Garden Archeology

Hello Spring! Welcome! ...please... please stay. We're begging you!

Especially since the gardening has begun!

Since we have a lot on our plate this year, we won't be tilling and putting in a vegetable garden until next year. This year we'll be more focused on learning what's already coming up here, what is dead and needs to be removed and replaced, and weeding and remulching the landscaping we have. It's very exciting but I do admit, I'll miss my garden this year. Yeah, I'll probably be too busy to give it the attention it would need to survive even if I DID have the garden, but still. I'm plant greedy. DO WANT ALL THE GREEN AND GROWING THINGS.

Moving on!

I do have some planters so there's that. I've already gone ahead and planted 2 with mixed color bell pepper seeds! Fingers crossed on those. Having fresh bell peppers for Tony that we can pick ourselves would be so amazing. Small container gardening will also be the smaller amount of work we're looking for this year.

I must also pause here to tell you the pure joy reawoken in me while planting them. The weather has been just absolutely fantastic and my leafy little heart has been all aflutter. I chose to plant on one of these beautiful days because I had a glorious open window of time. Tony and I had been out and about adventuring (windows down, baby! woooo!) and Tony needed to stop back in to the house for something.. (wallet? sweatshirt? Hell, I don't remember, it fell out of my head as soon as I thought of planting.) When he walked out the patio door to have me turn to him with dirt up to my elbows and most likely some up to my eyebrows, and both hands full of dirt, I got hit with that look he gives me that makes me stop and go "uh... what?". It's made up of 75% amusement.

The missing 25% is a matter for a different kind of blog.

Anyway, the "uh... what?" moment was just right, because it made me realize how blissfully and stupidly happy I was in that moment of dirt covered activity. It made me hungry for more planting, for more things to grow green and beautiful for me that I can share with other people.

.......

Alright that was a long pause. But I enjoyed it so it couldn't have been too bad. But here we are and we've found our way to the meat and potatoes of this post.
I had the spring (pun intended) in my step to get some yardwork done. There is a back strip in the yard that isn't accounted for in the landscaping layout we received with the house. A rogue garden! Dun dun dun! Rogue enough that I asked the previous owner what in the heck she even planted back there. Her response? No idea, it was there and it had been allowed to do its own thing.
A mystery! DUN DUN DUN!

And a buried one at that. This very small section of the yard isn't ideal, as it's in the shadow of a very large pine. Well, a bit smaller since it snapped its top off in the recent windstorm. So I became a garden archaeologist for the day.
It didn't look so bad to start, but oh. my. glob. there was a lot more leaves and needles than I thought.

Luckily for my procrastinating butt, the shoots of the plants coming up were still low and sturdy enough that raking won't damage them too bad and in most cases, not at all. Here's a tip: I used a wide plastic rake for this job. I have an adjustable metal tined rake that's very good for multiple jobs but I chose the plastic one for a few reasons. 1: The metal tined rake has very thin tines, as I'm moving pine needles, a wider tine is more desirable. 2: The plastic tines have a more forgiving flex to them which means less damage to plants.

I can't believe how big this pile is from this area.

Now I got to study the things I uncovered. I'm 90% certain that we have a large section of irises and a CRAP TON of PEONIES! *SQUEE!* My heart! Oh madre mia! Such joy! I counted no less than the sprouting of 5 peony groups. There are some plants as of yet unidentified, but once they get bigger, identification should be a snap.

Friends, I can't tell you the love I have for peonies. Had we not had them, I would have added them myself. The existing flowers are so exciting! We'll have irises, lilacs, and peonies. If they come back (they look dead) we'll have roses too. In the fall I'll be adding the tulip bulbs from the potted orange tulips we're currently enjoying. Yay Easter flowers!
Speaking of readily available Easter flowers, Tony asked about adding Asiatic lilies, and sadly I had to decline the addition suggestion. He loves them, I love them. Why not? The same reason I will never grow lavender. There are some smells I love that stab me right behind the eyes immediately. Asiatic lilies have that lingering and long wafting smell that would fill the yard and set my migraine demons on a frenzy. So only when we find one that has a smell my head can stand, will we have them.
But Amanda, lilacs and peonies are lingering and long wafting in scent, why the distinction?
I don't make the distinction. I have no idea how it works. I just know that it hurts my brain or it doesn't hurt my brain.

