Making Muffins on a Busy Morning

Last night I got a craving for blueberry muffins. It was a bit too late to start a batch, and I wasn't hungry at all so I decided it could wait until morning. The normal recipe I use is actually pretty healthy, substituting flax seed meal for oil to give it a rich, nutty taste.

But last night as I flipped through the latest issue of Self magazine (which is getting increasingly irritating as I can't wear any of the clothes, do most of the workouts and certainly won't be going on any diets anytime soon), I came across a few recipes from Gwyneth Paltrow.

You know, the waif-like movie star who happened to do her own cooking show with some famous Spanish chef and now has a cookbook and looks like nothing over 150 calories ever passes between her lips?

Yeah, her.

There was a recipe for--wouldn't ya know it--blueberry muffins that she asked her mom to make all the time while she was pregnant. Not exactly as healthy as my recipe, but looked much more delectably tasty so I thought I'd give it a shot for the morning.

If you're like me, though, mornings are usually pretty rushed and I pat myself on the back if I can remember to eat a bowl of cereal while I'm putting my makeup on. But hot, fresh muffins with coffee just sounded so darn good for breakfast I came up with a plan.

Last night I measured all the dry ingredients into a bowl, gave it a few stirs and covered it with a towel. I got the muffin pan out, a Pyrex 2-cup measuring bowl and stuck a stick of butter in it.

The next morning as soon as I got up I started the oven preheating. I unwrapped and melted the butter, and let it cool a tad while I ran upstairs to get the frozen berries. By the time I finished making the coffee the oven was almost ready, so I added the milk to the butter, added the two eggs and whisked around a bit. Added that to the dry ingredients already out, folded in the berries and poured in the ready muffin tins.

By the time I showered and dried my hair I had hot, homemade muffins that were just screaming EAT ME like the cakes in Alice in Wonderland. So I did. And they are very, very good.

Prep time at night? Probably 3 minutes. Total prep time in the morning? Maybe 5 minutes. Eating those steaming lovelies with fresh coffee? Priceless.

Give her recipe a shot...its pretty lip smackin' good!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk (I used reduced fat and it was still rich)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 tsp sugar, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk butter, eggs and milk in a bowl. Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

THE SKINNY

232 calories per muffin, 10 g fat (6 g saturated), 33 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein

Living in Limbo

At the moment, Matt and I are waiting to hear if he's got a second interview at a store that's, quite literally, on the other side of the country.

The shortest driving distance is 2,850 miles, and if he gets it we'll probably be there by the first week in May.

We're really excited for this prospect as wherever we move will most likely be much more affordable on one salary, and if this doesn't pan out there's a few more opportunities that may open up for us to move before the baby is born in late July.

While this is great news long-term for us, in the short term it makes things a bit difficult to plan for.

I can't buy my plane ticket to California for my baby shower yet, because I'm not sure where I'll be coming from.

Do we spend $130 to renew our WA tabs, or wait a couple of weeks (while they're still not expired) and see if we need to be getting new state licence plates?

Our pantry/closet REALLY needs to be reorganized...but do I want to spend a few hours doing that if I'm just going to be packing it in boxes next weekend?

I want to make more soup, but should we spring for the Costco-sized portion of chicken stock that's a lot cheaper or do I pay more for each carton so we don't end up with 6 unused cartons?

As I'm looking at the immediate future I know I'll need to do a lot more meal planning, making my own household cleaners, and smart shopping to stretch our dollars. We know we can do it, since we've managed to kick our debt and build up about 3 months of emergency savings in a year and a half (and aren't we glad now!), but all of those frugal choices tend to be made with the long term in mind.

Meanwhile, if we do have to move it will be a very quick turnaround...not giving this pregnant full-time worker much time to plan, prepare, pack or clean.

Here's what we're trying to do in the short term, as we wait in this odd-limbo-time.

I'm trying to use up what's in the freezer and the pantry. Tonight we're probably going to go vegetarian and have Potatoes Romanoff that were made and frozen a couple weeks ago, with some sauteed asparagus and mushrooms before they go bad. Tomorrow I'm eyeing the half bag of navy beans and some frozen greens from last summer's CSA box for some sort of "anything soup." Not having been the biggest fan of chicken the first half of my pregnancy, I think its time stir-frys make a re-entrance as they're an easy way to throw together veggies, a protein and a carb in a short amount of time.

