decor: couch update

There have been two recent additions to my couch that have made a big difference.

First, I saw this beautiful old quilt in the guest room at my parents' house over Christmas. The colors coordinate really well with my orange-and-blue living room. My mom was hesitant to hand it over at first ... but ... I can be very charming.

The quilt is now living on the back of my couch. I bought my couch when I moved to D.C. five (!) years ago, and over time, the cushions have become a bit saggy. Maybe I could just add some more stuffing, but for now, the quilt is doing a good job at making the couch look neater.

Second, I now have a boatload of pillows on my couch.

I used to think I didn't want a lot of pillows on the couch for practical reasons. Tony and I share the couch when we watch TV or movies, and I thought it would get too crowded with two humans and a half dozen pillows on a small couch. So all I had on the couch were two matching floral throw pillows. Here's a photo of Jamie playing his guitar my couch before Christmas to give you an idea of what my couch used to look like. In hindsight, it looks pretty plain.

But Jen bought me this pretty ampersand pillow for Christmas, which prompted me to experiment with adding more pillows.

I brought out from storage some more pillows (which were DIY projects with fabric and stuffing from Jo-Ann Fabrics) in a mix of colors and patterns.

It looks like some place you want to curl up and read a book/take a map/watch a DVD.

But, let's be honest, that's only what my couch looks like when I know guests are coming over or when I'm going to take a picture for, say, a blog post. Most of the time the pillows end up tossed on the back of the couch to make more room, which actually makes it very cozy. The too-many-pillows problem that I was worried about hasn't turned out to be a problem at all. 

the garden: planting tomatoes

Check out how much greenery there is in my garden, compared to just a couple of weeks ago!

Tony and I got back from a trip to see our families in Ohio about a week ago. My dad had started a bunch of veggies for his garden under a grow light this spring, and he planted some for my garden, too. Which took up pretty much the whole back seat of our car on the drive back:

There are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, flowers, and all kinds of herbs in that box.

I thought I would write a blog post about how to plant tomatoes. This is the technique my dad taught me right after Tony and I moved into our house. My parents came down to D.C. for moving weekend, and right after the truck was unloaded, one of the first places we went was Frager's, where I bought some veggies to plant in pots, including a tomato plant. (I was really, really excited to have outdoor space.)

My dad recommends against just digging a hole in the ground and putting the tomato in. Instead, his method involves cutting off the bottom leaves, planting the roots and part of the stem in a trench, and bending the stem 90 degrees to make it grow upright. I had strong tomato plants that first year, presumably with big, healthy root bases, so I planted my tomatoes his way again last year and this year.

Here are some photos I took a few weeks ago with the Early Girl tomatoes I bought at Home Depot. (Even though my dad grew a lot of different kind of tomatoes for me this year, I wanted to make sure I had Early Girls in my garden, which is why I made the Home Depot purchase. Early Girls did really, really well for me last year, so I definitely wanted to have them in my garden.)

I took the plant out of the pot and teased the roots. Then I snipped off the bottom three leaves. That part of the plant is going to be buried, and new roots will grow from the spots that were snipped off. Here's a photo of that process, although this admittedly is not a great picture:

Next I dug a trench, instead of a hole. The root ball lays at one end of the trench. And to make this work, you have to bury the snipped-off parts of the stem, then gently shape the stem upwards 90 degrees.

As you can see, we can call her "Eileen" because while a tomato plant is relatively flexible, she's not quite standing up straight yet.

 But here she is last weekend, standing pretty straight and tall. And hopefully with a wide and strong root system, thanks to dad's planting advice.

Oh, and here is another picture from last weekend. (I also have a couple of tomatoes and a pepper plant growing in pots.) Tomato blossoms abound! And on Tuesday, I was investigating those blossoms a bit more closely and found a itty bitty green tomato peeking out!

Yay, summer!

recipe: tony's dump cake

There is precisely one dessert recipe that Tony knows how to make. And for years now, whenever he's called upon to bring a dessert to a dinner party or potluck, he turns to his trusty dump cake. Easy and tasty. So last Friday, when our neighbor invited Tony over for a man night with a group of guys (complete with steaks and whiskey), Tony volunteered to bring the dessert.

This recipe is simple. There are four ingredients, all of which can be kept in the pantry and fridge or freezer, ready for last-minute dump cake emergencies. Crushed pineapple. Cherry pie filling. Yellow cake mix. Butter. And as the name implies, you just dump it all into a pan and bake it.

(I should note that we only had pineapple chunks at our house, so Tony used a potato masher to break the chunks up. It's easiest just to buy the right stuff, though.)

