Ok. So, you could say I got a little distracted from the blogging. (And you would be correct.)
But...I just went back and looked at my "2009 To Do" list and I'm feeling pretty good! Many a task has been completed or started and 2009 isn't even half over!
So here's an update: (Pictures and details to follow in future posts)
1. Lay down bamboo flooring in family room
(Sorry to report that it's still bare, nasty, old linoleum.)
2. Replace the washer. DONE!!
3. Clean up the back yard
(Get rid of trash, left over lumber from when we pulled down an old shed, '66 VW beetle, assorted outgrown big wheels/tricycles etc.)
(Everything is gone except the '66 VW Beetle. Any takers???)
4. Build 3-4 raised garden beds where aforementioned crap previously was and plant said garden beds with an assortment of exciting vegetables.
(Done! Not completely planted but looking great!!)
5. Order exciting vegetable seeds. (DONE! and planted)
6. Lose another 40 pounds
(I don't want to talk about it...)
7. Visit my grandparents in Arizona
(Still in planning)
8. Spend more time with friends and family
(Trying to get better about this one. I think there's been an improvement.)
9. Get organized (Home, work, life etc.)
(Ummmm.... Some days are better than others...)
10. Paint remaining white walls something NOT white
(Well, the bathroom got painted. Still have the family room and all the bedrooms to go.)
11. Keep chipping away at making the bathroom more not yucky
(Looks better after a coat of paint but still has a long way to go.)
12. Laugh with my kids every day
(I must say my kids DO make me laugh every day!!)
13. Train the dog
(He's still a puppy but he's a pretty good puppy and he'll do almost anything for food.)
14. Streamline my life
(Not even sure where to start...)
15. Landscape the front yard and put up a fence (2010?)
(Haven't gotten too far on this one. Planning mostly...well, dreaming actually but it has to start somewhere!)
16. Fix the gate (Been on a "Honey Do" list for a while)
(This summer...maybe.)
17. Rearrange/reorganize the bedrooms, starting with the kids
(If they could keep them clean for longer than a few hours, it would make it A LOT easier.)
18. Go back to school
(Started back this month. Taking one on-line class.)
19. Pay off credit cards
(Chipping away. Two steps forward, one step back.)
20. Blog regularly
(This one speaks for itself... It all depends on what your definition of "regularly" is...)
21. Be more comfortable with myself
(This one is a constant struggle. I have good days and bad days.)
There you have it. I still have a lot of work to do but I'll just keep plugging away. Of course there have been additions to the list, but that is a topic for another time...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
More Adventures in Bread-Baking...
More bread baking this weekend! I started a soaker with the grains for another loaf of Multi grain on Saturday morning. I had intended to start it on Friday night and bake the bread on Saturday but... We had ultra yummy "Homemade-Pizza-Ala-Dan" for dinner Friday night and it distracted me from my bread plans. I wish I had taken a picture of the pizzas. They were super delicious!! He made one for the kids with just olive oil, mushrooms, truffle salt and fresh mozzarella and one for us with all of the above and sliced tomatoes and spinach. Sooooo Gooood!! Well, the best laid plans... blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, it all worked out for the best anyway since I wanted to make a couple of different kinds of bread this weekend and trying to do them both at the same time would not have played out well. So, as previously stated, I started the soaker for the multi-grain first thing in the morning and then got to work kneading up a batch of cinnamon raisin bread. I wasn't sure what to expect. The bread did not raise as high or as fast as the multi grain I made last weekend but it did do exactly what the recipe said it should so I figured we were good.
It smelled so good while it was baking! I LOVE cinnamon and I especially love Penzey's Vietnamese Cinnamon (which I used in abundance in this recipe.) It was very difficult to wait the suggested time before cutting into it. I think I shorted it a little... I maybe waited 45 minutes instead of an hour. YUMMY! The recipe made 2 loaves. We ate most of one Saturday night and took the other one to Dan's Mom's house this morning for her Birthday brunch.
