Old Fashioned Girl

Change your links.

2009-02-28T15:18:00.001-06:00

Okay, it's official. I decided to take the plunge. I'm moving over to WordPress.

I hope you'll all follow me there.

Click here to follow me. You know you want to.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2009-02-13T09:28:00.006-06:00

~1~

A conversation I had at the grocery store yesterday:
I walk in and see a large display of fresh, bakery-made bread, for 99 cents a loaf. I excitedly grab a loaf. A man standing next to the display says to me, "Good price on bread."
I say jubilantly, "I know! I can't make it for this!"
He looks at me like I am from Mars.
Sometimes, I should just keep my thoughts to myself.

~2~

I am so over snow. I am over winter. I want sun and warmth. I've had the "blahs" for the last month and haven't felt like doing a damn thing. Accordingly, please do not come to my home and ask to use the bathroom.

~3~

I don't "get" Valentine's day. Sure, I understand the symbolism and all that jazz. But I don't "get" the women who insist that they have to out for a "romantic" dinner on Valentine's day. I think waiting tables for so long (almost 10 years) jaded me, because I see nothing romantic about going out on the same night as every other couple in town, waiting an hour for a table, and then being shoved out just as quickly as possible to make room for the next couple waiting for a table. Ryan offered to take me out this year. I told him to wait until St. Patrick's day.

Expect a similar rant at Mother's Day.

~4~

I'm finally getting around to sewing up a skirt that I've had cut out for ages. How many ages? Since right after I had Leah. 25 lbs ago. I have a very strong feeling that this skirt is not going to fit me when it's done. But I have it cut out. It would be silly to do nothing with it. And it is really cool fabric. (Anyone out there a size 16 or so?)

~5~

I am considering moving over to WordPress. I've got a blog set up over there and I'm playing around with it. It seems to have a lot more options to play around than Blogger does.

~6~

Inspired by Chris's post, can I just say that I really, intensely dislike altar girls? Chris has a good reason (altar boys were originally to foster vocations to the priesthood), and I could steal hers, but the truth is, it just seems wrong to me. The altar girl phenomenon started, around here, when I was in junior high or so. Call me sexist, but it's just one of those things that girls should not do.

~7~

Why do people buy sports cars if they're going to drive the speed limit? The speed limit on the main drag in town here is 30. NO ONE drives that slowly. Little old ladies in their Dynasties don't drive that slowly. And yet, I inevitably get behind the balding, middle-aged man, in the midst of his midlife crisis, driving his little red corvette*, tottering along at 29 miles per hour. Are you kidding me, buddy!?

*Did you know that the song "Little Red Corvette" is NOT about a car? At all? I'm probably the last person on Earth to realize this.

I'm a Company Girl

2009-02-04T11:58:00.004-06:00

You may have noticed the button on the right side of my blog, proudly annoucing, "I'm a Company Girl!" (Or maybe not. If you're like me and read all your blogs in a reader, you have no idea what I'm talking about. While you're welcome to click through, it's really not that big of a deal. Wow, do I get off on tangents, or what?)

Warning: the blog that I'm going to link to plays music. The player is near the top, on the left-hand side. Just thought I'd give you a heads up. I hate when I'm secretly blog-surfing at work and then some rock song kicks in, very loudly, over my speakers.

So what's a Company Girl? It's the brainchild of Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary, a bit along the lines of FlyLady. Each day she posts a small challenge and awards points for completeing it. We're not talking big things--yesterday, you just had to do something involving bubbles. It didn't have to be cleaning. You could blow bubbles or drink champange. The idea is that by doing small things every day, you get a sense of a accomplishment and all that jazz. (Really, she does a better job of explaining it on her site, so you should go check it out.) At the end of the month, she with the most points gets a small prize.

And you know me. I'm a sucker for anything gimmicky. I've been staring at those sheets on the floor in my closet for three weeks now. But tell me I get 40 points for picking them up? Well, hot damn, I'm all over it then!

So thanks to these silly, arbitrary points (that suddenly mean so much to me), I have accomplished the following things this week:
Monday: scrubbed my kitchen sink. (Which really wasn't that bad, but it's not like it hurt anything.)
Tuesday: did laundry. (Which had piled up for an embarrassingly long time. Seriously. If you all know what a bad housekeeper I really am, you'd never come back to this blog.)
Wednesday: finally folded those sheets. And put them away. Woot!

Slightly off-topic, but speaking of those sheets, how often do you really change your bedding? I know you're supposed to do it once a week. I aim for once a month. We're not overly dirty people. It seems sufficient to me. (And considering that, prior to moving in with WunderHubbee, I probably changed my sheets twice a year, this is major progress. I'd also like to mention that I now make the bed every day. Yeah, yeah, that's what grown-ups do. But again, I used to make my bed twice a year. This alone is a huge step for me.)

So what's the verdict? Is this totally disgusting? Should I change them more often? (I probably won't, but I am interested in the thoughts of others.)

ETA: I added a poll on the right, so you don't need to incriminate yourself if you don't want to.

Another to add to my list...

2009-02-03T11:24:00.004-06:00

After seeing CrazyMomQuilts version of the WhirleyGiggle Quilt, I simply must make this quilt.

(This picture is of the original "Scrappy Cartwheels" pattern, created by GreetingArts. The last link above will take you to the pattern.)

Bigger than I realized.

2009-02-02T15:25:00.003-06:00

My mouth, that is.

Yesterday, at mass, the communion song was "Blest are They". I really like that song, and have a tendency to sing songs I like louder than usual. I didn't realize how loudly I was singing, though, until after communion.

The girl sitting in front of me was covering her ears. (In my defense, I was kneeling, as is proper after communion. She was sitting back. If she had been kneeling like she should have been, I wouldn't have been singing in her ear.)

I toned it down for the rest of the song, then asked Ryan after mass if I had been singing too loudly.

"Well....no. I mean, you always sing loud. And something about your voice carries. Even when you sing quietly, it still carries over everyone else."

Ooops.

Ryan's final ruling, however, was that the girl in front of us was a brat and she deserved it.

You like me, you really like me!

2009-01-28T16:41:00.003-06:00

Okay, at least one person does. Or maybe she just thinks I'm unflinchingly honest, and thus worthy of this award. I'll take what I can get.

The fine print? List 10, honest things about myself and then tag 7 other people. (Why 10 and 7, by the way? Seems kinda random. But it's not my award, so I guess I'll just follow the rules laid out.)

1.) I have an unhealthy obsession with crappy reality shows. Girls Next Door. The Real Housewives of Orange County. Rock of Love. Newlyweds (back when Nick and Jessica were still married).

2.) Similarly, I have have some pretty crappy taste in music, too. Jessica Simpson. Brittney Spears. Ashlee Simpson. Lindsey Lohan. Certain crappy songs, ie, College Girls (Jesse Jaymes), What's Your Fantasy (Ludicrous), Golddigga' (Kanye West). What can I say? I'm a sucker for anything catchy.

3.) Since I'm talking about my love of embarrassing things, I may as well confess that I am also an avid fan of smutty romance novels. They're short, light on plot, and easy to read. I've got two kids. War and Peace is not going to be on my nightstand anytime soon.

4.) Oh, how about something more serious? I've got major body issues. I really really really dislike the way I look. I won't say "hate", because I'm not sure it's that strong, but I definitely don't like my body, nor do I think I'm pretty. I've often made the tongue-in-cheek remark that I wished I had the will-power to be anorexic. I want a lot of kids, but the thought of getting fat again freaks me out more than I want to admit.

5.) Okay, that was too serious. I've colored my hair since I was 15. Naturally, it's a kinda gross dishwater blonde. I color it light ash blonde. I am distraught, however, because I finally found the perfect shade, and now that brand is being discontinued. I don't know what I'm going to do. (But let me assure you, going au natural is not an option.)

6.) I gained 80 lbs with my first pregnancy. I started at 140 and just before I had Darren I was 218. When I got pregnant with Leah (3 months later), I was down to 180. Leah is almost a year old and I'm down to 160. I'd like to lose another 30 or 40. We'll see.

7.) I hate housekeeping. I love a clean, tidy, well-organized house. I hate keeping it that way. I hate doing laundry. I hate folding it, ironing it, putting it away. But by the same token, I would never allow anyone else to do those things for me. No way do I want anyone to know how messy my home really is. No way do I want someone else fondling my bras.

8.) I have symmetry issues. Things need to be even. Weirdest example? I try to have the same amount of food on both sides of my mouth when I eat. When I eat MMs, I sort out the colors. I typically eat three at a time, so, for example, I'll have one red on each side of my mouth and bite a blue in half. Yes, this is exceedingly weird.

9.) My dad is an alcoholic.

10.) I am so much like my mom, it's scary. We look alike, act alike, talk alike, sound alike. We say the same thing at the same time--all the time. If we sang in harmony, you wouldn't be able to pick who was singing which part. We've always gotten along freakishly well.

Thank God. That was harder than I thought. I have no idea who to award. I'm taking the lazy way out--if you read this blog and want this award, consider yourself awarded. (Just leave me a comment so I can read your 10 things!)

A Day in the Life of Me

2009-01-17T21:12:00.002-06:00

By popular demand (okay, like, 2 people....but in my world, that constitutes "popular demand"), I present to you a pretty typical Saturday, complete with my snarky commentary.

I should alert you, it did not occur to me to start documenting my day until about 8:00, when I had already been up for an hour. Fortunately, all you really missed was unpleasant and unattractive morning face and the shower that I took. And I'm since I'm not cool with posting pictures of myself in the shower (not for free, anyway), there really isn't much that you missed.

So at 8:00, my day started with last night's dishes:

They wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, and I was too lazy to wash them last night. Bad housewife.

While doing dishes, I brewed some coffee:

And while preparing my coffee, I realized how disgusting my stove looked (I feel like I'm writing the housewife version of, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"):

So I decided I might as well wash the stove, too. The Boy (I've decided it's amusing to refer to him as "The Boy") was very upset that I had to audacity to clean the stove without seeking his assistance. He kept tugging on my leg, saying, "I scrub! I scrub!" (Which of course came out "I scub!") Far be it from me to discourage any proclivity my son might posses for cleanliness:

With the dishes and stove clean, I got out hamburger to thaw for supper:

And put away the bread I made last night (does that make up for not doing the dishes?):

At this point, Mom (that's me, in case you're having troubles following along) needed to reassemble the kitchen, without any knee-high assistants. I set The Boy down to color:

While The Girl happily watched (and did her best to snatch said crayons from The Boy):

At this point, I went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning. As I shuffled stuff on the counter around, I looked at my pile of cookbooks and thought, "I should really do something with these recipes....someday."

And now, the kitchen was clean:

If not the dining area:

Fortunately (?), I was able to put off cleaning the dining area for a bit longer, because I have not yet trained my children to change their own diapers:

I made the bed:

And stared at the pile of laundry that I should do, but for want of quarters:

By this time, it was 10-ish, and we were all ready for a break. We had story-time:

I had breakfast (that's my third cup of coffee):

Changed The Girl again (note, the new outfit):

And then took another break (Fons and Porter was on!):

After Fons and Porter, I checked out blogs:

And took this random picture of The Boy:

And cut out a pre-printed dress for Milehi:

In the middle of my cutting, The Girl woke up from her (far too brief) morning nap, and The Boy thought he needed to eat. (What IS it with these kids?!) It was a bit chaotic, and no pictures were taken until after lunch was eaten:

After lunch, The Boy napped, and Mom sewed:

With some help from an inquisitive assistant (no, she didn't really sit on my lap the whole time, and please excuse my lack of make-up):

Then The Girl and I got the mail (thank you, St. Judes, for the address labels):

And I decided to start supper (Pinwheel Cheese Meatloaf, from The Total Woman Cookbook). Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to take a picture of supper-in-progress until it was in the fridge. You're just going to have to trust me that the following picture is of meatloaf:

Then, I made up some more formula:

And swept the kitchen:

Now we start to get into a shady area, in which I must not have taken many pictures, because I swept the floor at about 2:30. The next picture I have is when I put supper in the oven at 4:30. Oh, wait. I know. I was watching "The Cutting Edge" on ABC Family.

Anyway, here is supper in the oven, at 4:45:

At 5:45 we ate (those are Betty Crocker boxed potatoes, which I love, but just learned Ryan does not). You're going to have to trust me when I tell you supper tasted much better than it looked. The loaf kinda fell apart, which I anticipated, but it tasted really good (but I'll blog about the recipe in a separate post):

Then I did more dishes (again, they wouldn't all fit in the dishwasher), while Ryan bathed the children:

Now, again, there's another big block of blankness here. From 6:30-9:00, I have no documentation. Not that anything exciting happened. I caught up on some blogs, helped get the kids in PJs, sent Ryan off to work, and put children to sleep. Leah went to sleep about 9:00. And this is what my living room looked like:

In the interest of not tripping over stuff for the rest of the night, I picked up:

And now I'm here, blogging. I may sew some more on my quilt. And I should probably iron a dress to wear to church tomorrow. But you get the idea.

It now occurs to me that there's a lot of random things left out. Yes, I changed The Girl more than twice, and I did change The Boy as well, even if I didn't document it. Mainly because I was lazy, but besides, do you all really care about that particular aspect of my day? And I promise, I fed The Girl, as well. It's just hard to take a picture of yourself, sitting on the couch, feeding your daughter.

And that was my Saturday. I should have waited for an especially productive Saturday, and led you all to believe that I was some sort of super-mom/wife, but most of you know me too well to believe that, anyway.

Resolutions

2009-01-14T15:46:00.002-06:00

I've made mention before, I'm not a person "above" new year's resolutions. I'm not necessarily good at keeping them (how many years now have I resolved to lose weight?), but I do like making them. While I have several resolutions this year, my primary one is something that I am been tossing around for a couple months now:

Simplicity.

I've got several ideas rolled up in this, but it really boils down to that one word. Of course, simplicity means different things to different people. I have no plans to run off into the wilderness, cook over a wood stove, and beat my clothing on rocks by the creek. (The high today was -2. I'll wait to run into the woods until it's a little warmer out.) For me, right now at least, "simplicity" means "less stuff". (But it sounds a lot nicer, doesn't it?) Really, it's something I've been working on, intermittently, for a couple of years now--since my grandma died in 2007.

My grandma was born in 1915. That means that her formative years, her teenage years, her newlywed days, were spent in the Depression. She saved everything. I remember when she had her ceiling fan replaced. Going around the motor of the ceiling fan, there was this decorative...thing. It was metal and kinda looked like a tire (I guess). It's purpose was to cover the motor. Anyway, that piece from the old fan was left over. They were going to throw it away, but no, Grandma insisted they keep it. She might need it. Someday.

That's how I've been for the last 25 years. Except I don't have the excuse of having grown up during the Depression. I'm just a packrat. When Grandma died, though, a light went on for me. As we gathered at her house to sort through her belongings, it hit me. Someday, I am going to die. And someone is going to have to go through all my stuff. Only then, because I'll be dead, it won't just be "stuff". It will be "something that belonged to Amanda", and thus, somehow, valuable. In theory. Someone else is going to have to throw away all that crap that I thought I might need. Someday.

Since then, I've slowly been taking steps to simplify my life. With the dawning of the new year, though, I'm more intent in my efforts. A couple weeks ago, I went through our hall closet and just tossed stuff. Stuff that I'd been saving for "someday", stuff I'd been saving for sentimental reasons, stuff that I didn't even remember why I was saving. It was invigorating.

Last weekend, I went to my parents' house and sorted through my books...cookbooks, knitting, sewing, and just plain books. I took four boxes to GoodWill. I filled two black garbage bags with stuff I had printed off the internet. And I have a large pile of books to list on ebay. It feels good. I still have a lot of stuff, and a lot that I don't need, but just getting rid of some of it is a weight off my shoulders.

As I move forward into 2009, I hope to continue to eliminate the superflous "stuff" from my life, and to remember these words:

"The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong." — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Works for Me -- Cheap, Organic Food

2009-01-14T14:34:00.005-06:00

This isn't especially brilliant, and honestly, I'm not even sure it's "Works-for-Me-Wednesday" appropriate. But I wanted to share it, and this seemed like as good a time as any.

I discovered one day, quite accidentally, that sometimes, you can actually save money by buying organic. For instance, yesterday, I needed sour cream. I was about the purchase the 16 oz., store brand sour cream, for $1.16. Until I wandered to the "health" section of the store. It was there I found two, 16 oz. containers of organic sour cream marked down to 25 cents each. Why? Yesterday was its expiration date. They had several containers of yogurt, as well, also 25 cents each, for the same reason.

Now, clearly this won't work for all things, but come on. It's sour cream. It's not like it's going to go sour, ya know? I've had such luck on other occassions, too. Usually with dairy products, though one time I found some tortillias marked way down. *

Even if you don't normally buy organic, it may be worth it to ocassionally stroll through that section of your store. It Works for Me!

Meal Plan Monday

2009-01-12T10:15:00.005-06:00

For once, I've got my act together this week and can participate. (In my defense, I do generally have a menu for the week, it's just not often that I have it on Monday.)

Most of the recipes this week are from The Total Woman Cookbook (I tagged them with a "TW".) If you're not familiar with The Total Woman, it's worth checking out from the library for a laugh. The cookbook, though, is surprisingly fabulous. I tagged a lot of recipes to try. They're different, but for the most part don't require bizarre or expensive ingredients. (And as you'll see in my next post, that's a big selling point for me right now!) Now, I could be horribly misguided; I haven't made any of the recipes. They might be awful. I promise to keep you posted.

Without further ado:

Monday:
Stir-Fry Chicken with Broccoli (TW)
Rice

Tuesday:
~Out of Town~

Wednesday:
French Onion Casserole (TW)
Onion Soup Sticks (TW)

Thursday:
Pinwheel Cheese Meatloaf (TW)
Scrumptious Spinach (TW)

Friday:
Lentil, Mushroom, and Spinach Soup
Bread-of-the-Gods

Saturday:
Um....crap. I just realized I don't have a meal planned for this day.

Sunday:
Turkey Fettuccine Alfredo
Broccoli Supreme (TW)

Bread of the Gods

2009-01-12T09:28:00.006-06:00

(Note: Blogger isn't letting me do pictures. Prepare for a post full of links.)

(Update: Kim just told me my attempt to link to the GoogleDoc of my recipe is not working. I typed out the recipe for everyone.)

No, I have not been overcome with narcissism. My husband, however, seems to have a great love for my homemade bread. While I do love the idea of the one-loaf recipe, I've encountered one problem with it: when I make bread, Ryan eats twice as much! That one loaf of bread didn't last a week. Clearly, a larger recipe was called for. And despite my great love for Ultimatte Assstownding Bred (okay, also known as Rootbeer Rye Bread), Ryan perfers white bread (the bastard).

Enter the greatest bread book of all time. (Just call me the Queen of Hyperbole.)

Growing up, this was always the book that Mom used when she made bread, and the one she had me use when I wanted to learn. Unfortunately, Mom made it quite clear that the book was hers and I was not going to be getting it any time soon. Luckily for me, I happened upon a well-loved copy at an antique shop. (And yes, I'm kinda dorky, in that I prefer the well-used, stain spattered copies. When I see an old cookbook in pristine condition, I can't help but wonder if it's really that great of a cookbook.)

With the help of the following recipe, Friday night, I baked the prettiest bread ever. If you click on no other link, you MUST go look at my bread! I almost didn't want to slice it. I considered covering it in shellac and saving it for posterity. Or at least until the fair.

For those of you bored to tears with all the bread talk, don't take me off your blog reader, yet! I do have plans for posts that do not involve bread. Stay tuned.

White Bread (Quick Method)

(asterisks, because Blogger won't space properly)

2 c. milk

5 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. salt

2 cakes (4.5 tsp) Fleishmans's yeast

2 c. lukewarm water (I used potato water)

12-13 c. sifted flour

5 tbsp. melted shortening (I used vegetable oil)

Scald milk; add sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and add to lukewarm milk. Add half the flour and beat until smooth. Add melted shortening and remaining flour, or enough to make easily handled dough. (Confession: I don't really measure the flour. I measure the initial 6 c., but after that, when it's time to mix by hand, I just go by feel. Of course, your milage may vary.) Knead dough quickly and lightly until smooth and elastic.

Place dough in greased bowl, cover and set in warm place, free from draft. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1.5 hours. When light, divide into 4 equal portions and shape into loaves. Place in greased brad pans. (I don't know measurements, but there seems to be two common sizes for loaf pans. This recipe is designed for the smaller one. I made two loaves in small, cheap, dollar store pans, and those are the pretty ones. The other two, I made in the larger fancy, teflon coated pans. They came out flat and funny looking, because they rose out instead of up. So if you have the smaller pans, use those. If you only have the bigger pans, I would suggest making only 3 loaves.) Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. bake in hot oven at 425* 15 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate, or 375* and finish baking about 30 minutes longer.

Poll Time

2009-01-09T07:43:00.003-06:00

I've shared with a couple people now my extrordinary glee that Leah is almost walking. The reason, though, isn't exactly anything as pure and wholesome as maternal pride. It has more to do with this sort of thing:

I can put her in dresses! Yes, I know I could have been putting her in dresses all along. But when she was little-little, I was holding her all the day, and dresses spent more time up under her armpits than over her tummy. And now that she's crawling, the skirt tends to get caught up in her legs. (Plus, it's January. I don't know what the weather is like where you are [stop gloating CatholicMom and Milehi], but today the high is supposed to be 25. I don't want to wear a dress when it's that cold!)

She's not walking, yet, but if she follows Darren's trend, she'll be walking in the next month or two. Which means....if I start sewing now, she'll have a closetfull of dresses come this summer.

And this, my friends is where I need your help. I've decided on making the above dress in these fabrics:

Which one should be the main color, and which should be the yoke and gores? Please have mercy on an indecisive blogger and participate in the poll on the right.

Use your imagination....

2009-01-08T20:37:00.002-06:00

.....and pretend that today is Wordless Wednesday.

More bread

2009-01-07T20:48:00.005-06:00

UPDATE: Despite the lack of pictures (which I promise to post tonight), the bread came out great. I did want to let you all know, though, that I did end up baking the bread for an extra 15 minutes or so. I've had a problem with loaves coming out under-done, and at 35 minutes, this was pretty light, yet. Your milage may vary and all that, but I figured I'd give you all a heads up.

Even though I still believe that I have found the Ultimatte-Assss-Townding-Bred recipe, I still like to play around with a couple other recipes. Even though the Ultimate bread is still, well, the ultimate, there is the fact that it makes three loaves. And actually, it seems most bread recipes make 3-4 loaves. After I crank out a couple more children, I'm sure that won't be a problem, but for right now, that's a lot of bread for us. (Although, my son does seem to be a bread fiend. I made the Ultimate Bread to take to my parents on New Year's Day. My mom made turkey and the usual "fixings". Darren would not touch the turkey and ate only a small bit of mashed potatoes, but ate FOUR slices of bread. But I digress....imagine that.) I know there are those who freeze bread, but I've never had good luck with that; it always dries out.

Fortunately for me, my mom found a solution for me, in an old issue of Workbasket Magazine. I give you:

One Loaf of Bread
(This is a fairly long article, but there are several good points of note in here, so I think it's worth typing out in its entirety. My notes in red. Because I couldn't possibly do this without commentary.)

It's so easy to make a good loaf of bread! While it can be done in about four hours, the entire process can be stretched over the greater part of a day, if desired; the actual time spent working on the loaf is less than a half hour be worked in quite painlessly with other home making tasks, even washing and ironing, it is so simple. (You hear that? Making bread is painless!)

