(almost) wordless Wednesday

We are just a few weeks away from our vacation to Colorado and cannot wait!    We booked it just after new years and I haven't researched it a bit (very unlike me).    I'll probably read about what there is to do as we get closer, but know that we are both ready for some R&R.....above are some photos from our previous trip to Colorado (Kevin's first) in 2008 - wow, time does fly!

Book club update - ashure recipe

Book club went really well!

They liked the book - it made for some very interesting conversations and we learned some history from it - and also liked the dessert, they were surprised I'd attempted it.  Preparing for the book club was like a little school project- have to find info on the author (and a picture), work on questions to prompt discussions and I also found a door prize (bought some packaged "Turkish delight" dessert).  It was fun, but boy I don't miss homework!

The dessert was a hit!  I actually ate on it the rest of the week (Kevin was not a fan) and still had a ton leftover.

There are many variations of the recipe online, and it seems to be pretty forgiving - - just substitute in/out what you fruits, nuts you like!

I basically followed this recipe (it sounded doable, and had some shortcuts over other recipes - uses canned beans).
Notes on where I did make changes:

• I couldn't find currants so left them out

• I added vanilla since I like it and the recipe in the book called for it

• I used pistachios - again since the book called for it and if i have leftover nuts i prefer pistachios.

• I brought toppings that I liked - ground cinnamon (just grabbed the bottle off our spice rack), chopped pistachios, dried figs and dried apricots, pine nuts (the last 3 were what was left from what i bought for the recipe).

I brought some of what I had left to work later in the week - I'd bounced some ideas of the gals there.   They tried it and most liked it, and one girl has a Turkish mother and I was pleased to hear that she thought it tasted like what she'd had before!   

books and bedspreads

We had a pretty quiet weekend.   We did change the look of our bedroom by getting a new (and long overdue) bedspread.   I love TJ Maxx -- we found this beauty and it was a good price - I'm never sure if I should believe the 'compare to' price on their tag, but still know it was a good deal.  A bonus of this one -- since it has so many colors we were able to leave the brown bedskirt that we already had on the bed (this one didn't come with a skirt) and just retire the bedspread.  The lighter color really brightens up the room!

Leaving the old skirt on the bed also made it MUCH easier to make the swap.

While we were at the store I saw a sign for "toss pillows" -- when did they stop calling them "throw pillows"? My first silly thought was that throw pillows was seen as too intimidating, so they lightened it up with that name.  I canNOT call them toss pillows, nope they'll be throw pillows.....and 2 pillows that came with the bedspread say they are 'boudoir pillows'   - that's a new one to me.

We also made a trip to Lowe's, our home away from home.   Home ownership involves many trips to Lowe's.

Sunday I started making dessert for book club.   I'm hosting this month and the person hosting selects the book, leads the discussion and provides refreshments.   I'm making a dessert that is featured prominently in the book, I debated whether or not to do so since it is a dish I'd never heard of and couldn't even find a way to taste in town -- several Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants and a grocery store and none of them had it.  But, I decided to go ahead with it since we usually try to tie the dish (or dishes) to the book and since the recipe is IN THE BOOK its pretty much begging me to do so.   I broke the steps up into several evenings and finished it up tonight.   The dish is called ashure (or asure) and also referred to as Noah's pudding.   It had grains and beans and dried fruit (and sugar), ever heard of it?   Its unique, not my regular dessert but I can see the appeal.   I definitely would never have tasted it otherwise, hope my book club group likes it.   I love trying new things and learning about new places, and this dish and book very much achieve that -- book: Bastard of Istanbul, and in getting ready for book club I learned the author faced possible jailtime for some of what she wrote!   Here is the recipe i used.

April Fools

No April Fool here!    Mostly because I avoided social media and the web today.

Every year I fall for something, I've got 4 more hours so something will probably get me.

Its feeling like spring here in Houston and we are so happy about it!!

Mr Fix It

I have to brag on K for a few minutes - he's become quite the Mr Fix It.  Neither of us are very handy and so we are always so surprised when something we do actually works - I think he may have to admit to himself he IS handy now!!

Our blender had been leaking for a while, not a lot but it was definitely getting worse and was making a mess when we'd use it -- we use it a lot since we blend veggies for soups (its a texture thing).  Anyway, I'd resigned myself to having to buy a new one -- way back we'd tried to buy just the glass pitcher and couldn't find it so I figured parts weren't sold separately.  He kept at it, and found a way to buy the gasket and blade assembly and we figured out how to swap it out, and its like a new blender!  it cost $15 instead of $100+.   I also love that it allowed us to only replace what was really wrong and not toss an entire blender in the trash. I'm far from green but really do try to 'reduce, reuse, recycle'.

His other accomplishment was huge!   Our refrigerator is still fairly new and it infuriated us that the ice machine has never worked well.... we even had a repair man come out when it was under warranty and he did nothing and told us he guessed people in the country it was made in didn't use ice....what?!?!   ridiculous.

So we've gone on for years with ice trays, buying bags of ice and being annoyed (our old fridge had the water line FREEZE in the door, so we were used to ice/water dispensers in the door not working).   K did some research and found that ice maker is known to have issues, he ordered a new one, installed it (all by himself I never even saw the part) and suddenly we have ice to spare!  Why we waited so long, I'll never know, but I love it....We tossed the ice trays.....

It really is the little things that make my day, I'll drink more water now since I like it cold and he can have real 'iced' tea which he loves!!