Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Moving to the country, going to eat a lot of tomatoes

(I know it's peaches, just making sure you were with me!)

There has been much talk as of late regarding our imminent move out to the burbs. Driving the excitement towards this adventure has been darling husbands' reassurance that while I will be leaving my precious city life, I will be rewarded with kitchen-aids (ice-cream AND pasta additions, please) and additions to my all clad collection to my hearts content.

OK, I bite. Let's move.

Only now, EVERYONE knows about our plan (dun, dun, dun)... Which is both excellent and problematic.

Let me rephrase, it's excellent for me that I can now create the "Camp P" I have dreamed of and have friends and family visit for long weekends, which will also allow me to make ridiculous amounts of stuff (jams, muffins, compound butters, you name it) for sending as gifts and will make entertaining just that much easier.

It becomes problematic to hubby as events like this mornings transpire....

Favorite dog run friend: Hey L, I finally decided to get rid of my bread maker that I have been hanging on to for years and thought you might appreciate it.

Me: (moment of awe inspired silence by this thoughtful and exciting proposition) Um, yes please!

FDRF: Great, then I'll drop it off when you are back from vacation.

Me: (thinking holy crap G is going to kill me) You are amazing! I'm perfectly thrilled. Thank you so much for thinking of me. Hey! Now we will never have to go to the grocery store, bread making was the last frontier.

Me & FDRF continue to discuss our pups, projects and lifes pandemonium... but I won't bore you with the details!

So that's the imminent danger of which I speak. Since there are very few readers I will admit that I'm using this forum to gently let my darling husband know of our almost acquisition. (Aren't you excited honey!)

I'm also hoping that this might rouse him from his silence and that he might comment on our exciting news. A girl can hope, right?

In other news...

Tomorrow will find us embarking on a long and lovely journey through Dublin, London, and Paris. I will attempt to post pictures and write notes as I go.

I am most excited to try local cuisines and hope that I do not return 20 pounds heavier after eating at all the recommended places like Bertillion and L’As du Fallafel, and enjoying as many crepes as one girl can handle.

Your opinions, advice, and travel knowledge are greatly appreciated so don't be stingy...please share!

11 comments:

Kristin said...

Your European trip is the basic plan for our 2008 honeymoon. Keep us posted on how it goes.

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Kristin-
I certainly will do that! In fact, we have an entire itinerary that I can send you if you are interested, I can send it when we return so that I can make additions while we are there. Any places you are particularly interested in? I can scope them out and photograph them for you and your fiance!
Congratulations on your engagement and thank you for reading.
Lindsay

Gary said...

Darling husband speaks: A new addition to the family!!! How cool is that? Now you know the rules: due to the constraints of city-living something entering the apartment necessitates something leaving the apartment. Who is it going to be? The dog, the cat or the husband?

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Now I'm cornered! I vote for the t.v. Wouldn't you rather smell the fresh rising bread over watching yet another episode of Top Chef with me yelling directions to them???

We could tell our friends it's artistic expression...

Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to get over that I'm not your favorite dog run friend. but regardless - I hope you an G have a GREAT trip and I expect to be invited over for home made bread when you return.

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Hello Jackie!

You are absolutely a favorite dog run friend and when we return I will make you a special loaf of my favorite cheddar and jalapeno bread to show you just how much I adore you(and Ty)!

caveat: that is if you're into that kind of dough AND if i can find the recipe, if not you're stuck with cinnamon raisin or grain, grain, grain...

Parisbreakfasts said...

The best advice is just to get a very good mapbook over there and a weekly Carte D'orange in the Metro or do the biking thing.
Forget the long lists of To-Dos and limit yourself to one "must" a day. You'll fall all over things just walking about.
If I wait for the defrosting it will be too late :(

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Oh no! We can't have that....

So for freezing, I tried two methods:
1) chop, blanche (i.e. dip in boiling water for 2 minutes), freeze, and
2) chop, freeze.

Both methods found me using ziplock baggies placed in larger ziplock baggies (i'm frost-phobic).

Best veggies to freeze are probably zucchini and other squash, corn (i peel it off the cob), shelled beans of any variety (check out the union square market for the adorable cranberry beans i posted about here: http://countrygirlcityliving.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post.html)

Fruits freeze marvelously, especially those that nature has already individually wrapped: cherries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.. Think of a fresh cherry pie in december, yum!

Sliced peaches and apples were also frozen but the results remain to be seen so I don't want to give you bad advice.

I hope that is helpful and I will write more if i think of it.

All the best and thank you for the Paris advice...I'll send you photos!

david mcmahon said...

Hi CGCL,

Tried green tomatoes at the whistlestop cafe?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist that!)

Will show you how to embed links in your posts - drop me a comment on my blog with your email address and I'll have to email it to you ....

Cheers

David

david mcmahon said...

Update - I see you already have live links on your posts.

I got fooled by the two links on your earlier post.

!!!!!!!!!!

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Hi David!
What links should I link to? I have been trying to think of photos to attach to this post all day and may have one coming in a few. We are running downstairs to pick up the bread machine now...
Stay tuned (if it photographs well, that is!).
Thank you again for your help and encouragement!