You will need the following ingredients to make one loaf about 4 x 8 inches:

-> About 3 cups flour
-> 1/2 cake of compressed yeast (Can you even get compressed yeast anymore?), or 1/2 package of granular yeast (A whole package speeds rising time by half, but makes a coarser loaf.)
-> 1 teaspoon salt
-> 1 tablespoon sugar
-> 1 tablespoon fat--lard or shortening
-> 1 cup liquid, half scalded milk and half water or potato water

Soften the yeast in 2 tablespoons of the water, adding the sugar. Scald the milk, pour it over the fat to melt it and add the remaining water to cool it. (How brilliant is that! It works smashingly!) Measure about 1.5 cups flour, add the salt, and sift into a bowl. Stir into this the lukewarm liquid and the yeast mixture and beat hard, adding enough flour to make it possible to handle the dough. Turn it out on a floured board and knead it, knead for exactly eight minutes (by the clock), working into the dough as much more flour as it will take up--sift a bit on the dough and on the board under it, and continue kneading with the "heel" of the hands. (I thought the "by the clock" bit was a little insane, but since I was having such crappy luck with bread, I dutifully got out the timer and kneaded for exactly eight minutes. It turns out it was a good idea. At least part of my problem with previous breads was that I wasn't kneading nearly long enough. Now I always get out the timer. If I got nothing else from this recipe, that alone was well worth it.) The exact amount of flour varies with the type of flour, but ease of handling and not sticking to the board will tell you when you have enough. Grease a bclean bowl generously, drop the ball of dough in, then turn it over and cover all with a cloth and let it rise. (Confession: I've been using the free shower caps we've gotten from hotels to cover the bread. It works great, and it's cheap! And yes, I do reuse the shower caps [but only for baking, of course].)

If you want to make out the loaf just any time it is ready, choose a warm place for this process. If you prefer to have it ready for baking after other tasks are out of the way, this rising can be delayed by placing the bowl in a cooler place. In a warm temperature, after about an hour or hour and a half, the dough will be double in bulk. (Did you know you can let your bread over-rise? I had no idea, until Milehimama graciously referred me to Baking 911. I've had more than a few loaves that fell in the oven during the baking. If you've ever had a problem with bread, I strongly recommend checking out the link.) At this stage, punch it down and let rise again until double, which will require about half the time.

The last rising may be omitted, but it produces a finer loaf. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board, stretch into oblong shape, and let it stand about five minutes, before shaping into a loaf.

Fold into thirds, lengthwise, stretch and fold into thirds again, into the length of your bread pan. Roll, jelly-roll fashion, and place into greased bread pan, the lapped edge underneath. Tucked into a warm corner, covered with a cloth, slightly damp, the loaf is permitted to double in size, then popped into a 400* oven and baked about 35 minutes uncovered until a golden brown. Bread that is done shrinks from a pan and resoponds to a tapping with a hollow sound. (I wish someone could "show" me this elusive "hollow" sound. I think if I heard the difference between non-hollow and hollow bread, it would make more sense to me. But as it is, I try thunking my bread, and I just hear a thud. I can not distinguish between hollow or not.)

The loaf should then be cooled on a rack or across the edges of the pan to give a nice crisp crust. For a soft crust, brush immediately with melted butter or fat.

It's in the second rising now. If it comes out photographic, I'll post a picture later.

And if it comes out like a brick, I'm going to delete this post and tell you it was Dark Molasses Bread.

Long time no post

2009-01-07T20:27:00.003-06:00

I could probably go into a long list of reasons why I have been such a lousy blogger through the holiday season. But a lot of you know the details, and the rest of you wouldn't likely care about them, so the CliffNotes version is this:

The week before Christmas, our toilet overflowed and flooded a portion of our apartment. It sucked. I've moved everything in and out of our hall closet more times than I care to count. Between apartment drama and the holidays, blogging just wasn't a super high priority.

But I'm back now (aren't you relieved?). And wouldn't you know it, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to blog more regularly. (Nope, I'm not one of those people who is "too cool" for resolutions. Of course most of mine fail horribly, but I start every year with fresh hope that this year will be different.)

Look for a real post (not just a "gee, I'm sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth" post) either later tonight or tomorrow.

It's all in how you look at it.

2008-12-20T14:59:00.003-06:00

Today, WunderHubbee took the kids over to his parents and left me alone in the house for the day. I was the queen of productivity:

1.) Wrapped all the presents. (Okay, not all. I found a couple more when I cleaned out the closet.)
2.) Vacuumed thoroughly, and took Resolve to some stains on the floor.
3.) Did 5 loads of laundry.
4.) Thinned out the kids' toys and books, to take some to GoodWill.
5.) Cleaned out the hall closet and got rid of a lot of stuff; some garbage, some GoodWill.
6.) Cleaned out the fridge.
7.) I'm sure I did more things that I'm forgetting to list, so I'm just going to put up a #7, just in case.

Now, we could look at this in one of two ways:

1.) Wow! I rock! Look at home much I got done today!

2.) Wow! I suck. A good wife and mother would not have allowed her home to reach such a state of disarray.

I'm choosing perspective #1.

If you chose perspective #2, please, do not disillusion me, and keep your opinion to yourself.

7 Quick Takes

2008-12-19T20:09:00.000-06:00

I've always meant to participate in Jen's Seven Quick Takes, but never got around to it. It's now 10:30 on Friday night, and I suppose now is as good a time as any.

1.) The Duggar's just had their 18th kid. I'm sick of people saying that no one could possibly care for and love that many children. Just because you couldn't care for and love that many children doesn't mean that no one can. And yeah, the older kids help with the care of the household and younger children. Kids used to do that all the time. It's called chores. It's part of being a family.

2.) The ASPCA commercials this time of year really annoy me. There's one running now with Sarah McLachlan talking about the all the animals on the streets starving, and all the animals without homes or people to love them, and all the animals who are in abusive homes. There are children on the streets starving. There are children in foster care who would love nothing more than a forever family. There are children in abusive homes. I love animals as much as the next person, but the fact still remains that they are animals. I think people need to get their priorities straight.

3.) Pregnant women should wear maternity clothes. The end.

4.) SpringPad is the new organizational love of my life. The menu-planning "notebook" is especially ingenius. And it's all free. You need to check it out.

5.) Am I the only polite person left in South Dakota? What happened to "please", "thank you", and (heaven forbid!) "excuse me"? I'm sick and tired of people looking at me like I have a third head when I say, "Merry Christmas."

6.) I had my wisdom teeth out last Friday. Now that my teeth have more room, they've been shifting. How do I know? Because all week, my teeth have ached like when I got my braces adjusted. I told Ryan this, and he looked at me like I was on crack (he gives me this look a lot). Please tell me that at least one of my readers had braces and can relate.

7.) Darren can do the sign of the cross by himself. Well, mostly. The "holy spirit" part confuses him, because he can't figure out which shoulder to touch first, since what I direct him to do and what he sees me do are opposite (make sense?). So he just kinda waves his hand back and forth between his shoulders. But since he's not even two, yet, I'm going to count it anyway.

I'm also proud to report that any time we put him in his high chair, he immediately starts the sign of the cross because he knows it's time to pray. We only just started praying before meals in the last month or two, so I'm impressed that he's already made the connection.

The Best Laid Plans

2008-12-13T18:49:00.000-06:00

or: More Reasons I Will Not Be Winning "Mom of the Year"

Reason One
I made marshmallows. On the surface, this seems like a very "good mother," domestic-y thing to do. Except I messed it up. I blame it on my mixer, which is really my mom's. I have a wonderful Kitchen Aid stand mixer that WunderHubbee got me when we were still dating (somewhere around the 5 year point). For better or for worse, though, the Kitchen Aid is big and weighs a ton, so I didn't bring it to the apartment with me. Knowing that I wanted to make marshmallows, I asked Mom to bring me her stand mixer, instead, because it was lighter.

Problem 1 (self-inflicted): I heated the syrup in a kettle that had two small handles, not one long handle.

Problem 2: The spinning mechanisim on the mixer (you know, how the bowl is supposed to spin) was broken. Which meant I had to spin the bowl manually, while attemtping to drizzle 244* syrup from a kettle that required two hands to hold it. So I ended up giving the bowl a very vigourous spin, and then prayed that it would spin long enough for me to drizzle in some syrup. Much to my shock, this worked remarkably well.

Problem 3: The creme started to climb up the mixer. You're supposed to beat the whole mess for 15 minutes. At the 7-minute mark, the creme developed a mind of it's own and started to creep up the beaters. I was able to control this for a while with constant bowl-scraping, which led to...

Problem 4: My plate scraper came apart mid-scrape. I had to fish the head out of the creme (um, that sounds dirtier than intended). Loads of fun. I ended up with marshmallow cream spread hither and yon, covering pretty much every surface in the kitchen. Ryan said it looked like the set of a g*y p*rn. Worse still, the constant scraping didn't help for long and soon led to....

Problem 5: I was so flustered by the whole endeavor that I forgot to add the vanilla and the salt. I've forgotten the vanilla in the past with no ill effects. But the salt made me nervous. I just cut them up a bit ago (and by the way, the pizza cutter worked slicker than snot and I thoroughly recommend it). They're not bad. But they're not really....anything. Darren seemed to like them, but to me, there's really no taste to them. Guess it's a good thing I bought extra gelatin.

Reason Two
I made Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies. I know, on the surface, this, too, looks like a "good mom" thing. Problem is, my cookies turned into bars. The dough was way too batter-y to expect it to stay on a cookie sheet. I'm not crazy about cookie bars, but I wasn't left with many other options. To add insult to injury, I suspect I may not have baked them enough. I've never made cookie bars and I was kinda winging that part. I had one from the corner that was pretty good, but I have yet to sample the middle.

Reason Three
I made soup. Sadly, I didn't realize we were out of bread. No grilled cheese for my hungry brood. (And yes, baking bread did cross my mind, but it was about 4:30 before I realized we were out. Bread at 8:30 wasn't going to do any of us much good.

And because nothing I made today was picture-worthy, I give you:

Gratuitous Family Pictures

Marshmallows

2008-12-10T10:01:00.001-06:00

Some of my fake friends and I were talking about Christmas candy and marshmallows came up. My recipe is from Martha Stewart, but the recipe I found on her web page is not the same as the one I use. There are a couple aspects of my recipe that I think are better, so this is the one I'm posting.

They're a bit of a pain to make, but soooo good; infinitely better than store-bought. They're not particularly difficult to make, but they are time consuming--and a stand-mixer would be a very good thing to have. (Looks like I'm going to be going to my parents' house to get mine.) If I get around to making these, I'll try to remember to take pictures of the process. I know from experience, that with candy-making, sometimes a visual aid can be very helpful.

One more thing: this is a messy process. Between the powdered sugar and the stickiness of the whole endeavour, you might want to wait until the kids are tucked in bed. Or chained to the couch or something.

Martha Stewart Marshmallows
(Actual recipe in black, my notes in red.)
2.5 tsp plain gelatin (about 4 envelopes)
1.5 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting

1.) Prepare a 9x13 pan by greasing and dusting with powdered sugar.
Don't skimp on the powdered sugar. The marshmallows are incredibly sticky. If you skimp on the sugar, you're going to have a hell of a time flipping these out of the pan. This is not the place to be frugal.
2.) Combine sugar, syrup, and 1/2 c. water in a medium saucepan. On low, stir until sugar has dissolved. Raise heat to high and cook without stirring to 244*. Immediately remove from heat. I'm sure most of you already know this, but in case you haven't made candy before, the temperature is crucial. No, 240* is not close enough, and neither is 250*. A couple of degrees can be the difference between delicious candy and bricks. (Ask me how I know.) The temperature will rise slowly to begin with, but once it hits 220* or so, you'll want to stay pretty close.
3.) While waiting, combine gelatin and 1/2 c. water in mixer bowl. Allow to "bloom" while sugar cooks.
4.) When sugar is ready, turn mixer on low and drizzle syrup into gelatin. Once combined, gradually kick mixer up to high. Beat 15 minutes, until thick, white, and nearly tripled in volume. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
5.) Pour in pan, dust with powered sugar. Let stand overnight, uncovered.
A word of caution: you're going to have marshmallow creme stuck to everything--the bowl, the mixer, the scraper, and probably your hands. You definitely want to have a sink full of hot, soapy water ready to put the utensils in. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.
6.) Dust counter with powdered sugar, turn marshmallows out on counter and cut as desired. Dredge cute edges in sugar. Store in airtight container.
The original Martha recipe talks about cutting them out with cookie cutters. I tried it, but it's stupid for a couple of reasons. First, you end up with ginormous marshmallow. Most people don't want to sit down and eat a marshmallow the size of a cookie. Second, it's just plain difficult. The marshmallows don't really cut all that easily; they just kinda spring back. I usually use a knife to cut them into small squares. In searching for marshmallow recipes online, though, I found someone who said they used a pizza cutter to cut out theirs. I think that's the most brilliant thing I've heard all week. I'll definitely be trying that out this year.

It's a Christmas Slideshow!

2008-12-10T07:52:00.001-06:00

I'll have a "real" post later today, but for now, I thought I'd put up a post of our Christmas decorations here. I'm not normally big on slideshows, but there's a lot of pictures, so I thought it might be easier this way.

If you have good eyes, you may have noticed something odd about this picture:

Like, I don't know, that there's a cop in the manger and only two kings. We got the Little People Nativity Scene last week. I rationalized that it was for the kids, but I think we all know that it was mostly for me. That's why I"m a bit distraught that my children have somehow managed to lose the third king. I searched the apartment high and low, but I cannot find the little guy.

Enter: Little People Cop (thanks, Wendy!).

Ryan decided that adding him to the nativity made it more complete. Apparently, the third king is not lost, as I had imagined, but rather, he is in witness protection. The cop is there to protect the others from King Herod and the Romans. Ryan says that it's just common sense that you should have someone with a gun protecting the Savior of the World.

I'm certain that the third king will turn up some time around in Easter. But really, our nativity is just that much cooler than all the "normal" ones out there. Who wants a king when you can have a cop?

(Ryan also suggested that perhaps the third king discovered that his gold was counterfeit, so he's going back to the store to exchange it. Don't worry; he saved his receipt.)

Ultimatte Assss-townding Bred

2008-12-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

Some of you understand what the title is all about. The rest of you are wondering if I've fallen off the deep end. (Actually, that happened a long time ago....about the time I started having children.) While title is a bit of an inside joke (really, the whole post is full of them; forgive me), the actual topic is no joke. I have finally found the ultimate, perfect bread recipe. (And all thanks to an imaginary internet friend!) I present:

Root Beer Rye Bread - From "Pig Out" (a fabulous out-of-print cookbook)
An excellent sandwich bread and superb bun for bratwurst and kraut sandwiches.
Planning: Allow rising time
Preparation time: 4 hours
Quantity: 3 loaves
Baking time: 40-50 minutes, 375*

2.25 cups root beer
2 packages dry yeast
1.5 cups rye flour
1/2 cup sorghum
1 tbsp salt
1/4 cup shortening or lard
1 tbsp caraway seed
5 cups white flour

1. Warm the root beer to 100-110*; dissolve yeast in warm root beer.
2. Add rye flour, sorghum, salt, shortening, caraway seed, and 2 cups of white flour. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour.
3. Knead 10 minutes. Cover and let rise until doubled.
4. Pund down; let rest 15 minutes. Shape into 3 loaves and place in greased 8" x 4" loaf pans. Let rise until doubled.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 375*.

I cannot thank my friend CatholicMom enough for sending me this cookbook. I've been struggling for a bit now to make a good loaf of bread. While I did discover that part of my problem was not kneading the dough sufficiently, I also needed to find a solid recipe. Enter CatholicMom, my imaginary internet friend. She kindly sent me the Pig Out cookbook and stongly endorsed this family recipe.

I cannot rave about this bread enough. I was a bit concerned that the rye flavor was going to be strong. Not something that would bother me, but would likely bother my own WunderHubbee. I need not have worried. The rye flavor is there, but light and pleasant. It slices beautifully and is absolutely the most delightful bread I have made or tasted in ages.

Random notes:
1. I found rye flour in the organic/natural section of my local HyVee.
2. Sorghum was on the bottom shelf by the corn syrup.
3. I didn't have/couldn't find caraway seeds. I would definitely like to use them next time, but I thought the bread was fine without it. (And if anyone has suggestions on where to find caraway seeds, I'm all ears.)
4. I used lard, and will continue to do so in the future. I'm sure shortening is fine (after all, the recipe says that it is), but I've always been partial to lard.
5. I baked the bread 45 minutes. I was advised that the recipe needed to be followed exactly, so I set the timer and walked away. Next time, I'm going to be sure to check it at 40. As you can see in the picture, the tops of my loaves were pretty dark. However, the flavor of the loaves was unaffected.
6. I've found that I need to literally set a timer when I knead bread. 10 minutes is a lot longer than you think, at least when it comes to kneading bread. I have a feeling that with the rye flour used, sufficient kneading is especially important to this recipe.
7. I'm contemplating halving the recipe next time, and making one loaf and some dinner rolls. Three loaves of bread is a lot for us to eat. I will say, however, that it seems to keep quite well. I made it last Friday, and is just beginning to get dry.

And I'm going to end with a gratuitous baby shot:

(Don't let that smiling face fool you. This is the face of a Demon Baby. It was, like, 9:30 p.m. when I took this picture. WAY past her bed-time.)

MeMe

2008-12-05T16:27:00.000-06:00

Since my adoring fans (okay, I can think of two, but that still qualifies as "fans," plural) are clamouring for a new post, it is fortunate that Chris tagged me. It's a pretty simple MeMe. All I need to do is tell you:

Six Things that Make Me Happy

Here goes....

1.) I'm going to pull the "cheesy mom card." Darren is not a happy camper first thing in the morning. Nor am I. So when Darren wakes up, Ryan generally brings him into bed with me where we snuggle for about 15 minutes and wake up gradually.

2.) Christmas. Everything about Christmas. The music, the decorations, the baking. It gives me warm-fuzzies.

(This is harder than I thought...maybe I'm just not a very happy person. Moving on....)

3.) Floofy skirts. I never quite grew out of the little-girl-twirling stage of life. The first thing I do when I put on any dress is spin around and guage the twirl factor. If I thought I could pull off wearing a petticoat, I'd totally do it.

4.) Spending time with my family. I've got a huge extended family, so when we all get together, it's little more than organized chaos. I love it.

5.) Can I be shallow? A good hair day.

6.) And can I end on a personal note? A good-fitting bra. I finally went shopping and I got four of 'em. The feeling I got when I put on the first one that fit was nothing short of sheer bliss.

Where's my award?

2008-11-26T09:17:00.000-06:00

Because surely I get one for making my kids these to take to the sitter today:

Oh wait. That's right. I relinquished my award when I used this:

And this:

I did have coupons for both items. Does that at least earn me some bonus points? Oh that's right. It doesn't, because last night I realized I am guilty of coupon fraud. My coupons were for Betty Crocker frosting. You will note, the container above is Duncan Hines. I was so careful to make sure I had the right size container. I distinctly remember standing in the aisle with my coupon poised, deliberately selecting the proper container. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in ounces, I neglected to look at brand. The coupon still worked, though, and now I'm a criminal. Super.

Well at the very least, I should get an award for not eating the frosting straight out of the can. I love store-bought frosting. Growing up, my mom always made her own frosting, and I've always done the same. And homemade frosting is good, but it doesn't have that incredible creamy consistency of store-bought. If I let myself, I'm pretty confident that I could polish off a container of frosting in one sitting. (Though the thought of that much sugar does make my teeth hurt.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And when you go shopping on Friday, please, make sure to check your coupons.

How times have changed...

2008-11-21T16:39:00.000-06:00

Imagine if you will, a day spent lounging around your house. Well, maybe not lounging, but, perhaps, puttering. Let's say it's a Saturday. You have no appointments to go to, no place you need to be. You will be spending the day doing random projects around the house. A little light cleaning, some vacuuming, maybe bake a cake.

And you will do it all wearing this:

(click here to buy the pattern)

Normally, I would chalk this sort of thing up to nostalgia. Yeah, Mrs. Cleaver wears something like this, but surely normal women in the 40s and 50s did not. However, this pattern is specificially labeled, "a one piece dress or house coat." The fact that they described this as a house coat tells me that women actually wore this as such. A house coat is something you wear around the house. Something you do random chores in. Something you throw on first thing in the morning. Something you don't necessarily mind slopping flour on.

Please tell me: where is the woman who wore this around the house?

Or how about this "Ladies' 'Pyjamas', or Lounging Ensemble":

(click here to buy)

Before I continue with my incredudulity, I do have to comment on the brilliance of that apron on the middle garment. See how it buttons on in the front? Now that's brilliant. Love it.

But really? Pjs? Someone wore these to bed? Clearly, someone did. Surely they would not have labeled them pyjamas if there weren't at least a few women who wore them as such. Especially perplexing is that the outfit seems to be made of cotton. Can you imagine having pjs that you needed to iron? You wouldn't have to iron them, I suppose. You are just wearing them to bed. But I'm anal like that. I would feel obligated to iron them.

So again, tell me, where is the woman who wore these to bed?

Like I said...
how times have changed.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

2008-11-20T12:34:00.000-06:00

Don't tell me it's too early for Christmas. I won't listen. While I will restrain my urge to decorate my home until after Thanksgiving (as in, I'm putting up the tree Thanksgiving night), I started listening to Christmas music November 1st. And since my boss granted me permission, I will be decorating the office tomorrow.

On some level, I admire those who eschew early Christmas-decorating. Those devoted people who don't put up their tree until Christmas Eve. Or put it up, but only put on one ornament at a time until Christmas Eve, when they finish decorating it. These people, my friends, are clearly better Catholics, Christians, and all-around better people than I. I simply cannot limit the wonderfulness that is Christmas to the 13 days between Christmas Eve and the Epiphany. There is too much joy, cheer, and goodwill towards men to fit in to two weeks.

That said, I'm extrordinarily excited for Advent this year. Growing up, we did the Advent wreath one year. Unfortunately my dad was, shall we say, a less than willing participant, and we never did it again. I suspect that my dad's resistence to the wreath is a major contributing factor in my overwhelming desire for my own little family to have one. In fact, I distinctly remember it being one of the things I brought up early during mine and Ryan's relationship: when I got married, I wanted to go to church as a family every Sunday and I wanted to do an Advent wreath every year. In anticipation of the Advent season, I've purchased this wreath (sorry to link--it won't let me copy the picture, and I don't have a picture of my own, yet) and printed out these prayers. They're pretty brief, so I anticipate that Darren (and Ryan) should be able to sit still through them.

And finally, what's Christmas without a new dress?

Okay, so the woman wearing the black dress looks a little....off. And would you really wear white gloves with a black dress? But idiosyncrasies aside, I think this is a cute dress. And since it's labeled "Sew-Easy" there's a strong possibility I may actually finish it in time for Christmas. I'll be making the long-sleeved version, and will likely be lengthening the skirt to mid-calf or so. I also have hopes (dreams....delusions....) of sewing up a couple long wool skirts to wear this winter. I'll try to keep the blog in mind as I sew, so as to have some exciting in-progress pictures. (Or at the very least, some entertaining, "Oh, shit, I screwed up again!" pictures.)

Homemade Cleaners

2008-11-20T11:50:00.000-06:00

There's seems to be a flux of bloggers writing about homemade cleaners (there's another--some of you know who--but I refuse to link to her). Not only is it great for the environment, but it's also quite frugal. While there are exceptions, homemade cleaners generally work just as well as the harsh, store-bought cleaners.

Confession: I use store-bought cleaners.

I have used the homemade cleaners, and for a while, was using those exclusively. They do work quite well and are far cheaper. But there's one thing that store-bought cleaners have that vinegar simply does not: a pretty smell .

Enter Method products:

I know, I know--they're not even cheap cleaning products! But oh, the smell. I don't know if you can tell (probably not, unless your bifocals work better than mine), but the spray pictured smells like grapefruit. And not in the way the Pledge smells like lemon. This really, truly, honest to goodness smells like they shoved a grapefruit in this bottle. I smile every time I use this stuff. (I'm also quite fond of their Eucalyptus Mint bathroom spray.)

So while part of me cringes every time I put a bottle of this in the grocery cart, I still think it's worth it. I hate to clean. If spending a little more on a nice-smelling cleaner makes cleaning a little more palatable for me, it's money well-spent.

Relish

2008-11-17T12:28:00.000-06:00

This post has been way too long in coming. My apologies to my bloggy-buddy, Shannon.

Ages ago (um, like in October....which, yeah, would be a full month ago....told you this was a long time in coming), Shannon had a blog contest, giving away a gift subscription to Relish. You left a comment for one entry, and if you blogged about the contest, you got a second entry.

Enter Bad-Blogging-Friend-Fact (BBFF)-1: I entered her contest, but failed to blog about it.
Despite my one, lone entry (due to BBFF-1), I managed to win! Lovely Shannon gifted me with a complimentary 6-month subscription to Relish.

Enter BBFF-2: I didn't even blog about Shannon's generosity immediately after it happened.
I hereby appologize two dozen times to Shannon for being an ungrateful clout. Everyone should go visit her blog and tell her how sorry I am.

