52 Tuesday's: Favorite CHRISTMAS Thrifts #25

What: awful acrylic Christmas sweater
Where: no idea...it was too long ago
Level of Love: off the charts

I've had this sweater for over 10 years. I can't remember exactly when or where I got it. My last firm, far back memory was of wearing it to a Christmas party during my freshman year of college. I know it was not a new (to me) sweater at that time either. It spends most of the year packed away in a plastic tote with the rest of my winter garb but emerges for a few months a year to shine during the holiday season. I even have last year's Christmas post to prove it. There's just something so deliciously tacky about it, right down to to 100% acrylic yarn. I know I must have bought this before I turned into a full-on fiber geek because I wouldn't buy an acrylic sweater today no matter how fantastic the print. This guy made the cut way back when though, and now I just can't seem to get rid of it.

Birthday!

My birthday wish this year (okay every year) was to make a trek to my favorite local yarn shop:  Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. While there are many great yarn shops in the greater Seattle area, this one holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. One is that they carry some of my favorite wooly wools like Rowan, Jamieson's, and the ever elusive Shelter and Loft from Brooklyn Tweed. It's also just a really cute, aesthetically pleasing shop complete with tea and beautiful sample knits. The best part about this shop is that getting there requires one of my other favorite Washington things. A ferry ride! 

My good friend Sarah was awesome enough to arrange the trip and invited two other of our knitterly friends Andi and Karen. The weather was mild that day, and we were treated to an exceptional and rare winter view of Mt. Rainier on the ferry ride. We left around 11:30am but the sun is so low in the sky this time of year that it cast a lovely sunrise-like glow around the mountain. It was breathtaking!

We all settled into a booth with coffee and tea and pulled out our knitting in true knitting-nerd fashion. Andi and I snuck outside to the deck for a quick, windy view of the city and mountain, too. 

We grabbed lunch at Fork and Spoon before popping into Churchmouse and ogling all the yarny goodness. I ended up with some oatmeal colored wooly Kevin-sock yarn. Not the most exciting purchase, but I'm just coming off of my mad Christmas knitting with a few bigger projects still on the needles so it was no time for a big impulse purchase. Karen ended up with a crushworthy sweater's worth of Shelter to make the most lovely cabled, shawl collar cardigan (there might be one of those in Kevin's distant future as well). Sarah picked up the perfect yarn for an upcoming Dad sweater vest. All in all it was a very enjoyable perusal. There was just no time for picture snapping I'm afraid. 

Next we sort of stumbled upon the most perfect knitting and wine spot at Pegasus Coffee House. None of us had been here before, but I think it's going to become a regular stop on future Bainbridge outings - at least one's that include a large amount of time spent tucked in and knitting and sipping wine (shouldn't they all?). 

Thanks for a fun and full birthday trip ladies! Let's do it again next year, okay?

A Christmas Tree Adventure

This year, we decided to do something a little bit different for our Christmas tree. Christmas in my childhood ALWAYS meant a real tree. Or two. Or three. Okay, okay, I grew up having a little Christmas tree in my bedroom decorated with all my very own ornaments. Part of this was because my birthday is also in December so I have more than the average persons collection of baby's first Christmas ornaments. There are also many crafters on both sides of my family who reliably made a homemade ornament for each grandchild in the family every year. Another major part of the tradition was that we always made an outing to cut our own tree. For many years this meant cutting one from around my Grandma and Grandpa Schoeneck's house, where my Uncle Dennis planted them and kept them trimmed. Other years we went to a local cut-your-own tree farm. It's a tradition that holds many fond memories for me. I've even got a series of once a year photographs to prove it, from little tiny me in a huge pink snowsuit to high school age  me helping carry out the tree.

When Kevin and I moved to Washington we stuck to the tradition of getting a real tree but hadn't found an affordable place to cut our own. Turns out real Christmas trees are expensive folks! I also dreamed of a way for us to make more of a day of it and infuse it with a little bit of our own tradition. We had heard rumors last year that it was possible to cut your own at one of the state or national forests. This year, we did our research and made it happen.