And Matt recently requested, yes, requested red beans, cornbread and fried okra for dinner. Not only is this something I was raised on and is definitely part of my comfort food list (I may be a California girl but my Mama's from Texas and raised us right on white gravy and chicken fried steak), but this is a pretty cheap meal to make from scratch. We may have to be making a weekly comeback of this meal as I have oodles of cornmeal, pinto beans are cheap and you can always find frozen okra. Plus its just darn good...oh man, now I want that for dinner.

The past two weekends I've made it a point to do a little bit beyond my regular house cleaning. Scuffs on the baseboards got wiped off, drains got cleaned out, the oven got a good scrubbing.  My thought is if I don't clean it now, I'll have to clean it later anyways. So, if we end up in a different state a month from now, I'm just saving myself future hassle of more cleaning.

We go through paper towels pretty slowly, and are nearing the end of our Costco-sized pack that we've had for almost a year. I'm trying to really stretch those last couple of rolls to avoid the high prices that single rolls in grocery stores cost. We have a cubby of rags and a bucket where wet/dirty ones go and it fills up fast every week...I can't imagine how many paper towels that would normally be!

Those are a few of the ways we're trying to not spend too much money while we wait in limbo. I'm sure there'll be a deluge of take-out pizzas and Torero's enchiladas if we do find we're moving and I'm coming home from work to pack until I go to sleep, but for now I'm trying to make do with what we have.

Any other tips you have for Living in Limbo?

How To Meal Plan While Pregnant

You CAN'T!

BAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Ok, I seriously thought about just ending the post there, but I have learned a few things in my whole 18 weeks of pregnancy.

One is that meal planning is close to pointless. You may plan to have curry chicken on Tuesday, but by the time Tuesday rolls around and your face is the same color green as that curry...its off the menu.

Then on Wednesday you've got tacos on the list, but that night you realize that you have to have an egg roll RIGHT NOW OR SOMEONE WILL GET HURT!

Then there's the nights I just have ice cream for dinner, but we won't get into that now.

To help gauge this ever-changing scenario of  I've learned a few things that have helped keep our dinners (when I could muster the energy to make them) flexible and easy.

The first thing I learned was that the smell of cooking chicken makes me sick to my stomach. That's why I have Matt cook the chicken. Sometimes I can manage to boil some pasta and saute some veggies to go with it to make a complete meal. I've been meaning to have Matt cook a bunch of chicken breasts on our George Foreman mini grill and then just freeze the already grilled chicken. 

That would be smart to do. I should do that.

One thing I did that was pretty easy was throwing some beans in the crock pot overnight, then added the spices from THIS recipe for Ranch Style beans the next morning. By the time I came home from work it was smelling pretty darn good. 

I've also made bigger batches of rice, then once its cooled frozen it in ziplock bags so that if stir fry or curry sounds good, I don't have to wait 40 minutes for rice to cook, I can just heat it up.

Soups are relatively easy. This week I browned some ground beef, added half a cup of Lawry's taco seasoning, tossed in a small jar salsa, a can of beans, a cup of corn and filled it up with chicken broth and let it simmer for half an hour. Voila! Dinner for that night and lunch for a couple days. 

Other than that, easy dinners are a lifesaver. Frozen potstickers, tortellini, pre-made sauces like Trader Joe's curry or a bottle of orange mandarin sauce I can just drizzle over the already cooked chicken and rice. I think Matt would have starved had it not been for those options. 

Sadly, that's all the advice I can offer. It may not be much, but its how we've made it these past few months!

Any other suggestions?

Steamed Veggies With A Twist

Only a few more days to go on the challenge and things are getting close! We're out of milk, eggs, creamer and nearly out of coffee...I think we can muster a couple more days! (At least I can get coffee at work!)

Last week in our CSA box we got some Romanesca cauliflower.

Having no idea what to do with this odd-looking vegetable I browsed through one of my cookbooks and found a recipe that looked...interesting. Interesting enough to be worth a try.

FYI, this recipe was taken from Organic Kitchen, a cookbook from my dear friend Heatherly who, incidentally, is getting married this weekend--congrats!

Back to the recipe. I kinda cocked an eye at the ingredients which included lemon rind, hardboiled eggs and breadcrumbs...could be good, could be...interesting...

