Joyful Abode

The wedding was fantastic-ly beautiful. Everyone kept telling me at the reception that the food was delicious and all of the decorations and flowers were breathtaking. The food and decorations were conceived and executed by my talented stepmother. The wedding was unlike anything the lady who works at the park (and has seen hundreds of weddings there) had ever seen… surprising and gorgeous. I sadly only got a few bites of food, which I guess is how most not-sit-down-dinner-receptions go for the bride and groom.

My sister did an amazing job with the flowers. I had no idea what she was planning, but I trusted her completely and didn’t worry about it… they were more beautiful than anything I could have picked out of planned myself. My sister’s husband said it was one of her most gorgeous weddings, probably because she had free reign with it rather than putting up with a picky bride. There were cattails and pussy willow, lotus seed pods, pitcher plants, and all sorts of gorgeous stuff that I don’t know the names of.

I thought the DJ was pretty great, but he surprised me with bubbles during our first dance… I’m not a big fan of the bubbles. I whispered that to him later and he didn’t bubble us again. They’re fun in general, but from wedding pictures I’ve seen, they often seem to screw with the focus and stuff in photos…

The photographer was really nice and I like her personality, though I wish she had taken charge a bit more during posed shots, especially since we had talked about what my guy and I wanted beforehand… she kept looking to me for what to do next, and that made everyone else look at me and I feel like I made people mad. Posed pictures was where I felt the most anxiety during any part of the day… besides a snafu with my hair, but Catherine saved the day on that one. Also, I later found out that she didn’t take any photos of just my groom and the groomsmen… she just did me and bridesmaids, and then both of us with the whole wedding party… and me and my guy together of course. Oh well, I’m looking forward to seeing her pictures, because then maybe I can see the wedding the way guests saw it, instead of in a crazy blur.

The honeymoon was lots of fun. We stayed on Tybee Island near Savannah, GA, and mostly beach-bummed around and ate fabulous seafood. We went into Savannah for one day… showed up at Lady & Sons (Paula Deen’s restaurant) at 9am to get put on the lunch list. We got to come back at 11 to eat the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. Ever. And I’ve eaten a lot of good southern fried chicken! I got tickled there too, when my guy told me that he likes my cheesy garlic biscuits better than Paula’s. Woo! I win again! So far my biscuits have beat out the Woodlands Inn’s biscuits (reeeeeally upscale place in Charleston) and Paula Deen’s biscuits.

We walked around Savannah near the river and visited almost every shop. We should’ve started at the museums though, because by the time we got down to that area (around 4:30) everything was getting ready to close. We entertained ourselves until our 8pm ghost-story carriage tour. Pretty fun!

The beach was fantastic, and it was very cool that it was east-facing. That meant we got to watch the sun rise over the ocean from our little ocean-view balcony. I’m really looking forward to getting to go to the beach every weekend in Florida though! Pensacola beach is delicious.

Maybe pictures later? We didn’t take a lot of beach pictures… mostly just Savannah stuff, but there are a few from Tybee.

In any case, we’re back! We’re married!

My mother sent me her flickr album with her pictures in it, and here’s a great one of me and my man, his best man, and my maid of honor. The lady crouching in the background is our photographer.

More later, I’m sure.

Today, we’re packing up the U-Haul trailer, and tomorrow we’re driving down! Not sure when the next update will be, but I’m still here!

I’ve been super-busy lately with last-minute wedding stuff. I’ve been wrapping gifts and calling everyone (DJ, photographer, officiant, parents, etc.) and generally being exhausted.

The wedding is Saturday, and after that we’ll be honeymooning in Georgia until Thursday I think.  Then, a few days later, August 1, we’ll be packing up and moving to Florida!

I may post between the honeymoon and moving, but I’m not sure how the schedule will work out. If you want to make sure you’re notified of updates when I come back, look on the left side of my website for the “bloglines” button and the email subscription service. Pick which one you want, and sign up to stay informed!  If you use Livejournal, there is also an RSS feed you can add to your friends list here.

If you’re lucky, I may even make a post (a real one) before the wedding. Haha. I have many ideas for things to write about, but it takes me a while for those ideas to actually manifest here. I guess it’s better than having it be the other way around though.

This is a guest article by my sister Jessica.