We decided to head to the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. We have been up to this area before for hiking and fishing. It's relatively close to the city but offers just the sort of wilderness Christmas adventure we were looking for. Our first stop was the Verlot Public Service Center, where we got our $10 (cheap!) tree permit and some guidance from a very nice ranger. He gave us a map and some directions on where we might have luck finding a good Christmas-worthy tree. As we walked out the door he called, "good luck out there", which made us smile and feel like we were going hunting. Also, they give you a blaze orange tag to attach to the tree you take, which makes it feel even more like deer hunting. In a way I guess we were - Christmas tree hunting that is. Ha!

From there we set out along Mountain Loop Highway to a certain public service road (it has a number/letter combination I can't remember), where we turned off and made our way tentatively up a very narrow and rustic road. Unpaved and just barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other with no guard rails even at the steep parts. I'm not sure what the elevation change was, but I drove very carefully up those five miles with both hands on the wheel and very deliberate deep breathing. There was only a little bit of cussing while dodging potholes.

By the time we reached the pull off pointed out by the ranger, there was a little bit of snow on the ground. I had had visions of a snow covered forest with gentle flakes still falling down as we cut our perfect tree. Unfortunately it was raining instead, but not very hard so we didn't feel rushed while searching for our tree. And there was just enough on the ground for a few snowballs. After walking up the road a bit more and wandering from "this one!" to "no, this one!" for a bit we finally decided on a nice fairly full little guy. Kevin was excited to pull out our ax and claim it with a few chops. It is quite small, but just right for our little apartment. It also fit easily in the back of our car, which is a must for us. Add leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches and hot coffee and I think we've made ourselves a regular 'ole Churchill Family Christmas tradition!

Here's our little beauty all decorated up:

If you're in the Seattle area and are interested in having your own Christmas tree adventure, here's the link to all the info about how to do it in the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest.

Green Apple a Day Reflections

A favorite random picture of myself from last year. Making 4th of July cherry pie in a Grandma Schoeneck apron. 

It's been over a year now since I started this blog. It's been an incredibly fun project and one that I plan to continue. I started this space with two main objectives. One was to create a journal for myself. I wanted to keep writing and to have a place to record our lives. I've always loved to write and I think especially when I started this blog I needed a place to just let that loose - no strings attached. A place to just write creatively and with no rules. Just for fun. I've also always wanted to be more of a journaler but never found the motivation to stick with it on my own. This space creates accountability to sit down, record, share, and then reflect on our lives. I've had so much fun randomly browsing through old posts to remind myself of our year.

Second, I really wanted a place that enabled me to connect and share with family and friends who are no longer geographically near. When Kevin and I moved from Wisconsin to Washington it meant that we'd inherently be spending less time with lots of people that mean so much to us. While we do try to visit, call, email, and write as much as possible, it's also impractical to think we're going to touch base with everyone twice or even once a week. This space was my way to say "look, here's what we're up to" at that frequency and at everyone's own pace. What has truly surprised and delighted me to no end is how many of you have taken me up on that offer. Thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to visit me here. It truly means so much to me to know you're reading. I love you all!

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about goals for this blog in its second year. I'm keeping the list short and simple to give myself a realistic chance of fulfilling it. Here's what I've come up with:

• Post at least as many or preferably more posts each month this year than I did in the same month last year. 
• Food. Share more recipes and more in general of what we eat, both at home and out and about. This is something I haven't done much of on this space, but food is something I care passionately about and genuinely love. To eat and to make. So, you can expect more food related posts in the coming year. 

With that said, is there anything you'd like to see more of (or less of) on this blog? Feel free to leave a comment or email to let me know! 

