warm food for a cold day

I find creamy rice to be the ultimate comfort food.  Well, truthfully, I find chocolate to be the ultimate comfort food, but I can't serve that for dinner.  Very often.  

 

 

Recently, Steve and I tried another new recipe from La Tartine Gourmande- Gorgonzola and pear risotto.  Risotto is a dish that takes patience, so it's great for a night when you have nothing else to do but hang out in your warm kitchen with people you love.  It's sort of an event in itself, making risotto.  

 

 



Ingredients

 

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

3 red pears

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, plus extra

4 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus extra

1 large shallot, finely chopped

1 leek, white part only, finely chopped

2 thyme sprigs

1 rosemary sprig

1 1/2 cups carnaroli or Arborio rice

1/3 cup white wine

4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese

3 Tbsp. mascarpone cheese

2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

pepper

1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped

 



Directions

 

Dice 2 1/2 pears and thinly slice the remaining 1/2 pear.  In a frying pan, melt 1 Tbsp. butter and cook diced pear 3-4 minutes until soft; set aside.  Add a little extra butter to the pan and cook the pear slices 1-2 minutes on each side; set aside.

Heat the broth in a pot and keep warm.

In the same frying pan, melt 2 Tbsp. butter over medium heat.  Add the oil, shallot, leek, rosemary, and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until soft and fragrant.  Add the rice and cook for 1 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the wine and cook until the liquid is absorbed. 

Add 1 cup of broth and cook, stirring occasionally.  Wait until the rice has absorbed all the liquid before adding more broth.  Repeat until you only have 3/4 cup broth remaining, then stir in the diced pears and add the rest of the broth.  Cook until done and remove from heat. 

Stir in the cheeses and season with pepper.  Cover and let sit for 2 minutes.  Discard the thyme and rosemary and stir in the parsley.

Garnish with pear slices, walnuts, and a drizzle of olive oil.  

 

We both loved this dish!  I had intended to make a salad to go with it, but in the end, we just ate the risotto as our whole meal.  It's one of those dishes that could easily be eaten out of a deep bowl, in your pajamas, on the sofa.  Perfect for a movie night or a snow storm or just a wintry Saturday. 

 

Speaking of snow, I'm wishing for some, as it's 45 degrees and rainy here.  Thankfully, the house is nice and warm and I'm working my way through a large pile of sewing projects that all need to be completed this week.  If the sun ever comes back out, I'll snap some pictures to share!  

winter mantle / it's dark in here

How about today I treat you to some fairly dark pictures of our cozy winter mantle?  And you can squint your eyes a bit and imagine what it looks like when the sun is out or when Steve is behind the camera using settings other than "auto".  And then, while we're at it, we'll glance at the time and see that it's after 4pm and wonder why I'm blogging this late in the day anyway.  Probably, we'll just shrug our shoulders and murmur something like "it's Monday" or "January will do that to you..."

 

 

But really, I have been thrilled with the transformation the mantle has made from holiday to winter.  The cedar wreath is still kickin'.  The white lights are still up.  And everything is better with silver, amen?  

 

 

Speaking of silver, check out that gorgeous silver tray that Steve's mom gave us.  It was originally meant to hang above the stove, but has spent its time since arriving here last fall hanging out in the guest bedroom and on the mantle.  I can't commit to one spot for it yet.  

 

I wish I had some pictures to share from our weekend, which was super fun and included activities ranging from making our own board games with my brother (and laughing until we were almost sick) to a great lunch with friends to finding what is hopefully the perfect sewing stool.  And all we have to show for it are some bird pictures. 

 

Today, I've been catching up on the laundry and cutting out 375 triangles for a party banner and no that is not a typo.  Three hundred seventy-five.  Tomorrow, I plan to give my hands a rest with some sewing and ironing.  It's all about perspective, isn't it? 

the thing about january

So here's the thing about January: it's the month where you have to look harder for beauty.  It's not full of flowers, or changing leaves, or decorations of any sort.  January, on the surface, is bare branches and dry skin and gray skies.  It's the month that I'm least likely to pick up the camera, the month that I'm most likely to despair about my hair. 

 

But if I turn on every lamp in the house (and don't bother noticing what the static electricity has done to my hair), I can see it-

 

A lovely striped wool blanket;  

 

A bowl of bright oranges;

 

 

A flannel throw pillow, just right for leaning on.  

 

So today, one-third of the way through the month, I'm declaring victory.  I'm resolving to drink more hot beverages and read under a blanket and bundle up for crisp night walks with Steve.  I'll try to remember how awful it is to spend hours ironing fabric in the summertime and how much I dislike shorts.  And, while I'm never one to wish time away, I bet February will be here before I know it. 

 

 

This morning I'm shipping out orders and listing new items and enjoying my brother's company (once he wakes up).  We have lots of fun plans for the weekend- hope you do too!

 

running

Hi friends!  I'm just popping in for a quick "hello" because it's Wednesday and I almost always blog on Wednesdays.  However, today I have been running around from the moment I dropped Steve off at the train station and now it's almost time to go pick him up again!