I'm excited to find out if the few plants I couldn't identify will be brain-busters or some joyfully colored but non-offensive garden lovelies! Make sure to check back with us for future garden updates!

Meat & Potatoes

Now that we've got that moving surprise out of the way, let's talk some more internet friends.

Alright, we're still a little on the moving thing.

Let's be fair though, moving 30 minutes away into our first home that we own is not like a small single blog post kind of event.

I'mma be selfish. Let's talk about ME! Because it's my blog about our life, and it turns out I'm a large (haha! fat!) portion of that.

Enough fluff, lady! Meat and potatoes, please!

Well, since you said please.

And meat and potatoes it has been.

Meal planning has been, to say the least, not a priority. Budgeting is always a priority especially after scraping the bottom for a home. (A damn nice one if I do say so myself) What's a stressed out, bottom scraping, house...fiance? to do?

Pork chops. Instant mashed potatoes.

I have gotten shockingly adept at cooking a flavorful and juicy pork chop. Good enough in fact, that my "flavorful" ranch mashed potatoes were exceedingly bland in comparison. In this house, adding flavor usually means adding calories. SO I FREAKING DID. Tony has a physically demanding job, so why not? I make sure he gets the larger portion of the meal because of it. Leftover mozzerella cheese, parmesan, more ranch, and seasoning salt.

Seasoning salt is magic. MAGIC. It's like the bacon of seasonings. Throw it on anything. TADA! BETTER FOOD. More salt... but BETTER FOOD! Yay! *confetti toss*

Really though, pork chops and mashed potatoes have been a life and wallet saver on a good number of meals already. Pork chops I can get 4 for under $5 and I always have a box of cheap, instant mashed potatoes.

Don't cringe at my cheap potatoes, they're better than the individual packets. The ingredient list usually only includes one thing. Potatoes.

Tony gets his veggies in, but I (not so) sadly don't. I don't include that in my description of meals because I quite honestly don't care. Vegetables and I have not become friends, I imagine we will not be friends for a while yet.

A hearty and cheap meal on backup has been really great for me. I can't tell you how much crap I have to sort through and organize in the house taking up my time. On top of that, I've picked up an addiction. A certain citrus soda of some dewy range that's highly caffeinated. I decided to kick it because A: It's an expensive (legal) addiction. (I mean it's not like it's crack. Then again I'm not sure how much crack rocks go for either so...?) B: It's terrible for me and mostly importantly C: I actually don't even really LIKE that soda. I needed a carbonated and cold drink and it was there. Now it's STUCK to me, dammit.

For 2 days, I've been trying to kick it. I. Want. To. Die. Figuratively of course. I already suffer from chronic migraines, so this has been hell. The reason I can even look at the screen to type now? I broke down and took some Excedrin Migraine. That's right. I've even held off on Excedrin for 2 days of migraines. Normally taking some for a migraine is fine, but as it has a caffeine aid in it, it would NOT be a good idea when you're trying to kick the level of jacked up I've been. Vomiting my guts out wasn't really a good idea either so I took it.

Alright I took it with a chocolate eclair, so sue me.

It was such a shame to be dying on the couch today though, as the temp sat over 60 F and was a great opportunity to clean up all the twigs in the yard and yank some weeds out of our landscaping. Our neighbor puts my landscaping enthusiasm to shame. The man already has all of his landscaping raked out, weeded, and re-mulched. AND he did it already last week. I on the other hand have been considering if I would like to put on pants and go outside.

Side note: I am a cave troll. This is just something I need to deal with. In our home, I am a sloppy nightshirt wearing, hair a rat nest in a poor excuse for a pony tail, cave troll. Do not knock on the door if you are expecting some nicely made up, polished house-wifey type. Or don't knock at all really. If we don't expect you, we don't answer. End note.

I did accomplish one tiny thing today. I pulled the bag of potting soil out of the trunk of the car. MHHMMMM. That's right. We're getting ready to plant. Since there won't be a full-fledged garden this year, I'm container gardening and we're starting with bell peppers. So stay tuned for our dirt adventures.

