Author: MountainMasha

Casserole Carrier circa 1977

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We really don’t like to show up empty-handed for parties. This means whoever isn’t driving to the event is usually either juggling a hot pan full of (usually cheesy) food or listening to said pan slide around the back of the car and praying we won’t find a huge mess when we get there. It’s not a perfect system.

Fortunately for us, Popular Mechanics solved this problem forty years ago, and fortunately for me, Gordon likes to peruse forty-year-old issues of Popular Mechanics in his spare time. Continue reading →

Colonial Williamsburg Musts

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We are a bit infatuated with Colonial Williamsburg. Since spending our honeymoon there, we have followed their programs, bought Williamsburg Christmas ornaments every year, and checked their job postings just in case. Gordon would love nothing more than to take an apprenticeship in Williamsburg and spend eight hours a day pretending he really was born 300 years ago.

Visiting from Utah takes some planning, so we haven’t gone as often as we’d like. But when we found cheap plane tickets for this fall, we talked Gordon’s parents into coming with us to our favorite place.

Our obsession makes us feel entitled to offer advice, so here are the the things you really should see and do if you’re Williamsburg:

Continue reading →

Built-in Library for (most of) Our Books

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We have a serious book problem at our house. We both came into our marriage with large collections and an obsession with books. We stop at every bookstore and library sale we pass. Add to that an inability to get rid of any (I have so many college textbooks and anthologies that I just can’t bear to part with. What if I NEED them later?) and we quickly filled several bookcases and still had more in boxes.

Gordon decided that for my birthday last year, he would build a bookcase into an entire wall in our front room. He said it was boring once it was four feet tall, so he got distracted. But with my birthday this year fast approaching, he figured he’d better finish it so I couldn’t accuse him of stretching it out just to avoid picking a gift this year. It took late nights, many trips to Lowe’s, and the whole house smelling like stain for awhile, but our little library is now my favorite part of the house. Continue reading →

Eat Masters Food without Going to Augusta

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I think Augusta National must be the Narnia of golf courses. First of all, Augusta  manages to make golf exciting at least once a year. Second, and more important to someone as terrible at golf as I am, their food is legendary. This is impressive because the sandwiches are made on white wonder bread and there is nothing on the menu that anyone with even rudimentary cooking skills couldn’t just make at home. But somehow, pair it all with the biggest golf tournament of the year and price the food like its 1969, and you’ve got magic. Continue reading →

Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter Eggs)

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Pysanky sculpture in downtown Kyiv

If you’re ever in Eastern Europe around Orthodox Easter, you should stop by Kyiv, Ukraine for the festivities. The whole city is full of flowers, people wear their traditional embroidered shirts, and everywhere you look you see pysanky (Easter eggs) and Easter bread (honestly, you should go to Ukraine for the bread alone). I have always wanted to make pysanky, but they seemed so much more difficult than the typical American version with stickers and cheap tablet dye.

This year, we decided to go for it. Gordon ordered a kit from bestpysanky.com that included the wax pens (kistki), wax, and dye in several different colors. Continue reading →