Easter

I love Easter; it's such a festive holiday with so much to celebrate. As has been our tradition lately, Joshua and I attended the Easter vigil Saturday evening, then enjoyed brunch together Sunday morning. This year we had eggs, bacon, and sweet rolls with lemon glaze. 

We harvested the first of our rhubarb to make a mini rhubarb pie for dessert. We planted the rhubarb last year, but you aren't supposed to harvest during the first year, so this was our first time enjoying our plant. Appropriately enough, I also did some planting in the garden.

We had ham for Easter dinner, using a new recipe I'd found awhile ago for a citrus glaze. The ham turned out wonderfully, but the citrus glaze was not as strong as I expected and didn't seem to add much. 

We rounded out the rest of our meal with fresh rolls and asparagus.

After dinner, we enjoyed playing a few rounds of a new game and finished off the day with our rhubarb pie and tea.

Eugene Symphony

Last Thursday, Joshua's Greek instructor came to class and announced he had a pair of tickets to the Eugene Symphony for that evening and was hoping to give them away because he wasn't able to use them. No one else in the class wanted them, so Joshua got them and we went to the symphony that evening and had a great time. The performance was the Damnation of Faust, and included a light show. The symphony was great, and the light show was interesting and mostly not distracting. We were grateful for the opportunity to have an evening out doing something we both enjoyed and hadn't done before.

Adirondack Blues

I planted our Adirondack Blue seed potatoes today. We have never tried growing potatoes before, so I'm pretty excited to see how they do and to eat blue potatoes.

Wind Storm

We had a big wind storm come through Eugene this week. It started Thursday night, and kept us up a lot of the night with all the noise of things hitting the side of the house and the windows. Friday morning there were branches all over our yard and blown all the way across the double driveway onto our neighbor's lawn. Friday continued to be windy and rainy, but not as severe as during the night.

We Put Our Visitor to Work

 We had another great visitor last week, which was spring break for Joshua. Gayle and Grandad drove up to Oregon together, then came to Eugene and we had lunch together. Then Grandad headed back to the coast and left Gayle here with us. The next day, Thursday, we spent time wandering through a used book store and tried out a recipe for spring rolls for dinner. They turned out pretty well. Grandad had left us fudge from Cabela's, so every afternoon we had tea and fudge.

Friday we went to Hendrick's park to see what was blooming and found a number of pretty flowers.

Saturday we had the big garden makeover. Here is the before, our garden mostly covered with leaves for the winter. We rented a rototiller because we made the garden bigger this year, and Joshua worked on that while Gayle and I made a trip to Fred Meyer for manure, strawberry plants, and seed potatoes. Then we shoveled compost, planted strawberries, and shaped rows. 

By around one, we had a garden ready for planting and new strawberry plants. With three people, it went a lot faster than last year when we got the garden ready and things looked great. Of course, we were pretty worn out. The afternoon was relaxed after our hard work in the morning. 

Gayle had to fly out of Eugene Sunday afternoon, but she was able to come to church with us and attend the Sunday school class Joshua is teaching right now on Romans and have another pot of tea before she left. It's always nice to have her visit, and we were particularly glad that the timing worked out with spring break and for all her help in the garden.

Road Trip Visitor

 My Aunt Joanna stopped by to visit us on her road trip through Oregon and California. We had a grand time catching up and enjoying some time together.

She gave me a quick lesson on hand quilting and hiding knots, and I can't wait to start a project to practice my new skills. We also had fun looking at and talking about quilts we have been working on recently.

For dinner, we went to Tacovore and it was packed. I saved seats while Joanna and Joshua waited in line and ordered food, and they made it to the front of the line just in time to get a happy hour discount. So we had delicious tacos, chips and guacamole, and margaritas. Back at the house, we enjoyed more conversation over tea and the lemon meringue tarts I had made.

The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast together before Joanna headed off for her next destination. We were so glad we got to be part of her trip and had a great visit.

Birthday Happenings

My birthday was last Sunday and we celebrated in style; even the weather was great. I had been collecting suspicious packages and cards that arrived in the mail that week, so after lunch I opened them. One of my presents was new gardening shoes and gloves, which I put to good use right away because we went outside to work in the yard and enjoy the sunshine. 

Then we went to get milkshakes and enjoyed sitting outside in short sleeves. It was really a nice, warm day. 

Joshua made breakfast burritos for dinner, yum.

Then he made whiskey sours afterward. We recently got some inexpensive whiskey and have been experimenting with making cocktails. By which I mean that Joshua makes the cocktails and we both try them. Most of the results have been quite good.

