The White House in Transition, aka I Hate Moving

Last month, the Whites moved from the Mathison Road, where we'd been living since returning to Traverse City, to an apartment on Manhattan West.

I hate moving, and here's why:

This, my friends, is the stuff my nightmares are made of.  We've been here nearly a month the place is looking MUCH more settled than these photos indicate, though we've still got a ways to go.  Something I've learned about myself is that I am very slow at moving in.  This particular move-in has been overwhelming because we moved to a smaller place with less storage space, so it's taken more time and creativity to organize our stuff.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

(Also, there was a bit of a delay because we had to move most of our stuff back out right after we moved in while new carpet was being installed.  So it's like we moved TWICE this month!  Woe is me!)

In spite of the organizational challenges, we're happy in our new space.  As I write this, the dogs are lounging on the back of the couch, watching the neighborhood and fussing because my father-in-law (who maintains/manages our building) is outside and they really can't understand why he's not coming in to see them.  I'm missing Matt, who is working late for the fifth night in a row.  And I'm getting ready to go wash dishes.  There's no dishwasher in this apartment.  But there IS a window over the kitchen sink and it looks out into the woods behind our apartment building.  I've decided that I'll take a window with a view over a dishwasher any day.

A taste of Chicago in TC.

Matt came home with a frozen pizza.  But not just any frozen pizza, my friends.  You cannot walk into Meijer, Tom's, Kroger, etc. and come out with one of these babies:

This pizza straight from Chicago, a gift from Pastor Joel Brown who just returned from the Windy City.

It's a particularly appropriate gift for this weekend, seeing as how almost exactly seven years ago Matt and I spent a week in Chicago for our honeymoon.  We've been to Chicago several times since, and we always eat lots of pizza there.  Here's the funny thing: though we are overjoyed with this Giordano's pizza, when we're actually in Chicago we never eat there.  The most absolutely delicious Chicago-style pizza is at none other than Pizzeria Due.  (It's the sister restaurant to Pizzeria Uno ... but it's got a lot more seating.  It's also conveniently across the street from a Trader Joe's.)  Some misguided people will try to tell you that Giordano's is the best.  Others will tell you that it's all about Gino's.  Don't take their word for it.  Don't take the Whites' word for it, either.  Get to Chicago as quickly as you can and spend a couple of days pizza-joint-hopping.  

When we're in Chicago, it's Pizzeria Due all the way.  When we're in Traverse City, we set all prejudice aside and welcome any Chicago pizza with open arms.  And wide-open mouths.

The Best Chocolate Pie You'll Ever Taste.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie Julie and Julia is when Julia goes home after a really crappy day and makes chocolate pie.

"Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure--and when I say nothing, I mean nothing--you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort."

As much as I enjoy cooking, I'll admit that when I get home after a seriously rotten day I am far more tempted to order a pizza and watch tv all night than I am to make a big chocolate pie mess in the kitchen.  But I appreciate Julie's philosophizing on how the predictability of a following a familiar recipe brings some order and comfort into the chaos of life.

And ever since I first saw this scene in this movie I have wanted to make a chocolate pie.

Enter Pioneer Woman's chocolate pie recipe.  This is not quite the pie that Julie makes in the movie.  Instead of  adding "egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk", PW's pie is composed of chocolate, whole eggs, sugar, and butter.  But the result is the same--it all gets thick.  It gets poured into a crust.  And it tastes unbelievably delicious.  

Everyone needs to taste this pie before they die.  Unless you are pregnant or elderly or otherwise shouldn't eat raw eggs.  But for the rest of you, there's little danger of becoming ill from consuming raw eggs.  Watch Rocky if you don't believe me. 

The original recipe calls for using a regular pastry pie crust.  But I had my heart set on a lovely graham cracker crust like the one in the movie.  I pulled out my trusty New Best Recipe cookbook from Cook's Illustrated and followed their recipe for graham cracker crust.  It was so easy that I will never purchase a store-bought crust again.

                      

                      

I made a little mistake. Since the only pie plate I currently own is a deep dish pie plate I really should have at least made 1-1/2 of the recipe ... since I didn't, my crust is a little skimpy.  Live and learn.

