"SOUP"ER Bowl

 This is really belated, but I wanted to post this so I would remember next year.

Our Super Bowl celebration included lots of good, but not good for you, food.  I slaved over a vast amount of from-scratch chicken wings and potato skins.  By from scratch I mean FROM SCRATCH, including homemade sauces.  I even had to butcher the wings and was left with 7 dozen wing "tips." I hated to throw them out.  Since you know I was serving the wings with celery and carrots, I had lots of veggies too.  I figured I had the makings of a great stock pot:

While that simmered away, I was working on step one of the skins, which is a good long bake.  By the time the potatoes had baked and cooled enough to work with, the stock was just about perfect.  I pulled the tips and skimmed the fat.  Then I threw the potato insides right in.  Everything was so soft that I mashed it with a potato masher (no immersion blender needed)!

It made the most luscious potato soup just right for a cold early February day.  The added bonus was I didn't have to worry about making lunch for the family on top of everything else.  I thought it was quite clever and a "tip" to remember next time I  make wings!   Now that is a souper bowl of soup for before the super bowl.

Hi, I'm Suzanne

I am linking up with Show Us Your Life over at Kelly's Korner.  I always loved reading this series and am thrilled to participate.   Today is all about introducing yourself.  So here goes:  I am Suzanne, and I don't know the name of my blog.

In 2009 I registered the blog  as the"stay-at-home-attorney."  Literally five minutes later, I decided that was a bad idea and dubbed it "Our Life at 31-derful."  It has never mattered that the blog didn't have a proper name because it is really just something for myself.  Occasionally the blog is a scrapbook--a place I can look back and remember some small thing I'd otherwise forget.  Sometimes the blog is a motivator, pushing me to clean my home in time for an organization challenge.  At other times it is just a place to do creative writing or share a party I hosted.  Mostly, though, it just sits dormant--waiting for me to read back over my own story or write another chapter.   Lately, I have been posting more frequently.  I find that I have evolved over the years and I like looking back. Here is who I am right now, today, in no particular order:

A wife of 13 years, which I'm finding is way different than being a new bride
A mom to girls who are no longer babies, but not yet teens
A homemaker-- a role that I finally feel no need to defend even as I relaunch my career
A semi-professional party planner and designer even though it has nothing to do with my training
A wannabee decorator
A not-wealthy philanthropist
A PTO mom and lady who lunches
A Jewish woman (I'm not religious but I love tradition and celebrate big)
A celebrator of occasions
An attorney and master's level social worker who finally doesn't give those things top billing
A former intellectual who now can't remember why I walked into a room...
A person on the cusp of 40 (!)
A Southerner transplanted to the Midwest
An old Tennessee sorority girl
A girl with a pretty face who would be so attractive if I lost weight
A person with many hidden insecurities that sometimes present themselves as bossiness
A person with loads of friends who overlook the above
A generally lucky, lucky woman with a great life and family

So that's me today.  Maybe you will follow along and see who I become!  I look forward to hearing from you and getting to know who you are

More changes on the way

Yesterday I showed you our dining room as it has been for  (for the most part) during the eight years that we have lived here in this post.  And now here is my plan for mixing the room up.

The table, our much beloved chairs, and paint color will stay.  If I were doing it all over again, I would paint all of our rooms a soft gray instead of a soft beige, but we aren't planning on redoing that at this time (our house is very open concept and it would just be too big of a job to start).  Fortunately, we are bringing in lots of moody gray pieces to make the space feel richer--using the photo in the upper left as our inspiration.  

I always thought the scale of the room was off, so we are bringing in massive prints of agate to give the wall interest.  We have a big debate in our family about art.  Mr. 31-derful thinks that it has to be "real," meaning that he thinks a somewhat-known artist has to have created it or that it must be a signed numbered print of the same.  I on the other hand care about the size of a piece and the balance it creates in a room.  Sadly, to get "real" art in the large size we need is above our pay grade! Finally conceding this, Mr. 31-derful is giving in and we are getting something like these prints from Grandin Road .  

