When I was a little girl, my grandmother knitted a long Christmas stocking for me, with Santa’s face on the front and my name across the top.  She also made one for my parents and sister, so we all have matching stockings.  When Brannon joined our family, my mom wanted to get Brannon a stocking too.  To our surprise, she found someone who hand knits stockings with the same pattern and sells them on ebay.  Apparently these stockings are popular items, because she had to order one 6 months ago to get it before Christmas.

Yesterday we received a package which contained my 29 year old stocking AND a brand new, hand knitted stocking with Brannon’s name on it!  It matched mine almost perfectly.  He loved it! Now I was really starting to catch the Christmas spirit.  I began visualizing where we could hang our stockings in our apartment, since we have no fireplace or mantle

Today, I discovered a most unpleasant surprise. I’d left the stockings on the kitchen table last night.  When I went into the kitchen this morning, Brannon’s stocking lay in a heap on the floor.  To my horror, I picked it up to find that Santa’s beard had been destroyed!  I had a hunch as to who the culprit was. I turned around and yelled in my strictest disciplinary voice, “Who ate Santa’s beard?!!?!”  Lindy crept into the room with her ears back and her tail tucked.  She had guilty written all over her face.

In the end, Brannon and I got a good laugh out of it. Santa’s dismantled beard has yet to be found, so I’m pretty sure she ingested it.  That may make for a difficult poop in a couple of days. I guess Lindy  just caught a little too much Christmas spirit.

So far this week I have experienced two incredible things.

Last night we went to a Cuban restaurant called Guantanamera.  I was very impressed!  Authentic Cuban food, live music, and a really lighthearted atmosphere makes it one of my new favorite New York discoveries.  I had the traditional Cuban steak, which was grilled with sweet onions and an amazing conglomeration of spices.  (I even ate all of my onions, and I am normally not an onion fan!) For desert we enjoyed a caramel flan with perfect creaminess and consistency.  I have no idea if this is a popular place, but I totally recommend it! Check out their website for more details.

Tonight, we saw a truly spectacular show from Over the Rhine at the Highline Ballroom.  I have seen them play numerous times, and it never gets old.  In fact, I think tonight’s show was the best performance I have heard from them yet.  They held nothing back.  The set list was fantastic.  Karin wailed like never before on B.P.D — I will never listen to that song the same again.  Sigh….  I guess NYC really brings out the awesomeness in everything. At least, it is certainly true for Over the Rhine.

So there are two more NY bright spots for my collection.

St. Nicholas School (the view from our bedroom window)

Well, the last three weeks have flown by.  Due to my sick little macbook barely waking from her deathbed, unpacking, job hunting, and Thanksgiving, I have not been diligent to keep up the blog.  As usual, I will resolve once again to be better about posting regularly. So much has happened in such a short bit of time, it would be impossible to share all of it.  So instead, I’ll just list some of the highlights to give an overview of our first weeks here in the big apple.

1.  I believe I am technically an official New Yorker now, since I got myself a pair of black boots and a NY State Driver’s License.

2. Lindy absolutely loves the doggie play park near our house.  We take her twice every day and she has made many new friends.  She gets so excited at the mention of the park. We have met a few dog owners in our neighborhood this way too.  It has been an easy and fun way to meet people.  But the best part is watching Lindy out run all the other dogs.

3.  Brannon and I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan home to Brooklyn. The view was awesome and it was such a nice evening walk. The iphone photo doesn’t do it justice though.

4. Subway Mariachi bands make me happy.  Their songs are so joyful.  Sometimes a group will get on the subway car and play while we ride from Bedford to 1st Ave. There is one band that I have seen about 5 times this week on different subway platforms.  They are three guys who play guitar, ukelele, and pan flute/recorder. They  make me smile the most.  I gave them a dollar the last time I saw them.  I’m going to keep my camera on me in hopes of getting a video of them.  Keep an eye out for that post.