52 Tuesday's: Favorite CHRISTMAS Thrifts #24

What: Gold Trim Tom and Jerry Bowl
Where: Shoreline Goodwill
Level of Love: 5 out of 6 

I love this Tom and Jerry bowl. For those of you not familiar, a Tom and Jerry is a warm holiday drink that's kind of like eggnog but with alcohol. I don't think I've ever actually had one. Maybe once. But if I did I can't remember if I liked it. Regardless, it's not the drink itself that makes me love this bowl. To tell you the truth, I can't quite put my finger on why I feel so drawn to Tom and Jerry sets. I think it reminds me of Christmastime in the midwest. Not because we had them in my house growing up, but because it was one of those grocery store holiday signposts that mark the road to Christmas. The Tom and Jerry mix came out in our local grocery store right along with the fruitcake and the eggnog. Now, since we've moved to the west coast, I've become increasingly nostalgic about everything Wisconsin-esque. While it's always fun to make our own traditions, there's just something extra special about carrying on old one's, too. I guess that's why they call them traditions. Maybe this year we'll blend the old with the new and start of tradition of actually drinking Tom and Jerry's. The recipe in this article looks promising indeed. 

This particular Tom and Jerry set is extra special because it's made by our favorite brand Homer Laughlin (see here, here, and here). I also think the cream color with gold trim is pretty classy while at the same time taking a break from the typical Christmas color scheme that dominates the rest of our decorating. I gave it a five out of six because it's missing one of it's mugs. There's five. And there should be six. Thus...five out of six. 

Our First Turkey

This year, Kevin and I decided to host Thanksgiving. I was waffling on if I wanted to try to pull it off until pretty much the week of, so it was a bit of a last minute plan in terms of inviting folk. In the end I decided I really, really, really wanted to get a good turkey and just go for it. So, we invited a few friends and thankfully (ha!) enough of them were able to come to make it a festive evening. And eat the eleven pound turkey I purchased.

I'm going to ramble for a bit about the turkey itself before I get into the cooking and Thanksgiving merriment because it felt like a big deal for me to buy a turkey. If you already know my philosophy or don't care to read it you may want to skip ahead to the pictures. It all started when I read The Ethics of What We Eat. The book examines why our food choices matter. For ourselves, the environment, and the animals we're eating. It's not super preachy, but it does give lots of reasons for eating less meat or not eating meat at all. Factory farming, human health, sustainability, etc. Since then, Kevin and I have been on the vegetarian spectrum. I call it a spectrum because we've swung from eating no meat at all to eating some meat to throwing our meat eating standards out the window at some points (like when we went to Tunisia...it would be impossible and silly to try to be a vegetarian there. I believe in cultural exceptions). The main point is we think more about how much meat we eat and where it comes from. Where we are right now is cooking almost exclusively vegetarian at home and only ordering meat dishes out when it has been sourced from a place we feel okay about. And things foraged (like razor clams), fished, or hunted are always okay.

So. This turkey. It was a Heidi's Hen purchased from our local Bill the Butcher. Yes, I did spend more than I'd like to say on it. But I'm okay with that being a once a year thing. And between the full meal for eight, week of leftover turkey sandwiches, and turkey noodle soup we got out of it I think she was worth it. If meat is cheap, there's a reason. And that reason means I don't want to buy it and eat it no matter how much money I'll save. Because when it comes down to it, what we eat is one of the most important things we do economically and personally. I think that's worth the money. Okay, rant over.

I have watched my mother prepare a turkey many a year, and even participated in that turkey making. However, since we haven't been back home for Thanksgiving since moving to Washington, it had been awhile. And this year we were all on our own. And we took a chance with cookware, but more about that later. We started the night before by unwrapping our turkey and letting it sit out naked in the fridge to dry out. I had read about this trick on several blogs and Kevin confirmed that they used to do this when he worked in a kitchen. It helps the skin get nice and crispy and brown. The next day, we patted it dry even more with paper towel and gave the skin a salt rub.

