Joulutortu!

Well we've been scrambling to get ready for our drive to MN for Christmas. We will be leaving this morning and I'm still up packing. It's been a crazy week tying up loose ends at work, trying to visit with friends and baking x-mas treats.

I tried another ethnic treat this year--Finnish Christmas tarts. They were lots of work but very tasty. Thankfully Troy likes to roll out dough because I found that part very annoying.



We brought some of the treats over to Peter and Jaimee's last night. I wanted to get a chance to see them and Ian before we left. Ian is hilarious. You can tell he has foodie parents because he already enjoys eating (and talking about) pistachios and pomegranates. He also showed us his new play sushi set. It has little wooden pieces of sushi, roe and ginger and a play knife. He handed me a piece and when I asked what it was he said "tuna roll." I love that a nearly 2 year old knows more about sushi than I do!

What a smart little boy, he loves being read to and reading to others (including their cat Sally).


Well, back to packing. Nothing like waiting til the last minute! Luckily there will be plenty of time to nap on the 21-hour drive. :(

We'll be back on the 29th so probably no blog posts until after that. Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season!

Yoga Baby

This is pretty special and cute--I just had to share it. How many 15-month olds do you know that do downward-facing dog?

Potica!

One of the wonderful sweets that I grew up with was a Slovenian walnut bread called potica (puh-teet-sah). My grandmother (former president of the National Slovenian Women's Union) makes the most delicious potica you could ever imagine. For Christmas and Easter, grandma's potica is a treat that we all look forward to. And for my sister's recent wedding reception, each person was served a piece of grandma Jean's potica along with their slice of wedding cake.

Potica is prized not only because it is so delicious, but because it is so labor intensive. Despite being interested in carrying on ethnic traditions and enjoying cooking as much as I do, I have never attempted to make it myself--until this weekend.

My friend (and fellow potica-lover) Courtney and I planned a day of baking on Saturday. We were thinking we'd make a number of different kinds of Christmas cookies. Then Courtney came across a copy of a Slovenian magazine--the Zarja--that my mom had sent me. It had a recipe for "short-cut" potica that used Pillsbury crescent roll dough (rather than homemade). We decided that we were up for the challenge. Here we are, hard at work.

Here's me rolling out the dough--this step is really tough because you are supposed to get it very, very thin but of course not break it.

Courtney, preparing the walnut filling.

Spreading on the walnut filling. The next step is to roll it all up like a jellyroll.

The final product. Not nearly as good as grandma Jean's but still pretty damn yummy if I do say so myself!

I had been thinking I'd give my potica away as a holiday treat but I'm starting to have second thoughts....

Hope your holiday season is full of much joy and wonderful treats!

'Tis the Season

Sorry for the lapse in posts but I've been terribly sick with a stomach flu of some kind. I'm finally feeling pretty normal this evening and was able to eat almost a full meal. It always amazes me when I'm taken out by a brief illness like that just how much I take my health for granted.

I got sick just in time for our downstairs neighbor and friend Liz's holiday party. While all our friends were downstairs drinking homemade eggnog, eating yummy food and listening to Christmas records on Saturday, I was barfing my guts out. Rotten luck. Let's just hope that's it for sickness for the season. I'll knock on wood.

Troy and our friend Ted have been busy this week making light and noise emitting tops for Let There Be Light--an event coming up on Friday at the local community college. Ted and his wife Rebekah had a piece their last year. It's all about artists gathering to create projects that somehow deal with light--based around the winter solstice. It takes place outside. You walk around with a flashlight, it's a really cool event.

Anyway, they've been up until all hours for the past several nights, soldering at the dining room table and cutting and sanding things in the shed. I was going to take a picture of the mess on the table when I got home today to post but Troy surprised the hell out of me and had the house really cleaned up when I got home. No picture for you to see but a very happy girl!

My friend Courtney has moved to Virginia now. I visited her last Friday before I got sick at her lovely log home in rural Virginia. She's coming this weekend to stay with us and we're going to make Christmas cookies so maybe I'll have some interesting food pictures to post.

I feel like I'm very behind this year. Not hardly any shopping done and no Christmas cards written. This class has sapped a bunch of my free time. And it's been very busy for me at work. We have a big event at the Art Museum tomorrow night that I'm helping to organize. After that, I hope to have some more time and less anxiety. But crazy enough, after that it's only a week before we start heading home to Minnesota for Christmas!

A Wild & Wonderful Thanksgiving

For years we have been cooking a full Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, usually inviting grad students and friends to share in the bounty with us. Last year I was lucky enough to have my mom, stepdad and brother visit over the holiday. But this year seems to have been especially hectic, so Troy and I decided that this time we would spend it alone.

For a long time we have understood that getting away together, especially to the woods or to the ocean, is a requirement if we are going to maintain both our relationship and our sanity. We decided to stop giving "gifts" or at least things for our birthdays and x-mas. Instead, we save money so that we can have experiences together--going away for a weekend together at least twice a year.