We have never had drapes/curtains as we wanted the aesthetic to be extremely clean.  Now that I want to add more visual interest I wanted drapes.   Our window is not a standard size and we have to do custom.  I got JC Penny to come out and design custom ones for me.  I know that the words " JC Penny" and "custom" don't seem go together, but I have heard for years that they are a decorators secret.  My parents used them when I was a kid and I still remember the excitement of the decorator coming with oodles of fabric books and samples.  It was just as exciting to have her come to my house once I was an adult!    Penny's was way less than other custom drape stores--we will see how it goes!

Finally the biggest change is that these pieces will be gone:

I listed them for sale like this: "Loved continuously by one non-smoking, pet-free family for the past seven decades. Structurally the pieces are sound with original solid wood, dove-tail construction. The pieces are showing wear, however, including a chip in the veneer of the bachelor's chest. It is good furniture and probably deserves to be lovingly restored or repainted. We just don't want to invest the kind of money to restore because the rest of our home is contemporary. And I can't bring myself to chalk paint over 70 years of family memories, but you should! "  I honestly hope another family loves on these pieces like we did!

In the place of the storage pieces will be a new, totally custom piece that is being made for me by a master woodworker.  We are combining elements of the two buffets pictured at the bottom of my update page and I can't wait to see how it comes out!

How often do you update your decor and home?  Was waiting eight years too long, too short or just about average, I wonder.....

 

     

8 year update: Dining Room as it is

I really loved how we decorated our house in 2008, but times and tastes change and we are updating a few key spaces through the home.  Before we move on, here is my Dinning Room as it has been for the past 8 years.

 The Dinning Room is just off the center hall on the right.

In our last home, we were lucky to have Mr. 31-derful's grandmother's Hickory Chair dinning set made in the 40's or 50's.   The set was perfect in our old tutor.  You may recall that I actually love the chairs that go with the set from this post.  I just don't like them with the table, so we swapped them out for clean-lined these Lazar Max Chairs in a greek-key.  I promised my husband we would have them forever if we bought them.  Luckily, I still adore these chairs as much as the day I bought them.

Here is a close-up of the china cabinet.  On display is our wedding china and the storage beneath holds the rest of the set,  my beloved whimsical Wedgwood that comes out for ladies lunches and Mother's day, and our bulk dishes for big buffets.  It is like a clown car--so many items impossibly stuffed within!  

Panning around the room,  there is a corner with a Pottery Barn display table.  I bought it many moons ago to hold my very first gift from Mr. 31-derful.  He had given me a rock fountain, which was all the rage in 1999, and I wanted to put it in a place of honor.  On top now is a cheap little vase that I grabbed at Pier One ions ago and stuck a peacock feather in (peacock feathers are my signature holiday go-to--- this one must have stayed past the holidays one year).  Below is a vase from a local artist that my friend Holly commissioned for us as a wedding gift.  Hanging on the wall nearby is a signed Leo J. Meisnner print given to us as a wedding gift from my brother in law, who was then working at a gallery in Nantucket.  The vase and print go so nicely together that I consider them a set even though they have nothing to do with one another!

    Panning around further, there is a buffet, which I have always adored. 

Just past a sunny window where my side chairs reside when the table is not extended, sits a small bachelor's chest (The sunny window makes it hard to photograph!):

I have the chest loaded up with things I love.  There is an A-B for life paperweight-- it is a property law reference and  commemorates the tenure a special law school professor of ours, but it also reminds me of where we met and fell in love.  The candles are Nambe'--I sure did love me some nambe at the time I got married!  I added the rough twine and key--a nod to a series of conversations with my youngest daughter about the key to happiness.  The tray was another wedding gift, purchased at a Tennessee craft fair.  14 years later, I have to say, I am so glad all these people went rouge off the registry.     Finally, there is a tiny painting by Renee Schuls-Jacobson, a blogger and 

artist I met on the internet! I commissioner it memory of my sweet friend who passed away.

Sadly, after 70 years the cracks are beginning to show in this furniture--literally.  

