Tess Peyton Carpenter
May 27, 2007 2:11PM
6 pounds 7 ounces
18 3/4 inches long

And now, an exclusive look inside the petecarpenter.com home refrigerator. Today, in part one, we examine the door. Click on the photo above for a flickrized annotated version with descriptions of everything inside. Keep in mind that we just did a major cleaning of the fridge this past weekend, so it doesn’t always look this pristine. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

On the upper left, the first of our cheese storage. This is more long-term storage, with our block of Parmesan Reggiano, a container of grated Pecorino Romano (used mainly for showering on pizzas), and a tub of Philadelphia cream cheese. We tend not to use up the cream cheese before it starts growing blue and green fuzz since our bagel consumption is pretty low, but when the need arises, you need to have your Philly.

Moving the right, you see your standard butter dish. This holds what I consider some of the best domestic butter we’ve ever come across: Amish Style Roll Butter. We get it at Russo’s, and it comes in the form of a giant log. We cut in into quarters to be able to fit into the butter dish, and throw the rest into the freezer for later use. This stuff is super creamy and salty, and I’d be lying to you if I told you that I’ve never accidentally gotten a chunk of it on my hands and had to eat it on its own.

Below that is a sometimes neglected bin where stuff tends to pile up and be forgotten. This is where I keep fresh whole chilis, usually serranos, jalapenos, poblanos, and fresnos. They’re so ridiculously cheap at Russo’s that I just keep buying them every week, whether I need them or not. I buy two or three at a time, which cost all of about $0.12. Of course, I tend to forget about them if I don’t need them, and before you know it, I have 10 moldy chilis festering in the bin. I need to get better about that. Along with the chilis sit bags of woody herbs like rosemary and thyme. These tend to last for weeks like this, which is nice.

Moving to the left, we have the first of our condiment bins. This currently holds two kinds of Dijon mustard, one smooth and one whole grain, along with a few different Asian chili sauces (sambal olek, chili garlic) and some red curry paste. Some of these have been around for quite a while, but I don’t know if they ever go bad. Do they?

Below that is the continuation of the condiments. Some of the more “standard” stuff like our Heinz ketchup (really, is there ever a need for fancy ketchup? I think not.), French’s Yellow Mustard (a must for burgers and dogs), the Lovely Suse’s favorite Texas Pete Hot Sauce (and it’s not just her favorite because it’s named after me), an overturned bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s Hot and Spicy BBQ sauce (hey, I don’t always have time to make my own), a bottle of hoisin sauce (more or less an Chinese BBQ sauce), and a bottle of Sriracha hot sauce, which we use on lots of Asian noodle dishes.

To the right is our pickle shelf. All things pickled or brined live here. Two types of olives (Kalamata and Sicilian), capers, cornichons (those tiny French pickles), and a jar of dill pickle slices that go on our burgers. We do love our pickles, and not just because one of us is pregnant.

Finally, let’s move to the bottom shelf. Starting on the left, we have our beer and soda selection. It’s currently a bit pathetic, with the Lovely Suse’s non-alcoholic beer at the far end. I think these are Kaliber. She obviously hasn’t been doing a lot of drinking of late, but the one thing she does crave is a beer every now and then. She’ll have some of a real one from time to time, but otherwise, she’ll struggle through one of these. They taste a little like beer, and a lot like ass. If you chug it fast enough, it tastes a little like Natty Lite, but not nearly as good. Poor Susie. Next to that is a Boylan’s Cola. We don’t drink much soda, but when we do, it tends to be Boylan’s. They’re all natural, use real cane sugar, aren’t overly carbonated, and very tasty. Moving along, is my summer beer of choice, Harpoon UFO, an local unfiltered wheat beer. When I’m feeling a little bit fruity, a lemon wedge may find its way into the bottle. For whatever reason, Harpoons get me buzzed in a hurry. Not that I’m complaining. Next, is my water bottle. Not very exciting. This is what I use when I’m working out. This bottle hasn’t been washed in a very long time. I’m guessing that this isn’t a good thing. Next is another container of pickles. I told you we like pickles.

The whipped cream on the shelf is used exclusively for the Lovely Suse’s waffles. She likes her waffles with whipped cream and fruit, and that’s the only way she’ll eat them. Butter and syrup? Nope. If there’s no whipped cream and fruit, we have to make pancakes. Hence, the can of whipped cream. That may be old as well. Better check the date on that.

The bottle of Prosecco was purchased for consumption on New Year’s, but we never got around to drinking it. I think we were too busy watching shows about Mount Everest and falling asleep. Plus, there’s the fact that I would have had to drink most of the bottle by myself. Again, not necessarily a bad thing. We will definitely be drinking this soon after the baby comes.