I'm excited. Are you excited? If you aren't, that's a shame. And also, dirt adventures are like... 50% of this blog, what are you doing here?

We love you anyway. :)

picture provided by PEXELS

Return of the Blog

Welcome back! 

So, Amanda, why so long? What have you been doing?

My loves, we've been busy.

Well that's rather vague. Please elaborate.

Righty-O
Well I've been food-sperimenting.

Hibachi soup and steak bites

A one pan Fajitas meal

A visually underwhelming but good meal

Doting on the cats

Oh and we bought a house and moved. A big adventure in itself!

And the adventure didn't end.

We had a pretty terrible windstorm in WI early March. Loud but everything seemed okay. I finally started to relax, so you can imagine when I was crawling into bed and reaching for the light switch I was a little more than startled to hear a horrid tearing sound, thud, and the house going dark.
Magic light switch! It knows when I want the lights off!
Or possibly I just heard something rather awful.
So I walk outside (like someone with a death wish) and take a look in our backyard. I can't see anything wrong.

Do you ever get one of those feelings? One of those gut wrenching, spine tingling, hair on your neck raising feelings?

Because I did. I have never felt that feeling as strongly as I did then. So I booked it. I bee-lined. I ran like a little girl with a swarm of bees after her.
Then my adult senses started tingling and I did what I should have immediately done. I lit a candle, went into Tony's brand spanking newly moved into office, and called the electrical services. Then I waited until 6:30 in the morning for the guys to show up.

And boys and girls, it was a doozey.

We have an electric pole in our back corner of our backyard. That terrible tearing noise I still can't get out of my head? That was the sound of our neighbor's very large tree having its top violently ripped off. Surprisingly, the thud wasn't the sound of tree hitting ground. It was the sound of tree hitting taught wires, ripping off the top of one pole and cracking the pole a few houses down.

Folks, appreciate those that go out at all hours and do electrical work. This poor young man that knocked on our front door and apologized that it would be quite a while before the power came back on looked like he was ready for me to verbally berate him. Why dear God, have people preconditioned this young man to cringe away when delivering news he can't help?
I told him not to worry about it, I know it's a crap-ton of work. It feels good to watch the stress and worry drain out of a person when you're understanding.
And why wouldn't I be understanding? He didn't cause my problem. He'll have to (with as it turns out, about 3 crews of people) crawl up and work with live electricity, in frigid temperatures and snow stinging him in the face, while he tries to yell to his crew through a still-nasty wind. Further, they had to cut and remove the widowmaker that caused the problems, and replace 2 poles.
So 7 hours later when the power came back on and all 4? 5? crew trucks left and the power popped on, I was glad noone was hurt.

I'm not thrilled about the tire ruts in the backyard or the branch broken off the lilac, but all things considered, we're more than okay.
Oh no, I have to wear a sweatshirt because it's getting cold! Whatever shall I do?! Are people really that mad about these things? Look, unless you do dialysis or something like that at home, you'll be fine. I promise.

Ah, the first taste of home ownership. A tiny inconvenience but a reminder nonetheless that it's us now, no landlord to call.

Oh, we've also ordered pizza a few times and OH MY GOD THIS IS LIVING. What can I say any better than my father did? I'm a country bumpkin moving into the city.

This country bumpkin has more about those previous mentioned meals and an ongoing project to restore Tony's grandmother's china cabinet. We'll be coming into spring so I get to see what's popping up in our new backyard and adding some more to the landscaping that our FABULOUS previous home owners started.
But for now, I still have so many things to unpack, clothes and dishes to wash, floors to sweep, and most importantly cats to chill with.

My Mother

So as you can imagine, it's been go go go these last few weeks. It's no surprise after all the running around I finally caught something. I had been feeling physically too good for too long. I've been coming down with something for over a week now and today seemed to be the worst of it. ( Let's not jinx it.) So today while I was sitting on the bathroom floor deciding if I could just live there, I had a mild freakout. I haven't bought groceries in over a week. The meal plan I made can't be done without the groceries, there isn't really anything in the house that Tony can make for his dinner and work lunch without waking up hours earlier, and I've been living on ramen because it seems to be the only thing I can keep down.

