Author Archives: Julia

Pig in Boots

Posted in breakfast, food, spring by

Hello Spring!
If rainy spring days mean piggies in boots, then I’ll take them all with a smile.
Eggs. Have we discussed my love of runny-yolk eggs? There’s just something about the buttery texture of an egg yolk. Poached eggs, over easy eggs, soft-boiled eggs. As long as I can cut into the middle, watch the yellow center flow, and dip my toast in it, I’ll take it. When we were little, my mom used to make us soft-boiled eggs. She’d put them in these little egg cups (only ours stood on two little feet wearing shoes and striped socks instead of a pedestal), crack off the top like a little hat, and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the yolk-y inside. We’d eat them with these little plastic reusable spoons. 

                                             

I thought this was a normal egg dish until one Sunday morning I asked Adam if he wanted one and he looked at me like I was crazy. We have some different family food traditions (sugar cream pie, potato chip cookies, chocolate sprinkles on toast), and I figured this was just another one. Though I guess I should’ve been clued in by the fact that all of my family food traditions are different because they’re European. 
So today I’m browsing this site I’ve found called Domestic Sluttery, and I see that they’ve posted something about egg cups and eggy soldiers (see the egg cups link above). Intrigued, I googled “what is an eggy soldier” and came up with this recipe. So in England (and probably Holland), my thing for soft-boiled eggs wouldn’t be weird. 
Eggy Soldiers are super easy to make. Bring a pot of water (enough to cover an egg) to a boil. Gently slide in your egg. Let it cook for about four minutes. Turn off the stove, and, using a spoon, take the egg out of the water. Set it in an egg cup. Now the egg is really hot, so be careful on this next part. Using a butter knife, tap the egg about one inch from the top of the narrow end. When the egg shell cracks, continue to cut through the entire top of the egg. You’ll end up cutting off a little hat. Salt and pepper the inside of the egg and enjoy with a slice of buttered toast, maybe toasted in a teapot toaster.

                                               

Soon I am going to bake my eggs in tomato sauce.

I Lurrrve You

Posted in cookies, mini trips, Mira, music, North Carolina, spring by

A list of my Right Now Loves

  • Conan O’Brien’s tweets, particularly “I just learned that retweets of my Bieber tweet mentioning Bieber actually help Bieber. Bieber, you’re a worthy foe. Bieber.” I also love Conan’s new beard. Oh what the hell, I LOVE CONAN O’BRIEN!
  • Spoon’s SXSW show (
  • Lady rocker Rachel Flotard and her band called Visqueen. Please take a moment to enjoy “Hand Me Down.” 
  • Spring having sprung! Warm weather is here, though who knows if she’ll stay. Windows are open, Mira is sunbathing in any and every sunny spot she can find, long walks are being taken, bike will be fixed up.
  • Six days until our Raleigh visit! I can hardly believe that two and a half years have passed since I moved from Raleigh back to Indy. This visit is long overdue. Hilary, Bette, and I will be reunited. Adam will enjoy North Carolina so much that we will not come home. (At least that’s how it goes in my mind…) I don’t have a whole lot of places to revisit or things I very much want to do. I just really want to see my friends, eat some Cookout, and go to a few choice bars. The fun I remember having the year I lived there really comes from just having really awesome friends.
  • Molasses chip cookies, which I would like to morph into cherry molasses chip cookies. (recipe to follow after jump.)
  • Plans to run the Race for the Cure this year instead of walking with the girls.

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Gotta Get Me Going

Posted in baked, music, pasta, work by

I’ve made it to another Friday! In a short nine hours I will be in Chicago with some of my favorite girls in the world. I cannot wait!! Sushi, Indian food, Olympics, girl time.

I haven’t cooked much this week. Last weekend was spent chiefly in the kitchen (much to my happiness I’ll add). Instead I’ve been trying to find the perfect morning pump up music. Driving to work is a chore, despite the cup of coffee I’ve already downed by then. I need good music to get me going for the day. Something that I can turn up, sing along to, or just listen to and feel motivated. Sometimes I just scream loudly, but that makes my throat hurt. So far, I’ve found these bands to be successful.

