The to-cook list 2009

There are so many recipes I want to try this year. Though really, it would be more accurate to say I want to eat the results; the cooking is a means to an end. The foods I've been dreaming about consuming are varied and not too complicated - so there's no reason not to give them a go. Numbered for convenience but not by priority are...

1. Croque Monsieur (above):

Just call it Le Grilled Cheese. Or "Mr. Crunchy," which is what Croque monsiuer means in French.

I saw this sandwich on Slashfood and had to have it.

2. Dulce de leche cake:



Cuatro leches cake

I first saw this in the pages of Saveur, but tragically lost my clipping. When my husband bravely and successfully made dulce de leche by boiling a can of condensed milk, I decided this is a must-do. Now I just need to progress beyond eating the dulce de leche straight from the can.

3. Pad thai (the Chez Pim way):


I love Thai food. I can make a decent Tom Kah, curry and a noodle dish that we call pad thai. The noodle dish is pretty good, but it's not pad thai. I found and bookmarked Chez Pim's detailed recipe about a year ago, but have yet to try it out.

4. French onion soup:




French onion soup always looks so delicious t me. Everything in it sounds wonderful. But I've never made it. Maybe I'll try this version, or this one, which claims to be the best ever.

5. Peanut butter fudge treats:

I can't put the picture up just yet, because I think it poses a serious threat to thighs, hips and waists.


Seriously. You have been warned.


But how can you resist rice krispy treats....


...plus peanut butter....


...and fudge?!



This recipe combines all three into the mouth-watering treats you see above. Definitely a Sunday night project, so that they don't sit around the house all weekend but instead go to the office on Monday.


6. Infused liqueur


My husband and I have made some attempts at infusing vodka - with mint and berries - and while the results were OK (and were rapidly consumed), they weren't outstanding. This year, I want to successfully make cocktail concoctions, including limoncello, cucmber-infused gin and maybe, just maybe, a batch of Martha Stewart's
red currant schnapps.

39 days

The alternate title of this post is "The reason I stopped blogging."

Why? Because we listed our house for sale. Less than a week later, we had an open house. TWO DAYS LATER, we recieved two offers. And still had people wanting to see the house.

We accepted an offer, made an offer on another house, and moved.

Time elapsed: 39 days.

Stress level: Very, very high.

However, we now have a lovely new-to-us house in an area we like. All of our stuff seems to have made it. The dogs are settled. I now know how to install a vapor barrier (a skill that could come in handy, given the economy and the state of my company's finances).

House selling - and buying

How's this for domestic?

We're trying to sell our house. And, of course, buy a new one.

It's still amazing to me that I am old enough to a) own a house; and b) sell a house that I own. I'm a twentysomething - shouldn't I be in some tiny miserable apartment in a city?

Oh well. In any case, selling a house is a hell of a lot harder than it looks on HGTV. Sure, I've watched "Designed to Sell" and thought, duh. Those homeowners are just stupid. Clean up the crap, paint over the hot-pink walls, and fix the gaping hole in the floor/ceiling/wall. As it turns out, most fixes take more than 30 minutes.

So far in this venture, we've installed flooring and trim, painted, packed and cleaned cleaned cleaned. It may not sound like much, but the house looks WAY better than it did when I first walked into a realtor's office and said, "We're thinking about selling our house. How exactly would we do that?"

Which is pretty much what I did.

Fortunately, my ignorance and blind faith in the real estate gods led us to Edna, our super-agent. She took our case – I mean house – and told us how to make it a winner.

It worked.

Our first open house drew a surprising amount of interest (even in this market), and we are awaiting an offer. I'm psyched. With any luck, we will soon be moving to a cute college town much larger than the one in which we currently reside (read: more exciting). And the house we have our eye on is still for sale.

Holy moly. I'm on the verge of being a NOT first-time home buyer or seller.

Practically domestic

I like crafts, and cooking, and occasionally doing things like, oh, selling one house and buying another. I also like sports and reserve the right to go off-topic with sport-related posts at any time.