Saturday, October 26, 2013

Our First Place

Every couple remembers their first place. For some, it's a fixer upper they stay in for years. For others it's a tiny flat in an exciting city. Whatever the space, it's special and sacred.

For us it's been a condo in the charming historic Demun neighborhood in Clayton, Missouri. This is where we moved in the day after Thanksgiving last year, two weeks newlywed. It's where we decorated our first Christmas tree, hosted our first Easter, played game nights with friends, tried new recipes and created traditions. It's where I nested the first few months of marriage while I got acquainted with a new city and searched for jobs. Where we learned what it meant to be roomies, husband and wife, friends through thick and thin. Where we developed the Saturday morning tradition of breakfast at the original Kaldi's. Where Jonathan dreamed up leather goods and made them a reality. Where I spent late nights hunched over our kitchen table proofreading and being thankful that I have an outlet for my passions and creativity. It was a perfect first place, better than we could have asked for, so now that we're two weeks away from moving out, I'm left nostalgic and feeling bittersweet. And since I never did a proper house tour when we first settled in, I wanted to do one now.

Back door entrance

Master bedroom


Bathroom 1 

I would call this the second bedroom, but it's been much more than just that. As you can tell, it's our bike storage, our spare closet, an occasional guest bedroom and what eventually evolved into a leather/sewing workspace. We don't like to limit our rooms, you know.

Bathroom 2, and for the sake of keeping things real, 80% of the time this is what that bathroom looks like because in the spirit of not limiting our rooms, this was usually my air-drying room too.

Living room

Bar, leather storage, etc.

Reading nook (that was rarely a reading nook but that sounds like a nice description, right?)


Dining area


Kitchen 

If you'll notice, we have a golden retriever calendar but no dog. That, dear reader, is the foremost reason we're moving out of this great first place. We have dog fever, BAD. And perfect as this place has been, its biggest flaw is perhaps the fact that we could not have a dog. Flaw #2 was that we weren't allowed to paint the two random green walls. It's a good thing we like green. 


There you have it, our special first place. We'll miss the neighborhood, the cozy open lay out and plenty of other things, but we're excited for Chapter 2. Coincidentally, we'll start our second year of marriage the day we're moved into our new place. I can't wait for all that year two will hold (read: we can't wait to get a dog!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Fruits of Our Labor

"Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with supermarket apples. They still have more or less the same health benefits and versatility in the kitchen. They just aren’t going to make your heart beat faster." - "The Pick of the Apple Orchard," New York Times
That's right, people: picking apples makes your heart beat faster. Or at least makes you feel closer to the food you eat and the harvest of this season. Jonathan and I picked apples for the first time this weekend at Eckert's Farm in Belleville, IL. It was finally a cooler fall day and we didn't have much planned for Sunday so we drove out to the farm -- along with 100 other families in the metro area, I'm sure. There are plenty of other activities at Eckert's for kids and families, but we focused our energy on the apple trees and the pumpkin patch. We picked Honey Crisp and Fuji ... 22 pounds to be exact! Yeah, we went a little bit overboard -- blame that quickening heart beat!




But almost more fun than picking all those apples is the subsequent creative fest of cooking and baking with them. We came home, ran to the store and then got cooking on the following:

Apple Pie

Chunky Apple Sauce (and Pork Chops)


But we're just scratching the surface! Today must have been national apple day or something (no offense, Columbus Day) because I was bombarded with apple recipes from friends, family and social media. Hey, I'm not complaining. Here's my shortened list for now:


Have a favorite apple recipe you think we should try? Send it my way! Seriously, this is our bottom refrigerator drawer right now (only after Jonathan took about five pounds of apples to work).