A Little of the Good Life

Hey readers! So I know it's been a while since the last update, but what with moving into the new house (and almost unpacking everything) and trying to get my real estate business off the ground there hasn't been to much time to breathe much less write. However, in the wee hours of Saturday morning before husband wakes up (but after the kitties are fed) I can make time for you all.

DH and I have talked and talked about living a simpler, more wholesome life especially when it comes to food and this week we finally put our money where our mouth is. He took off on Tues & Wed and we went to our local home improvement store and got our first batch of vegetables. I've read a lot about starting a kitchen garden and the number one tip I see over and over for beginners is to start with what you like. It sounds like a no-brainer but I know plenty of projects that I've gotten over ambitious about and just ended up getting frustrated with in the end. It is tempting to plant those spaghetti squash seeds even though I have less than no idea how to cook them, but I resisted. Here's what we purchase.

• Allstar strawberries
• Roma tomatoes
• Tabasco peppers
• Pickling cucumbers
• GIANT pumpkins

We also have the starts of a window box herb garden (which I'm still mainly crossing my fingers on) and some catnip for our new kitties. The first three up there have all been potted in planters in the back deck since they were all established plants. The last two will be planted as soon as I get a real day off in the front lawn. I have a dream of having a front yard that is nothing but I giant pumpkin patch. (I live on a mountain so it seems much much nicer than mowing on a slope)

So we essentially started our garden around things we knew that we would cook and can with. I know jams aren't the simplest to make, but you have to start somewhere and with 6 plants in our strawberry planter I have room to make mistakes and have some left over. DH makes a killer homemade Vodka sauce so the Romas were a no brainer (Bye bye store bought pasta sauce!). My big adventure this year is going to be pickling my own pickles. We go through pickles like crazy since they are such a good snack and I always want them more garlic-y than commercial pickles will ever be anyway. The peppers are all for husband and the pumpkins are my guilty pleasure.

I hope this is the first step towards us inexpensively eating the things we need & love rather than just what we can afford.

Peace&Love

Must get better at this blogging thing...

So once again, it has been far too long since my last post! I guess when you change just about everything in your life it's tough to find time to write about it.

I'm happier than ever about my decision to leave college. This morning I finished the last of my real estate courses and will be taking the practice tests tomorrow and figure out where I am for the final test. Ugh, I know I've always been a good test taker, but I just shoved 60 credit hours worth of work into 2 weeks and there is A LOT to absorb in this real estate business. So much of it is legalese and tough to get through my scientific brain the first time, but I managed.

Something I've learned in my actual home-buying process is that houses are expensive. We got a fantastic deal on our house and I couldn't be happier about it. But then you realize that you have to put furniture in that house (all of which we're getting for free thank god) and even IKEA seems expensive. We're gonna have to live with our minimal free furniture for a while though because the only thing more expensive than new furniture is new appliances. This house doesn't have a fridge, washer, or dryer and the oven is so old it has an analog clock on that.

Let me emphasize that... The clock and timer on this stove are set by turning a knob.


Now I don't need the biggest, newest, or best by any means. Dear Husband and I are going to be energy efficient dishwashers for a while until we can afford to replace the dishwasher that I'm quite sure leaks. However, both of us love to cook and I love to bake. We will not have a stove that was probably the original fixture in the house.

Speaking of baking, I realized that I would give a tip about those heart shaped cupcake forms I used for my wedding cupcakes. I bought them at Michael's along with some of the cute little pearlized sprinkles and I'll own up to using boxed  mix in the interest of time and not having to make a cake from scratch on my wedding day. Each of the molds has what I assumed to be a fill line in it so on the first batch I filled each one up with mix up to the fill line. Though that line in the same place of each mold may well be a fill line, it is not for cake mix. All of them overflowed and none looked anything like hearts. So on my second batch I filled them to just below the fill line and got only marginally better results.

My advice to you if your goal is to have cupcakes that are recognizably heart shaped only fill them by half, if even that. I'm planning on trying this again with brownie batter since it won't raise as much and then everyone can have an edge as well as a gooey center since these molds are so deep. We shall see! Also, make sure that you prep these with your preferred method of non-stickery. Despite them being made of silicone they will stick to your cupcakes. Thankfully I only lost two in the battle, but like all things red velvet, they were still delicious!

Any tips for a new homeowner? I have open ears and and open mind & can recognize when I should heed the advice of others.

Peace&Love