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I mentioned in my last post that Funnel suprised me with the Star Wars Cookie Cutter set from William Sonoma. If that wasn’t enough, he helped me decorate a batch of them last night. He is a darling, sweet man and I love love love him.
Some pictures of my first go at Star Wars cookies (taken with our little Sony – my fancy camera was out of commission):
May the force be with you!
* Life has felt a little overwhelming lately, between my job, the photography business and just the general busyness of summer. I know once fall comes, life will slow down a little bit, so I just need to make it through the next couple of months. I’m also trying to schedule some “Jen time” each week to spend some time doing things that are fun and relaxing – going to Starbucks with a good novel, working on my quilt, or watching Anne of Green Gables for the hundredth time.
* Our air conditioning is dead. It can’t be fixed – it needs to be completely replaced. Since we made it this far into the summer, I think we’re just going to wait until next spring to do it. In this 90 degree weather we’ve had, it’s been a good exercise in being “uncomfortable”. At our bible study on Tuesday night we even talked about how as Americans, we are used to instant gratification and having our every little need met, whether it is being able to eat whenever and whatever we want, or having our houses and workplaces at the most comfortable temperature. Luxuries that most people in the world don’t have. Funnel & I have been sleeping on a gigantic bed we made in the basement out of two mattresses pushed together. Funnel calls it “camping”.
* On Sunday and Monday, my parents and doggies came to visit for the 4th of July. We grilled shish kebabs, watched Avatar and went to the Columbus Zoo. Funnel & I spent Monday evening swimming at his parents’ house. I love both of our families.
(Our fourth of July dinner:)
* Funnel surprised me Tuesday night with the Star Wars cookie cutter set and the Apple Pocket Pie Mold from William Sonoma that I blogged about last week. Total sweet-heart.
* My pepper plants are starting to sprout adorable little peppers. Still waiting on my tomato plants and my little flower bed to bloom.
* At the end of the month, we are taking a weekend camping trip with some friends to Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island) where we spent our 2nd anniversary. It’s an awesome little island in Lake Erie and there’s tons of restaurants & bars, shops, a winery, putt-putt, and a cave. Everyone gets around by bicycle or on a golf cart.
One of my favorite things about summertime is strawberries. I have fond memories of picking strawberries with my mom and our kitchen smelling of strawberries in the summer as my mom made a big batch of homemade jam. I love strawberries in most any form – covered in chocolate, on shortcake, in a berry pie.
A couple of weeks ago, Meijer was selling five pounds of strawberries for five dollars and I couldn’t resist such a great deal. I froze most of them for smoothies, but I decided to use some of them for something I’ve heard of but never have tried – Strawberry Soup.
Don’t let the name fool you. Strawberry Soup is a dessert and a very elegant (but simple and easy) one! It’s like a smoothie, but richer and creamier. All you need is a one-pound container of fresh strawberries, and a few other items – light corn syrup, sugar, plain unsweetened yogurt , milk, lemon juice, and whipped cream.
Start by halving the strawberries, or quartering them if they are especially gigantic.
Toss them with 1/4 cup of light corn syrup and put them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the syrup is thick.
Let cool, and place them in your food processor (a blender will probably work if you don’t have a processor) and process until pureed.
Add 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 to 1 cup of milk ( I used skim milk), and 1 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice. Processs until combined.
Ladle into some pretty bowls or glasses and chill until ready to serve. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream.
Recipe by Joy of Baking.
The second Saturday in June, I helped John & Ali of Contrast Images shoot Kyle and Nikki’s beautiful wedding at Hickory Lakes in Pickerington. The location for their outside ceremony and the formal shots was like some sort of enchanted forest from a fairy tale – just gorgeous. Super fun wedding, super gorgeous couple, and super fun photographers to do it with! I shot almost all of it with my 5omm lens… being the third shooter gives me a little extra room to play around.
About a month ago, I was shopping for a wedding gift and the couple had registered at William Sonoma. The second I set foot in the store, something strange happened to my heart: I fell in love.