We finished the day off with a blackberry pie with hazelnut crumb topping that was a new recipe from my pie book and was delicious. It was a great way to spend the day.

Hotter than a Pepper Sprout

It is always so exciting when your seeds start sprouting; especially the peppers because they tend to take a long time. Out in the yard, things are starting to grow too.

Our daffodils are blooming and are so cheery and beautiful.  

The raspberry and blueberry bushes are starting to put out new growth, and so is our hydrangea, which is going crazy.

The rhubarb came up recently too. I took this picture on Sunday, but then didn't get around to posting until today, so I decided I better take another picture because it had grown so much in the meantime.

It seems to be quite happy.

Meatloaf and Broccoli Salad

I recently found a recipe for meatloaf in my Taste of Home magazine that sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try. And since we were trying new food, I decided to also make a broccoli salad recipe that my mom had saved to try.

 We were particularly impressed by the meatloaf; it had great flavor and was very moist. The next day, we had meatloaf sandwiches for dinner with the idea suggested in the magazine to add a fried egg. Not a combination I would have thought of on my own, but it worked well.

The broccoli salad was a little disappointing, mostly because the texture was soggy. I think that was in part because I overcooked the broccoli, but also because you are supposed to let it set in the fridge for a couple hours with the dressing. I'd like to make it again and cook the broccoli for a shorter time than the recipe says and add the dressing just before serving. The flavors were good together, so I think it would be worth a little more experimenting.

Matthew's Best Ever Meat Loaf

3 slices white bread, torn into small pieces

1/2 cup beef stock or water

2 large portobello mushrooms, cut into chunks

1 medium carrot, cut into chunks

1 medium onion, cut into wedges

1 celery rib, cut into chunks

3 garlic cloves, halved

1 T olive oil

2 T tomato paste

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/4 lb ground beef

3/4 lb ground pork

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 1/4 t salt

3/4 t pepper

Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup

2 T tomato paste

2 T brown sugar

1 t ground mustard

Preheat oven to 350. Place bread pieces and stock in a bowl; let stand until liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, pulse the mushrooms, onions, carrot, celery, and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add mushroom mixture; cook and stir until tender and liquid is evaporated, 5-6 minutes. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute longer. Cool slightly. Add the next seven ingredients and cooked vegetables to bread mixture; mix thoroughly. Place a 12x7-in piece of foil on a rack in a foil-lined rimmed baking pan. Transfer meat to the foil and shape into a 10x6-in loaf. Bake for 1 hour. Mix together glaze ingredients; spread over loaf. Bake until a thermometer inserted in center reads 160, about 15-25 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Roasted Broccoli Salad with Pine Nuts, Dried Cherries, and Feta

4 cups broccoli florets

1 cup raw pine nuts

2 T avocado or coconut oil

1 t dried oregano

1 t salt

Ground pepper, to taste

1/4 cup dried cherries

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing

4 T red wine vinegar

4 T olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425. In a large mixing bowl, toss broccoli, pine nuts, oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Spread in an even layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast for 10-15 minutes, or until broccoli and pine nuts begin to brown. Transfer to a large bowl and cool for 10 minutes. Stir in cherries and feta cheese. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, garlic, nutmeg, and pepper. Add to broccoli mixture and toss to combine. Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours prior to serving.

Old Fashioned Celebration

 Joshua received approval for his examination paper this week. That could be considered the halfway point of the program, since we are two and half years into a five to six year program and it marks a significant turning point. Thus far the program has focused on coursework and examinations, now it shifts to the dissertation. There is still one more paper he has to complete before actually starting the dissertation, but it is a literature review of the materials he plans to work with, so already dissertation focused. It is exciting to reach this milestone. I'm so proud of all the hard work he has put in so far. We celebrated with homemade Old Fashioned cocktails.

Valentine's Day

Joshua and I enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day this year. Although we didn't make pink heart shaped pancakes, we enjoyed dinner at Sabai and a movie night at home. We also received packages from both our families, which was a special treat.

Candied Lemon Cardamom Cookies

Recently I found a number of intriguing dessert recipes in my Saveur magazine. Dinner at Jeff and Lauren's last weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to try one out. I decided to make candied lemon cardamom cookies, partly because I still have a number of lemons from California.

They were time consuming to make since you have to candy the lemon peel, make the cookies, make the glaze, and glaze the cookies. None of it was difficult, but it took longer than I would usually spend on a cookie, so I thought I probably wouldn't save the recipe. However, the taste was delicious; not too sweet, lemony, and nice contrast with the sweet glaze and candied peel. And they look fancy, which is something I always appreciate. So I decided to keep the recipe after all.