So I broke down and called my mother. 

I cannot describe how much I appreciate my mother and how she's always ready to help no matter what it is. So she was ready to go with some hamburger and beans dish for Tony for his lunch, some really good quality hot dogs, a pizza for later, and Sprite and crackers for me.
Clear sodas and crackers. are. magical. You forget how good they are when you aren't sick.
You can also forget how good your mother is when you don't need something. Thankfully, I've reached that point in my life I never thought I'd get to. I've finally reached that "your mother is your friend" point past the teen angst garbage.
As I've been going through this process of being a stay at home "wife", there are a few things I realized and came to respect about my mother. Today I'll be giving you 3 things I realized. We'll keep it short so I can go lie down again.

My Mother is NOT Lazy
As a nasty angsty teenager that really needed anti-anxiety medication, I thought my mother was the laziest mother on the planet. I would come home from school and she'd be napping. On the weekend she'd be napping by noon. What I didn't get? My mother wasn't napping because she's lazy. She was napping because she was EXHAUSTED. I never saw her getting up at 4 in the morning, cooking multiple meals because of multiple picky eaters in the house and for my father's lunch, the multiple loads of laundry washed AND put away, grocery shopping, running crap to me at school, vacuuming and washing dishes and ON AND ON.
I get it now. Dear God, do I get it now.

Just Because I Didn't See a Change in the House Doesn't Mean She Didn't Do Anything
The basic concept of "if she had done nothing at all, the house would be worse, not the same" never occurred to me until I was much much older than I ever should have been to be first realizing it. The work piles up visibly in a day. It is constant work. Constant. Improvement? Not if she had to take care of a schmuck like me. My immaturity and need to see flaws in the main authority in my life overshadowed basic sense.

The Reason She Eats in the Kitchen Isn't Because She Hates Socializing During Dinner

She wants to sit down, I promise you. She feels an overwhelming need to make sure everyone else has their food first. To produce enough hot food for everyone and make sure she herself gets some of the hot food, she eats on her feet while she continues to make food. Either eat it hot in the kitchen or chance not getting any of the food you made. I've struggled with this and it's just Tony and I. I can't imagine feeding 5 children and a husband and manage for all of them to get hot food let alone for me to get hot food. I've quietly been making food sacrifices without letting Tony know (now you know, honey... oops!) since we've been together to make sure he always has enough. He needs the fuel to keep going at work and I can snack on odds and ends here at home. I cannot imagine how many food sacrifices (let alone all other sorts of sacrifices) my mother has made over the years. My eldest brother is in his 40's. She's been making these sacrifices for over 4 decades and I never knew until I was in a similar place in my life. I never saw them, and when I did, I still didn't SEE it.

I see it now quite clearly even if I haven't gone through nearly so much. I haven't experienced it on any sort of level she has, but I've definitely gained invaluable insight.

So thank you mom. I wish I could say it more.

picture provided by Pexels

Getting Up to Speed

First let me start by saying the Happiest of Birthdays to my father! I wish you the very chillest of days. Continue enjoying the retirement, old man!

So let's catch up. What have we been doing anyway?

Well first, we ran away to Chicago.

We ate some delicious food

We had our very first authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at Lou Malnati's. It absolutely blew us away!
Their Tiramisu is also magical

I returned to the Rainforest Cafe and Tony experienced it for the first time

Tony ruined himself for other hot dogs with this Chicago hotdog from a street vendor

 We went to the Shedd Aquarium. We could have spent days there!

