Pine Wreath from Scratch

Not having access to a Michael's or a TJMaxx, I got to (read: was forced to) explore the non-artistic side of me today. The girls are at that age where they love, love, love to stare at the white blinking lights on the fake tiny Charlie Brown tree we bought here last year. In an effort to make the house more festive, I decided to tackle making a pine wreath.

Trust me when I tell you that I've never made a wreath before, so this was an experiment for me. And if I can do it, so can you, should you be so inclined.

First I bent a wire hanger until it resembled a circle of sorts, making sure to keep the hook intact. That'll come in handy later when it's time to hang it-- that is if it makes it that far.

Next I ventured into the snowy yard and clipped a big bunch of pine branches.

Not knowing what I was doing, I sorted them by size, figuring that there must be some scientific approach to wreath making.

I dug through our pantry and found some floral tape I bought before we moved here. I didn't know why I bought it at the time since I've never wrapped a flower stem in my life. But I will say that I felt pretty accomplished when I not only found it, but found a good use for it.

I began to take the smaller branches and bundle them together, with the darker green side facing up. These branches were pretty fan-like so I laid them flat, trying to space them so that there weren't any gaps. When I felt like I had a significant bunch, I wrapped the stems in the floral tape.

Then I trimmed the stem bottoms to equal lengths and used more floral tape to attach to the hanger.

Thin gauged wire would have worked better to keep it more secure, but I did come across another solution: twisties! After I attached a bunch with the tape, I then used a twisty to make it even more secure. This is the back side.

Keep repeating this process until you've completed the entire circle, and if you are lucky enough like me, you'll have one of these!

And the best thing, when Sparkly Girl #2 came home from school, it was the first thing she noticed. She gasped, "Oh, Mommy, look! It's so beautiful!". Then she turned to me and asked, "What is it?".

"It's Christmas in Dushanbe", I replied.

French Onion Soup From Scratch

Yeah, you know that thing. That thing called Murphy's Law? Yep, its alive and well in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Working on a deadline last night, one which required electricity to power the internet and the printer, I thought it odd that two rooms out of eight in our house suddenly didn't have electricity. Was it faulty wiring (which is never a good thing)? A tripped fuse? A sign of some kind?

I continued on with my evening, not in the least bothered by the idea that the girls' room was pitch dark. I mean, what could be more fun than putting on your PJs and reading a book by flashlight! Hours of fun, let me tell you.

I freaked out only when I realized that not only the modem for the internet was on that power line and the printer I needed, but our entire house heating system!! And because everyone needs a good freak out once in a while, I did a bit of stomping about and a bit of loud sighing (aka, yelling). And then decided to cook.

In honor of having to stick around the house all morning while the "masters" take four hours to figure out they cannot fix the problem, I've decided to make a classic french onion soup. The kind that takes a while because you have to slow cook the onions until they are gorgeously browned and amazingly sweet. The kind that I'm normally not in the house long enough at any given time to make.

So, in the end, the weird electricity outtage's sign was to make French Onion Soup from scratch. And it's so good. I am eating my bowl right now as I type.

Start with about 3 lbs of onions.

Peel, chop in half and make thin half moons. I had about six cups.

Put some salt in a heavy-bottomed skillet and heat it quite high. You can put a few tablespoons of butter or olive oil as well, but I opted for the lower fat method. When we get to the cheese part, you'll see why.

And cook the onions, adding a bit of water to prevent scorching, for about an hour until you are left with left than two cups of beautifully browned onions. I actually think I could have gone a bit longer on the browning, but like you, I had things to do!

You want the bottom of your pan to have a layer of very brown bits of onion. So make sure you don't add too much water. If you do, you'll prevent this from happening. It's a fine balance between burnt to a crisp and nicely caramelized. You don't want your onions tasting bitter.

Now onto the good stuff. Dig out your twenty year bottle of brandy. This is from Armenia. It's good. And good for you. And good for deglazing above-mentioned pan.

Go ahead and pour about 1/3 of a cup into the pan.

And stir and stir with a wooden spoon scraping all those wonderful browned bits up. Cook this down until the brandy is well-reduced and syrupy.

Add your caramelized onions back to the pan and get yourself about six cups of broth. Because I had it, I used some imported canned beef stock. Actually, I used two cans of this plus two cups of chicken stock from bouillon.