Tony's Dump Cake

• 1 can crushed pineapple with juice
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 sticks butter

In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, pour crushed pineapple. Spread cherry pie filling on top. Spread yellow cake mix over the fruit. Top with pats of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

recipe: grilled mac and cheese with french fried onions

When my parents gave Tony and me our grill for Christmas, they mentioned that you can grill pretty much anything that you can bake in the oven. That could come in handy when it's 95 degrees this summer, and turning on the oven isn't an option. Just imagine -- chocolate chip cookies and enchiladas in July! Or apple pie and homemade pizza in August!

The weather hasn't been hot enough here yet to necessitate major grilling experiments, although Tony and I have had started dabbling with different recipes. We've made grilled pizza a few times, but I think I'm still searching for the best grilled pizza recipe. And over the weekend, we tried grilled mac and cheese, which turned out to be fantastic. This recipe is ready for prime time.

The recipe is going to look verrrrry familiar if you remember the baked macaroni and cheese recipe I posted last fall. One key difference: Tony requested I put French's French fried onions on his. He says it took the dish to a whole new level.

Also, you can see that we grilled the mac and cheese in two separate pans. I've been pretty sensitive to dairy lately, so I couldn't use real cheese in mine. So instead of using one 9-inch square casserole dish, we used two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans. I put real cheese in Tony's pan and Daiya soy "cheese" in mine.

That said, I'll give you the recipe assuming you're using just one baking dish, using real cheese in the whole thing and spreading onions over the entire casserole.

Macaroni and Cheese

Adapted from James Beard's American Cookery

• 2 cups macaroni (or medium shells)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk (or soy milk)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 splashes of Tabasco
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or mozzarella, which is what we had in the fridge)
• generous amount of breadcrumbs
• four handfuls French fried onions

Butter a 2-quart baking dish. (We used disposable foil dishes for easy cleanup.)

Boil noodles for the minimum cooking time. My box called for 10-12 minutes, and I boiled for 10 minutes. Drain.

For the white sauce, melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour and cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, heat milk to the boiling point. Add milk to the butter-flour mixture. Add salt and Tabasco. Sauce will start to thicken. Cook on medium-low, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.

In the prepared baking dish, add half of the macaroni, spread half of the white sauce, and add half of the cheese. Then add the rest of the macaroni, the rest of the white sauce, and then the rest of the cheese. Top with a generous amount of breadcrumbs. You can make your own breadcrumbs, but I used store-bought Italian-seasoned crumbs. Crush four handfuls of French fried onions in your hands and spread over top of casserole.

Pre-heat grill to 350-400 degrees (medium-low). Grill for 25 minutes or until breadcrumbs are crispy brown.

recipe: almond french toast

Ben and Mandy came over for brunch a few weeks ago, and I wanted to serve something light. We ended up having almond French toast and yogurt with berries. This French toast is fantastic. I mean, I always love French toast - but the addition of the almonds elevates this version.

Almond French Toast

Via Cook's Illustrated

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
• 8 slices Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White. (Original recipe also recommends Arnold Country Classics White, Thomas’ English Muffin Toasting Bread or a challah loaf sliced into 1/2-inch pieces.) 
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed to the touch
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for cooking
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Triple Sec
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

In a food processor, combine almonds and 1 tablespoon brown sugar until coarsely ground, about 15 pulses.

Place bread on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Place in a 300-degree oven for 16 minutes to dry the bread, flipping halfway through. The centers should remain slightly moist.

(The first two steps can be done the night before.)

Place the wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in the oven and warm oven to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk milk, yolks, remaining 3 tablespoons brown sugar, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter, salt, vanilla, Triple Sec and orange zest. Pour mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Soak bread in milk mixture for just 20 seconds per side. Pick up bread with a slotted spatula and allow excess milk to drip off. Transfer slices to a baking sheet.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture over one side of each slice of bread.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Place two slices of bread in the skillet, nut side down. Cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip bread and cook 3 to 4 more minutes.

Transfer cooked toast to the wire rack in the warmed oven.

Repeat with remaining butter and bread.

Serves 4.

the backyard: raised garden bed

I've told you guys before about how Tony and I are tackling our backyard transformation in a no-rush, piecemeal way. Our latest project has been putting in a raised garden bed. Tony spent a few weekend days this spring on demo and prep work. Then he and my dad did the bulk of the construction over Easter weekend. And on Sunday, Tony put a coat of stain on it, so I finally have some photos to share! Ta da!

Isn't it beautiful? Don't you just want to ... grow things in it? And then eat those things up?

Tony was the braun behind this project, and I was the brains. I spent a lot of time brainstorming, sketching, and pondering the placement, size, and other logistics.

As for placement, our backyard has a sunny side and shady side, so obviously the garden bed goes on the sunny side.