It was delicious. And easy, to boot! That's always a good thing for a side dish. So here is the recipe, if you care to liven up your boring old steamed carrots and broccoli (and Romanesca cauliflower).

Florets Polonaise

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds mixed vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Romanesca cauliflower, carrots, etc. (anything you can steam, basically)

2-4 Tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil (depending on your taste preference and addiction to butter)

finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon (or a dash of lemon juice, like I used)

1 large garlic clove (don't be afraid to use 2...)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs, lightly baked or broiled until crisp (takes, like, 30 seconds in the broiler)

2 eggs, hardboiled (stay with me here)

sea salt and ground black pepper

Directions

1. Trim the veggies and break/cut into equal sizes. Steam whatever way you want to. In a steamer on the stove, in the microwave, in your shower like Kramer on Seinfield...

2.  While the veggies are cooking, mix together the lemon rind (or juice), garlic, seasoning and breadcrumbs. 

3.  Toss the steamed veggies in butter or oil and transfer to a serving dish (or a bowl...we keep it classy here)

4. Sprinkle the lemon/garlic mix over the veggies and stir to coat them with yumminess.

5. Finely chop the hardboiled eggs and sprinkle on top.

6.  Serve it all nice and warm. I pretty much ate this for dinner last night.  By itself.  

Bon Apetit!

Note: After this Morning Cup my mom suggested I start a blog just for cooking, recipes and wine and beer reviews...so I did! Its called The Giggling Gourmet and while its still in its beginning stages there's a few good things to check out!

Pumpkin-Applesauce-Flax Bread?

Okay at first glance that may sound gross.

But this is what happens during No Spend Month. You get creative.

I had a can of organic pumpkin that I really wanted to use, so I pulled up a pumpkin bread recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, From Portland's Palate: A Collection of Recipes from the City of Roses.  This was a gift from Matt's aunt and uncle for our wedding, and I have used the heck out of it!

I love cookbooks...I even tried to pare down my collection during our last move when we uncluttered a bunch, and I still have 15 cookbooks and a handful of pamphlets I've picked up traveling. I love being able to take the flavor of a place with me.  Like this one from Scotland:

I love the pictures in it, even though I'll probably never try to make Tripe Stew or some of the other more daring recipes in there.

The charcoal sketches make me want to stoke a fire and eat a bannock.

Or this one I picked up on an east coast trip with my parents and Matt. We were in Vermont and overnight the leaves brightened so drastically it look like God had used Photoshop.

This little pamphlet is chock full of little drawings and quotes from New England poets and authors.

Back to the Pumpkin bread.

It being No Spend Month I had run out of vegetable oil. It was a lazy Sunday morning and we weren't wanting to have to go to the store for any. 

That morning I had already made blueberry pancakes with flaxseed meal in place of oil. That was on a smaller scale, though. 

FYI, if you want to use flaxseed meal instead of oil the ratio is 1:3. For one tablespoon of oil you can substitute 3 tablespoons of flaxseed meal. The first time I tried it I was expecting it to be dry and coarse, but instead it was still moist and fluffy! The pancakes needed a bit more milk, but once you get the consistency right its all good from there!

The recipe for pumpkin bread called for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.  That's 8 tablespoons of oil, or what would be 24 Tbl of flaxseed meal...that's a lot!

Then I remembered we had applesauce, too. Replacing applesauce for oil is a 1:1 ratio, but sometimes that can come out dry.

So for this I did part applesauce, part flaxseed meal and the result was delicious! We're running low on unbleached flour and whole wheat flour so I used a cup of each.

That doesn't look too dry now, does it? A little dollop of butter and a cup of coffee and it was de-lish! (Not that it needed either, but they completed it...like Dorothy completed Jerry Maguire)

I would have taken a picture of the top of the bread but I had already eaten it...

There are a lot of benefits to flaxseed. Two tablespoons of flaxseed meal has just as much fiber as 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal! It can also lower bad LDL cholesterol and packs a lot of omega-3. 

So here is my modified Pumpkin Bread recipe, should you want to try it out.

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used evaporated cane juice and it worked well)

1 cup canned pumpkin (I used a can)

9 tablespoons of flaxseed meal

5 tablespoons of applesauce

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 cup water (I just realized I forgot this...maybe the extra pumpkin made up for it...no one's perfect, right?)