After we got home from Janet's, I started in on the multi grain loaf. I made just a few changes this time. (I added a tablespoon of flax seed and a tablespoon of flax meal.) It rose like crazy, just like last weekend and made a beautiful huge loaf. I haven't tasted it yet so I can't report to that end. I can, however, tell you that I made a fantastic veggie sandwich last week using my bread and not only did it taste terrific but it was so beautiful that people in the lunch room were commenting on it!! It feels good to have people notice and comment on things that you take pride in! I want to try some different recipes and techniques. I'd love to make some chewy, big-holed Italian breads like ciabatta or the like. Won't happen next weekend... Off to Oly, but I can guarantee that it will happen soon and whether you like it or not, you will hear all about it!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Stupid Groundhog!
So another thing I did this weekend is order my fantastic exciting seeds! (Cross #5 off the ol' list!)
When Dan and I looked through the catalog (on a date night. We roll like that!), we decided we wanted to buy unusual items. Things that we would eat and enjoy but wouldn't be able to find at the local farmer's market. Specialty plants. We ended up with some really exciting items!
Things like yard long beans, black tomatoes, mammoth sweet basil, celeriac and cool, dinosaur-y looking "Nero Di Toscana Kale" made the list along with other garden staples like carrots, cucumbers and peas. Now we just need to get our back yard, soon to be garden-patch, cleared of crap and grass and the raised beds built up...
I'm so ready for Spring!! I'm tired of the cold (and don't even get me started about the snow!) and now with my seeds on the way I'm done with Winter. If it weren't for that dang Groundhog...!
I don't know if I can take 6 more weeks of winter!!
Oh well, I guess it gives me time to clear and mulch and build and fill and start seeds. Oh and I can also make more lists of all the things I want to do for "Spring Cleaning". (Made one last year. Didn't help so much...)
Also, I toasted a piece of my bread tonight and had it for dessert with butter and honey. It was probably the best toast ever. Yum!
When Dan and I looked through the catalog (on a date night. We roll like that!), we decided we wanted to buy unusual items. Things that we would eat and enjoy but wouldn't be able to find at the local farmer's market. Specialty plants. We ended up with some really exciting items!
Things like yard long beans, black tomatoes, mammoth sweet basil, celeriac and cool, dinosaur-y looking "Nero Di Toscana Kale" made the list along with other garden staples like carrots, cucumbers and peas. Now we just need to get our back yard, soon to be garden-patch, cleared of crap and grass and the raised beds built up...
I'm so ready for Spring!! I'm tired of the cold (and don't even get me started about the snow!) and now with my seeds on the way I'm done with Winter. If it weren't for that dang Groundhog...!
I don't know if I can take 6 more weeks of winter!!
Oh well, I guess it gives me time to clear and mulch and build and fill and start seeds. Oh and I can also make more lists of all the things I want to do for "Spring Cleaning". (Made one last year. Didn't help so much...)
Also, I toasted a piece of my bread tonight and had it for dessert with butter and honey. It was probably the best toast ever. Yum!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Super Bread Sunday
I've always wanted to bake bread.
There is just something about baking your own bread that seems so totally and completely domestic, so "Pioneer Homesteader" that I never really thought that it was something that I would be very good at. Too hard! Takes too long!
Here's a little side-note about me: I want to be REALLY good at everything I do. If I'm not very good at something, I'm much less likely to try and do it again. I know, I know, practice makes perfect but with so many things to try doing, why keep doing something you already know your not good at when you could try something new that you might excel at. (I know I'm not very good at playing the guitar or piano but I still enjoy it so I just do it where no one else can hear me.) I tried baking bread once in college. I think it was from a mix and it came out tasting so strongly of yeast and very little else that even my ramen-munching dorm mates passed.
I've tried a few different bread recipes over the years; a Greek olive bread, a few foccacias and although they all came out alright they were JUST "alright". Nothing especially memorable. Nothing rivaling the fantastic artisan breads that can be purchased just about anywhere these days. Nothing good enough to bother making again. It was fun but....