I made some slight modifications to the original recipe for the pie filling based on the suggestions of my friend Vanessa, who recommended using a little more chocolate and also beating the mixture for six minutes between eggs.  Do not be deceived into thinking that you can throw all these ingredients into a bowl together and whip 'em up for a few minutes.  If you want the most delicious chocolate pie ever, you've gotta be patient and follow the directions.  

                

Chocolate Pie

adapted from The Pioneer Woman

5 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (I used Ghiradelli's)

1 cup salted butter (two sticks), softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 whole eggs

1 baked pie shell (see recipe for graham cracker crust below)

In small microwave safe bowl melt unsweetened baking chocolate until stirrable (about 45 seconds).  Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).  If using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment.  When melted chocolate is cooled, drizzle over the butter/sugar mixture.  Add vanilla extract.  Beat the mixture thouroughly until combined. 

Turn mixer to medium speed (about 7 on a Kitchen Aid) and add in the four eggs one at a time, beating for a total of 5-6 minutes after adding each egg.  This means that you will be beating in the eggs over a period of 25-30 minutes.  It helps to have a stand mixer.  One the pie filling is well mixed, pour it into the baked pie shell.  Smooth the filling and refrigerate for at least two hours, preferably longer.  I highly recommend refrigerating at least 8 hours or overnight, I found that the texture of the filling was greatly improved the day after I made my pie.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.

Graham Cracker Crust

from The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

9 graham crackers, broken into rough pieces

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and kept warm

Adjust  an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a food processor, process the graham crackers until evenly fine, about 30 seconds (you should have 1 cup crumbs).  Add the sugar and pulse to combine.  Continue to pulse while adding the warm melted butter in a steady stream; pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Transfer the crumbs to a 9-inch glass pie plate and evenly press the crumbs into the pie plate.  Bake the crust until it is fragrant and beginning to brown, 15 to 18 minutes; transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Teddy and Truman, Before and After.

For a blog that's all about our home, I haven't posted enough about the two inhabitants who think that they run things around here.

To make up for that, I'm giving you some photos of our boys.  We recently took them to the groomer, but prior to that they looked like they came straight from the pound.  Even so, they photographed pretty cute.  Here are some shots I took pre-haircuts.  Keep in mind that they looked much better in these photos than they smelled.

And here they are again, post-haircut and smelling much more pleasant:

I could have smoothed Truman's face for this photo, but that would not have been an accurate picture of life in the White house.  In real life, Truman's face sticks up all over the place, all the time.

And finally, a parting shot of both boys together.  I know the lighting isn't great and the angle makes the dogs looks weirdly tall and out-of-proportion, but it's very rare that I can get them both to stand still and look at me at the same time.

Organizing recipes.

Piles of stuff that have no home stress Matt out.  When he finally gets fed up, he shifts the stuff from one place to the next.  It still doesn't get organized, but piling the piles on top of each other makes Matt feel somewhat better.  Me?  I have selective blindness.  If something is out of place and there isn't anything I can do about it in the moment, I block out the mess.  It's like it doesn't exist.  And I go on with my day.  Nearly seven years into marriage, Matt is still completely bewildered that I can walk past the same pile of clothes nine times and not notice it.

I do have my limits, though.  For example, recipes.  I have a nice little collection of cookbooks but in reality I get many of my recipes from the internet--blogs, websites, emails from friends.  I like to hold recipes in my hand, take them to the grocery, write on them, splatter tomato sauce on them, so I print the recipes.  And since I don't have an effective organizing system for my recipes, they end up in piles that Matt shifts from place to place.  Eventually I throw them away, and the next time I want to make Jessica's Italian Beef or Pioneer Woman's green beans or Vanessa's hummus, I reprint the recipe ... and it starts all over again.

#27 of my 101 in 1001 list is: Make a recipe binder to organize recipes.

No ordinary binder will do, it has to be unique and creative.  I shopped for a cool recipe binder, but couldn't justify spending upwards of $20-$30 on something that I would just end up covering with greasy fingerprints and soup splatters.  Lucky for me, I stumbled upon the Prudent Baby blog, along with their free, downloadable recipe binder art, available in a variety of colors.

My mom has an awesome color printer (I have a color printer but it's not so awesome) and printed these out for me on white cardstock.  You need to print both the cover and the corresponding spine label.  I used a one-inch binder, which fits the small binder spine.