Finally, the bottle of Hershey’s syrup. I can’t think of anything I used this for except the occasional batch of chocolate ice cream. Although some chocolate soy milk would taste pretty good right about now. God, where did that come from?
So that’s the door of our fridge. Stay tuned for Part Two of this expose. So now that I’ve shown you mine, you show me yours!

• Apparently, the Lovely Suse’s nesting instincts kicked in this weekend and we went into super cleaning and organization mode. Let’s just say that our fridge has never been this clean or well-organized. With the exception of the whole octopus sitting in there, it looks like it’s straight out of a catalog.
• I know the baby hasn’t come yet, but I’m apparently already sleep deprived. I feel sound asleep in the doctor’s office on Friday, and then fell asleep again at 9pm that night. What the hell is happening to me? At least I ended up waking up and watching Wall Street until midnight.
• We made a visit to the All Star Sandwich Bar on Friday night, braving the rain and Inman Square parking hassles to sample some of Chris Schlesinger’s tasty sandwiches. I consider myself a master sandwich maker (I believe it runs in the Carpenter family), so I’m not easily impressed by a sandwich. These were very good sandwiches. Not mind-blowing by any means, but top-notch ingredients and well prepared. A tuna melt and a grilled cheese with bacon, avocado, and chipotle Russian dressing definitely did the trick, and the free pretzel sticks and Oreos at the counter are a nice touch. The fact that they have beer and Cristal are also a nice added bonus. I’m not sure if it was worth the hassle of Inman Square, but if this place was in my neighborhood, I’m sure we’d be regulars.
• Speaking of neighborhood sandwich places, I never took for granted having Nashoba Brook Bakery around the corner from me when I lived downtown. The curried chicken salad with walnuts and grapes on their olive bread is one of my favorite sandwiches of all time.
• I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve bought dough the last two times I’ve made pizza. Not because I didn’t want to make dough, but because making pizza was a last minute decision, and my dough take 24 hours to make. But after this latest attempt with a new oven configuration (stone on the bottom rack, layer on unglazed tiles above, cooking with the broiler on), I’m considering giving up my quest to make Neapolitan dough. My oven just doesn’t get hot enough, and it’s so hard to get it to come out right. With a Neo-Neapolitan dough a la Pepe’s or Grimaldi’s (which includes some sugar and olive oil), it’s much easier to get a great crust in a home oven. I’ll have to do some experimenting, but I’ve never been disappointed with this type of crust, whereas half of my attempts are utter failures. You know, unless some one decides to buy me a wood burning oven for the backyard.
• In my ongoing organic lawn care experiment, I mowed the lawn last week leaving all of the clippings on the grass. I worried that we’d have big clumps of nasty cut grass everywhere, but because we’re not cutting it short, you can’t even tell that it’s there. Ok, so let me get this straight: I now only have to water once a week, I can leave the grass long, I don’t have to bag and dump the clippings, the lawn looks thicker and lusher than ever, and I’m not using any bad chemicals? Where exactly is the downside?
• Can some one please explain to me why people have to start showing up before 5AM for an Estate Sale that starts at 9AM. The house two doors down had one this past weekend, and the street was packed when I got up on Friday morning. And they were loud. And every parking spot on the street was filled. All to buy some junk for cheap.
• Movie Theater Popcorn is the latest snack sensation in our house. Bought on impulse from Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago, it’s become a staple of late. It is probably the best packaged popcorn I’ve ever tasted, probably because it’s just popcorn, butter, and salt. So it’s not exactly good for you, but at least it’s all natural.
• Apparently, I’m at the stage in my life where I don’t care what other people think of me. Case in point, we made the trip down the street to Rancatore’s on Saturday night at 9PM in our pajamas. And these weren’t pajama pants that were subtle either. It was very obvious to everyone in there that we went out in our pajamas. And we didn’t care. We just wanted ice cream.

As we get closer and closer to Baby Time, it’s time to revisit the topic of names. As I’ve said before, we don’t know if we’re having a boy or a girl, and we’re not telling anyone what names we’ve picked out. Yes, a few months back, we decided on names, and we actually had a very easy time of it. With the exception of a boy’s middle name, the other names were probably picked out in a day or two, we love them both, and it’s actually sort of sad that one of them won’t get used unless we decide to have another kid somewhere down the line and it turns out to be the opposite sex of the first one.

We had a pretty simple philosophy with picking names, and luckily, the Lovely Suse and I share similar tastes in the kind of names that we liked. There were a few rules that we abided by, however.