 

 

But we were happy to come home to our babies

 

I resumed cooking meals

This oh so satisfying Ham and Cheese Hash Brown casserole

My first attempt at pork chops (success in cooking, failure in picture taking)

This old staple I call "Italian slop" which is delicious but always looks terrible

This Crab Rangoon Dip that didn't last us the night from sheer amazingness

And this "super easy!" Chicken Dumpling mess that was just doughy and gross

I also managed french bread pizzas (topped with green pepper from our garden!), lasagna, some stovetop helper meals, and a few other unmemorable meals.
We also had a couple treats

These chocolate chip cookies that I made for the very first time

 

And this fry that's happy to see us

We've been doing all those things that should be normal but are new to us. Cleaning, budgeting, the occasional nap. We've decorated for Halloween and have been enjoying the season! We welcomed a baby niece (Tony's first "uncling" and my SIXTH "aunting") and a new sister-in-law (about time, Shannon and Steve!)! We got the last of our produce from our garden, have started a family game night, and I may or may not have eaten through 2 or 3 books. Life may not be the easiest, but we are so very happy.

 

5 Domestic Habits to Break

5 Domestic Habits to Break 

to Improve Your Life

I don't have my crap together, I imagine a lot of people don't. Here's a beginning list of bad habits I personally have that I know breaking will improve our lives.

1. Leaving the dishes for later

• Dried on food is a pain. Moldy dried on food is the worst. At least giving a quick rinse to dishes will make it faster should you decide to put it off. You can soak dishes, but if you're like me, they'll “soak” for 2 days

2. Setting things down on the kitchen table/end table by the door

• A big no no for us. We can't find our kitchen table. Why? It's one of the first surfaces when you come in the door. This is a GREAT way to lose mail you should have opened. This is also lost usable space. We've all read or at least seen the articles on eating at the table, so if you have a table, don't just use it for a garbage dump. You'll also feel better about having guests over. Sitting around the table is an awesome interaction space. You've now opened yourself up for so many more activities! Board games, card games that, sure, you could play on the floor, are so much less back breaking and relaxing at a table. Let's not forget you can start hosting like the almost-adult you are. 
  
  
  
  
  

3. Leaving dishes, cans, and bottles around the house

• Just pick it up. You don't even need to make an extra trip. Take it with you when you get up. Unless you've grown to the furniture, you're going to get up eventually. Save yourself from scrambling around because suddenly it's recycling day and most of your recycling is still laying around the house. You'll feel better when you don't need to shove 5 empty soda cans off to the side to find a coaster.

 

4. Cleaning “whenever”

• Make a schedule for cleaning certain things. It'll help you avoid those sudden realizations that EVERYTHING needs cleaning. Not only will you not have a massive cleaning come due, but cleaning on a regular interval whether it really needs it or not helps decrease the amount of effort it takes to clean. You avoid nasty build up and keep your environment healthier. Don't wait for cat hair tumbleweeds on the carpet to vacuum. And guess what? You don't need to be a doctor or scientist to know that with a clean environment you won't just feel healthier, you'll BE healthier. If it isn't growing in your house, you are less likely to breathe it in.

5. Not planning meals

• We all wing it from time to time. Deciding to order a pizza is A-okay! The thing is, you COULD live that way and be alright, but we aren't looking for “alright”. Planning your meals if nothing else is COST EFFECTIVE. Plan both what to eat and how much time it takes to make it. Having the time to make your food saves you on those pre-prepared food costs. Knowing what you'll be eating throughout the week saves time and gas. One trip to the store is the goal. You can stay on budget better because you aren't popping back into the store and picking up those little impulse buys we all love. If you do forget something vital, make Quick In- Quick Out your mission and stick to it! The longer you spend in the store, the more likely you are to buy. So get in, get out!

So now we have some goals. Are they easy? In concept, absolutely. In execution? If they were, we'd all already be rid of habits like these. And that's exactly what they are – habits that need to be broken. We're all somewhere in this domestic adventure. Some us aren't climbing adult mountain yet and are sitting in base camp enjoying our college age style of living. That's okay too, just know that there are some foothills like these to beat and for some of us, they're a gnarled path of bad habits. Maybe adult mountain is easier than the foothills. To each their own. Good luck and Godspeed.


Pictures in today's article provided by pixabay and PEXELS

Garden Walk

Posted from 09/01

Let's take a little trip around the garden today, shall we?

I'm proud to say I managed for the very first time to grow gladiolus. I tried growing them last year but they never bloomed.
The name of this variety I believe is “Mi Amour”. I'll be trying to save the bulbs this year. We won't find out until next summer if it worked! I did my first cutting of them and gave them to my mother as a thank you for all of her continued help.

