Learning to Cook Mashed Potatoes

Andrew and I spent the bulk of our weekend grocery shopping, which foreshadows how much of this week will be spent in the kitchen. Nearly half of our Thanksgiving feast will be from the Farmer's Market (yay!), and then there were stops at the fish market, the regular grocery store, and one trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a deeper pie pan - so hopefully, I won't burn the pecan pie again this year. My blog turned out to be worth its weight in gold, because we printed out a copy and used it as a grocery and to-do list...not before adding a few items.

While I don't post quite as much about cooking as I do about house-related things, food has probably been a much more integral part of our ongoing "nesting" than any building project that Andrew and I have tackled together.

When we were dating and engaged, neither of us was adverse to cooking. I enjoyed it, as I always have, though tiny apartment kitchens and a limited assortment of pots and pans also limited the scope of what I tried to accomplish. After studying abroad in college, I could make a pretty mean Italian dinner, but that was about the extent of my skills. Andrew boasted about his stir-fry (not a favorite of mine) and grilling capablities (which I loved and still do). When I visited Andrew on weekends while I was in grad school, I'd often spend time cooking or baking something while he was at work, since he had a slightly bigger kitchen and a real table where we could sit and eat a meal. I'd make a lot of family recipes, and things that I enjoyed as a kid. I made shepherd's pie and meat loaf, cole slaw, and of course, mashed potatoes. It was never anything fancy, but Andrew and I liked cooking together and figured we wouldn't starve in our years of marriage.

After we'd been married for a few months, Andrew recieved the job offer that moved us to Iowa. I was short on work, which meant we were short on money - so while I had plenty of free time, I didn't have much to do. And this is when the Food Network changed my life. (Kidding...mostly).

I started watching because with no money for the foreseeable future, HGTV and TravelChannel made me lust for what I couldn't have. And because I was curious about what we did have. As newlyweds with a well-stocked registry, we owned every kitchen gadget known to man - plus matching plates, pretty silverware, and one silver spaghetti sever. Adding to the mystique of the culinary realm, our rental house had a decent sized kitchen with a giant formal dining room. While we were short on cash, we still needed to eat. And Iowa has really, really good grocery stores - I'd never seen such appetizing produce and meat. The stars were aligned in my favor.

As I became a student of Le Food Network Bleu, I started noticing that while Paula used butter, Rachel made things quick, Bobby made them cocky, Ina made them classic and Giada made it beautiful, they were all basically doing the same thing. In fact, if you watch 48 hours of the Food Network, you'll see the same recipes and techniques over and over again presented in a bunch of different ways - but at the end of the day, everyone's cake is made with flour and eggs (except for Sandra, who adds a diet coke to boxed mix...ew).

I'd always liked cooking, but I fell in love with cooking during those first few cold months in Iowa. It made me feel pride again because I could contribute to our home and welfare, even though I wasn't bringing home much of a paycheck. There were some failed experiments - like when I'd been cooking for 4 hours and Andrew came home to find me covered in red sauce and sobbing in the middle of the kitchen. My brave husband scooped as much sauce as he could off of the counters to top off his enchiladas and told me that the meal was still good and my effort was worth it.

During this time, I also grew closer to my grandma, who, with my grandpa, now lived closer to us than any other family. I'd call my grandma and ask, "I saw this recipe...how do you make yours?" or "I don't have this...what can I subsitute? What's another way to do that?" My grandma would tell me how proud she was of me when I'd tell her about the meals I'd made and how things turned out. When I'd visit her house, I felt more comfortable stepping in to help in the kitchen, and like a child again, I'd watch what she did closely. I needed to learn.

Though those first newlywed months were hardly idyllic - and God, were they cold -  I can't help but smile when I think about them. I no longer have the Food Network in my life, but I do have a beautiful little kitchen that gets plenty of use. And I don't have as much time as I once did, but I'm grateful to have a full-time job. It's not typical for Andrew to come home to fully prepared meals anymore, but he has become an amazing sous chef. And though my grandma is no longer close by for hands-on cooking lessons, she is still the person I happily chatted with last Friday night about the different options for making gravy or whether or not to stuff the turkey before roasting it.

