning of FALL!!! Oh, my mouth waters in anticipation of all the great delights of fall - the crisp air, the sweater wearing, the pumpkin treats and trips to the apple orchard. If I could have only one season all year, it would be fall. I wax poetic each and every year about this time, because this is the season I am truly the happiest. I can already hardly contain my giddiness, because now every day, I'll hear on the radio them broadcasting at the fair and that means my time is almost hear!

Three cheers to autumnal experiences!

Stripe Attack

When it comes to painting my boys' rooms, I don't like to take the easy route, no I like to outline some crazy ambitious plan and make myself pay for it. So, when I decided to take a day off to paint a room, I think some folks were skeptical. "Does she really need three days to paint a room?" The simple answer: yes.

K's room was beige. And not a pretty Martha Stewart neutral palette beige ... but a dated, yellow, icky beige. We just hadn't gotten around to painting the room because life was a constant on the move thing ... and well, K is only in his room to sleep. (We're those crazy kind of parents who won't let our children have TVs in their room.)

So, I declared that we would in fact paint K's room before he started kindergarten. It was essential for my son to have a room that felt like his place, not some cast-off leftover of the previous owners (who took their realtor's advice to paint half the interior rooms with that horrible semi-gloss beige paint.)

Day 1 found us spackling, sanding, cleaning and taping walls. I was lucky enough to get a first coat of the base color on the walls before it was too late in the evening. The second day, I put on the second coat of base color and then after what felt like adequate drying time, I taped up the first layer of stripes. It looked something like this:

There is something very cathartic about meticulously measuring out stripes and then leveling them out to make sure they are straight, and applying the tape across. Of course, I also had to have a very specific pattern - so the darker stripe is half the width of the lighter stripe. I was crazy, I stayed up until 1 a.m. carefully applying the paint and making sure I got it "just so." Because I had the windows open, I was entertained by our neighbor's kid who was having her last hurrah before going off to college, as she sat there and reminisced with her friends. When I saw how late it was when I had finished the darker blue stripe ... I couldn't believe myself.

But doing just two colors wouldn't have been enough of a challenge. I like things in three. O has three colors on his wall, so I needed to give K the same type of balance. So, on the third day ... I applied the smaller stripe, a beautiful chocolate brown that broke up the two blues. After three long days ... this is what I had to show for it:

A view of the door way, which I also decided to accent by painting in the darker blue.

A view from the other side of the room, at an angle. Now we do need to look for new window treatments to go with the room.

At the end of the day, K says he loves it ... which is what matters most to me. However, I wonder if he really loves it, or if he loved the fact that he got to have a slumber part for four nights because he couldn't sleep in his room!

On a Mission for a Cake

I have been on a mission to make a perfect flourless chocolate cake. I have made many attempts at this mission but have yet to achieve success. Typically, my product tastes good, but doesn't look edible. This happened last holiday season when I found an easy basic recipe. It was the best tasting chocolate dessert I had ever made ... it did not see the light outside of my immediate family member because I clearly did not whip the egg whites enough and it deflated and looked like a very sad mess.

So, when I saw the flourless chocolate cake recipe in my Baked cookbook, I knew one day I would need to try and conquer my mission once again. I love the Baked books, there is something whimsical to their recipes -- just a special spin to take something familiar and give it an edge. They've yet to do me wrong. So, I braced myself and decided last weekend to dive in.

Let's face it ... you typically can't go wrong when your recipe starts with this:

Melted chocolate ready, I whipped my egg whites, mixed my yolks with my sugar and basically took my time. The resulting cake came out very lovely (I forgot to take a picture before the next step ...) Which leads me to the hidden secret of the beauty of this cake. There is a "hidden" layer of chocolate ganache on the top before you pour on the glaze. So if the cake wasn't fudgy or chocolatey enough for you ... this secret layer is surely to do the trick ...

After you let it sit in the freezer for five minutes to have the ganache set ... you then pour the rest of the glaze on the cake for a pretty chocolate masterpiece.

In the end, I was just happy to have finally made a flourless chocolate cake that both looked and tasted good. I think I could have baked it for a few more minutes, but I wanted to make sure I didn't burn it (they warn you about that in the recipe ... and goodness knows, I don't want to take chances.)