 

We also had some beauties that have been developing in the garden. Most of the garden is now left for the winter but there are a few plants still producing. My Roma tomato I let go for the year. There were a few casualties but nothing to cry over. I plan on planting more roma plants next year to up the amount of tomato sauce I can process. I may or may not be shooting for canning next year.

We had a huge problem with deer nipping off the blooms of the burgundy beans last year so the crop was small. We hadn't anticipated that they would bloom on 3 separate occasions unhindered by hungry deer. We caught the first 2 harvests of them but were oblivious to the 3^rd and only discovered them now that they're too far gone for eating. I was thinking of leaving them on the plant and harvesting the dried beans to save for next year. We'll see how much gumption I have for that.

I managed to grow a few carrots this year, but to be frank, I didn't much care. My first year with my garden boxes, I grew so many carrots I was giving away bundles. I even managed a homemade carrot soup! I used more of the space this year for my beans and my sugar snap peas. I still enjoy a few carrots though and snagged a few out a little early. I like to plant a kaleidoscope heirloom variety. Tony thinks they're more flavorful than what we buy at the grocery store and I can't really disagree. I think we're biased though because everything tastes better when you grow it yourself.

We have some up and coming zucchinis that I plan to hand over to my mother. This year, she'll be teaching me how to make zucchini into those sinfully delicious cakes I love so much. Our zucchinis are one of the plants we did not start from seed this year. I love starting from seed but I decided this year would be a year for doing a lot of soil conditioning and I work slowly - far too slowly for seeds to be planted on time. We planted zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant from a started plant. It felt dirty at first, like I was betraying myself but the production and size really can't be denied. I still prefer seeds, but I will never knock anyone again for starting their garden with plants.

The thing that Tony and I have been so excited about though? Our peppers. I myself loathe peppers. I can't handle the heat, even of a green bell pepper. Tony LOVES anything with spice and heat so those are for him to eat. He's started fantasizing about what he'll make with them in his wok. He likes to adventure in the kitchen himself from time to time and I'm all for it. My excitement comes from the color. If you hadn't figured that out yet, my garden is COLOR COLOR COLOR. 

Orange Blaze

Merlot

I love how much we got from our garden this year. The thing is, we didn't really try either. Tony and I put in the effort of weeding them clear and then tilling in better soil. After planting we mostly just let them go. I only really had one good day of weeding and that was the day I dug out my purple potatoes. It feels so wonderful to go out with my canvas bag and go shopping in my own garden. I get to see what's “on special”. I'm not receiving any payment for this, but this is my favorite tote to bring out in the garden.

I bought this tote from Earthbound Trading Co. located in the Bay Park Square Mall in Green Bay Wisconsin. I don't believe this particular print is available anymore but they have an amazing and unique selection of reusable totes,purses, and bags including this mushroom print reusable tote for $6.95 that anyone can feel free to pick up for me!

 

I can't express how excited I am this time of year. So many of my favorite flowers are coming into bloom and vegetables are just about ripe. My sunflowers are getting lots of attention from our insect population including those wonderful bees we want to keep around.

The apples are starting to redden (even if the ones in our tree aren't really edible) and the staghorn sumac is ready for making tea. The air smells fresher, feels cooler, and makes me feel better. I'm so over the oppressive sticky heat of summer. I'm watching the leaves start to hint at fall and I couldn't be happier about it. 

 

So there's our super amateur little garden. To find out more about how actual farming gets done on a large scale, slide over to the blog Caffeine and Diesel for an insight on large scale commercial planting and harvesting and some really great pictures from our own beautiful country.

Home grown love, friends,
Amanda

Potatoes O'Burnt

Posted from 08/23

Welcome back! Or welcome for the first time. Either way välkommen. So what's been happening? Well Tony and I have been enjoying ourselves mostly. We play Pokémon GO! so we took an adventure down to the Neenah, Wisconsin area to a park that's hopping with activity. It was a good day to decompress and think about our week to come. On our way home we made sure to pick up groceries. That's right, folks! No last minute ideas about what to eat, we've got this week all settled. We made it a fairly easy week too. Fast fixing food I like to call it. It's that mix between cooking and boxed meals. The hope is that it will cut down on food preparation time for a little while so that I can throw myself more into getting the house clean the way we want because it's still a far way off. You'd think it would make life easier.

