jam and my thoughts

Here I find myself again, staring into a large pan of boiling fruit and sugar. And while I gaze at my raspberry jam, I'm deep in thought about how I can make a living out of baked goods and canned jams and jellies. With bags under my eyes I'm exhausted from the thought of planting a fruit and vegetable garden when I don't even know how to till the ground. Ron and I have dreams of a business. One day we want people to buy our produce while they sip on our home brew and garage wine and lather our bread with homemade jam. And maybe they will walk away with a bag of my homemade cookies and eggs from our chickens that we still need to get. And they will be raving about our bacon and sausages that they will be cooking for breakfast. Recently I checked out The One-Block Feast by Sunset Magazine from the library. "100 recipes made with ingredients from your yard. How to raise chickens, keep bees, brew beer, make wine, and more. Garden plans for 4 seasons." The book is beautiful and everyone looks so happy while they prune vines and dig land to plant seeds. When Ron and I bought our property, it definitely seemed daunting but being newlyweds, we were excited. But we can barely make time to even go on a date, let alone paint a wall or knead bread. Okay, it is starting to sound like I'm whining. What I'm trying to convey is that it's a lot of work but also a lot of fun.

I have become a bit obsessed about checking out books from the library that involve cooking, baking, house projects, and the occasional book about training for a marathon. (Probably won't happen but I pretend I'm training...) I skim through the books and pick the ones I would consider buying to add to our cookbook collection. I did end up buying Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook so that I could master her pastry dough. And I also bought BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher who is basically a goddess of food science. I wouldn't mind becoming a complete baking geek. I didn't get the Sunset Magazine book though. It was a great book but everyone looked too happy doing their projects so I returned it to the library. Ron and I are happy to have projects but we don't always look that happy while we do them..... Honestly, some really suck.

Speaking of projects Ron has been going gangbusters downstairs. That carpet that made me want to hurl has been ripped up and we had our handy ex-DJ turned contractor who loves to rap, dry wall our soon to be wine cellar. (Yes, he has even "free-rhymed" to me about grout. A post for another time.) Last night Ron painted some of the walls so that we can get our bamboo flooring done. This will be our future entertainment room:

Still working on the color for the party room next to it.

While Ron continued to paint, I mowed about 3/4 of an acre of our property, which took me about 2 hours to do. Lots of hills and I was often attacked by blackberry bushes. I eventually burned out, poured myself a glass of wine and worked on dinner. My brother and sister-in-law gave me Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite for Christmas. She writes for the New York Times but I mostly enjoy listening to her be interviewed on The Splendid Table on NPR. Plus she has the most amazing hair color. It's orange red like an heirloom tomato. And kind of the same color as our entertainment room. Anyway, I made her recipe for "Figgy, Piggy Drumsticks and Thighs." Essentially it's chicken browned in a pan of bacon fat, which is then finished in the oven with roasted figs and thyme. I presented it on a platter with wilted lettuce and then you scatter it with bacon and garlic.

I also threw a fresh pizza dough on the grill, spread pesto and Emmentaler cheese on top with corn, shallots and mushrooms.

Finally a dinner I made that I would eat again! Melissa Clark's recipe was super easy and delicious. But anything with bacon is delicious. And the pizza was a perfect accompaniment.

More tales of basement projects to come. I'm sure more wine will be poured to assist.