Samson’s Ohio homecoming

It’s been eight years since Samson was a stray in Hocking Hills State Park, and in that time he’s made two cross-country road trips and lived in four different apartments on two different coasts. At some point in the past year I was struck by this idea that we would take Sam back to his old stomping grounds for a visit. A dog homecoming. Would he recognize it? Would he care? Was I being really super weird?

The answer to all three was, maybe. But the idea wouldn’t shake. I cautiously rolled it out to a few friends and family members, presenting it as a half joke. Only it seemed to resonate with people. The notion of returning home after a long life adventure is such a powerful storyline that I think we can’t help but be moved by it…even for a dog. Soon we began planning a week’s vacation in Ohio that included a couple nights of camping in the park.

My parents and brother met us there. They brought their old green Coleman stove that I remember from camping as a kid, some tents, and enough food to feed us all for a month.

So….how did my old dog like it? I will say that I haven’t seen him acting so puppyish in a long time. There are days where he looks pretty stiff walking up the apartment stairs, but in Hocking Hills he was scampering up and down rocks and scouting out every cave and holler. He ate s’mores, growled at a raccoon outside our tent, and wooed the little girl in the neighboring campsite into giving him some of her breakfast.  ”He seems so happy,” my mom said. I think he was.

We were too! Even with the drought as bad as it is – all the falls were dried up – Hocking Hills is a beautiful place. I was happy that Read got to see it.

Read took this picture of me and Sam and afterwards laughed, It looks like you’re having a conversation. Hmm yes well in fact we are! I am asking him if he liked his trip and what reflections he might be having about adventure, returning home, and growing old. And bacon, of course. Always bacon.

SoWa Vintage Market

This week I got some helpful tips on vintage shopping in Boston from blog friend smunch (thank you Lauren!). The SoWa Vintage Market sounded particularly enticing. It’s open every Sunday until mid-December and includes not only vintage stalls, but a farmer’s market, craft vendors, AND a collection of swanky food trucks.

A neighbor and I drove over this morning. Parking was a painless $5 and admission was free. As my mother would say, “everyone and their brother was there” – I saw two co-workers, which seemed funny in such a large city. Everything is outdoors except the vintage stalls. It was crowded both indoors and out, but it didn’t feel claustrophobic.

The food trucks are fun. Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese (“we don’t make your grandma’s grilled cheese”) and Bon Me (“Boston’s Gourmet Banh Mi”) had large followings. I ate a fabulous caprese on focaccia from The Dining Car, sneaked some of my friend’s french fries, and then washed everything down with some wildflower iced tea.

There are some fabulous wares among the craft vendors. I can see some late autumn Christmas shopping happening here, especially in jewelry and woven scarves.

The vintage stalls were a blast to peruse, but I didn’t buy anything. The prices were in line with what you see in big city vintage stores – just a tad more than I wanted to spend. I was mostly looking at headscarves ($8-16), vintage fabric ($6-10/yd), and nightstands (>$150). My hesitancy to spend that much, especially on furniture, has likely come from all the free stuff my neighbors leave on their curbs. But there was this adorable blue cabinet…

What a cutie.

My mom has promised that we’ll go antiquing when I’m home in Ohio for Christmas. I’m still on a quest for this ceramic Samson pitcher that I spotted in Ohio in 2008, photographed, but stupidly DID NOT BUY. What was I thinking?! It was only $18. I’ve tried all kinds of internet searches but each one ends in failure. Will I ever find Samson immortalized in a pitcher again??

Date Cake

Today is our six-month anniversary! I think because so much has changed in the last six months, Read and I agreed that it seems like the wedding was longer ago. It was fun to look back at some pictures…

My "borrowed and blue" for the wedding was this ring from Grandma. My mom wore it on her wedding day too.

