so much to do, so little time...

I spent today making food for Dan so he'll survive the week I'm gone. I spent the rest of the day doing dishes in a kitchen sink where the cold water doesn't work. This was not my idea of fun. We called the landlord to come fix it (because the entire sink faucet thing has to be taken apart and i'm not gonna do it), but we haven't heard back from him yet.

I'm leaving Monday to pick up Beka and drive to Annapolis to hang out with Meimei. It's sad but i'm excited about going back to 'civilization' for a week. Plus i'm excited to see her. Not looking so much forward to the insanely long drive, though...

I'm having a good time crocheting a ton of stuff right now; my newest hobby is little stuffed animals. The only thing i've managed to finish is a baby cthulhu (not really an animal, more of a scifi alien, lol). But i do want to try my hand at real animals. Dunno what i'll do with them when they're done though; i should probably work that out before i start them.

I did make myself a hat and a couple pairs of fingerless glove that i'm really excited about because they keep me warm. Warm is good since it went and snowed AGAIN after a week of 70 plus weather. i'm hoping this is the last snow this year. It's almost march and it should be raining, not snowing. Plus, i'm looking forward to the day when it warms up enough that i can turn off the heat and watch the gas bill plummet. :)

We had a chili cookoff and dessert auction at church tonight; they both went really well. We had about a dozen desserts donated and we made money to help the teens going on the mission trip this summer. Plus, it was just plain a good time. Everyone involved had a lot of fun.

And thus the great veggie experiment continues...

I'm experimenting with food. Finding food I like. Finding food Dan likes. Finding food that's good for us and finding food that doesn't cost a zillion dollars (seriously, if it's organic, they didn't have to spend money on pesticides and crap, why is it so much more expensive?)

Vegetables are one source of my experiment. Now, fruit is easy. For the most part, as long as it's ripe it sweet, and everybody loves fruit! Mangoes are a current favorite here. So are pomegranates but unfortunately they're pretty much out of season now. But vegetables? those are hard. They're not sweet. Some of them taste kinda funky. I don't like most of them. Or, at least, i didn't. Then i discovered you can do more with them than just steam them.

Currently, I'm experimenting with roasting veggies. So far i've done asparagus (to die for), carrots (good unless you REALLY burn them), and Broccoli (better than popcorn). I've got butternut squash in the oven now. Butternut squash is a bit of a nightmare to cut up. If you're gonna try, microwave it for about three mins before attempting to peel it. Your fingers will thank you when you manage to not cut them off because you've softened the skin. My butternut squash is a lovely orange color and it smells good so i'm very excited about it.

There are about a zillion other vegetables in my fridge right now, awaiting their turn to be peeled, chopped, and roasted in the oven.

My other experiment right now is bread. I just started this today and i'm super excited to see how it turns out. I bought a book called Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day and mixed up a batch this afternoon. I'm refridgerating the dough now to bake this evening. I LOVE fresh homemade bread. I DON'T love the idea of having to knead, and knead, and rise, and knead, and knead, and whatever else goes into bread. If i can really do this in five minutes a day (ish, i do have a lot of time on my hands) then rock on. If it proves to be a ridiculous amount of work, then i might still do it, just not as often.

And, eventually, i'm totally going to learn to make entire meals in my rice cooker. I have a cookbook for that too. Didn't know you could do more with a rice cooker than cook rice? Yeah, me either. I'm totally thinking it's worth a try though...

Just another day?

It's Valentine's Day...A day that I haven't really payed much attention to in the past. This year, however, i'm married and it's a big deal to Dan so here i am. I think we're going to dinner and a movie. I'm not sure, though.

I've been busy crocheting; i made myself the most adorable hat; dan has a beanie, and i have two pairs of fingerless gloves. I have a scarf for dan to finish as soon as hobby lobby stocks the yarn i need. Plus i have another hat i want to make myself.

Red

Red is a happy color. At least, to me it is. And since it's the MIDDLE of THE WORST WINTER i've ever had the misfortune to endure (they tell me this is normal! I REALLY don't want this to be normal.) I've taken to painting my fingers and toes a happy red color. It makes me smile every time I look at them. I think i'm turning into a girl.

I bought kitchen gadgets today, which i'm REALLY excited about. I bought a lemon zester, which will let me make lemon poppyseed scones. I bought canisters to store pasta, beans and rice in so my pantry (which is actually a closet in my living room; i'm a little strapped for space lol) will be more organized and less full of ziploc bags. New stuff for my kitchen makes me happy.

I also bought a spagetti squash today. I have no idea how to cook a spagetti squash. So i'm off to find recipes or ideas!

Yarn

I bought yarn today! I'm in the process of making myself a blanket out of cotton yarn (probably not the best choice but it's what I had on hand so here i am.) I can whip out one square of the blanket per episode of the gilmore girls, lol.