If I could time-travel back four years to the summer that Funnel and I were in the midst of planning our wedding, I would have registered there. It’s a baking-enthusiast’s dream.
Here’s what I am currently lusting after:
{ Message in a Cookie Cutter }
{ Calzone Mold }
{ Cookie Press }
Next time I am at Easton, I’m going to stop by and snag a couple of things… I’m really eyeing the Lattice Pocket Pie Mold and Apple Pocket Pie Mold.
{ I’m taking a small break from the Europe re-cap posts… I’ll get back to those soon with stories of our time in beautiful Roma! }
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Lately, I have felt like I am at a “in-between” place in my life. Funnel and I will be celebrating four years of marriage this fall, so we aren’t newlyweds anymore, but we also probably won’t be starting our family for a couple of years either. And now that we have the house and the Europe trip checked off our list, I sometimes feel like I am in a holding pattern, waiting for the next “big thing”. But I don’t want to have that attitude. I don’t want to live (waste?) my life like I am only waiting for the next big thing to come along.
I saw this in Carolyn Hax’s daily column a few weeks ago:
When I was single, childless and careerless, a friend said, “What are the things you won’t have time for, once relationship/child/job come along? Get busy doing those, and relish them. The day will come when you’ll realize what a gift this waiting time was.”
So I relished. I hiked, I biked, I sewed, I decorated, I read books, I played music, I danced, I hung out with friends, I cruised thrift stores.
It took a long time for the things on my list to come to me. And now I’m so glad I took the opportunities my “waiting time” gave me — because now, I don’t see it as waiting time, but time that I used to enjoy all those things that are now so hard to find time for now.
Reading that made me realize how lucky we are to have this time to travel and work on projects and pursue a lot of dreams and hobbies we might not be able to once we are parents. This is a really neat season of our life and I’m sure once we are parents we may miss the freedom and opportunites we have now.
How I’d like to live this out in the next couple of years:
– Take all of the Wilton cake decorating courses this coming year
– Take one of CCAD’s adult art classes this winter
– Finish up the quilts I started making for our quest bedroom
– Become better at sewing and cooking
– Grow vegetables in raised beds next spring & summer
– Make and can jam, pickles, and tomato sauce
– Go on another “big” trip in fall 2011
– Have some fun weekends away with Funnel
– Finish writing my children’s story
- Take Yoga classes
- Schedule “me” time every week, even if it’s just an hour at the coffee shop with a good book
After spending the morning exploring Cortona, Funnel headed back to the hotel for a nap, and I decided to do some shopping in the town square. I browsed several pottery shops, a textile shop, a couple of art galleries, and some general souvenier shops.
After a bit, I went back to the hotel to get Funnel, and then we grabbed a late lunch from a little pizza shop. It had started to drizzle a bit, so Funnel and I ate our pizza under the awning of a hat store.
After the rain stopped we visited a bunch of the stores that I had gone to earlier that afternoon. We did a little shopping – we bought our moms necklaces and I bought a little plate to hang in our living room from this cute pottery shop:
We had some gelato and enjoyed walking around the town square:
Funnel bought me this Hello Kitty bling from a vending machine that was set right outside a toy store:
We walked a ways down the main road below the town, into the more modern area of Cortona:
It was about dinner time, so we went back to our hotel to freshen up. For dinner we decided to go back to the same restaurant as the night before. It had been so good, and we had talked to someone who had been in town for several weeks who said it was the best restaurant in Cortona.
For dinner, Funnel and I split bruscetta and Funnel had sausage (he said it was the best sausage he had ever had) and I had this pork with balsamic dressing and peppercorns:
Funnel and I rushed a bit through dinner (much to the dismay of our sweet waiter) because we wanted to catch the sunset over beautiful tuscany. We climbed the hill to a nice lookout spot (I realized then how out of shape I am) and we got to see the very end of the sunset.
I was sad that night that we were leaving Cortona the next morning. Cortona stole my heart – it was my favorite place we had visited, and I wished we had planned more than 2 days there.