Now that I have appeased the blogging gods by offering up my appologies, I can get on to the fun part and answer what you're all probably asking: What the heck is Relish?

It's fabulous, that's what it is. It's a meal-planning site that does all the work for you, right down to organizing your grocery list. Every week, the site offers you 10 meals, from which you can select 5. After you select your 5 meals, you get a PDF document with all the recipes and an organized grocery list. Once a month, they post several new freezer-friendly recipes from which you can select 4. Again, you get a PDF document with the recipes and an organized grocery list. So if you use one freezer meal a week and have one night for left overs, you're golden. (As an aside, all recipes can be scaled to feed between 2 and 10 people.)

The site is incredibly user-friendly and (I know this is what you're really wondering) unbelieveably inexpensive: $21 buys you a three-month subscription (the shortest subscription you can buy). I'll admit, the last month has been crazy, so this week is the first week that I have been able to truly utitlize the service.

My first concern was about the over-all cost of groceries. Shannon had posted that it was about the same as her normal grocery shopping, but I was still concerned. Especially when I saw my bill shoot up about $40 higher than usual. BUT, I quickly realized that I had purchased several non-normal purchases: a gallon of vegetable oil, ziplock bags, Kleenex, etc.. When I deducted those, I found the cost to be essentially the same: $135. If I try hard, I can get the grocery bill to $100/wk, but that's rare. So for week one at least, the grocery cost is quite comperable.

They do seem to like pre-packaged items. For instance, tonight we're having pre-made tortellini and Pillsbury breadsticks, and tomorrow night we'll be using Pillsbury pizza crust. But for the industrious and frugal, you could easily make your own breadsticks and crust. (Heck, you could even make your own tortellini, were you so inclined.)

I'll be posting the recipe highlights in the weeks to come.

So one more time, Shannon, I'm sorry, and thank you!

(On an un-related note, I hope to post a bread recipe later tonight.)

Works for Me--Cheap Hand Soap

2008-11-12T09:26:00.000-06:00

Once again, "my" idea is one that I shamelessly copped from someone else. This weekend, some friends and I were discussing hand soap and how difficult it is to find a liquid hand soap that is not anti-bacterial. (Wendy, I see you cringing!) One friend had a fabulously brilliant--and cheap!--solution: shampoo. She had first used this trick while in China. She bought some shampoo that did horrible things to her hair. In an effort to "waste not, want not" she tried using it as hand soap--and it worked great.

And why wouldn't it? Soap's primary mechanisim is to carry away germs. The friction of your hands rubbing together is really what gets your hands clean, not so much the soap itself. The soap is merely a vehicle for the germs to cling to and be rinsed away.

I haven't tried this, yet, but we are running low on liquid soap. You can bet that I will be stocking up on dollar store shampoo when I go grocery shopping tonight.

(Sorry for the random asterisks. Blogger is doing bizzare things with the post formatting this morning.)

If Kermit went golfing....

2008-11-10T11:35:00.000-06:00

...these are the pants he'd wear.

I recently obtained the pattern for Crescent Moon Yoga Pants. I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest remnants of fleece I could find (naturally). I thought these two fabrics went together well and didn't give it a second thought. But the moment I pinned the "booty" into the main pant, I realized what I'd done. My daughter looks like a frog. (A cute and cuddly frog, but still.)

The pattern itself was, in general, a well-drafted, well-written pattern. I did (of course) have a one issue with it: the cutting instructions. The pattern piece for the main pant directs you to "Cut 2 - one with pattern up, one with pattern down." For the life of me, I cannot think of any reason why you would do this. I did what every other pattern directs you to do: fold the fabric right sides together and cut out two pieces at once. This has the added bonus of putting the fabric in position for the first step (sewing the front and back seams).

I would hesitate, though, to recommend this pattern to a beginner, not because of the pattern itself, but because the pattern is designed to be used with fleece. I'm sure there are those who will disagree with me, but I don't believe that fleece is a beginner fabric. First of all, it's shifty. I used a lot of pins to hold the yellow "booty" in place while I sewed it. Even then, I still had to go back and re-do part of it. Which brings me to the second reason: it's next to impossible to see your stitches. If you need to tear out a seam, you had better hope you have really good lighting. This is a pretty simple pattern, but let's face it: if you're just learning to sew, odds are you're going to screw up something. Ripping out a seam isn't fun any time, but ripping out a seam in fleece is enough to drive a girl to drink.

Overall though, I liked this pattern. As long as you have a little bit of sewing experience, it's an easy pattern. And the result is cute. Even if your daughter does look like a frog.

E-patterns!

2008-11-06T14:28:00.000-06:00

Exciting news--Jennie Chancey, owner of Sense and Sensibility patterns has just converted most of her patterns into ePatterns! Go check 'em out, now!

Help Me Choose

2008-11-06T10:22:00.000-06:00

Long story short:

We had this chick Ryan works with take our family pictures. I'm not crazy about any of them, but Ryan seems to think we need to order some prints to be polite. Here's the best of the worst. Please help me choose. Poll at the end of the post.

Despite Ryan's closed eyes, I'm leaning towards this one, b/c

we at least all look semi-pleasant.

I'm not crazy about the look on Leah's face, or the blue tint

her skin seems to have.

Same as #2, but I gave it the 60's-treatment at picnik.com.

It seems to warm us all up and make Leah look less frightening.

2008-10-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

I didn't really think this was something "Kitchen Tip" worthy, but after reading a similar suggestion in a magazine (and being angry that they were acting like it was something new), I decided I'd share it.

I store my trash bags in the bottom of the trashcan. I take the roll of bags out of the box and put it in the bottom of the can, then line the can as usual. When I take out a full bag, a new one is easily found. I don't know where you normally store your bags, but for me, it wasn't anywhere near the actual trash can. This is so much easier.

And since I'm on a trashbag kick, I'll share one more tip. If you're like me (cheap), you line your bathroom trashcan with plastic grocery sacks. (Because even though I try to remember the reusable totes, I still somtimes forget.) I never had a good way of storing the bags; they always floated around under the bathroom sink. I found this suggestion in Real Simple magazine: stuff the pastic sacks in an empty Kleenex box. It is so slick and works so well that I'm disgusted that I didn't think of it on my own.

Hard to read?

2008-10-28T10:53:00.000-05:00

Just a quickie poll for now.

I just got a comment that my blog is difficult to read against the background. I never wanted to be "that" blog. I can't count the number of blogs that I've passed by because they're too difficult to read (white on black, anyone?).

So please, take my poll. Of course, I'm asking if you find my blog difficult to read visually. If you find it difficult to read because you just can't stand me, well, I can't help you.

I hope he was disappointed....

2008-10-27T12:13:00.001-05:00

Someone found my blog by searching "gross old-fashioned desserts."

I really hope he did not find what he was looking for here.

Here ya go, Wendy.....

2008-10-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

By popular request (okay, just one), I present....

FLASHBACK SATURDAY

Some time ago, I made reference to the four proms I've been to (and all with the same guy!). My friend Wendy requested photographic evidence. I was home this week, so I dug through my pictures to see what I could come up with. I couldn't find pictures from Ryan's junior prom, though.

My Junior Prom (2000):

This is a terrible picture, but the only one I could find. I know I have better pictures of both me and the dress, but the was the best I could do. No, that guy is not Ryan. He's a classmate; we were the emcee's and read the Junior Prophesies (where we predicted what each member of the senior class would be doing in 10 years). The dress was a poofy white Cinderella sort of number. In retrospect, it may not have been the most flattering (and certainly not in this picture), but I loved it. (And it cost $40. I got it in June, marked down from $160.)

My Senior Year (2001):
Yes, that is Ryan. Mom made this dress for me; it was my Breakfast at Tiffany's Dress. The pattern was the most expensive part: $8. The fabric was some $1/yd bargain fabric, so about $4. Secret confession: I'm wearing fish-net stockings. I thought it would be fun to be secretly trampy underneath the prim and proper dress.

My senior prom was Friday night, Ryan's junior prom was Saturday night. I did not want to pay for an up-do twice, so I wrapped my hair in toilet paper Friday night. No one ever knew any better (well, except the ones I told.) Sadly, I can't prove to you that it looked fine, because it's that picture I can't find. The dress was long and gold, a sequiny fabric underneath lacy fabric.

Ryan's Senior Prom (2002):
Another Mom-Made dress. Again, $1/yd fabric. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it was a pale pink. I did not wear a bra with it, and in retrospect, perhaps I should have. It is interesting to note that this is the only dress that I danced more than one dance in. We didn't dance at all at my junior or senior prom, and we danced one dance at his junior prom. I don't know what it's like at other schools, but around here anyway, no one really stays at prom. You go to Grand March, stand around and talk with everyone for a while, then go meet on a dirt road and get trashed. Fun times.

That brings to the end of today's journey into the past. Wendy, you owe me. Isn't it funny how, at the time, you think you look so fabulous? And you're absolutely positive that you're never going to be one of those people who looks back on their prom pictures and thinks, "Wow, I was a dork." Amazing what even 7 or 8 years of perspective will do.

And I hereby challenge my readers to post their own prom pictures. (And I know a lot of you are old than me. Come on--I wanna see some 80s hair!) If you're actually brave enough/crazy enough to do so, leave me a link.

Cooking

2008-10-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

(Side note: When I first started blogging, I thought that titles were the greatest thing the world. Now I just think they're a huge burden. I feel obligated to come up with a witty title each day, and frankly, I'm just not that witty.)

What kind of cook are you? Are the sort who has a regular menu and basically makes the same recipes all the time? Are you the sort who rarely makes the same thing twice? Or somewhere in between?

As for myself, I'm of the "rarely make the same thing twice" variety. I've got some standards, of course, but most nights, I make some thing new. When I first moved in with my husband, I was a bit nervous about this. His family has a very scheduled menu. (Any day of the week, he can tell you what they'll be having. Sunday: Lasagna. Monday: Waffles. Thursday: Take-out pizza. Friday: Go out to eat. Saturday: Soup.) As a result, there were a lot of things he claimed to not like. When you get right down to it, though, it wasn't that he didn't like those things, he'd just never had them. I told him he had to try everything once. If there was something he truly didn't like, I wouldn't make it again. But he had to try it. (I believe I told him he had to try three bites of everything: one to see if his mouth liked it, one to see if his stomach liked it, and one to see if his brain agreed. Sometimes, husbands are like children, aren't they?)

So Ryan is used to trying new and sometimes strange things. In fact, he's grown to like the constant variety. This weekend, though, I feared I might be testing him. For the first time, I made lentils.

At first, I was gung-ho about the endeavor. Lentils are cheap! They're healthy! What more could you want, right? I selected a popular recipe from RecipeZaar: Brown Rice and Lentil Casserole. As I made it, though, the cold feet started to set in. As I stirred it before serving, my feet were ice cubes. I really felt I had made a mistake.

But I could not have been more wrong! This recipe really is simple, healthy, cheap, and delicious. I couldn't believe how much I liked it. Still, I was nervous about Ryan's reaction. With great trepidation, I asked what he thought. "It's good!" he enthused. He got seconds. And, he voluntarily had the leftovers for lunch the next day. (He has some horrible fear of leftovers. I'm working on it.)

You really need to give the recipe a try. You're going to be skeptical. You're going to stir it up, stick it in the oven, and think to yourself, "Self, this looks like slop. It's never going to turn out." You're going to take it out of the oven and think to yourself, "Self, this looks pretty blah. No one is going to like it." But by this time, it will be too late. You will have hungry children clamoring around the table, begging for food. Out of desperation, you will feed to to your droves.

Trust me: you're going to love it!

Just a couple notes on the recipe: It says to cook for an hour at 300. I did that, and ended up cranking it up to 400 and cooking it for another 30 minutes. Next time, I'm trying it on 350 for an hour. Also, I don't know what size your family is, but this doesn't make a ton. I would say it makes 3-4 adult servings. If you've got a passel of children, you'll want to double or triple this.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I also made these recipes:

Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix

CrockPot Chicken Taco Meat

I won't wax poetic about these, but I did really like both of them. I doubled the taco seasoning recipe and will definitely be using it from now on. It didn't take much time to throw together, and it's certainly cheaper than the individual packets. (No, I didn't do the math. The time I did that with bread I nearly gave myself a migraine. If you feel so inclined, do the math and prove me wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.)

The chicken taco meat was super slick, too. I used a whole chicken instead of the breasts, because chickens were on sale. I saved the giblets, tossed them in a pot with some giblets I'd saved from past chickens, some celery, and some onion, filled it with water, and made broth. I've got some chicken left over from last week that I need to use up, so I may be making some chicken noodle soup tomorrow.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Two posts in one day! Do I get an award for that? (Because I totally should!)

Knitting

2008-10-23T11:17:00.000-05:00

Lest you all think I'm a one-trick pony and can only sew, I present some of my knitting:

This is the sock I finished the other night, that will hopefully become part of a pair before Christmas. A couple of summers back, my Stitch 'n' Bitch group got together and dyed yarn. I'll be honest: I'm not crazy about the colors. I added the brown and orange only at the urging of another knitter, and I've always regretted it. My mom likes the colors, though (at least, she says she does), so I told her I make her a pair of socks out of it. And frankly, even if she does secretly believe that the yarn is ugly, does it matter? It's a sock. Eventually, it will wear out. Who cares if it's ugly?

And here is Leah's sweater:

The yarn is Brown Sheep sport weight, and it's navy, not royal blue. I guess you're just going to have to take my word that it looks like this:

I was by myself and trying to prevent it from rolling up so you could see the lace. Clearly, it did not work well. (What? My foot isn't a great sweater model?)

I will admit, I'm a little nervous about how this is going to end up. I cast on for the size one. Long story short, the directions were clear, I was day dreaming, and now I have enough stitches for a size two. I was too lazy to rip back, so I trudged onward. From what I can tell at this point, it doesn't look freakishly disproportionate. I suspect when I divide the arms and body (it's a top-down raglan) things will be clearer. I'm praying that it works out. (Is there a patron saint of knitting?)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I've got some recipes and cooking stuff to post about, too, but for the sake of clarity, I'm going to make that a separate post. Stay tuned!

Signs your husband needs new glasses...

2008-10-22T07:13:00.000-05:00

....he thinks that this is an appropriate outfit for your daughter to wear in public.

....he doesn't understand what the big deal is.

....he's insulted when you change her.

Photographic Proof

2008-10-21T11:45:00.000-05:00

Just in case you doubted whether the "dress" actually fit my child (and not just a random stuffed animal), I present the following evidence:

You can see the "dress" better here.

You can see her, in all her adorable-ness, better here.

Mother and daughter, in coordinated glory.

You may be wondering to youself, "Why did she put 'dress' in quotation marks up there?" (Or maybe you're simply wondering, "How did she produce such cute children?") It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the "dress" isn't a dress at all. It doesn't even come close to covering her tush. While it came out very nicely, and it fits her well, it is merely a blouse. Absolutely nothing about it is even remotely dress-like. I have no idea what happened. I double checked the pattern. It's definitely a dress. I cut it out properly. I don't think Leah is freakishly tall.

Perhaps Cookie nibbled on the hem one night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As for future sewing, I may be taking a bit of a breather. I do have another skirt, cut out and zig-zagged, that got put on hold for the Great Coordinating Outfit Project of 2008. It will be my first project with pockets, so I am both excited (because I love pockets) and nervous (because I'm sure I will louse it up).

And after a lengthy sabatical, I seem to be getting into knitting again. (It would seem that having two children in 13 months effectively dries up one's desire to knit....my husband would likely argue that it dries up one's desire to do other things, as well, but I digress.) I'm working on a sweater for Leah, that I hope to finish for Christmas. It's fairly simple, a top-down raglan, with a zig-zag lace inset.

I've also resurrected a pair of socks that were supposed to be mom's Christmas present, um, *cough*, last year. Okay, that's a half-lie. The socks that were supposed to be last year's present lay untouched for the last several months, at least. They're a lacy pattern that I have done before and love, but even easy lace is difficult to knit with two ~~brats~~ darling children needing your attention every few minutes. In lieu of those socks (which she will get someday, though I suspect it will be at least a year from now), I started a pair of simple ribbed socks from some yarn I dyed a couple summers back. I'm uncertain about the colors, but Mom likes them. I finally finished up the first sock of the pair last night, and hope to get the second one finished before Christmas.

I will try to get pictures of the pertinent knitting up tonight, as well as a meal plan, and a couple new recipes.

Time's-a-Wastin'

2008-10-16T23:12:00.000-05:00

Almost there.

(Excuse Cookie. Models are hard to come by at 11:00 p.m.)

This is what happens....

2008-10-13T20:56:00.000-05:00

....when you let your husband dress your daughter.

Yeah, last I checked it was still October.

And he simply didn't understand why I changed her outfit before we went to church.

Done! (And in time!)

2008-10-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

If you read SewRetro, this is probably old news to you. But to the rest of you, I'm excited to announce that I finished my Family Picture Dress in plenty of time. In fact, I wore it to work last Thursday.

( I have no idea why my face looks like that.)

(It would seem that I wisely chopped my head off in this shot.)

Construction Details (I suspect some of you will be bored to tears by this):

Bodice: I know it was a McCalls' pattern, but I can't find it on their site. I'll try to find the number later, when I'm at home.

Skirt: New Look/Simplicity 6824

Buttons: Vintage, from my button jar. They're hard to see, but they're white, with a ring of red around the outside. They were actually sitting out next to the button jar, for reasons I'm don't understand. I took it as a sign from above, though, because they're absolutely perfect on this dress.

Modifications: The original bodice was for a full shirt dress, with buttons all the way down. Because the skirt I selected was not like that, I inserted a zipper in the side seam so that I could actually get in and out of the dress (what a novel idea, no?).

Notes: The collar and facing draft on this bodice absolutely suck. There's no better word for it. I ended up needing Mom's help on this; quite a bit more than I anticipated. (Someday, I am going to make a dress all by myself, damn it!) I got the collar on with little trouble, but the I simply could not get the facing on right. No matter what I did, I always ended up with puckers on the actual dress. I finally gave up and begged Mom to sew it on for me. I did feel much better when she was done, though, because she couldn't get it on properly, either. In the end, there are still some puckers on the seam line along the collar, but the collar itself seems to hide most of them. Since I don't anticipate walking around with a popped collar, I don't anticipate that many people will notice.

To add insult to injury, I couldn't get the buttonholer to work for me, either. I spent 45 minutes attempting to sew one buttonhole. Again, I begged Mom in frustration. Of course, she sat down and whipped them all up in five minutes.

Overall: Despite my troubles, I'm absolutely thrilled with how this dress turned out. It fits like a glove. Really. If I gain five pounds, this dress will not fit. I opted to wear a "slimmer" under the dress. I can wear it without, but I would be spending most of the day trying to remember to "suck it in". The slimmer holds me in just enough that everything fits better. While I love the narrow-waisted look of the 50s, I'd never given much thought to the undergarments that must have been necessary.

This was my first foray into mixing and matching patterns. I was nervous, but need not have been. Everything went together easily and I ended up with exactly what I wanted.

Ironic Twist: I busted ass to get this dress finished in time, so I could wear it for our pictures on Saturday. At the last minute, Ryan had to work Saturday. Our pictures got bumped to next Saturday. So the rush wasn't strictly necessary.

On the bright side, I now have time to sew Leah's coordinating dress! (Which is having it's own set of problems, but I'll detail those in another post.)

Best Recipe EVER

2008-10-02T20:04:00.000-05:00

You need to go make this now.

Fiesta Tamale Pie

This is seriously the greatest thing I've made in a long time.

I did make a couple changes to the recipe (of course):

1.) I added some cumin to the turkey as it was browning. Since it was a taco-y dish, I thought the spice would be a nice complement. I was right (of course). You could easily use a packet of taco seasoning if you have that on hand. Also, I'm certain you could substitute hamburger with smashing results. This is supposed to be a Weight Watchers-friendly recipe, so it calls for turkey.

2.) I used a full pound of turkey. I had a 1 lb tube and I wasn't going to mess with saving half a tube. I kept the proportions for everything else the same. I did, however, use a rectangular casserole dish to bake it in.

3.) I used a can of diced chiles in place of the jalepenos the recipe calls for.

4.) Possibly the biggest change, I used my own cornbread recipe, rather than buying a box mix. I was a bit nervous about this, but I needn't have worried. It turned out great. Because I used my own cornbread, though, I did have to bake it a bit longer. I think it ended up being nearly an hour.

5.) Not really a change, but I wanted to mention that for the salsa, I used a jar of corn and black bean salsa. The corn was a nice complement.

In case you're wondering, what follows is our family's cornbread recipe. Definitely the easiest and best cornbread I've ever made. I've experimented with other recipes, but I always come back to this one. This recipe makes a 9x13 pan of cornbread; for tonight, I halved it and had the perfect amount.

Grandma Schmidt's Cornbread
1/2 c. Crisco
1 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. milk
pinch salt
2 c. flour
1 c. cornmeal (white is better)
3 tsp. baking powder

OIL a 9x13 cake pan. Not Pam, oil. A couple tbsp. for sure. It shouldn't pool, but you want a good coating on the entire pan. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 until done. 45-ish minutes. Test with a toothpick if unsure.
Reheats well in the microwave. Recipe easily halves--use a square cake pan.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Unrelated, joyous news: I am an idiot! The bodice fits fine! It was late last night when I tried it on, and for reasons still unbeknownst to me, I folded under the front bands. I shouldn't have. When I leave them out, as they are intended to be, it fits fine. Yippee!

In which I learn that I am not a size 18

2008-10-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

So remember the dress that I'm making myself for our family picture? Last night, after basting the collar on, I decided I should try on the bodice.

I etched the picture so as to save your eyes. No one needs to see my stretch-marked stomach in that much detail. You get the gist.

Can I tell you how greatly I am annoyed by this development? You can't tell with the etching, but the sleeves are beautiful. I have never sewn in sleeves so nicely. They have just the perfect poof at the top. The darts are absolute perfection. I have never sewn darts nicer than the ones in this bodice.

This bodice that doesn't even come close to fitting me.

It's my own damn fault. I've become one of those women who is in horrible denial about what size she wears. I've become one of those women who forgets about the horrible disparity between ready-to-wear sizing and sewing-pattern sizing. I measured, and the pattern told me to make a 20. I thought that was ridiculous. In the past, I have been bigger than I am now, and I have never needed to sew anything larger than an 18. I called my mom and consulted with her. She agreed that a 20 seemed excessively large. We decided that an 18 should work.

Keep in mind, I also cut out an 18 for the skirt, which is from a different pattern, but fits perfectly. This only adds to my annoyance that the bodice does not fit. Even sort of.

So what's the solution? Make a new bodice. Which also means going out and buying a new pattern, because I cut out a size 18, and thus cut off the lines for a size 20. Honestly, looking at that bodice, I wonder if a 20 is going to be big enough.

Some day, I will look back on this and laugh.

Right?

ETA: And to add insult to injury, I wasn't paying attention and first posted this on the SewRetro blog. Good grief.

Haste

2008-09-30T21:44:00.000-05:00

....makes waste. Or something like that. In this case, though, it nearly caused me to discount a delicious recipe.

I recently came across a fellow blogger's recipe for One-Hour Bread. Part of my reluctance to make all of our bread is the extensive rise time. Frankly, it's just not often that I have 3+ hours to devote to bread making. Last night, I gave the recipe a whirl--and promptly had a heart attack. This recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of yeast. (For my non-baking friends, most recipes call for about 2.5 teaspoons. But, I perservered. After all, if it was going to rise that quickly, it was going to need a good deal of yeast. And rise quickly it did! Within 15-20 minutes it had doubled in size and was ready to bake. Of course, immediately upon removing it from the oven, I had to sample a slice (quality control, people!)

I have to admit, upon first bite, I was a bit disappointed. It tasted very yeasty (which I anticipated). It wasn't bad, it just wasn't fabulous, either. Tonight, though, I had a slice with supper. I swear to you, this tastes like an entirely different loaf of bread. Gone was the yeasty flavor of yesterday. Instead, the flavor of the honey really comes through. Not overly sweet, just pleasantly so. I have completely changed my opinion from last night. This is a delightful bread!

