Estación Liceu

Star by Day

 
 

posted by Kelly @ 6:06 p. m. 1 comments

Starlight

 
 

These stars are from Pier 1 and I just had to get them. I thought they were more Christmasy but they're too beautiful not to have out as much as possible.

posted by Kelly @ 6:06 p. m. 0 comments

Success!

Thanksgiving went great! Today Austin and I are just laying around, enjoying being at home and every now and then we say "that was really fun, it went really well." Here are the highlights:

The Location: we were forced to clean up our house and that was good. It was very cozy and our guests especially loved the fireplace.

The Bird: I generally do not ever eat meat but I had bite of Austin's and it tasted really good. It was very, very moist from the brine. Everyone said it was the best bird they'd had but hopefully they weren't just saying that to be nice.

The Wine: We did a taste-off between Yellow Tail and Little Boomie and found a really great, really cheapy red table wine that was super smooth. We recommend the Yellow Tale Shiraz-Cabernet. Around Xmas we will do the sampling of nicer, more costly wines :)

It was a great Thanksgiving and having a day after to just lounge with nothing pressing to do other than watch the softly falling snow before it gets dark is bliss. The LundeRoy houehold is fat and happy today. Life is good!

posted by Kelly @ 5:45 p. m. 0 comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

So far:

• The house is clean


• The turkey is brining


• We are in a good mood

Still to do (besides cook):

• Peel and quarter potatoes


• Vacuum living room and basement


• Assemble breakfast casserole for tomorrow


• Stay in good mood

posted by Kelly @ 9:47 a. m. 0 comments

And Joining the Pumpkin Flan on the Out List Is...

... Camembert Mashed Potatoes! We did a trial run last night, just Yukon Gold potatoes mashed with a lot of camembert, some milk, and spices. This sounded great to us but still we decided a trial run was in order. The result was mashed potatoes with the camembert flavor barely there if you tried to detect it. Since it used a lot of the cheese, adding more was not an option so I think we will do basic ones for tomorrow, perhaps with a little garlic and/or rosemary thrown in for good measure.

Austin is also quite excited to start the brining of the bird tonight. We have heard rave reviews of the technique so we have to try it. Frequent commentator Bad Z will also be trying this so hopefully we can compare results.

And now I shall slack my way through the school day, then head home for more cleaning, last-minute grocery shopping, and other assorted pre-company tasks.

posted by Kelly @ 8:11 a. m. 1 comments

The Pumpkin Flan in All Its Glory

 
 

posted by Kelly @ 6:59 p. m. 2 comments

Winter Wonderland

I woke up to a little snow this morning, on roofs and covering the grass though there were still tufts of green poking out. Then after getting to work, the swirling white began. It really is beautiful though I'd prefer it on December 16th and not pre-Thanksgiving. Oh well, that's life in the Midwest. It will probably be gone in a couple of days, then we'll have weird unseasonably warm weather for a few more days, then winter reality for the next six months.

My dad is coming to stay with Austin and I tonight since he's got a meeting here in town today and another tomorrow. Our new place is great; we have the beautiful guest room and I was also especially thankful for the garage this morning. Anyway, we'll hang out with Dad, order some pizza, and have my brother and his girlfriend over for a nice little fam-damily evening.

I also have knitting class so I'll be getting into the Olde English tonight, woo hoo!

posted by Kelly @ 9:34 a. m. 1 comments

Pumpkin Flan? Not so much.

I finally got around to trying out the pumpkin flan recipe since I had envisioned the little flans so cute, the perfect Thanksgiving dessert for a meal hosted by a Spanish teacher. Luckily I tried them first. No, they weren't a huge disaster but the problem was in carmelizing in the sugar. I have done this before several times just on my own but this time decided to follow the recipe. This resulted in a huge crystaline lump of sugar but no caramel. Then Austin dug up the Alton Brown method, we bought a suitable thermometer, and that resulted in a huge sticky pot of tar. I couldn't give up since I had done it before so without consulting anything, I successfully carmelized the sugar which I promptely poured on my fingers resulting in three attractive blisters, oops. After all that hastle, the flan had a tall order to fulfill and even though they turned out fine, they were just, well, ok. I think I'll just have to do a classic pumpkin pie instead.

posted by Kelly @ 12:51 p. m. 0 comments

Olde English 800

Last night I went to my first knitting class and found out I already know how to knit "Old English" style. My gramma taught me when I was a kid and I was just doing what I remembered on my own but it never really felt right compared to the way I saw others knitting (hence the need for formal knitting education). Apparently that other way is called "continental." I tried to do continental but had such a hard time. Another person in the same class had also learned Old English from Grams and felt the same struggle with continental. She and I will probably just keep the OE style since it feels easiest to us and produces the same stitch anyway. There was also a little girl in the class and the teacher had her do OE right from the start so I guess I knit like a little kid. Oh well. At least Austin got a kick out of the fact that I'm "Olde English" style, yeah homie!

posted by Kelly @ 9:23 a. m. 2 comments

Love Letter

We were writing mock love letters in class to practice the use of comparatives and superlatives and two students wrote one to me. I will translate it here though it won't capture the cute little errors that give it a childlike quality. I also can't capture the wine stain on it that gives their teacher that classy feel.

Dear Kelly,

Your Spanish class is the best of all Spanish classes in the world. When I am in your class, I am happier than a girl at the mall. You are the prettiest professor at the university. Your hair is more brilliant than the sun and your face is like an angel. When I wake up, I am depressed until I realize that I can go to your class. You speak Spanish as well as a person from Spain.

Kisses,
Felipe & Manuel

posted by Kelly @ 8:27 a. m. 1 comments

Lovely Leeks

Last night, I made leek soup for dinner. My mom had sent me a recipe that I kind of modified and it resulted with good results. I had never worked with actual leeks before, even though I think leek soup is one of the best fall/winter soups ever. I don't know why I was intimidated by leeks but in any case, I'm over that now.

I chopped the leeks pretty finely, sauteed them in a little olive oil, then added some broth, potatoes, and salt and pepper. I let that simmer until everything was soft, then got out the immersion blender (last year's xmas gift and a great tool for all the soups we make) to turn everything into a pea soup mixture. Then I added some cream cheese and voilà , perfect leek soup that no longer was neon pea colored. We had it with Dakota Bread from Great Harvest and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, inducting it into our rotating list of weekday meals. The only modification I might do next time is to try sour cream instead of cream cheese but other than that, it's definitely going to be a staple at the Lunderoy Household.

I will also be doing more cooking this weekend. My friend Julie is visiting for a power-weekend of writing papers for our assorted classes. I think for dinner on Saturday, I'll do ShrimpMontereyy and Julie just might be my test subject for the pumpkin flan I have been thinking about as an alternative to Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Results may be posted if anythingnotablee occurs.

posted by Kelly @ 9:32 a. m. 1 comments