Under a Red Roof

You Say Tomato…

October 7, 2008 in Cooking + Baking, Eating by Colleen | 5 comments

I say Spicy Tomato Chutney!

Well, I’ve still got the canning bug. Over the past two weeks, I’ve made pickles, pickle relish, grape jam, plum jam, and this yummy spicy tomato chutney. Aside from the pickles, the chutney has got to be my favorite. I am a sucker for a good one. With just the right balance of heat and sweetness, this tastes great on a rye crisp with brie or cream cheese, used in lieu of mayonnaise on a sandwich, over steak, pork, or chicken. It really is an all purpose condiment!

If you’d like to make some for yourself, here is the recipe. My neighbor Katie gave me one that was meant to be kept top secret, but I misplaced it, and adapted another from Preserves, by Catherine Atkinson and Maggie Mayhew, remembering what I could from the flavor of Katie’s. I think it is just right.

Spicy Tomato Chutney

3 1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled and cored

1 pound raisins, chopped in the food processor

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup malt vinegar

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup salt

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced

1 2″ piece of ginger, peeled and finely diced

Place all ingredients in a heavy, non-reactive pan, over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, uncovered, and cook for 2-3 hours, stirring about every 15 minutes or so, to keep from burning, until it is very thick and about half of its original volume.

Put into warm, sterilized jars, seal, and finish in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. It should keep for about a year.

Welcome to my stove top. Mary, Michael, are you out there? I’ve got the horse shoe you gave us there in the corner. For anyone who’s interested, Chat Bizarre means weird cat in French. Anyway, getting back to it, here’s the chutney at the beginning. The tomatoes are still bright red and in rather large pieces.

It’s been about an hour here. You can see that the tomatoes are no longer in chunks and that it’s cooked down quite a bit. I’ll let it go a another hour and a half before putting it in jars.

Jar time. Ladle it in, leaving about a half inch of head space. This blue funnel is a life saver. We use it all the time, and not just for canning. Also, if you don’t want to use a canner – you could give them as gifts right away and skip that step. It makes anywhere from 6-8 pint size jars. Enjoy!

Tags: Recipes

Feeling Grateful

October 6, 2008 in Feeling, Loving, Thinking by Colleen | 1 comment

I’ve been having a difficult time accessing my inner Pollyanna these last few weeks, and all my usual tricks to make myself feel better – exercise, gardening, cooking, home projects – aren’t having their desired effect, so here is a little something I saw over at my friend Kelli’s to help me through.

Reasons I feel grateful today:

1. My cute partner in crime pictured above. I love him and our life together more than words can say.

2. Also, to toot my own horn – I’m pretty fond of the composition of the above photo – the reflection in the mirror and the window are soo good lookin’ (a little Seinfeld never hurts either).

3. I’ve almost made up my mind about all of these candidates, and there is less than a month left of television ads. Yippee!

4. Not-so-guilty pleasure – I got Sex and the City: The Movie on DVD! Maybe I should put some new batteries in the remote, because, gentle readers, I’m going to be pressing the pause button a-plenty analyzing all those wardrobe changes.

5. Time with good friends – Nia with Mara, movies with Bridget, and long phone conversations with Sarah, not to mention the upcoming Bunco night with the whole posse!

6. The rain is back and my grass is turning green again…

Ahh, that helped!

We’re in Tall Grass

October 3, 2008 in Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | 1 comment

There’s this funny scene in You’ve Got Mail when Greg Kinnear’s character, Frank Navasky, is considering a topic for a book, and he says he’d like to write, “Something relevant for today, like the Luddite movement in 19th century England.” Well, today’s spotlight is a bit like that.

Even though A Face in the Crowd came out in 1957, it is highly relevant to today, tackling issues like the power of celebrity, television ratings, and the Madison Avenue grooming of presidential hopefuls.

Andy Griffith plays – brace yourself my friends, this isn’t Mayberry – Lonesome Rhodes, a drunken, womanizing, self-serving conniver whose meteoric rise to fame and power starts from a jail cell where he’s been arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct. Complete with boyish good looks and a devilish laugh, he’s a force to be reckoned with.

The lovely Patricia Neal (that voice!) plays Marcia Jeffries, the woman responsible for his discovery. Despite Lonesome’s wicked ways, Marcia remains loyal and protective, until her own sanity is at stake, forcing her to make a very daring choice. Also cast is the young and handsome Walter Matthau (seriously – great glasses too!), playing the clever and equally devoted, though not to Lonesome, Mel Miller, Marcia’s savior.

With the exception of being filmed in black and white and Patricia Neal’s occasionally over dramatic hand getstures popular at the time, the movie really feels like it could have been made today. The dialogue is razor sharp and the characters achingly real. It is surprisingly racy, too – drunkenness, premarital sex, extra-marital sex, all this for 1957!

Tags: Movies

100

October 1, 2008 in Celebrating, Quoting by Colleen | Permalink

I thought I would mark my 100th post with a bit of silliness, so here is a charming photo of yours truly and my favorite bit from Monty Python.

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!

Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…

Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency!

Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope!

Our four…no…

Amongst our weapons…amongst our weaponry are such elements as fear, surprise…Oh, I’ll come in again.

(The Spanish Inquisition EXITS)

I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

The Guest Room

September 29, 2008 in Decorating by Colleen | 2 comments

Well, as promised, here is the guest room. I love it – so tranquil and pretty. Sometimes, when Gregory and I want an extra peaceful night’s sleep, we come here. The bed is a full, so it is pretty cozy with us and the cats, but it makes for such a nice change.

As for the updates to the room, here’s what I did:

The walls are painted in Butterfly Bush, trim He Loves Me (I know – how cute is that?), both from Miller Paint. I added two pictures above the bed, one I made, one I bought. The wall lamp next to the bed is the Arstid from Ikea and perfect for reading, as it has a neat swivel head. I would like to paint the little side table and make a bed skirt.

Painting this chest has been on my to-do list since buying it ten years ago. Yikes! Better late than never. The color is called Frog Belly by Pratt and Lambert. Isn’t it just perfect?

Here’s what it looks like when you’re cozied up in bed. Previously, the door and trim were the original wood. Normally I don’t like to paint wood, but this wasn’t in very fine shape, having taken a beating over the years, so the paint really makes it. The odd looking spot above the square painting (by Jamee) is a neat ceramic cicada that I bought in France last summer. Of course it is green!