You'd think.

Monday's (8/22) meal should have been simple. Breaded and baked haddock fillets, seasoned baked fries for me, and Potatoes o' Brian for Tony. The fish got done way too early (that timing business again) so by the time the potatoes were done... and I mean DONE... the fish was luke warm at best.
Tony had reheated haddock and potatoes o' burnt. He assured me the “char” was really great and I assured him that I'm not going to burn it on purpose in the future even if his assurances made me want to test him on it. I'm not a wicked woman so he dodged a bullet on that one!

The fries I threw in a little later for myself and grazed on through the night. It worked out well for me since I had of course, another headache. We aren't talking migraine levels here, but we are talking a bleh day. I managed some dishes and to not make the house worse. Generally the day was a flop.

I'm really not going to complain about it though. That's just how the day went, it wasn't great but I can't bring myself to see it as a failure. It can be recorded as a misadventure 100%, but a failure? No. If burned potatoes constitutes a failure, boy oh boy have I got my life together! A little thing like that?

Pish, friends. Pish.

So I have a bad habit I'd like to address.

I forget to thaw meat ahead of time.

You can plan all the meals you want but if you're using a type of ground meat for your meal and forget to thaw it, you'd better figure out a new plan real quick. Today (8/23) was another day that I managed to forget the meat. I could have just kept it in the fridge for the day and a half we've had it but I'm so in the habit of not being able to cook meals that I automatically put meats in the freezer. Ah, well. Another piece of our lives that needs adjusting.
Throughout this process my mother has been so amazingly helpful. Today she came to the rescue in the form of brats. My original plan had been to make Tony a boxed meal you add ground beef to and he'd have some for dinner and the rest for his work lunch. Now it was looking like a meal with all carbs. Not ideal for someone with a physical job like his. Well my mother being the wonderful woman she is had already set aside 4 bratwurst for him just because she thought he might like them. With 2 for work and 2 for dinner with the meatless dish I made, he's all fed and ready to go.

Appreciate your mother, folks.

Accept Your Success

Hey guys! I haven't posted in about a week. I've been pretty busy. By pretty busy I mean I've been enjoying what I feel has been the start of Fall. I've been working on a project for Halloween and have been compiling that for a future post, so look for my Halloween DIY post later this month! For now, please enjoy this short post about chronic illness.

Posted from 08/18

Homemaking. Home. Making. We take the word for granted. I cannot express the change in how I feel about my home. While Tony and I would like to own a home, it makes whatever place we are able to live in so much better. After the past few weeks, I've come to appreciate how much better our home feels. It no longer feels just like the place we come to to pass out. It feels like a real home. Everything I do here helps to improve the feel of our home. I really am making this place ours. Even on the days I struggle most, I can still feel satisfaction in our (slowly) improving home.

And struggle I do. “The struggle is real, bruh.” I suffer from chronic migraines so everything is always extra fun. Last year I FINALLY had a care provider listen and was implanted with an IUD which has so drastically reduced my migraine days. I used to have a migraine every day for 2 weeks straight out of the month, and have now reduced to maybe 10 migraines a month. Still not wonderful considering there are some magical unicorns in life that have never experienced a single migraine. But we do what we can, because I'm more like a narwhal in life; unique enough some people think they don't exist, but legit an actual living creature if not commonly seen. Note* I don't have a horn and also don't stab people.

Bubbles watches over me when I'm sick

My chronic migraines are no joke when it comes to being a functioning human being/narwhal. I spent the last day and a half with an on/off migraine with the “off” being a downgrade of a bad headache. I took that time as a green light and did what I could. I did a few dishes but I have to tell you the pile in and around our sink has reached near catastrophic proportions. I've taken a before picture but I will not be showing it until I have a satisfactory after picture. So that's what I did in 2 days. I managed to wash a few dishes and cooked a single meal. The meal I cooked was a boxed meal but I'll take it as a success.

