Favorite Things: Rutgers Wooden Spoons

Coming from a family of artists and craftsmen, many of whom do not think they fall into either category, I have a soft spot for those types of people and the items they produce. If they are local it is even better. So naturally, a local man making stunning wooden kitchen implements won me over immediately.

I met Paul Rutgers at a farmer's market in southern Michigan last summer, when I was working down their for my Master's internship. I decided to forgo all the fresh produce and baked goods I usually bought at the market every week and buy a single, Hickory, long handled spoon. I brought it back to the office after lunch and sat it on my desk where I forced all my co-workers to appreciate it. There was a lot of conversations like this:

Me: Here touch this!
Co-Worker Whyyyy?     (skeptic look)
Me: It's amazing! The wood is actually soft!!
Co-Worker: "Riiiight"    (crazy look)
Me: Just TOUCH it!      (thrusts into co-workers hands)
Co-Worker: Wow! Where did you get this? It IS amazing.

I think that conversation sums it up pretty well. These are among my favorite kitchen tools ever. Properly cared for they will last forever. Nothing, in my mind, is more beautiful than something created by human hands, intended for daily use.

Another was added to my collection by my future in-laws for Christmas last year, a walnut ladle type spoon. The next on my list are a few serving spoons for table use in a variety of wood types.

These spoons remind me daily of quality over quantity and encourage me to keep old traditions alive. From cooking and baking to knitting and quilting to wood working, these spoons encourage me to keep-on-keeping-on, even when these pastimes seem like a lot of work for the payoff. Learn a skill set that will serve you well and lean on others to fill in the gaps. For wooden spoons, I have found someone to go to.

Note: I am not promoting Paul Rutgers products, nor was I asked to. Rather, I am writing to encourage you to look for local craftsmen in your area and buy from them, because they have mastered skills that are fading in a modern world and because it helps reduce the support of the commercial industrial complex. Plus if you compare my spoons to the nicest thing the national big box home store can offer you would be crazy not to pick the ones I bought from this local man. If you don't have a local person pumping out wicked wooden kitchen tools, you can find Paul Rutgers here, and he does mail order.

Accountability

In the wedding planning process lots of people are there to keep you accountable.... most of those people want money.  Then, there are family members asking you if you have made phone calls and taken care of minor details that you are trying to pretend that if you ignore them long enough they will go away (the details, not the family members). In my case there is one more person, unexpectedly, that is keeping me on the ball on this project. Every Sunday Father Tom asks "How's your wedding dress going?" Yes, my priest is keeping me accountable for progressing on my wedding dress. Which is a good thing, because lately I've been pretty low motivation on just about everything in life, not just this dress.

Things with this dress have fallen into place and the muslin is done!

The next step is to pull out the $300 worth of lace and silk chiffon in my closet and start the REAL thing (stay tuned for more photo updates).

Thanks Father Tom, the dress is going better than I expected.

Thanks for keeping me accountable.

Patio Heaven

First things first. A big THANK YOU is in order to all of you. Over the weekend the blog hit 1,000 visitors and I am so grateful for each and every one of you who take the time to stop by our homestead while you drink your morning coffee or avoid productivity after your lunch break. Thank you! There is much in store for our urban homestead, so keep dropping in, we love having you!!

Other big news around here is that I finally got around to replacing my laptop! My poor old HP was no longer portable. The hinges had completely broken down and it sat open on the table all of the time, and it also no longer held any battery charge. For as often as I have to pack up my office and head down state to a meeting, that doesn't really cut it for me. I switched over to a MacBook Pro and while I'm in absolute LUURVE… it's been quite a learning curve and I'm still struggling to make it do basic things. So if pictures are missing or it looks like I've turned off my spell check, I'm sorry. It will get better. I promise!

Now, for one of my other loves: my patio garden. At our townhouse we have been provided an 8x8 foot patio. All personal belongings are supposed to be directly on the concrete and plants can be planted on the two side edges.  Once again, we see the theme of limited space. Future Hubby and I set off to the Habitat ReStore a month ago and bought some old oak dresser drawers (there was no dresser, just drawers…. don't fret). Future Hubby reinforced the bottoms, drilled drainage holes and covered them (on the inside) with steel mesh and put some feet on them to lift them off the ground. I covered them in a few coats of 2nd hand exterior paint from the ReStore ($8 for a nearly full gallon of Sherwin Williams exterior paint!).

I filled them with soil…. yes, I had to buy dirt. To a country girl that seems like the dumbest thing I've had to do in years, and also possibly the most surprisingly expensive as well. 

I planted my starters that have been growing on our kitchen table since March and some seeds as well. I put popcorn in the ground to the right and sectioned it off with some spare yarn and bamboo kabob skewers, to spare it from the lawn service's weed-sackers, and we have a garden!! 