Lately, Mom has gotten on the "bread wagon". She makes her own sourdough starter. She posts on bread blogs. She buys all kinds of flours in 20-50 pound bags. It's an uber-hobby. She likes to share her excitement about such things.
About a year ago, she gave Dan a book called "The Bread Baker's Apprentice". It has a ton of recipes and beautiful pictures. Looking through it the other day made me really want to try my hand at baking bread again. I picked a recipe for "multi-grain extraordinaire" and jumped in.
I was surprised by how excited I was about the whole process. I started soaking the whole grains on Saturday (to activate the enzymes!!) and today was mixing, kneading, fermenting, proofing, baking and tasting day. It had to ferment for 90 minutes, get shaped and panned and then proof in the pan for another 90 minutes. Every time I peeked at the dough and saw how much it had risen since the last time I peeked at it I would get ridiculously excited. The picture above shows the fully proofed dough in the pan about to go into the oven. (Look at how big it is!!!) As it was baking, the whole house smelled fantastic. I was watching the Super Bowl, smelling the bread breaking and folding laundry. How freakin' domestic am I?!
There really was something very deeply gratifying about the process of baking this bread. It took a long time. It messed up the kitchen. I had to run out and fetch ingredients that were missing from our pantry. But I'll tell you, when I took that beautiful golden loaf out of the oven and later when I cut myself a slice and saw the perfect interior and then tasted the wholesome yummy-ness and fantastic texture that I had created it was profoundly satisfying.
I think I'll do it again next weekend. Practice makes perfect!
There really was something very deeply gratifying about the process of baking this bread. It took a long time. It messed up the kitchen. I had to run out and fetch ingredients that were missing from our pantry. But I'll tell you, when I took that beautiful golden loaf out of the oven and later when I cut myself a slice and saw the perfect interior and then tasted the wholesome yummy-ness and fantastic texture that I had created it was profoundly satisfying.
I think I'll do it again next weekend. Practice makes perfect!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
This must be some kind of a record...
2 Days in a row. I'm on a roll!
As promised, here is a list of the things I hope to accomplish in 2009. (This list should in no way be considered exhaustive and is subject to change as suits my fancy.)
1. Lay down bamboo flooring in family room (Already part of the way there since we had to pull out the old yucky carpet that was in there when the washer overflowed.)
2. Replace the washer. DONE!!
3. Clean up the back yard (Get rid of trash, left over lumber from when we pulled down an old shed, '66 VW beetle, assorted outgrown big wheels/tricycles etc.) (February/March?)
4. Build 3-4 raised garden beds where aforementioned crap previously was and plant said garden beds with an assortment of exciting vegetables. (February/March?)
5. Order exciting vegetable seeds. (February?)
6. Lose another 40 pounds
7. Visit my grandparents in Arizona
8. Spend more time with friends and family
9. Get organized (Home, work, life etc.)
10. Paint remaining white walls something NOT white
11. Keep chipping away at making the bathroom more not yucky
12. Laugh with my kids every day
13. Train the dog
14. Streamline my life
15. Landscape the front yard and put up a fence (2010?)
16. Fix the gate (Been on a "Honey Do" list for a while)
17. Rearrange/reorganize the bedrooms, starting with the kids
18. Go back to school (April?)
19. Pay off credit cards
20. Blog regularly
21. Be more comfortable with myself
A pretty good start right? The front yard will likely be put off until '10 but it could happen. It's a long list but it touches on many different aspects of my life and the lives of my family. I'm a pretty good multi-tasker and some of it just won't happen and that's OK too.
As promised, here is a list of the things I hope to accomplish in 2009. (This list should in no way be considered exhaustive and is subject to change as suits my fancy.)
1. Lay down bamboo flooring in family room (Already part of the way there since we had to pull out the old yucky carpet that was in there when the washer overflowed.)
