It has been an awfully rough week. Lots and lots of schoolwork and big disappointments in the personal life department. Good think I can count on Gadamer and apple tarts to get me through it. And good friends! Just a week and a half to go.

I promise

I haven't forgotten about you, little blog. Things have been pretty hectic. I still sit and daydream in seminar about new projects and fabrics instead of caring very much about Platonic forms. They don't exist, okay? Done. All of my recent projects have been documented on flickr, but maybe some narrative would be nice. Right now I'm writing a paper on the craft as practice resistant to the culture industry, as discussed by Adorno. That counts, right? Okay, back to work. If I don't post more during the semester, then I'm sorry, but I can promise lots of posts over Christmas break. Sarah's Fabrics, here I come!

Vor zwei Jahren

Almost there
Originally uploaded by rolled_trousers

When I was staying with my host family in Waldkirch (gosh!) two years ago, each Sunday my host mother would make Zwetschgenkuchen. Last fall I found a recipe that came close, but it was a little too sweet and more cakey. But then! I found this recipe for Plum Kuchen in Gourmet and was absolute delighted to find out that it called for yeast and Greek yogurt. I know my host mother made hers with Quark, which is sort of like sour cream, sort of like creme fraiche, sort of like yogurt and not readily available in the States. I was super excited to try this recipe out, and I was feeling a little low this morning, so it seemed like a perfect time to give it a shot. And I couldn't be happier. The plums retained some of their texture and the flavor was great. The cake part was very tender and moist and the yogurt really gave it a whole other dimension and just a little bit of tang. The recipe did call for some zest, but I was fresh out of that. I'm not sure how noticeable the difference would have been. The cake was ready around 1pm and it's 10pm now and the cake has been completely eaten. I'm pretty sure Sam ate about half of it and I definitely had my fair share. The recipe says it can be made with any stone fruit, so I think I might try it with apricots. When I was in Trier I would get apricot pastries a lot and I sure wouldn't mind more of those.

Well, David left yesterday morning. It was a pretty great weekend, though. I went to Athens and had a good time visiting with his friends and family. Two of his friends got married. It was a very nice ceremony at the chapel at the Georgia State Botanical Gardens with a small reception afterwards. It was the first time that I got to meet a lot of his frie

nds, which was fun, and it was a fun way to spend the last night together. Before I left, his mom gave me a bunch of tomatoes and peppers from her garden. Tonight I ate the tomatoes with some fresh green beans and just a bit of salt and pepper. Simple and delicious. I think after all the cake I was ready for something on the fresh and salty side.

This evening it rained pretty heavily. After dinner I sat out on the porch to watch the rain and trees and occasional jogger. It made me super, super homesick. My mom and I loved to sit on the porch at our old house, drinking coffee and watching the rain. And since my whole family just got back from a trip to Colorado without me (I was, of course, invited, but I couldn't work it out) and David just left, I was pretty bummed. Actually, this really happens every August. I never want summer to be over and I never feel like I've been able to spend enough time with people and doing things. I am looking forward to the start of the semester, but I'm dragging my feet along the way. I never regret what I'm doing, but I do wish I didn't have to move across the country and/or world sometimes. But! I wouldn't know about things like Zwetschgenkuchen if I didn't, so that's okay, right?

p.s. This did cheer me up:

Yipes!

Holy cow, I'm sitting at my computer and just looked out the window. There is a spider of at least four or five inches in length and two in girth making a window right in front of me. Maybe I'm glad the windows are painted shut? I think I can appreciate it much more if we each stay in our respective spots.

The End of Summer and Some New Things

Oh gosh. This has been a pretty hectic (and exciting!) month. I went back to the Midwest for a bit, moved into a new house, and have been tackling all sorts of craft projects. So, a recap! I've been imaginary blogging the whole time, so I probably have more to include than really ought to be included, but here goes.