In a lot of ways, those first months of "good eating" set the tone for how we buy food to prepare at home now. Andrew and I do as much as we can to eat natural, locally-grown/raised food. When we first moved to Iowa, I quickly learned that the best way to make good food is to start with good ingredients - and when we moved into our home and started a garden, I realized that the best meals are ones that we grew ourselves. There is something almost spiritual about sitting down to a meal that you planted as a seed, and with the help of the earth, water, and sunshine, it returns to your hands to cook and in turn, nourish your body so your hands can do the work of planting again. If I can't grow my own food, I want to buy it from someone who feels this same way about their work.

As I look forward to making a huge meal for my family, those feelings of pride that I initially felt as a new wife return with even greater emotion. I'm proud of the ingredients that will be on our table - at least 3/4 of the produce on our table will have come from a local farm, which is an amazing feat considering that there's not much currently in season. And I'm proud, simply, that I know what to do with that bounty. During our conversation on Friday night, my grandma said "Thanksgiving doesn't need to be fussy - it's all the foods that your family loves, and usually those things aren't difficult."

And she is right. Nothing on our Thanksgiving table this year will be elegant or difficult or even remarkable. But as I collected our recipes in order to make our multiple grocery trips, I felt like I was collecting together pieces of our family story. These are the foods that I grew up eating, that my parents enjoyed, that my grandparents prepared, and in some cases, the recipes that my great-grandparents gave to my grandparents. This is the food that my family loves.

Last year, this realization was an emotional experience. Initially, I was thrilled to have "survived" keeping track of all of those dishes and planning the meal. But I had a hard time choking back tears when I finally took my seat at the Thanksgiving table, and saw how connected this meal was to our family. Andrew had just used the electric carving knife given to him by my grandpa (who always carved the turkey). We were sitting at Andrew's Grandma Ruth's table, and our plates were filled with Andrew's Grandma Ope's stuffing, my Grandma's oyster dressing and cole slaw. On the ledge in the kitchen, my maternal Grandma's pecan pie was waiting. So many members of the family were missing in the seats, but it felt like both our families were all there at our table.

In a book I read over the summer, the author wrote about how she felt closer to her family members when she cooked, especially during a holiday meal. As she moved throughout her kitchen, she would remember loved ones' hands, voices, and laugher from the years where they had been able to come together for meals. I felt tears streaming down my cheeks when I read those pages, because all I could think about was the mashed potatoes.

Whenever I peel potatoes, I use a paring knife, like my grandma does. As I run my knife under the potato skin, tempting fate as I use my thumb as a stopper for the blade, I can feel my grandma standing next to me at the sink. I think of the years that I stood next to her as a child with the safer (and slower) peeler in hand, as I watched her hands with that wooden-handled knife and how they moved in simple rhythm like folk music - like mine do now. After the potatoes are boiled, I run them through a potato ricer, smiling to myself as I remember Andrew's Grandma Ruth telling me about how her husband, Andrew's Grandpa, insist that she use the ricer so they're creamy - and that he could tell when she didn't! I've learned to make less of a mess using Ruth's ricer than I did the first time when I tried to figure out that contraption in her kitchen. As I spoon the potatoes into a serving bowl, I think of my grandma plopping the bowl in between my cousin and me as we mock argue about who will get to eat all of the potatoes, since clearly there aren't enough to share. Family members, don't be surprised if I put the bowl of potatoes next to me. That's just where they belong.

This year, I have so much to be thankful for. So much has changed since last year's Thanksgiving, and I had so much to be thankful for then, even though my family had gone through a particularly difficult fall. In the year that has passed since I prepared my first Thanksgiving meal, Andrew and I went on a wonderful vacation with my parents, I started a new job, we planted our first vegetable garden, we doubled the size of the living space in our home, remembered how fun it is to ride a bike again, made friends and rekindled old friendships, and as we do every year, we grew older, a little wiser, and certainly happier in our life together. My life is filled with bounty and blessings.