• We wanted a real name. These days, people are coming up with all sorts of new names, some of them made up out of thin air. A lot of these names are pretty cool, but some of them also sound a little too artificial to us. We liked names that conjure up a certain feel. We also didn’t want a name that when you told it to some one, their response was “Huh?”
• Easy to spell. A lifetime of the Lovely Suse having to correct people when they spell it the Lovely “Suze” put this on the list. Plus, you can never find key chains and mugs with your name on it.
• Doesn’t sound awful with a Boston accent. Living in these parts, you hear names get butchered all the time. “Cah-pen-tah” is bad enough, so they should at least get a first name that is pronounceable.
• No bad nicknames. For every name we thought of, we had to go through every permutation that mean kids could come up with on the playground. Kids are cruel.

With the help of the Baby Name Wizard’s Name Voyager, we made sure that the names that we picked out didn’t show up anywhere in the top 100, and as it turned out, the names don’t show up anywhere in the top 400+. It’s not that we necessarily wanted to be different, but we wanted to avoid the 8 million Isabellas and Olivias and Jacks that are currently overtaking the playgrounds of America. Even the girl’s name that we had said that we liked a few years back has since grown in popularity so much that more than one friend’s dog has been named that. So much for that name. Hopefully, the names we picked will stay untrendy for a while.

I know what you’re thinking: “You’re giving us all of the information about the names, and you’re still not going to tell us what they are?” Um, no. Over the years, we’ve learned that telling other people the names ahead of time can lead to nothing but bad news. Everyone has an opinion about names, and everyone has different connotations with different names. People like and dislike names for all sorts of reasons, which is why everyone gets to pick their own names for their kids. When, as a future parent, you choose a name for your child, that name is already attached to that baby. It’s already part of their identity. For everyone else, it’s just a name. I know for many people, it’s very tempting to share names with their family and friends, just as if they were showing them their ultrasound photos. Their proud of their baby, and they want to share it with people.

However, to those family and friends, the names are still negociable. “You want to name it what? Oh, I don’t really like that name. How about (fill in the blank).” All of a sudden, you’re insulted, you question your decision, and more often than not, pick a different name. The entire Christmas dinner conversation this year consisted of family members suggesting names to us. Or telling us names that we couldn’t use because they didn’t like it. Like I said, everyone has opinions, but the second that baby is born, those opinions disappear. When there is a face attached to that name, the discussion is over. No grandparent, upon seeing their grandchild’s face for the first time and hearing the name for the first time will say “What the hell kind of name is that?”. For all of those future parents out there, do yourself a favor, and keep the names to yourselves. It might be tough to keep it a secret, but it’s even harder to hear your loved ones tear apart the name of your baby.

Before my brother’s twins were born, the rest of the family wagered on what the names would be. Amazingly enough, we picked almost every name that they were considering, including the names they ultimately picked (although Alex was known as Baby Worcester for the 24 hours of his life). Now, let’s see if you can pick the names that we’ve chosen. Any guesses?

• Another proud DIY home repair: repairing the cane seat in an old rocking chair. After a couple of hours of painstaking work, it was finished. Of course, an hour later, George was eating it.
• It’s planting time. After stupidly planting stuff in mid-April last year and almost losing it all, we smartly waited this year until it was actually warm out. In addition to the oregano, thyme, and chives that have already come back from last year, we planted rosemary, basil, and two types of tomatoes: super sweet 100s and jet stars. And speaking of gardening, the organic lawn care experiment is working out nicely thus far. The basics that I’m following are leaving the grass at least 3 inches long, watering heavily once a week, and using an organic fertilizer every 8 weeks if needed. I wish I had one of those old-skool push lawnmowers like the Brady Bunch used to use, because I’m planning on leaving the grass clippings on the lawn starting this week.
• I installed the child seat this week and went over to a local police department to get it checked out. I don’t think I’ve met a Massachusetts cop without a really thick Boston accent. And every guy at the station just wanted to talk about cars. I guess they spend a lot of time dealing with cars, so that shouldn’t be such a surprise.
• We realize that our eating out will be severely cut back once the baby comes, so we’re living it up while we still can. We headed over to the South End on Saturday night without reservations, just ready to wing it. After checking out some menus of some places we haven’t been to yet, we stopped in at Pops. Sitting at the kitchen bar (the kitchen is enclosed in glass but directly in the dining room), we had a fantastic meal. Sharing dishes as usual, we had some crab cakes, a fried oyster and spinach salad with bacon, the braised kurobuta pork, and some of the best french fries I’ve had in a very long time. Yes, we like us some pork. But the fries just blew me away. Nice and golden and salty and crispy, tossed with fresh thyme and garlic. Even 15 minutes later, they were still crispy, and it was hard to stop eating them. The menu is loaded with sort of upscale comfort food, is moderately priced, has a nice friendly vibe, is a really cool subterranean space full of etched glass, pressed tin ceilings, and black and white photos. I’m not exactly sure how a restaurant can survive on Tremont Street charging the prices that they do, but I wish them the best. The area needs more places like it.
• I’m not usually a fan of Sicilian slices, but after seeing them at Armando’s last weekend when I was picking up some dough, I had to try them. For $2, you get a hefty, cheesy, saucy, crispy, and delicious rectangle of goodness, definitely enough for a meal. Unaware that they would be that filling, we also ordered a regular slice to go along with it, which of course, I had to finish despite being on the verge of bad-full.
• In our ongoing search for falafel greatness, Rami’s was the latest that we tried. The falafel were winners, packed with hummus, hot sauce, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, and cabbage, but my favorite part of the place is their falafel machine. They load the mixture into this contraption, turn it on, and it turns and spits out perfectly shaped balls into the deep fryer. Less than a minute later, they’re done, and are loaded into your sandwich. it doesn’t get any fresher than that. Judging by the number of yarmulkes in the crowd, it’s obviously a very popular place in this neighborhood.
• What’s better than sitting out in the grass in the backyard, enjoying the sunshine, watching the dog eat sticks, with nothing much else to do? Not a whole lot.