Our second day in Cortona started out with a buffet breakfast in our hotel -quite an impressive spread. Croissants, Crostata (a baked italian jam tart), fruit, yogurt, cereal, eggs, proscuitto and some other meats. A sweet Italian lady was making drinks for everyone and we both had a cappucino.
It was a beautiful day, the nicest our entire trip -sunny and warm… I was so excited we could wear short sleeves! We headed out to the town to do some more sightseeing. This time we took a path that went below the town.
There was actually a couple of escalators that took you back to the top (why I didn’t take a picture of this, I don’t know).
Then, Funnel and I headed back up the stations-of-the-cross-path to the church. It was much harder climbing up that path then going down it. We found some paths that led even further up the hill, above the church.
We were both tired from walking uphill, so we sat on a bench for awhile and just took in the beautiful views. It was so peaceful – the only sound were the birds singing.
Then we headed back into town and Funnel and I made a plan to meet up for lunch after he took a nap and I did some shopping.
Funnel and I continued ascending the hill above the town of Cortona.
At one point, we ran into an American and talked with him for a bit. He’s a professor with the University of Georgia, which has a study-abroad program in Cortona. He was currently there with a group of students, teaching a course on wine grapes. He told us a bit about the area and made some suggestions of some places in Cortona to expore.
The road we were traveling on took us to a church at the top of the hill. As we were standing out front looking at it, a young, beareded priest in a long, brown, hooded robe came out to talk to us. He was Italian, but his English was perfect. He told us about Frances Mayes, the American author who wrote “Under the Tuscan Sun” and some other memoirs about Tusacany, and lives in Cortona. (She’s the reason I picked Cortona as one of the places we would visit). He was super nice, as were most of the Italians we talked to. After he went inside, Funnel whispered to me, “He looks like Friar Tuck” .
Behind the church, we found a path that led back down the hillside, into the town. Imbedded in the walls were the “Stations of the Cross” that showed the story of Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection.
After our walk up and down the hillside, it was time for dinner. Our hotel had made some suggestions for us, so we checked out one of them, Trattoria La Grotta.
We had a wonderful candlelit dinner: I had really good chicken, Funnel had really good steak, and we split a huge pitcher of really good red wine that only cost 5 Euros. I love how dinners are drawn out over there. When you have dinner, that seat is yours for the rest of the evening – there is no pressure to pay quickly and leave so the next couple can sit down. Funnel and I lingered for a long time over our wine, talking and playing a trivia game that we made up, which ended up turning into a Star Wars trivia game (maybe we had a little too much wine.. haha).
Our train from Venice left late in the morning. It took us three trains to get to the tiny Tuscan hilltown of Cortona, and it was absolutely gorgeous riding through the Italian countryside. The red poppies were starting to dot the landscape and I saw so many little villages that I wish we had time to explore.
When we got to our stop, it was late afternoon. The train left us at a quiet, empty train station, looking up at Cortona on the hill. We waited for a bus to come and it did,- a gigantic bus that looked even more giant as it navigated through the tiny, winding roads up into the city. It dropped us off along the main road in town, and we walked down it- past a gelato stop, pottery stores, a bakery, a hat shop. And there was our hotel.
After staying in pretty basic and bare 2-star hotels in Paris, Nice and Venice, our 4-star hotel in Cortona made me feel like royalty. Our luggage was attended to, our room was beautiful and roomy and our bathroom was triple the size of any of the bathrooms we had up until that point – and had a real walk-in shower! (not just a tub with a hand-held showerhead!)
After checking in, we headed out to see what Cortona was all about. And our first view at the landscape below literally took my breath away. Now this is what I traveled across the ocean to see.
We were pretty hungry, so we grabbed lunch at a little cafe. Funnel had a pretty un-photo-worthy sandwich, and I had tuscan bread soup. It had potoatoes and beans and big chunks of Italian bread in it. (I’ve been trying to find a recipe for it since we’ve been home – no such luck. All the ones I’ve found have been tomato-based).
After lunch, we wandered around town a bit and headed up the long, winding road that went above the town and up the mountain…
