Author: Faith

Featuring Roastmaster Faith

I am trying to be a better cook. During the week N and I take turns cooking dinner. N is by far the better cook and can whip up a Thai curry or coconut chicken soup in no time and without a recipe. I, on the other hand, am totally helpless without a recipe and often fall back on serving meals that include a pre-made component from Costco. (Have you tried their carnitas? SO good in burritos or tacos.) Anyway, I really need to raise my game.


I am trying to build a reliable repertoire of meals and have lately been trying my hand at pot roasts. I know, I know, they’re notoriously easy but two out of the three I’ve made in the last few months have been dry and pretty tough. I was complaining about my pot roast failures to my sister-in-law Mindy (who is one of the best cooks I know) and she said she would send me a recipe she likes to use.

Last night I cooked the pot roast recipe she gave me and it was great! It was flavorful, tender, and moist. I served it along with its vegetables and baked sweet potatoes. I really recommend this recipe. It’s by Tyler Florence from the Food Network. It’s online here and I’m also including it below.

  • 1 (3 to 4 pound) piece beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 red onions, halved
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 8 carrots, sliced
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 1 cup button mushrooms, stems removed
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves

Season all sides of the beef with a fair amount of salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot that has a tight cover; heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately high heat. Brown the meat on all sides, taking the time to get a nice crust on the outside. Pour in the tomatoes and the water. Scatter the vegetables and herbs around the pot roast, season with salt and pepper; and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Braise for about 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the pan juices, until the beef is fork tender.

Slice the pot roast and arrange on platter surrounded by the vegetables. Serve with the pot juices.

Enjoy!

Letter: Month Thirteen

Dear E,

Last week you turned thirteen months old. I vaguely knew it was coming but then completely forgot about writing this letter until today. In my defense I would like to say: it’s all Christmas’ fault. The gift buying, cookie decorating, party preparing, party attending and card writing has been insane this year. Compounding the craziness is the fact that our two upstairs showers broke and were getting fixed this week.


Well, to be completely honest our master bath shower started leaking the week after we brought you home from the hospital. I had every intention of getting it fixed right away but you know, new baby and first time mom and all that. So we used the hallway shower instead for a full year which has to be my all-time new procrastination record. I like to think I would have got it fixed soon anyway, but last week when the hallway shower also broke my hand was forced. Luckily there’s a downstairs shower. But this whole debacle means a score of: house-2, Faith-0.

So the plans for shower repair switched very suddenly into high gear and all this week workmen have been traipsing and out of the house sawing, smashing, and soldering things. Things have been a little busy around here. The shower repair has been throwing off your nap schedule which has compounded the somewhat difficult time you were already having. For the past week or so you have been teething pretty hard. You’re still pretty cheerful but I can tell that you don’t feel well and you’ve been waking up a few times during the night.

But other than that you’ve doing really well. You handled the switch from nursing to drinking soy formula like a champ. Even if you’re in the next room you can hear the sound of someone shaking up a bottle and you get excited.

I’m trying to expand your food repertoire but I have to admit it’s a little intimidating. I bought you some all-soy cheese (slogan: “It melts!”) and made you some quesadillas with it which you seemed to enjoy for about a week but now apparently detest. You still like eating peas and have taken to sunflower seed butter sandwiches but who knows how long that will last. E, with your allergies your food choices are already so limited that you simply can NOT afford to be a picky eater. So, um, stop it…okay?

This month you started clapping which is pretty darn cute. You are this close to walking on your own and you love to cling to any vertical surface and walk along it: the fridge, cabinets, walls, etc… It’s fun to watch but makes it harder to keep you contained at church. You love playing peekaboo and you continue to make us laugh every day.

Thank you.

Love,

Mama

I Heart Art: Jen Corace

I am a big fan of Providence, RI artist Jen Corace. She has been a frequent contributor to Tiny Showcase which I think was where I first saw her work. You can see her past TS prints here. From what I’ve seen she has quite a few fans online; some of the art bloggers I follow love her work too.


I enjoy the narrative nature of many of her pieces. I like the two pieces above in particular. I love the moment the piñata piece captures. The girls in the background are either ambivelent or mildly scandalized about what just happened, the girl with the stick has lost her hat in her exertion, and the piñata is dripping something that doesn’t may or may not be candy; the details are great.


A lot of Jen’s work deals with childhood. And while her subjects often seem to be in some sort of peril, they don’t seem like helpless victims to me. Their blank eyes cloak a strength and a capability even while they’re surrounded by strangeness or isolation. I always believe they’ll prevail.

I was excited to hear that Jen had illustrated a new version of Hansel and Gretel. I think her style is perfect for the themes of the story. I ordered a copy “for E” for Christmas (tee-hee).

Check out Jen’s web site here and a current exhibition of hers here.

For the Christmas card

I wanted to send out a photo Christmas card this year and so I took some pictures of E. They were taken before his haircut, as evidenced by the little tuff of baby hair sticking out from under his hat.

This photo is N’s favorite.

Aagh…I never should have cut his hair! *sniff*…the delicious baby cuteness!

Sometimes E will wave on cue, sometimes (usually) he won’t.

This is the photo I ended up using. I hope the cards turn out; I’m going to pick them up this afternoon.

The next Carrot Top?

So it turns out that E and Carrot Top have something in common. Can you guess what it is? It’s not bright red hair or suspicious muscle gain likely due to steroids…
…it’s a love of prop comedy!

Yesterday E was being a little fussy as I getting him ready for a nap and so I grabbed one of his pacifiers and popped it in my mouth and made some funny faces. This is guaranteed to crack him up; it has since he was tiny. Laughing, E pulled the binky out of my mouth (which he normally does) and then he pushed it back into my mouth (which he’s never done before). With a mischievous glint in his eye E repeated the process several times, giggling near-hysterically.

It was pretty funny.

Angel Tree Topper

Sometimes I see cute or fun things online and so I thought I’d share some of them here. (You know, because blogging about things that catch my eye is almost as much fun as buying them myself…right?)

I love this angel tree topper kit from Paper Source. It reminds me of the angel topper we had on tree when I was a kid. I remember my dad lifting me up when I was little so I could plunk her down on the tree top. Every year her paper cone skirt got a little more folded and bent (perhaps do the the child-inflicted plunking?) but she remained so sweet looking throughout the years.

Check it out: N’s new blog

While I flit around from hobby to hobby (woodworking, photography, knitting, sewing, design, cooking, etc…) N has steadfastly had the same main passion since he was a teenager: music. He likes several genres of music but has a special soft spot in his heart for kind of obscure independent stuff.

Since he has such a breadth of knowledge about music and is a great writer (not that I’m biased, ahem.) I’ve been urging N to start a music blog for months. And once his friends joined in on the pestering it was only a matter of time before he caved. And so wiresandwaves.com was born (with a banner designed by yours truly).


So if you’re interested in music, check it out. N posts every weekday and includes a streaming song with every post. It’s a fun way to hear some new and new-to-you music. Today he started his top 25 albums of the year countdown; maybe you’ll find something for the music lover on your Christmas list.