I am cheap, though, and do still have issues about the 4 tbsp of yeast. I think next time I make this, I will be experiementing with a signficantly smaller amount of yeast and a longer rise time. Naturally, this elminates what attracted me to the recipe in the first place, but I think that I will ultimately be more pleased with the end result

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I'm happy to report that have *cough* a month of shirking my meal-planning duties, I finally sat down and created a rough menu. I haven't set anything in stone, yet, in terms of which day for which meals, but here's what the next couple weeks are going to look like around here. I've included links where available.

Beef Stroganoff
Fiesta Tamale Pie
Buttermilk Chicken Dumplings
Meatloaf
Oxtail Ragout
English Beef Pot Pie
Spanakopizza (Have I extolled the virtues of this stuff, yet? You MUST make it. Now. Seriously. The roasted peppers are a bit spendy but they are worth every penny and totally make the pizza. This stuff is freakin' delicious.)
Spinach Stuffed Pork Chops
Taco Salad
Curried Chicken Corn Chowder
Crockpot Chicken
Spinach Turkey Lasagna

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I am puzzled to announce that my ironing pile seems to be reproducing. Last night, I finally decided to iron after, oh, at least a month (honestly, it may have been more like two) of putting it off. I didn't quite get all of it done, but I did finish all of Ryan's shirts. I had three of my dresses left, but it was after 10:00 and I'd been ironing for an hour and a half (partially because I'm slow, partially because there was that much). As I put the remaining clothing back in the closet, I noticed to my horror that there was still more shirts to be ironed, hanging neatly on the wall. It would seem that at some point, I had the foresight to hang up the shirts, rather than dump them in a basket, so that they would be less wrinkled when I finally got around to ironing them. While I am delighted to have had foresight at least once in my life, I am also dismayed to realize that I now have not only three dresses, but also 4.5 shirts to iron (one is Darren's).

And on that note, I just realized I left my clothing unsupervised. I better finish ironing tonight before it reproduces still more.

It's time for....

2008-09-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

I don't usually have something I consider worthy of Works-For-Me Wednesday, but today, I think I'm on to something.

(ETA: I just realized I rambled a bit more than I planned in this....go figure. So, short version of WFMW: bread storage containers aren't just for bread. Keep reading for the details!)

My WFM moment started at Heather's (as so many of my great ideas d0--what did I do before her?). I can't find (read: I'm too lazy to look for) her post that talks about how she saves on dishwasher detergent, so I'll give you the Cliff-Notes version. Floating around the interest are many recipes for frugal dishwasher detergent. They all boil down to using a half and half mixture of borax and baking soda, and vinegar for the rinse. While some people swear by this, I've read far too many reviews that say that this just doesn't work (Heather's included), and I wasn't in a rush to try it out myself.

But then Heather posted that she had combined half dishwasher detergent, one-quarter borax, and one-quarter baking soda with wonderful results. Since she has yet to steer me wrong, I decided to give this a try. I didn't have enough baking soda to use that, so I did a mix of half detergent, half borax. I was thrilled to note that my detergent actually seemed to work better this way. Note only that, but I can now erase any guilt I had felt over spending so much on Seventh Generation detergent. (Interestingly, Seventh Gen's liquid dish soap is quite comparable to Dawn, my usual brand. The dishwasher detergent though is more than double the cost of Cascade.)

So while that was and is a delightful discovery, I was now faced with the dilemma of what to store my mixture in. I wanted to be able to mix a full box of detergent, so it needed to be something large. Suddenly, I had a flash of brilliance. I went to the coat closet and emerged with this:

Yes, that's a Rubbermaid bread storage container. You're probably wondering why it was in the coat closet. When we first moved into the apartment, in, oh, February, I wanted a bread container. I purchased this one, only to discover it wouldn't fit in our drawer. I had fortunately saved the receipt, so I tucked it all in the coat closet so I would remember to grab it and take it to Walmart the next time I went.

I promise, I have been to Walmart many times since February. Obviously, the bread container never made it out the door with me. But in this case, my scatter-brained nature was a good thing. It works perfectly for my dishwasher detergent mix. So perfectly, in fact, I'm considering getting two more and using them to store my flour and sugar (clearly labeled, of course).

~*~*~*~*~*~

And the best tip that I got from all the links on the official WFMW page? It's here. It's so brilliant that I bought a white-board during my lunch break. Ryan is even excited about it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Supper tonight? Crockpot Hoisin Chicken. I got 'em started this morning and it smelled so good at lunch. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

1/2 way there....

2008-09-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

After a bit of trial and error, I got the skirt for my dress done. Only after re-doing the pleats, however. Turns out I'm a moron. I was essentially making darts instead of pleats. Fortunately, I had called my mom about something else and casually mentioned this extra marking. She suggested the unthinkable--reading the directions! Sure enough, I'm a moron. So after a bit of trial and error, I finally got it right.

I also got my crinoline/petticoat in the mail yesterday, so I tried it on with the skirt. The crinoline isn't quite what I expected. It's a bit more tu-tu like than I thought it would be. There are two layers of ruffles, but they're basically on top of each other. I think it might be more effective if the two layers were further apart, but, for $24, I can't complain much.

I present the skirt and crinoline. I've managed to delude myself into thinking I look good, so please, don't burst my bubble and tell me how ludicrous I really look.

I've also got the darts on the top done and the shoulder seams sewn. My goal is to finish my dress this week, and then two weeks to work on Leah's. Unless the collar goes horribly on this (which is a distinct possiblity; I generally have problems making collars look nice), I should be able to easily finish it this week. Knock on wood.

PS-->
To a couple of my friend out there (you know who you are): please note the children's toys in the background :)

Keepin' it Real

2008-09-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

Lovely Heather, over at Wanting What You Have, has been kind enough to host a "Keepin' it Real" blog carnival. In an effort to show other moms that none of us really has it all together, we're posting pictures of what our homes really look like. Not what they look like just after we've cleaned, or after the kids are neatly tucked in bed, but what it would likely look like if you dropped in for a visit. Since it was my bright idea that Heather host such a thing, I figured I better participate.

The pictures below are in no particular order, so bear with me.

A sweater and shoes haphazardly thrown on our bedroom floor.

The basket of the kids' laundry that is begging to be done.

The master closet. The pile of laundry next to the dresser is dirty. The pile of laundry in the foreground is clean, but (obviously) unfolded.

The living room. Actually, this is better than it is sometimes. He didn't really go to town with the lids today like he usually does. My mom was here this morning, though, and Grandma is usually more interesting than lids.

Our closet again. In case you didn't see enough of our dirty laundry. (HA! A pun!)

Another view of the living room. That box on the couch is full of old Workbasket magazines that my brought for me to look at.

A strange, angled shot of my kitchen/dining area.

This is the floor in my dining area. Those dark flecks are pieces of fabric from cutting out my dress last night (until after midnight, in case you were wondering).

There were a couple more pics, including one of the bathroom, but they seem to have disappeared. I just cleaned the bathroom yesterday, though, so it wasn't too horrifying, anyway. Speaking of which, I decided I need to clean the bathroom more often--Ryan noticed that I had cleaned it. I could take that as a sign of his attentiveness, but I think it's more indicative of the state of the bathroom.

To reiterate what Heather says in her post, the point of this carnival is to prove to all bloggers--perhaps most importanly, ourselves--that no one's home is perfect. If you've got kids, you've got clutter. And it's not the end of the world. 30 years from now, all my kids will be grown up and moved on. When that time comes, then I can have an immaculate house. But for now, I've got a darling little boy who thinks every lid in the drawer needs to be carefully examined. I've got a little girl who decided today that chewing on furniture is fun. No, my home isn't immaculate, and it never will be. But it's far more important to me that my children remember me as a mother who was involved in their lives and interested in who they were as people, rather than as someone whose house passed the white-glove test.

Later on, I'll be posting some pictures of our fall/Halloween decorations. And, yes--those will be carefully staged :)

Tagged again!

2008-09-17T16:23:00.001-05:00

Twice in one month--the excitement is nearly too much for me!

Heather tagged me with a Mommy MeMe.

First: Post a picture of you and your kids.
I just did this a couple days back, so I'm not going to do it again. (And frankly, pictures of me and both kids are few and far between.)

Second: Answer the questions.

1. How many children do you have?
Two. Darren will be 2 in February and Leah is 6 mo.

3. What time of day do you start your day?
About 6:30; that's when Leah wakes up. Ryan and I both work, so during the week, he gets up at 6:00 and showers, then gets the kids ready. He brings Darren to our bed to snuggle with me while he gets Leah ready. Then, Leah snuggles with me while he gets Darren ready.

4. What do you eat for breakfast?
If I eat breakfast (which I've been trying to make myself do), it's just a cereal bar and a Diet Coke. (Breakfast of Champions, folks!)

5. Do they watch TV?
Yes, but tangentally. It's on most of the time, but they're still pretty young to actually sit down and watch a show. Leah's more interested in Darren than the TV for the most part, and Darren's really only interested in the commericals. Seriously--he can be off doing something, and if he hears the commericals start, he dashes in to watch them. As soon as the show starts again, he's off.

6. What are their favorite activities?
Darren really likes throwing all the lids out of the lid drawer and all the bowls out of the cupboard. (They're all plastic.) I spend far more of my free time picking up lids and bowls than I'd like to admit. He also really likes going for walks. He's got amazing stamina for a little kid! Leah's a little young for specific interests, but she loves it when you sing to her or make faces at her.

7. Do you get a break during the day from them?
Well, I work, so I guess this would be a yes.

8. How do you end your day?
Picking up lids and bowls.

9. What is your best parenting advice or tip?
Babies sleep better on their stomachs. Yeah, I know you're not supposed to. Reason #214 I'm a bad mom.

Third: Tag 5 people.
Jen
Kelly
Lindsey
Samantha (come on, Sam, I need an update!)
Nicole

Family Picture Time

2008-09-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

I've always been big on the importance of family pictures. Possibly because my family was so bad about them. We have two family pictures, taken, um, 16 years apart. The first one is when I was about a year old, just me, Mom, and Dad. My brother didn't get in on the family-picture-action until my high school graduation.

Not only that, but I've always loved the idea of sending out Christmas cards, especially the picture cards that people send out. Again, I think my fascination with these is that my mom never bothered to send out Christmas cards. I've always vowed that when I got married and started a family, that darn it, we were going to be taking regular family pictures and we were going to be sending out Christmas cards.

In an effort to make these things happen, Ryan and I have arranged for a co-worker of his to take a family picture for us. For normal people, this means going out and buying a new outfit. Oh, but not me. No sir-ee. As soon as a date was set (October 11), I decided that I needed to pick a pattern. To sew. For me and Leah (well of course we're going to coordinate).

To make matters worse, I had a very specific idea of what I wanted in a dress for myself. I wanted a basic shirt-dress, with a full skirt, 1950s style. (Shocking, I'm sure.) I wanted it to be navy blue, with turned up cuffs and a collar in contrasting fabric (red with small white polka dots). I was sure I had the perfect pattern in my large collection of vintage patterns.

And I did. Unfortunately, I forgot that while I have vintage patterns and vintage taste, I do not have a vintage figure. And while I have always wanted to learn to scale-up patterns, learning to do so on a deadline seemed like a recipe for failure (or at least heavy drinking).

Upon realizing that I do not now, nor will I ever, have a 32" bust (or a 24" waist), I went to Walmart in search of a pattern. Do you think I could find something to fit my vision? Of course not. But would I settle for less than my dream? Would I do something simple, in the interest of time?

Of course not.

And that's how I ended up with these two patterns:

I will be attempting to combine the full skirt from the NewLook pattern with the top of the McCalls pattern (the middle right view). This will necessitate putting a zipper in the side. None of this should be hard. Rationally, I know it should work fine. Unfortunately, whenever I go into things with a positive attitude, disaster ensues.

As such, I am commencing this endeavor with great trepidation. If you're the praying sort, I'd appreciate prayers. If you're of the Catholic variety, prayers can be directed to St. Anne, patroness of seamstresses.

If you're not the praying sort, feel free to send alcohol in lieu of prayers. (Whiskey and tequila will be accepted gratefully.)

PS-->Heather, I saw that you tagged me; I'll do it tomorrow at while I'm at work. I cannot tell you how giddy it makes me to be tagged *<}]:o)

The weekend of good pictures!

2008-09-15T09:16:00.001-05:00

"I'm feeling like hot stuff because I figured out how to sit up this weekend."

"Mom is holding my arm down so I can't grab the camera."

I don't care....

2008-09-13T22:45:00.000-05:00

...where you fall politically.

Tina Fey is spot on as Sarah Palin.

It's a first!

2008-09-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

On a couple of levels.

1. This is definitely the most exciting/important reason: Leah had solids for the first time tonight--mashed potatoes. (See evidence on her chin. And shirt.)

2. I am actually in a picture with my daughter. (I'm usually behind the camera.)

3. Both she AND I look pleasant. She has a tendency to get all bug-eyed as soon as the flash goes off. Consequently, she looks very alien-like in most pictures up to this point. As for me, I normally just look like crap. I still don't think I look fabulous in this picture, but I do look semi-presentable.

Bread Machine Thoughts

2008-09-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned previously how I'm generally against anything I deem to be "cheating"--ie, Crockpots, Swiffers, and, yes, bread machines. I've always felt like, for bread to "count" you should be making it by hand. (I have no idea who is supposed to be keeping score. I would imagine God has better things to do than keep track of who made their bread the "real" way or in a bread machine. And even if he did care about that sort of thing enough to keep a massive tally board, what's the point? What do I win when it's all done? A bread machine?)

But, as you may have guessed (or I may have explained) all my lofty aspirations of not "cheating" were before I had kids. Since then, I've come to realize that maybe I need to lower my standards. In regards to bread machines, the turning point for me was when my uncle mentioned how they really like theirs because they can have fresh bread for supper every night...can we say "yum"? However, I was/am reluctant to invest bucu bucks in something that I may or may not like--or use. Imagine my glee when I found a very nice looking bread machine at GoodWill for $5.

I happily rush home with my new toy, carefully read the directions, and make a loaf of bread. And another. And another. And another. Every loaf of bread came out delightfully golden on the outside....and appallingly gummy on the inside. I adjusted settings until I was blue in the face. I tried several recipes. Nothing helped. Now before you say, "you get what you pay for", keep reading! In desperation, I called my mother-in-law, who also has a bread machine (that she bought new). She told me she had the same problem with hers, as did her mother. They just use the bread machines to knead the bread, then bake it in the oven. She was pretty sure that all bread machines were pretty useless for actually baking the bread.

Now to me, this totally defeats the purpose. The idea is for me to come home to fresh bread. Disgusted, I tossed my machine in the trash--no point in donating it back to GoodWill and cursing some other poor soul. (It wasn't all for naught, though--I was able to give the inner pan to my friend, who needed a replacement for her bread machine.)

In short, I've slowly become sold on the idea of a bread machine. IF it will bake the bread, also. Do any of you have experience with bread machines? What kind do you have? How long have you had it? How much did you spend on it? Does it actually bake the bread for you?

I'm considering buying one, but, I don't want to spend $50 on one only to realize that my mother-in-law was right and I'll need to bake the bread in my oven. I also don't want to spend an arm and a leg. (The one linked to in the picture is $250. Um, no.) Honestly, my upper limit is probably $75. Is it possible to get a good bread machine for this price? Or am I going to be forced to spend upwards of $100 to get one that actually does what it claims to?

Please, oh wise ones, share your wisdom with me!

Tagged!

2008-09-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

I've always been secretly jealous of Blog-Tag. I never get picked. And sure, I could just fill out the list anyway, but how lame is that?

Luckily for me, Jen tagged me! Let's get the formalities out of the way, first:

Here are the tagging rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

Now for the fun part!

1. I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue. When I was 13, I bussed tables at a restaurant. One of the waitresses...how shall I put this....had a business of an adult-nature on the side. She didn't advertise, naturally, but it was pretty obvious that she was not making most of her money waitressing. (In her defense, though, she was really, really nice!) One night, it was really slow and we were all standing around by the bar talking, and she tied a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue, and also went on to explain that it was a really good way to attract men. I was 13--I had no clue what she was alluding to. But I figured that a, ahem, "woman of the night" would probably know that sort of thing. So I taught myself how to do it.

And she was right--it is a good way to attract men.

2. On my right foot, I can cross my little toe over my ring-toe. I kinda assumed that this was the sort of thing everyone can do, but apparently not.

3. I love plants. I hate that our apartment is on the north side. I do, however, have a couple of African Violets that are thriving.

4. When I eat a Reese's, I peel off (and eat) all the chocolate first, and eat the peanut butter last.

5. I went to four proms (with the same guy!) and wore four different dresses. I spent about $75 on all of them together. My junior prom, I wore this poofy-white-Cinderella number. It was originally $160, but I bought it in June for $40. My senior year, my mom made my dress, a repro of Audrey Hepburn's dress in Breakfast at Tiffany's; total cost, $10 (fabric from GoodWill, $2; pattern, $8). Ryan's junior prom, I wore I gold dress I got on sale for $25. Ryan's senior prom, I wore a pink halter dress that cost about $5 ($1/yd fabric, $1 pattern on sale).

6. I want lots of kids. Not by today's standard (which would mean, like, 4), either. I aspire to be like this woman*. That's why I'm so upset that I've already had two c-sections (because I'm thus limited in the number of children I can have). Why oh why can't I pop 'em out the normal way?
(*Even if you don't want a lot of kids, I think you'll still like her blog. She and her family are pretty darn entertaining.)

Whew. That was far harder than I thought it would be!

But drat, I have no idea who to tag.

I'm going to be lazy...if you're reading this and you have a blog, you're tagged. Just make sure to leave me a comment so I know to come read your six random things!

Quotes from the Kitchen

2008-09-03T08:54:00.000-05:00

"There is no wrong egg. Except those."

I taught Ryan to make scrambled eggs this weekend. (Yes, he's 25 and never made them. Yes, his mom failed him somewhere along the line.) Since his work schedule has changed, he now has time to make them before work. Today was his first time making them all by himself.

I had just gotten out of the shower. As I opened the bathroom door, I heard him positively beating an egg. I almost said something but thought, "No, he'll never learn to do it on his own if I don't let him." Suddenly he asks, "Are these the right eggs?"

Thinking he was referencing the fact that there were two cartons of eggs in the fridge, I said, "There is no wrong egg." And then I stepped into the kitchen.

And saw that he was attempting to crack a boiled egg.

After much laughter, I explained that there was no wrong egg.....except those.

(On the bright side, I had been planning on having one of the boiled eggs for breakfast, anyway, and he had bashed it so much that it was basically peeled for me.)

Confessions of a Bad Wife (and Mother)

2008-08-29T15:37:00.000-05:00

Warning: This is a post I've been thinking about for a while, and one I really hesitated about posting. Lots of wallowing and self-pity to follow.

Just when I think I'm getting my act together, things fall apart. No, nothing catastrophic, just a general feeling of being overwhelmed. I know there are some working moms out there who wouldn't have it any other way, but evidentally those moms are better women than I. If I were a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM), I wouldn't have any problem doing all the cooking and cleaning. That would be my job. But as it is, I feel like I work all day only to come home and work some more. I get home from work at 5:30, make supper (which I've usually started during my lunch "break"), feed everyone, put away supper and do dishes, give Leah a bath, feed Leah, and put her to sleep. (Ryan usually bathes Darren and rocks with him for a bit before he lays him down.) By that time, it's 8:00. I scamper around picking up the apartment. By now it's 8:30-9:00. I've been working over 12 hours. Do I feel like cleaning the toilet? The kitchen? Running up and downstairs to do a load of laundry? Um, no. So I collapse on the couch or get on the computer and relax for a bit before going to bed at 10:00 or 10:30.

I'm sure you can imagine the result of this. I don't get the laundry done until there's piles of it. I finally cleaned the bathroom last night while Darren took his bath--please don't ask how long its been since I cleaned it. (Honestly, I don't remember.) Don't get the wrong idea, my house isn't filthy. It's basically tidy (well, as long as you don't look at the pile of dirty clothes in the closet); the kitchen counters are clean. We're not living in filth. But it's definitely dirty enough to make me uncomfortable.

And more importantly, I feel like I barely see my kids. I see them for about 15 minutes in the morning before Ryan takes them to the sitter. Darren I do see in a way while I'm making supper; he buzzes around while I'm cooking. But Leah, the only time I really see and interact with her is when (and if) I give her a bottle before she goes to sleep. I can safely say that on an average weekday, I actively interact with Leah for less than an hour. I cannot express how much that bothers and troubles me. I think Darren and I are fairly close (well, as close as one can be to an 18-month old). But with Darren, I was living at home and working nights. I didn't start working full-time until he was over a year. We really had time to "bond". I never really got that with Leah. While I was on maternity leave, everyone commented that she was such a mama's girl. She only had eyes for me. Now, I feel like I'm just another transient woman in her life. I really, truly worry that she doesn't connect that I'm "Mom". I wanted a girl so badly, and now I have virtually no time to enjoy her.

Looking back, I don't know how my mom did it. Granted, until my brother and I were in school, she was at home all day, and then worked a few nights a week waiting tables. It wasn't until I was almost in fifth grade or so that she started working full-time. (And even now, she doesn't have one full-time job, she has several part-time jobs.) But she always seemed to have it together. The house was always clean. The laundry always done (though in my defense, if we had our own washer and dryer, I'd be keeping up with the laundry much better).

I'm just not sure how much longer I can do this. I truly like my job. I enjoy the work I do and the people I work with. But I love my kids. I keep asking myself, is it worth it? I have visions of myself at 70 looking back on my life saying, "I have no idea who my children are." When I came back from maternity leave, I told myself and Ryan that I would give it until December. If nothing else, I felt I owed my boss at least a year (he hired me when I was 7 mo. pregnant). In December, I said, if I was still miserable, we would talk more seriously about me staying at home. I think we might need to have that conversation again sooner.

Something's gotta give. I feel like I shouldn't have to choose between clean laundry and a little bit of free time. Really, just a little. Just an hour a night to sit down and read. I shouldn't have to choose between making supper and playing with my daughter before she falls asleep. I should be able to play with my son while he's taking a bath instead of cleaning the bathroom while I'm in there.

I just have this sinking feeling that the best years of my life are passing before my eyes, and I'm not taking the time to slow down and appreciate them.

Time for a Change

2008-08-26T20:44:00.000-05:00

After far more deliberation than was necessary, I made the leap. I am now a member of:

I have no idea what the chickens have to do with Weight Watchers.

When I googled images for Weight Watchers, this came up.

How could I not pick it?

I hemmed and hawed about joining because a couple of years back, I did lose 50 lbs, all by myself. Logically, if I did it then, I should be able to do it now. Except when you examine some of the differences between then and now. Three years ago, I was in college, had a free pass to Dome (the gym there; my SD friends know what I mean!), access to aerobics classes, and all the free time in the world. Now, I'm a grown-up (at least, that's what they tell me). I work; I have two kids. Free time is at a premium. Sadly, a free gym membership is no longer part of my life, nor is easy access to aerobics classes (I'm a dork--I LOVE step aerobics).

Also, there is something to be said for the monetary investment and commitment involved with Weight Watchers. Knowing that $40/month is going towards this, I'm more inclined to take it seriously.

Some of you may be wondering, "Wait--you said you lost 50 lbs. What the hell happened?" (Or maybe none of you care. Well it's my blog, so you're going to hear about it anyway.) I can tell you what happened in three words: Darren and Leah.

When I found out I was pregnant with Darren, I was down to 140. I had been at that for a couple of months, and was hoping to eventually lose another 10. And then I saw the two pink lines. I remember the exact moment that I decided to be a freaking moron. I had taken the test in the morning. That noon, I was standing in the kitchen, trying to decide what to have for lunch. I held a box of Mac 'n' Cheese in my hands. I stared at it for quite a while, trying to decide whether I wanted it or not. Suddenly I thought, "What the hell. I'm gonna get fat anyway. Might as well have fun." And fun I did have. I more than made up for all the self-restraint I had exercised in the year prior. I ate everything.

If I could impart one bit of wisdom to mothers-to-be or anyone who hopes to someday be pregnant, it is this: do not eat everything in sight. Pregnancy is NOT a pass to eat anything that is not nailed down. You WILL regret it. Just before I delivered Darren, I was up to 220. (Yeah, do the math. That's 80 lbs. in 9 months. You're supposed to gain 25-30.) After I had him, I got down to 200 pretty easily. I started watching what I ate, walking regularly, and got down to 190.....and then I got pregnant again. I'm happy to report that I wasn't quite so stupid the second time around. I don't recall my high pregnancy weight, but I was able to get down to 185 fairly quickly.

