Crowded House

I like moving. It gives you the opportunity to go through everything, to re-evaluate what is important and what isn’t. We closed up shop at the other place last weekend and we are now completely moved into the townhouse. Living as we did with nothing in the house for weeks has given me a new eye for all the STUFF that is now in our house.

For the most part the move was painless. I packed intelligently and most items went from place of use to box to place of use. However, there are some ten boxes left to go through, and I’ve been putting them off because they are all boxes of crap that were just thrown together last minute. A few of them are even boxes from our previous move that never got unpacked for the same reason, and I know of one that never got unpacked when my husband and I first moved in together four years ago. They don’t really have crap in them, they simply need to be sorted between what’s useful and should be put away, and what is no longer useful and should be given away or sold.

I’m being much more ruthless about this last category. I don’t want to fall into the trap of expanding to fit the space. I like the feeling of openness that this place has, the airy sense of light that can be very rare in the darkest of winters.

My final push for the boxes will come over this next week, and once everything has a place, then I will start going through it all again to cull out what is no longer loved, what is no longer useful. And I will do it again after that, and again, ever onward, in small doses that keep me mindful of what I own, keeping me from constant curation of my possessions.

A Return to Television

So we have television again. It’s such a little blip on the things that are important that I can’t even remember the last time we had it: perhaps when we were living in the 1950′s house two or three years ago. I think we had possessed a cable box for six or seven months, and when we finally got it set up, we watched an hour of America’s Funniest Home Videos, and then never watched it again while we were living there.

My husband works for a local phone/internet/cable company, and we get a certain amount of free services. Traditionally, we have spent this on cell phones and internet services, but when cable has been included, out of preference and habit we just don’t watch a lot of it.

I like to listen to podcasts while I work at home, but since my iPod bit the dust this past winter, I’ve been doing without. Since the cable was installed earlier this week, I’ve been listening to various shows on Food Network and HGTV as they strike my fancy. I’ll probably expand that to other history/science related channels as I run across them, but I still don’t see myself watching a lot of television, or rearranging my schedule in order to watch something with regularity.

I’m curiously fascinated with “personality cooking shows” as most of them seem to consist of the host awkwardly narrating and telling odd stories while they cook really pedestrian dishes, and tasting things with exaggerated moans and rolled eyes of yumminess, which I feel is sort of fake and creepy, kind of like porn.

I watched a few episodes of Chopped, which feels very snobbish, but I was glad to see Joshua Stokes of Grill-a-Chef win his competition. His mission statement and blog is very cool.

I also saw an episode of Cooking for Real with Sunny Anderson from 2008 called North of the Border. I’ve never heard of this lady or this show, but I thought I’d wing several recipes since I had a great deal of the ingredients at home. Note that I did not use any of her actual recipes, I simply cooked from what I remembered from the show. I’m including her recipes for reader reference.

I adapted her Chicken Flautas with Avocado Cream for what I had on hand. I substituted ground pork for the chicken, and I added the ingredients to make up a salsa right in the pan rather than using a canned brand, which I don’t like and never buy. I didn’t have any tortillas and I didn’t feel like making any, so I just added black beans to the pot. I seasoned with Ancho powder, New Mexican Chile, and Cumin from the local Summit Spice and Tea. I used fresh sweet peppers from costco and finished it with my favorite jalapenos: Mrs Renfros, which I process to a relish for easy addition to dishes. They have a very vinegary pickle that brings out the best in the high heat of the jalapenos and keeps their texture quite crisp and fresh. I did not use any cheese, simply because I did not think it needed any. I paired the Avocado Cream with spinach for a salad.

The Corn Pudding was a revelation. It was so good that I’m sure it will become a regular feature. Somehow I’d never heard of tempering eggs like this. I mean, I vaguely remember it from when I make custard with egg yolks, but never I realized you could just do it to whole eggs as well. I love custard, but I don’t make it often because I have to find something to do with the egg whites and I’m not always keen on freezing them or making meringue. My husband absolutely adores creamy vegetable dishes and this is an excellent way to achieve a creamy texture without using sour cream or cream cheese.

Overall dinner was incredibly well balanced between sweet and spicy, heavy and light, green and starchy, meat and vegetable. I simply wish I would have made the lime soda, as it would have finished this meal off extremely well.

I was feeling under the weather, so for dessert I made a batch of Mexican Hot Chocolate with Cinnamon, Vanilla, Cayenne, and Ancho Powder and sipped it while I watched Julie & Julia on DVD.

We’ll see if I continue watching much TV once the novelty wears off.

Smitten Kitchen’s French Onion Soup

Today felt like a lost day while I waited for the repairman for the leaking toilet. He was supposed to show sometime around ten, and he came sometime after four. Toilet fixed+no charge=happy me.