2. Replace the washer. DONE!!
3. Clean up the back yard (Get rid of trash, left over lumber from when we pulled down an old shed, '66 VW beetle, assorted outgrown big wheels/tricycles etc.) (February/March?)
4. Build 3-4 raised garden beds where aforementioned crap previously was and plant said garden beds with an assortment of exciting vegetables. (February/March?)
5. Order exciting vegetable seeds. (February?)
6. Lose another 40 pounds
7. Visit my grandparents in Arizona
8. Spend more time with friends and family
9. Get organized (Home, work, life etc.)
10. Paint remaining white walls something NOT white
11. Keep chipping away at making the bathroom more not yucky
12. Laugh with my kids every day
13. Train the dog
14. Streamline my life
15. Landscape the front yard and put up a fence (2010?)
16. Fix the gate (Been on a "Honey Do" list for a while)
17. Rearrange/reorganize the bedrooms, starting with the kids
18. Go back to school (April?)
19. Pay off credit cards
20. Blog regularly
21. Be more comfortable with myself
A pretty good start right? The front yard will likely be put off until '10 but it could happen. It's a long list but it touches on many different aspects of my life and the lives of my family. I'm a pretty good multi-tasker and some of it just won't happen and that's OK too.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Hello again...
So here we are again, dear friends.
I tried this once before and, as with many things in my life, I started out all gung-ho and excited and then slowly but surely got caught up in the niggling little mundane, day-to-day moments that take up your time but don't act to enrich it very much and the project fell to the wayside like so many half crocheted afghans. This time will be different!! (The mantra of so many slackers...)
So why? Why again? Why now? I'm glad you asked.
I didn't make much of a New Year's Resolution this year. I wasn't much of myself this New Year but that is a tale for a different day. I did finally make one New Year's Resolution and that was - "To be more loving and kind to my family". A good resolution, if I do say so myself. I've been working on it.
As the Lunar New Year came upon us (January 26th, 2009), I began to think anew about the things that I wanted for my family and myself this year. This is a stellar year! So much has happened already; A new President in the White House, a new job for me, a promotion for Dan, a trip to Thailand in the near future. This year has the potential to be momentous and I want to preserve and share all of it.
In addition to all that, I'm home from work with a stomach bug and it gives me a time to reflect.
I'm not a very strong person. Let me amend that. I have problems with will power. I have grand plans! Super, fantastic pie-in-the-sky plans! I have a problem when it comes to implementation and follow through. (As evidenced by my first blog...) So, soon to follow will be a list of the things that I plan to accomplish in this Year of the Ox, Time for Change, Year of Hope 2009.
Maybe a bit of Internet accountability will be the kick in the pants that I need...
I tried this once before and, as with many things in my life, I started out all gung-ho and excited and then slowly but surely got caught up in the niggling little mundane, day-to-day moments that take up your time but don't act to enrich it very much and the project fell to the wayside like so many half crocheted afghans. This time will be different!! (The mantra of so many slackers...)
So why? Why again? Why now? I'm glad you asked.
I didn't make much of a New Year's Resolution this year. I wasn't much of myself this New Year but that is a tale for a different day. I did finally make one New Year's Resolution and that was - "To be more loving and kind to my family". A good resolution, if I do say so myself. I've been working on it.
As the Lunar New Year came upon us (January 26th, 2009), I began to think anew about the things that I wanted for my family and myself this year. This is a stellar year! So much has happened already; A new President in the White House, a new job for me, a promotion for Dan, a trip to Thailand in the near future. This year has the potential to be momentous and I want to preserve and share all of it.
In addition to all that, I'm home from work with a stomach bug and it gives me a time to reflect.
I'm not a very strong person. Let me amend that. I have problems with will power. I have grand plans! Super, fantastic pie-in-the-sky plans! I have a problem when it comes to implementation and follow through. (As evidenced by my first blog...) So, soon to follow will be a list of the things that I plan to accomplish in this Year of the Ox, Time for Change, Year of Hope 2009.
Maybe a bit of Internet accountability will be the kick in the pants that I need...
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