While I obviously know what is required for weight loss (eat less, do more), I think the accountability will help me out this time around.

So, in the spirit of my quest for a smaller ass, I present a couple remarkably good recipes from this month's WW Magazine.

Lemon Cod

2 small plum tomatoes, diced

1/4 c. reduced-sodium chicken broth

6 kalamata olives, chopped

1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest

1 Tbsp. thinly sliced fresh basil

2 tsp. EVOO

1/4 tsp salt

2 c. refrigerated ready-to-cook potatoes*

1 lb. skinless cod

1. To make the topping, combine the tomatoes, broth, olives, lemon zest, basil, oil, and salt in a bowl.

2. Spread the potatoes in a 2-qt. microwavable dish and place the cod on top. Spoon the topping over the cod. Cover with plastic wrap; then prick a few holes in the plastic.

3. Microwave on HIgh just until the potatoes are tender and the cod is opaque in the center 10-12 minutes.

*I wasn't going to buy refrigerated potatoes. I diced up two regular, non-refrigerated potatoes. I also had reservations about making the whole thing in the microwave. I'm just not a big microwave person. I covered it with foil and put it in the oven on 375 for about an hour.

Ryan really liked this recipe, which kinda surprised me. He's not normally much of a fish person.

Lebanese Chicken Patties

1 tomato, diced

2 tbsp. chopped mint

3/4 c. plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. water

1/2 c. bulgar*

1 lb. ground chicken

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/8 tsp. pepper

6 c. baby salad greens

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Spray baking sheet. Mix tomato, mint, 1/2 c. of the yogurt, and 1/4 tsp. of the salt. Bring the water to a boil in small kettle. Stir in the bulgar; remove from the heat. Cover and let stand until the water is absorbed, 25-30 minutes.

2. Transfer the bulgar to a large bowl. Stir in the chicken, garlic, cumin, pepper, and the remaining yogurt and salt. Form into 8 patties. Bake until cooked through, about 25 minutes. Toss the greens, lemon juice, and oil; divide among 4 plates. Top each with 1 patty and 1/4 c. of the yogurt mixture. Chill remaining patties for up to 3 days.

*I couldn't find bulgar, so I subbed 1/2 c. quinoa. I just cooked it up and used it in place of the bulgar. Also, you'll note that it makes 8 patties, but 4 servings. It's designed as "planned left-overs" so you can make soup later. Which I will be doing Thursday night.

I was a little concerned to note that a serving of this is only 1 patty. Fortunately, 1 patty and the lettuce is only 3 points, so it's not much of stretch to have two. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover it was quite a bit more filling than I expected. I did also have a small side of Quinoa Black Bean salad to round out the meal.

(And speaking of that salad, have you made it yet? If you're not big on cilantro, it's probably not for you, but otherwise, you need to make it. It is SO good. I think I could sit down and eat all of it. It's that good.)

Why do you cook?

2008-08-22T14:55:00.000-05:00

Well, assuming you cook, I suppose. A while back, I read this article about the younger (i.e., my) generation of cooks. I won't say the article entirely surprised me, but it was an interesting read.

According to the study referenced in the article, women of today are more likely to cook because they like to than because they need to. They're also more likely to be self-taught, as their mothers were really the first generation of work-outside-the-home moms. Not surprisingly, 20-something cooks are also more likely to take shortcuts--sauce in a jar, gravy from a pouch, etc...

Naturally, the article got me to thinking about what, how, and why I cook. (Prepare for way more information about my cooking philosophy than you ever wanted to know. And some rambling, no doubt.)

I love to bake and cook, and always have. I would seem to be somewhat of an anomaly, though, in more ways than one. First, my mom did teach me how to cook. Or at least, she taught me the basics, and encouraged me to read cookbooks and try new recipes. Second, to say that I cook solely for personal enjoyment isn't true. Really, I don't think it is for anyone. Unless you can afford to eat out every meal, cooking is a necessity.

I think the biggest difference, though, between me and other 20-something cooks (at least according to this study) is that I'm not big on the "shortcuts". I would never, ever used canned or jarred gravy. (Come on, it's not hard to make gravy and it tastes a million times better!) I can't remember the last time I made a cake from a box. I cringe when a recipe calls for a "can of" this and a "box of" that. (Why do you think I love old cookbooks so much?) That's not to say I don't ever make those recipes, because I clearly do. But I do feel like a sell-out when I make a recipe like that. I'm old-fashioned enough that I think I need to put a from-scratch, three course meal on the table every night, or I'm a bad wife and mother. Obviously, I know that's all in my head. The fact that I'm cooking something, even if it does involve a can of condensed soup, is still better than ordering pizza twice a week. But that sort of thinking dies hard.

So hard, in fact, that I only recently embraced the wonder that is the CrockPot. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I still feel a bit like a CrockPot is cheating. Of course, it's not. But I still feel like a "real" wife and a "real" mother would be slaving over a stove for hours a day. (I guess it's beside the fact that working eight hours a day makes it impossible to slave over a stove, even if I wanted to.) I've grown to love my CrockPot, something I never thought I'd say. I love that I can come home from work and not have to do anything more for supper. It's cooked all day and all that's left is to enjoy a hot meal.

I guess with that said, it seems a good place to transition into what we're having for supper tonight: CrockPot Barbequed Chicken and Cornbread Casserole
If you have a CrockPot (and don't have bizarre psychological proclivities that prevent you from using it) and haven't discovered Steph's blog, you can thank me later. The dear woman made a New Year's resolution to use her CrockPot every day for a year. And she's made some pretty glamourous things in there. In fact, I have to admit that she was instrumental in my CrockPot conversion. I've made several of her recipes and have been pleased with all of them.

Tonight's recipe, though, will be a bit of an experiment. The cornbread calls for 1/4 cups sugar. Unfortunately, I used the last of the sugar to make carrot cake the other night (and had just enough for that) and forgot to buy more. The rest of the recipe was made up. What's a girl on her lunch break to do? Substitute brown sugar. I have NO idea how that's going to work out. I'll make sure to report back.

But now, dear readers, you tell me--why do you cook?

Things I never thought I'd say....

2008-08-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

....and then I became a parent.

"People do not belong in dishwashers."
"Please stop banging your head in my crotch."
"It's hard to make the bed with your face in my butt."
"No girl likes a boy with snot running down his face."
"Don't bite my leg. No one likes to be bitten. Wait...I guess....well....maybe some people. Never mind."

Ramblings about photgraphs

2008-08-18T20:31:00.000-05:00

This makes me sad.

Not that picture, specifically; it just happens to be an example. When ever I see an old picture for sale, be it on ebay, etsy, or at a rummage sale, a little part of me is sad.

That little girl is someone's aunt, someone's mom, someone's grandma. On one of the most important days of a young Catholic's life, no less. Did no one think it was important enough to save? Did no one care enough about this woman to save this picture of her a girl?

The old pictures I see for sale are inevitably of young people. I know it's crazy, but part of me wants to buy every old picture I find just so it will have someone to love it. (Yeah, I'm going off the deep end with this one.) It just seems so sad to me that no one saves these pictures.

Maybe it's just me; I do think I probably have a bizarre fascination with old pictures. I look at them and try to slip in the mind of the person in the picture. What were they thinking at that moment? (Probably, "Please don't make me say cheese.") What was life like at that moment in time? Did they have a good childhood? Did they die young? Or did they marry their high school sweetheart? Did they get divorced, or were they married 50 years?

This is probably especially crazy, but any time I see an old picture at a rummage sale, I look at for any possibility that it's some relation of mine. Really what are the odds of that? But the idea that I could be unknowingly snubbing one of my own kills me. I have to check. (And really, what do I expect? People in the 1900s looked so different that I'd be hard pressed to find any family resemblance. But still, I search.)

When my grandma died in March of 2007, we spent a nearly a week going through family pictures. I remember saying, "If it weren't for the whole death thing, funerals would be a lot of fun." We had a fabulous time sorting through literally boxes and boxes of old family pictures. I think it's absolutely fascinating to see "old" people when they were young. I love searching their faces for any trace of familiarity, any trace of myself. I have a couple pictures of my mom that I adore, two from her first communion and one of her in her Easter best (complete with bonnet, natch!). We look so much alike, it's uncanny. It's one thing to intellectually know that at one time your mother was young, but to have photographic evidence is something else entirely.

There was also a picture of my grandma, probably in her early 20s, standing under a tree in a heavy wool coat. I wonder who ended up with it; I would love to have a copy of it. I can't get that image of my grandma out of my mind. When I think of her life, who she was at that moment in time. She got married at 20, had her first child (of 13) at 21. At the time that picture was taken, she probably had 2 or 3 kids. She was my age. Again, something that goes without saying, and yet it's so bizarre to me: my grandma was once my age. What was it like being 25 in 1940? I think of all that she had accomplished by then. It's hard to put into words, the feeling of awe I experience when I think of that picture and my grandma. It sounds silly when I try to describe it.

I don't know if there was really point to this post except to say, treasure your family photographs. It's a moment in time, forever captured. Someday, people are going to look back and wonder about you, what you did, who you were, what made you you. And for the love of God, please try to make sure they don't end up at a rummage sale 80 years from now.

The new men in my life

2008-08-13T21:24:00.000-05:00

Jimmy

(As in "there's food in there from the Carter administration.")
Did you guess this was my wedding present?
Can you tell how excited I am?

And as if that isn't enough excitement for one day, let me introduce you to....

Rocky

(As in, a Rocketeer, a 503, only the greatest machine Singer has ever made!)
Rocky cost $10 at a rummage sale.
Please do not ask how much it cost to fix him up into working condition.

I can't decide which man I love more.

2008-08-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Alas, the sewing machine did not arrive last night. Apparently, I misunderstood. He's going to deliver it sometime this week. Either tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, this now means that my children are going to be at his feet. I had arranged for everyone to disappear last night. I can't make that happen two more nights.

I was, however, able to read, in complete silence, for over an hour and a half. Although, it wasn't really complete silence. I listened to a record of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Shockingly, Ryan's not big into sacred music sung in Latin, so it's not something I listen to much when he's around.

I am however, attempting to bribe him into taking me to a Latin high mass in St. Paul when we go up at the end of September. (No, I haven't told him yet that it will requrie he wear something nicer than shorts and flip-flops. Let's keep that hush-hush for a bit. And no, I will not tell you what I am bribing him with. If your mind is as dirty as mine, it shouldn't take much imagination to figure out.)

In case you were concerned that I wore a doily to mass again last Sunday, I offer you this:

I'm delighted to report I felt much less conspicuous wearing a proper veil.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lest my readers grow concerned that I am becoming a "holy roller" (Ryan expressed mock concern that I was turning into "one of those religious freaks"), I should probably offer up some recipes.

Unfortunately, nothing remarkable has been happening in the kitchen of Chez Amanda. I've been making an effort to clean out the freezer. Ryan jokes that I have food in there from the Carter administration. (Since neither of us was so much as a twinkle in our parents' eyes during that administration, it's safe to chalk that up to hyperbole.) We've had lasagna, turkey soup, taco soup, and peanut soup the last few nights. Tonight we're using up some of the bounty from my mother-in-law's garden and are having BLTs and corn-on-the-cob.

Later this week, I'm hoping to try out these reicpes:

Lemony Pesto Potatoes
Southwest Lasanga Rolls
Bruschetta Chicken
CrockPot Chicken with potatoes and carrots
Fiesta Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas
Coconut Beef

~*~*~*~*~*~

As if the sewing machine (hopefully) arriving tonight wasn't exciting enough, I have another exciting delivery arriving tomorrow afternoon.

But I think I'm going to leave you hanging on that one *<}]:o)

(Shout out to my friend who taught me the Uni-Brow-Clown-Smiley.)

Stop back tomorrow evening to see what it is I'm so excited to be getting! (Hint: It's a wedding present from all my mom's siblings [all 11 of 'em!]. And I've mentioned, on here, wanting one very much.)

Hard to believe...

2008-08-11T16:45:00.001-05:00

but there are people more old-fashioned than me.

That kind of obsession with the past cannot be healthy.

("Real" post to come later. I'm getting my sewing machine back from the repairman tonight, so expect exciting pictures. Or, if you *gasp* don't sew, expect insanely boring pictures.)

Bartending

2008-08-07T21:48:00.000-05:00

I had a request from a commenter (okay, not just any commenter, but a good friend) to share some stories from my bartending days. Two stories popped into my mind.... (Hopefully these are new to you Kaarin!)

I should probably give you all a little background. I come from a small town. Very small. 700 people small. Everyone knows everyone. The sort of town where you can go into your bedroom in the middle of the night, shut off the lights, close your blinds, hide under your covers, and sneeze, and the next day someone will ask you how your cold is.

My first Saturday working at the bar I met LP. Those are his initials, and that's what he goes by. (So much so, that it was a pretty long time before I learned what his name really was.) He's older, about 65. A major alcoholic, but a heart of gold. I know that I could call him at a two in the morning and he would come help me. He might be drunk, but he'd come help me. He's also an incredibly hard worker. He may have a hangover from hell, but he shows up every day (he works construction with small independent company...more on that some other day) and he works hard. He is always sober at work. Hungover, sure. But drunk, never.

LP also called me "Samantha" for the first three months that I worked at the bar. It's not typically much use to correct drunk people, so I just went with it. He did eventually figure out that my name was (still is, I suppose) Amanda; he was more than a little embarrassed.

LP......is a character. I'd try to explain him, but I think this story will illustrate it better than a mere description ever could.

That day, there was a funeral. About six of the younger members of the family came in to the bar to lighten the mood. They had been there for about 20 minutes when LP walked in. Very drunk. Of course, he sat down with the "mourners" and made himself at home. It's been a couple of years, so you'll have to forgive me for forgetting how the conversation started, but it ended like this:

LP: And then I went skydiving! [The closest LP has ever been to skydiving is falling down the stairs.]
Mourners: Really? Did you land okay?
LP: Well of course I landed okay! I landed on the back of a bull!
M: A bull?
LP: A buckin' bronco!
M: You just landed square on its back, huh?
LP: Well it took a lot of practice, but I managed. I never get hangovers.
M: Huh? [Clearly, the mourners were not yet accustomed to LP's rapid-fire conversational changes.]
LP: Nope, I never get 'em anymore. [Yes, kids, it's true. If you start going through your days in a drunken haze, you, too, will be hang-over free by 65. Of course, you'll also be spouse-free, because you will be unbearable to live with, but hey, we all make sacrifices.]
M: So what's your secret? I heard once you should chug a Gatorade before bed; does that work?
LP: You know what my problem is?
M: No, what, LP?
LP: I can get it UP, but I can't get it to go back DOWN.
*maniacal laughter as the conversation further disintegrates*

Ahhh, that's LP for you. I can't tell you how many times I heard about skydiving-bullriding. Naturally, he never did just one or the other. He always skydived (skydove?) onto the back of the bull. (As for reality? I think I used to do some bull riding when he was younger. Much younger. But I'm quite certain he never skydived [skydove?] and certainly never skydived/dove onto the back of a bull.)

I've got one more short bartending story to regale you with.

I suppose I should change names. Let's call this guy....Harold. (He'd hate me if I knew I was re-naming him "Harold".) Harold is LP's boss. If possible, he makes LP look sober. They're two of a kind. (Actually, three of a kind. They're a three-person construction crew, with one woman who we'll call, um, Sally. Harold and LP have similar work ethics: they play hard, but they work hard--and sober. Sally has no such compunctions about working sober. But we'll save her for another day.)

Harold, also, has a heart of gold. He's about 65, and is some ways is a dirty old man, but he's one of the sweetest people I know. He was always asking about Ryan (who he consistently referred to as Brian; when you're in a drunken haze for much of your life, it's hard to keep names straight), trying to make sure he was treating me okay. If he had ever had even a faint suspicion that Ryan was mis-treating me, he would hunted him down with out a second thought. He has always been a drinker, but when his wife died of cancer about 10 years ago, he just sank deeper into the pit of alcoholism. I have never met any many who loved his wife as much as Harold still loves her.

But enough waxing sentimental about Harold. This is a funny story.

Harold does contract construction work for the state. All the people for whom he does work are getting the work done for free. Presumably, they are poor and cannot afford to do these repairs themselves. Understandably, it was Harold's pet peeve to walk into these homes and realize that, while they were without a front door, they had a big-screen TV sitting in the living room. Here's how the conversation went that day:

Harold: So we go into this guy's trailer and he's got a 60" big screen TV. His living room was so small, we weren't more than 6 feet from the TV.
Sally: The picture on that screen was unbelievable. It was huge.
*silence, as we meditate upon the awesome hugeness of this TV*
Me: Can you imagine watching porn on that?
My boss: Yeah, I was thinking that, I just didn't want to say it.

And I think I'll leave you today with that.

Next time: marital advice from random construction workers!

2 Demerits

2008-08-06T20:30:00.001-05:00

...for being a bad blogger. You people who blog every day, how do you do it? Are your lives just that much more interesting than mine?

Tonight's post is going to be random stuff that I've had on my mind.

1. I haven't posted a recipe in a while, but I haven't really made anything special for a while. Tonight we had cream cheese burgers, a modified version of a recipe I read somewhere. Essentially, you make two thin hamburger patties, smear some cream cheese with chives (yes, you can buy it like this) on one, and top with the other. Pretty simple and quite tasty. I also improvised some green beans. I sauteed them in some Italian dressing and tossed them with Parmesan cheese. Different, but good.

2. I like shoes that click as I walk across the floor.

3. I like poofy dresses.

4. Pregnant women would wear maternity clothes. Period.

5. Women over say, 25, should wear a bra. Especially at the post office.

6. Flip-flops are not proper attire if you are serving mass.

7. That Nourishing Traditions book that everyone raves about....yeah. I'm glad I got it from the library. Call me lazy, but most of the stuff just looked like an awful lot of work to me. I'm more than happy to buy local, but I don't think I'm going to be fermenting kombucha any time soon.

8. This is the coolest garden idea I've ever seen. (Amber, go check it out. Recycling is involved!)

9. Before working at a law office, I thought that working with divorces day in and day out would be depressing. Totally not so. In fact, they're highly entertaining. There's nothing like seeing other people's dirty laundry to make you realize that your own marriage isn't so bad.

10. That said, there is a special place in hell reserved for men who leave their wife of 25 years for a girl who is young enough to be their daughter.

Conversations with an 18 month old....

2008-08-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

go something like this:

(I had asked him to bring me my slippers. Every time I said "slipper" he said, "DUUUUH." Which is apparently the only word he knows.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yesterday was a first for me. I wore a "chapel veil" to mass. If you're Catholic, you probably know that up until the mid 60s, women were required to cover their heads in church. Actually, they were required to do so until 1983, but for various reasons, most stopped in the mid 60s, early 70s. Anyway, up until a year ago, I just assumed that no one did this anymore. Then, at a retreat Ryan and I had to go to before we could get married, we had a mass and I saw a girl my age wearing a chapel cap. I was both shocked and in awe. It takes some guts to wear that. But I also thought it was beautiful. I considered covering my head after that, but decided not to. I just didn't have the guts.

A couple weeks ago, though, I noticed one girl in my church (again, around my age) wearing a veil. And the more I thought about it, the more I liked the symbolism behind it (submission to God, the church, and your husband; respect for the presence of the body of Christ). Then I read 1 Corinthians 11 and felt even more convicted (I really hate that word; it makes me sound so pompous) that I should be wearing one.

I did order a proper veil, but I really wanted to start this Sunday. Enter the doily:

Now please. I beg of you. I have deluded myself into believing that this looks like a proper chapel veil on my head. Please do not tell me any differently.

After convincing myself that I didn't look crazy (in fact, I looked dashing), I left for church. I even cantored (led the songs, up front and center) and it didn't phase me. Much. Ryan did ask jokingly if I was becoming Jewish, and later mocked me by donning a diaper on his head (he really was joking; I was in no way offended). I asked him later, though, if it bothered him. After all, wearing a veil to show submission to my husband, if my husband doesn't like it, doesn't make much sense. Fortunately (and as I suspected) he doesn't care one way or the other. He just said I look like an old lady. (And after knitting since I was 18, I'm used to it.)

I do like wearing it. I feel more reverent, more respectful with it on. I know it's not for everyone, but for me, I feel it's the right choice.

Amber, Look!

2008-08-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

I recycled a jar!

It's filled with Zuni Café Zucchini Pickles. Sadly, I can't try them for at least 24 hours, but you can bet I'll report back.

THAT kind of blogger.

2008-07-31T21:13:00.000-05:00

Or, "My philosophy of blogging."

I've alluded a couple of times now to "that" kind of blogger. I've briefly explained what I meant by it, but never elaborated much. After going into greater detail in a comment on another blog, I feel like I should go into greater detail on here, as well.

There is another blog I read and have read for years. (I suspect several of you will know who I'm talking about, but it's not particularly important.) The woman is a SAHM, she homeschools, makes her own bread, buttermilk, yogurt, and some kind of bizarre mushroom tea. She's read the Bible 18+ times, she works out for at least an hour every day. She makes everything from scratch, her house is immaculate, her children brilliant. She loves her husband and children always and is never in an ill mood. She has JOY, darn it. What's the point of being in a bad mood? It doesn't help anyway.

You get the picture? The very rosy picture?

For far longer than I'd like to admit, I compared myself to this blogger and held myself to her ridiculous standards. One day, though, for whatever reason, it dawned on me: no one's life is that perfect. Blogging, for better or for worse, enables you to censor your life. Or, make it up entirely, for that matter. If I wanted to, I could make my life out to be peaches and cream. Heck, to the blogging word, I could be the wife of a Venezuelan soccer player. But who would I be benefiting?

I don't delude myself into believing that I have dozens of readers who hang on my every word, nor do I fancy that anyone looks up to or aspires to be like me. But at the same time, I also know how very easy it is to read someone's blog and think to yourself, "If she can do all that, why can't I?" I never want anyone to leave here feeling guilty or inadequate because of something I wrote.

So, in the interest of being open and honest, let me clear the air:

I keep a generally tidy, well-organized house.....but today my bed didn't get made until after supper.

I love to cook homemade meals from scratch for my family....but some nights I'm lazy and order a pizza.

I love my children very much and wouldn't trade them for the world....but there are some days when I say, "I'm going to sell you to the gypsies!" and mean it.

I love my husband more than anything or anyone on earth....but if I have to pick up his wet towels one more time, I'm going to strangle him with it.

I consider myself a basically happy person....but there are days when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Getting the idea?

That's me. The real me. For better or for worse, I'm only human. My bathtub is dirty, I'm never going to homeschool, I buy bread most of the time, I snap at my husband, and I yell at my kids. And right now I should be doing my dishes instead of blogging.

I'm never going to be SuperMom or SuperWife and it's silly to try. I'm doing the best I can, with what I've got. That's all I, or any of us, can do.

And there you have it. Why I will never be THAT kind of blogger.

Happiness is....

2008-07-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

peppers on sale at HyVee and stocking up.....
drinking wine while chopping peppers never hurt anyone....

Happiness is....

watching Project Runway while you chop said peppers
and drink said wine....

Happiness is NOT....

a pile of dirty dishes, because you were too lazy to empty the
dishwasher this morning, and had to pile dirty supper dishes in the sink
(and yet more proof that I'm not THAT kind of blogger)....

Happiness is.....

a clean kitchen. Yes, "clean" is subjective. Even by my standards,
this isn't clean-clean, but at 9:30 at night, it's close enough.

But enough of the hokey 70s flashback (I'm thinking of those "Love Is" comics, that they actually still run in the Omaha World Herald).

Supper tonight was "Brown Sugar Chicken". It was....eh. I didn't ask Ryan is opinion, but I'm assuming it's probably the same as mine. It wasn't bad, but I know I'm not going to make it again. And I'm certainly not going to link it here; it's definitely not good enough to pass along.

With the mediocre chicken, we had Cheesy Green Beans. It was a recipe from Kraft, but there wasn't much to it. Cook some green beans and red peppers, toss with melted Cheez Whiz. I suspect the highly processed Cheez Whiz negated any bonus points I earned by using local green beans (from my MIL's garden!), but come on, cheese makes anything better.