I did decide to make Smitten Kitchen’s adaptation of Julia Child’s French Onion Soup, and it is a winner.

I used three large sweet onions instead of yellow. I replaced organic, low salt Better than Bullion in place of the beef stock, for lack of the latter. Instead of the dry white wine, all I had was a White Zin, so in it went, and I finished it with brandy instead of cognac–a step I was dubious about but which finished it beautifully. I toasted half a baguette sliced lengthwise covered in swiss for dipping sticks instead of the croutons, and it was a good substitute for the broiled crouton-in-soup approach.

Overall the soup was caramel sweet, incredibly rich, yet still light and not at all too salty as is often the case with this type of soup. I will definitely make this again, doubling the onions.

Backyard coops approved by Assembly

Hooray!

Backyard coops approved by Assembly: Anchorage Assembly | Alaska news at adn.com.

Center Market

I went to my first farmer’s market of the year on Wednesday. Most of them don’t start up in earnest until May, but the Center Market in midtown was open and I decided to stop by.

I didn’t realize that it was outside and combed the University Center looking for it. I was on my way out of the parking lot when I spotted it. It was tiny, just a few tables and several vendors braving the brisk spring weather. It’s been about 45-50 degrees lately with a light breeze and while it’s quite warm in the sun, under the shade of the tents it had to have been chilly.

I didn’t catch vendor names, but there was local honey, a rep from the local dairy selling cheese and ice cream, a farm offering parsnips, potatoes, pork, and eggs, as well as baked goods from a bakery in town and frozen seafood.

I got an 18ct of eggs, some parsnips, a package of sliced pork heart, and some extra sharp cheese I had been coveting from the dairy. I plan to make a quiche and also a baked root vegetable dish with heart and plum sauce. It sounds sorta strange, but I think it will be delicious.

Anchorage Chicken News

via Julia O’Malley : Urban chickens come out of the shadows | adn.com.

If this prophecy comes to pass, I just might get chickens and rabbits and keep them at my dad’s house, which is right down the road.

Seed starting

I’m eager to find out what will grow here and how to do it. I’ve not been sure how I was going to start seeds, but I think I’ve found my impetus from this article:  Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op: Indoor Seed Starting doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive!.

I think that seems pretty doable here.

The Dogs

Banjo is quite a crackerjack of a pup, which is to be expected for a Jack Russell. I’ve never had a dog with such confidence and determination before, and I am constantly amazed at how brash and dominant he acts. It hit me last night that I’ve never seen a submissive gesture from him. I’ve seen relaxed, I’ve seen happy, I’ve seen tired, but not submissive. I mean, he’s three months old, sure, but unless he’s screaming because he’s been nipped by Penny or yelping in surprise if I have to emergency scruff him to keep him out of harm’s way, there’s nothing that even slightly smacks of submission, and definitely not to the older dog. He’ll sometimes respect her angryface and leave her alone, but the rest of the time he completely disregards her.

Perhaps my perception is a little skewed because Penny is so excruciatingly submissive and that’s all I’ve lived with in recent years. She pees, she slinks, she licks, she averts her face, she yawns, she rolls her eyes, she flattens her ears, she tucks her tail… and on the other end, she’s aggressively submissive for the things she wants: food, treats, pets, to get up on the furniture, to get me to ignore the cat.

It’s taken a lot of work to get her to act mostly like a normal dog and I’ve learned to be extremely soft, firm, and clear when I’m giving directions or corrections. These days she’s mostly relaxed, happy, and responsive, and she even roughhouses with Banjo, which is something I hoped for but never thought I’d see! But her world is carefully controlled, and she falls to pieces if some little thing goes wrong. Her ability to control herself and to listen goes out the window and she usually dissolves into a barking fit if the stimulus comes from outside the house, or slinking if it comes from something in the house.

Back to Banjo: he’s actually a very easy puppy. He loves his toys, he chews on bones and chewies, and as long as we stay on the ball house training is going swimmingly. He travels well, he loves other dogs and people, and is generally delightful, as puppies should be.

But he’s starting to develop some habits that I’m not precisely sure how to curtail. I noticed he was getting impatient with being handled, so I jumped all over that and started to interrupt him and pet him and generally make a nuisance of myself. He struggled mightily in the beginning, but as I release him when he relaxes, he’s learning to go limp fairly quickly.  I hope that’s the long and short of that one.

Another related thing is evasive behavior. He dances just out of reach most of the time we go to pick him up, so we have to resort to having a drag lead on him most of the time. I don’t like this solution very much as he’s starting to chew on the lead during playtime, and I don’t want that to become a habit. I’ve been reinforcing the sit command greatly this weekend and that seems to make catching him much easier. I remember reading a fix for this in one of my training books, but I’m still looking for the specific reference.

