Just For Fun...Videos and Birthday Plans!

Good Bones...

This is our house "in the raw". We close in about two weeks. I am incredibly excited and a bit scared. It's going to take a whole lot of work, but what else do young married couples with a baby do, right?

It's a foreclosure with the most random assortment of things....such as cooking oil on a washer that someone decided should go in their glorious kitchen... hmmmm.

Obsessive Decorating...this could become an issue.

Decorating With Blue | Real Simple


I have been faced with the lovely task of decorating 2000 square feet of riverside ancient house. Its daunting to say the least. You can't go all IKEA cheap'n'minimal. You can't (or at least I won't) do all over the top French or Queen Anne. It's a careful balance of clean yet historic. Period yet contemporary. Child accessible yet not looking like an in-home daycare. Oy.

I have many grandiose ideas that would work perfectly if it wasn't for that man I call my husband. A two thousand dollar bed frame is out of the question, and I have to say that the good little Mainer in me just won't allow it anyways. So I must conjure a full house decorated on a shoe string budget while satisfying my goal of creating a cohesive, functional, and aesthetically pleasing home. It is consuming my thoughts to say the very least.

There's a few other issues that one might have to overlook, such as raw crumbled plaster in a few places, Vines protruding into my Sun Porch, and a few Squirrel friends in the cavernous attic. However, I don't find these issues anything that elbow grease, hedge clippers, and a pellet gun can't fix. (relax animal lovers, I won't use a pellet gun...promise).
Vintage Martha Stewart Image (true love)

I will be updating the ol' blogster with my victories and forfeitures in the realm of interior design as I am certain there will a lot of both. In the next few days I will posting images from Highland House, and Yes, I have named my house.

Avgolemono: A Hellaluva Good Soup Recipe...even if I can't pronounce it.

It seems like a life time ago that I was sitting in our tiny apartment nursing Dahlia, looking out the window at the snow, waiting for my far away friends to welcome the baby and bring me some much needed soup and conversation.

They came with paper 'Whole Foods' bags in tow; filled to the brim with beets, goat cheese, leeks, lemons...etc. I was blissfully exhausted in my new role as a Mamma but I will always recall those days as the sweetest days I had yet to taste. As sweet as it was, my body ached for sleep and nutrients. My friends were taking care of the later half of that last sentence. There were hugs, Oooo's and Ah's over Dahlia's most obvious talent at being the best looking infant ever, hand made gifts to unwrap and more Ooooo's and Ah's.

My kitchen was filled with the scent of sauteed leeks, mere poix, and lemon. I was being treated to their vegetarian version of the traditional Greek soup, Avgolemono. It is a delicious soup with lemon and a frothy egg tempered in among the leeks, carrots, and onion topped with a coarse chop of fresh mint and parsley. It fills a house and a belly with that wintery soup feeling.


This summer I was feeling a detrimental lack of inspiration and nutrition so I turned on NPR and opened the fridge. I saw all the ingredients for Avgolemono and a glass container of cooked wheat berries. Wheat berries are a hearty grain and I quickly realized that they had to fill the shoes of my non-existent pastine that the original recipe called for. The makeshift grain adds a more satisfying texture, protein, and fiber to the soup. However, you can use just about any small pasta or grain in this soup. The traditional Avgolemono has shredded chicken and uses Orzo, there are so many great renditions of this classic. Give this one a try...

2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Leeks(white parts finely Chopped to equal 4 cups)
1 Onion (smallish)
2 Carrots diced
6 Cups Broth (veggie broth works well)
1/2 cup Wheat Berries
2 Big Eggs
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/4 cup chopped Parsley
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tbsp chopped Oregano


1. In a small Pan Saute leeks, onions, carrots, and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook 5-7 minutes.


2. Stir in all of the Broth(chicken or Veggie, I don't judge). Season with the good old S and P. Simmer for 11 minutes. Add your wheat berries and simmer for five minutes and remove from heat.

3. Whisk eggs and lemon juice in medium bowl. Eggs should be room temp! Add three (non boiling) ladles from soup pot to the bowl with eggs and whisk very rigorously so the eggs do not cook. Whisk the egg mixture into the big Soup Pot and cook over VERY low heat for 2-3 minutes. If you boil the soup you will have a weird srambled egg soup....and nobody wants that. nobody.


4. Sprinkle the herbs over just before serving. Yes, I was reticent about the mint too, but Don't omit it thinking the soups taste will be the same or better off...it won't.



5. This is an optional step, for myself its essential. Feed a certain someone kale puffs so you can enjoy the lemony goodness in peace, fingers crossed.


Thanks Kara and Amanda for the recipe!