Last night we had Cozy Quinoa Casserole. Ryan really liked it; I was okay with it. I was mainly happy that I was able to sneak some squash into Ryan's diet. (He has issues with the word "squash". He's refused to eat squash because of the sound of the word.) We both agreed, though, that this was a dish that grows on you. The first bit is just "eh". The more you eat, though, the better it gets. Much like beer, it's an acquired taste. I would recommend giving it a try, though. I give 3.75 out of 5 stars.

And just because it's a funny picture, I leave you with this:

Yup, his lips (and teeth) are green. We were at the ballpark waiting to see Ryan play. Darren and I shared Razzamatazzle FunDip. I think you can see who got most of it. I had to kiss him like that because was being bucky and didn't want to look at the camera. Brat.

(Oh, and the best part? Ryan didn't play that game. It was the second game of a double header and they kinda forgot about him. I guess they stuck him in the outfield in the last inning, but I missed it. I was too busy trying to keep Darren from putting other people's trash in his mouth. If nothing else, I think he has an exciting career in sanitation ahead of him.)

Can you live on $100/week?

2008-07-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

First, I have to show off my closet. I'm sure some of you won't be impressed; there's likely much more work that I could do. But, I think we can all agree that my closet now looks much better:

(I know that Ryan is never going to use those weights in the corner,but he'd have been pissed if I got rid of them. Plus, they're heavy. I was too lazy to move them.)

(I have way more toilet paper than that. Honestly, I've probablygot enough for about 6 months. But the rest of it is underLeah's crib. And in the interest of full disclosure, that white box on the left is filled with junk. I need to sort it eventually, but the closet was more important.)

(See those blocks up there on the right? That's one less Christmas present I have to buy this year. Goodwill, $3.00. With the $20.00 Kmart tag still attached.)

It is SO nice to be able to walk in the closet again. Now the challenge is to keep it that way :)

Of course, thanks to everyone who offered to be my personal Monica Gellar. (I'll try not to be cynical and note that both of you live far from me.)

@!@!@!@!@!@!@!@

So did anyone see this article on MSN today:

Can a family eat on $100 a week?

The author has a family of four: herself, her husband, and two children, 4 and 2, I think. Similar enough to mine. So of course I think, "Well sure you can. We usually do." And then I read the article. My Lord.

Issue #1:
"No cleaning products or paper goods. There wasn't enough room in the budget."
I know that she's in a different area of the country, and the cost of living is probably higher. Even so, I have a hard time hard time believing this. Last week, I bought food, diapers, and Kleenex, and spent $93.00 ($70 was on food). And for that matter, let's be realistic here: paper towels are NOT a necessity of life.

Issue #2:
"A $100 budget gave us $1.19 a meal per person, obviously not enough for dinners or coffees out and barely enough to put decent meat on our plates. "
Maybe I'm the only one, but dinners and coffees out are not the norm around here. Dinners out are a special treat. It is really the end of the world that you were "forced" to put a home-cooked meal on the table? And barely enough for decent meat? Give me a break. Granted, I do tend to stock up when meat goes on sale, but there is no reason to not have decent meat if you so choose. No, you're not going to be eating filet mingon on $100/week, but you're not going to be relegated to ox-tails, either.

Issue #3:
"With a $100 budget, there's no room for error. Every meal and snack has to be meticulously planned, and the whole family has to eat it. In my case, with two adults, a toddler and a 4-year-old, that's a pretty wide swing."
Yes, staying within a budget does take some planning. But again, I'm not seeing why this is catastrophic. Even if I had an unlimited budget, I would still plan a weekly menu. Not planning ahead is what results in takeout. And maybe I'm the only "mean mom" out there, but I make one meal, and the whole family has to eat it. I'm a mom and a wife. I am not a short order cook. I make one meal. If you don't like it, you have two options: make something else, or go hungry. And this may shock you, but no child (or husband, for that matter) is going to starve himself. If he's hungry enough, he will eat.

Issue #4:
"Instead of a steak, I should buy extra-lean beef stew meat and cook it in a soup or stew."
There are no words. Just an eye roll.

Issue #5:
"[M]y son missed his waffles sorely."
Heaven's to Betsy. Eggos didn't fit in the budget? Hey lady, what do you think people did before the advent of toaster pastries? Get on your computer and find a waffle recipe.

Issue #6:
"Lunches were a bit harder to scrape together. They consisted of dinner leftovers, bean and cheese burritos, or sandwiches of luncheon meat or peanut butter and jelly. "
Am I the only one who doesn't see a problem with leftovers for lunch?

Issue #7:
"Dinners were tasty but required a lot more preparation than I was used to."
Yes, it does take more work to cook from scratch than it does to make Hamburger Helper or call Pizza Hut. However, it also tastes better and is healthier. I work full-time, too lady. If I can cook a meal from scratch 95% of the time, I think you can swing it for a week.

Issue #8:
"With such a tiny budget, if I wanted dessert I had to make it myself [...]"
Egads! The horrors! Oh, that I may always be wealthy enough to feed my children store-bought cake and cookies!

Issue #9:
"No family members were harmed in the writing of this story, but was it a healthful diet? Yes and no. Most of the dinners were relatively healthful, with plenty of protein and a vegetable. But we padded out our meals with a lot of starches, including potatoes and rice. And I don't think grilled cheese night was a nutritional home run. My family didn't eat as much fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables as we usually do. My toddler and I missed avocadoes a great deal. And we missed having at least one dinner out as a family."
Look lady, if your dinners weren't healthy, it wasn't because you lacked money, it was because you lacked ingenuity. As for the "one dinner out", you're not going to get any sympathy from me. I'm sure you'd be horrified if you knew the number of families who eat out less frequently than once a month.

I was horribly disappointed in this article. Perhaps they should have found a family that routinely spends $100 (or less) per week on food. I strongly suspect the article would not have sounded nearly so much like a country song ("poor, poor, pitiful me"....).

Honestly, I'm a bit flabbergasted by the whole thing. I'm at a loss for words.

My husband grew up in a home where they eat out at least once, if not twice a week. I promise you, they spend much more than $100/week on groceries. Yes, they do have more people in the family (2 adults, one high schooler, one grade schooler), but most of that budget is not spent on fresh produce--it's spend on PopTarts, Eggos, and frozen pizza. In short, they have all the "luxury" stuff that I, and the author of the article, are not afforded on a $100 budget. But does my husband miss that "luxurious" life style. Not a bit. He tells me regularly that he likes all the homecooked meals and that eating out gets old after a while. Has he ever complained about subsisting entirely on "beans and rice"? Not once. He regularly tells me that he likes the variety of foods I make. And I promise, our diet is much more balanced than his was before we were married.

I guess all I have to say is: Welcome to the real world, Mrs. Fulmer. If you're expecting sympathy and martyrdom, you're looking in the wrong place.

More proof....

2008-07-23T19:24:00.001-05:00

....that I'm not that kind of blogger. Or cleaner, apparently. Allow me to show you my Black Hole of Doom and Despair (otherwise known as my storage closet):

First, can I tell you that the rest of my apartment looks MUCH better?

This Pit of Despair is my task for the next week or so. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all that stuff, but there's got to be a better organizational system than what I've got going on (because let's be honest, I've got no system). Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? Reassurances that I'm not the only "closet slob"?

I can tell you right now that 98% of those DVDs and 100% of the guitar books are going in our storage room down stairs [each apartment has a storage closet for seasonal items and such]. Ryan insisted that he needed all of that crap here. Want to guess how many times he's played his guitar? Not once. If he wants the books, he can go downstairs and get them. Good grief.)

I could probably part with those two sewing machines, too. Not permanently, of course, but they could go to my parents for now. A treadle and two electric machines are probably sufficient.

I have no idea what to do with that stupid lamp. Another thing Ryan insisted we bring. You can see how much we use it.

Stay tuned for updates.

(I feel the sudden need to post pictures of the rest of the apartment, just to prove to you that it's not all that horrible.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On to less embarrassing things....

Supper tonight was exceedingly simple, but good. The recipe is officially called Easy, Creamy Hamburger Stroganoff. I'd probably call it Homemade Hamburger Helper. I didn't really follow the recipe at all; I just used it as a jumping off point. I did not use canned soup, I used Cream Soup Replacement (and if you haven't tried that yet, you need to; you'll never go back to canned soup). I also popped some tomato slices (grown in Nebraska!) on a cookie sheet, topped them with basil, oregano, and cheese, and put them under the broiler for 10 minutes or so. Easy, but good.

I'm super excited because my mother-in-law gave us some vegetables from her garden. I now have a couple zucchini, cucumbers, and a sack of green beens. I also have some asparagus left from Monday night's quiche (I'll post that recipe some other time; I don't have it near me right now, but it was really good). I'm may be mixing up the menu tomorrow night; it'd be just plain wrong to have all these veggies and not use them. (I'm thinking we're definitely going to be frying up zucchini.)

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Last night, I added a "36 Things About Me" list. I linked it over on the right. It was supposed to be 100 things, but apparently I'm just not that interesting.

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And finally, tonight I bought yet another Bible. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many I own. (I don't think they're quite as numerous as my sewing machines.) Every time I buy one, I'm sure that THIS is the one. This is the one that's going to make reading the Bible easy, I'm going to breeze through it, absorb God's word, and become a better human being.

The fact that I bought another one should tell you how well the others have been working for me.

But this one, THIS one is different. I'm sure of it. I know that as a good Catholic I should be reading a Catholic bible (it has additional books that Protestant bibles do not have), but I'm going to start with this. It seems to be easy to read, it's broken up into daily readings so you can read through it in a year (theoretically), and it has built-in, mom-related devotions.

Yup, I'm sure of it. This is the one.

I'm not "that" kind of blogger.

2008-07-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

You know, the kind who only posts her successes; never posts a picture of something that came out terribly. As proof, I offer up my cherry pie, which falls in the "It tastes better than it looks!" category:

(This is what happens when you slice a pie straight out of the oven.)

I promise it tastes delicious, but we got a little over-eager in the slicing of the pie. By morning, it firmed up nicely, but by then, of course, it was too late. My cherry pie is now cherry crumble. (But seriously, is there anyone out there who can resist a hot-from-the-oven cherry pie? Am I really expected to wait until it's cool to slice and eat it? Pshaw.)

Rest assured, however, the weekend was not a complete flop. I present the following:

(Left: Horseradish Potato Salad; Right: Quinoa Black Bean Salad)

I did have a recipe in front of me for the potato salad, but I used it as more of a guideline. I didn't officially measure anything; I just eyeballed it. (Recipe, as usual, is posted at the end.) I thought it was pretty good; a nice change from my usual mayo-mustard-onion-egg salad. There was a birthday party for Ryan's aunt today, so I brought this. Apparently everyone else thought it was pretty decent, too, because it all disappeared.

I made the Black Bean salad for supper Saturday night, and it is abso-freaking-lutely fabulous. It is pretty cilantro-y, so if you're not a big cilantro fan, this may not be for you. I, on the other hand, cannot get enough cilantro. I could eat this salad by the bowlful. Ryan approved as well, though I could tell he wasn't as in love as I was. But that's fine--more for me :)

In addition to the Black Bean salad, we also had Noodles with Tempeh and Peanut Sauce. According to RecipeZaar, "Tempeh is fermented soybean cake, which has a texture similar to tofu. Tempeh is more easily digested than tofu and does not have a specific taste, but like tofu, will take on the taste of the dish it is used in." (Sounds appetizing, huh?) This was my first time with tempeh, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Despite what the definition states, I found it to have a very strong mushroom taste. As mushroom lovers, Ryan and I both enjoyed it. The peanut sauce was wonderful, as well. I think I'll be adapting that for other uses in the future (peanut chicken, anyone?).

And in an abrupt change of subject, can I show you just how cute my daughter is?

(I wish I could take credit for her cuteness, but, alas,
both she and Darren look just like Ryan.)

This is Leah as we were about to leave for the birthday party. I totally didn't expect her to tolerate the hat. Darren despises hats, and always has. To my surprise, she didn't really seem to care one way or the other. Leah also had her first encounter with a dog at the party. The dog was about the same size as she is, so they were a good match. He apparently found her tasty, because he licked her a lot. (Of course, bad mother that I am, I didn't get a picture.)

And one more gem of a picture for you, before I retire for the evening. Whilst perusing GoodWill this weekend, I found a stack of decorative plates. Most of them were for various states, but in amongst them, I found this gem:

Yup. That pretty much says it all.

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Horseradish Potato Salad

3 lbs. baby red-skinned potatoes
3/4 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. mayo
1/4 c. horseradish sauce
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard (I used about a 1/4 c.)
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 c. celery, finely chopped
1/4 c. green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 c. white onion, grated
2 tbsp. fresh chives, chopped
2 tbsp. pimentos, drained and chopped (I didn't use these)
1 tbsp. apple-cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Okay, the recipe give long directions, but I'm lazy, so I'm going to give you the CliffNotes version:
Boil the potatoes. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Drain and cool the potatoes; fold in the dressing/sauce until combined.

Meal Plan Monday

2008-07-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

I'm so on the ball with my meal plan this week, that I beat Organizing Junkie. But, in anticipation of Meal Plan Monday, I present my menu:

Monday:
Baked Oatmeal (breakfast! are you impressed? you should be!)
Crab Quiche (from a magazine; will post recipe later)

Tuesday:
Crockpot Lime-Cilantro Chicken (cookbook recipe)
Black Bean Quinoa Salad
Rice

Wednesday:
Hamburger Stroganoff
salad

Thursday:
Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rigatoni (using leftovers from Tuesday)

Friday:
Cream Cheese Burgers
cheese corn (I'm going to trying to make this in the crockpot...wish me luck)

Saturday:
Quinoa Casserole

Sunday:
Jerk Pork Chops
Garlic Mashed (these are a modified version of Tammy's, but I can't find a link right now)

Friday (creative, aren't I?)

2008-07-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

First, by popular demand, the lettuce in the cheese bag:

Hopefully that's showing up big enough for you all to see the lettuce peeking out of the front. (I also want to make sure every knows that I don't make a habit of buying pre-shredded cheese. BUT, sometimes HyVee runs a great sale on it and it's either cheaper or within a cent per ounce of the brick cheeses. Ryan likes to have shredded cheese on hand, and I'll admit, the convenience of it is nice, so when I get get it cheaply, I do.)

Other exciting news: Darren seems to have noticed he has a sister. See photgraphic evidence below--

I know, it's not much, but the fact that he's not trying to scoop Leah's eye out with a spoon, shove his finger in her mouth (one of these times she's gonna bite down, kiddo), or beat her with a lid is nothing short of a miracle. She also seems to be ackowleging his existence, as well. She keeps a pretty close eye on him and what he's doing. I shudder to think about life once she starts moving. I have no doubt he will teach her everything he knows. (Something tells me I should have stopped at one kid!)

@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@

In my efforts to experiment with healthier cooking, as well as attempt to introduce some new foods to our diet, I present the following:

Crockpot Chicken and Quinoa

If you've never heard of quinoa, I suggest you google it, becasue I don't know enough about it to describe it. Short version: it's a grain from South America (I think). (Which I also just realized doesn't do much for my desire to eat locally. Can't win 'em all, I guess.)

This was also my first time "sprouting" a grain, meaning the quinoa was soaked overnight and allowed to sprout (very small sprouts, about 1/8"-1/4"). A quick google told me that sprouting is supposed to make the grains more easily digested and better for your intestinal track. I know it's covered in greater detail in "Nourishing Traditions" (there's a link on my sidebar), and I look forward to getting that far in the book.

It's going to be our supper tonight, but it was mostly done (the chicken was done, the carrots were not) at lunch, so I gave it a try. Very similar to traditional chicken soup, but also very different. There's a creaminess to this, not found in traditional chicken soup, that it's very pleasing to the palatte. I'm not sure if it can be attributed to the quinoa or the butter, but either way, it's very good. If you can find quinoa in your store (and if I can, I bet you can--mine was in the bulk bins in the "heath and organic" section), I strongly recommend trying it out in this recipe. I have quite a bit of quinoa left over, so I look forward to experiementing with it more.

@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@

And finally today, I thought I'd participate in Frual Fridays.

I think I've mentioned on here before that I don't use paper towels (partially out of a desire to be "green", but mainly because I was annoyed that my husband was using them for stupid stuff). There are times, though, when I really wish I had a paper towel around, for instance, when I'm frying something, i.e. bacon, and want to drain it. Despite the fact that my dishtowels are nothing fancy, just 99 cent flour sack towels, I don't want to risk ruining them. What's a girl to do?

Gerber Flat Fold Diapers. As diapers, they're crap (no pun intended). I originally bought them as diapers, and they're awful. Not very big and pretty thin, almost like cheese cloth. They were quickly relegated to the rag bag.

But while they're terrible diapers, they're fabulous rags! I use them for a variety of cleaning tasks, but they're especially great for jobs that would normally call for a paper towel. They're about $10 for a dozen (and in the baby section of Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc....), and I can't imagine they'll wear out very quickly. Even if they wore out in a year, you're still far ahead. I use them to drain fried items on, and today, I used one to strain my soaked quinoa (the quinoa is very small and would have fallen through the holes of my collander).

This probably isn't a revelation to a lot of you, but since I know some of my friends have wondered what to use in place of paper towels, I thought I'd throw it out there.

Frugal and green. Doesn't get much better than that!

It's 7:15.

2008-07-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

I've made supper:

(Tammy's Taco Salad -- Chips to be added before consumption.)

I've done something green:

(Well damn it. My picture won't show up for some reason. Guess I'll describe what I did: I took the remaining lettuce and put it in the empty, reclosable sack that my shredded cheese came in. Trust me. It was more impressive as a picture.)

What have you done today? :P

(Real post later this afternoon, time allowing.)

Some days....

2008-07-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

air conditioning isn't so bad. Like when I have to deal with this--

(Massive Pile of Ironing)

Normally, I'm cheap. So cheap, that I'd rather roast than turn on the AC. But when I have a pile of ironing to do, well, the AC makes it more bearable. Yesterday, Ryan said it was supposed to get "really hot" and he turned on the AC. I think the real reason he turned it on was because he wanted his shirts ironed ;)

Both for my own personal sanity, and to feel better about myself as a wife and mother, I need to keep on the ball with laundry. Part of the problem is apartment living: we don't have a washer and dryer, and the coin-operated ones the complex provides are on the first floor (we are on the second). Carrying laundry up and down stairs is not high on my list of hobbies I enjoy. But I also must admit that part of the problem is sheer laziness on my part. I don't like to do laundry, so I put it off. Unfortunately, the only thing I dislike more than doing laundry is folding and putting it away. Which explains the basket of clean laundry lurking in my closet. (In my defense, I did fold and put away the kids' laundry and diapers.)

I need to adopt, and stick to, a laundry schedule and do a load or two every night, instead of having one, massive, horrible, laundry-filled day.

Proposed Laundry Schedule:
Monday, Thursday: Kids'
Tuesday, Friday: Ours
Wednesday, Sunday: Diapers

Similarly, I should really have some kind of cleaning schedule. But let us not aim too high. Start small, Amanda.....

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And speaking of starting small, how's this, Amber?

My first local purchases. Milk, from the local dairy (which was kinda disappointing, taste-wise; I'm going to assume it was a fluke and give it another try), as well as some corn and tomatoes from a road-side stand. (Two demerits for forgetting to bring my own sack.) The corn and tomatoes cost more than I was expecting: $1/ear, and $0.50/tomato (okay, that's really not that bad, but I wasn't expecting that much), but so worth it. The corn was the best corn I've had in ages (I say that every summer). For the 4th, we had corn on the cob, and it didn't hold a candle to this. I may pay slightly more for locally grown items, but the taste and quality is well worth it.

And speaking of costs that are well worth it, I must sing the praises of the Seventh Generation Dishwasher detergent I purchased last week. As I may have mentioned, I was skeptical about the quality of the product, and a bit leery of the price, but I took the plunge. I am delighted with this stuff! Ever since we moved in, I have had issues with getting dishes clean with this dishwasher. Today, I loaded the dishwasher far fuller than I typically do. The dishes came out spotless! I've loaded the washer with half as many dishes, and had them come out disgusting. Cost be hanged, I'm tickled pink to have found something that works!

I'm telling you, though, between my friend, Amber, and the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", my life may never be the same. A couple of months ago, I would have never considered bringing my own sacks to the store. Now, it's practically second nature. Prior to reading this book (and Amber's blog, of course!), I'd never given much thought to buying locally, and certainly not to buying organic. But the more I learn, the more I can see that it's not only better for the environment, but better for my family's health to do both.

I certainly don't ever expect to be the Queen of Green, but I'm making progress.

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Of course, I can't depart for the night without leaving you a recipe.

Supper tonight was Tomato Onion Quiche (another vegetarian recipe, Amber!) and "Suddenly Salad", courtesy of Betty Crocker *blush*. Yes, I used a boxed pasta salad. They were on sale for a buck. It was easy. Want to hear an even bigger confession---I bought a crust for the quiche *gasp*. I just didn't have the time or inclination to mess with a real pie crust. Hey--even old fashioned girls get lazy sometimes.

Recipe alterations: I used mozzarella cheese instead of gruyere. I looked at the gruyere--it was $10 for 4 oz. I was not spending $20 on cheese. Even with the mozzarella, it was very good.

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Tomorrow's Post: Things I need to do to save money!

Another baking day

2008-07-12T21:21:00.000-05:00

Today, I made rolls for church. We have a new priest and they're having his "welcome to the parish" party tomorrow. (He said his first mass here last weekend. He's young and, honestly, kinda cute. It somehow felt very wrong to note that the new priest was attractive. However, since it was just an objective observation, and nothing lustful in nature, I think it was probably "okay". But back to the rolls)

Two trays are caramel rolls, one tray is just regular cinnamon rolls (I ran out of brown sugar). It was a recipe I had not used before, but from the same book as my bread recipe, so I was pretty confident that it would be good. The procedure wasn't what I was used to: it had you make up a "light batter" of the milk, water, yeast, and flour and let that rise until doubled. Then you added flour to make a dough, and you let that rise. Then you made it into rolls and let those rise. (There was certainly a lot of rising going on here today.) I'm happy to report, though, that despite the strangeness (and vagueness) of the recipe, the rolls are delicious, and I'll definitely be making them again. (Ryan, however, is sad to report that he only gets one. I promised the church two dozen--I ended up with 26. I ate one.)

Supper tonight was grilled cheese and African Peanut Soup, our second vegetarian meal of the week. Since reading a book about the packing industry, Ryan's expressed a desire to eat less meat (which coincides nicely with Amber's contest). Meat gets expensive, anyway, so it's a desire that I'm happy to indulge. I'll admit, the soup sounded kinda strange to me, but with so many positive reviews, I decided to give it a try. While it probably wasn't the best choice for July (is soup ever?), it was delicious and Ryan gave it the thumbs up. Definitely click over and give it a try.

Our other vegetarian meal of the week was Kitchen Sink Quesadillas (I have no idea why they're named this) and homemade Refried Beans. The quesadillas were super easy and so good. Great for a hot night when you don't want to work too hard for supper. (They do require you to turn on the oven, but not for long, maybe 15 minutes.) And the refried beans were awesome; not in anyway like the crap you get in a can. They weren't terribly difficult to make and they were well worth the effort. The only "con" is that it does make a huge batch. I'm not sure if they're the sort of thing that freezes or not. (I guess I could try it; what do I have to lose? I'll report back if I do.)

This is random, but I also made these Deviled Eggs with Tahini last week. I'm a huge fan of deviled eggs, and since I had the tahini from the hummus anyway, I decided to give it a go. I did use more mayo than called for, and I'll probably use a bit than that next time, but they were great either way. I don't know that I'd tell you to buy tahini especially for this, but if you've got some around anyway, definitely give this a try.

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Here's the recipe for the rolls. You're warned, though: the recipe reflects the age of the book. It's pretty vague and assumes a bit of bread-making knowledge. If you've made bread before, though, you shouldn't have any problems with this. Also, next time I'll probably make up more caramel mixture. I found that most of it seemed to soak into the rolls, which is fine, but I like caramel dripping off my rolls, too.

