baking bender

We've been on a baking bender, me and Mr. Beeton. We decided that this year we'd bake and package cookies for those few people who always manage to give us something thoughtful yet who we can never manage to find something good for. So, we baked, and baked, and baked. And, when we were done we had pretty little packages, tied up with red ribbon and gift tags from the ultimate store, Papersource. In the package were:

• Forgotten cookies - an old family recipe
• Cut outs - courtesy of 365 degrees sugar cookie mix from Whole Foods
• Iced applesauce oatmeal cookies - complete with homemade applesauce, a recipe of Laurie Colwin's
  
• Candy cane cookes - another childhood favorite
• Peanut butter, kiss cookies - from Mr. Beeton's childhood Christmases

And, the piece de resistance...

• Peppermint bark

This was a recipe I found on one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette. You can find it under her entry for 12.15.08 entitled, "Look at that." It's honestly the most delicious peppermint bark I have ever eaten or made! My brother declared the same when he ate some at my parents' house over the vacation. And, believe me, he's eaten a lot of peppermint bark. He's an elementary school teacher, and he said that many of the teachers at his school make it and share it during the holiday season.

And now, after all that baking and all our traveling, we're home, getting ready for New Year's Eve. As usual, we've got no big plans since many of our friends can't seem to get their act together after the holiday. It's like they lack energy to plan, complete exhausted from Christmas. I made reservations at our favorite Palisades restaurant, so regardless of them, at least Mr. Beeton and I will eat a great meal as we ring in the New Year.

Happy 2009!

Keep sweeping, Martha

it's a good thing

Consistently, soap operas have been my comfort television. On a bad day, a rainy day, or really just any day at all, I'll turn to All My Children, One Life To Live, and General Hospital for comfort. They remind me of my childhood, sitting, after a long day at school with my mom and sister, eating cookies and milk.

Lately, though, when I get home from a bad day, I turn to my Tivo-ed episodes of Martha. I can't get enough of that show - for many, many reasons. Especially lately. Such great ideas for Christmas. Feather-trees. Christmas cocktails. Joel McHale. They make me feel good. Like life really is about sugar cookies and pull toys.

And yesterday, the ultimate surprise! Mr. Beeton got an email from the show. He's got two tickets to see a live taping! I almost fainted. I can't think of a better way to kick off the spring semester - even if it does mean missing the first day of class. Shh. Don't tell.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Saturday, July 18, 2009 update - We never did attend that taping. Guilt won out over fantastic fish recpies.

a heart in the middle

I'm riding the last wave of a very long semester.  If I were a waitress and if I worked in a pie diner, I'd be baking a pie out of mincemeat and cheddar cheese, topped with sour cream, and I'd call it "I-don't-wanna-grade-no-more-papers pie." 

Actually, the end of the semester proper went very well. For the final paper, my classes are required to watch one of three films that I have selected and write a movie review on the film that they have chosen. Amongst their choices was Adrienne Shelley's Waitress, an absolute favorite of mine. Watching it and discussing makes me feel like I'm in our very small kitchen with the oven on high.

The most satisfying part of discussing that movie is asking them the question, "Why pie?" They look at me confused, "Why not?" Then, I go on, "Why doesn't Jenna bowl? Or collect quarters? Or blog? Why does she bake?" I exaggerate often, to drive home a point. Then, we talk about domesticity, at how Jenna is confined in so many ways - by her marriage in particular, by the baby she doesn't really want. And we discuss how baking - a premier domestic art - should also be a method of confinement but how she makes it subversive, relegating it to an art rather than a mundane domestic chore. They like that interpretation. And they like the New York Times movie review that we read which deems Waitress "a feminist fairytale" (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/04/1191091279319.html). You can tell that some of them want to live in a feminist fairytale. I know I do. 

Turn up the oven.

Keep sweeping, Martha

the lady and sons

I've been debating on what aspect of our Thanksgiving holiday to report on.  Seeing Four Christmases (four stars)? Karaoke-ing with the sister and her romantic poet? Lots and lots of shopping? Martha Stewart Jr.'s fabulous feast - complete with apple pie from her family's orchard? Then, I read Lilita's most recent blog on From Frank to Frivolous (http://franklyfrivolous.blogspot.com), and I knew I had to blog about Paula Dean. 