• Another first birthday party, as the twins get to shove cake in their faces and bury themselves in a pile of wrapping paper. And what’s better than one monkey cake? Obviously, two monkey cakes.
• Thanks to all of the folks who have given us very generous gifts in anticipation of us needing loads of butt paste and bottles. It looks like Babys ‘R Us has exploded in our house. Where do we put all of this crap?
• The first grilled pizzas of the year. Actually, the first ones in about 2 years, if you can believe it. I sort of forgot about how good and easy they could be. Nice and crispy and charred, and, don’t tell anyone, but I bought the dough from Armando’s. I just didn’t have the time to make the dough myself, and this is some excellent stuff. The Sicilian slices they were pulling out of the oven looked unbelievably good, so I’ll have to go back and give them a try.
• We stopped by Rockler, a woodworking supply store, to get some materials to fix a rushed cane chair. I love places like this. High end craftsman places, where they’re passionate about the subject and know their stuff. They had these incredible huge slabs of walnut and other exotic woods selling for $1800+ that people buy and use to make tables and desks and such.
• Our recycling is getting a little out of control. We’ve had to add another bin to our recycling cabinet as the others are overflowing at this point. I wish our town did recycling pickup every week instead of every other week. I would say that our recycling outweighs our actual trash by about five to one.
• I might have to say that The Thomas Crown Affair might be in my top ten favorite movies of all time. I have to watch it whenever it’s on, it never fails to entertain, and it makes me want to be Pierce Brosnan.
• I know I’m going to get major crap for this, but I’m going to be sad when The Gilmore Girls ends in two weeks. When the Lovely Suse and I first got together, I couldn’t stand the show. Those people talk too damn fast, they’re annoying, and the show is just too girly. I would have to go in the other room whenever she would watch it because it was just so distracting, but eventually, I would just sit there and try to read while she watched. Over the years, I somehow found myself actually watching it and enjoying it. Maybe they toned down the fast talking, or maybe I just got used to it, or maybe I started noticing the dozens of food and pop-culture references in every episode, or the fact that it’s an incredibly smart and well-written show. It’s the Lovely Suse’s favorite show in the whole wide world, she now owns every single episode ever, and it will be missed when it’s all over. I still can’t listen to the opening theme though. It’s still waaaaaaaay too girly.
• Mark Bittman is back with a new cooking series, “The Best Recipes in the World. I just love his shows, his breezy laid-back style, easy recipes, and good humor. He seems like a guy who would be fun to have over, crack open some beers, do some cooking, and talk food for the whole day.

In a week full of first birthdays, we have our own to celebrate today. Today, George turns one. It’s hard to believe that it’s been an entire year since he entered our lives (actually, we didn’t get him until he was 12 weeks old, but close enough), but he’s undoubtedly changed it, mostly for the better. He’s certainly had his moments, but between his moments of pooping on the rug, peeing on the sofa, whining when we doesn’t get what he wants, crying in the middle of the night in his crate, barking non-stop at dogs who refuse to play with him, standing out in the middle of two feet of snow and freezing temperatures while he refuses to go to the bathroom, and demanding our full attention at all times, he’s become a loved member of the family. Actually, he’s sort of hard not to love. Even at his worst, he’s still too damn cute to get angry at. He’s got the personality and energy that just makes people smile, something that we always experience whenever we take him out for a walk. He’s certainly not the biggest dog on the block (yes, he really is fully grown at four and a half pounds), but he definitely has the attitude of one twenty times his size. His world is about to be turned upside down as another baby will soon enter our lives, but he’ll always be our first. Happy birthday George!