Sidonie Straughn-Morse

Travel Photo Friday: West Texas Edition

Sidonie — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 14:56:41 +0000

I hope those of you in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Those of you not in the States, take this moment to sit back and reflect on what you missed: namely, pumpkin pie, and lots of it.

This week, a few snaps from Marfa, Texas and beautiful Highway 10, back in January 2011.

Travel Photo Friday (And a Contest Winner!)

Sidonie — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:06:08 +0000

First off: We have a winner! Random.org picked lucky number 24, so congratulations to commenter Liz on winning the Menu Bottle Grinders pictured above. Thanks to everyone who took the time to click over here and participate. I hope you’ll stick around for more beautiful objects, fun projects, and who-knows-what-else to come.

Second, my wanderlust has been ramping up lately and I’ve been daydreaming of adventures, past and future. In that spirit, I’d like to re-introduce a feature from my old collaborative blog, Making Places. My co-blogger Mallory and I used to post travel photos once a week, and it was such a nice way to take a look back through old photos that otherwise stay tucked away in a (digital or analog) photo album.

So I’ll kick it off today with a few shots from Tangiers, Morocco, February 2012.

Tangy Green Tomato Salsa

Sidonie — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:18:14 +0000

First, a PSA: Today is your last day to go enter my giveaway and win a pair of lovely Scandinavian salt + pepper grinders. I’ll be randomly selecting a winner tomorrow at 5pm PST. Go! Comment! Win!

Ok, now moving on.

Like much of the rest of the country, it’s gotten super cold here in the past week (though it looks like it might warm up again soon!). Thankfully, before the frost hit we harvested all the unripe tomatoes on our one lonely tomato plant.

Even though they weren’t yet ripe, I didn’t want to lose that produce, so I decided to make a nice, tangy salsa/relish.

A group of our friends, most of whom work on a local farm, invited us to a nacho potluck night last week (sidenote: nacho potluck=brilliant) and I brought a half-pint jar of the salsa–it was gone almost immediately. I’ll take that as a stamp of approval from a group of friends who know good food.

This bright, spicy salsa also turned a boring lunch of leftover rice + beans into something pretty delightful.

Tangy Green Tomato Salsa

All of the following ingredients are approximate; use what you’ve got and it’ll be delicious. If you decrease the spice, though, I’d recommend also decreasing the apple cider vinegar (replace some with water if the mixture is too dry), or cooking the batch longer to mellow out the acidity. ACV is powerful stuff.

30-40 small or medium-sized green tomatoes, halved or quartered
3-4 onions, chopped
3-4 red bell peppers, chopped
6-8 apples, chopped
15 garlic cloves, chopped
2 C. apple cider vinegar
1 ½ Tbsp salt
4 jalapeno peppers
4-6 tablespoons cilantro
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp black pepper

Cook the tomatoes, onions, peppers, apples, garlic, vinegar and salt over medium-high heat. Bring to boil, then turn heat down and simmer for 1-2 hours. Next, chop the jalepenos and cilantro, and add them to the pot along with the cumin. Use an immersion blender to get the consistency you want (chunky or smooth–whatever you prefer).

I only had two jalepenos on hand when I made this salsa, but here I’m going to highly recommend doubling that as it wasn’t as hot as it should be. The heat is a necessary balance for the tangy vinegar.

This recipe is plenty acidic, so I went ahead and canned it in a water-bath, but it could also freeze nicely, and the vinegar means it’ll probably keep pretty well in the fridge too–though mine doesn’t last very long in the fridge.

I really love my new Weck jars for canning–although I miss the familiar “pop” of the mason jar lid that tells me it’s sealed.

What else are you doing with your end-of-season veggies?

Giveaway! Danish-designed Salt & Pepper Grinders

Sidonie — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:56:00 +0000

Those of you who follow me on instagram (ahhem, @sidonie_s) may have seen me post last week with great excitement at the arrival of my first Skandicrush subscription box.

For those that haven’t already heard, Skandicrush is a new subscription service that brings Scandinavian-designed (and/or Scandinavian-inspired) housewares to your door once a month. I had sworn off subscription boxes when I came across a review on Door Sixteen of the debut Skandicrush box last month. It was a no-brainer.

When the box arrived last week, I was both delighted and disappointed to find it was a perfect match for me–How perfect? Well, here’s are the contents of the beautifully-curated box:

And here’s a quick snap of my kitchen counter before the box arrived:

Notice anything (beyond the bananas that are well past their prime)? That’s right: those beautiful salt & pepper grinders, made by Menu. You can read more about the bottle grinders and the other items in this months box over at the Skandicrush blog. They hold a lot, so you’re not constantly having to re-fill the grinder, they feel great and are super practical–the little wooden “stopper” rotates to make a finer or coarser grind, and, of course, they look great. In the three months I’ve had them, I’ve gotten a lot of compliments from dinner guests.

