the upholstery project

first, a little background on my family.  my sister and i love to clothes shop, and i'm a big fan of thrift stores for over-enthusiastic furniture remakes.  our parents, the mums specifically, abhor shopping of any kind that has to be done in person; i think internet shopping was invented for them.  my sister also stand at a towering 4'11.75"... or 5' according to her doctor.  but i digress.  needless to say, regular chairs dwarf her, and her little feet dont touch the ground. 

mums, of all people, found the tiniest chair ever at some kind of estate sale where they live, and brought me the chair to reupholster.  and then it sat in my living room from thanksgiving 2014.  over christmas, my sister and i perused fabric.com for the appropriate fabric, i ordered it, aaand it sat in my sewing room for the next 4 months. 

franksgiving!

aka the best holiday of the year!

birthday weekend!

this weekend i hosted a roaring 20's [on a budget] birthday party for myself.  i made the requisite pinterest board, compiling the looks and styles and drinks i liked for the theme, bought a bunch of fringe and sequin trim to .... hoard forever, and then ended up spending about $100 on ingredients, alcohol, and decorations.  i found a dress i had purchased back in long island [atleast 4+ years ago now] which hadnt ever really fit, and that id tried to consign atleast once.  it was a $300 sample sale dress which i think i paid $40 for.  but it fit the theme perfectly, and finally fit me, but i couldnt bring myself to add any extra sparkle.  subtle is better, no?

whiskey tiiiiiiime

i can't pretend to remember all the history and processes of the new england distillery, but it was by far one of the more informative and entertaining booze tours ive ever done.  i had a 4-person groupon that was on the verge of expiring, so i dragged my sister along for the ride.  we stood in the one room garage with a group of 8 other people, as the guide [and one of 4 employees] gave the story behind the wight family, let us smell [not drink] each level of distilling product, and then poured samples of their rye whiskey, rum, and gin.

cider and solar

probably one of the snobbiest/artsiest pics ive taken.  and i love it.  the blue and the patina on the truck with pv tech in the background, the dark clouds rolling in, and the green green grass.  that's pretty much vermont in a nutshell, epitomized at the cold hollow cider mill in waterbury.

thanks-gave

this year with my mom and sister out of town until turkey-day-morning, my dad and i were responsible for thanksgiving in all of its glory.  terrifying i know.  but the mums prepared a suggested food list, necessary grocery list, and copied me some recipes.  thanksgiving eve, my dad drove down and we planned turkey timing and logistics, set the table, made pies, and ...appropriately, i think, watched the hunger games.

grape pie with kitty vents, apple pie, and chocolate pecan.  no picture of the pumpkin pie cheesecake, but it was a big hit.  and its on the instagram.

king arthur

i feel this post really needs no explanations.  king arthur has a store/restaurant/school in vermont.  we went.  it was amaaazing

gardening for the mums

for mother's day my mom asked that i come home and do something about her garden.  little did i know, the mint that snuck in 3 years ago with a rhubarb had completely taken over and it was forecast to rain for 4 days in a row.  also she claims to not be able to grow anything, and what does grow gets eaten by deer.  my solution was kill the deer.  but she doesnt like guns.  take up archery.  but the freezer isnt big enough.  well hell.

belated thanksgiving

thanksgiving in maine is being thankful for family, solar hot water making the living room 80 degrees in the beginning of winter, and the fact that the generator didnt kick on during dinner.  but the posting issue lies in the access to sketchy satellite internet.  so late post.  sorry bunnies.

but here are some of the tasties we snarfed down

le tableau

free-range organic hippy dippy turkey, all trussed up professional-like by a doctor

mid-plating

click to enlarge any of the following: baked squash, broiled maple sweet potatoes, stuffing, lemon parm green beans, sauerkraut [traditional czech style], cottage cheese rolls, dumpling, honey mustard brussel sprouts, 7 fruit salad, and the spread.  with gravy

my plate! and yes we also had rice.  im asian.  its tradition.

and last but certainly not least...