But most of all, this year and every year, I'm just thankful for the mashed potatoes.

Thanksgiving in Lists

I love Thanksgiving for a multitude of reasons. I love being around family and friends. I love food. I love cooking food. I really, really love mashed potatoes. I love hosting a dinner and seeing my pretty china and crystal on the table. I love saying a prayer together before the meal...I always get a little emotional, even if the prayer is as simple and everday as "Bless these gifts to our use and us to thy service." I love the short work week, and I love the chance to catch my breath before the end of the semster and the holidays. I love shopping, which means I also love waking up super early and standing in line to get into a store that I typically zip in and out of. I love cold meat sandwiches. I don't love football, but I do love hanging out with my mom and watching movies or reading magazines or just falling asleep in whatever room football isn't being watched. Thanksgiving is fantastic.

Thanksgiving also means organizing a lot of details. I'm a sorter by nature, so I like the details and lists and the planning. For about a month before the actual day, I'll run through the details in my head. I'll find recipes and read over my plans. While this may be a terrible look deep into my pysche, here are some of the lists that I've been plotting for Thanksgiving at our house this year:
T-day Breakfast:
Cinnamon rolls...Grandma's recipe, if I can make it!

Appetizers:

Olives and pickles

Pickled Herring - my dad and I are pretty much the only ones who will eat it, but it's a holiday staple

Cream cheese with sweet pepper jam over it, crackers

Mixed nuts

Entree:

Turkey - from a locally owned and family operated organic farm

Stuffing - Andrew's grandma's recipe with sausage, onion, garlic, and parsley

Oyster dressing - a staple at my Grandma's table

Turkey gravy - made from the turkey drippings (the only way to make great gravy)

Hot Vegetables:

Mashed potatoes - straightforward, no frills recipe - but insanely delicious

Corn - Fresh from the farm, frozen over the summer. No recipe for this, just heat the stuff up and it's ready.

Green bean casserole - being brought by a friend

Roasted root vegetables - This is a play by ear dish. We'll see what looks fresh and yummy at the store, but hopefully carrots, yams, parsnips, turnips, onion.

Cold salads, fruit, etc:

Cranberry sauce - mine is amazing (recipe from the bag of whole cranberries...so good), but I'm well aware no one is going to eat it. But, it's a T-day staple and is down right amazing on cold turkey sandwiches with horseradish sauce. Mmmmmm!

Cole slaw - my grandma's recipe - vinegar based with carrots and cabbage. I can pretty much make this
with my eyes closed.

Pickled beets - a purple hazard on the table, but oh so good.

Apple sauce - this is a maybe. I've frozen up a bunch of homemade apple sauce, but I'm not sure if it's T-day worthy.

Bread:

Frozen rolls from the Beefhouse Restaurant

Honey butter (just mix honey with softened butter and then let it re-harden).

Dessert:

Pecan Pie (Grandma's recipe)

Pumpkin Pie (Libbey recipe...still searching for a better pumpkin pie recipe)

Homemade cinnamon whipped cream (no recipe needed)

Beverages:

Water

Iced Tea

Pumpkin Beer

Red and white wine

Coffee

Decaf Coffee (Sbux Vias)

Evening:

Bread, Horseradish, Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion - all the good things for sandwiches

This year's shopping list -

Kitchen/Serving
Roaster Oven -- still debating
A really deep dish pie pan for pecan pie, crust covers

Farmer's Market
Turkey (pick-up)
Pepper jam
Pickled herring
Pickles
Crackers? Cheese?
Bread for sandwiches
Honey
Eggs

Local fish market
Oysters
Pickled herring, if the Farmer's Mkt is out

Already in the pantry/home grown
Fresh parsley (so far, our egress window green house is working great!)
Corn
Rolls
Applesauce

