Yuppie in Training

With a sore throat and a bag full of freshly picked peaches, I had two missions Tuesday night: make a soup and a peach crumble.

I fully succeeded in both, all while making myself and my roomies the happiest little AmeriCorps!

I, logically, started off with the soup. I recipe called for more veggie stock than I had, so I improvised and split the difference with water and champagne. With the combination of the bubbly and the wine that the recipe called for, it came out tasty pretty wine-y, which Richard and I both liked, but putting in the right amount of stock and switching out the Riesling I used for a red or a dryer white are both experiments I plan to try.

I found that the pepper I used season it kind of sank to the bottom, so some spoonfuls for really popping while others weren’t. I don’t know what to do about that, but if you have some pepper secrets, please share!

I would’ve liked to have broiled the bread and cheese right on the soup, but we don’t have good bowls, so I toasted up some baguette with a blend of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan.

The recipe said that the soup keeps really well, and  the bowl I had for lunch yesterday certainly was delicious.

After dinner, I got started with out peaches. I didn’t want to do a traditional peach cobbler because I wanted a crumble more than a crust. I’m pretty certain I made the right decision because I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews thus far.

I was really afraid that our wonky oven was totally going to ruin it by burning some parts and leaving others uncooked, but it came out as close to perfect as I could hope for.  The edges are all crispy and caramelized, the crumble is light and well-spiced, and the peaches are juicy and delicious!

While I am very proud of my two wonderful creations, I am fairly certain that my favorite part of the night is that I did it all in a little dress with a cocktail in hand.  I was one happy domestic goddess!

Cloudy With a Chance of Fresh Produce

This morning Christine, the Director of Family Services, called me to let me know that she had brought in a bag of fruits and veggies that were free for the taking, and of course I immediately ran down the stairs to battle it out with Beth and Richard over who would get the parsnips and apples. The selection was really beautiful, made even more so, I'm sure, by the simple fact that it was all locally grown, and I'm crazy about that right now.

I settled for this gorgeous pair of pears:

I call them Lucy and Fred.

Just a few hours later, Christine called again to let me know that the soup kitchen by us had a large abundance of veggies that they wanted us to help take off of their hands. So Aaron and I went over and ended up with a big basket of yellow and green zucchinis, and a bag of tomatoes and eggplants.

They don’t have names, but I am so super excited for zucchini fries and eggplant parm!

Side note, it is also raining walnuts at the office, but I don’t know if they are really edible. They just make crazy thunking noises when they fall to the ground every time the wind blows, which, right now, is just about always.

It's like a violent game of dodge ball out there!

Hello, Sunshine!

I was feeling just a smidge under the weather this morning, but I have a lot of goals for today, and I knew I needed to be energized.

So I made myself a cup of Traditional Medicinals Organic Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat Herbal Tea, turned "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti on repeat, and sat down to browse my Google Reader.

I took half an hour to just set myself up for the day, and it definitely did the trick. I'm ready to tackle that pile of sticky notes!

World Habitat Day!

It's World Habitat Day!

Advocacy isn't really something this affiliate focuses strongly on (which is something I hope to change) so we don't have a special event planned for today, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take a moment to think about it.

Habitat for Humanity is an amazing organization that has built more than 300,000 houses world-wide in its 33 years. It's an organization that I love and hope to support throughout my life.

One of my goals for this year is to learn as much as I can about HFH, and I thought today was a perfect opportunity to do some research on international affiliates. I've discovered that while we at Suffolk tend to focus on our income cap, many international affiliates are focused on their income minimum. Dan, our executive director, was telling me that when he went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic the affiliate didn't have an income cap. With practically everyone living in substandard housing the affiliate was essentially looking for anyone who had land to build on and could afford the mortgage, including their board president.

I also found that HFH is becoming more and more involved with the concept of microfinancing, an idea that I am very much in love with. Habitat works with microfinance institutions (MFIs) in a few different ways, including outsourcing credit service so that partner families' loans are managed by these institutions, thereby helping both the family and the MFI. They also have a program called Building in Stages, where homes are built one stage at a time with a small loan that needs to be paid off each time in order to start the next stage.

Of course, I love my experiences with Habitat Suffolk and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be serving the community that I have called my home for virtually my entire life, but learning about the larger vision of Habitat International always makes me energized.

You don't have to love Habitat as much as I do, but I hope you'll take the time to consider supporting the HFH mission.

It's Not a Fight. It's a Good Old War.

Back in May, my brother and I went with some friends to a Straylight Run concert. Sadly, Straylight Run minus Michelle was pretty underwhelming, but, in my opinion, one of the opening bands, Good Old War, completely stole the show.

I can't find a good description of their style anywhere online, but if you ask me, I'd say Good Old War sounds like your favorite book and a tall glass of lemonade on the porch with just the right amount of sunshine and a faint breeze. Their guitar, keys, and drums, plus the occasional accordion and synth, are the perfect complement to their lush three part harmonies. The folky rock sound was made to be sung along to, and gives me exactly what I'm looking for during a long drive, when I'm getting ready for a night out, or when I'm breaking out the frying pan.

Since seeing them in May, I'd been looking forward to the concert they were playing tonight on Long Island. Due to a series of events, some more unfortunate than others, I ended up not going. But I did spend a good portion of my day rocking out to their album, Only Way to Be Alone, and I'd like to share the love:

"Just Another Day" by Good Old War