Author Archives: Julia

Roast Chicken with Fennel and Veggies

Posted in dinner, food, vegetables by

Sundays are good days to bake. Sunday nights are not always my favorite nights to cook a big dinner. I know this seems weird. Most people use Sunday night to make a good, sit down meal. But by Sunday night, I’m just so exhausted that I can hardly convince myself to make some pasta.

This Sunday, though, I’d planned to make roast chicken. The recipe calls for barely any ingredients, has very little prep, and so I figured it’d fit the bill. Of course, last night rolled around, and Adam, who was recovering from a camping bachelor party the night before, announced he was eating leftover pizza. Oh how tempted I was to join him. But no, I made my roasted chicken damn it. And it was good. Juicy, flavorful, tender….mmmmm. In fact, I gave Adam a bite, and his reaction was, “Oooh I like how you do chicken.” He then finished his pizza and disappeared into the kitchen to make himself a plate of my dinner.

Tragically, I did not take any pictures of this recipe. Note to self: bring camera into kitchen more often. Blog readers will surely appreciate photos of raw chicken parts.

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Papa’s brownies

Posted in baked, birthdays, family by

About a month or two ago my grandfather spent some time in the hospital. First of all, Papa is 94 years old, but a kickin’ 94. He drives, goes out to dinner often (twice a week to a restaurant in town called Taste where he always sits in favorite waitress Anna’s section), remembers waaay back to his childhood, and still tells the longest and most incredible stories (some of which we’ve heard 20 times). He’s also had heart and blood pressure issues off and on, so seeing him in the hospital isn’t a terribly strange thing. And he always bounces back.

Papa and me lighting candles for his 94th birthday

This time he was in for lump reasons, which turned into tumor reasons. So, for a while when he first got home, understandably, he was bummed out. A lot. He’s bounced back, yet again, and is doing well now. My first reaction when Mom told me he could use some cheering up was “let’s bake him something!” Obviously, right? I’d recently made these incredible brownies, Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia, from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours, and they were out of this world.

In fact, they tasted almost identical to the brownies Papa’s cook Mattie always made. Those were the brownies of my childhood. Gooey, chocolatey, and dusted with powdered sugar. They’re probably Papa’s favorite brownies. He loves Mattie’s cooking. LOVES it. So, I made him a batch. And he fell for them. So hard in fact that the next week he was asking me when I was going to bring more over to his house.

So here’s the recipe, slightly tweaked, and renamed Papa’s Brownies.

Papa's birthday cake: Mattie's chocolate cake, as made by me

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Confessions

Posted in lists, the blues by

Today I

* ate two small brownies at lunch

* have something heavy pressing down on my chest

* want to cuddle with my pup

* know that this city is too small and that I know too many people here

* hate my cellulite-y thighs

* can’t stop thinking about brownies

* feel like I haven’t seen Adam in forever (forever = Wednesday)

* am feeling the full weight of being broke and not being able to do fun summer things

* need a vacation so badly that if next Thursday doesn’t come soon I’ll explode

* love the purple ruffly tank top I got from Target on Saturday

* love these pictures of my mantra written in sparkler-writing (from Good Food)

Song of the Week

Posted in Green Cove, music, song of the week by

Well, I hope you all had a great fourth of July weekend. Mine involved cooking out and fireworks. How all-American!

I’ve picked Jesus, Etc. by Wilco from their album Yankee Foxtrot Hotel for this week’s song.

I was introduced to it maybe four or five years ago by one of my dear camp friends Mary. This song made her cry on cue, for no apparent reason, and that’s why I originally loved it. Any song that can rouse such emotion out of someone has to be great. Especially because Mary is one of the most sunshiney and smiley people I know.

For some reason I think of this as a love song. Really the lyrics are kind of depressing. The world’s kind of ending, the girl has tears streaming down her cheeks. But then he’s telling her, despite all of this ickiness around us, it’s all ok, don’t cry, because I love you and we have our love. To me, that’s incredibly sweet.

So here it is on YouTube. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Perfection

Posted in Green Cove by

photo by Angie Moorin, Green Cove’s Main camp photographer

This is perfection. This is camp. Those little girls, they are so lucky.

I still walk that way with my best camp friends sometimes.