The true testament to the cake though came a few days later, when D told me a friend had stopped by, commented that the cake looked good, so then D offered him a slice. The response was that it tasted good, too. I can't pass up unsolicited praise, and am just glad that I may have a chocolate lovers' treat that I can whip up in a couple of hours!

Walls of Happiness

I consider myself amazingly lucky. I have two beautiful boys who are full of personality and energy and make every day enjoyable. I have a husband who knows me better than anyone else, who can get on my nerves faster than anyone else because of it, but can also make me laugh on a daily basis (as long as it's a good day.)

So, I try to repay my three great loves with doing things to try to make our house a home. This weekend that brought the task that I am currently taking a small break from. We are painting K's room ... and because we try to do it right, it means a whole day of prep work, from taping, spackling and sanding it to get it ready for the paint. I'll post some "after" photos, but I will say that I enjoy painting. It's probably partly because I love the mindless activity of it, but also you get some amazing instant gratificaton.

Here's to creating walls of happiness for my little man.

One Project Sorta' Done, A Million To Go

In our "dining room" we have a lovely wall that is a blank canvas. When we first moved in, I decided to make it a spot for a photo frame collage. I have to say, I loved it, it looked right out of the good barn o'pottery. Then, when we finally got to painting our kitchen (was that last summer ... I think it was) I took down all the pictures and spackled the wall, so we could paint it. It has taken me until this weekend to start to put back up the collage. Part of it was that I knew we needed to update our photos, so that there was more than just one picture of O. The other part, was with our new(ish) paint color, I wanted to make the wall a tad more artsy, which meant, I needed to go and print all the photos in black and white.

So, this weekend, I got about 50 percent of the wall back up. I know it's wrong to be proud of yourself, but I have to say, it's nice to get those photos back up there ... and it's fun to have both boys represented. And I was able to make the center photos two pictures of the boys that look very similar ... and it's kind of amazing how much they actually do look alike - my little yin and yang. Of course, I have many other projects that must be completed before the snow falls (which who knows when that will be, in this crazy state.)

One is painting K's room. He wants a superhero themed room ... which seems fine at five, but how long will it last? So, I want to go with a slightly more sophisticated superhero room. I found an idea I liked online, but clearly after searching for other ideas ... it tended to be the most replicated idea ... so I'm not sure if I still want to move forward with it, because we do want our boys to feel like they have their own unique space. (And, I also don't want to be repainting it in two years ...) So, that's next week's project. I took Friday off, so that we can get a head start.

In not so great news ... my check engine light came on again! Seriously, I think that is the second time this year. Granted, my car is eleven years-old, but we most definitely do not have the funds right now to get a new car (or even a very used new car) so I am not sure what we will do. Can we survive as a one-car family? (With only very old cars?) I need to become more frugal, so that I can make bigger dents in all our obligations so that we can buy a new car ASAP. I think I'll start a donation fund, if anyone would like to contribute ... just let me know.

Thank You, Mario

Okay, so it's time for full disclosure ... my goal to make one recipe out of every issue of Food & Wine finally hit a bump -- I missed out on July. Well ... I made half of a recipe, because, yes, it was that complicated and was a two-day affair. But then life got in the way. Well, at least it was all good things that got in the way. Time with family, taking our trip up to Duluth. It was an ambitious recipe for a crazy month. And before I knew it ... July was gone.

So, maybe that is why I made sure I made my August recipe now (of course, was it any surprise that the September issue was in my mailbox on Saturday??)

What did I take on? Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters from Mario Batali. I was thrilled when I found a zucchini recipe, because our little backyard garden has been quite fruitful when it comes to a few things: cucumber (more than I could ever ask for), cherry tomatoes (delish) and zucchini. We've been lucky to enjoy a few other items, like cabbage and a watermelon, but zukes and cukes have reigned supreme. So, when I found an intriguing recipe that would use up some of my harvest - I knew it would be my August choice (and since I do have a couple weekends left, who knows, maybe I'll tackle something else, too.)

K was very much about helping me create the fritters, which made me happy - because maybe then he would eat zucchini more enthusiastically. So, after coarsely grating the vegetables and mixing it all in, it was already a promising bowl of color:

The secret ingredient (which I'll explain why it's a secret a bit later) was lemon zest. This meant I got to teach K how to use my zesting tool ...

And then, my little sous chef went to mixing ...

