Secondhand Wonders

For as long as I can remember, I have been surrounded by secondhand wonders. Every Saturday morning my mom would (and still does) wake up early and hit the yard-sales, furnishing our house, our toys, and our wardrobes with treasures from another person's past. While this was sometimes frustrating as a teenager as the clothes or the accessories are never exactly what one wants, as an adult I am happy that I have been raised to care less about labels and prices and more about saving money for more rewarding things, meeting neighbors, and finding a good deal.

When I moved to JP I knew that there would be a ton of yard-sales around; but as I jumped from room to room in what I considered to be other people's apartment's, I never felt like acquiring many "things" since my housing was only temporary. Now that Simon and I live together my bargain-hunting gene has set its roots. I really enjoy walking around on sunny Saturday mornings to see what sort of gems I find. Below are some of my recent favorites:


This beautiful 70s dress came from the SOWA vintage market in Boston's South End. Other than some buttoned straps which needed to be shortened (easy), it fits like a glove!


The fantastic oven mitt comes from a JP yard-sale and the super-sturdy cutting board from a local thrift store.

Buttons! Lots of them! Another great yard-sale find which my mom bought for me; and they make for pretty decor in the apartment.


Recipes are a kind of secondhand item, right? We obtain them from others who have used them before us. This recipe for rhubarb streusel muffins is another Smitten Kitchen winner. They were SO easy and they taste SO good. I recommend them to everyone.

My heart belongs to you, Jamaica Plain

There are many things I love about living in Jamaica Plain...


the outdoor dining...


the flower sales at the MSPCA...


the crafts, and the hipsters on bikes...


the ladies on stilts?!?

What??

I was walking around town this past Saturday and you can guess my surprise when I came across...


Spontaneous Celebrations! It's the Annual Jamaica Plain "Wake Up the Earth Festival"!! Technically the festival proper took place at the Stony Brook T station, too far of a walk for me, but I did catch the parade!


In addition to tall people in silly pants, the parade included the above teptraptych of Picasso's "La Guernica" - a painting which I just saw in person while in Spain!


City Feed's group featured rabbits on bikes...I'm not quite sure why, there were posters about it that I didn't bother to reader because I was too distracted by this AMAZING bunny riding a pretty fixed gear. S/he had friends on both sides to make sure s/he stayed on course.


No parade would be complete without a mariachi band.


And, of course the entire parade was led by local elementary school students.

Adorable.

Of course things like this don't happen every day in JP, but my love for this Boston neighborhood grew even more when my otherwise boring Saturday became one of sun, music, and happy people.

Wedge Obsessed

I don't think I've ever done a "fashion" post before - because, well, I'm not very interested in fashion. That said, I have a new love...its called the wedge. In the past few years I've been a bit of a wedge-ist, judging those harmless shoes far too severely and never even bothering to put them on my poor aching feet.

Oh, how naive.

Wedges. Are. Amazing.

As spring rolled in, the wedges rolled out; and I saw them in an entirely new light. They give the wonderful height of heels along with the comfort of slippers. That's right, I said slippers. I've been running around the house in these little doozies for weeks now.


The ones above are my newest pair which I haven't had the pleasure of wearing outside yet. They are from Sperry Topsider. As you can see, they are adorable and incredibly well made. I bought these as a reward for my tootsies after running the half-marathon in February.



These espadrilles are as authentic as they come, straight out of a tiny shop in Madrid. Simon's mom, sister, and I all bought a pair in varying colors. They were very reasonably priced, especially when I saw this pair at DSW at $70 for the same exact shoe (I paid 1/3 of that).

This style, also from Sperry Topsider, will hopefully be mine soon.

The only downside I've found is that none of my current pants are long enough to wear with wedges, which isn't surprising since I bought them to wear with flats. Either I need to buy some new pants...or I need to work on my patience and wait to show the world my shoes until it is skirt and dress weather...I think I'll manage.

Eggplant Parm

In a few weeks I will write a much longer post explaining why I've been absent from the blogging-world; I'll share some big changes (or lack thereof) happening in my life and where I intend to take things in the future. But for now, I am going to spend my evening relaxing and watching Burn Notice and River Monsters.

In the meantime...Eggplant Parmesan!


This recipe comes from Shape Magazine. It was super duper nom nom.

I altered the ingredients to the following list:

• 1 medium eggplant sliced into 1∕4-inch-thick rounds
• ¹/₂ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• ³/₄ cup panko
  
• freshly grated Parmesan
• ³/₄ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¹/₂ teaspoon dried basil
• ¹/₂ teaspoon dried oregano
• freshly ground black pepper
• ¹/₄ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• Cooking spray
• jarred marinara sauce
• shredded mozzarella

I had to get creative when it came to pressing the water out of the eggplant slices...



This was my first experience with eggwash and breading, and it including a coating of flour before everything else.


The mixture of freshly toasted panko crumbs, parmesan, pepper, oregeno, basil, and garlic powder had an amazing fragrance. Also, lining the baking sheet with tinfoil is a step I will never skip again. Easiest. Clean up. Ever.


Also, I didn't have a baking plan smaller than 9X13 so I used a 9" diameter skillet - worked like a charm.


These are going to go quickly : )

Beer-Brined Pork Chops with Beer-Mustard Sauce

We had a wonderful dinner last night, and it is all thanks to Women's Health Magazine and their recipe for Beer-Brined Pork Chops.

Here's how it's done...

Ingredients:

Three bottles of Pilsner
3 tbsp Kosher Salt
1 tbsp Sugar
4 bone-in Pork Chops, 1 1/2 inches thick
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
2 diced Shallots
1 cup Chicken Broth
1 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
1 tbsp Grainy Mustard
2 tsp Cornstarch
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

First marinate the pork chops in 2 bottles Pilsner, 2 cups water, kosher salt, and sugar. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours, we had ours in there for closer to 7-8.

About half an hour before you want to eat, make the sauce. I have to say, the sauce was OK, but certainly not great. I'm not going to copy the recipe into here because, well, I probably won't make it again. It can be found in the link above if you are interested.


Time to cook the chops! Since we've been together, almost 5 years, we've never made pork chops, but we did our best! First we had to remove them from the marinade and pat them dry with paper towels. Season with pepper and heat up some oil, and then it's cooking time! The recipe calls for 4-5 minutes per side, but we had to double that for the chops to cook through. We'll probably buy thinner ones next time.


Boy, were they yummy. They were moist and tasty, the marinade was fantastic. We sauteed some spinach to round everything off. Oh, we also drank the remaining beer : )