If you are interested in being a guest author for Joyful Abode, please send an email to “contribute at joyfulabode dot com”, and I will contact you.

Hopefully, guest articles will become a bi-weekly event here, so step up and make it possible!

This summer, I decided to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I’ve been struggling with figuring out the correct grammar for conveying that, since it doesn’t seem right to “join an agriculture”, but it does seem right to join a CSA. Maybe I should say that this summer I support CSA? But then that’s too many
supports, so I don’t think that’s right either.

But however you want to say it, for $17 a week, I get a nice big crate full of fresh fruits and veggies straight from a local farm. Since my boyfriend absolutely hates onions, I asked the farm not to include onions in our crate, which meant I got TWO boxes full of strawberries one week, one to replace the onions. We just couldn’t finish them quickly enough, or we didn’t try hard enough to finish them quickly enough, and the strawberries started looking questionable. Not wanting to waste them, I tried googling things like “overripe strawberries” and “soft strawberries” and “bruised strawberries,” only to find websites about how you should make sure not to pick overripe, bruised, or soft strawberries, even for making jam.

Despite this, I threw caution to the wind, and decided to use my soft strawberries to make jam anyway. I didn’t want to invest much effort in making the jam since the jam gurus said only to use the freshest strawberries, so I picked the easiest online recipe I could found. It doesn’t even use pectin, just strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

I did the “not bothering with processing” part, and I halved the recipe. There was also an interesting footnote:

“To test for jelling:

Place three plates in a freezer… after about 10 minutes of boiling
place a tsp of the liquid of the jam onto the cold plate. Return to
freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate…
if it doesn’t try to run back together (if you can make a line
through it with your finger) it’s ready to be canned!”

I decided I was going to do this right, or at least as right as I do things, so I put one plate in the freezer, and got my roommates candy thermometer, and set off to make jam. First of all, I would recommend using a much larger pot than your ingredients. The rolling boil of jam can be messy, and the mixture expands and fills the pot.

This ended up being a problem for me. As the mixture got hot, It would froth and boil up, and I’d have to turn down the heat so it wouldn’t spill over. This caused the temperature to drop, and I couldn’t seem to get it to 220 degrees. I was at 200 at one point, but I never measured past that.

I pulled out the frozen plate and tried the finger test, but the jam ran back together, so it supposedly wasn’t ready. I rinsed off the plate, and realized I didn’t have time to refreeze it, which is I suppose why you were supposed to put 3 plates in the freezer to start with, so I decided I was done with the jelling test. I also never saw the temperature get to 220, but at some point, the boiling mixture seemed to change texture to something much thicker, and I decided that was probably fine, and I was tired of watching my jam boil.

I later learned that you should spoon out the froth, because it does just stay in the jam otherwise (I spooned it out of the jam later). I put it in a glass bowl in the fridge and hoped for the best… and it turned out to be delicious and surprisingly jamlike! I was so impressed with myself for making jam, that I had to tell everyone I knew about my big accomplishment, and they acted impressed with me too, so it was overall a huge success.

We ate the jam on toast, bagels, croissants, and finally, biscuits.
I of course turned to Emily for her favorite biscuit recipe, and they were the perfect accompaniment to the jam. The jam was at it’s prime right after the initial refrigeration. After that, it thickened quite a bit, but was still tasty and spreadable. The biscuits (and these pictures) came two weeks after the jam was made, and it was still in great shape. The jam is also quite sweet, and although I think you should be able to make it with less sugar, I’m not sure if it would affect the texture too much.

Play around! Have fun! Eat jam!

I started out with this bedding (but queen sized) from Ikea… I LOVE the bold colors, the clean lines, and the fact that the duvet cover is reversible. The other side has a brown background, and still the branch+flowers.

So, when I moved to this apartment, I decided to take this as my feature piece and decorate around it in my bedroom.

I added some art (by me)…the lines look a lot cleaner in person, for some reason:

Curtains:

And a painted flowerpot accent:

And the room looks fabulous.

A few weeks ago, I started making vanilla extract , and I wanted to give you an update about how it’s going.

It’s not clear anymore! It still basically just smells like rum, but I’m going to add a few more vanilla beans soon, and I’m sure that by Christmas it’ll be vanilla-y and ready to use.

