The Anna Articles

 This past weekend my immediate family got together for an early Thanksgiving. Since it was so early, I deemed the menu more "fall harvest." I'd been wanting to do a meal where I provided the full meal and all anyone else had to bring was apps, if desired, for a while and this year I made it happen.  Of course, it was a weird week for it. Besides the election putting a dark cloud over everything, LeRoy had pneumonia early in the week and I wasn't sure he'd be recovered (or non-contagious) by Saturday. Steroids and antibiotics are great, though.  Ok, not the best pic with the toaster in here and you can't see the farro, but the best I got. The full menu had not a single traditional Thanksgiving item and was a mix of my favorite fall dishes and some I hadn't tried before: Meat:  Pork tenderloin roast  - EatWell 101 I used 3 pork tenderloins for 7 adults and 2 kids and it was plenty. Adjusted the recipe accordingly, and left out the mustard due to Mike's

 One of our "nice to haves" on the house checklist was a fireplace. It seemed a bit strange that our house didn't have one, but it's also not uncommon to have had them removed at some point.  When we bought, we knew the original mantle to the fireplace was in storage in the basement. You can see where the original fireplace was in the "Before" photo - it's the chaise between the window and the hallway. Originally, we'd hoped to uncover that fireplace but we realized it was tiny (made sense, as a coal fireplace) and had been filled in with cement.  So, onto a new location for the fireplace: replacing the old "monstrosity" (as the seller's realtor called it) of a built-in cabinet on the left of the "Before" photo with a direct vent gas fireplace.  Before After The teardown To start, Mike tore out the cabinet. It was a presumably 60s style built-in that we didn't serve a real purpose for us. Oddly, there was a return vent ben

This week is Birth Trauma Awareness Week so I thought I'd share the story of LeRoy's early arrival, as writing it down and sharing is helpful in processing it. His delivery was certainly not what I expected going into pregnancy and even right up until it happened.  He's a somewhat small 3 month old now, but a generally happy one First, some background on my pregnancy:  On our five year anniversary I found out I was pregnant. We couldn't do our normal anniversary dinner out due to covid and instead went for a hike nearby while cautiously (it was super early, the line on the test was faint but there) talking about the pregnancy and potentially taking our kid hiking some day.  I was pretty grateful to be working from home as the first trimester required daily naps for a period. We were "team green" - not finding out the sex prior to delivery. Mike couldn't come to any ultrasounds until the 3rd trimester due to the fall covid surge, though he was able to vide

It's coming up on nearly a year of owning our Victorian house and we're making decent progress on the list of projects we had when we put the offer in.  Our biggest project is (was, now) the owner's suite. Having one was on our list of "must haves" for house hunting and while this house didn't have one when we bought it, we saw it had the space for it. Our conversation with contractors started as soon as we closed on the house, meeting 6 in the span of a week. After we considered whether to start at all during a pandemic and with us both working from home, we eventually got going on construction in June and wrapped up in November.  Before  This was the "master bedroom" or just the biggest bedroom. You can see some built-in cabinets in a hallway that led to the family room to the right, and off camera to the right was a small closet. To the left is the old chimney chaise. We tore out the wall between the back of the closet and the family room and con

 Two days away from the election and I'm trying to distract myself from the anxiety with food. It's not working all that well, but at least the food is good.  This recipe is perfect for any meal; I always make it for dinner but it seems particularly well suited for brunch, too. It's actually vegetarian, a rarity for me, but I love how the veggies are celebrated here.  Over the past couple of years I've taken a liking to leeks, and they shine here with a couple other standard fall veggies - potatoes and carrots. The original recipe just calls for potatoes and leeks, and you could do that. But, I really feel the carrots add another dimension to this dish and they make it just a bit more filling (and pretty).  Potato Leek & Carrot Frittata Adapted from  Uproot Kitchen Servings:  4-6 Time:  1 hour Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Ingredients: 1 large Russet potato 2 large leeks 1-2 large carrots (I used 2 above) 2 T olive oil 6 eggs 1/4 t garlic powder 1/4 t salt freshly g

AgraCulture, a local fast casual chain, has a curried chicken salad sandwich I love and used to order all the time when I worked in Uptown and we had free "healthy lunches" once a week. (I have to give a bit of side eye to AgraCulture's "food ethos" with its reference to the Dirty Dozen, but I appreciate their focus on quality ingredients and they always had Organic Valley milk available.) I haven't worked near an AgraCulture in years but that sandwich stuck with me. Last year, I discovered a recipe that seemed similar and set out to create a version that was perfect for me. This curried chicken salad is a great lunch meal prep, and usually makes just more than enough for a week of lunches so would be good to prep for two as well. If you already have cooked chicken on hand, this is a great recipe to quickly put together Sunday night (or hey, Monday lunch time during #wfh) and then you just have to serve it the rest of the week. I serve it in half of a p