Since my pot of thyme never really took off this year, I couldn't add a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Instead, I wrapped some dried thyme and parsley in a small piece of cheese cloth and floated that in the middle along with two bay leaves. Both needed to be picked out before serving and tossed in the compost bin.

While the soup sits for another 30 minutes or so on low, grab a french baguette, or in my case, part of something that sort of looks like a baguette.

Cut it into little rounds and place on a cookie sheet.

And toast at 350 degrees for about 10 - 15 minutes. Mine were a hair beyond and just missed being tossed in the compost bin, too. Saved, just in the nick of time!

Fill an oven-proof bowl or ramekin with the naked soup.

Toss a few toasted baguette slices on top. In my case, my tiny bowl nicely held three slices. But remember that they'll soak up the soup and puff up when you bake them again. Top them a big handful of coarsely grated cheese. I used asiago. But emmenthal or swiss would work perfectly.

Now pop this into the already hot oven on a cookie sheet for a few minutes -- just enough time to melt the cheese. Then turn on the broiler and brown the melted layer of cheese until golden.

Notice how much the toasts expanded?

Grab yourself a spoon and dig in. Perfect on a cold winter day. Without half your lights and cold radiators.

Super Saturday

Yesterday was the annual handicraft fair coordinated by the Bactria Cultural Centre. With Christmas shopping high on the priority list, I suited up and took on the challenge with my friend Brandy. We headed over to the newly opened Hyatt where the event was being held.

The Hyatt is the first high end hotel to open up in Dushanbe. Don't think that we get this kind of treatment everywhere we go in Dushanbe. It really is like walking onto another continent.

I think I just blew our cover that we live in a developing country....really, we live in Bangkok!

Ok. You are too smart for that. We really do live in Dushanbe.

I bought a few of these Christmas tree ornaments. They are miniature Tajik hats. Too cute.

While I didn't buy it, here's a traditional Tajik men's winter coat. I love them! If I were smart, I would have bought one for me to use as a robe when the internal temperature of our house reaches a high of 42 degrees in February.

Geologically speaking, I'm not an expert on the semi-precious stones that inhabit the Tajik earth, but they abound. There were necklaces galore, not to mention earrings, bracelets and....

...even mood rings.

I'm not too sure about the lover part, but sometimes an early warning sign of my mood comes in handy to others. Red = cranky = keep your distance.

There were beautiful suzani. Some old, some new. They seem to be all the rage in the U.S. right now. I could hardly open a magazine without seeing a chair or foot stool recovered in an old suzani or a pillowcase with the suzani motif.

And there were mini Tajik men and women.

And beautiful hand carved bowls made from the wood of walnut trees. This is a specific bowl that's used when making kurtob, a dish of layered bread, yogurt, onion and cilantro. Check out these pictures from www.uncorneredmarket.com.

And I bought these special serving spoons with the hopes of turning this into a salad bowl. If anyone knows how to season the wood in order to do that, I'm all ears.

More cool bowls. Not sure what kind of wood it is though.

And there were handwoven baskets. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the small ones with the handles make for excellent Easter baskets for little people to put their hunted eggs into.

And here's the drummer man. I bought three from him last year. I loved the robin's egg blue on the edges. I approached him with my kurtob bowl and he asked me how much I paid for it. After telling him, I was relieved when he told me I didn't get ripped off.

He was also selling some other hand made local instruments. Notice my ambiguity? That's because that's the extent of my Tajik musical instrument knowledge.

I bought this rug. Merry Christmas to me. Merry Christmas to me. Merry Christmas dear Julie, Merry Christmas to me. It looks great at the foot of our bed.

I bought these wool slippers for the girls. I have my doubts whether they'll wear them or not. They are pretty scratchy.

And the piece d'resistance? This old coral necklace with supposedly one hundred year old coins. The woman translating for the seller said that this was her mother's grandmother's necklace. True or not, I love it.

Merry Christmas to me. Merry Christmas to me. Merry Christmas, dear Julie, Merry Christmas to me!

I love the wonky copper coin. The only one of the bunch.

Being the thoughtful wife that I am, I opted for the gift box.

I'll do my best to keep it under the tree until December 25th.