He swore not to tell daddy that there was lemon zest, because D hates anything with citrus in his food. After carefully mixing everything up, and with K at a very safe distance from the stove, it was time to fry up some fritters:

Now, I am not a huge fan of eating a lot of fried food, but I have noticed in every recipe where I fry zucchini ... it always ends up with good results, and this zucchini had cheese in it ... how can you go wrong with fried cheese? Of course, I did set the fritters on paper towels to allow the extra oil to be absorbed.

In the end, I had a plate of more fritters than I was originally planning (and note, I had already eaten two of them ...)

(I really need to get white plates.) In the end, the result was a winner! Even D thought they were delicious -- which is monumental, because he doesn't like zucchini at all and he doesn't like citrus in his fruit (which I still haven't told him about at this point ...)

So, thank you, Mario Batali, I think I have finally found a way to get my men to eat zucchini and I no longer have to enjoy the delightful vegetable solo.

New Toys

Today is like Christmas for D. He received his new smart phone in the mail. Now, let me rewind ... when it comes to technology ... I'm a simple lady. I have a very basic, non-fussy phone. I don't even text ... (I know how, I just choose not to) yes, I know, hard to believe ... but I am starting to embrace social media does that balance it out?

Due to my job at work, I was provided smart phone... since that day, all I would ever hear from D is how badly he wanted ... no needed ... his own phone. Because, yes, every stay-at-home-dad is not complete without a smart phone. I, for some reason, just couldn't comprehend why he needed one. He could hop on the computer whenever he needed to access the Internet. He already is on the phone with his friends more than I am. Yeah ... for some crazy reason, I just didn't understand.

Well ... after months of trying to convince me, I finally just broke down because I couldn't deal with the pouting every time I would pull out my phone. (And yes, I still have my basic cell phone for my personal life, because I do like to keep them separate to a degree.) So, this week, he ordered his phone.

Last night, he told me he was having buyer's remorse. I asked him what he meant, and he confessed that maybe my suggestion that a table was more what he would want was right. (Because, honestly, I think it all comes down to him wanting to play on the Internet when he is watching TV ...) Alas, tonight when the phone arrived, I could tell the buyer's remorse had disappeared. He's like a kid on Christmas day ... and now I feel like I might have my own little teenager who is going to have a texting problem.

Sunshine, Sea and Nudity

This past weekend, we took a mini-vacation and went up to Duluth with some friends who also have two boys. K loves Duluth. It's full of rock-climbing, water-splashing adventure ... and you get to sleep in a hotel ... go out to eat every meal ... and frankly just live the life.

I enjoy Duluth, but as anyone who has been up there during the summer can attest to, it is a slightly overpriced tourism mecca. Alas, I cannot complain when I see the smiles on my boys faces (and frankly O is just about freedom, so any chance he had for a little freedom made him happy.)

We got lots of sun, and spent the first day touring an art fest. The best part was the scavenger hunt through the Depot ... it took hours (because we made sure to stop and appreciate everything) and entertained K like there was no tomorrow. O was particularly found of the location in the Children's Museum because he was able to climb over everything, bang blocks and scream ... and he fit right in with the rest of the crowd.

The next day, we went to Gooseberry Falls. It's a great  hiking adventure ... of course, the last time we were there I was pregnant with O, so hiking and being pregnant was oh, so fun. This time, we had two strollers, so we weren't able to take some of the more "challenging" hiking trails, so where we had hiked to last time, we drove to this time. After playing in the falls, K had exclaimed that at the lake he wanted to swim naked. At first, I didn't think he was serious ... but I was wrong. He was truly serious. We got to the lake, and there goes my little man, taking all his clothes off. Now, granted in the U.S. we aren't typically ones for extreme nudity ... but more importantly ... the water was unbelievably COLD. How he handled it, I don't know. But he jumped around, swam, played on the little islands, like a carefree boy of yonder before clothes were invented. He had not a care in the world (and I, of course, have pictures to prove it when he's sixteen and can be easily embarrassed.)

The innocence of childhood, those are the moments I want to savor forever. And, O was just a water baby like no one else. He was amazingly good at staying just on the edge and not going in where he'd get wet unless it was his choice. His toothy grin was definitely an added ray of sunshine to the events.
It was a great trip, and I'm happy to add those memories to our portfolio of memories for life.

And ... can you believe it's AUGUST?!!! I cannot ... while this summer has been great (garden, trips, farmers market and just fun lazy days) August means that my favorite time of year is just around the corner...