domicile

Respite

  sanctuary 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

On one of our first days in the house I experienced a moment of such calm, grace and simple beauty that all the sanding, moving, scrubbing and the long list of "still-to-do" chores seemed very worthwhile.

After a long day of getting filthy and dusty working on the house, Martin drew me a bath in our newly uncovered deep tub. I had earlier placed one of these roses from the garden on the window sill, and as these are very old rose bushes the flowers all have that wonderful deep almost sweet fragrance to them that I associate with summer spent trying to make perfume in ice cream pails with Kate in our respective backyards. And as I got into that tub and looked up at the blue tiles (some of them peeling after the surround removal adventures) and breathed in that rose, I felt absolutely certain that we had made the right choice in buying this house.

I could still see the peeling up nasty ancient vinyl tile on the floors of the bathroom, the walls that desparately need paint, the paint cracking on the window ledge and the crumbling wall behind the tub that had been hidden by the surround, but all that faded into the background and I could see the small moments of peace and beauty that we had already brought to our home and it just felt right.

Recipes for a Summer Birthday Dinner

  sarah's birthday dinner 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Last Friday evening we had my dear friend Sarah over for dinner. The evening's menu consisted of:

- Soft Brie with Apples and Mint on Pepper Crackers
- Summer Pasta with Olives and White Beans
- Angelfood Cake with Raspberries & Lemon
- Organic Proseco with Raspberries

(I've decided to separate out the posts for categorization of recipe purposes, so they're all separate entries now -- enjoy!)

Soft Brie with Apples and Mint

  soft brie with apples and mint 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

This recipe was originally going to follow Clothide's recipe for Dip Fromage Frais et Corriandre but I got sidetracked at the Cave of Cheese (local cheese shop, properly called Grotta Del Formagio) and ended up buying a cheese far too strong to suit the other flavors of Clothide's recipe. You see I feared that the fromage frais looked too bland and that perhaps this cheese would have a little more bite. This is where you need to first quiz your helfpul cheese counter girl on what type of cheese is her favorite before blindly accepting her recommendation. I asked her about the relative merits of the two and she commented that she would "never use fromage frais for a dinner cheese, it is strictly for morning when you can't handle anything too strong" she directed me, instead suggesting the other and saying it was much like the subtle fresh cheese with just a bit of bite, "like a mild brie." Well, she and I have different ideas of mild, and I'm no scaredy cat when it comes to cheese. Anyway, in a bit of a panic as I realized that this very pungent and soft brie was not going to work at all well with the corriander and sliced cucumbers I had bought, I decided to improvise. Here's what we ended up with:

1/2 diced organic gala apple (finely diced)
one package of Boursault
approx 1 tbsp of fresh mint from the garden chopped fine
10 pepper corns cracked with a butcher's knife
pink of sea salt

Mix that all up in a bowl, transfer to a smaller dish and chill. I chilled it for about an hour before Sarah arrived. Then served it with cracked pepper water crackers. It was tasty. Could maybe have had more mint, and really was a bit stronger flavour all around than what I was going for on a summer evening. But it was good (strong, soft brie, how can you go wrong?)

Serve with ** Organic Prosecco with Raspberries **

This one is dead easy and was inspired by a wedding that Sarah recently attended and raved about. It requires:

1 bottle prosecco (dry Italian champagne)
Some raspberries

And ecco la

Summer Pasta with White Beans and Olives

  sarah's birthday dinner 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Summer pasta is one of my favorite summer dishes to make. The basic idea is that you cut up a bunch of veggies, often some cheese and then toss them raw with hot cooked pasta. Easy, doesn't require much in the way of slaving over a hot stove and allows you to enjoy the tasty delights of summer veggies.

This recipe is a bit of a hybrid. Not really a true summer pasta as I steamed the green beans, and inspired by a Rose Elliot cookbook I'm currently infatuated with (I ripped off parts of it from her recipe for Pistou), but it is still pretty yummy I have to say. And easy as pie (even easier!) to make.

(Click on the link below for the recipe).

Angelfood Cake with Raspberries and Cream

  angel food cake 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

This one isn't so much a recipe as instructions for buying a cake mix. That said, I was fairly pleased as it was my first Angelfood cake and my family has a painful history with these cakes (my mother once made something like 4 of these in one day for my birthday and each one failed miserably). In the summer, when berries are plenty, Angelfood cake with whipped cream and berries is a rewardingly simply and delightful dessert (for the non-vegans out there anyway).