Optional:

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine sugars, pumpkin, flaxseed meal, applesauce and eggs. Beat until well blended.

In a separate large bowl, sift together flours, soda, salt and spices. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in water, raisins and nuts if using.

Turn into prepared pan. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Spread with luscious butter and make yourself a Morning Cup and you're ready!

For more tips on eating for cheap, check out my article on Frugal Fine Dining.

What the Kale?

So far on our no-spend month we've spent about $90 on groceries and have kept up chipping away at that debt.

Having our CSA veggies and fruit pre-paid is nice and we've got an abundance of kale at the moment. Here's a typical conversation between Matt and I in the evening.

Me: So...what do you want for dinner?

Matt: Oh, I don't know.

Me: That's helpful.

Matt: How 'bout chicken?

Me: Thank you for being specific...we have a lot of kale too...

Matt: Stir fry?

Me: Sounds okay to me. Its been two whole days since we had that.
(just kidding...kinda)

Joking aside we're blessed to have access to so much produce every week and are glad we signed up...since it forces us to eat our veggies.

I was not a veggie eater as a kid.

I liked three vegetables: corn, carrots and potatoes.

Basically anything that was sweet or starchy and you could smother in butter.

But then, Julia Child smothers a whole variety of vegetables in butter and they all taste good too...braised turnips anyone?

As I got older I realized I needed to be a bit more adult and eat salads...so I smothered them in ranch dressing and choked them down.

Then I discovered what baby spinach looked like...and that I actually liked it. And then Matt brought home mushrooms one day (which I never liked since they were usually tasteless and slimy), and after a quick saute in olive oil with salt and pepper I found I was in love with mushrooms.

Our affair with veggies got progressively worse (better?) from there.

During the summer months (used to be year round but we're trying to eat with the seasons now) we would glut ourselves on zucchini and squash.

I bought an eggplant because it looked pretty and figured out how to make it taste pretty too.

I even began using *gasp* onions and tomatoes. The former I love the flavor but hate the crunch so I chop them up into itty bitty pieces. Tomatoes are the opposite...its just the flavor that I can't stand. So I mask it with curry or Italian herbs or anything else.

One time at a farmer's market I was walking with my Mom and a friend. As we passed a display of those gorgeous heritage tomatoes in a rainbow of colors, my friend tried a sample. Her face lit up and she handed it to my mom, who mmmmed as well. They handed it to me.

I don't like tomatoes.

But these are heritage tomatoes!

They still taste like tomatoes.

If you don't like these I'll actually believe you!

Just to prove to my friend I loved her I tried the tomato. And almost gagged.

I just. don't. like. tomatoes.

But I still cook with them and currently have a three foot high robust tomato in the backyard waiting for it to bloom so I can make some marinara.

Kale, admittedly, isn't my favorite vegetable.

But throw some olive oil in a sauté pan, when its medium-hot throw some garlic in. After that's smelling like heaven throw in some torn up kale, stir it around and let it wilt. Top with some salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and its actually edible.

For more ways on how to stretch your grocery dollars, read my article on Frugal Fine Dining.

Another No Spend Month

We're doing it again folks!

Trying to go the month of July spending $150 or so on food and not buy any superfluous items. Last year when we did this we were able to save enough to make our $1,000 emergency fund. That sure came in handy when last winter we spent $800 on tires for my car! We were lucky to not have to go into debt then, and quickly built the savings back up.

This year the goal is to kick most of the rest of our credit card debt. We use an Alaska Airlines Visa for our every day purchases and pay it off at the end of every week, but we still have some hanging around another credit card from way back in the college days.

My cycle was work during the school year, travel in the summer, rack up the debt, pay it off while working the following school year.

Then I graduated and traveled and then had real expenses like toothpaste and oil changes.

Its fluctuated a little bit, but from that time on I've basically had the same amount of debt...and once we got married it was "our" debt. We were almost out when we moved, then got a dog, then our dog (4 days after we got it) got hit by a car and we racked up a lot of costs.

Last summer I read about Dave Ramsey's philosophy of being debt-free and having an emergency plan, and in conjunction read about Rachel's "No Spend Month" on Small Notebook , and we decided to take the plunge.

We got our savings, and have been chipping away at the debt. We even moved to a place with significantly less rent to contribute more.