PS My “Self-Portrait Tuesday” post yesterday? No one commented on the fact that it was Wednesday! I’m shocked! Thanks for letting me fudge. *grin*

Today, I played with my hair in preparation for our wedding on the 21st. I put on my wedding jewelry too, and took some pictures (obviously not in my dress). Then I headed over to David’s Bridal to try on my dress for the last time and make sure if fit. It’s fantastic, and the jewelry is perfect.

My question for you is: What lipstick have you found that you put on in the morning and never have to reapply throughout the day? I have seen the ads for tons of “color-stay” lipsticks, but I’d like to hear from people’s experience, first-hand.

She’s on her way to her new home with Laura (shipped yesterday).

All wrapped up with ribbon and a note.

Check out my etsy shop if you want your own.

So, I watch the Food Network. Kind of a lot. And I’ve learned a LOT of things from it. I don’t think I’ve ever made a recipe directly from a show… maybe the closest was when I mimicked Rachael Ray’s mustard-based potato salad. But I didn’t use her measurements.

I get ideas from the shows. Alton Brown teaches me about the science of cooking. Rachael Ray’s 30 minute meals teaches me about efficiency in the kitchen. Paula Deen teaches me to love the good ingredients, like butter. Next Food Network Star teaches me about types of food I normally wouldn’t be exposed to, and phrases like “amuse bouche” and other goodies.

And from the Food Network, I have learned how to cut an onion without crying. Some people swear by chewing gum, turning on a burner and cutting near the stove, holding a piece of bread in their mouths while cutting, putting the onion in the freezer before hand, wearing goggles, cutting under running water, or carefully dissecting the onion to get the whole middle out before chopping. I’m not kidding. I have seen all of these methods on the internet. My guess is that you’ve tried one of these methods too.

This is basically the method Rachael Ray uses, and it works like a charm every time.

Don’t worry about peeling the onion before you start. First, cut off both ends of the onion. Don’t do measly slivers. Cut off chunks. This is the part that will save you from crying.

Then, turn the onion on one of the flat ends, and cut it in half.

Then, remove the whole outer layer. Don’t bother with peeling off the papery-thin bits. That takes too long, and onions are cheap.

Then, you have two lovely onion halves, ready to be chopped, sliced, or diced to your liking.

AND you will have tear-free eyes. (I had just taken a shower, so my skin looks a bit moist and glowy… but my eyes aren’t red or teary!)

As a first grade teacher last year, I had PLENTY of students come into my classroom with untied shoelaces, or laces that would untie themselves after a few minutes. I usually had the kids tie their own shoes, but in the case of frustratingly short laces or unusually slippery ones, I would re-tie them with Ian’s Secure Shoelace Knot. That knot is amazing and will NOT slip out if you’ve done it correctly. I wanted to print out the directions and send it home to all of my parents, but I never got around to it.

I did, however, teach the knot to my father, whose slippery work-shoe-laces had previously annoyed and befuddled him. I’m probably the only person who can say that  she taught her father to tie his shoes, but it’s true! He uses the knot every day now.

Check out Ian’s site. It’s a wealth of information for shoe-tying knots and lacing styles. He’s coming out with a book too. Such exciting things! And if you have a young child, or know anyone with slippery shoelaces, teach them the secure knot. It’s beyond fantastic.

Here are my new shoes, tied with Ian’s Secure Knot and laced in the double helix style.

My fiance’s mother told me about a recipe for ice cream bread she had found in Southern Living Magazine. Basically, you throw a pint of ice cream into a bowl, add a cup and a half of self-rising flour, and stir it up. Then you dump it all into a bread pan and bake it, and it makes “bread.”

Well, it’s PRETTY.

She used vanilla ice cream, and her “bread” reminded me of shortcake or biscuits. I used chocolate, and it reminded me of … chocolate biscuits. Sort-of. We both decided it needs to be eaten with jam.

I also decided it doesn’t ever need to be made by an adult. The flavor isn’t that rewarding, and it’s not hard to make things that taste good. Plus, there are better things to do with a pint of ice cream!

However, children would really enjoy the copious amounts of stirring required to incorporate the flour into the ice cream. This is also an extremely easy recipe to get kids started in the kitchen, and even practice some measuring skills. If you have a 3 year old child who wants to make something, this would be a really fun project for the two of you.