Guster. Always Guster. Playing Lost and Gone Forever makes me feel home. It’s hard for me to recommend this band to you for any concrete reason other than they are awesome because they’ve just been my favorite for so long (10 years to be exact). I love how goofy they are, I love the drums, particularly the bongos of their earlier years, and how they’ve evolved with each album but not so much that they lose who they are. Here we have “Happier” from Lost and Gone Forever.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have also been good pump me up music. Karen O is their singer. She’s awesome. They played at Lollapalooza last summer (a last minute sub for the Beastie Boys) and I fell in love. I might put that show in my top five. Very high energy, and of course being in downtown Chicago on a gorgeous summer night never hurts either 🙂 I love Karen O’s voice – powerful without getting out of tune. That girl can scream. Two songs here.

“Maps” on Fever to Tell

“Zero” on It’s Blitz!

So what gets you pumped up when you need a lift? I’m always looking for recommendations to add to my morning playlist.

I’m also going to mention the Broderick, a band from dear Bloomington. Four dudes singing solid rock. Check them out, they’re up and coming.

Now onto food! Last Thursday I made a black and white cappuccino cheesecake for our cheesecake competition at work. It was very tasty and made my stomach scream out in protest of too much cream cheese. Cheesecake is a lot of work though, and I think only appropriate for special occasions. So I’m going to give you a better and easier sweets recipe: Meyer lemon bars, which I made Friday night. Meyer lemons are smaller than regular lemons and sweeter, which I like because normal lemon bars can be a bit too tart for me. Between the lemon bars and the leftover cheesecake Adam and I had good Valentine’s dessert. We also had magical dinners. Sunday we made au gratin potatoes, the recipe for which I’ll have to post sometime, Dover sole two ways, and snow peas (mmm I love snow peas for their crunchy sweetness). Saturday night was the real star though in my opinion.

lasagna mmmmm

Lasagna. In a Dutch oven no less. I think you should ideally use a large and deep casserole dish of some kind, but I don’t have one. The Dutch oven worked just fine. The lasagna was flavorful, filling, and cheeeeesy!

OK, so what follows, in case you missed it from all that rambling, is Meyer lemon bars and lasagna.

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Today’s Letter is "M"

Posted in baked, Mira, muffins, weather by

I think today’s Wednesday. I kind of don’t care to keep track anymore because I’ll only be reminded how many more days stretch ahead before the weekend. And once the weekend gets here, how few days are left before the inevitable return to work on Monday. Sorry, that’s kind of negative, I know, but seriously. We’ve gotten a bunch of snow in the past five days. Every morning this week I’ve woken upon hoping for too much snow on the road to go into work, but the damn city has kept our roads snow-free. So I’ve been spending most of my week daydreaming of North Carolina. Oh and yesterday I spent my day watching the Bonnaroo line-up be slowly and painfully announced on Bonnaroo’s MySpace. Who does that? Anyway, it looks pretty good. I usually feel that Bonnaroo’s line-up is a pretty good preview of Lollapalooza’s. Hopefully will get to at least one festival this summer!

Mira was somewhat suspicious of the tiny snowman we met on one of our walks.



The snow did kick in a serious hibernation switch on in my head over the weekend. I decided that I needed to cook and bake a lot just in case I could never leave my apartment again. Friday night I made these bombtastic baked chicken meatballs. My only problem was that my tomato paste had been in the fridge for awhile, and some nice fuzzy, white stuff was growing on parts. I just went ahead and used the non-fuzzy, white parts. A few hours post-meatball consumption, I felt off. Amazingly enough, still ate leftovers the next night, and even more amazingly enough, felt slightly off again. HAH. Anyway, the meatballs are super tasty for few ingredients (which is my favorite. The less money I have to spend, the better.) I made them bigger (got about ten balls I think), and ate them with spaghetti. I bet they’d be the perfect party appetizer if made smaller.


