Judd is 30.

My boyfriend turned 30!

I don't know how it happened. One day he was 28, then he was 29, and then he was 30. So, I guess I do know how it happened.

He is a rather private person by nature, and he doesn't like to be the center of attention unless he has control over how he got there, like by saying something loud and inappropriate. But my girlfriends and I decided that he deserved to be celebrated, and to throw a party for several of his absolutely closest friends.

I wanted this to feel special, intimate, and so I decided to hand make paper invitations for our guests:

There was a sale on stamps and stamp pads, so I went a little nuts. Each color was assigned a letter, and then I began.

Such an exciting declaration:

Date, Place, Time, Bring, all to be filled in later with a black pen:

It is:

After doing this for a few hours, I started losing some control of the letters and the colors, and this started happening:

And then this tie-dye started happening:

What a beautiful mess:

And I thought to myself, this is maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever made.

So much so that I had to make one for us:

but ours was not very informative:

I recently came upon a handmade garland on the internet, and set to work on one for our party:

I wrapped the yarn a billion times around this cardboard, and then it formed little bundles that needed to be snipped at each end:

And then they burst apart to become these spiny little creatures. Then they get strung together.

This one went on for miles.

Chloe agreed to host the party. Finally, the date was upon us! We bought a small grill for the occasion, and got corn at the farmer's market that very day:

We set up a little beverage bar. Chloe made a ginger basil simple syrup in sparkling water, and spa water with lemon and cucumber, and I made a lavender lemonade. Our guests who drink alcohol could then mix their favorites into their own cups, and our guests who do not drink alcohol had some truly delicious choices to make:

(poem in the background by justin runge)

The music was playing, the water was sparkling (ginger-basil water!) and the air conditioner was on, thankfully. I thought to myself, this may be the most beautiful thing I've ever made, this beverage bar.

Judd requested a key lime pie for his birthday. It is here , in vintage pyrex, next to Chloe's vintage pyrex cucumber (from her mother's garden!) and feta salad. The pie was one of the most delicious things I've ever made, and beautiful:

Not that long ago was Chloe's birthday. In honor of her family's long tradition with horses, I gave her what any good cowgirl needs: a cake pan in the shape of a horse's head.

She returned the favor by making a horse cake that looked like Judd (surrounded by banana cupcakes):

We had a small section of the table with things honoring Judd's obsessions. Peanut butter and chocolate was not in short supply, and I ordered these small notebooks with a portrait of David Foster Wallace on the front, and HAPPY 30TH, JUDD on the back:

The seeds were, of course, RED BEARD onion, because Judd has a red beard.

(also: homemade curried chickpeas and jordan almonds because they're delicious, and in the dark blue bowl is candied ginger, because he's a ginger). This little corner of the table was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever made, maybe:

In this photo I had just delivered some news. Something along the lines of the camera's battery is dying....

And the garland! Though it was dimly lit in the house, I thought it looked so beautiful, and our friends with cats were able to take a pom-pom or two at the end of the night for their critters to play with:

Outside we had strung tiny white lights all along the porch, and lined the porch and stair with candles in mason jars. It was one of the most beautiful, breathtaking things I'd seen:

But at some point during the night, I looked at Judd, and I thought of our years together as friends and our years together as something more here in Kansas. I thought of the community we've built of these wonderful friends, the home we've made from second-hand furniture and family photos, the fun that we are having, and the way that we love each other, and I thought, no, this is definitely the most beautiful thing I've ever made.

Day to Day

Though I like to post special-occasion cakes or recently-invented recipes, I haven't had much time for any of that lately. My coursework this semester is rigorous, to say the least, and it's already time for AWP (if this snowstorm would just let up and I could get out of here). So while I love to take intricate step-by-step photos as I cook, and to experiment with new food or techniques, I haven't really been able to do both at the same time lately.

Instead, for the last couple of weeks, I've been photographing some of the food we eat. What makes this worth sharing, I suppose, is how un-special it is: this is a pretty good example of meals we eat day-to-day.

While our usual addiction is Sweet Potato Enchiladas, we decided to switch things up with some Spinach Enchiladas. One of the more frustrating aspects of avoiding meat is that it usually involves substituting with a lot of cheese. But, oh well I guess, these were delicious.

Where the ricotta/spinach mixture once was (we added some spices too):

Canned enchilada sauce, because I don't make my own at this point in my life:

Set the timer:

Don't burn yourself!

My teaching schedule has me on campus much much more than I used to be. While I used to teach for a solid block and then rush home to do something more fun, now I have an hour break between classes which forces me to do homework and study, or get some grading in. Judd is gone from home all day too, hard at work. These facts mean we need some good, cheap, portable lunch options.

Here is a simple sandwich consisting of some staples of our winter fridge:

* homemade pesto

* roasted red peppers

* sliced cheese

* fake meat (smart deli)

It is simply delicious.

And what would you, ideally, pair with this sandwich?

Me? It'd have to be sweet potato chips.

I LOVE SWEET POTATO CHIPS!

While there are some delicious store-bought brands (terra, for one), they are pretty expensive. Seriously, Christmas hint though: bags and bags of Terra Vegetable Chips!