Produce
onions (3-4)
garlic (2 or 3)
potatoes
carrots (2 bunches),
yams,
parsnips,
turnips
cranberries
head of cabbage
tomatoes
lettuce

Grocery store
Sausage

Butter
Whipping cream
Vitamin D milk
Cream cheese

Pie crusts (yes, I totally shortcut this)

Bread (to stale)

Crackers (if not at Farmer's Mkt)
Ritz-type crackers
Olives

Mixed nuts
Pecans
Canned pumpkin
Evaporated milk
Sugar
Karo syrup

T-day Timeline
Saturday: Pick up items at Farmer's Market
Sunday: Get Remaining Groceries
Monday evening: Make cranberries. Figure out what items will go in which dish
Tuesday evening: Make slaw, cinnamon rolls.
Wednesday: Parents arrive; make pies. Put leaves in the table after dinner. Set coffee timer before bed.
Thursday, 7am: Prep stuffing, stuff bird. Get in oven
8am: Turkey Trot
9am: Return
10am: Prep oyster dressing and roasted vegetables, rolls
10:30: Set the table
11:00: Set out appetizers
11:15: Make whipped cream and set aside before kitchen gets too hot
11:30 Start stove-top items: Mashed potatoes, corn, gravy
12:00 Plate the cold stuff, get out the turkey to rest/carve
12:30 Get drinks, finish plating
12:45 Begin Thanksgiving feast
.........
12am: Stores begin to open (though I much preferred when it was 4am...may protest).

Prettiest room in the house

When we moved in to our house, the room that struck me as the most strangely appointed was the bathroom. It had a drop ceiling (think: Dentist's office) and the world's cheapest looking, tiny medicine cabinet. Everything else was lovely - new tub, fixtures, pedestal sink, ceramic tile floor, etc. Stepping into the bathroom was like that Sesame Street segment - "one of these things is not like the other..."

Over the summer, Andrew took out the drop ceiling, and our contractor returned the ceiling to the appropriate height and correctly installed our bathroom light/fan. All that was needed to complete the polished look was to get rid of that awful, cheap-looking medicine cabinet.

Andrew and I thought this was a project we could do on our own, but we were a little worried about doing the electrical work, even though it's pretty basic. Electricuting yourself is not an enjoyable way to spend a weekend. Andrew's dad and step-mom were due for a visit, and Andrew mentioned that his dad had drywalled and done the electrical work in a room in their house, so we recruited my father-in-law for our project.

The result is beautiful! While I went shopping with Andrew's step-mom, the guys were hard at work. From Andrew's description, my father-in-law did pretty much all the work (I think we should invite my in-laws to visit much, much more often!!). I came home to this:

Doesn't it look fantastic? I'd been imagining this project for nearly 3 years, and couldn't believe how perfectly it turned out - I've learned the hard way through our rennovation projects that it's dangerous to picture exactly what you want, because it never turns out quite that way. But this looked exactly how I imagined it.

Last night I asked Andrew, "Is our bathroom too pretty?" He told me that no, it's not too pretty. But it's certainly grown-up now. It's amazing what a difference a handy father-in-law, a simple light fixture, and a basic mirror (ours was from TJ Maxx) can make.  I'd venture that the upstairs bath may be the prettiest room in our house.

Unfortunately, our work in the bathroom isn't quite as done as we thought. We've had a crack in the bathtub that we've now fixed twice and it won't go away, despite Andrew's best efforts with the bathtub repair kit and my brilliant idea to get a rubber bath mat. And at the same time, the wall above the shower is getting too much moisture from the shower, and the ridiculously high shower head needs to go. I'd like to tile the wall (just the parts that jut out) above the shower, which should be a quick weekend project, but if the bathtub needs major repair (we're horrified of the idea that it may just need to be replaced...ack!), tiling might get put on major hold.

But still, the bathroom looks pretty, even if the function needs a little work. And sometimes, that's all you need for a little while.