(Before these, I had a tiny pepper mill that I bought in Turkey–it looked great, but was endlessly frustrating: I had to refill it several times a week, and the super-small opening to refill it meant more pepper would wind up bouncing all over the kitchen than in the grinder itself. There’s just nothing like the right tool for the job.)

I coveted those grinders for over a year before ultimately putting them on our wedding registry and receiving them from a wonderful family friend this August. So even though I was a little disappointed that the much-anticipated package wasn’t all new to me, I was thrilled that this new subscription box lines up so brilliantly with my taste.

AND THEN, as if I couldn’t speak already speak highly enough of Skandicrush, this arrived in the mail yesterday:

And inside:

A beautiful gift from the folks at Skandicrush, who perfectly understood my excitement and disappointment. Seriously, these guys have the world’s greatest customer service! I cannot say enough good things about the products or the people behind them.

And since I still don’t really need two sets of salt & pepper mills, I’m giving away these beautiful bottle grinders, brand new in the box, to one of you lovely people reading this right now. The set retails for $59.95, and the November Skandicrush box is sold out–so this is your chance to get this perfect example of beautiful, functional Danish design for free!

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post: let me know your favorite kitchen utensil/tool–or the one that frustrates you the most (I’m looking at you, tiny pepper grinder), your favorite Skandi brand, or, y’know, just say hello! For additional entries, share this post on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and leave an additional comment (one for each share) below to take credit for sharing.

Next Thursday, November 20, I’ll let the Random Number Generator at Random.org select a winner from the comment section below.

Please note I can only ship within the U.S., and I’ll follow up with the winner by email–so make sure your email is correct when you leave a comment! :)

Thursday, November 20, 2014 5:37 PM PST – Update: The drawing is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, commenter #24, Liz! Thanks so much to everyone who participated.

Winter is for Weaving

Sidonie — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 16:56:50 +0000

It’s not winter just yet. I know. But it’s getting cooler, and something about the chill in the air makes me once again excited to sit down at my loom and play.

I started weaving two years ago when I joined the Peninsula Weavers’ Guild here in Port Townsend. The guild members taught me the basics and since then I’ve been toying with projects from books (some pretty sucessful!) and invented experiments (mostly failed, if I’m honest).

But for some reason, summer heat has not been conducive to weaving for me. Maybe I can blame the myriad wedding-related projects on my plate this summer; or maybe I just don’t like being cooped up inside on warm, sunny days. Regardless, it’s one more reason to be excited for the colder, darker days.

Here’s what’s on my loom now, a 100% wool warp, destined most likely to become a table runner:

It’s a super long warp, which means I have lots of room to experiment and figure out what I like and don’t like before I have to commit to a project. Also lots of room to make mistakes, which are plentiful and evident in the photo above!

I’ve got a new project on my inkle loom, too–hopefully it will become a new strap for my Leica camera:

That one’s fun because I can bring it with me to craft night at a friend’s house, or even pack it in my suitcase for a creative outlet on work trips.

Oh yeah, and last week I mentioned something exciting in the works this week. I’m going to be hosting my first blog giveaway tomorrow, some be sure to hop back over and check that out!

The Woods in Wind

Sidonie — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 17:22:45 +0000

Yesterday I was sitting at my desk, working, when Ben called me outside to check out the woods behind our house. “I love coming into the woods on a windy day,” he told me.

Ben loves the woods, period. We have 10 1/2 acres here, and most of it is wooded. Ben spends hours making trails, clearing fallen wood, and exploring. When I came back from a recent work trip, he had been repairing cracks in the concrete pad in our driveway all week. I asked him how he felt about everything he’d accomplished. His response? “I miss the woods.”

So we ducked into the woods on a perfect Fall morning with clear skies, crisp air, and a substantial breeze, and it was immediately obvious why Ben called me to join him. Imagine 150-foot fir trees, swaying wildly in the wind–can’t imagine it? No worries, I got video:

Mesmerizing!

And for a sense of scale, here’s a photo of me and Ben on our wedding day, just a couple months ago:

Next week on the blog I’ve got something really exciting planned. If you follow me on Instagram (@sidonie_s), you might already have an inkling of where this is headed. If not: watch this space!