PIE!  chocolate pecan, mixed berry, apple, grape, and pumpkin

dim sum 2010

3rd year of a running family tradition-cooking with jim!  this year it was a dim sum extravaganza.  or as i explained to someone else... chinese tapas.

pearl rice balls before steaming-kind of creepy with that raw pork showing through..

clockwise: steamed beef meatballs, clementine centerpiece, kimchee, daikon, tea eggs.  please also notice the retro mustard yellow dish pattern.  its something no?

clockwise: spicy pork cutlets, pearl rice balls, chicken wings, korean pickle, free coke glass from last year's steak & shake trip

this shot is basically same as the previous..but it shows the delicious spare ribs

what a dim sum plate should look like.  plenty of recognizable meat with some spicy and dumplings.  no we didn't have duck feet or pickled fermented offal.  thank god.  because traditional or not, good luck and all, that shit is unhealthy and not something i prefer to eat. 

kimchi with jim

after inspiration from his favorite cooking magazine, my great uncle jim came up with a new idea for our holiday cooking project. kimchi! which is especially fitting since the roommates and i have been considering making it for the past...3 months. aside from some minor setbacks, no korean hot pepper, a rotten napa cabbage, and slight misunderstanding of directions, kimchi madness ensued! check back in 4 days for more craziness and taste-testing.

napa cabbage enjoying a salt bath

daikon and carrots

massive amounts of ginger, garlic, dried chili pepper, "kimchi base" ie sauce sort of used in kimchi but with absurd levels of msg and fish sauce, and some rice wine vinegar for extra liquid

de-salted cabbage after a quick bath

second to last step: slather cabbage with pungent paste
last step: cram in jar with julienned veges and cover. pray to avoid explosions

the kimchi patiently awaiting its 4 day re-emergence into society. by that time it will have fermented, halved in size, and hopefully become unbelieveably spicy. mmmm.

pies!

family tradition dictates more homemade pies than people. unfortunatly since pies only came from once source we were lacking a bit. but we certainly put a christmas day hurting on those that were present.

from top: cranberry raspberry, pecan [pronounced pi-cahn not pee-kaan], and apple

mmmmm gooey cranraspberry goodness

i can't bring myself to make a pecan pie. what with a cup of corn syrup... but ill definitely eat my share of someone else's pie.
apple made with golden delicious

the sad remainders of the cranrasp which were finished today. turns out cranberry raspberry pie goes very well on top of homemade lemon bars.

jet blue

since i have earned the nickname "last minute liz" more than once in my life, it seems fitting that the sis and i flew to florida for the holidays... at 8pm xmas eve. fortunately, we didn't fly delta.

we flew jet blue! err jetted rather. after miraculously making the ronkonkoma train [thanks to the secretary's incredible driving skills] we caught the air train and got to the new T5 no problem. once there, check-in and security were a breeze [amazingly] and we wandered into the airport muji for some pre-flight ....pen buying.

then it was time for wholefoods-esque buffet food

leah's meal

• mac & cheese
  
• fried rice
• chicken wing
• pasta salad 1
• pasta salad 2
• corn salad
• hard boiled egg

my meal

• raw spinach i hoped would wilt a tad
  
• honey bbq ribs
• mac & cheese

and some live xmas jazz music. which i got a really bad picture of on my phone. mostly i was too busy cramming down food. mmmm ribs for the second day in a row.

at the gate we found they had desk terminals where you could both plug in your laptop and order coffee, alcohol, and snacks without actually talking to anyone. eeeeexellent.

a preview of florida pics:

black angels

george crumb's black angels is by far the weirdest most badass quartet ive heard. specifically written for electric string quartet with additional requirements being: 20 crystal glasses, 6 thimbles, 2 maracas, and the ability to whisper numbers in foreign languages.

black sparkles abound

the quartet in height and instrument order-leah, clara, mario, rich

7 of the crystal goblets

semi-acoustic violin

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