Sometimes the successes we accept for ourselves are failures for other people, but who cares? They don't live here anyway.

French Toast

Posted from 08/16

It's a day off for Tony which means I'm spending it with him. I kept it easy but new. A new recipe and something everyone should know? I went with french toast. I didn't use a recipe, I used an even better source; my mother.
This is the exact “recipe” I used.

Use thick cut bread. If the store doesn't have Texas Toast, go to the deli and buy an uncut loaf of farmer's bread.

Whisk up “like 3 eggs” with a little milk, throw in some cinnamon and some sugar. How much? Uh... like “some cinnamon and maybe a tablespoon of sugar”. Soak the bread both sides and fry them. Repeat the egg mixture until you're done.

So basically, I winged it. The summary of my mother's recipe is to wing it. And you know what? It worked really well. So well in fact, I forgot to take a nice picture and snapped this doozey as soon as I remembered.

It went down easily as far as cooking goes. I fried up some thick cut bacon and did the “holy crap hot bacon grease” dance that normal people do when they're getting fragged by it. Tony's laughter from a safe distance during that time kept the beat I suppose.

I can tell you now why I never see my mother sit down and eat. I know why she eats in the kitchen. If you want hot food, you can't sit down and eat. You eat while you cook because if you don't, you either won't get any of the food, or the food you set aside for yourself is stone cold by the time you get to it.

Kitchen warriors, I salute you. I would raise my spatula in salute, but I need to go wash it.

Purple Potatoes!

Posted from 08/14

Let's talk more about appreciation for growing your own food. Why? Because I want to and you're my blog hostage. Blogstage?.. Ignore that.
Really though, today I went straight for using food from my garden. Those awesomesauce purple potatoes. If you'd like to learn a little more about purple potatoes you can Here.

The basics of purple potatoes for those of us who don't click links, is that they aren't really any different than any other potato. They can be used like a red or a white, best for roasting and frying but can be used for mashing. Then there's some stuff about color and antioxidants, but let's be real, I grew them because they're pretty.

I mean really, look at these beasts. Glorious! I did have a little trouble peeling these due to their size. They're similar in size to a red potato, so I used my handy dandy thumb claw and stabbed in to the potato to keep a grip and not peel my fingers. I came across this little cutie while peeling.

Looks like a little animal face!

So this is the bunch all peeled. When they're sliced, they're absolutely beautiful, I mean as far as produce goes. I suggest using them in a better way than me. Today I'm mashing, but these would be stunning sliced in scalloped potatoes or frying into chips.

Now I've made mashed potatoes from scratch before so I think I've got this covered. However, if you live in Basictown like me, there are a few things to note.

• Peel and wash your potatoes (peeling optional). Cut them to be all about the same size
• Start your potatoes in COLD water. This will prevent the outside from quickly cooking and turning to mush while the inside is still uncooked
• SALT your water. Just do it. I promise. I'll skip the science of starches, just know your potatoes will soak up the salt and you really really want that
• Bring them to a boil and then drop down to a simmer. Cook until you can stab them with a fork and they fall apart
• If possible use room temperature butter and milk. Again, the starch thing.

Fun fact! While peeling the potatoes won't stain your fingers, it will change the color of the water you're boiling. That's a pretty blue but I have yellow lights on my stove so it looks Rio Olympic pool green, but still awesome.

I've cheated and thrown in some frozen chicken breasts into the stove while I'm doing this. Can we all stop and not beat ourselves up for this, though? Most people don't raise their own chickens. If you do, wonderful! That's great! Maybe one day I can too if I have the desire to. We're about honesty here, so I have no problem admitting I'd rather watch Master Chef and Hotel Hell than go feed or wrangle chickens. Sorry, Gordon! The chicken I should note, I threw in a small roaster while frozen, covered them liberally with chicken seasoning and cooked for an hour. Tasty and simple like I like it. Not a ticket to win competitions, but super satisfying. I asked if Tony wanted a side like corn or green beans and he opted for no, so we had chicken and home grown, homemade mashed purple potatoes for dinner.

Today's enterprises succeeded.