5. I made a turkey for Thanksgiving and it was a success!

6. Job hunt: I’ve met a few recruiters and had a couple of interviews, but no luck yet. Sigh.

7. My good friend Jenna from my Munich days is here for a visit this week!  I haven’t seen her in 5 years so this is a great treat.  We are going to eat Cuban food tonight.  I am anticipating the happy Cuban mariachi music.

Now, I’m heading out to the laundromat, so thats all for now.

After a very long weekend  (5 days) we are finally (almost) settled in our new home.  Today we ventured out to Manhattan for a little shopping. Our mission was to find a collapsable shopping cart, a metal trash can, and a few remaining groceries.  I guess every “first” in a new place holds a unique memory.  When our train got to the Bedford stop, 3 men with guitars boarded.  They began to play a lively Mexican tune, singing in sweet harmony as the train rattled on toward Manhattan.  At this, Brannon made a great comment about why he loves living in New York.  ”How many times have we been serenaded by a mariachi band on the way to Woodruff Road?”  Zero. I suppose this is just another normality of the city.

We made our way to Bed Bath and Beyond on 6th Avenue where we found the trash can and cart. The cart came unassembled and we were wondering how we were going to carry a huge trash can, cart parts, and groceries all the way back home.  Again, the ingenuity of the city came to the rescue.  At checkout, the clerk simply asked, “Would you like to have this assembled?” To our surprise there was what seemed to be a full time product assembly guy waiting by the door for everyone’s assembly needs. “This is brilliant!” I thought.  Where else but here?  :)

Trader Joe’s was a madhouse, with the line stretching the circumference of the store all the way to the entrance.  But they had all the groceries on my list, and that made me very happy indeed.

We left quietly this morning, just as the sun was coming up.  We packed all of our belongings tightly into a U-Haul truck and our border collie snug in the backseat of the cab. I didn’t look back as we drove away from our three bedroom-two bathroom cottage. I suppose there are always mixed feelings when embarking on the next great adventure in life.  For me, there is sadness in leaving memories and square footage behind as well as excitement and wonder in what lies ahead.  I decided this morning, that when moving, it is best to look forward rather than back.  The whole world is in front of us.  The magnitude of moving to New York City hasn’t quite sunk in for me yet.  Perhaps it will hit me when we drive over the Verrazano bridge tomorrow morning and the sun catches the edges of the steel skyline. Regardless, I know that the city is exactly where we are supposed to be.

For tonight we are settled into our hotel room in Pennsylvania.  The pillows are calling me to sleep like Christmas Eve.  For the sooner we sleep, the sooner tomorrow comes.

Due to excessive busyness and a few technical difficulties, I have not been able to post in quite some time.  But, never fear — all is well, and the Sorting Shelf is back open for blogging.

There is far too much to report since my last post, but since I love lists so much, I’ll lay out the bullet points.

• 1. Brannon went to Albania for two weeks.  I was almost lost without him!
• 2. While he was gone, I undertook the daunting task of refinishing/fixing my grandmother’s dining room table and chairs.  Two long weekends and some elbow grease finished the job just before Brannon returned.
• 3. I tackled multiple sewing projects all at once, including seat cushions, lampshades, 5 new bags, an embroidered baby quilt, an improvised baby bunting snuggie, and my first commissioned project (to be shared upon completion).
• 4. I started teaching Brannon to swing dance.
• 5. I have been attempting to implement a regular exercise routine (so far rather unsuccessfully).
• 6. U2 concert in Atlanta — we waited in line for 8 hours, got standing spots about 5 feet from the stage, waited for another 2 hours, and experienced possibly the biggest show in the history of rock-n-roll.

So, as you can see, it has been a crazy month. But not as crazy as I expect the coming month to be.  Our move to Brooklyn is quickly approaching.  We’ve been looking for apartments this week, and I gave two weeks notice at my job.  We hope to be moved in early November!  It is my plan to provide regular updates of our progress.

Thanks, readers, for your continual patience and encouragement.

Goodnight.

