W is for...

Whipping cream that I used to make this bread pudding. Delicious!

Crafty When I Want to Be

Around and after the holidays I finally found the time to create and finish some jewelry projects.

First on my list was to salvage one of my favorite pieces, an opera-length string of coral-colored beads. I bought the string at Macy's a year or so ago, but this past spring the silk knotting untied. At first I used some craft wire to connect the two ends, but it looked really ugly and bit into my skin.

 I was in Michael's a while ago and bought some coral colored ribbon for another project, but I realized I could use some of it and a few jump rings to fashion a really pretty "clasp" for my beads.

 After some experimentation, I placed two jump rings on each end of the string and then threaded a 12-inch piece of ribbon through them to create a small bow. The rings have held up well to the weight of the strand and I really like having the bow detail in the back.

 
I almost lost two of the beads when the silk snapped, but I managed to hold onto them and create them into matching earrings.

The next two pieces I've finished are very winter appropriate. I struggled with my stag pieces because I couldn't decide how many strands to make for the necklace. I really wanted to showcase the white and red beads, but they were getting lost when I tried to pair them with a solid strand of the red coral beads and some red plastic beads.

 I finally gave in and went with a one-strand necklace, and I like how it turned out. If I could ever find more of the red and white beads I might redo the whole thing with more strands.

 My second winter piece is this pair of simple metal snowflakes. I wrapped them up with a bright winter blue crystal to add just a bit of color without overpowering the little flakes.

And, last, but certainly not least, I finally finished my little owl necklace! After spending several months trying unsuccessfully to track down some more of those plastic apple green beads, I went ahead and strung the necklace. I gave it some length using 6/0 seed beads. I really love this piece and I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can show it off.

Family Recipe: Chicken Fajitas

  
Latin and Latin-inspired foods are probably the most popular in our family dinner rotation because they are flavorful, filling, and with a little planning, healthy. 

One of our quick dinners is to make tortilla-less chicken fajitas and veggies. We have a Foreman Grill that we like to cook the chicken on but you could easily cook the breasts in a non-stick skillet (six minutes each side). Cook the veggies first, cover to keep warm, and then cook the chicken.

Chicken Fajitas with Chili-Lime Marinade 
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons and 3/4 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Juice from 1 1/2 limes
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
cayenne pepper to taste (start with 1/4 teaspoon and taste if you're unsure)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 large green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 teaspoon 365 brand Southwestern Grille Seasoning (from Whole Foods)
OR for lower sodium:
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (add more if you like heat)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, and lime juice. Add seasonings through salt and pepper and mix.

Place the chicken breasts in a large plastic zip top bag. Pour marinade* over the chicken. Make sure all of the air is out of the bag and seal up. Move the chicken around to ensure the marinade is covering all parts of the chicken. Let marinade one hour to overnight.

Toss the veggies in either the Southwestern Grille Seasoning or ground red pepper and cumin mixture.  

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. While you get the onions going, preheat the Foreman grill. Cook the onions until soft, but crisp.  Remove from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm. 

Place chicken onto the grill. Discard the marinade. Cook for 6 minutes.

While chicken is cooking, throw the peppers in the same pan you used to cook the onions. Cook until crisp-tender (chicken and peppers will be done about the same time.)

Place on a plate and let the chicken rest for a minute or two before slicing into strips and serving with the veggies.

 *This marinade is from a recipe posted allrecipes.com and adapted for this recipe.

Bookshelf Bookstore: Annie's Ghosts

This is the first post in a series I’m dubbing Bookshelf Bookstore. I’m a bibliophile with a book buying problem, and as the new year starts, I’ve decided that instead of heading to my local Borders or even the library, I’m going to look first at my own bookshelf for a "new" tome to read. The Bookshelf Bookstore posts will include a short review, sans spoilers, for those also interested in finding a "new" read and rating of one of the following:

Keep: A book that I’ll re-read regularly
Pass it On: good enough to recommend to friends, but not to keep
Donate: This is for the books I can’t finish and/or don’t find worthy to pass on

The company that I spent the last year at, by virtue of being a media company, is always receiving books from an assortment of folks hoping that we would feature their titles in one of our publications or on one of our websites.

Since the majority of these books are unsolicited, they usually get put away in office corners and eventually moved to our giveaway bookshelves. I loved browsing the latter, because we did get an interesting range of titles.

The most recent find is titled, Annie’s Ghosts, written by Steven Luxenberg, a Washington Post associate editor. Luxenberg uses secondary and tertiary sources as well as historical documents to weave the history of his family.

Luxenberg’s family knew that Beth, Luxenberg’s mom, had a sister, but she had never been a topic of conversation because Beth had told them her sister had been institutionalized at a very young age. In fact, Beth introduced herself as an only child to all she met. But as Beth’s health declined in the late 90’s, several pieces of information came to light that her lifelong stories were fabrications. This previously unknown sister had been institutionalized as an adult, that she’d died in 1972, and their mother had known everything.