This is, hands down, my favorite place in our home right now. Late afternoon often finds me in a lawn chair, with a cold drink sitting on the grill shelf, my bare feet propped up on the planter next to the pumpkins and a book in my lap. As close to heaven as you can get on an 8x8 ft patio in the city. Although, if someone wanted to send a super cushy outdoor chair, I wouldn't turn it down….

Yes, I do see the irony in posting about my love of my patio and garden when we are in the middle of a heatwave in Michigan that prevents me from being able to enjoy sitting out on the patio. By next week I'll be back out there with my iced tea and a good book.... just you wait and see!

June Reading Rundown

Photo Credit: Book Covers from amazon.com

Click Image to Enlarge

My Favorite:

As you have probably caught on by now, I love a good memoir and this month was thick with them. 52 Loaves was the fault of much inspired bread baking in our kitchen and Knitting the Threads of Time was a great knitting companion, however American by Choice was my favorite… by a long slide.

When I was commuting 5 hours round trip to grad school three days a week, I fell hard for audiobooks. They really helped pull me through my commute, especially the evening one, usually after dark. I find myself still checking out audiobooks from our local library, which has an amazing selection. American by Choice was one of my audiobooks for June, and is actually read by Craig Ferguson. One thing I dislike about the memoirs of funny people is that they are either terribly depressing and not funny at all or they come across as trying WAY TOO HARD to be funny. This book is neither. Ferguson is honest about struggles but carries his familiar tongue-in-cheek humor all the way through (for another comedian’s funny memoir check out Dawn French’s book). 

Laurie Notaro is also an excellent book if you need a good laugh. Future Hubby hates me reading her books in bed, because I end up laughing so hard I keep him awake.

This month I encourage you to read something funny! It’s summer after all, have some fun with it!

Totals: 41 (10)

Essential Skills: Photography - The Rule of Thirds

I am super excited this morning! One of my favorite people is here today to talk to you about making your photographs better! Heather and I have been friends since 4th grade and I have gotten to watch her passion for photography develop and sit for a lot of photos for her projects. She is an amazing woman with mad skills and is here to share her wisdom and answer any photography questions you might have. With all of our Essential Skills posts, if you have questions or items you want addressed in the next post in the series, please post them in the comments, and I promise Heather or I will get back to you in a speedy manner. Before I pass things off to Heather, I should note that I love the photo of Heather and her Dad that she uses in this post. I love her dad too, such a great, funny guy.

Take it away, Heather!

*****

Photography. There is a sea of conversations to be had just with that single word. My relationship to it has been as creator, hobbyist and dabbling enthusiast.

I love pictures. More so, sharing them with the world. Pictures are one way I have to share how I see things with someone else. I have a unique view. And so do you. Photography has become something that is so available to everyone that it has almost become a sort of unseen skill set, something we overlook as being special. It is incredible to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

One of my favorite photographers, Richard Avedon, has a line that I particularly like to describe how I feel about photography. “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” (If you are unfamiliar with his work, please look him up! His work is stunning). Photography is what you choose to reveal. And it is what you choose to leave out. The final shot isn’t the whole story, it is just one moment of one. How much it tells is up to you and that is what I feel is so fantastic about it!

This series is about getting down to the basics, answering questions or just general conversations about day to day dealings with photos. Because, whether you are attaching a photo to an email, taking a picture of some fancy dessert or posting your latest update, chances are that pictures are a part of your daily life. I believe everyone has the right to the title of “Photographer”.
The first time I held a camera, it was love. And not the instant kind, it was the kind you had to send off and wait with bated breath to get those 24 shots back and remember those particular moments. However, my allowance, and economy dictated that I refine my technique some and, maybe, I can pass along some of my early lessons or musings on to you...

One of the first things I learned was to consider what it was the camera was “seeing”, to know my frame. Think of your view screen as sort of sectioned off into thirds. A vertical section of top, middle and bottom and a horizontal section of left, middle and right. This sort of helps you to place your subjects. If this is a landscape, for example, you might place the land in the bottom two thirds and the sky in the top third. Or maybe the sky is particularly noteworthy and you reverse that (sky is top two thirds and land the bottom). The reasoning behind this is that the human eye is drawn to a sort of unevenness. The viewer will hardly spend any time on a picture where all the information is dead center. You want their eye to travel all around the frame and take it all in.

Photo Credit: Heather the Photographer

Please leave comments about what questions you have, thoughts you have, absolutely whatever crosses your mind! 