One of my very best friends, Carol, drove down from Kentucky this weekend to visit me.  She is one of the few people with whom I can do absolutely nothing and still have a great time.  But this weekend we did plenty.  On Friday we made a mexican fiesta dinner.  On Saturday we went antiquing at Shinola.  If you like funky, artsy, old stuff, you’ve got to check out Shinola. We love it.  It’s on Wade Hampton Blvd. just before you cross Church Street.  After church on Sunday we had Barley’s for lunch and took a much needed afternoon nap.  Then came the real fun.

Carol needed a pillow to spice up her bedroom at home.  So we opened up my blanket chest and began searching for the perfect fabric.  The colors in her room are pink, orange, and green.  Finally, we found a piece that was exactly what she wanted.  Carol sewed buttons on the front in varying designs.  I tried the darning foot on my sewing machine for the first time and managed to quilt some free form doodles on the front for texture.  Then I sewed it all up and we stuffed it as full as we could.  The finished product was just right.  The colors worked well together, and the combination of the buttons and the quilting really made it interesting to look at.  It is one of the pieces that makes me most proud.

Sadly, I had to see Carol and the pillow go back to Kentucky this afternoon.  It was a wonderful time of fun and craftiness.  Carol seems to stir my creative membranes, so hopefully she will come back again soon.

Thanks to Brannon for shooting the pillow pictures.

[Front of Pillow]

[Close Up]

[Back of Pillow]

I started over on my risotto experiment from last night and things worked out much better.  I served it with cubed steak in a mushroom marsala sauce.  I added more liquid to the rice this time and also added in some marsala for a special touch.  As promised, I’ve put the recipe below.

Beef Marsala Risotto

1 cup risotto

3 cups beef stock

1/2 cup marsala cooking wine

1 large garlic clove

olive oil

mozzarella cheese

Saute garlic in olive oil on medium heat until it turns golden.  Add the dry risotto and saute with garlic until all rice is the same white color.  (about 4-5 minutes)  Add one cup of beef stock.  Stir continually until all liquid is absorbed.  Add remaining stock 1 cup at a time in the same way.  When you add the last cup of stock, also add the 1/2 cup of marsala.  Stir continuously until all liquid is absorbed.  Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 grated mozzarella cheese until melted. Serve immediately.

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In addition to the risotto dinner, I decided it was the perfect day to make a Fall desert. My husband absolutely loves apples and any sort of apple desert, and my friend Carol is coming tomorrow for a Labor Day weekend visit.  So, in light of the season, Brannon’s love of apples, and Carol’s arrival, apple pecan muffins were in order.  I used Ellie Krieger’s recipe from her book ,”The Food You Crave.”  I highly recommend it.  Brannon recommends it too.  The first thing he said after biting into a muffin was, “I really think this is the best thing you’ve ever made.”

Enjoy!

Tonight I’m sitting on the couch eating cheese and crackers for supper after my beef broth risotto experiment didn’t quite work out.  I ate some of it, but it turned out too crunchy with a very concentrated beef flavor.  Apparently, risotto requires more liquid that the usual proportion when it is cooked in small amounts.  I’ll try again tomorrow night.  If it works out, I’ll post the newly tweaked recipe.

So, cheese and crackers and NPR it is for me tonight.  Brannon is working, and I’m thinking I really need to start a new book.  I recently finished Leif Enger’s newest novel, “So Brave, Young, and Handsome.”

While his second novel was not as gripping as the first, “Peace Like a River,” it was still a wonderful narrative that takes the reader on an adventure into the wild west.  For me, the beginning required a good bit of patience.  I had a hard time relating to the main character and accepting the apparent absurdity of his adventure.  Leif Enger’s writing, however, did not disappoint.  About a third of the way in I was hooked. The protagonist is a failed writer who decides to accompany a neighbor on a trip to mexico to find his long lost wife.  What he didn’t know, was that his neighbor was actually a wanted criminal.  Their journey takes many unexpected turns as they attempt to complete their mission, while on the run from a Pinkerton detective.  I reccomend this book for those of you who enjoy fiction, especially stories set in the American west.

As for me, I think I will dive into the third book of C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy, “That Hideous Strength.”  I’ve taken my time reading the first two, so it will be satisfying to finish the series.  I highly recommend this set of novels as well.  They are very insightful and intriguing, to say the least.