Betsy flew to Atlanta in mid-July and we drove back to Kansas together. I didn't have a ton of time to stay in Kansas, but I got to have some steak, see my family, and buy fabric for the binding of David's quilt (you see how my priorities are ordered, right?). I headed back to St. Louis, where I had the wonderful honor of serving as a bridesmaid in Rachel's wedding. It was a beautiful affair and I'm super stoked for Rachel and Mike's new life together. It was also great to have my family and David there, plus all of my favorite high school buddies. Oh, and the reception was such a blast and I danced so much that I threw up (TMI? sorry! and I had barely anything to drink). I still can't believe we got Rickrolled. Crazy good.





David and I also made a much-awaited-for trip to MoBot. The weather was pleasantly cool for July (though that isn't really saying much) and I especially enjoyed getting to show him one of my very favorite places. When I'd gone to the Gardens in March, the sheep and rams were gone and I was worried that they'd be missing for good. Imagine my excitement when we rounded the corner by the Children's Garden and saw them! I don't think David had quite the same enthusiasm, but he was a good sport. Also, the little girl in the picture behind me somehow "got stuck" on top of the lamb. Pretty sure she was just being stubborn. But can you blame her? We also did all of the other good stuff like walking in the rose garden, going through the maze, and feeding the fish. So good!



So, following that, David and I drove to Atlanta and two days later I moved. The new house is just two blocks from downtown Decatur, so a quick walk to the post office, bank, coffeeshops, boutiques, and my favorite pubs. The neighbors have all already introduced themselves and I'm really liking the feeling of being in a community. Today I walked to one of the coffeeshops to study some French. In reality I did more people watching, but it was so nice to sit under the awning outside and watch the drizzle and babies go by. Lots of young families! School must have just started because I saw lots of kids walking home from the local Catholic school, shirts untucked and bookbags dragging. A few boys who seemed a little too cool for school pulled out a guitar and ridiculous red sunglasses while waiting for their carpool. It was pretty comical.

The house is a sweet little cape cod surrounded by lots of big trees and a few hydrangea bushes and Japanese maples. All hardwood floors, spacious, and friendly with a full dining room, screened in porch, and laundry. Unfortunately the windows are painted shut and since it's a bit wooded, the house isn't as sunny as I'd like. Also, no garbage disposal, so emptying the French press has been a major pain. We've tried to make due with a cheap drip maker, but the coffee always comes out thin and tastes burnt within a matter of minutes. We should have a better maker on the way. In the meantime we just have to scoop the press out in the trash. Life is so hard, right? We've found a good amount of evidence of some mice friends, but I think the recent work in the basement patching holes and such will help that. My room is significantly bigger than at the last house and I have enough room to have my sewing machine and ironing board set up without tripping over everything. In the past week I finished David's quilt, sewed two tote bags, hemmed some curtains and got all of my goodies organized.







We've also been doing lots and lots of cooking and family-style dinners here at the 325. The night before my birthday we had some homemade Pasta, homemade sauce, salad, and fruit with a balsamic vinegar glaze. The flavor wasn't as pronounced as I would've liked, but still tasty. Sam and Timothy made me a gooey butter cake for my birthday, which was super sweet. Then last week I read that August is National Goat Cheese Month, so we trekked over to the farmer's market and bought a bunch of goat cheese, produce, and wine. I made this Beet Salad with Plum and Goat Cheese. I'd never eaten beets before, let alone cooked them, and I was mightily impressed. The boys prepared some eggplant parmesan, which didn't have goat cheese in it, but one can only have so much goat cheese. Yeah right. We ended up eating a ton of it anyway with bread and some figs and even on top of some guacamole. Yesterday I made Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Chutney. Blueberries are still in peak season here and I've been eating them out of hand and with yogurt every day this summer, even though I'd never eaten blueberries before then. But man oh man, this chutney is fantastic. I guess you can make it with frozen berries, but I'd like to think it's best with fresh. Plums are also great now and I think I'll be making some plum kuchen soon, too. Mmmm, Zwetschgenkuchen! Omigosh, I seriously can't wait.

