A House and Forty Acres to Call Their Own

This news isn't particuarly related to style, but it is certainly worthy of a post. After a mere ten years of househunting, my parents have bought a house! This has to be some kind of shopping record. For one third of my life, they have been looking at houses, talking to architects, looking at more houses, and sending very nice real estate ladies into conniptions.

I have posted a photo of the house, which they will close on in the next month or so. Already friends of the family are making plans to get pregnant, flee the country, or be incarcerated - anything so they don't have to help my parents move the six cars, dozen or so motorcyles, and tons (literally) of machinery that my father has collected since we last moved twenty years ago. Run for your lives!

Midwestern Montage

Midwestern Montage

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Renee Michelle makes a short visit back to Brunswick, Ohio to expose her camera woman, Matty, to Midwestern culture

The Land of Jello and Tractors

In my efforts to expose my friend Matty to the stylish world of the Midwest, I did my best to provide her with activities typical to my life while growing up. However, I fear that she was really introduced more the the Goertzen way of life than anything particularly midwestern. We did enjoy the previously discussed pretzel jello salad, and had a large cookout. But we also spent lots of time on heavy machinery. Proof is furnished here in the two posted pictures, one of Matty looking tough on a 80cc bike (which is rather difficult on such a miniscule bike) and Jonathan channeling the Midwest Gothic at Tractor Supply Center. The guests also had a chance to eat lots of meat, drive a tractor, and take naps on a hammock. For more pictures, see the photo motage that Matty made, right above this post.

Trip to the Midwest, Part 1

I have recently completed a cultural exchange with my friend Matty, who does all the behind-the-scenes work on this blog. Last year I went and visited her family in Chinatown (in New York) for Chinese New Year. This year, she returned the favor by accompanying me to Ohio for the Fourth of July. Her husband, the two of us, and my boyfriend piled into the physicsmobile and took a nine hour trip to the Great Midwest.

Her husband Jonny Goldstein, has his own terrific blog, mainly with posts about video blogging. He posted a terrific interview with my brother's mother-in-law which featured her world-famous Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad. Check out the July 6th posting of the intervew here:

http://jonnygoldstein.com/

More details and pictures of the trip to follow in the next posting.

Renee Michelle's Living Room

Renee Michelle's Living Room

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Renee Michelle talks about how a simple things like an umbrella can help add style to your room.

Outdoor Room Garden

Outdoor Room Garden

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Renee Michelle adds a bit of style and beauty to an old drainage ditch

Soup - It's what's for dinner.

I'm currently on a campaign to convince my boyfriend that soup can actually count as the entree of a meal. I mean, I'm a huge fan of three course meals, but sometimes soup is all I can manage. Now, this is a battle I tried to fight with my father, and lost, because he just couldn't accept that a bowl full of liquid could fill you up.

My current tactics are making soups that have lots of cream and butter in them, and then serving a huge bowl of roasted potatoes or a large loaf of homemade bread as a side. I don't think I've convinced him yet, but he's willing to suspend judgement for the time being.

Inspired by all the nice spring ingredients, I've made two really great soups recently, both from the epicurious.com website. One was a cream of garlic soup which used forty (really, forty!) cloves of garlic for four servings. But most of the garlic was roasted and it made for a fairly mild, flavorful soup. And last week I picked up spring onions and thin little asparagus spears at the market. I sauteed them up in butter, then added broth and pureed the whole thing. I mixed the juice and zest of one lime into a half a cup of sour cream, and served the soup with spoons of the lime cream in the middle. Yum.