Hopefully by the end of this month we will be much much closer...and Lord willin' and the crik don't rise we'll be out of debt by late August!

We signed up for a CSA last month and have more than enough vegetables from that, so we may be eating a lot of vegetarian meals!

Two nights ago I made a very green stir fry. Zucchini, snow peas, garlic spears and some mixed greens...it tasted ok but definitely wasn't the best thing I've ever whipped up!

Last year I wrote an article on Frugal Fine Dining - check it out for the way that we stretch our grocery budget!

On our list of things to use this week are a can of clams, arepa flour and a can of garbanzo beans...wish me luck!!!

An Accolade to Chard

Last night while talking to my 2 mommies (hmm, gotta be careful saying that nowadays), I mean my mom and Char Char, I told them I was making chard for dinner and neither one of them had heard of chard before. Since I'm a big fan of this vegetable I thought I would give y'all a little tour of this heavyweight veggie in terms of nutrition.

This is Swiss chard. Red stalks, big dark green leaves packed with Vitamins K, A and C.


below is Rainbow Chard...and yes those colors are all real and natural!

To make it you can saute, steam, or blanch it (there's probably more ways, those are just the ones I've done). Previously I rolled it up, cut it in ribbons and steamed it with garlic and orzo...but I couldn't find the recipe last night and almost drove myself crazy looking for it.

So instead I tried out a new recipe from the Alton Brown cookbook I got for Christmas, which has onions, LOTS of garlic, which after you cook for awhile you add a paste of butter and flour and toast it all, then add crushed tomatos, chicken broth and whisk till the sauce becomes creamy goodness. Throw in whole wheat pasta (boiled in the water the chard was blanched in to get extra minerals and goodness) and the chopped up chard. Topped with parmesan or feta (the parm was better) it was pretty darn good! I think I may add a few of my own tweaks, but Matt ate 4 servings so it couldn't be that bad!

mmmm...we're both having it again for lunch today too...



and did I mention this entire meal costs about $6 or $7?

to further impress upon you the goodness of chard, here's a link to a chart showing how much good stuff it has...

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=16

Thus endeth my acolade of chard.


Oh, and this is what I got at Ikea yeserday to finish off our reading corner:

A tall frame, poster (that I cut up) and a shelf for books and coffee. Now I need a creative way to cover up that cord...

And one more tidbit. Our landlords/upstairs neighbors/friends' 3 year old son Micah is going in for a procedure that will close a patent (open) ductus arteriosis (a prenatal blood vessel between the aorta and the pulmonary vessel), that should have closed at his birth. Please keep him and their family in your prayers.

Day 33-37 & Hope For Haiti Now

Quick Recap on The Challenge: I came home with a new shirt one night to realize I had PLENTY of shirts hanging in my closet. As a result, I wanted to go as long as possible without recycling one top, and each day I could do that I would make a donation to a charity helping in Haiti, and highlight the charity or fundraiser here on my blog.

Spring is a comin' here in Seattle. A couple of weeks ago I saw the first crocuses poking up through the mud. Then, seemingly overnight, the cherry trees blossomed into pink oblivion and daffodils bloomed and the tulips are budding.

I love being somewhere where I can see the change of the seasons, even though it feels like we didn't really get a winter compared with last years' snow and ice nightmare. Except for a week in December temperatures have stayed pretty warm, and my studded tires have definitely not been needed as of yet.

I've got this itching to get up in the mountains and see spring announcing itself there. Yesterday morning when I took Roy out everything was bright and quiet. The wind was blowing and it sounded like a friend standing behind you playfully boxing your ears. It made me want to turn around and chase it, giggling.

On another note, Thursday was Matt's birthday! Happy Birthday Matt! He's a whopping 27 years old now!

For my Valentine'd Day present Matt got me tickets tot he musical "Company." This will be Matt's first Sondheim musical...I, on the other hand, was taken by my mom to see "Into The Woods" when I was 6 years old. That play is about what happens in fairy tales AFTER the "happily ever after." I don't actually remember it, but apparently the wolf was entirely anatomically correct. I got culture young, baby. (And not complaining, Mom!)

Day 33.

Heater was broken in the office and a sweater was needed.

Also needed: Blue Steel facial expression.

Day 34

She's gone country, look at them boots, she's gone country, back to her roots...

I hear that song in my head every time I wear this shirt...even though its a technical quick-drying shirt from North Face.