Last weekend I went to Athens and David and I made some freezer paper stencils for my tote bags and a few of his shirts. I think they all came out really well, though they could've been a little cleaner. Really just the process of hanging out with David and making things with him was great. Most of my crafting is pretty solitary, save picking out fabric, so it's uncommonly nice to share the process and not just the results with someone else. I also gave him his quilt and he seemed very pleased. Oh! We also saw Julie & Julia. Really I would've preferred to have the whole movie about Julia because I didn't care for Julie too much, but it was still a good show. I'll be going back to Athens this weekend for his friends' commitment ceremony and then he leaves for New York on Sunday. Boo hoo! I think we'll be able to make it work and I'm going to try to make it up there in September. It will be a bit of challenge, but I'm at least up for it.





Whew, that was a lot. So, things are winding down and I'm already going to be starting my TA training on Wednesday. It's really hard to believe that summer's over. I wish I could've spent more of it in St. Louis and Kansas, but all in all it's been a pretty great go and the times back home were without a doubt extra special. I'm really excited to start classes. I just ordered all of my books today, so things are becoming a bit more real. Like an empty bank account! I think second year will be better than first, but loaded with more responsibility. In the meantime, I hope to get my quilt finished before I have too much work. These recent projects have me all sorts of excited and so I hope to set aside enough time during the semester to relax and do something constructive. Mal sehen!

Quilt!

I don't have too much time to write a full blog post now, but Rachel, here are some sneak previews of David's quilt. I'm hoping to get it basted and quilted in the next week while I still have a spare room so I c an work on the floor unimpeded. I also need to figure out what I'm going to use for the binding. Okay, so maybe this does look like a bit of a baby quilt, but I really really love it.

Om nom nom

Omigosh do I love fresh berries! In the past three days I've probably eaten about three pounds of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries straight out of hand. And now I'm making some strawberry sorbet. Yes, please!

Summer is pretty well along its way here. It's hot, sticky, and all around gross. But! That means I also have plenty of things like fresh raspberries.



That also means I have time to do things like start a blog. Rachel and I have been writing in our imaginary blogs for a while now and there seemed to be no good reason why we shouldn't actually create a real-live one. I'm not exactly a talk-things-out-loud type of person and generally a good memory, so a blog isn't exactly necessary. But I think there are some neat things that bear sharing, so here goes nothing!

And since it's summer, my schedule is pretty much just whatever I want it to be. I spend my mornings reading for my comprehensive exams and my evenings crafting (sort of). Also, having read Marcus Aurelius, whose writings are basically in the form of a journal, I figure it's not the worst thing to record things, right? And no, I'm not exactly comparing myself to Marcus Aurelius. Anyway, here is, for example, how I spent today:

A bit of Aristotle in the morning (Politics, yay!) followed by some Sextus Empricus and studying French in the afternoon. Pas mal, pas mal.

For Easter, my parents gave me a little Smokey Joe barbecue pit but with the end of the semester and spending barely any time in Atlanta since April, I hadn't yet gotten to use it. Yesterday David left for the weekend and we made a quick dinner of chicken breasts and lemon green beans before he left. The dinner was pretty yum, but even after eight months I still haven't gotten the hang of the burner temp, so we ended up with some pretty scorched shallots. I had a chicken breast leftover and figured since the weather was beautiful and I'm basically on my own this weekend (David's in NYC, Sam is in O-town, Kate's in OH, etc. etc.), I might as well make myself a decent dinner. So, chicken with herbes de Provence, roasted peppers, a little salad, some wine, and a pint of raspberries for dessert = nom nom nom!!!

I've made some progress on quilting my stacked coins quilt. I'm just going for organic vertical lines and by calling it that, I'm really just pretending I have any idea what the heck I'm doing. So far I love it. TV and cutting pieces for another project and I'm a happy girl a happy girl.

The rest of the summer is very promising. I'm stoked about Rachel's wedding and being back in Kansas and St. Louis and spending time with David and Sam and moving to a new place and studying the history of philosophy and eating lots and lots of summer produce. Tomorrow: buying some tomato plants, a trip to the fabric store, and maybe making some strawberry sorbet. Huzzah!