2010

Our travels in the year 2009 are complete. After trekking up to Pennsylvania for the holiday and then out to Virginia for Christmas - Part Two, we are home in the railroad apartment to ring in the New Year. We're staying in to watch 500 Day of Summer, the Jersey Shore (we were battlin'), and Ryan Seacrest. We've got arugula salad with beets and goat cheese, clams, and chicken stuffed with cornbread courtesy of Whole Foods to make. Should be fun.

For Christmas this year, we were much less ambitious with our home-cooked gifts for family. Last year, you'll remember we made all this. This year, we had a grand plan. It involved this instant cocoa (which we succeeded in making), these homemade marshmallows which Martha made with Clare Danes on her show two weeks ago, and this caramel corn. And... a candy thermometer. Which we couldn't find at Whole Foods - the only food store we had access to with all the snow on the ground. And, since we discovered this little problem after the big snowstorm and the day before we intended to leave for Pennsylvania, we needed to shift gears. We ended up making the cocoa, the peanut blossom cookies from last year, and some homemade gingerbread, which turned out really well.

Wishing you and your families all the best in the new year!

Keep sweeping, Martha

P.S. - Mr. Beeton's already a bit disappointed in 2010; he thinks he should have his own robot and a flying car by now.

Watched The Hangover...again.

snow!

Watched Strangers on a Train. Finished reading My Life in France by Julia Child.

A Three-Leaf Clover

Forgive me. I've been remiss in sharing with you our Thanksgiving culinary adventures. I should have written about how we made this delicious cranberry sauce and this delectable sweet potato casserole. Or even how we took our leftovers and made a fabulous, creamy, turkey soup. But instead, I've been recovering from a nasty cold and a case of POISON IVY. The poison is the bad part. The good part is that I'm nearly certain I got the poison while weeding our brand new garden plot - Plot 25!

Technically, we got notice that we were proud plot renters a couple of weeks ago, but with all our previous community garden drama, I hesitated to actually put in writing our success. But, weeks have passed, and no one has taken it away... so I think it's safe to claim it as ours. Below are three pictures. The first two show it at the start - an overgrown mess. The third shows our progress. We have about half of the space dug up and ready to be planted come Spring.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched Bedtime Stories, Funny People, New In Town, Observe and Report, Scenes From a Marriage, and Whatever Works.