Caramel Rolls
1 cake Fleischmann's Yeast (equals 2.25 tsp of yeast in a jar)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 cups milk
9.5 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp. salt

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water. Scald the milk and add just enough flour to make a light batter, not a stiff one. Beat well and then let this cool. Add the yest; again, beat well, adding more flour if necessary. Let this rise until light, double its bulk, then add the eggs, sugar, creamed butter, and the salt. Add enough flour so that the dough is just stiff enough to handle. Let the dough rise until doubles its bulk. Then roll dough half-an-inch thick and fill with the following:

1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups seed raisins or currants (I omitted these)
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter

Mix sugar, raisins or currants, and cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough; dot with pieces of butter. (I melted the butter, brushed it on the dough, then sprinkled the sugar mixture on top.) Now roll up the dough as for jelly roll and cut off pieces one or one-and-a-half inches thick. Prepare muffin tins as follows: Rub 3/4 cup butter and 3 cups brown sugar* together to make a paste and mix with 1 cup chopped nuts. Line each tin one-fourth inch or deeper with this mixture. Stand the slices of rolled dough on end in the pan, and bake them about thirty minutes in a moderate oven at 400 F. Be careful not to have the oven too hot, as the sugar in the bottom might burn. Turn out immediately, and keep the sugar side up. Makes 3 dozen.

*Idiot Alert: In typing this out, I realized I'm an idiot. I read the recipe too fast, and thought it said 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar. I did a cup of each, since I wanted more caramel. No matter, though, since this was the completely wrong proportions. Perhaps this is why most of the caramel just soaked in, because there was too much better. So maybe I don't need to double the caramel next time, I just need to make it right.

A fishbowl changed my life.

2008-07-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But it has made my life easier.

Another one of FlyLady's techniques/methods is the Swish and Swipe. I was going to quote it here, but her explanation is pretty long. You can read it here. The CliffNotes version, though, is this: every morning, you take a rag, a little windex, and wipe down your bathroom mirror. Now you take that same rag and wipe down the counters. That's the "swipe". Then, you take a toilet brush and "swish" around your toilet bowl. Take your rag again, and wipe down the lid and sides of the toilet bowl. Done. All together, this takes about five minutes. But it does wonders for making your bathroom clean and presentable. By doing this little bit every day, you never have a, "Damn, my bathroom is disgusting" moment.

Here's where the fishbowl comes in: FlyLady suggests that you keep a crock next to your toilet filled with water and bleach/soap/shampoo/some sort of cleaner, and keep your toilet brush in that. That way it's accessible and easy to swish your toilet. I was trying to figure out what to use for my crock when I was GoodWill and spotted a fishbowl, just like the one above. It's tucked in the corner behind my toilet, and unless you're looking for it, you'd never see it.

I would have never guessed, but it really does make things so much easier. Especially with work and kids, it can be hard to find a 20 minute block of time to clean the bathroom. But five minutes in the morning I can handle, and it keeps the bathroom sanitary.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I've really been making an effort the last while to "green up" my life. (I guess I have Amber to blame, LOL.) Changes I've been considering:

1.) Making my own cloth pads. I keep putting this off, though, because I seem to have the worlds largest collection of traditional pads and tampons. I'm not really sure what I'd do with them if I switched to cloth, and it seems doubly wasteful to throw them away unused. They're not exactly something you donate to GoodWill, either. But it is something that's in the back of my mind.

2.) As Amber just did, I'm reconsidering my milk purchasing. There is a local dairy here that bottles its own milk in returnable glass bottles. It's slightly more expensive than the other milk, but it's SOOO much better. If I had my way, I'd have my own cow and drink whole, raw milk. This stuff is the next best thing. It's absolutely delicious. I'm currently receiving WIC, which won't allow me to get this milk, but when I am done with WIC, I think that I will probably be switching to Burbach's milk.

3.) Along the same lines, I've been giving greater thought to buying locally. It all started when I listened to an NPR report on bottled water. One of the questions emailed in was, "Does Fiji water really come from Fiji?" The woman answered that, yes, it does, and consequently, it has an enormous carbon footprint. Though I don't remember off-hand, she stated the amount of oil that is used in producing and shipping Fiji water and it was appalling. I have to confess: I think all bottled water tastes the same, but I like Fiji for the bottle *blush*. Thinking about that made me start thinking about the carbon footprint of food in general.

Then, a couple days later, I heard on NPR an interview with Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She and her family made the decision to eat only those foods which they raised or grew themselves (or were able to buy locally) for one year. The interview was really intriguing, and let me to borrow the book from the library. I've just started it, but it's fascinating. Did you realize that the U.S. exports 1.1 million tons of potatoes each year---and imports 1.4 million tons? It not only goes into the environmental impacts, but also the ethical and economic impacts. It's fascinating. I highly recommend this book (I'm talking to you, Amber!).

SOOOOO...all that was to say that I'm going to try to make a conscious effort to buy more items locally. I wish very much that we lived in a house and had a garden, but for now, this is something I can do to make a small difference.

I went to the Farmer's Market last weekend, but was a bit disappointed. I do think I probably got there too late (10:00 a.m., Saturday morning), but there were only two vehicles there--and one of them was selling only flowers and plants. The other seemed to only have a head of cabbage, a sad head of broccoli, and a couple other veggies. I didn't even stop; I just drove on by. When I bought my vegetables at the grocery store, though, I did manage to find some tomatoes grown in Nebraska, and I purchased some organic lettuce, as well (though who knows where that came from).

I know I'm not doing a lot, and certainly not as much as I could be, but it's all about baby steps.

This is why past blogs die.....

2008-07-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

....because I do a week or two of regular posting, then I get lazy *blush* Back on track, though....

We are switching day care providers next week. Our current/soon-to-be old one gave us her two weeks' notice last week. Honestly, it was a blessing. I have had some pretty major issues with how she was caring for our children. She was open to using cloth diapers, which was not only fabulous, but also enabled me to know exactly how many she was going through. Do you know how many times a day she was changing my children (who are 17 mo. and 4 mo.)? Twice. I send her 10 diapers every day, and every day she uses four. My kids bottoms are constantly red.

Additionally, she seemed to think that PopTarts five days a week was a nutritious breakfast. Don't get me wrong: I'm not anti-PopTart. I like them as well as the next girl. But I do not think that my year-old son needs them as a regular component of his diet.

I am also pretty certain that Leah spent a good portion of her day in the swing in front of the TV.

So, like I said, I wasn't horribly said when she said she was giving up daycare. To my delight, the sitter I wanted all along had openings. She is everything I want in a sitter: state-licensed, at-home, she genuinely loves kids, well-balanced meals, plenty of time outside, story time, songs, crafts, etc....

Of course, there is one down-side: she will not do cloth diapers. I can't say I was shocked, but I am disappointed, for a couple of reasons. First, diapers are expensive! I bought some tonight and holy crap (pun only sort of intended)! Second, I'm pretty sure that Leah is allergic to disposables. When she was first born, we did not use cloth right away, and used a variety of disposables: Pampers, Huggies, Luvs. Every brand caused her to break out horribly. When we put her in cloth, the rash disappeared.

I expressed my concern to some of my "My Girls" (see the sidebar) and one (I think it was one of the Jens) suggested Pampers Sensitive. So tonight I went to Walmart to pick up diapers. For Darren, I got the Walmart Brand: 92 diapers/$14.00. For Leah, I got the Sensitive--and nearly had a stroke. First of all, they don't come in case; the largest package I can get is 34. And do you know what that package of 34 cost me? $11.00. I could NOT be more pissed off. But my options at this point are not vast. I do hope that she is not allergic to them, but seriously. Those are spendy!

And okay, I'll admit it: part of me hopes that she IS allergic to them, so I can get a doctor's prescription for cloth diapers. I'm actually pretty sad that we won't be using cloth diapers. Sure the laundry isn't fun, but all in all, I kind of enjoy it. And seriously: even if you forget about the environmental impact (which is HUGE!), is there a bigger waste of money than disposable diapers? You're buying something with the sole purpose to throw it away. Other than cigarettes, I can't think of anything more wasteful.

I don't know how all you "normal" moms who have always done disposables do it!

2008-07-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

So Ryan was talking about how much he preferred my homemade bread to the "store bought crap". I jokingly said I should make all of our bread. Surprisingly, he was gung-ho about it. I said I would consider it if it were actually cheaper to make my own bread. Unfortunately, this involved copious amount of math on my part *large sigh*. BUT, I finally came up with the numbers. Here's the break-down (feel free to skip down if you're not interested in the math):

Unit Prices
10# Flour: 5.29
4 oz. Yeast: 5.29
8 qt. Milk: 7.18
4# Sugar: 1.58
1 gal. Oil: 9.99
Salt: (I forgot to check this at the store; for the figures below, I estimated it to be the same as sugar.)

Used for Recipe
Milk (powdered): 2 cups @ .224 = .448
Sugar: 5 tbsp @ .010 = .050
Salt: 2 tbsp @ .010 = .050
Yeast: 4.5 tsp @ .220 = .990
Flour: 12 cups @ .165 = 1.98
Oil: 5 tbsp @ .195

Long Story Short
Total per recipe: $3.71
4 loaves @ 3.71 = $0.93/loaf
Preferred Store Bread = $3.39/loaf
2nd Choice Store Bread = $2.25/loaf

So depending on what brand of bread I buy, I'm looking at a savings of 60-75%. That's a huge chunk of difference, especially when you consider that homemade is better. It's enough of a difference to make me seriously consider making my own bread.

Saturday is.....

2008-07-05T16:54:00.000-05:00

For real, even! When I googled the image above, I was thinking, "Saturday probably isn't even considered baking day," but it really is. (And while I didn't embroider that dish towel, I have embroidered ones similar to it.)

Actually, yesterday may not have been baking day, but it was a cooking day:

(they're upside down so they can seal)

Yup, I spent my Fourth of July making the chokecherry jelly of lore. Somehow, I had imagined it to be a lot harder than what it was. Mom already had the juice canned, so all I really had to do was add the SureJel to the juice, boil it, add a ton of sugar, boil it some more, and pour it into jars. Slicker than snot. Granted, getting the juice is a bit of a pain, but I truly can't imagine why anyone would bother buying jelly. It's easy to make and so much better than anything in the store.

Today started with a quest to prove that I really could still bake bread. I've been trying for several weeks now to make sourdough bread, and not one loaf has turned out well; they're all doughy in the center. I was concerned that I had lost my touch. Today, I decided to make just a normal loaf of bread. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture until the loaves were in this state:

(of course I had to do a taste test)

I'm pleased to report that I have not lost my touch. Apparently I'm just not cut out to make sourdough bread. (A pity; I'd really gotten excited about not needing to buy yeast.) I ended up with three delicious, attractive loaves of bread--that are not at all doughy in the center! The recipe I used follows. I honestly think it may be the only bread recipe I've ever used. The cookbook is an old one (1942):

(this was the best of many pictures)

My mom has one just like it, only more beat up (probably because I spent the last 15 years spilling stuff all over it). Throughout high school, I always kinda mourned the fact that that cookbook would stay with Mom; not only was it my favorite bread book, it was her favorite, as well. Fortunately, a couple of years back, I happened upon one in an antique shop. I paid $5 for it, which is normally more than I'd probably pay for a recipe booklet (I'm cheap), but this one was worth every penny. Some day, I'll share the Parker House Rolls recipe from this book, too.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That wasn't the only baking I did today, oh no. A little over-achiever am I. I also made a chocolate cake to take to Ryan's family gathering. This recipe comes from a cookbook that's even more special to me:

My grandma's. My grandma died a year ago in March, but several years back, she promised me her cookbook. As you can see, it's not an ordinary cookbook, but one that she wrote/typed out herself. (In addition to cake recipes, there's also a couple of recipes for soap and one for Head Cheese.) This recipe in particular is one of family lore: apparently only Grandma could make it. When anyone else attempted to make it, it resulted in an inedible mass. When I first set out to make this a month or so ago, I quickly realized why: the original recipe, as written, doesn't call for salt or vanilla. After talking to Mom, we decided that Grandma wrote it down quickly and just didn't write down the salt or vanilla. When she made the cake, she knew that they should be in there, and just added them on her own. However, whenever any of the kids made it, they followed the recipe, sans vanilla or salt. (I like to think that it was a brilliant conspiracy on the part of Grandma. By not writing down the recipe in its entirety, she was a baker of great renown; she had a recipe only she could make.) The recipe posted below is as I make it: with vanilla and salt added.

There's no picture of the cake, but since one chocolate cake pretty much looks like another, I assure you, you're not missing out on much.

For frosting, I used my mom's chocolate butter cream frosting.

~*~*~*~*~*~~*

The recipes (in backwards order, because it won't let me cut and paste today).

Mom's Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
Melt together in a double boiler:
1 1/3 cup butter or marg
3 sqs chocolate

Add to:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1.5 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. milk

Beat thoroughly. If too thick, add some milk (a little at a time!); if too thin, add some powdered sugar.

Monica's Cocoa Cake
(Monica was Grandma's sister; I'm pretty sure the one who was crazy. Literally. Although, she may have also been the alcoholic; I can't remember which. Not that it's relevant, but it is an amusing side note.)

2 eggs
2 c. sour milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix and beat hard, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream 2 cups sugar, 1 cup butter, 2 tbsp. cold water.

In a smaller bowl, sift 3 cups flour, 2 round tsp. baking soda, 1 level tsp. baking powder, 1/2 c. cocoa, and a pinch of salt.

To butter mixture, add liquid and dry mixtures alternately, beating on high for 3 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

White Bread*
(From: The Bread Basket, Copyright 1942, Standard Brands Incorporated)

2 c. milk
5 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. salt
2 cakes Fleischmann's Yeast
2 c. lukewarm water
12-13 c. sifted flour
5 tbsp. melted shortening

Scald milk, add sugar and salt; cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and add to lukewarm milk. Add half the flour and beat until smooth. Add melted shortening and remaining flour, or enough to make easily handled dough. Knead dough quickly and lightly until smooth and elastic.
Place dough in greased bowl, cover and set in warm place, free from draft. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1.5 hours. When light, divide into 4 equal portions and shape into loaves. Place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Bake in hot over at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate, or 375, and finish baking about 30 minutes longer.

*I made some changes to this recipe that I suppose I should note:

1. I didn't scald the milk. I'm pretty sure the old cookbooks only tell you to do that because this was in the days before pasteurization and it was a safety precaution. And actually, I used powdered milk this time, so I just used lukewarm water to mix it up. Normally, though, I just heat the milk to lukewarm.

2. I didn't use yeast cakes. Honestly, I've never seen them. But a cake of yeast equals 2.25 tsp.

3. I didn't sift the flour. Honestly, I didn't really even measure it after 10 cups. Making bread is a pretty tactile process. It's not so much about measurements as it is about feel. You just "know" when you've used enough flour and when you've kneaded it enough. But by all means, if this is your first time making bread, go ahead and measure. Eventually, you won't need to as much. (And actually, if this is your first time making bread, see if you can get your mom or grandma to help you out. I can't describe what bread dough should look like, but I can feel when it's right. If you've got some experienced help, it eliminates some of the guess-work.)

4. I used vegetable oil instead of melted shortening.

5. I made three loaves, because I was afraid my loaves would be too small otherwise. In retrospect, I really should have made four. The rose out of the pans and looked kinda funny coming out of the oven. (Perhaps that's why I forgot to take pictures sooner.)

Exciting Purchases

2008-07-03T20:11:00.000-05:00

(Click here to get one of your own.)

Perhaps they're only exciting to me, but that's all that matters, right? Above, is my new favorite piece of jewelery. It says:

Count your blessings instead of your crosses

Count your gains instead of your losses

Count your smiles instead of your tears

Count your courage instead of your fears

Count your health instead of your wealth

Love your neighbor as much as yourself.

(Yup, really! All of that!) It's a mobius circle, meaning there's a twist in it; there's no beginning and no end. I love the poem around it. I'm not always the best at remembering all that I have to be thankful for. It sounds cheesy, but glancing down at this is a reminder to me. I have a feeling I'm going to wear this until it falls apart.

Next, we have the greatest piece of kitchen equipment I've ever invested in:

An onion dicer! I normally have to question most of the gimicky items I see advertised on TV. One day on the Today show, they tested several "as seen on TV!" products. This was the only one that they said was actually worth the ($15) investment. I hate chopping onions. It's not hard, but it's tedious, and of course, there are the tears to consider. With this, I chopped three onions in less than 5 minutes. I won't lie: the fumes (and thus the tears) are not completely eliminated, but they are significantly reduced. If you do any amount of cooking, I strongly recommend this product.

And finally, we have:

(I suppose I could have rotated the picture, huh?)

This is not something I normally buy. $5 for a bottle of dishsoap is pretty steep as far as I'm concerned. But today, my friend Amber issued a challenge (and corresponding giveaway) on her blog. In an effort to get her readers to go green(er), she's listed ten simple things that you can do. One of them is changing your dishsoap. I wasn't going to do this. I'm cheap. But I saw this in the store today, I decided to take the plunge. Really, in the broad scheme of things, it's a relatively small change to make. I was pleasantly surprised when I used it tonight: it works really well! I honestly don't think my dishes have ever gotten this clean. Though I had planned for this to be a one-time thing, I think this is a change I'm going to stick to.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I nearly forgot to post recipe reviews for last night and tonight!

Last night's Margarita Chicken was absolutely delish. (With a name like that, how could it be anything but?) It couldn't have been easier. My chicken happened to be thawed, but it doesn't need to be. You can plop it in the crockpot frozen. I can see this being a great last minute recipe (well, given that it's in the crockpot, it requires some advance planning, but you know what I mean).

Tonight was Potato Chowder. (Thankfully, it was fairly cool today.) This is the potato soup recipe that I have been searching for. It's very similar to the soup that one my favorite restaurants make. Next time, however, I will cut the cream cheese into smaller pieces. I cut it into about 1" cubes, and they really didn't want to melt. After thirty minutes of waiting, we finally just gave up and ate it as-was. (It was still wonderful.) I may even melt it separately next time, then incorporate it. Also, beware of the size of the recipe. Unless you're serving a lot, I'd strongly suggest halving this. We have a TON left over. I'm tempted to freeze it, though I'm not sure how that would reheat. I may try freezing a small bit of it, just to see what happens.

Also, for the chowder, I did not use canned condensed soup, but this recipe. I cannot recommend this recipe more strongly. I will never buy canned condensed cream of ______ soup again. I would eat this stuff by itself. I cannot describe how fabulous it is. If you ignore everything else that I say (which might not be a bad idea), please, do yourself a favor and try out this recipe. It will change your life. (Okay, that might be a bit of hyperbole. But then again, if you're a dork like me, maybe not.)

And one final recipe review: Hummus. My friend suggested this recipe to me, and I need to thank her. If you like hummus, you need to try out this recipe. To my surprise, Darren gobbled it down. I spread it on a pita and he polished off the whole thing (and then had some potatoes from the chowder besides!). I do have to confess to my stupidity: I didn't read the recipe as closely as I should have. It very clearly calls for one can of chickpeas, but somehow I got it into my head that it called for two. Long story short, I doubled the chickpeas, but nothing else. It was good, but still a bit smokier than I expected. It was only after I was cleaning up supper (and after Darren had polished off a bunch of it) that I realized my err. So I dug everything back out, dumped it back in the blender, and added the rest of the ingredients again. Consequently, I have a double batch. Good thing Darren likes it, too, because it looks like we're going to be eating it for a while! (And if you find yourself in the area, stop over. I'll send you home with some.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I may or may not post tomorrow. Either way, have a fabulous Fourth of July and weekend!

Because I don't have a relevant picture....

2008-07-01T21:43:00.000-05:00

...you get to see my little African Violet. It started out as just the two big leaves on either side. Now, as you can see, the left leaf is sprouting baby leaves. The amount of joy I get out of those itty-bitty leaves is almost embarrassing. (But they're so darn cute!)

On a completely different note, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to jelly. Store-bought jelly will not do for my refined palate. Nor will just any homemade jelly. No, I want nothing to do with "normal" jellies such as grape or strawberry. Once, in a pinch, Mom bought some grape jelly from the store. My brother and I both turned up our noses at it. She's even made strawberry jelly; she gave it all away. We wouldn't touch it. Nay, there is but one jelly that will ever pass through these lips: homemade chokecherry.

Of course, this is not a jelly that one comes by easily. One must tromp up and down the road ditches in search of this fruit (which, by the way, is terrible straight off the tree; as the name would suggest, it's pretty bitter). They ripen in the heat of August, so harvesting these berries is not for the weak. I have many, um, fond memories of Mom, my brother, and I, getting gnawed to death by mosquitoes and who knows what else as we picked chokecherries. (These memories include a lot of yelling, as well. Me, at my brother, to quit bothering me; my brother, at me, to quit bossing him around; and Mom, at both of us, to shut up already and pick the damn berries so we could go home.) OH.....but the jelly that results.....MORE than worth the agony and annoyance of picking the berries.

So why do I soliloquize on the delight that is chokecherry jelly? Because I realized the other day that I don't have any. I'm going home this weekend, so I asked Mom if she'd set some out for me. She said she would, but also said she needed to make more. Fortunately, she's going to wait until I come home to make it. I helped her make jelly once, but I was probably 14 at the time, so I don't remember much. (Oh, and luckily we do not need to venture into the ditches of northeastern Nebraska: she has plenty of juice canned from the last berry-picking-extravaganza.) I'll try to capture some photo-documentation of the jelly-making process. And if you find yourself in the area, I'd be happy to share the "fruits" of our labor. (Ha! "Fruits"! I love puns.)

(I just googled chokecherry jelly and found this:

I don't know if you can read that (click the picture for the link). $8.99 for 11 oz. (AND it's listed under "gourmet foods". Who knew?) Clearly, chokecherry jelly is something that I can and should be marketing. Should you feel compelled to buy some, I'll sell you a pint for $5. (And I'm sure the orders are going to pour in, ha.)

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tonight's supper was "Lazy Golumbki", aka Crockpot Cabbage Casserole. The recipe follows; my comments are in italics.

2 pounds meatloaf mix (I had to google to find out what this is; apparently it's a mix of beef, lamb, and pork; I used hamburger.)
1 large onion, chopped (I used dried, minced onion, because it was all I had.)
3 garlic cloves, minced (I used jarred minced garlic. This is seriously the greatest convenience food I have ever bought. Well worth the expense.)
2 cans (15 ounces each) tomato sauce, divided
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I didn't have this, so I subbed chili powder.)
2 cups cooked rice (I was short on time and didn't have time to cook it. I just dumped in one cup of uncooked rice. I reasoned that 5 hours in a crockpot should be plenty of time to cook it, and it was.)
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (Didn't have time to fry bacon, so I didn't use this.)
1 medium head cabbage (2 pounds), shredded
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in one can of tomato sauce and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat: cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in rice and bacon; heat through. Remove from the heat. Layer a third of the cabbage in a greased crockpot. Top with half of the meat mixture. Repeat layers; top with remaining cabbage. Pour remaining tomato sauce over top. Top with cheese. Cook in crockpot on low for 4-5 hours.

This was actually pretty tasty. I think I'll make it again. It was certainly easy. As I mentioned up above, I did not cook the rice, and after making it this way, I definitely won't bother next time. The only thing I would change is the cooking duration: I started it about 12:30 and came home at 5:30 and it was pretty charred around the edges. Don't get me wrong, there was more than enough to eat; it was just the top layer, around the edges. But I think that if I were going to be home, I'd check this at 3 hours.

It's time for....

2008-07-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

My spices are in the cupboard above my stove*. They're on a lazy susan (which doesn't spin, but that's another story), but up high where I can hardly see them. For the longest time, looking for a spice involved standing on my tip-toes, craning my neck, and praying to St. Anthony to help me find the spice I was tooking for. One day I got annoyed enough that I did the unthinkable: I alphabetized my spices. I'm not gonna lie: it was boring, it wasn't fun. But I'm glad I did it. Not only does it make it easy to find the spice I'm looking for, but I also realized how many double-ups I had.

It would seem that every time a recipe called for a spice, I just assumed I didn't have it. So I had three containers of oregano, two of chili powder, etc... If only there were a quick and easy way to know if I had a spice (and how much of it I had). Then, a lightbulb went on. A list. I typed up a "Spice Invetory" list on the computer (complete with number, in the event that I had more than one container of a spice) and taped it to the inside of a cupboard (not the spice cupboard, because it's too high, but one close to it). Now I see at a glance if I have a spice. Also, I cross out a spice as I finish it up and know if I need to add it to my grocery list.