Then, it was time to put our new cookware to the test. We had recently acquired the most fantastic Le Creuset oval French oven via friend Sarah. Her grandmother had quite a substantial collection of Le Creuset cookware, which was recently passed on to Sarah. This particular piece was a bit overkill for Sarah's liking, so she passed it on to us. I know, right?!? Thanks Sarah and family!

As soon as I saw it, I got it in my head that it's purpose in life was to roast my Thanksgiving turkey. When I shared this excitedly with others, I was met with some skepticism. People told me that I should abandon that idea and get a cheap foil roasting pan instead (which we don't own). The main reasons were focused on the skin not crisping and the meat becoming poached rather than roasted from the steam. The general idea was that high sides and lid were not good for turkey roasting. I did some searching online for others who had used a Le Creuset this way, and found some of these concerns confirmed. But, then I also found a few blogs that described this as the French way of cooking most poultry. Kevin and I discussed it, and decided to go for it, using this recipe for potted chicken as a guide.

As the recipe suggests, we started on the stovetop to get the browned and crispy skin that others had warned about. We started where most good recipes start: a stick of butter. Have I mentioned we're nowhere close to vegan? Butter = yum.

We browned the turkey on both sides in the melted butter, adding more butter before flipping it. Flipping a sizzling, whole, eleven pound turkey is terrifying by the way.


After browning both sides, we took it out of the pan and set it aside. It looked like this. Nice and brown and ready to eat on the outside. Except entirely raw on the inside, so be sue to resist the urge to snack yet at this point.

Next, we added some rough chopped carrots, celery, pearl onions, garlic, and rosemary to the pan. And more butter because why not. I also pitched a few veggies and herbs into the turkey cavity, too, for good measure. Pitched is not an expression here. The turkey went back in the pan on top of the veggies and the whole shabang went into the oven with the lid on for the first bit.

This is where things got a bit fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. Mostly because we weren't sure how long it would take to cook in the french oven. In a roasting pan, our turkey should have taken about four hours. But I had read that time would be shorter using this potted turkey method. I just wasn't sure how much shorter. What we did know is that we needed to flip it again at some point, take the lid off at the end to give it a final brown, and make sure the internal temperature reached 165.

At around the two hour mark we pulled it out, and spooned over some of the juices. At this point it smelled amazing. And looked amazing. And was nearly at 165.

At this point we were still hours away from dinner time and didn't want the turkey to be overcooked or dry. We decided to flip it and checked it again after about 30 minutes. Then, we temp-ed it again and were at 165. So, we took the lid off and gave it another 30 minutes to brown. Here's what she looked like!

Our turkey was most certainly done. Because we were still a bit far from dinner time, I pulled it out of the oven, replaced the lid securely, and let her sit on the warm oven to keep warm. I had read in my online research that the turkey will stay very warm this way if you leave the lid on the hot pan. And indeed it did. She was still steaming hot and at 165 by the time we were ready to eat.

In the end, the turkey being done early turned out to be a great thing because it opened up the oven completely for more rolls, yams, and stuffing. Overall, it was so much fun to cook our first Thanksgiving meal together and share a wonderful evening with friends. Here's a snippet of how we spent our post-pie evening:

52 Tuesday's: Favorite CHRISTMAS Thrifts #23

What: Wee Ceramic Christmas Tree
Where: Bethesda Thrift Store, Milwaukee
Level of Love: 8 out of 10

For the rest of December I'm going to share my favorite Christmas-related thrifts. I love Christmas, and have collected quite a few holiday things over the years, so it's going to be hard to pick!

This first item is a recent find and is making its Christmas holiday decor debut this year. I picked it up in Milwaukee while spending a wonderful day of thrift and vintage shopping with my Aunt Dee. She knows all the best places. The only reason I gave it an 8 is because the size is just a wee bit...well...wee. I wish it were just a little bit bigger. Or, I'd love to have it be one of a set. I'll be keeping my eye out for other similar trees at the thrifts this season and would love to create a little forest of them! Or