The Cleanse: Day One

So,

One a scale of 1-5 stars for accomplishment in house cleaning, I'd say today is about a 2. I did manage to keep the kitchen straight, thus far, the living room is somewhat less cluttered, and the upstairs bathroom has been mostly cleaned. However, if I am going to get this house in order anytime soon, I'll have to do better than that each day.

On the other hand, I did accomplish the canning of peaches this morning! It is the start of the very brief peach season here in Cbus, so BW and I buy them when they are available. We can only eat so many peaches before they rot, so canning it is! I canned these peach halves using the hot pack method in a medium syrup (my 50's cookbooks say that's sirup, with an i) and then a water bath. They look lovely sitting on my counter cooling. I hope they will taste just as lovely when we go to eat them!

Tomorrow's Cleanse quest: Master Bedroom...

Starting Over: The Cleanse

Well,

It's been just over a year since I wrote anything here. In the intervening year I have gotten married, been working harder as a freelance choreographer and dancer, and have officially quit my day job, thanks to my wonderful and supportive husband. So, let's start over shall we?

I have a unique opportunity to be exactly what I want to be: a housewife with real career to back it up. My choreography doesn't take up nearly all of my time, so when I am home the natural thing to do it keep house. Our apartment has suffered form our busy schedules, when I was working close to 60 hrs a week and BW was working 40, there wasn't much time to make the apartment ours. My first mission as a true Deviant Domestic is to get the house functioning, one space at a time.

First stop: upstairs!...

Failures and Successes(???)

So this is a quick little mid-week deal.  I wanted to document my utter failure yesterday and then add some hopefulness for today's project.

Yesterday I set out to make my first puff pastry!  It didn't seem like it could be that hard, and armed with my 1952 copy of "the American Woman's Cook Book" (complete with pictures and catchy phrases about how to be the perfect housewife*) I dug in.  

*Now, I do have to say this about my book: It is extremely weird, but VERY useful.  I bought it on a whim in an antique store mostly because it was funny.  I have since used it to learn how to preserve, as well as doing other things most current cookbooks ignore entirely.

I was very excited as the work progressed, "wheee this is great! I can make fancy pastries!"I thought.  Unfortunately that excitement lasted right up until I pulled my shiny spinach puff pastry dinner out of the oven...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I created a cracker!  A light and flaky cracker, but a cracker nonetheless.  

Oh well...I am going to blame my flour for the resulting failures.  I have had a lot of trouble getting things to rise properly with the new bulk flour at our co-op.  It was tasty in any event, and we ate it like a pizza. :-)

Today's cooking foray is a Banana Creme Pie.  I'm very hopeful about it so far, and keeping the fingers crossed!

DD  

I Made This! (spring cooking adventures)

Hello there!

It's Market season, which means it's cooking season!  We've been busy around the house the last few weeks and here are some of the results...

Fresh Strawberry Creme Cake 

Strawberry cake with a fruit reduction swirl!

Coco Keylime Cupcakes

Coconut cupcakes with Keylime royal icing!

Spring Market Sauté:

Rainbow chard and french breakfast radishes from the farmer's market sautéed with red onion and garlic, white beans and rice.  I tossed in a dash of keylime juice and soy sauce, as well as salt and pepper to bring out the flavors.

  

That's it for now, enjoy!

DD

Hello again, and welcome back to the Deviant Domestic!

It seems I will be becoming more domestic in the near future (though still fairly deviant), so I thought I ought to at least attempt to start posting again.  Thank you for bearing with me!

Today was a lazy day off.  As such, it is baking day.  BW (his first initials, but I am using them to signify "bread-winner" I think, given my new lower work load.) requested a loaf of fresh bread and "something with pumpkin" today.  Here, we have a fresh loaf of wheat bread, next to it's new best friend, pumpkin bread.  

I know... I really ought to leave them whole to take the pictures.

Here is the pumpkin bread recipe:

13/4 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 C sugar

2 eggs beaten

1 C fresh pumpkin purée

1/4 C water

1/2 C veg oil (or applesauce*)

Heat oven to 350 F.  Combine flour, soda, salt, spices, and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add water, eggs, oil*, and pumpkin.  Stir until well blended.  Pour into one well greased loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hr, then cool completely on a wire rack.  Wrapping the bread in plastic once cooled, and allowing it to sit overnight will increase the melding of flavors! ...oops...

*applesauce will change the consistency, but not the flavor, of the finished product!

That's all I've got for now, see you again soon!

Cookies!

Good Afternoon,

Well, the winter blah is out in force around Columbus today.  The entire DD household is down for the count with flu-like symptoms.  However, this has not stopped the production of....

Christmas Cookies! *TADA*

Monday brought the creating of sugar cookie dough for some cutouts.  I used the basic recipe from the Better Homes and Garden's cookbook, then added a splash of hazelnut extract for fun and depth.  The cookies are good, but could use some tweaking in the future.  I think maybe adding some spice or candied citrus peel to them would work well.  For now they are dusted with cinnamon/clove sugar or red/green crystals.

Yesterday I happened upon these wonderful ginger cookies and made them immediately.  *Ree, I think, is a goddess of the kitchen, and you should read her blog.*  I used some butter, which made them a bit crispier than hers look.  I just couldn't bring myself to use the shortening...  I DID however, put in the fresh ginger and will stand by that decision forever.

I don't have any original recipes for you today, and I'm sorry.  Hopefully the creative gene will come back after the holiday is over.  For now, happy eating, and happy holidays!

DD

We Make the Rockin' World Go 'Round

First, let me apologize for being conspicuously absent for a MONTH!  Admittedly, winter hit here in Ohio, this means gray rainy skies almost every day.  Pair that with working and holidays and other madness and you have a very deviant blogger indeed.  So, I'm sorry, I'll try to be better in the future!

Today we are feeling very deviant.  I want you to picture, for a moment, your own favorite mental image of a housewife.  (I tend to picture frilly aprons and crinolines, c. 1950, perfect hair, and that sort of glazed happy look on her face as her children provide background music.)  Now let us compare that picture to the reality here in the DD home.  Your truly is decked in a band t-shirt, flannel, and a hoodie which would make any 1980s child proud.  Also, my background music is Queen, played slightly too loud...

However! We are accomplishing very domestic things.  Meal planning and shopping is completed, and there are ingredients for Christmas Cookies setting out on the table while the butter softens.  This batch will be basic sugar cookies, though I'm hoping for a gingerbread house sometime in the next week.  More decorations will be added to the existing tree and garlands this evening, and half of the holiday cards are in the mail!  (No wonder we need a little classic rock to balance everything out.)

I promise more recipes and hopefully a few pictures in the near future.  For now, hello again, and we'll see you soon!

DD