Always look on the bright side

Rana's Saffron Chicken and Rice

Mike and I made lunch yesterday for some of Mike's brothers and sisters (and his mom of course) and the undeniable hit was the chicken and rice.  It's a Jordanian dish that our dear friend Rana taught to us, and by popular demand, here is her recipe.

Rana's Saffron Chicken and Rice

2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into small pieces (leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken works great for this)
2 big pinches saffron
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 cups rice
1 tablespoon cardamon
1 tablespoon black pepper
4 cups chicken broth (use a good quality one)
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup raisins, rinsed
2 cups slivered almonds (toasted)
salt to taste

Mix the saffron with 1/3 cup (or a little more) of hot water, set aside.

Sauté onion in a generous amount of olive oil.  When it's browned a little, add the garlic, cook a couple of minutes.  Add rice, and mix together, coating the rice.  Add cardamon and black pepper, let rice heat up and toast it a little.  Add chicken broth, lemon juice, saffron in hot water, plus another 1/3 cup hot water.  Add the raisins too, and stir.  Bring to a boil then lower down to a simmer and cook rice until done.  When the rice is cooked, add the almonds and chicken and mix together thoroughly.  Enjoy!

Good Dinner Last Night

Well, the dinner was a success!  Everyone really seemed to love it, by everyone I mean Mike, myself, Bev, Mike's sisters Marilyn and Laurie, and Laurie's husband Kelly.  I think the star of the evening was Mike's African Peanut Soup.  It was heavenly.  Everyone was hanging out in the kitchen while we cooked, so they'd been hearing about this recipe and watching it being cooked for a couple of hours before they actually tasted it.  Their appetities were primed, you might say.  Lesser chefs (like me) would have been quite nervous about it, but Mike was just relaxed and having a great time.  It didn't disappoint either, it was a heavenly soup.  Afterwards it was my turn, but, due to my nervousness, I'd overcooked the Low-Fat Chocolate Truffle Cake.  It was still pretty good, but it wasn't as creamy and yummy as usual.  I tend to do that if I'm nervous.  I have horrible visions of givng people food poisoning and I end up cooking things too long.  I also fixed a red wine reduction to go on top with some raspberries, which everybody seemed to love, although personally it was just a little too sweet for me.  But I'm a picky one when it comes to desserts.  So, as I promised to my lovely (and sweet) sisters-in-law, Laurie and Marilyn, here's the African Peanut Soup recipe.  It's easy, it's pretty quick, and if you have any fondness at all for peanuts, it's divine.  You can double it, it keeps well, it freezes well, it's very flexible.

African Peanut Soup
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
4 cups chicken broth or stock
Emeril’s Essence to taste
2/3 cup extra crunchy peanut butter (2/3 is just a guess, it’s really to taste)
1/2 cup uncooked rice

   1. Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Cook onions and bell peppers until lightly browned and tender, stirring in garlic when almost done to prevent burning. Stir in tomatoes, chicken stock, and Emeril’s Essence. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
   2. Stir in rice, cover, and simmer another fifteen minutes or until rice is tender. Add in peanut butter in small spoonfuls, stirring constantly.  It needs to be in small spoonfuls because otherwise the peanut butter won't dissolve and you'll have lumps of peanut butter in your soup (which isn't that awful, really).  Once you've got the peanut butter in, serve or turn down the heat to lowest possible because if it's on high the peanut butter will start to scorch on the bottom.

Malan's Peak

We're here!  We arrived yesterday afternoon.  We were kind of tired and a little headachey/nauseaous from the altitude (it's about 5200 ft. up here in Ogden) but we still had a lovely quiet dinner with Mike's mom Beverly, and we're feeling much better today.  We can feel the altitude a bit though.  We took a lovely walk with Bev this morning and we were both a little bit more winded than we would usually be.  It's lovely country up here though, and we even heard a male pheasant crowing, though we didn't see him.  I also learned about the history of Malan's peak, which you can see from the little park we walked around:
 
Admittedly, I'm still not a hundred percent on which one exactly is Malan's Peak (I'm not a Western girl, I'm no good at mountains) but I believe it's the one just in front of the snow-covered mountain in back.  They've got so many mountains here, I just don't know how they keep track of them all!  Most of you probably don't know this, but Mike's middle name is Malan, and that was Bev's maiden name.  It's no coincidence, that mountain was named after Bev's grandfather and his family.  In 1892 Bartholomew Malan (known as 'Tim' although I'm not sure why) who lived at the foot of this peak with his wife, Louisa Mariah, and their children (he eventually had sixteen children) decided to carve a road into the mountain.  From what I understand, everyone thought they were pretty crazy, but he and his older sons persevered and dug out a small, one lane road up to a lovely basin most of the way up the peak.  From there they cut down trees, built a sawmill, and, using the sawmill, built an inn, several cabins, and a clubhouse.  They became quite the little tourist destination for awhile, and the mountain became known as Malan's Peak. They'd haul guests up on a little wagon up their road, and during the tourist season ran quite a good resort.  I think my favorite part of the story though is how most of the family would move down the peak for the winter, but two of the older boys would stay up to guard the place and keep it in repair.  At a set time of the day, every day, the boys would wave signal flags down the mountain to let their Mom know they were ok.  Kinda cool, huh?  Eventually though, the business started flagging, they shut it down for good, and first vandals and then fires got to it.  But it's still known as Malan's Peak.  We might try to hike up there sometime this week and look at the basin, we'll see how everything goes. 