Cutting peaches with mom for the reception pies

first dance

We celebrated today by sleeping in, taking the bus to Harvard Square for a movie, and making dinner at home. I tried a date cake recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks – Cook Something by Mitchell Davis. I told Read it was “date nut bread,” but with two sticks of butter I think it’s more accurately classified as cake.

Date Cake

When I panned out to get a different angle, I noticed a certain little black dog. His expression is too much.

Sam wants a date with the cake

How to not stress over your wedding

This post marks my return to the blog after a six-week hiatus. I tell you, it’s been a wild ride. Driving cross-country. Interrupting the drive for a flight to a job interview. Getting married. Changing my name. Starting a new job. When thinking of what to say about all of this, I came up with a few strategies that got me/us through the month of August.

If you don’t want to stress much over your wedding, always keep it in perspective. People thought we were nuts for getting married in the same month that we moved, changed jobs, and started up in a new city. But it kept me from making the wedding a gigantic vortex of time, worry, and energy because there was always something else in front of us that needed immediate attention. Some people end up balancing a wedding planning with other things out of chance, not choice, and that’s extra hard because you didn’t see it coming (i.e. my good friend suddenly got laid off a couple months before her wedding). I don’t wish that kind of blind-siding on anyone, but one benefit of either scenario is that it puts the wedding into perspective, and you don’t feel compelled to fuss over all the little details. A wedding is an incredible, life-changing, and powerful event…but none of that hinges on the table centerpieces or the groomsmens’ shoes or what kind of dressing is served with the salad.

Nowheresville with Sam at the helm

As you keep the wedding in perspective, try to also generalize your expectations. If you’re like me, you tend to create very specific expectations in the planning of an event, but in doing so you run the risk of getting hung up on changes that have no real effect on your  core intentions. It rained all morning on the day of our wedding and showed no signs of letting up. When my dad told us they’d decided to move the outdoor ceremony to the reception barn, I was genuinely sad. I talked myself out of it with reminders that there was no reason our heartfelt, simple wedding ceremony couldn’t play out exactly the same way indoors. I was merely mourning the loss of my detailed expectation for how the ceremony would look: sunshine, puffy baby clouds, a little breeze. Let go of these details to make room for all the unexpected things that actually do happen. Right after saying our vows, the sunshine broke through the rainclouds and came through the barn windows in bright beams. Pretty cool. And definitely something I hadn’t imagined.

When trying to generalize your expectations, remember that guests will not miss something they never knew existed. For example, I wanted people to have copious amounts of good beer to drink at the wedding, so I envisioned some friends from Cleveland bringing kegs of a local microbrew. But with less than three days till the wedding, it just wasn’t working out. My uncle offered to call his friend-the-beer-distributor who could bring like a giant kegorator with taps right on the outside, but he didn’t have any microbrews available. I started to get hung up on the equation “good=microbrew” until Read pointed out that a”any beer was better than no beer and we’d better just go with it.” Thank goodness I married him. The kegorator was a huge hit, and I watched guests drink copious amounts of Blue Moon and Killians without ever hearing a wish for microbrew.

Take a few moments for just the two of you after the ceremony

Finally (and I think I read this on APW somewhere), at some point just cut loose and enjoy your party. We had a receiving line and we stood up at the start of the reception to welcome everyone, generally introduce the groups of people present, and publicly thank friends and family who donated their time and talents. I highly recommend  both. Some of my parents’ friends approached us after dinner and said they loved the fact that we introduced who was at the wedding and thanked everyone for coming…it made the event feel very personalized. Since we’d front-loaded our connecting with guests, we felt comfortable spending a lot of time on the dance floor. There were some soul trains, Read’s dad did the splits, and we ended it all with a big, swaying, group hug to “Piano Man.” Read and I agreed that while we knew the wedding would be fun, we had no idea it would be THAT MUCH fun.

Do you have any suggestions for how to keep wedding planning in perspective, not lose your cool, enjoy the day, etc.? Later this week I want to post a little on the “nuts and bolts” of putting together our event, but I also have some new knitting and apartment projects to share.