It’s hard to imagine how I would personally take this kind of news, especially in a family where deceased siblings, parents, and grandparents are still talked about today. I probably would have reacted the same was as Steve Luxenberg -- with lots of questions rolling around in my head and the need to know why.

Why did his mother create this secret, let alone allow it to take on the proportions it did? What societal and cultural mores were in place to affect both his mother’s subterfuge and his aunt’s life? And what about this mysterious aunt -- what was her condition for being institutionalized? What was her life like?

It can be difficult at times to follow the story because Luxenberg doesn’t arrange this history using a novelistic form. He tells his story chronologically, and any dialogue he uses is pulled directly from recorded conversations and historical documents. Many of his sources are old friends of his mother, and he has to comb through 60-year-old memories to find the truth.

There are also chapters interspersed within that delve even further into Luxenberg’s family history that can be distracting from the main story line of Annie and Beth. However, these chapters are important because they give insight into the older Luxenberg’s actions and context to the external forces that affected the family.

In finding these answers, Luxenberg maintains an interesting degree of objectivity and doesn’t share too many details about how he and the members of his family felt about his mother’s deception. I think that even if his family had been willing to share their full opinions, this story is about Steve's journey.

Luxenberg eventually comes to terms with his mother’s deception, but one question haunts him: how would his mother and aunt’s lives have been different if they’d been born at the end of the 20th century instead of the beginning? Throughout the book Luxenberg alludes to the answer, and I think that is the real tragedy of this family history.

Pass it On

W is for...

Winter...or at least as it shows up in Georgia. Taken 12/25/10 in the early afternoon.

Family Recipe: Ham and Bean Soup

For me, there's little better in life than sitting down with loved ones and eating a home-cooked meal; or, if that's not possible, cooking and eating the dishes that evoke memories of family and the time spent with them. Every Sunday I'll publish a post of one of these dishes. The Family Recipe posts will include a variety of classic family favorites and also some others that we have in our regular rotation. I'll share some recipes in their original form, and tweak some for taste or health reasons.

According to rumors I hear each Christmas, some brave people eat turkey or goose for Christmas Day dinner. I really can't imagine dealing with another fowl during the holiday season. Pass!

At my house, we serve ham. This means that one of us (in the past few years, it's been myself or my brother Ben) makes a treacherous journey to our local HoneyBaked Ham. Laugh all you want, but this location is in the heart of one of the major shopping centers in eastern Cobb County, which is rife with incompetent drivers and bloodthirsty shoppers.

Ready to eat and sugary-spicy delicious, HoneyBaked is a perfect solution for our family on Christmas Day. And, of course, there are plenty of leftovers. After we've tired of eating it with other Christmas feast leftovers or in sandwiches, I know it's time to bring out the soup pot for Ham and Bean Soup.

Connoisseurs of this dish know that there are as many recipes for this soup as there are for stuffing. Ours is very simple and was perfected by my grandfather, Russ Britzius. The star of this soup is the broth, and the majority of its flavor comes from the ham bone. If there's ham left, we throw that in too, and Great Northern beans round out the dish. I like to serve this with cornbread muffins and citrus for a fruit.

Ham and Bean Soup

1 ham bone (leave any leftover ham on the bone. We usually end up with 2 cups leftover ham, but you can add more or less)
OR
2 ham hocks
2 cups cubed cooked whole ham (not deli ham)
10 cups water
1 chopped onion
4 cans great Northern beans (or really any similar sized white bean)

Clean the meat and bone of fat.

Place ham bone or hocks in a large soup pot.


Add water. Turn burner to high heat to get the water boiling; once it boils, lower heat until the water is simmering.

Simmer for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, until majority of the ham falls off the bone and is tender. Follow the same cooking time for the hocks.


Take pot off the heat. Take out the bone or hocks. Pull any remaining meat from the bone; place in a bowl and then discard the bone/hocks.

Strain the liquid to discard any remaining pieces of fat.

Place the liquid and meat back into the soup pot. Add the chopped onion, beans. If you've used hocks, go ahead and place your cubed ham in the pot.

Bring the soup to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and let it go for another hour.


This soup is wonderful served immediately. You can also let it cool, place in air-tight plastic containers, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, any remaining fat will form on the top of the soup; skim off. Note that this broth will turn gelatinous when refrigerated.

Honoring Veterans

Yesterday I was driving towards the Marietta Square to donate some clothes and home items to the Salvation Army. I decided to take the back way on Washington Street, and when I looked left down Cole Street, this is what I saw.

The sight of these beautiful evergreen wreaths laid out at each headstone really moved me. This is a military cemetery with graves dating back to the Civil War, and it is a kind of relief to know that someone is still around that cares enough about these servicemen to decorate their graves at Christmas.



For more information on the Marietta National Cemetery, take a look at these sites:
http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/marietta.asp
http://www.mariettaga.gov/generalinfo/tour/NationalCem.aspx