We are pretty busy though, today we're going to cook dinner for Bev and some of Mike's siblings.  Little nervewracking though, wanting to do a good job, but using a new kitchen and slightly different ingredients.  Cross your fingers for us.  Mike is making African Peanut Soup (yum!) and I'm making my low-fat chocolate truffle cake, with a red wine sauce to go on top.  Here's hoping it turns out well! 

Update: I changed photos and we're pretty sure Malan's Peak is the one on the left. 

Some things end, others begin

Well, today was my last day at the Arlington Campus Library.  I do hope to be back to visit, of course though.  I don't start at the Smithsonian until June 1st, so I've got a bit of a break before all that starts.  Tomorrow, though, we're off to Ogden, outside of Salt Lake City, to visit Mike's mom!  I'm really looking forward to it.  Mike's mom is a wonderful, sweet lady and she's always been so kind to me.  I think we'll have a grand time.  Mike is the oldest of seven children and all his brothers and sisters will be there, so it's a kind of a family reunion for everyone, although an unofficial one.  We don't really have any set plans, we're just going to play it by ear and do what seems like fun at the time.  I do hope we'll be able to do some hiking in the canyons though, and maybe go into Salt Lake City.  We'll see.  Mostly we'll be catching up with family.  Stay tuned for pictures and updates.

Rainy outside, but sunny inside

Ocean City was awesome, even if the weather wasn't.  The weather was miserable, pretty cool and rainy.  But we weren't there for the weather, we were there for the company.  It was so great to see Ali again, I love her, of course, but I also just love seeing her with Mike, there's such a bond between those two.  We arrived Saturday night, in tie to have dinner at her restaurant (which was great) and chat with her a little while she was on duty.  Then today, first we had a great brunch in Berlin, Maryland, at The Globe.  The Globe is a restaurant that doesn't look like it'll be a good brunch place: it's dark and looks much more like a night place than a brunch place, but the food was awesome.  After that, since it was so rainy, we went back to Ali's place and unloaded some things we had brought for her, including a very nice china tea set.  They got it years ago in a trip to England and it's a rather special set: each of the twelve tea cups and saucers had a month on it and a flower for that month.  It's sort of a birthday flower tea cup set.  Ali has a lot of memories of it, so we brought it for her, but none of us quite knew where to put it.  But then we thought: why not just put up a shelf?  We had the time so Mike and Ali's boyfriend Dean went to Home Depot and got all the goods.  Then Mike rolled up his sleeves and put up the shelf!  Here are some pictures:

Mike working on the shelf.

Mike, Alison, and Dean with the tea set on the shelf behind them.

Just a really sweet picture of a father and daughter.

We're going to Ocean City!

Sometimes it's kind of fun to take a random trip.  We didn't really have anything planned this weekend, so we thought, why not visit Alison in Ocean City?  It sort of all started since Mike's been a bit down-in-the-mouth.  Not much, but it's been a stressful few weeks with finals and all, plus one of our cats, Miss Kitty, is very sick and we're going to have to have her put to sleep. :(  So we were both kind of mopey, and then Mike got on the phone with Alison and it turned out she wasn't having such a great weekend either.  So Mike said, "Let's go!"  and I thought, sure, why not?  We haven't seen her since her birthday back in February and we'd sure like to see her again.  It'll be a quick trip, go up this afternoon and come back tomorrow night, but it'll be a lot of fun.  Tonight we'll go eat at the restaurant she works at, and then we'll be able to spend some quality time with her on Sunday.  Stay tuned for pictures!

Finals are over, let the summer begin!

I know I haven't blogged in a little while, but be patient with me, I had finals due.  Specifically, I had two papers due on Monday and one due on Tuesday, but now they are all turned in and I am free for the summer!  The whole, glorious summer stretches out in front of me like the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz.  There are so many things I want to do, including doing nothing at all, something I never have time for during the school year.  However, I won't be able to get into too much mischief, since I will be at the American History Museum three days a week.  Yours truly will be interning again at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, but like in any good sequel I hope to put the original to shame.  I'll be working on a special project with their preservationist at the American History Museum working on some photographic collections that need to be moved.  We'll be inventorying, rehousing, etc.  I'll even be working with some glass plate negatives from the 1800s!  How cool is that?  You what's literally cooler though?  I'll be working in the deep freeze part of the time.  It's 45 degrees in there, to preserve film and negatives, mostly.  But I'll only be working in there a half hour at a time and parkas are provided.  That's right, I'll need a parka in July.  I think it's all wonderful, to be perfectly honest.  It'll be great to get more experience in an archives!  I'm also looking forward to getting a Smithsonian intern badge again, I have to admit, I love all those little perks like staff entrances, parking under the Air and Space Museum, discounts at the gift shops, free iMax tickets, etc.  All in all I think I'll have a grand time. 