The Guest House

We've had relatively few visitors through the month of October, which is partially a bummer and partially great because we've had lots of weekends to get things done around the house.

But this weekend, we're having a virtual explosion of visitors. Andrew's dad and step-mom are visiting on Saturday, which I'm definitely looking forward to, since we haven't seen them since this summer. We can't wait to show off what all we've done, and maybe enlist Andrew's dad's help with a minor electrical project....we'll see.

And on Friday night, we'll have 6 college students crashing at our house. Our church is hosting a visiting choir from a small Christian college, and our choir director asked if some of us could open our homes for them to stay the night. I counted up how much space we'd have at capacity and blurted out that we could take 8. Then, based on the reaction around me, I realized that was um...crazy. Oh well. Since there were more volunteers of homes on Sunday, our number has been pared down to 6, which is a little less crazy - and also means that I don't have to get out air mattresses - yay!

So, this weekend, there will be 10 humans and 2 kitties in our house at one point or another. It's a little terrifying that we actually have plenty of bedding, towels, dishes, etc to accommodate this crowd (yay, Wedding Registries!). Andrew and I did go out yesterday and sprang for a 12-cup coffee maker (with timer - I'm thrilled about this perk) which might see its first use this weekend, and definitely over Thanksgiving. I love the idea of waking up to a hot cup of coffee when we're up early to run the annual Turkey Trot and then get back to stuff the bird. T - 16 days until Thanksgiving!

INNNNSULATION!

(Please sing the title with the notes/gusto of INTERJECTION! from School House Rock. That's how it's meant to be).

Our house is finishing getting INSULATED! today. This is very, very exciting.

When winter comes every year, I have a hard time dealing with the cold. The Iowa winds whip right through our 85-year-old plaster walls, and I  imagine that I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder/a tough-as-nails B.A. pioneer.  Or I imagine what my ancestors must have felt like when they moved from balmy Germany/Ireland to the rough, un-tamed Northern Illinois/Northern Missouri landscape. It doesn't make me feel warmer, sadly. So, mostly, I just freeze and try to deal.

In year 1 of living in our little house, I moved a space heater with me wherever I went, and tried to limit my occupation of rooms in the house to the living room couch, the bedroom, and short trips to the bathroom (which doesn't have a heating vent at all...brilliant).

For year 2, my parents gave us an early Xmas present of an electric stove/fireplace, so I'd sit on the couch all winter with a giant, lighted electric heater and take my portable heater with me as well, carefully trying to avoid plugging the portable heater into an outlet that was shared on the same circuit as the fireplace. I learned quickly that two electric heaters on the same circuit is not good. The lights will go out.

During year 3, I decided that screaming with cold and alternating with chattering teeth is no way to try to fall asleep in one's bed, so I invested in a pair of adult-size, fleece, footed pajamas and would alternate locations of a heat-pad before climing in (this brilliant idea came to me after imagining that I was Felicity, a colonial American girl whose character doll came with a copper bed-warming accessory). I'd also trap my cats under the bed with me and hold them close for warmth until they wriggled away.

I think it was this final scene - wife clad in a 3-year old's pajamas, yowling cats, and floating heat pad that may have finally suggested to my husband that perhaps we should invest in insulating our walls.

Or, actually, the suggestion came from our friendly representative at the our elecric company when we got an energy audit prior to finishing the basement. During the summer, our contractor suggested that we have an energy audit because our electric company does rebates for insulation. We were already putting insulation into our basement remodel, so we got a nice rebate to help with those costs. If you complete other suggestions (insulate walls and attic) in a specific period of time, our electric company will also pay up to 60 or 70% of the cost.

So, a few weeks ago, Andrew called the electric company to make sure that we still had enough of a window of time to complete the project, and then we called the same person who had done our basement insulation for a quote. After rebate, we realized that it in 2 years, we will have paid for the cost of insulation in our energy savings. Pretty awesome! The guys came out yesterday and finished the exterior walls, and the attic will be completed today.

Yay, warmth!!