Spanking the Pomegranate

The alternative title for this post was "A Cozy Weekend in a Winter Wonderland." You can guess, for now, why I choose the title above.

Last weekend, like this weekend, Bowling Green was blanked in snow.  On Saturday, fat snowflakes gently fell for hours throughout the morning, with the sun emerging by late afternoon. We took advantage of the long weekend and the snow by walking Paco through the soft, glittering stuff, and by cuddling up. I also fully admitted to myself that I'm addicted to cooking and baked and cooked the rest of the time.

View from Our Front Porch

Early morning in the park

We did have a slight snow mishap. Having played too rough in doggy daycare the day before, Paco tore off part of the pad on his back paw. We discovered this on our first early morning foray with him and though he would have limped on forever (he has forsaken his desert roots and is a true snow baby), we turned around and hurried him home. 

Doing what I never thought I'd do (simply for how silly it seems), we bought waterproof dog booties for Paco at PetCo.  Strapping him in to those things was a trial and watching him first walk in them was like watching a scuba diver walk in flippers on dry land. He soon forgot about them as he was too absorbed with the snow.  He was also not limping! Alas, our victory was short lived. Because of our inexperience with velcroing dog booties on a dog, two of the booties soon fell off.

We compromised by putting one bootie on the injured foot and washing Paco's feet after walks (there's a lot of nasty chemicals people use during the winter here that dogs walk through).

Here's photo of the reluctant bootie recipient

 In addition to the multiple batches of cookies and other baked goods I  made, we also tried our hand with libations.  Per a cocktail recipe book Maya gave us, I made bacon-infused bourbon for a yet to-be-made cocktail called Pig on a Porch.  To make this, I poured bacon fat in to bourbon and let it sit for three days, first in a closet, and then in the refrigerator.  Then I used cheesecloth  to remove the fat from the bourbon. I've tried bacon-infused rye-whiskey before and found it tasty, so hopefully this will work out as well.

Pouring the bacon fat in to the bourbon

We also made brew! It was a longer process than anticipated, but it went better than my last attempt. The growler full of Chestnut Brown Ale is sitting in a closet now with an airlock full of sanitizing liquid. Three and half more weeks to find out if we're brew masters or not.

Stirring the malt and barley

Making dog biscuits from the spent brew grain, plus peanut butter, egg, and pumpkin puree

Javier with made-from-scratch fondue: cheddar, flour, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and brew

French Dimpled Rolls

Finally, spanking the pomegranate is what I call a food prep technique I learned from Bon Appétit .  It's simply an effective way for removing the seeds from the fruit and it involves hitting a halved pomegranate with a wooden spoon. I employed this technique when making a fennel, quinoa, and pomegranate salad from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi, my new favorite chef.

Fennel salad: The crown jewel of the weekend's gastronomical delights

The First Weekend as a Married Woman

This first weekend as a married woman was (not surprisingly) hardly different than any other weekend with Javier, except my mom was visiting, and Javier and I have new titles.

The only other differences were culinary in nature.  Amusingly, I was practically retro-domestic: an apron was involved and two batches of cookies were made. Also, I had my first cuisine disasters since we moved to Ohio. Hopefully these food failures aren't symbolic of our married life together.

The first disaster was with Saturday night's dinner.  After a long, heady production of prep work, the Zanzibar "pizzas" (ground turkey, onions, cabbage, eggs, and spices wrapped in fried spiced dough) I made failed miserably.  Javier and my mom graciously each ate one, but I was sad and grumpy. Luckily, my mom and I had also made a mushroom and Manchego salad, and the papaya ketchup we made to accompany the pizzas was delicious.

Burned, yet Uncooked, Zanzibar Pizzas/Yummy Salad and Ketchup

The second disaster was in an attempt to make beer yesterday afternoon. After preparing the sink for a sanitation station, lining up all the equipment, buying ice, and roasting chestnuts for the ale, my mental preparation was lacking.  A true brew novice, I threw in the yeast along with the malt because the touchy thermometer was reading sky-high and I become careless and frantic.  This sent me into a deep, five minute depression, but I rallied, buried the mash in the garden, and took Paco for walk with Javier.