 

 

Other than the grocery store and the bank and the usual types of running, I also was able to run and pick up my brother, who will be staying the rest of the week with us.  We're so glad to have him here.  (Secretly, I am hoping he'll help cut fabric.)

 

Once I picked him up, we ran together to The Boulevard to pick up a bunch of Plumfield Shop merchandise.  All I have to do now is photograph it and everything should be available in the shop by next week.  I love putting new stuff in the shop!

 

Hope your week is moving along nicely- is anyone else cheering that we're over halfway through?  

so I married a bird watcher

We didn't do anything especially photo-worthy over the weekend.  Mainly, we just took down Christmas lights- ours, our neighbors, the ones at the entrance of our neighborhood.  It's hard when it's over, isn't it? 

 

Taking down the holiday decorations always makes me want to redecorate.  So today, I'm scrubbing the house from top to bottom, because I like to decorate with a clean slate.  Literally. 

 



Other than winding one million strands of white lights, we also made these amazing pancakes for dinner and watched the season premiere of Downton Abbey.  I can't actually remember the last time I was so excited for a TV show.  Steve and I cuddled up and sipped our tea and loved every minute of it, even though it kept us up way past our bedtime.  I've made a vow to go to bed early tonight, that I'm sure I will immediately want to break once Steve gets home and we start having fun. 

 



I'm gearing up for a full week- and I'm sure it will feel extra long, being the first five day work week since Christmas.  I posted a bunch of new zipper pouches in the shop last week and will have some more cute pouches, plus new throw pillows to share soon!

this year: be awesome

I love how each new year encourages me to be better.  When I look over my lists of goals for this year, and years past, the theme always involves more- more kindness, more practice, more living. 

 

 

This year, we're setting some lofty business goals, as well as trying to learn a new language.  And because I think that learning something new is one of the best things you can do with your time in the winter (isn't it too cold to do much else?), I am teaching another beginner's sewing class.   

 

 I've said it before, but learning to sew was one of the best things I ever did.  So obviously, I want to share the joy by teaching lots of other people to sew too! 

To find out more details, click here, or on the "classes" tab at the top of the page.  Classes begin on January 22nd and I only have a limited number of spots, so make sure to sign up early! 

I'm especially excited about the projects we'll be making together- either a set of cloth napkins (so handy!) or a fun tote bag (you can see Maddie rocking hers above).  Either way, you're guaranteed to come away with something useful!

Today, I'm busy trying to keep warm and cook up some tasty things for Steve and I to eat over the weekend.  I'm also working on a large fabric order that includes some canvas to make more lunch bags for the shop.  Hope your weekend is happy!

wreath making

As I mentioned last week, one of our favorite holiday activities this year turned out to be wreath making.  We almost didn't even do it because it was so late in the month (December 22nd!), but I am so glad we went ahead with the project anyway! 

 

The first thing you need, obviously, is lots of greenery.  There are many inexpensive ways to get fresh greens.  In fact, all of ours were free!  We clipped cedar and holly from our yard and picked up a whole trunk load of Douglas and Frasier fir cuttings from Lowe's.  We get cuttings from Lowe's almost every year- just go to the tree cutting area and ask someone for the branches that are leftover when they trim up the trees.  The people at our Lowe's are always happy to help and even give us large sheets of plastic to put down in the trunk of the car. 

We bought two 12" metal wreath forms from Joann Fabrics.  We used 50% off coupons and got them for $1.25 each.  We also bought one roll of thin green floral wire, also with a coupon, for $1.00. 

 

For each wreath, we chose two types of greens to use.  I used Douglas fir and cedar and Steve used mostly Frasier fir with some holly thrown in.  The first thing you want to do is to make little bouquets with your greens.  I used 4-5 pieces for each one and twisted some wire around the bottom to hold them together. 

Once you feel like you have enough little packets to fill a whole wreath (I probably used about 20 on mine), you can start wiring them on.  We found that the easiest way to do it is to pick a spot to start and then move around the wreath wiring each new packet so that it covers the end of the previous one. 

We didn't do anything fancy with the wire to attach the greens- just wrapped it around the base of each packet and through the wreath form 3 or 4 times. 

Sometimes, we'd think we were finished, but then step back and see bald spots that needed to be filled.  When the wreaths were finally full enough, I took the clippers to them and shaped them up a bit, so there were no super crazy long branches sticking out and so that they each had a nice opening in the center. 

Steve hung his wreath on the bird feeder.  We can see it from our kitchen and it adds a nice bit of cheer to the backyard.  Also, the birds love to nestle in it.  Super cute. 

My wreath is hanging above the fireplace and still looks great, even after a week of being warm inside the house.  I'm leaving it up indefinitely, that's how much I like it. 

 

So, next year, we plan to make like a million more.  The whole project took about 2 hours, but we really gained momentum once we figured out the best way to do it.  It was awesome being bundled up outside in the cool air and doing something productive. 

 

Today is gray and wet and I'm trying to catch up on work and laundry and life in general.  Steve and I had a lovely talk last night, by the light of the fire and the Christmas tree, about our hopes and dreams for this year.  I'm so thankful to start out the year feeling healthy and ready to tackle anything.