Then came the muffins. These whole wheat apple muffins have been my go to when I’ve had extra apples lying around this fall and winter. They are DELICIOUS. Nice and warm spicy (you know, like cinnamon), moist for days after, and partially healthy. This was probably the fourth or fifth batch I’ve made.

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Sick Girls Like Corn Bread

Posted in apartments, bread, music by

First of all, did you know Jewel has made like four or five albums since her first one in the 90s? Pieces of You was one of my first CDs (along with Dave Matthews Band, Crash). I recently heard Foolish Games on the radio and suddenly got a Jewel craving. So now I’m listening to that album on LaLa.com. But the song Pieces of You, kinda disturbing!

You know what I miss? Mixed tapes. Mixes on CDs just aren’t quite the same. There’s nothing quite like sitting by your boom box, waiting to hear a song on the radio so that you can hit the record button, and inevitably get some of the DJ chatter at the end of the song on the tape too.

The most exciting thing that happened to me this week involved my plumbing and pasta in my bathtub. On Tuesday the kitchen and bathroom sinks started to drain slowly. I then discovered that not only were they draining slowly, but they were draining right into my bathtub! SCORE! I tried Drain-o and plunging but no luck. Pretty soon my bathtub was a log of what I’d eaten in the past week. Good thing I don’t care much if I don’t get a shower ever day, or for three days.

Well, I’ve managed to get sick three times in the past month, which is pretty rare for me. Cold, Norovirus (which is the most hilarious and gross stomach bug EVER), cough/fever. (By the way Foolish Games does not sound pretty when sung by someone who is on the verge of losing her voice. Worst sound that has ever come out of my mouth.) I’m hoping for a healthy February. So not much cooking or baking has happened. I did make some black bean soup and corn bread earlier this week though. The soup was so so. The corn bread was fabulous. I want to make it again with chili.

The recipe calls for milk or buttermilk. I don’t drink milk and really only use it in baking, substituting soy milk most other times. And usually it works out fine. I’ve made some damn good gratin potatoes with soy milk. The only thing I’ve had trouble with is alfredo sauce. My body cannot handle all that heavy cream but oh good Lord I love alfredo sauce. Soy milk, in my experience, when heated up and subbed for heavy cream in this case, gets sweet, and alfredo sauce should not be sweet. Does anyone have any tips on cooking with soy milk or other dairy substitutes? Anyway, back to the corn bread. I didn’t have milk and was almost out of soy milk. I did however have heavy cream for some weird reason, so used that instead. No need to do that I’m sure. I’d stick with milk or soy next time.

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Reach

Posted in current events, work by

The past week the news has been full of stories of from Haiti. Bodies piling up on the streets, rescue efforts at schools abandoned because survivors at this point were unlikely, no clean water or food, crime, and general hopelessness. This picture, though, defies all that. It literally embodies the word HOPE for me. That little boy was buried for eight days under rubble, and amazing rescue workers pulled him out. Talk about second chances.

I want to do my small part and was thrilled when one of Jack and Jill’s fairly regular writers emailed me saying she felt the same way. She suggested writing an article about the children in Haiti, how they are coping with the aftermath of the earthquake, and how kids here in the U.S. can help through various organizations and charities. I hope that we’re touching kids and opening their minds with the magazine. Who knows, but I like to dream 🙂

It’s All in the Family

Posted in baked, Mira, pasta by
Heeiiy! If you read this post, this blog, my word vomit, would you mind commenting on this one? I’d like to know if anyone other than my dear mother and my brother come around. Muchas gracias!