Failed Brew

Culinary success came with the cookies, and they were inspired my my mom's wedding gift for us: a thoughtful--but hilarious--hand-made cookie jar with a dog glazed on it.

Javier reaping the benefits of having a wife that likes baking

Cornmeal Icebox Cookies

An Unfortunate Photo: Chocolate Snaps, Not Dog Poop

Courthouse Marriage
"You look badass"-M.G. Maloney

The Mom and Me

A Very Moroccan Christmas

Javier, my mom, and I spent the holiday season in Agadir, Morocco with my sister Alana, her husband Issam and their new baby Salim! Needless to say, Salim is adorable.  I felt like I was gazing into the baby version of my sister's face much of the time, though Salim definitely has his baba's mouth.  Salim is very sweet tempered, too. He was only a little fussy with occasional tummy trouble and was easily soothed by bounces or walks and songs, something his nana excels at.  He had a little cold so he sounded like a piglet, something that only added to his adorability. His facial expression ranged from worry to surprise to laughter within seconds, which was very amusing to watch.  Luckily, I'll see him in May, but it is very sad he lives over 3000 miles away.

Nothing need be said

Proud mommy and baba

Precious

kooky uncle

Aside from the baby focus of the trip, other things to report are that everyone suffered a cold, except my brother-in-law, who graciously brought us all medicine, water, and tissues as needed.  We spent most of our time in the basement bedroom Alana and Issam moved into because the upstairs rooms are a tad freezing. Then we discovered the magic and warmth of the enclosed porch and read and played card games obtained over Christmas in the perfect, Moroccan winter sun.

Alana's pretty, plastic X-Mas Tree

Javier's new style, supplied by Alana and Issam

Alana's very sweet maid Fatima is an amazing cook so we ate handsomely the whole trip. Crepes and Moroccan sweet treats, accompanied by hot milk, were our daily evening snack. Fatima cooked delicious chicken, goat, and lamb tagines, soups, salads, etc.  She was impressed with the apple pie I made for Christmas, but I was impressed with everything that came from her kitchen.

Goat, prune and almond tagine

Fatima's fish tangine

Another Fatima creation: semolina cake

My winter break accomplishments include reading two Jane Austen novels and learning a few more Morrcan Arabic words. These words include: "sabah alher" (good morning), "shwia" (a little), "nom" (yes?), "shbit" (I'm full), "la bes? la bes" (everything's good? everything's good.), "benin" (tasty) and a word that sounds to my ears like "buzzoff" and which means "delicious". None of these words are spelled correctly of course; it's just my phonetic version of them. I was duly impressed with myself when I recognized anyone saying these phrases out in the world or on the radio.

Though we spent most of the time in my sister's villa, we also ventured out into the mad streets of Agadir, and the calm, lovely boardwalk where my mom, Javier, and I would read at cafes and look out over the Atlantic.  Issam and Alana were also kind enough to be tour guides so that Javier could see more of the city and the surrounding area. The day before we left, Issam drove Javier and I north to the lovely beach town Essaouira with its labyrinthine medina and yummy fish dinners.

God, Country, King

How we spent many an afternoon

l'Atlantique

Boardwalk style

A side note: At least two Moroccans thought Javier was Moroccan and began speaking to him in Arabic. "La bes?" one waiter asked him and thought it very funny Javier to be American.

Mom, Javier and I spent our New Year's Eve aboard an AirFrance jet, French time, and asleep in D.C., U.S. time.  Then Javier and I relaxed for a couple days in D.C. with my mom before heading back home.

After driving for nine hours in the snow through the hills of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the flats of Ohio, Javier and I reunited with Paco and Bowling Green. Paco was elated to see us, and had been sweetly spoiled while we were gone (his sitters gave him his own stocking, toys, and gave us photos from the in-home photo shoot of him).

I'll leave you with three more Salim photos:

I could stare at this face for hours

Ahhh!!!

Hippie baby