DIY research

I didn’t necessarily plan on blogging about this, but I’m finding that my personal life is crossing paths with an exciting sub-sect of the DIY world that’s new to me. Not basic auto repair. Or silkscreening. Nope, not home renovations either (although someday I hope to try all those out). 

That’s right – we’re talking DIY wedding planning. About three weeks after he proposed Read left for Italy. That was smart on his part – he crosses the Atlantic but leaves me with the ultimate girl-project to occupy my evenings. I haven’t nailed down very much except that Samson will be coming to the wedding and he will most certainly be wearing one of these. There are a lot of wedding-themed blogs and a bazillion vendor websites out there. So far here are some of my favorites for idea-gathering:

Green Wedding Shoes: lots of real-wedding inspiration from folks with great taste. Like this couple’s barn wedding or couples who go all out with the DIY

Snippet & Ink: More real-wedding inspiration. This site encourages you to do follow through with those quirky ideas you had in your heart by showing you other couples who did. I love this invitation map. I can pull something like that off, right?

I’ve already decided that one thing I won’t DIY is my dress. I was absolutely impressed that my friend sewed her own for her wedding last month, but I feel like I wouldn’t make it through the effort with my sanity. Or my sewing confidence. Bethany – I’m going to be in Cincinnati around December 17th. Do you want to visit this dress store with me? 

Readers do you have any site/shop suggestions?

I’ve been on vacation

Yup, I went home to Ohio for a week. And here’s the proof:

 

Nobody likes jello like midwesterners. And nobody scorns it like pacific northwesterners. So when I saw it at the #2 spot on the Aisle 5 sign I knew I was home. 

I harbor no ill will for jello. Quite the opposite in fact. Nostalgia is a powerful force – responsible for all sorts of questionable preferences including boxed mac and cheese, fish sticks, and (oh yes) Watergate Salad. It technically uses boxed pudding, not jello, but they’re always right next to each other in the supermarket aisle. You just mix 1 box pistachio pudding, 1 can crushed pineapple (with juice), 8 oz of Cool Whip, and 2 cups mini marshmallows. Yeahhh

Bethany – you recently returned to the midwest after a stay in Texas. Do you recall anything that screamed “You are for sure, without a doubt, back in Ohio”?? Readers out there – what foods do you like, no matter what your friends’ raised eyebrows suggest?

For the Love of Lois

This past weekend I went with friends to Detering Orchard. They’ve got all the major fruits available for U-Pick: apples, peaches, pears, and blueberries. What are some of your favorite blueberry recipes? It’s been hot in Eugene, so cranking up the oven was a bad idea, but I couldn’t resist making a pie. 

For the Love of Lois

Every baker has their fall-back pie crust recipe. I’m including mine here. It’s from “For the Love of Lois,” a recipe book from the former cook of  a local retreat center (local=northwest ohio). My great-grandma passed this book on to my mom. I don’t know much about the author; an internet search just turned up this old photo from my hometown newspaper. 

Never-fail pie crust

The recipe is my fall-back because it’s easy to mix up and handle and it freezes well. I’ve had good results replacing half of the shortening with butter…you get the flakiness of shortening with the better taste of butter. Don’t attempt to replace the fats with margarine or weird shortening substitutes though. I was talked into it once (not good).

Cutting in the butter

I love crumb top pies. For one pie’s worth of crumb mixture, combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 cup oats, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cut in one stick (half cup) softened, not melted, butter. 

Roll out

My mom rolls out her crust using a floured countertop and rolling pin. She’s mastered the art, but I never seemed to get it right. The rolling pin stuck to the crust, the crust stuck to the counter, flour got EVERYwhere. Now I roll my crusts out between sheets of saran wrap. You’re not supposed to handle pie dough very much (preserves the flakiness) so this allows for minimal man-handling.