Chores

Sidonie — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:16:10 +0000

Last week I some photos of a few of the beautiful, useful objects in my brother’s woodworking shop. My brother has always insisted on doing things the right way, which definitely means with the right tool. I’m more of a get-it-done-with-what-you’ve-got, perfect-is-the-enemy-of-good kind of person, so I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with him on that. But I have to admit, he’s usually right.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve done something my way, using whatever tools I have on hand, only to wind up super frustrated. My first few re-upholstery projects, I used a screwdriver and pliers to remove staples and tacks. Frustrating! Turns out there’s a reason they designed specific tools for those jobs. I nearly ruined a light-duty sewing machine trying to sew leather and heavy canvas before I finally got a machine specific for that task. I resisted the magical allure of the crock pot until my parents bought one for me this year (that’s another post for another time, but man, was I wrong on that front!).

And until recently, I would scoop up my laundry in my arms to carry it from the laundry room to the bedroom, making multiple trips and dropping socks along the way. I really dislike those ubiquitous plastic laundry baskets, so I just did it the hard way.

And then this spring I splurged on a beautiful woven basket from West Elm. Suddenly laundry, my least-favorite chore, has become kind of fun. Certainly more beautiful, anyway.

And since I’ve never shown photos of our bedroom on here, it seemed about time for that, too.

Part of why I’ve never posted about the bedroom is that it really isn’t finished (although in fairness, what is?). After more than a year of living here, there’s still nothing on the walls except that giant mirror, which was here before us. I like our bed, but the dressers are just relatively cheap Craigslist finds, nothing special. I do love that chair, which you might remember from several years ago, when my mom found it on the street in Madison and I blogged about it. It’s the only furniture we kept when we moved west.

I also love our copious Pendleton blankets. It’s definitely getting to be that time of the year for stacks of heavy wool blankets. It’s cozy and wonderful.

The rug at the foot of our bed is made of hand-embroidered felted wool. It’s so soft and plush. We picked that up in India, and I’m really glad we did.

An afternoon at my brother’s woodworking shop

Sidonie — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 11:08:47 +0000

We have a small shop space on our property, and when we moved in last year it seemed like a no-brainer for my brother to set up his woodworking studio there. Ultimately, he’s going to need a bigger space–probably soon–but for now it’s great to have him around and to get to peek in on his work from time to time.

Earlier this week I hung around while my brother sharpened a new hand plane (his twenty-ninth hand plane! And each one with a specific purpose), and I took these shots of some of the beautiful tools and objects in his shop. (The last photo is an old one that I still love, from when he first built that beautiful workbench.)

There’s nothing like the right tool for the job.

Snack of the Moment: Roasted Chickpeas

Sidonie — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:09:54 +0000

I posted this photo to Instagram yesterday and a couple of my friends asked for the recipe. It’s so dead easy that I really hesitate to call it a recipe. Here’s what I do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Put cooked chickpeas in a bowl. I used canned chickpeas most of the time, because the whole point of this snack is how quick + easy it is, but if you cook them from dry, they will have even better texture.

3. Mix some olive oil and seasonings with the chickpeas. Salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin–whatever you feel like.

4. Pour the chickpeas onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or so. I usually start checking them after 10-15 minutes, and take them out when either (a) they are super crisp on the outside, but still tender on the inside, or (b) I can’t wait anymore.

5. Eat them all immediately.

I totally need quick, warm, satisfying snacks this time of year, otherwise I will definitely just eat apple pie three times a day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

On Cleveland

Sidonie — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 21:25:38 +0000

I don’t know what I expected from Cleveland, exactly.

I guess I thought the downtown would feel empty, deserted; or that buildings would look run-down or tired. Maybe that the infrastructure would be in decline (and maybe that last guess wasn’t too far off–the pavement could definitely use some work).

But for the most part I was wrong. Cleveland is cool. Downtown Cleveland seems to be in the midst of a pretty successful revitalization, with new restaurants next to storied music venues boasting big names.

Here’s what I liked: wide avenues lined with detail-rich Art Deco architecture; not one, but two (maybe more?) unpretentious vegan cafes with delicious green juices and smoothies; the East 4th Avenue pedestrian corridor with its strings of cafe lights and lovely neon signs; glorious sunsets over Lake Erie; the public parks on the waterfront by the lake and by the Cuyahoga River.

I’ve spent some time in Ohio for work this year–about one week a month, split between Cincinnati and Cleveland–and I’ve been super impressed with those two towns.

And now that it’s fall? Oof. Nothing beats fall in the Midwest. Not even this lush, foggy Pacific Northwest fall–and that’s pretty lovely.