Soon I’ll get to throw my arms around them, hug them til we all pop. I can’t wait to go home.

(I might be entirely choked up right now.)

Almond Joy Cake

Posted in baked, birthdays by

This past Sunday Adam turned 28. A month or so ago we were talking about cake and he brought up the idea of an Almond Joy cake, how I should try to make one, and how it should have coconut in it that had been chopped up really small, like in a food processor. I immediately cataloged this into “Possible Birthday Cakes.”

Hey, Birthday Boy

After extensive searching online, the only recipes for an Almond Joy cake were cop outs that used the candy bar, and those were few and far between. So I started brainstorming. Chocolate cake with coconut icing? Coconut cake with chocolate icing? Then one day this cake (Billie’s Italian Cream Cake) from the Pioneer Woman popped up on my  Google reader. It looked incredible and she spoke…err wrote…so highly of it, that I decided to make that the cake. It’s topped off with chocolate icing, the recipe for which came from the woman who cooked and cleaned for my grandparents, and, after around 40 years, became part of the family. Her name is Mattie and oh Lord can that woman cook. Anyway, cake recipe’s after the break!

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Sun-soaked Gold Motel

Posted in music, song of the week, summer by

OK, I know I just posted a song the other day. And I swear when I get home tonight I’m going to put up the most amazing recipe for the most amazing cake. But I was just scrolling through my Twitter feed and came across this band via Spin. They’re called Gold Motel. I’d say just about perfect summertime music. Play at barbecues (particularly 4th of July ones), in the car with your windows wide open, on your porch, in your living room while you dance and sweat, by the pool while drinking beers, etc., the list goes on.

So, here’s one video for “Perfect In My Mind.” I love the lyrics.

And here’s a link to a video of theirs posted on Spin.com. It’s  exclusive and brand new and shiny so I couldn’t find it on YouTube. Just click the link already.

Song for the Week

Posted in music by

I like discovering new songs. I also like old songs that I’ve been listening to for years, the ones that I know by the first chord, whose words I could sing in my sleep. But sometimes I need a reminder to mix things up and listen to both the old and the new. After all, as much as I LOOOOOOVE Guster, I can’t play them every day on my way into work.

So each week I’m going to post a Song for the Week. One week it’ll be a new song that I’ve just heard for the first time. Another week, it’ll be a “Julia Classic.”

This week’s song is a cover of Tonight, Tonight by Passion Pit.

Passion Pit

The original song is by the Smashing Pumpkins from their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995).

The Smashing Pumpkins

I bought that album in seventh grade because my best friend was really into the Smashing Pumpkins. Tonight, Tonight was…is…my favorite song on it. I was also really intrigued by the album art. It’s still pretty cool.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

So here’s Passion Pit’s cover of Tonight, Tonight, done for the Levi’s Pioneer series.

Up and Moved!

Posted in 717, blogs, friends by

After three lovely years using Blogger for all my blogging needs, I decided it was time to move on. After exploring WordPress a bit and reading really great things about it from other bloggers, I made the move here. So far so good, I think. This feels….more grownup somehow? I suppose I’ve made a natural progression from LiveJournal to Blogger to WordPress. So anyway, look around, tell me what you think, I like feedback!!!

As my first official post, I’d like to recognize some of my amazing friends who have recently started their own blogs. Check them out. They’re great writers and very insightful.

Some Restrictions Apply
I met Heather through work. She’s hilarious and has serious willpower. Read her blog and you’ll understand. She’s trying out different diets, just to see how it would be to live as, say, a vegetarian, or on a gluten-free diet, because she’s curious. Heather also shares my love of cupcakes.

I’m the Dandy Highway Man
Samantha and I have known each other since sixth grade, though we really became very good friends in college. She’s one-third of the 717 and one of my best friends. These are her observations on life in general I would say. Get inside her head.

Cold As Ice Cream But Still As Sweet

I know Jen through Samantha. They are not entirely sure how they met, but it might have something to do with Bloomington. Jen has become one of my close friends since I moved back to Indianapolis. She’s a baker, too, and we’ve made a few cakes together. They’re always tasty, and not always pretty. She blogs about culture, art, fashion, Indianapolis, and maybe food.