Snow Day!

Today is a snow day here in NYC.  This means that schools are shut and, thus, my educational organization is closed and I am at home.  I have some work to do, of course, but not having to commute also provides an opportunity to potter round the house, catch up on some tv (hello, Scandal and Sleepy Hollow), take (overdue) books back to the library, and generally enjoy being at home. 

I've also decided to do the January Cure again, a cleanse for the home.  January is a bit of a mental month, workwise, but it's cold, we're trying to cut back on expenses, and so I plan to spend quite a bit of time at home.  Some of that time is going to involve reading all the fabulous new books I have -  gifted to me or borrowed from the BPL - playing backgammon, cooking, and working on the apartment, so that it's a nicer place to do all those things.

Yesterday and this weekend's tasks are already up on the site.  I have to make a list of all the projects I need to do.  Then I have to vacuum and clean the floors, make sure I have nice cleaning things in the house (mostly vinegar, it seems), and buy flowers.  The latter is basically why I do this cure business:  so that I remember to and am required - nay, impelled! - to buy flowers.

I've also taken a few other steps to cut back on things.  I've unsubscribed to as many of the emails trying to make me buy things as I've been able to, so far.  Hopefully I've caught most of them, but I'm sure there are a few still lurking.  I am sick of waking up and having 20+ emails that solely want to generate within me the need to spend money - something that's all too easily induced.  So they're OUT.  Hurrah.

Who knows, with all this resolved, firm spirit, we may even write our wedding thank you cards.

Just joshing.  Let's not go overboard.

Preservation

I go through bouts of domesticity every now and then.* Most are connected to circumstance - and having a day off. The juxtaposition of Veterans Day and the cooling temperatures meant that I had a day to do some tidying up in the garden. This forced me to ponder what to do with several of the bundles of green things I had growing in the garden.

This year we actually had more parsley than ever before, after years of failing to grow any. I'm not sure this will work, but I've seen many suggestions that one should make a pesto-type thing with the leaves, and freeze in ice cube trays. So that I've done - albeit with a mixture of oil and water, and it's more of a slurry than a proper pesto, I'd say. I've read some posts that say to add the garlic/pine nuts/parmesan now, some say later, so I'll stick with the later, seeing as the parsley really is for parsley use, rather than to accompany pasta.

The lavender - two types! - I've hung up to dry. This is supposed to happen in a darkish, cool place, which conveniently describes our basement-based bedroom, so that smells glorious right now.

The thyme - goodness, SO much of it. I've frozen a portion - only a portion so as to test this method. This is frozen without cover, at all, and apparently the leaves will all loosen and drop off as early as tomorrow, and I can then put them in a jar to keep frozen for the next year.

I'm most excited about the lemon verbena. I followed various blogs and decided to blitz with sugar (1/2 cup of the latter to accompany two cups of the former, albeit with an additional few leaves of basil that were clinging to life in the garden). This is now flattened in a sandwich bag in the freezer, and apparently I can just break off chunks as and when I feel like it - to go on fruit, ice cream, to be dissolved and added to drinks to bring back the taste of summer... you get the idea. Of course, I had a sneaky taste to make sure it was adequate, and it appears to be rather lovely right now, so I'm very much looking forward to using it - in a gimlet, for sure, and this concoction, although I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to call it a jamtini...

* That bout of domesticity has been highly rewarding, as we've ploughed through the chutney and, at this rate, will be out of it well before the end of the year.

Spreading the Joy

Sunday morning. TOH's off at his veterans game (should be finished in about 15 minutes); I've scoffed the last of the bread from yesterday's batch and put on some more. That bread will be used tonight to mop up the juices and gravy from last night's absolutely gorgeous supper of lamb shanks braised for hours in tomatoes, red wine, spiked with rosemary and thyme. The debris from that has been cleared, and the bins of vegetable peelings are waiting by the door for composting. I'm about to sling on some slobby clothes and do the rest of the garden chores that I couldn't get to last weekend, as well as grab some cuttings from the lavender and cedar to give to my award-winning jam suppliers in return for all the glorious preserves that they've given me over the last couple of years - indeed, my fridge is full of homemade bitter, thick marmalade; a lighter meyer lemon and vanilla one; and fig and peach jam. Those hopefully will go toward dessert with the homemade bread, if there's any left.

Time to get to it. Domestic bliss and all that. Of course, this is all the sweeter and calmer and more joyous because Spurs beat the Arse yesterday in their own manor. It's all about context.

Domestic Bliss

On Friday was the first dinner party in the new apartment. It was amazing - basil and baby tomatoes from the garden, barbecue in the garden, and organic steak from the co-op. Yum. And today, I made sorrel soup from the stuff in the garden.

Things I've learned about the place:

• There is simply NO END TO CAT HAIR
• This is not the best time of year for sorrel - earlier, when it's less bitter, is undoubtedly better. Or with more bacon. Always more bacon.
• Along the bacon lines, there are few soups that aren't improved by sour cream.
• This is an amazing recipe for steak.
• I like gardening, but there are STILL biting things and I got feasted on, yet again, by those biting things. Sods.