Mira and I have a new neighbor. Well two to be accurate. We have a new neighbor in the apartment across the hall. We also have a new neighbor living somewhere near one of our favorite trees in the yard. At night I let Mira out just quickly in the yard outside our building. She usually walks directly to this one tree, pees near it, and inside we go. About a month ago, out we walked as usual around 11 p.m, right over to that tree. I was hardly paying attention, bracing myself against the frigid night air. Mira had her eyes on the ground as she sniffed for the perfect spot. Somehow both of us managed to miss the GIANT MOTHER EFFING POSSUM sitting by our favorite tree, frozen/”playing dead” (like we were stupid enough to think it was dead, it was standing up on its hind legs!), and staring right at us with its beady little eyes and tiny pink nose. I’m pretty sure I screamed, I dragged Mira in the other direction, and then continued to scream and curse loudly as Mira found a new spot to water. We hurried upstairs and, from the safety of my apartment, I peeked out the kitchen window. The offender was still by the tree, only it’d unfrozen and was starting to waddle around now that the coast was clear. Possums are seriously ugly, seriously gross, and even worse when you suddenly find yourself standing three feet from them. Trust me.

OK, so no more possum sightings until last week. Our confidence in the favorite tree had been renewed, our fears lulled into a stupor. Thankfully this time I happened to be looking up and spotted the possum by the tree about six feet away this time, again frozen and staring at us. I diverted Mira, who had also spotted the beast. Apparently they’re known to viciously attack dogs. Come on, how could you attack this sweet face?

Especially when that sweet face does this?!

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist…) Anyway, I think the possum has officially taken up residence somewhere near our tree. I’ll be on guard from now on.
In kitchen news, I have two family recipes for you. The first is Oma Macaroni. My grandmother (we call her Oma) always made this when we would visit her and Opa in Holland. It’s one of those foods that will always have memories attached to it of sitting in their kitchen, which somehow never seemed brightly lit, eating at the long table, my grandfather at the head, Ian, Oma, and I on the long side, and Mom at the other end, two casserole dishes of macaroni on the table. Ian, picky eater that he was, required a small casserole dish all to himself with only the pasta and tomato paste baked up together. I like making this in the winter because it’s nice and warm, and really pretty flavorful. The second recipe is for my dad’s banana bread with a few additions. Pappy made this always and I could eat slices upon slices in one day. When I was a junior in college and finally figured out that I had a kitchen, I asked him for the recipe. I added the chocolate chips and cranberries two goes ago, and with those additions, I prefer this in muffin form. As just straight banana bread, I like it in a loaf pan. Fair warning: the batter is seriously tasty, and the bread itself can be consumed within hours if you’re not paying attention.

Bits n Pieces

Posted in music, random by
Today has been relatively unproductive because I’ve been browsing various food blogs and Etsy is continuously posting awesome things on their Twitter. I discovered this blog that way and spent a good half hour reading past posts. I like this elephant I found there.

He’s so full of happy colors that he’s blowing them out of his trunk. He can’t even contain them!

This item though, I question.
There is no joy exploding out of it anywhere, unless you count the possible poop explosion out of the butt. This is a drop crotch jumpsuit. Please please don’t get me wrong, I will sacrifice fashion for comfort any day. I wear a boys onesie around my apartment frequently, and trust me, it’s not flattering. The jumpsuit, however, has multipleproblems. One, the name. Why in the world would you put the word “crotch” in the title of something you are trying to sell? What does the word “crotch” make you think of? High fashion? A piece of clothing you’d wear in public? I think of, well things that are honestly grossing me out a lot. I’m not going to play the what word do you think of next game with the word “crotch.” Better to do it with the word “elephant.” Anyway, I also wonder why a drop crotch is a good idea on a garment when it makes the butt look like a very full diaper. I don’t know, that’s just me, and I know very little about what’s in as far as clothing goes.
Next is Train Song. I think a lady named Vashti Bunyan originally wrote it in the 60s. Feist and Ben Gibbard do a really nice cover of it on the Dark Was the Night compilation. Today I like songs that are a little sad and a little filled with longing. I like this line
but suddenly now, I know where I belong
It’s many hundred miles, but it won’t be long

OK, so then NPR posted a free download on Second Stage of John Heart Jackie, a very nice and mellow and folk-y duo. They cover Train Song too, but you’ll have to go to their MySpace page to listen to it. (and while you’re there, listen to their other songs too!!)
Righto. Have to still post the Oma Macaroni. Also made banana bread last night, but in the form of muffins and with chocolate chips and cranberries. SOOO GOOD I might die. Made an epic fail soup. By Sunday you will have the two epic un-fails.