The worst offender is his behavior in the crate. We crate him for quiet down times, for times when we can’t supervise him, as well as for short trips out of the house, and at night. He’s mostly resigned to this as long as we are in the room, but if we walk out of the room he absolutely screams with anger. It’s not fright as he’s gotten over that little routine, he just absolutely does not want to be away from us. His squalling has the same timber and quality that an angry baby has when it is frustrated, and I find this to be the only amusing thing about the situation.

I’ve been inclined to ignore these temper tantrums and just let him get the hell over it, except he’s starting to develop some other behaviors such as obsessive digging in the crate that are starting to carry over to his time outside the crate. I’m fine with him digging at plastic, he isn’t going to go anywhere, but when it starts happening on the carpet or at closed doors, I’m a little less understanding.

An interruption and redirect works 100% of the time outside of the crate, but what do I do about the same behavior when I’m trying to ignore his tantrums inside the crate? What if he does it when we are not there to make the correction? I think this might be a wait and see thing, but it’s still frustrating not knowing.

I’ve signed Banjo up for puppy classes at Alaska Dog Sports. I am greatly looking forward to the first class. He’s an eager student for the micro training sessions we have here at home, and I am looking for the insights that a trainer can give to me to become a better trainer on my own.

I had planned to take Penny there before we moved out to the valley, but that didn’t quite work as planned. After I get done with Banjo’s Puppy classes I’ll be taking her for Basic Obedience I and II. She’s extremely obedient, but needs proofing around other dogs. That’s something that has needed to happen for some time, and I’m excited to finally have the opportunity.

If everything goes well, I’m interested in exploring Agility and Rally-O with these little white dogs!

Who needs furniture?

Apparently we don’t, but damn if it isn’t nice!

The move is going well, but there’s not a lot of moving going on yet. Because of the hour and a half commute time we brought only the pets, some clothes and other essentials and started sleeping into the new condo the day after my mother got the keys. This has made for a very furnitureless existence!

On day two we bought a new mattress and soon after I bought two new computer desks. Due to the small size of our sedan, we have only managed to bring two kitchen chairs, a folding table, two bar stools, my computer chair, and a tiny bedside table. Add in an antique secretary desk that we are using for a dresser, and that does not equal very much furniture for a three bedroom place.

Our old couches are either so damaged or so uncomfortable that they must be given away or thrown out. I would even pay people to take them away, they are that bad.

The new living room is an awkward shape. I thought my last living room was bad, very narrow and long. This one is even narrower and longer, but is compounded by the fact that you need to be able to walk through it into the kitchen, and the bar is turned at a 45 degree angle into the room rather than squared off.  Hard to picture, I know.

It’s even worse in person.

For now I’ve decided that the only solution to the space is one or two small love seats and many comfy and fun chairs. I’m looking for mostly used furniture, as the plan is that my mother and I will be recovering most everything to unify what is bound to be an eclectic set of furniture.

I’ve been scouring thrift stores and craigslist , and I finally found an amazing little loveseat for $30 at a local store. It’s dingier than all get out but it’s a substantial piece for its size, and is extremely comfy. It had been sitting under a wide shelf and when I slid it out and sat down in it, I immediately got up and bought it, trusting that I’d come up with some way to get it home.

I was fairly certain that I could squeeze it into the back of my sister’s jeep but it turned out to be about ten inches too long. I was not to be deterred. After lots of giggling and a little bit of magic, we got it inside the jeep with the rear door shut and took it home.

Ahhh… it’s all I’ve wanted for a week just to curl up with a good book on a comfy couch!

Here’s to the Future!

We’re moving back into Anchorage to take advantage of my mother’s extreme generosity. She’s buying a condo as an investment property and wants us to live there. The situation will be rent free, but we will be covering utilities and the condo dues. She’s also sending me back to school on her dime, where I might finally (finally) get everything sorted out with my degree. For a number of reasons, I opted out of a job, so I’ve been home cleaning and sorting and generally getting our life ready for this transition.

That’s not the only new development. With all of the recent changes it feels like we’ve gotten a new public life to match our very happy one at home. My husband got a different position within his company that suits him much better, and his job satisfaction has gone way up. We’ve cultivated some new friends that fit our interests and lifestyle. We’ve finally admitted to ourselves that we’re full on D&D hobbyists rather than just casual players, and are no longer guilty about the time or money we spend on this endeavor. And we finally got rid of that cat that annoyed the piss out of everyone in our house, human and animal alike.

More changes are on the horizon: We’re making plans for a second dog; we’re finally getting on the ball in terms of financial organization; I’m going to the doctor for the first time in eight years (scary!); we’re starting to plan for children; and I am getting my etsy store up and running again with a wider scope that will allow me to have an outlet for all my creative endeavors.

This past year has been awesome, and as I look to the months ahead it seems to only be getting better. What’s been going on in your life?