Domestic Putterings

Pitching In

My delightful, wonderful friend Julie is one of those people who went to New Orleans and found her home. Not even Hurricane Katrina and its devastation could keep her from returning to make the Crescent City her home. It is the passion of people like her that have helped New Orleans reach for a future.

She writes a blog, NOJuju, about New Orleans food, style and culture.

But lately, Julie has been dealing with her recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and all the joys associated with it. Terrible wrist and hand pain have made it hard for her to keep up with the blog, as she's had to marshal all her strength towards doing her actual paying job.

Julie put out the call to her friends, asking them to contribute material. Tim wrote about oysters. Melinda wrote about turning the cabbage in her Seattle garden into a vegetarian version of stuffed cabbage.

I'm the latest to help out, touting Cleveland a bit in an entry about Bar Symon.

Laissez les bon temps roullez!

Beat the Heat

The thermometer has gone past 90 degrees, the humidity is somewhere between Turkish bath and sauna, and it's officially icky out. Hardly a breath of wind to be had, and, it looks like, no rain for the week. Our poor yard is already en route to Kentucky Fried.

While there were some things I could have accomplished this weekend, it's just too darned hot. Fortunately, I have a bag of limes from Costco, a flourishing mint plant on the front porch, and a husband who lists bartending as one of his favorite hobbies.

Mojito time!

Falling for Fiestaware

I'd always associated Fiestaware with vintage shops, retro diners and hipster-wannabes who thought dressing like a Fonz caricature or Flo from "Alice" was somehow ironic.

Then about 10 years ago, my mom got me four placesettings of Fiestaware in yellow. She'd seen it on sale and thought it would look pretty in my new apartment.

That's all it took. I became a Fiesta Fanatic.

Grill, Baby, Grill!

Check out our new toy!

After talking about it and researching it and hesitating and talking about it some more, John and I finally took the plunge and got a new grill.

One of the things that attracted me to this house when I was house-hunting was that the grill was hooked up to the natural gas line. No more schlepping propane tanks! No more running out of propane in the middle of grilling!

The old grill was a Ducane, but it was more than a few years old when I bought the house. It slowly declined each summer. The jets were uneven, the ignite button never worked, then the left side control broke completely. We were left with half a working grill, and that half didn't work very well. I also risked a trip to the burn unit every cookout thanks to flames shooting out the vent hole in the front above the right side control knob.

We considered just getting a propane grill for now. But we realized that a natural gas grill would be a good investment in the home, and we liked the convenience. Coincidentally, John found a review of gas grills in the new issue of Consumer Reports, and we chose the best grill for our budget.

Talking Turkey, and Everything Else on the Table

It's almost as much fun to talk about Thanksgiving food as it is to eat it. So let's share all the good (and not-so-good) eats we love as the holiday descends.

Time to share!

1. What's your favorite stuffing/dressing?

2. What dish is a regular at your Thanksgiving table that you'd gladly never see again?

3. What's your favorite non-stuffing/dressing side dish?

4. What dish would you love to make, but haven't because you don't have time with all the "traditional" dishes you have to make or because no one else wants it?

5. Stuffing/dressing in the bird or out?

6. What's your favorite way of using Thanksgiving leftovers?

Turkey for Me, Turkey for You...

We're less than a week away from Thanksgiving, which John has taken to calling "a speed bump on the way to Christmas."

I always liked Thanksgiving because of its simplicity. It's about getting together, eating, and being happy. I've never gotten into Thanksgiving decor beyond a tablecloth in fall colors that looks good from September through November.

We're not all blessed to have the harmonious ideal of a Thanksgiving, as pictured in Norman Rockwell's classic painting, "Freedom from Want." That ideal can cause a lot of stress, as a recent New York Times article showed. Some people fear judgment from their mothers-in-law or from their guests, and tie themselves into knots trying to be Martha Stewart on crystal meth. People struggling with family dysfunctions, job loss, money troubles, or grief dread the holiday, feeling like they have to put on a happy face of denial in order not to upset everyone.

Maybe it's time to let go of the ideal, just a little.

The Honeymoon's Over

Before I started my new job at the Chronicle-Telegram last month, John and I finally took our honeymoon.

John really wanted to honeymoon in South Beach and I was fine with that. But one layoff later, we scaled back the wedding and postponed the honeymoon until the fall.

We'd gone to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York a few years ago. John is an oenophile, so he wanted to find out more about the wines of the region. That trip was wonderful, so we decided to do an expanded version of it for our fall honeymoon, and timed it so it'd be around peak foliage time. A longer trip meant we could go to the Lake George/Saratoga region, where I lived while I was working at the Post-Star in Glens Falls. I hadn't been there in almost 12 years.

Going Home ... and Coming Home

In case you're wondering about the long break between posts, your Domestic Putterer took a little vacation. And, it turns out, just in time.

I'd decided over the summer that, since I was out of work anyway, it'd be a good time to take a trip back to Connecticut to visit my family and friends. I'd missed my 25-year high school reunion last fall, and hadn't seen my grandmother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew in almost a year. Mackenzie and Nick are growing up so fast; I don't like missing such a big chunk of their lives. And, when your grandmother is in her mid-90s, you know -- but don't want to admit -- that opportunities for time together may be dwindling.

When plans started being made on Facebook for an all-years reunion for Pomperaug High, I figured I'd come back for that and stay about five or six days. Then it was announced that the Homecoming game for my college alma mater, Central Connecticut State, was the following weekend. So the trip got extended another five days. It'd leave me lots of time for family, but also time to see friends and just hang out. I knew that I wouldn't do half the stuff I'd want to, which led me to skip trips to New York City or the shore, and focus on people time close to home.

The Changing of the Seasons

The transition from summer to fall is always bittersweet.

There's so much to love about summer. The clothes. Being outdoors. Family cookouts. The Rose of Sharon tree at the end of the driveway blooming. The colorful orgy of plants and flowers at a cottage down the street from me. This year, I added a new joy: leisurely dinners with my husband in the screened-in porch.

But the days are getting shorter, and it's becoming too cool for eating outside. I won't give up the grill for a while, but thoughts are inexorably turning from barbecued chicken on the grill to short ribs in the slow cooker, from capris to cardigans.

Semi-Homemade? Or Totally Gross?

Many moons ago, I got a call from a PR rep for someone named Sandra Lee. She's starting something called "Semi-Homemade Cooking," I was told. So, being a good colleague, I passed the PR person on to the food editor.

"Semi-Homemade" seemed like an interesting idea. I thought it meant using a rotisserie chicken to make burritos instead of cooking the chicken yourself and other simple, sensible ideas to save time and effort. Little did I know it really meant a culinary culture war was coming.