For shape and size, I got a lot of ideas from the book Square Foot Gardening, which I checked out from the library last year. The idea is simple: You divide your garden into square-foot sections, and you grow a different vegetable in each section. You might be able to grow one pepper in a square foot, but you could fit maybe nine spinach plants in another square foot. The concept makes a lot of sense, especially in urban gardening, where space is a premium. Based on the book's advice, I decided I wanted the surface of my bed to be two feet wide. I wanted it to run much of the length of the fence, which turned out to be 18 feet long. I also wanted the bed to be sufficiently tall, so I wouldn't break my back when I was working in the garden. The whole thing ended up being 20 inches tall. And I wanted to build a ledge where flower pots could sit. Here's a draft version of my schematic:

You probably can't make that out very well, but here is a side view:

So we had a plan. This is where the braun comes in.

The project started with demo. Tony used a sledge hammer to break up a large chunk of the concrete patio:

He hammered away until all the concrete was in golf ball-sized pieces, and we saved those pieces to put at the bottom of the bed for drainage. Two birds, one stone: We didn't have to pay to haul the concrete away, and we didn't have to buy drainage gravel.

Then Tony had to excavate the entire area, which involved digging out a whole lotta dirt. Again, we saved this less-than-quality stuff for filler dirt toward the bottom of the bed, where the plants' roots probably won't reach. We hung a line level on a string between two stakes at either end of the demo'd area to make sure the whole thing was flat.

And that was just the prep work. Then came the construction phase, starting with the post holes. You can see from this photo how the excavated area looked as Tony and my dad got started on the construction. Tony appears to be smiling in this shot - probably because he's only on hole No. 2. He dug a total of eight holes, 30 inches deep, which appears is the frost line for this area. He slept well that night. There's a reason the post hole digger's nickname is "Tool from Hell."

Here he is in action, bringing dirt to the surface:

And here is some of the yucky clay soil he was bringing up:

And then the assembly started. My dad was kind enough to pick up the boards in Ohio, pre-cut them, and drive them down in his truck, so we didn't have to arrange for delivery. How's that for a great dad?

Here's the corner of the bed. In each post hole, Tony and my dad poured a 50-pound bag of fast-setting concrete, which is good for post holes because you don't have to mix it. They sprayed it with the hose and then filled the holes back up with that clay.

Here's the work zone and all those empty concrete bags:

The project also involved running a flexible elephant drain down half of the bed. The idea is to eventually move the gutter to the side of the house and connect it to the elephant drain at the end of the garden bed. The water then will flow down the drain and out the side of the garden bed right near the stormwater drain that's already in the backyard. Tony and my dad drilled two large holes in the bed for the drain to come in and out - and the entrance hole is a couple of inches higher than the exit hole, so the water drains downward.

As a bonus, that pipe's also going to provide some extra drainage for the bed itself. Tony perforated the top of the drain with dozens of holes, so extra water could flow there.

I should mention here that we decided to use pressure-treated wood for the garden bed. I had researched buying cedar, which also holds up well outdoors, but holy guacamole is that stuff expensive. I did a lot of research on the chemicals in pressure-treated wood, and the Internet is not the most reassuring place for good information. We know that arsenic is no longer used to treat wood, but there still are other chemicals. So, for some peace of mind, since we're going to be eating food that's grown in this garden, we covered the inside of the bed with a sheet of heavy duty plastic. Here are Tony and my dad getting the plastic in place. They stapled it to the wood, then attached the ledge to hide the staples.

And here's a photo of Tony using a grinder to smooth out a few screws that poked their way through the bed. So I don't cut my fingers while I'm gardening. Aww.

Now here's the garden bed with two inches of concrete pieces for drainage.

And I threw in a copy of that day's newspaper, protected in a plastic bag, to let future generations know when we were here. This was Uncle Mike's idea :)

Next step: landscape fabric. Water can pass through the fabric, but soil won't be able to get down there to clog things up.

And then came the soil. I made up my own soil recipe here. I mentioned that we re-used some of the excavated top soil. Other ingredients include compost, peat moss, garden soil and top soil. And a little bit of sand and mulch.

And banana peels. Because we were all eating bananas and just threw them into the bed for the hell of it.

By the way, it was cheaper for this project to buy the soil in bags at Home Depot, rather than having it delivered in bulk because of the bulk delivery fees.

Over the next couple of weekends, Tony and I made progress cleaning up the mess in the backyard. And on Sunday, he got out the tinted protectant stain and gave the bed a coat. We used the same color for the bed that we used for our farmhouse table in the backyard, so the two will be tied together.

And the best part is that things are growing now! We didn't really get a good spring growing season in D.C., so I have both cool-season and warm-season crops in the ground now, and we'll see how that shakes out.

Perhaps the coolest-looking plant I have growing are fava beans:

My cucumbers are coming up:

As are a whole bunch of radishes:

And lots of other little things sprouting:

I'm using trellises for the cucumbers, tomato cages for the tomatoes, and poles for the pole beans and to support the peppers. I'm ready for you, summer!