We've got other plans for the summer, of course.  We'll be visiting Mike's mom next week in Utah (yeay! she's such a sweetheart!), and we're hoping to visit Alison in Ocean City, we always have a great time with her.  We might take a little break and go to Williamsburg to ogle our land again and see how the little lambs are growing up.  We're already getting ready for the big community yard sale in June.  I've got a pile of stuff in the sunroom ready to go but there'll be more.  There's all kinds of stuff we need to clear out of the house before we can move!  Then, of course, there's Mike's birthday in July, and little Sam's birthday too.  We want to spend lots of time with the grandkids this summer too.  So all in all I think it'll be a great summer.  Stay tuned!

I'm buying a copy of Pocahontas

Right now I'm in the middle of finals.  Finals suck.  But reading about someone working on finals also at least moderately sucks, so here's one of the other things I'm thinking about when I'm not about to tear my hair out over my papers.

I'm going to buy a copy of Disney's Pocahontas.  It's another one of those wince-worthy movies I was talking about the other day.  Granted, disney heroines came a long way between Cinderella and Pocahonats.  Pocahontas isn't the helpless please-rescue-me-because-I-can't-take-care-of-myself-type princess that Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty are.  But I still wince.  Because it's shoddy history.  Really shoddy history.  And I'm studying to be a historian.  I don't read popular history books, the crummy scholarship in most of them, the exaggerations, assumptions, and empathizing set my teeth on edge.  It's sort of like the feeling you might get if you cleaned your kitchen from top to bottom, so everything is spotless, and someone comes in tracking mud and leaving crumbs everywhere and then wonders why you're mad.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good miniseries.  Forsyte Saga, Pride and Prejudice, whatever it is just give me a bowl of popcorn and I'm there.  But those miniseries are based on novels, they were never meant to be true in the first place, it's always been entertainment and always will be.  But the way disney takes historical figures like Pocahontas and John Smith, takes the already romanticized notions surrounding them and blows them up beyond lifesize...well, it just sets my teeth on edge.  And don't even get me started about stereotypes of Native Americans in there.  Although I probably should confess at this point that I do have some songs from Pocahontas on my ipod, though it is embarrassing.  It's not my fault they're catchy. 

So why am I buying a copy of Pocahontas?  Because Mike has some adorable grandchildren and we're moving to Williamsburg (yes, those two ideas are connected, bear with me).  We're hoping that said grandchildren (and their parents of course) will spend some time visiting us and seeing the sights in the area.  And, rightly or wrongly, the quickest way to get a kid to start to grasp the significance of something like Jamestown (which is very near Williamsburg) is through Pocahontas.  It's entertaining and roughly tells the story.  That should get them all excited to go.  Fact is, as much as my meticulous mind hates to admit it, Pocahontas and others of its ilk do have a purpose and it's a good one: get kids hooked into history.  I remember when I was a kid, it was things like Aladdin and other similar movies that made me really want to learn the real history.  They may make me wince now, but they helped draw me in and make me want to learn back then.  So they're not all bad. 

Look at our new neighborhood!

Here's Mike and the puppies walking up our street.

One of the many lovely houses in our new neighborhood.

The park which is behind our lot.  The puppies are going to love walking around there every morning!  It is literally behind our lot.  You see that sliver of a little white house way off in the distance?  That house is next to our lot.  It's such a lovely park and I think we may have seen some deer off in the distance.

One of the peaceful little paths in Colonial Williamsburg, about two and a half blocks from our lot. 

Some of our new neighbors in the historic area.  These neighbors in particular have young children, which might be annoying, but they seem to be the quiet type. ;)  Besides, they're so cute!

The lambs though don't seem to return our admiration of them, they ran off!

Below are some of the gorgeous gardens within easy walking distance of our new lot:

We own land, and we've got pictures!

We're still just so excited!  We'll take more pictures later but here's a start:

That's the lot!  Basically everything you see (minus the neighboring house) is now ours.  At the moment, that consists of a lot of bamboo, some trees, and grass that is knee-high.  But come back in a couple of years and hopefully you'll see a lovely little house.  We're so pleased with this lot, it's two blocks from Colonial Williamsburg, and only a mile to William and Mary!  It's a lovely neighborhood (I'll be putting up more pictures later today), very peaceful.  What's more, we got it cheap, we paid less than the assessed value.  Frankly, we were surprised that they didn't make a counter offer and just took our first offer, but that's up to them I guess.  It is a small lot, only .12 of an acre, but we want a small house and yard that's easy to care for, so it's actually a great lot for us.  Our lot is small, but the funny thing is that the city of Williamsburg used to divide up the land into very, very small lots, so our .12 acre lot is actually three lots that were combined!  I can only imaagine how small they were.  Check back later tonight for pictures of our new neighborhood!