And dan picked out some awesome varigated yarn in camo colors so when i finish my blanket i'll make his; i'm really excited about it! I think he'll enjoy it too.

It's been COLD here; this morning when i woke up it was -2 degrees. We had this KILLER storm come through on tuesday but first everything iced up and got all slippery. Getting my mail is a risky business lol. And Dan can't get the van all the way up the driveway. Supposedly this will be the last big snow of the winter, and i for one am very glad for that, assuming it's true. If not, i might be very sad since i've only left that house ONCE this week and that was to go to the bank. Because we still have to eat, you know.

Tea and Scones?

Tea is one of my loves. I know, I've rambled about it before; but i'm gonna do so again. Because I can. I've started blending teas to create unique flavors and...well, some are better than others. But I keep trying!

And I have several recipes for Scones that I really want to try out. They sound truely yummy and I think that they'd make a great snack with my tea. Not every time I drink tea or I'd be eating scones six times a day, but occasionally.

It's snowing here; we're supposed to get anywhere from 3-12 inches depending on who you ask. I think it won't top six, but we'll see. The worst part is yesterday the WHOLE WORLD iced over so now we've got snow on top of ice. Which wouldn't be so bad except this entire city is built on rolling hills, so the car has to go up, and down, and up, and down.

A day in the life...

So it's friday, more than two weeks after I went in for the interview at the bank, and i'm pretty much positive they gave the job to someone else. No big deal. I wasn't that attached to it anyway. I'm busy figuring out how to be a housewife still...

Right now I'm focused on cutting our food budget down and figuring out how to get more food for less money. I'm NOT going to turn into one of those crazy extreme coupon people. Because I think they devote their entire life to it and end up with 300 toothbrushes they'll never need. (true story, apparently, based on some tv show TLC did on extreme couponing.)

Don't get me wrong; i do stockpile certain items that we use all the time, such as laundry soap, dish soap, etc. If i can get them SUPER on sale, that works for me, because then I don't have to buy them for a LONG time, and save a little money that way. And it's not like it's going to go bad...

So i'm working on meal planning; because i feel that if I go to the grocery store with an actual plan in mind instead of just a haphazard 'oh that looks good' i'll spend less money. And waste less food. Food is expensive, which is dumb because we kinda have to have it in order to survive as a species.

I'm also trying to figure out freezer cooking; which, in the extreme case, is spending one day making all your meals for the month. I'm not about to do that. I think it's INSANE. But I do routinely cook up enough for two or three meals at a time and stick the extra portions in the freezer. Because, especially on Wednesday and Sundays; I don't always remember we have to leave early to be at the church for youth group. So I can just pull something out and microwave it, which is awesome.

What are your favorite meals? I'm always open to ideas.

Contest at Earth and Skye Photography

So there's this artist i've been looking at for quite a while now; Tina Steinberg. She makes personalized silver jewelry with, among other things, a fingerprint pendant of the fingerprint you send her (a child, spouse, other loved one) And I thought that would be a great idea for when i have Kids! Or if i can get one with Dan's fingerprint; because that would be cool too.

Anyway, http://www.earthandskye.com/archives/1292 is doing a contest to give away one of her jewelry pieces! I'm excited about it, anyway. So check it out; there are a bunch of ways to enter to win!

Life, as we know it

Not a lot going on these days; Dan and I cleaned up our front bedroom today for the first time since we moved into the house three months ago; you could actually fit a blow up mattress on the floor now so it's pretty much ready for guests except for the part where we keep it sealed off to save money on heating rooms we don't use so it's REALLY cold in there...so if you wanna come see me before spring warn me so i have time to warm up the room so you won't freeze to death when you sleep.

Last friday was my birthday; it was a quiet day. I'm not big into making birthdays into a big deal but they're a HUGE deal in Dan's family so we compromised. About the only thing we did was go out to dinner at applebee's...i had STEAK! any birthday involving steak is a good birthday, in my opinion. Dan gave me a pretty necklace and I'm saving up to buy myself a DSLR camera. You know, someday.

We are currently watching through Farscape; i'd kinda forgotten how bizarre this show is. I love it but they totally ignore such fundamental things as...oh, i dunno...the laws of physics! But it's fun. And the aliens come in pretty colors.

Chalkboard

I bought supplies to make myself a chalkboard today; i'm very excited about it! I plan on working on it tomorrow so hopefully by thursday or so i'll have it done. I also asked Dan sister to send me some of her landscape pictures so i can frame them and hang them on the walls. I'm excited about making my house look like a home.

I've had an ear infection for like...a week, and i don't have health insurance yet so...i take lots of ibuprofen. lol.

Beka is coming this weekend! I'm really excited about it. Dan will be out all day on Saturday so it'll be nice to have someone to hang out with. plus i haven't seen her since the wedding. and i miss my beka.