Introducing The Essential Skills Series

We’ve all got a list of things we feel like we should do for ourselves, but we don’t know how to do them.  Maybe it’s editing your own photos? Hemming a pair of pants or a skirt? Perhaps the most basic of car maintenance has you stumped? Or maybe you really wish you could store some of your own fresh food for the winter, but don’t know how. I’m talking about skills that everyone needs, but we too easily outsource them to others and pay too much to have them done, or worse yet, we just don’t do them at all. 

One of the big things that pulls people into homesteading is a desire to “get back to the land” or to live simply as their grandparents or great-grandparents did. Our grandparents had some mad skills though.  How do you develop those skills if you don’t have them? You ask someone to teach you. Since finding someone close by with the skills you need is not always possible, we’re going to bring those people to you. Here.

The purpose of the Essential Skills Series is for us to pass on skills that will help you save time, save money, be more self reliant or find self-satisfaction in your own home. A variety of guest posters will be popping in to share their passions and a little how-to with all of us. 

We’ll get the ball rolling next week with one of my favorite people in the world, Heather, who will be stopping in a few times a month to talk about photography, editing and storing our own photos. 

 The Artist as a Young Woman 

(aka The World's Best Selfie)

We will be bringing you lots of great stuff, but this is a learning form for everyone. So, if you are looking for help with a specific skill or have questions about conquering a task at your home but don’t know where to start, leave us a comment and I’ll do my best to find an expert to post an answer to your question!

Favorite Things Friday (ish): Flavored Simple Syrups

Yesterday, I didn’t have to be up for anything in the morning, so I decided to not set my alarm and allow myself an extra hour of sleep or so. I’m naturally up by 7:30, but it’s better than the 6am alarm that has been greeting me all week. That extra hour and a half of sleep totally threw my day into a tailspin. It was too light when I got up and my coffee was not strong enough and the rest of the day continued that way. Everything was turn over. It wasn’t a bad day, just one where I couldn’t quite get my barrings.  

It came as no surprise that my photo editing software was on the blink (it’s free and web based, so I  really can’t complain).  This morning it still is not functioning in the way I need it to, so I’m still posting some late to the party Friday fun and you will just have to make some yourself to see what it looks like!

This week’s favorite thing:

Flavored Simple Syrup

We’ve all heard of simple syrup right? That basic mixture of sugar dissolved in water with a little heat, slightly reduced, to add to cocktails to give them a sweet finish.  Well, this is BETTER!

I know I’m not the first person in the world to add flavoring to simple syrup, and I won’t take credit for it. I am going to share a few of our favorites and what to do with them though.

Future Hubby and I first made a flavored syrup one evening last fall when we were having a crazy hankering for a Dark and Stormy with some Jamaican rum we were gifted but the grocery store was sold out of Vernors (If you are from Michigan you know Vernors, if not, once you have had Vernors ginger ale, you will never accept anything else again). We came home empty handed, but still wanted those cocktails! I rough grated a finger of ginger into some near boiling simple syrup and the results yielded the BEST Dark and Stormy ever. Move aside Vernors, there is a new mixer in town!  

Our three current favorites:

Ginger Syrup  - Our favorite. Make a Dark and Stormy, or add seltzer for homemade  ginger ale.

1 c water

1 c sugar (white or natural)

1 2inch chunk of fresh ginger

Roughly grate or finely chop ginger. Add ginger, water and sugar to pan and heat until simmering. Allow to simmer until slightly reduced and syrup lightly coats the back of a spoon, but still quickly drips from the end. Remove from heat and strain into a pint canning jar. Refrigerate.

Lavender Syrup – Beautiful and floral, lovely with seltzer,  in a cup of black or green tea, mixed into lemon-aid or in a cocktail.

1 c water

1 c white sugar

3-4 tbl dried lavender (MUST be food grade)

Rough chop lavender. Add lavender, water and sugar to pan and heat until simmering. Allow to simmer until slightly reduced and syrup lightly coats the back of a spoon, but still quickly drips from the end. Remove from heat and strain into a pint canning jar. Refrigerate. (This syrup gives a much clearer floral flavor when white sugar is used. Natural sugar has a subtle flavor that will compete with the lavender)

Basil Syrup – This is surprisingly satisfying with seltzer on a hot day, would also be great in lemon-aid or in a variety of cocktails.

1 c water

1 c sugar (white or natural)

18-20 large basil leaves

Rough chop basil. Add basil, water and sugar to pan and heat until simmering. Allow to simmer until slightly reduced and syrup lightly coats the back of a spoon, but still quickly drips from the end. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature before straining into a pint canning jar. Refrigerate. (I find that letting this one come to room temp with the basil still in the syrup gives a much bolder flavor. If you want a mild flavored syrup, strain the basil out when the syrup is still hot).

We are having fun thinking of ways to use these syrups and more flavors, outside of the expected. If you try these and find a great use for one or come up with another great flavor, please share it with us in the comments!

Happy weekend!!