Aside from adding water to the mix, and whipping the cream the only "recipe" used here was to add some organic lemon zest to the washed berries and mix that all together to sit in the fridge while we had dinner. The slight tang was nice with the very ripe and sweet berries and helped to cut the spun sugar taste of the cake a bit too.w

Hanging out to dry

  slips 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

I'm afraid I have to come clean as a full blown laundry fetishist. Among my favorite laundry tools: our new front loader washing machine and our clothes line. It's hard for me to say which I love more really.

The clothesline was on the list of positive "features" when we first looked at our wee little home. While a clothesline is likely not a tricky thing to install, the fact that it was a done deal and summertime when we moved in, was just plain fantastic in my books. Unfortunately when we first moved in the antique "Speed Queen" washing machine (I'm afraid I failed to accurately document this modern appliance wonder circa 1950 before it was hauled off to the transfer station) was not going to provide me with any clean and wet clothes to hang out to dry in the breeze. However, after a few weeks of moving, renos and living in our new house we decided to breakdown and purchase a brand new washer and dryer set. From Sears! We felt so very out of our element talking appliances with "Dave" at the downtown Sears, but before we knew it we were signed up for delivery.

While we're generally very money conscious (and these days we really have to be) we decided to go all out on the washer and bought a front loader. If you've not taken a detour into an appliance department near you, you may not know just how exciting the prospect of a front loading washing machine can be. I'm here to tell you that buying that washing machine was one of the most satisfying purchases I have made in years. And that's accounting for the negative impact of the delivery guys (who were my age) calling me "ma'am" and the fact that purchasing it required going into a mall. This piece of machinery is such a delight to use that on more than one occassion I have been found watching the clothes tumble around with the cat at my side, both of us held by the wonder of the silence and efficiency of our wonderful new washing machine.

At this point, because our upgrade from 60amp to 100amp service is not yet quite complete (more on this adventure later) we're not able to plug in our dryer. That however is a situation that suits me fine. Provided the weather holds, I delight in hanging our sheets, towels, clothes and rags out on the line to dry in the sun, for there is nothing quite as satisfying as pulling those crisp and summer scented items back in a few hours later.

Rub-a-dub-dub

  Tub! 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

One of my greatest delights upon first inspecting the house was my suspicion that behind the bad, crumbly, moldy tub surround was a 3/4 size claw foot tub. The shape of the tub itself -- deep, with the faucets set into the tub not above -- suggested a claw foot for sure and inspite of the icky surround the glazing on the tub appeared to be in pretty good shape. So when Martin came back to check the place out we did some more investigating, and sure enough: claw foot tub-y goodness.

Prize Winning Pickles

  Newly pickled 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Last year my friend Sarah and I experimented with making our own pickles. We used an award winning recipe that she found on ye olde internet, and improvised a bit from there.  I learned from our hook-up at the Farmer's Market this past weekend that we're about to enter into prime cucumber season and so we are arranging our schedules to get in some more pickling for this year. Last time we weren't able to make nearly enough for my liking due to hitting things at the end of the season, and we waited a few days after getting the cukes to actually pickle them, which is apparently why they weren't the world's crispest pickles (though mighty tastey I might add).  I'm very much looking forward to both the process and the outcome. If anyone has a  favourite recipe to share, please pass it on.

Kitschy Cupcake Delights

  Shark and Beach Cupcakes 
  Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

While I promise to upload some culinary practices and delights of my own soon (made an excellent impromptu summer pasta the other night that I will try to pin down the recipe for) these Shark and Beach Cupcakes made and photographed by one Maggie Mason are too fabulous to not share.

The Chosen One

  Bye bye green walls 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Our first round of painting the house (the trim and hallways still need to be done, as does the back office come to think of it) went off fairly smoothly. After one hardcore day of ceiling painting, which left me with very stiff shoulders, prior to the carpet removal, we prepared to paint the bedrooms (ours and Martin's daughter's), livingroom and kitchen. The plan (in my head) was to have all that and possibly the back office and bathroom done before we moved in. That wasn't quite how it played out.