This furniture is like the shabby gentry--it has a good name and is of quality, 

but over a lifetime it has cracked up and is actually worth very little.  ( Oh dear-I just referenced 

Shabby Gentry--what am I to do now that Downton ended??)  

The point is, it is good furniture and probably deserves to be lovingly 

restored or repainted. We just don't want to invest the kind of money to restore when the

the rest of our home is really quite contemporary. I also just can't bring myself to chalk paint over 70 years of family memories. I'll be back tomorrow to show you my plans for changing the room up as a part of our continuing 8 year update!

Another No Recipe Dinner

This is no great revelation or anything, but I am so happy to be on a Blue Apron break and back to cooking my own dishes that I am sharing!  Last night was another yummy, spontaneous dinner.  If you saw what I made Monday (um, rack of lamb and mascarpone mashed potatoes), you know we had to eat healthy on Tuesday.  I pulled together a bunch of fresh ingredients I had on hand, a can of beans, a jar of salsa, and a bag of frozen Langostino!

I chopped the mango, avocado, and cilantro and served them right off the board (I like mine with minced red onion and lime juice as a salsa, while the others like thiers straight-up).

A sauteed the Langostino in cumin, garlic and chilli.  They made perfect little tacos or, as I like them, lettuce cups.  Literally dinner in 5 minutes!

Fancy and Fast Monday Night

I am and have always been an advocate of cooking without a book.  I love to read cookbooks and troll Pinterest for inspiration  as much as the next guy;  I have just always believed that the best cooking is done by feel.  Once you know the methods and techniques, you really don't need an exact recipe for almost anything.  Baking is an obvious exception because of the science involved.  Even though I can throw together a pretty great dinner quickly, I was in a bit of a rut in the Fall.

I decided to give Blue Apron a try.  Over several months,  the food is was very good on average (some was even excellent).  The best part of the process was that it encouraged me to use some new ingredients that we really liked (I never even knew a watermelon radish existed). And it did get me out of the rut, but it isn't a perfect fit for us.  I still have to go to the store for breakfasts, lunches, and the picky-eater's dinner.  So the major benefit of not having to go to the market was lost on me.  Also, I am pretty experienced cook, but I would categorize most meals as having a difficult cooking level with a minimum of 30 minutes active cook-time. The recipes are written to suit people varying experience, so they have you do a lot of steps that are probably not needed (like having you quarter a lemon and chop its zest instead of just zesting it to begin with).   I finally did begin to incorporate my own short-cuts.  I began feeling tied to the kitchen and BA selected meals.  It limited my spontaneity--sometimes I just didn't want we had for dinner but didn't want it to spoil, so I made it anyway.  I am now on a break from BA and back to my own no-recipe method.  It feels so liberating to once again be a free-agent, so to speak.  I really loved cooking my way again last night.

We don't always eat like this (in fact, we are usually meatless on Monday), but I saw a rack of lamb on sale and snapped it up.  It was so easy to make this traditional meal using time-honored techniques.  The whole thing took 25 minutes, including lots of down time.  I started by heating the oven to 425.  While it heated, I quickly peeled and cut potatoes and put them in a shallow pan to boil. Meanwhile I quickly cut green beans and a shallot and seasoned the lamb:

And then I walked away to set the table and help with homework. That's what I had been missing with BA.   About 10 minutes later, I put the lamb in and then I walked away again to get the mail.  When I came back, I pulled the potatoes out and put them right in the serving bowl and threw the beans in the same pot to blanch.

 
I mashed to potatoes right in the serving bowl with a good blob of marscapone, salt and pepper.  I was ready to pull the beans out in a hot-minute.  I dumped the water and threw the shallots in with a small amount of butter to caramelize before putting the beans back in.  Within a minute, the lamb was finished as were the beans--all before the potatoes ever cooled! It made Monday feel extra special even though it was easy and came with no special instructions at all!!!! Truly, it was esier than having all the ingredients shipped to me with a recipe!

 

Purim is Coming...

Purim 2016 begins in the evening of Wednesday, March 23.  

Are you ready to have some fun?? 

 Here are my affordable and fun baskets from years past!