A Sugar Cream Pie New Year

Posted in holidays by
Where were you 10 years ago? What were the decade’s top songs/artists/albums? 2009’s best music: Vote Now! Not going to lie, I got very tired of seeing these types of polls and articles pop up in my inbox and on my Twtitter feed. So here’s mine.

2009: Fine as a Swine
-I traveled to Las Vegas for the first time (!)
-I took over Jack and Jill magazine (!)
-I reached a quarter of a century and have had various small quarter life crises (…!…?)
-I came to terms with the term “broke” and made some lifestyle changes such as canceling cable and cutting shopping (not !)
-I visited camp under the guise of a work trip and got my flight paid for (!!!) hey I did write an article on my fave place in the world for the mag
-My dog was banned from my parents’ house (not !)
-I fell into more new music than I could have ever have dreamed of (!!!!!!)
-I decided to one day open a bakery in North Carolina with Bette and have a prostitution business on the side (!!!!) (anyone interested in a “cherry pie” aka a tall blonde with big tatas and a midget on the side?)

-I celebrated the two year anniversary of my return to Indianapolis (not !)

My New Year’s resolutions are as follows: put $100 into my savings account every month as car payments have ended, pawn off baked goods on unsuspecting coworkers in an attempt to lose weight, have formulated a move to North Carolina plan by the end of the year.
In 2010, more specifically Jan 12, Vampire Weekend comes out with their second album! You can listen here until then. I’ve got a couple more listens before I comment on it, but so far, so musically nice on the ears!

In 2009 I also made a sugar cream pie.
Here’s how that story goes. I love pie. I love making pie. PIE. Thanksgiving is the Pie Holiday. I wanted to make cranberry caramel almond tart for Adam’s Thanksgiving. Adam wanted me to make sugar cream pie. I’d never heard of such a pie, and quite honestly a pie consisting only of cream and sugar sounded bizarre. Adam’s grandmother, on the other hand, makes the world’s best sugar cream pie. Adam was setting me up for failure. Julia, make this pie that you’ve never made before, but that my grandma’s a pro at for my family’s Thanksgiving. I manned up, found a good recipe, tweaked it a tiny bit, and, with my sexy assistant Adam, made my first official state pie of Indiana. (That’s the sugar cream pie, if you didn’t get that….) His grandmother deemed it a very good sugar cream pie. I pass!

a grown up Christmas list

Posted in holidays, lists by

I love lists. There’s nothing quite like drawing a neat black line through items one by one, just ticking them off. So I have three quick lists for the end of the Monday before Christmas.

Things That Should Not Happen Again

-unbuttoning my pants on the way into the bathroom at work (that should happen after I’m in the stall)
-wearing skinny jeans on a day when my thighs feel as big as boulders
-snow and ice on my car in the morning
-the toilet in my apartment running constantly (aauuugh the noise and the water waste!)
-going to the bathroom at work without my shoes on
-falling asleep on the couch for the millionth night in a row (contrary to anything Adam might say, this is NOT fun.)
-standing in line for half an hour at the post office to mail a gift
-Christmas present shopping for five hours

Things That Should Happen Lots More Times

-a free Moosejaw sweatshirt with orders over $79
-wearing a cute yet flowy shirt on a fat day
-wrapping presents and putting them under the tree (FESTIVE!)
-making cheesecake
-ugly christmas sweater parties
-talking about buying Bonnaroo tickets in December
-penguin onesies from Target (which is what I should have worn to work today instead of the skinny pants)
-Christmas present shopping for five hours only if done with Adam
-wearing red and white striped Christmas knee high socks with white santa fur around the top
-The Flaming Lips live (particularly “White Christmas” and “Do You Realize”)

Things That Are Going to Happen Tonight
-mushroom marsala pasta with artichokes
-pilates
-possible toilet fixation (well I do have a fixation with the damn toilet right now, but I meant the toilet getting fixed.)
-penguin onesie from Target