If I had the money and space to invest in just one ridiculous kitchen gadget, it would probably be the mandolin.

Not this:

But this:

It would make thinly slicing vegetables for chips incredibly easy. Because without it, it seems impossible.

But with our brand new knives I tried!

Still, though uneven and lumpy.

But still delicious.

Another thing that I LOVE to make is granola:

So easy, affordable, and good, and the staples are almost always on hand:

And now, something we eat several times a month:

Doesn't it look delicious?

Well, especially when marinated in and baked with peanut sauce + sriracha, tofu can transform into something spicy, salty, sweet, and crispy.

We usually serve it over brown rice cooked in coconut milk with some stir fried vegetables:

I have to warn you: for some reason soy sauce + coconut rice is the most delicious combination in the world.

And, to close, a frittata made with left-over roasted vegetables (which we almost always have!) and some corn grits:

<3

bruma domesticus

My winter break was over one month long. I have two days left even! Sure, I spent time on my own work, but probably not enough. I should have at least started writing a novel or something. Instead I wrote around 2 short stories, about 6 short shorts, and a handful of poems.

This coming semester I will be in 3 very challenging classes with the famous Joshua Cohen, among them a Fiction Workshop. Am I worried? A little. Do I have time to crank out a genius story before next week? Probably. But I don't want to right now. I am taking this vacation thing incredibly seriously.

For example, here is an enormous scarf I made for Judd:

Not to brag, but I love this detail:

There has been many a snow day here in Lawrence, Kansas, and I spent one of them learning a new stitch ("puff stitch") for this pink cowl:

I have several new years resolutions for 2011. Among them is to help keep our house a bit cleaner. For example, did you know that a kitchen floor should probably be mopped more than a couple of times a year?

Ugh. I know.

Well, upon returning to Lawrence from a couple of weeks in Utah I went a little crazy on our house. This was mostly due to watching Hoarders with my mother and sister-- it wound me up and set me loose. We got rid of pounds and pounds of clothes (and made over $60 reselling them!). Every surface on our house was washed or vacuumed. Pictures were hung on a wall. Books were organized.

I'd show you pictures but it's a little messy right now.

(Ha!)

One of my favorite additions is this, purchased for me by Judd's mother during our marathon antiquing trip. It's a very old cupcake tin that I turned into a votive candle holder (we saw this done in one of the shops), and it is surprisingly beautiful when lit:

(that little girl in the red coat is my mother, by the way)

(if I ever have a dinner party where the food I've prepared doesn't cover the ENTIRE table, this will be at the center.... but we'll need a bigger table)

Another resolution for 2011 is that I am going to keep some houseplants alive.

We had a bromeliad for about a week and a half before it turned an accusatory brown.

We went to a local nursery here in Lawrence and found plants that were good for cleaning and filtering the air, as well as pretty death-resistant. The guy who runs the nursery is obviously so passionate and knowledgeable about gardening that he has an air of impatience about him when dealing with people like us. We got out quickly.

This is my heartleaf philodendron:

I am hoping that it climbs this chop stick from our favorite thai place, but I'm not sure how to encourage that beyond sticking it in and waiting:

This beautiful peace lily is in the bedroom, looking serene (and maybe a little droopy?):

It's a little moody. I'll water it and the leaves will perk up for about an hour before they relax again...

But I have to be doing something right, because we're getting a new flower:

And whatever is happening with this leaf is beautiful, though it could be a sign I am doing something wrong:

This is one of my favorites, the snake plant... I want it to get sooooo tall:

But it hasn't been all cleaning, crocheting, and watering. That wouldn't belong on a food blog. There has also been some cooking going on.

Oh my goodness, what on earth is happening here:

Why, an 11-layer cake of course!

I made this in preparation for a dinner party. For some reason I was on a serious "don't want it to be too sweet" kick. I really wanted to make a rich chocolate cake with layers of almond cake...

but one of the guests is DEATHLY allergic to nuts.

I went back and forth for awhile (not on killing him, on some other ideas). I thought about green tea (matcha), but Judd pointed out it might get overwhelmed by the dark chocolate. So, I contacted my sister immediately for her advice, and she recommended ginger.

The chocolate layer was a friend's recipe involving buttermilk and oil, and the ginger layer was basically the quintessential ginger cake online (sometimes called DAVID'S GINGER CAKE) made with fresh ginger and molasses.

It was very heavy (like, the physical weight), and a total statement piece.

And beautiful inside:

Let's look at that again:

I would definitely make more dramatic layer cakes for celebrations. It's really not that hard.

I like the idea of a red (strawberry) white (almond or vanilla) and blue (blueberry or blackberry) 11-14 layer cake for the 4th (or 24th, depending on where we are) of July.

Yeah, I think about that sometimes. Like if it were a 4th of July party maybe on some craggy coast in the north east and we were all in vintage party dresses. And we'd gone fishing all morning and were grilling fish and waiting for fireworks. Could there be lemonade? Yes. A bonfire? Of course. Here's a sparkler, honey, write your name in the air.