I scoured the internet and was able to found a cabin near Seneca Rocks, West Virginia that had a big fireplace, hot tub and also allowed pets. We did all our cooking on Wednesday night (Troy actually stayed up all night long cooking the turkey, but that is another story that I'd rather not get into) and brought the feast with us on Thursday to the cabin.

I was a bit put off at first by the fact that the cabin was right off the highway and not at all secluded in the woods like I had imagined.

And the decor left something to be desired.


But soon we drove a mile or two and this was our view.


There was even some snow in the higher elevations, which was really fun for us because we really miss it. So we went for a walk, had a beer and checked out the scenery. All these things made me feel much better.




And our Thanksgiving dinner that evening was delicious. Troy made a really yummy no-bake pumpkin pie.


The next day we checked out Seneca Rocks--a well known rock-climbing destination.

Although Troy would have love to climb, we don't have the equipment or the expertise to go it alone. I settled happily for a hike to an observation point near the top. It's about a 900-1000 foot elevation gain, a fair hike by most people's standards, but Troy was itching to take side trails and do some scrambling.

I had to reign him in on this one, with a little help from posted signs along the trail.

It was a breath-taking view once we got to the top. The pictures don't really do it justice.



All in all it was a really great trip. Although these getaways never seem quite long enough, we got some good relaxing time in and feel pretty refreshed.

Music Robots & Busy Lives

It's been a busy term for Troy, getting the music robots ready for touring. As many of you already know, he spends hours on end working--usually staying up quite late. He often tries to pull all-nighters. I typically find him passed out on the couch in the morning. Sometimes he has his glasses still on and a book or his laptop on him and all the lights in the house are on. I'm trying to get him to get better about stopping and coming to bed. But next he moves on to take his comprehensive exams so we'll see how that goes...

Troy and his colleagues and the robots had a successful tour last month up the east coast. The robots performed well--no major technological problems, which I feel is a huge feat, considering all the intricacies and things that could potentially go wrong. They had a great final concert last weekend in C-Ville. It was nice to finally see the robots in action. I didn't take any pictures at the concert but have taken some of Troy, Steve, Scott and the robots along the way. They've come a long way!


Here's some press about the tour: http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=6971
There is an audio link of them talking about the bots on the right side too. Here's their website, which is need of an update but has some more info: http://www.expressivemachines.com/index.html.

Things have been busy for me too since I've been taking a graduate level course at U.Va. in the English department. Trying to work full time and take a class has been challenging. I've done it before but I guess I just have been taking my free time for granted too much lately. I have to force myself to sit down and do the homework, generally cramming it all in on Sundays or the day before class.

Needless to say, I think we are both looking forward to the end of the term. Next week for Thanksgiving Troy and I are rewarding ourselves with a little retreat in Seneca Rocks, West Virginia for some much-needed r&r. Can't wait!

Virginia Whisky and Old Friends

This past weekend Troy and I ventured to Sperryville, VA to meet up with my dear, old friend Courtney and her husband Kevin. When we got to town Kevin was working and Courtney was napping so we took the opportunity to visit the Copper Fox Distillery where they make Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky. Troy was more than thrilled.



This is a three person operation, two brothers and their mom. The mother gave us a tour and chatted with us and explained the intricacies of whisky-making for over an hour. She was really sweet. Wasmund's is unique because they malt their own barley--they are the only distillery in the U.S. to do so. And instead of using peat (as you would with Scotch) they use fruitwood to give the whisky a distinctive taste. Unfortunately we didn't get to taste any as they can't give tastes or even sell bottles out of the distillery (stupid ABC laws). Not that I'm the biggest whisky fan, but Troy is. A bottle mysteriously has already appeared in our liquor cabinet (they sell it in Charlottesville).


Next we met up with Courtney who was in town for a couple of weeks to check out the area and find a house to rent. Kevin has been working at his cousin's restaurants, the Thornton River Grille and Rudy's Pizza, helping out with whatever is needed and learning all aspects of the business for a year or two. His dream is to open a restaurant in northern MN but he has spent most of his career as a salesman until being laid off this year. I am thrilled to have them moving within an hour of us!

We hung out by a bonfire and then went to eat at the Thornton River Grill. I would highly recommend it, the food was fabulous! Can't wait to go back.

We drank entirely too much and stayed up way to late but it was a blast to see them.

Here I'm covering my ears for fear of one of Courtney's famously horrible wet willy's. Did I mention we've been friends since 6th grade?

They are going to be living in such a pretty area. It's a really nice drive to get there once you get past 29N.


The next day I was terribly hungover (I am getting old) but Troy and I managed to go for a short hike on the way back at White Oak Canyon. It was a beautiful, the pictures hardly do it justice but I know lots of pictures are more fun to look at on blogs than lots of words are.