Add some tab dividers so you can keep your recipes organized by category ...

and lots of clear sheet protectors to protect your recipes from cooking messes ...

and you're all set with a super cool recipe binder that you made yourself for only a few bucks, instead of thirty.

I think one of these would make a unique, thoughtful, and budget-friendly shower gift, birthday gift, Christmas gift ... just tuck in a few of your favorite recipes that the gift-recipient might find tasty.

If only there were such a fun project to help me keep my clothes closet organized.

Sick Days.

I've spent much of the last few days in bed doing the following:

1.  Sleeping.

2.  Drinking 7-Up.

3.  Reading.  When I'm sick, I want comfort books: these few days, it's been Betsy-Tacy.  I've made it all the way through Betsy's high school years, half-way through her European excursion.  Betsy has been my friend for over 20 years now.  I still remember the first time I found a Betsy-Tacy book at the library, and how I checked the books out over and over through the years until my dream came true--they finally came back into print and I could have a set of my very own!

4.  "Shopping".  Check out these earrings on Etsy.  Love them.

5.  Listening.  To music.  Specifically, to Pomplamoose.  Love the "Beat It" cover.  And see Nataly Dawn's very cute hair?  Mine never works in that style.  Sigh.

5.  Pondering.  The year is still new, and feels like a good time to take stock of life and my soul's journey.  I've felt a little directionless lately, a little too prone to coasting through day-to-day life without much vision for bigger things.  You know that "can't see the forest for the trees" mentality?  That describes where I've been ... I need to step back, look around at the whole of my life, see where God has been working and where's he's leading me next.  This little brochure from Sojourn has challenged me to think how I can take practical steps to open my heart and life to the ways that God wants to renew and transform me in my current season.  And I like this blogger's list of "101 in 1001"--a list of plans, goals, and desires that are planned with a three-year time frame in mind.  I'll be making a 101 list of my own.  When I take my vague thoughts and put them down on paper in black and white, it's much easier to act on them.

It's amazing how productive a couple days in bed can be.

Caught!

A few minutes ago I walked into the bedroom, switched on the light, and saw this sticking out from under the bed:

This is how momma and daddy found the boys' little stash of old, used paper towels under the bed. (Where do they find that stuff??)  But the sight of Truman's little rear end is so stinkin' cute, who can get mad?

Some Christmas Snapshots.

On Christmas Day, I tried to take a photo of my sister.  I told Katie that if she made a weird face or attempted to hide behind the pillow, I'd put this photo on my blog:

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already.  If I had taken more than a couple of photos that day and if I were feeling more inspired right now I'd wax eloquent about what a great day it was.  But my brain is tired at the moment, so suffice it to say that Matt and I had a lovely Christmas. We spent the morning here at home with each other and Teddy and Truman.  We opened gifts, listened to Christmas music, and ate cinnamon rolls.  Speaking of Christmas music, Matt gave me Sufjan Stevens's Songs for Christmas.  It's music that I want to listen to when I'm curled up on the couch watching the snow fall outside and I'm sure I'll be playing it long after the Christmas tree is put away.  (Yes, it's still up.  It's too fresh and beautiful to take down yet.)   

Christmas afternoon was spent at my parents' home.  We opened presents, feasted together, and watched Rudloph and Red-nosed Reindeer ... just me and Matt, my parents, my sister, and my grandparents. 

 

This is a picture of two things I love: 1) My husband.  2) One of the best Christmas gifts I've ever received.  I bought this cupboard for myself at a yard sale several years ago, and it's been in my parents' storage shed ever since.  When I bought it, it was a mess--filthy, layer upon layer of peeling paint, rusted hinges.  The previous owner said that it came from a remodel of the original Park Place Hotel kitchen--if that's true, the cupboard dates back to the 1920s.  I love the Park Place so I was sold.  I couldn't take the cupboard back to Louisville on the plane so we stashed it in my parents' storage shed until we could drive it back to Louisville, but as the months went on I forgot that the cupboard even existed.  Recently my dad was cleaning, came across the cupboard, and decided to refinish it as a surprise for me.  The hours of work he put into it make it priceless.  I love it.  Sadly, we don't have a good place to hang it here in our condo, so we put it up temporarily in the garage ... that way I can at least see it and use it for storage.

I'm off to work on a little creative project that I hope to feature on here in upcoming days.  Stay tuned!