In part, it's because I had a really vivid dream about Savannah.  More specifically, I had gotten a job offer at the Savannah College of Art and Design - a school that two of our very close friends from graduate school currently work at.  Not only did a visit there for a conference presentation shortly before Mr. Beeton and I were married (and had a wonderful time, I might add... almost eating at Paula Dean's restaurant and shopping at one of the few Marc Jacobs stores on the East Coast), but we also visited those same friends on a day trip to Savannah during our weeklong honeymoon in Jekyll Island, Georgia. 

It's also because, last night, Mr. Beeton's mother was cooking a pumpkin dessert which she got from Paula Dean.  It was gooey and delicious.  Then, when I read through Lilita's site to catch up on her antics from this past week; she, too, mentioned making a pumpkin dessert by Ms. Dean.  

So, I've linked to the two recipes below.  The first was made by my mother-in-law; the second by Lilita.  I've yet to make either, but I have tasted one and can vouch for its deliciousness.  To me, it's the perfect dessert to make when you want all that is Thanksgiving to last just a little bit longer.

Pumpkin Trifle 

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes

Keep sweeping, Martha

breather

I'm taking a little breather right now from the chaos that is my living room. Actually, it's research paper chaos - spread out all over the floor of our apartment. I'm working my way through a pile of source packets, checking to make sure that my students did, in fact, copy all the sources that they cited from directly or paraphrased from in their research projects. And, I'm making piles - good, less than good, and ugly. The ugly ones will be there to greet them when they return from the Thanksgiving holiday. Sorry kids.

My break from this mess involves cleaning and packing. We're headed to Pennsylvania for the premier domestic holiday - Thanksgiving. We'll be going to my aunt's in Wyomissing, PA to celebrate, which will be good. My mother hates to cook, and she doesn't like others in her kitchen... so my aunt's house seems like the best place to be. After all, we do call her Martha Stewart Jr., so there will be all kinds of yum waiting for us.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I need to make some progress. Back to my piles.

Enjoy the holiday and keep sweeping, Martha

inauguration

This weekend is one of my favorite kinds of weekends. I've got a 72 hour reprieve from grading before a stack of research projects come in on Monday. That means, right now, all I have to do is read entertaining novels (In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld) and clean the house.  Mr. Beeton and I may watch a movie later (The Happening), and we will surely walk Ella, even though it's bitter cold.

I have to admit. This is not my first attempt at blogging. I'm very good at starting blogs and never following through. But, I feel differently about this one. To start, I've created a very nice alias for myself, so that I don't have to worry about losing my job because I've complained about a demanding student. Two, I've got a focus. The stories of my life, while entertaining, are really all over the place. A friend once compared me to Bridget Jones because, while I don't really look for mischief and disaster, they find me nevertheless. In centering my blog around the domestic, though, I can avoid all those haphazard stories about people behind me on the bus throwing up; I can ignore the tales of our neighbor's dog, running wild through our house, breaking a vase. Instead, I can concentrate on what really matters to me these days - my home.

Okay, so home may be a bit of a misnomer.  Mr. Beeton and I live in a two bedroom, railroad apartment in Glover Park, Washington, DC.  I moved her four years ago, fresh out of graduate school to take on a job at a pretty fancy, urban institution in downtown DC.  Last year, Mr. Beeton, who was working on his own graduate degree in Austin, Texas, moved back as well, and in November of last year, we got married. Since then (well, really always... I drew houses and was obsessed with Country Living as a child), I've grown obsessed with my living space and with food... it's what makes me most happy.  I agree with Nigella Lawson, who, in How To Be a Domestic Goddess, states, "I do think that many of use have become alienated from the domestic sphere, and that it can actually make us feel better to claim back some of that space, make it comforting rather than frightening" (vii).  In fact, right now, my home is the only place where I do feel better.

So... in an effort to put some positivity back into my life, carve out a space where I can be creative and excited, rather than burnt out and bitter, I've created The Happy Homekeeper. Hopefully, I'll have many more weekends just like this... a round of blogging followed by a session with the dirty dishes.

Keep sweeping, Martha