Someday, I aspire to have a "spice drawer". But for now, I'm pleased with this sytem.

"Real" post to come tonight.

*Yeah, I know, they're not supposed to be store above the stove, because the heat of the stove destroys their flavor. You're supposed to store them in a drawer with a label on each lid. I live in an aparment. I'm lucky to have drawer space for my silverware. My spices taste just fine where they are.

Exhausted

2008-06-30T20:51:00.000-05:00

~~I was going to do a proper post tonight, but, as you can see, I changed my layout. That proved to be far more exhausting than I imagined. I'll shoot for a "real" post tomorrow.~~

Okay, I lied. After I got Darren to sleep (please tell me that someday--soon--he'll start putting himself to sleep; I'm having visions of rocking him when he's 15), I decided I better figure out a menu for this week. I'd like to be a fly-by-the-seat of my pants sort of girl, but without a menu, chaos ensues.

Well, that, and I really wanted to participate in....

Monday: Brats and Sauerkraut
No one was more surprised that I was to discover that Darren likes sauerkraut. He has issues with the stringy-ness of it, but once he gets it in his mouth, he gobbles it down. I picked this out of desperation: I hadn't planned anything else. I opened the freezer this morning and thought, "Huh. That would be easy." Also, money is a bit slim until Thursday, so I'm trying to use up what we have here, rather than buying a much of groceries. (Ryan just started a new job a few weeks back, and as a result has been in that awkward "waiting for pay day to include me" waiting period...I think you know what I'm talking about, I'm not wording it very well.)

Tuesday: CrockPot Cabbage Casserole
I'll have to share the recipe tomorrow; I got it off of one my Yahoo groups.

Wednesday: CrockPot Margarita Chicken and Rice
Any time I can incorporate alcohol into my cooking, it's a good thing. (Okay, so there's not really any alcohol in this; just margarita mix. But the thought of alcohol is there, which is good enough for me. Besides, I have to get the Margarita mix off of the top shelf, and it just happens to set next to the tequila...who's to say I won't make a pre-dinner cocktail?)

Thursday: CrockPot Potato Chowder and Grilled Cheese
Yes, I know it's July. I'm desperately hoping it's not 90 degrees this day.

Friday: Beer BBQ Chicken and Corn on the Cob
It just seemed wrong to not have this on the 4th. Maybe I'll make up some potato salad, too. (Plus, notice the alcohol, hehe.)

Saturday: Kitchen Sink Quesadillas and Refried Beans
We're going to Ryan's uncle's house Saturday afternoon for some sort of "First Annual * " family shin-dig, so I wanted something easy for Saturday night. (If you're looking for the Quesadilla recipe, it's just over half-way down the page.)

Sunday: Breaded Baked Mushroom Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes
The pork chops call for two cans of cream of mushroom soup. I'm going to try out this substitute. Report to follow.

Can you tell that RecipeZaar is my new best friend? I love how you can search for recipes within it, and, of course, I love the reviews. I need to remember to post reviews of my own on, as well.

*Anything that's advertised as "First Annual" annoys me. It's not "annual" until the second year. Until then, it's just "the first". Because let's face it: if your party sucks and no one shows up, you're not going to do it again next year.

How did I do?

2008-06-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well, let's review the list:

*(Saturday) Get up early, go to a couple of rummage sales.
Well, I did over-sleep. But, I did get to the first rummage sale in time to find this:

A Rubbermaid tote filled with old/vintage patterns. I could barely contain my glee when I spotted them. I asked the man how much they were, expecting a response like, a quarter a piece. Instead he said, "What'll you give me for all of 'em? Mama had 'em up in the attic and if I don't sell them, they'll just go in the trash." I offered $5, which he seemed thrilled to get.

I almost felt bad only giving him $5. There's something kinda cute about a grown man referring to his mother as "Mama." (Although, my mom's parents were known to them as Mother and Daddy. It's kinda funny/cute to hear my uncles--ranging in age from 48 to 70--talk about "Daddy".)

*Change bedding.
Check. Since I over slept, I sprung out of bed and immediately started stripping it. I even washed the bed skirt AND I rotated the mattress. (I did not, however, move the bed and vacuum under it and clean behind it. I definitely should have, it just didn't cross my mind until much later.

*Stop at sitter's and drop off check (forgot to do that today...oops).
Check.

*Get quarters, do laundry.
Check. I washed it all yesterday and folded it all today. (Well, that's a half lie. I've got a load of diapers and a load of kids' clothes drying right now. But the bulk of the laundry got done yesterday.)

*Dig out the next size larger rubber pants for Leah.
Done.

*Vacuum.
Done. I even moved the couch, the toy box, and the chair!

*Clean the kitchen (including fridge....ugh).
Done, thank God. I took everything out of the fridge, shelves and all, and wiped down the entire inside. As I was sitting on the floor cleaning out the bottom drawer, Ryan came in and said, "Wow. You weren't kidding when you said you were going to clean. You must really be into this; I wouldn't want to do that." I laughed and said, "It's NOT fun and I DON'T want to do it, but it's something that needs to be done." I'd rank cleaning the fridge up there with cleaning the bathroom. I'd be hard pressed to pick which one I dislike more.

*Clean the bathtub.
Um....not quite.

*Plan the menu for at least the next week, ideally for the month.
Yeah, well....I didn't exactly get this done, either.

Come on. You didn't expect me to get everything done, did you? I did, however, clean out, vacuum, and dust my car. Let me assure you, my car needed a cleaning far more than my bathtub. It was a worthy trade-off.

Today, I got up early and cantored for 8:00 a.m. mass. I wish I could say I did a fabulous job. Honestly, I did a decent job. The songs were all new to me (the organist in my home parish has a very limited repertoire, so I don't know many of the songs we sing here), and the pianist was not the one I practiced with. This woman plays much faster. If I knew the songs, I wouldn't be a huge problem, but when you're uncertain anyway, flying through the songs doesn't help me. I did feel a little bit better about it, though, when, after mass, a man stopped me in the gas station to tell me I had done a nice job. When someone gives me a compliment, my instinct is to argue with them ("Oh, me? No, not really, I kinda sucked it up today."), but today I just said thank you.

While the kids napped, I finished up a loaf of no-knead sourdough bread. It was marginally successful. Either I'm not meant to make sourdough bread or my oven's thermostat is off. This is the third loaf of sourdough bread I've attempted to make. The third recipe. Each one comes out with a thick, crunchy, almost hard, golden crust, and an under-baked middle. It's not terrible; it's edible. Though he's not crazy about the crust, Ryan likes the bread over-all, so it wasn't a complete waste, but I'm highly annoyed. I think I need to make one, old-fashioned loaf of yeast bread, just to reassure myself that I'm not a baking failure. Cooking and baking have always come fairly naturally to me, so this sort of failure is not something I'm used to. (I suppose it's God, trying to humble me.)

Despite the failed loaf of bread, I'm still pretty pleased with the weekend over-all. The weekend ended too quickly, as always, but knowing that this week is a short one makes going back to work tomorrow easier!

A Productive Day

2008-06-27T22:37:00.000-05:00

Not the most exciting title, for sure, but it's how I feel about today.

The day started out good. On a whim, I stopped at a rummage sale on my way to work and found this beauty:

Complete with all this:

Yeah, I know....I need another sewing machine like I need another hole in my head. But it was $20! And can you see what fabulous condition it is in? The woman said she had it serviced and then never touched it. In the picture, you can kind of see the sticker on the bed of the machine; that has the date of the last servicing on it: January, 1981. The red test cloth was still under the needle when I opened it up. Honestly, I was still a bit nervous about how it would run. Even if it was serviced before it sat for all that time, it's still been setting, unused, for longer than I've been on the planet. I spent my lunch break trying it out; it sews like a dream. It's known as a semi-industrial machine, and from what I've read, will sew through nearly anything. I tried it out tonight on my toilet seat cover. I needed to sew a piece of elastic on to hold it on the lid. It was so thick, it only just fit under the presser foot. I was nervous, but trudged onward. The machine didn't even hesitate. It sewed through that all that thickness like it was butter. This is definitely the best $20 I've spent in a long time.

Because I sewed away my lunch hour, we ended up having a "cheater" supper: a Cambell's Supper Bake. I'm not gonna lie--it was the best "supper in a box" sort of thing I've had in a long time. I forget how much it cost; I got it a couple of weeks back to have on hand for just such an occasion. It was worth it, though; very tasty.

After supper, I gave Leah a bath, her first bath in the kitchen sink. It went relatively well. She kept wanting to stretch out her legs and push herself up out of the water (and it was not too hot or anything), but otherwise seemed to enjoy it. After her bath, I fed her and put her to sleep.

Then, it was Darren's turn for a bath. While he bathed, I cleaned the bathroom. It was well overdue for a thorough cleaning. (Tell me, how a man who can accurately throw a baseball 90 miles an hour across a plate 90 feet away, is unable to hit a toilet less than two feet in front of him?) The tub still needs to be scrubbed (I couldn't very well do that with Darren in it), but I'll do that later this weekend.

Then Darren and I watched "Singing in the Rain." Gotta love musicals. After Darren went to sleep, then the fun began. I dusted, including above all the door ways, put away a couple of piles I had around the apartment ("Hot Spots" in FlyLady terms), and folded a pile of laundry I had dumped on the bed this morning.

Okay, somehow this looks much less impressive in print.

This weekend, I've got big plans, we'll see if it all gets done:

*(Saturday) Get up early, go to a couple of rummage sales.
*Change bedding.
*Stop at sitter's and drop off check (forgot to do that today...oops).
*Get quarters, do laundry.
*Dig out the next size larger rubber pants for Leah.
*Vacuum.
*Clean the kitchen (including fridge....ugh).
*Clean the bathtub.
*Plan the menu for at least the next week, ideally for the month.

Stop back Sunday night and see how productive I was!

Not that much, really, but I'd like to go to my parents' tomorrow morning.

Do you see what I see?

2008-06-26T20:04:00.000-05:00

It's an opening, in my freezer!

(Next to the ice cube trays. I didn't say it was a BIG space!)

Ryan and I joke about the perils of opening our freezer. I'm quite proud of how much I'm able to shove in there. I had to rearrange stuff tonight to fit in some chicken I bought on sale, and not only did I make room for the new stuff, but I even had space left over! My dream is to someday live in a house (as opposed to an apartment) and have my very own chest freezer. I don't really know how to make small batches of anything, so I usually end up freezing about half of whatever I make. That is, I would freeze half of everything, if I had room. There are some things that freeze better than others, so the stuff I know freezes well (lasagna, Runzas, soups, etc...) generally get freezer space over the "I wonder...." stuff.

So what was for supper tonight?

Philly Cheesesteak Soup

Not the most appetizing picture, I know, but I was so giddy that my camera was functioning again that I decided to take a picture, anyway. This would have been better had Ryan stirred it better and not allowed it to burn, but it was still pretty tasty. I got the recipe from someone's blog, but of course I can't remember where. I'll post the recipe at the end; if it's yours, give me a holler and I'll credit you. I probably won't be making this again soon (we are rapidly approaching July, after all), but come winter I think I'll give it another whirl.

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(I wish I were better at creating segue ways....but I'm not.
So I use decorative symbols, instead.)
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Tonight, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I was waxing poetic about one of my favorite pieces of cleaning equipment. And it was one I never thought I'd buy:

(Clorox Ready Mop)

I have issues with things that I consider "cheating"*. This is an example. I always felt that if you were going to scrub your floor, you should do it right--on your hands and knees. Anything else--including the Ready Mop or Swiffer Wet Jet--was "cheating". Then I moved out on my own, and I started working full-time. Slowly, I am realizing the world is full of shades of gray. If I only cleaned my floors with the Ready Mop, yeah, that'd probably be cheating, and definitely wouldn't leave my floors all that clean. But to use in between proper, hands-and-knees scrubbings? Well, that's something different all together. I do scrub my floor the "right" way at least every-other week. But in between times, I've realized that "cheating" isn't all bad. In fact, it's sometimes the difference between presentable and horrifying :)

*I could do an entire series on things I consider "cheating". Perhaps I will. Stay tuned!

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I'm not good at writing conclusions, either, so how about a couple pictures of the kiddos, instead?

This is how Darren was sleeping this morning.
When we got this crib, we had to put a bumper up, because he
kept getting his feet stuck in the slats. Silly kid.

Leah's finally starting to develop a personality.
Ryan is happy she's moving out of the "loaf of bread" stage.

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Philly Cheesesteak Soup
(this recipe is written so you can freeze half of it)

3/4 c. butter
2/3 c. flour
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced (it calls for fresh, I used two cans)
6 c. milk
1 (10.5 oz.) can beef broth
3/4 c. cooked beef or rib eye, diced
8 oz. provolone cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Melt butter in large stock pot. Add peppers, onions, and mushrooms; saute until tender (about 5 minutes). Add flour and cook another 5 minutes, stirring often. Slowly whisk in milk and bring to a simmer, stirring often, until soup thickens. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in broth, salt, and pepper. Slowly stir in provolone until all is melted and incorporated into soup. Remove from heat and stir in beef.
To freeze: Prepare soup and allow to cool. Place in rigid freezer container. Seal, label, and freeze.
To serve: Thaw in fridge. Reheat in microwave or on stove top, stirring to recombine the soup.

Mom was right....

2008-06-24T20:35:00.000-05:00

....again. I sure do get sick of her being right.

I remember her warning me several times, when buying ground beef, to never get anything less than 85/15. I have always listened to her, more out of habit than anything. Last night, though, I was in a hurry, and 80/20 was conveniently packaged in a five-pound roll. What difference can 5% make, I thought. I tossed it in my cart and went on my way. Today, as I browned it up for Runzas (recipe to follow), I learned what 5% difference is--the difference between just enough fat to brown nicely and a disgusting pool of grease. I have never drained my ground beef after browning it, but I did today. It was truly disgusting. Never again. (I shudder to think that I nearly bought 70/30, because it was so much cheaper.) Clearly, some things are worth the extra money.

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Runzas
*if you're not from the midwest, you've probably never heard of Runzas. Runza is a regional restaurant chain. And their trademark item is delectable!

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
4 c. shredded cabbage (about 1/2 - 3/4 of a head)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 c., I suppose)
2 cans of crescent rolls

Brown the hamburger. Remove from pan and sautee onion and cabbage in the drippings. When cabbage is limp, return hamburger to the pan, adding the mushroom soup. Stir well to combine. Open one can of rolls; spread the rolls on the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan, pinching to join the perforations. Spread hamburger/cabbage mixture on top. Top with cheese. Top with remaining can of crescent rolls. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

(It's probably not going to win any awards for healthfulness, especially with a can of condensed soup as an ingredient, but it is tasty, and a pretty decent replica of the real thing. Leftovers freeze nicely.)

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While shopping, I was also horrified at the price of potatoes. A five-pound sack was $4.46. I can't remember exactly what it was two weeks ago, but it was, at most, half of that, if not less. Per pound, it would have been significantly cheaper to buy a ten-pound sack, but I know we could have never used them all in time.

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I don't think I have her in my links list, yet, but my friend Amber is always a source of inspiration for doing things the "green" way. It was she who convinced me to switch to reusable tote bags at the grocery store (and when I realized how much easier they were to carry, I was upset that I hadn't converted sooner!). And today, she brings up another great issue: paper towels.

I recently stopped buying paper towels. I wish I could say I was doing it for environmental reasons, but it's mainly because I'm cheap. Ryan (my husband) was using paper towels for everything. I'm the first to admit that there are things for which paper towels are very handy. Ryan, however, was using them--dry--to wipe off Darren's hands after he ate and to wipe down the highchair. Dry paper towels don't do so well wiping off sticky stuff. And if you're going to get them wet, anyway, then why not just use a dish rag? We were going through monumental amounts of paper towels. I finally decided it was ridiculous to continue throwing away money like this; I just quit buying them. I honestly expected him to say something, but it's been over a month now and nary a word. I won't lie, there are times I miss them, but it's maybe once a week that I wish I had a paper towel (and it's usually when I want to kill a spider or something). In general, though, I don't mourn the absence of paper towels in my life.

I'm definitely taking baby steps, but I like to think that I'm helping to make the world a greener place.

Meal Plan Monday

2008-06-23T18:44:00.000-05:00

It's Meal Plan Monday over at Organizing Junkie. I'm getting in just under the wire (um....9:30 p.m.), but I really wanted to participate this week.

Meal Plan for the week of June 23rd

Monday: Busy-Mom Roast
Carrots and Potatoes

Tuesday: Runza Casserole

Wednesday: Gumbo (frozen leftovers from the last time I made it) If you've never tried this before, you need to. It is SOOOOO good!

Thursday: Chicken with Onions and Cheese
Parmesan Garlic Potato Slices

Friday: Pork Chops Florentine*
CrockPot Baked Potatoes

Saturday: Philly Cheese Steak Soup*
Rolls

Sunday: Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls*
Grilled Cheese

(*these are from the internet....somewhere; if I find links, I'll post them)

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And now for your regularly scheduled post....

Tonight, supper was Busy-Mom Roast. (I think I'd probably call it "Lazy-Mom Roast", but "Busy" sounds better, I suppose.) Here's the recipe such as it is:

3-3.5 lb roast, frozen
1 can of Coke
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
carrots, potatoes, onions, if desired

Put frozen roast in CrockPot; top with remaining ingredients. Cook on high for 7-8 hours.

My roast wasn't frozen, so I put it in at noon on high. It was....okay. It wasn't the greatest roast I've ever had, but it was easy, and if I were in a pinch, I'd probably make this for supper again. However, it wasn't so great that I'd plan to make roast this way again. (And with a can of Coke as an ingredient, one certainly can't argue that it is a healthy way to prepare roast.) Overall, I'd give this a B-. Not bad, but not something I'll go out of my way to make again.

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How about some randomness?

Ever heard of the FlyLady? She's kind of over the top sometimes (don't sign up for her emails unless you're prepared to be deluged), but taken with a grain of salt, she's got some good ideas. My personal favorite of the moment? Shine your sink.

The first thing you do on her "program", regardless of how messy and chaotic your house is, is shine your sink. The premise is that it's something small and relatively easy to do, thus you gain an immediate feeling of accomplishment. After you've done the initial shining, you do a quickie version of this every night before bed.

I'll admit, I thought she was off her rocker. My apartment is by no means a sty, but there are certainly things I could be doing other than shining my sink. Lately, I've taken to doing this after supper, and I think she's on to something. It's nice to wake up in the morning to a clean sink. There's something depressing about waking up to dirty dishes, no matter how few. Plus, if I run a sink of water to do dishes (there's always a couple that can't go in the dishwasher), I'm much more likely to do a thorough wipe-down of the counters and stove. Thus, general cleanliness reigns in the kitchen. Yeah, I should scrub the floor more often, but basic sanitation prevails.

"It tastes better than it looks!"

2008-06-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

That's what I had to tell Ryan last night when he looked, very skeptically, at our supper of Chile Relleno Casserole. It was tasty, but horribly unattractive. It looked a bit like radioactive sludge. (Seriously, if the three-eyed fish from the Simpson's had leapt out of it, I don't think anyone would have been shocked.) I was actually a bit glad that my camera is on the D.L., because it gave me a good excuse to not photograph it. As I said, though, it did taste fine. Not so fine, though, that it's going to make the Repeat List. It basically tasted like enchiladas sans tortillas. And I like my enchiladas a lot better. In fact, how about I share that recipe instead? (I'll just post all the recipes at the end of the post.)

Supper tonight was delicious, but, once again, not photo-worthy. Ryan had to work, so I took the easy route: I heated up some of the frozen leftovers in the freezer. We had Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole and Corn Choup (ala, Rachel Ray). The casserole is super easy. The Choup involves a bit more effort, but is more than worth it.

In the oven now is my attempt at Sourdough Bread. Can I first say that I really can make a good loaf of bread. I'm quite proud of my bread baking abilities. But I'm pretty sure this is not going to be my best effort...

I strongly suspect that it would have turned out better had I not messed around so much with it. Normally people make bread, well, normally. Make the dough, let it rise, shape the bread, let it rise, bake it. Oh, but I'm not normal, oh no....

I started it last night after supper. I planned to finish it last night. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that sourdough takes longer to rise than traditional yeast breads. So while I got a beautiful rise out of it, it was nearly 11:00 p.m. by time it was doubled. I was not going to wait up another 3 hours to let it rise again and then bake it.

For the first rise, I put it in the oven on warm. For the second rise, since I didn't need it to rise as fast, I shaped the loaves and left them on the counter over night, with plans to bake them this morning. Unfortunately, because I had covered them, when the dough raised, it raised out of the pan, rather than up. Not so attractive. I smooshed them down and put them in the fridge.

At lunch, for reasons I still don't quite understand, I thought that I had enough time to get them to rise in the oven AND bake them. Not hardly. They did rise beautifully, but not quite as much as I wanted. And I had to go back to work. I put them back in the fridge, expecting them to continue to rise, just more slowly. Um, not quite. They fell, pitifully. I quickly smooshed them down again, reshaped the loaves, and set them on the counter again, hoping they'd rise some by time I got home from work.

And they did. A little. So at 7:00, after supper, the oven went back on warm and back in the oven they went to rise. Sadly, they didn't rise so energetically this time. After two hours, I have only about half the rise that I got in one hour at lunch. I decided to give up and just bake the damn things. I'm assuming that these are going to be brick-like, and I plan to try again tomorrow, making the bread straight-through, like normal people do. When I get a good loaf and am confident in the recipe, I'll share. For now, though, I don't want to lead anyone astray.

Enough talk about my lame excuse for bread. How about some recipes that I know are good?

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Harvest Cream Corn "Choup" courtesy of Rachel Ray. This makes a LOT, but it does freeze really well.

Enchiladas
1 lb. ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 pkg. taco mix
Tortilla shells
Salt, pepper, onions
1 can cream of onion soup
1 pt. sour cream
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Brown meat; season to taste. Add beans and taco mix. Fill shells and roll; place on jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Combine soup, sour cream, and green chiles. Spread over filled shells, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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Chicken Bordon Bleu Casserole
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
8 slices Swiss cheese
6 slices ham
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 c. milk
2-3 c. dry seasoned stuffing mix
1/3-1/2 c. melted butter

Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts. Place chicken on bottom of ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Top with Swiss cheese, then ham. Mix soup with milk and pour over layers. Mix melted butter with stuffing and spread over casserole. Bake for 50 minutes at 350.

Laundry

2008-06-19T21:25:00.001-05:00

Ryan is now convinced that I've gone off the deep end. He may be right.

Tonight I did a couple loads of laundry. Rather than using my own, homemade laundry soap (which, admittedly, is odd enough in and of itself), I tried this:

No, your eyes do not deceive you. I used grapefruit scented, Ajax dish soap.

I belong to several Yahoo groups, and today the topic of diaper washing came up. One woman said that she washed not only her diapers, but all her laundry, with three tablespoons of dish soap. I was perplexed enough to email her. She quickly wrote me back. In an effort to save money, she started using dish soap for her laundry, as it was the cheapest option. She recommended Ajax, as she found it produced the most suds for the least amount of money. She was pleased to discover that it was also more effective than ordinary laundry soap. Not only did she use dish soap in her top loader, but she used the same amount in her front loader, as well.

I'll admit, I was still skeptical. I had visions of bubbles cascading out of the laundry machine. But, she did say that she had been doing this for years. What the heck, thought; I'll give it a try.

Initially, I was conservative. I started with one tablespoon. I let it agitate for a bit and opened the lid, expecting the worst. Surprisingly, I saw only a couple bubbles floating about. At the point, I decided "in for a penny, in for a pound." I dumped in another two tablespoons. Then I threw caution to the wind and put three tablespoons in the front loader as well.

Half an hour later, I went to check on my laundry. What did I find? Nope, not a disaster. Just clean, fresh smelling laundry.

I'm telling ya: life is more exciting off the deep end.

2008-06-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

Ah, I should have never let my old friend die*. Some of my friends have been talking about blogs, and it's making me nostalgic for mine. Tune in tonight, for a real post, complete with pictures (that is, unless supper turns out so crappy that I'm too embarrassed to post pictures, but I don't see that happening).

*The blog, that is. I just re-read this and realized I was making it sound like a real, live person had died. I just want to make clear that I have never contributed to the death of another.