My vacuum cleaner made a cameo appearance as well.


Day 35


I got sick of these boring stand and smile photos so I thought I'd show you how high I can jump.  Only I didn't set the camera low enough so it just looks like I'm making a silly face.  Guess I can't jump that high after all...

Oh, random side note: this is the Valentine's Day card I got for Matt. Being bored was the reason I never dated anyone longer than 3 months before I met Matt...I just flat out got bored with 'em! Matt? He's always kept me interested :-)

The actual day of Matt's birthday I was a bit under the weather and headed into work late...and forgot to take a picture. Well, Matt took a picture of me making roasted potatoes and garlic for dinner that night and it wasn't the most flattering one...

Day 37.

The day of many outfits.

Off to work I went for the morning...

Outfit #2.

I was off work early and headed home to celebrate Matt's birthday. While waiting for Matt to decide what he wanted to do Roy and I soaked in some rays on the balcony...

Outfit #3

We went for a two hour walk around Queen Anne and it was so warm I donned a tank top! I did get a few furrowed brow looks...it was 52 degrees out but in the sun it felt so warm! Didn't get a pic of me during the walk, but here are my boys...

And Outfit #4

Off to the theater!

We went to The Stumbling Goat Bistro for dinner (wow, sooo delish!), and then went to see the musical Company. 


More on that later, but at least dinner was great!

Today's charity spotlight goes to an album, actually. Hope For Haiti Now is available on iTunes and all the proceeds go to a whole slew of nonprofits, including the Red Cross. 


Seeing as you get 20 songs for $7.99, its a good deal even if the proceeds weren't for charity!

You can download it HERE

Wardrobe Challenge Days 14-18

I know...I've slacked off.

Sorry.

Day 14 began at 6 am with Matt trying to get the mirrored sliding door back on its tracks in our closet.

Ka-CHUNG kl-ANK ka-RUMP ka-RUMP!

After asking sleepily yet nicely if he could maybe fight with that door after work (i.e. let me sleep!), I got a call from our receptionist who's baby had just thrown up... I needed to go in early to cover for her.

It was 6:20. In order to open at 7 I needed to leave by 6:30!

Needless to say I ran out the door before I could remember many things.

A. coffee

B. mascara

C. to take a picture of the outfit for the day.

Black top, gray pants, and the super soft Vera Wang scarf that made me feel like I was still wrapped up in blankets in my bed at home...sigh. I actually went home and slept for four hours after work.

Day 15 I woke renewed and refreshed...aided by the extra four-hour nap I had had the day before. I even had it in me to wear a dress, but I'm getting a little tired with the same old smile at the camera routine.

And I'm not that photogenic so for every picture you see there are about 12 in which I have a weird face/bad lighting/awkward smile/general non-attractiveness.

So I decided to jump on the couch and coffee table while waiting for the camera timer.

This also gives you a chance to admire our new piece of art hanging over our couch...a $17 steal from Target!

Oh, and my $8 dress from Target. I love Target.

Day 16...Friday at last!

And I forgot to clean out my mug again...ew.

This actually was the same necklace I wore on my first date with Matt...and he actually mentioned it in the poem he wrote for me entitled "Thursday" on our 6 month anniversary. Stay tuned and if you're really lucky and he says its ok maybe one day I'll post it...

Day 17

Matt and I decided to puddle around Issaquah, Maple Valley and that general region to scout for apartments. We're in no rush to move, exactly, but we are looking tentatively for a place with lower rent. However, with so much square footage, quiet and nice neighbors and a view to die for we're having a hard time convincing ourselves.

Nevertheless, if we could save a big chunk of change every month to put towards paying off debt/loans and then start saving for a home it would probably be a good thing. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

This particular skirt I wore I've had since high school. Its my hippie let-the-sunshine-in skirt. The kind that makes you want to run through a grassy field in the sunshine.

Only its January...and there wasn't much sunshine.

I kept swapping tops trying to make it both cute and warm and the best I got from my clothing critic (i.e. Matt) was, "That's not bad..."

Which we women know never means its good.

Oh well, checked off my list...my bright pink hippie skirt and me at the salmon hatchery in Issaquah.

Can you see the little baby salmon in the glass behind me? Do you see me being a dork and showing my nifty boots? Yeah, not so cool I realized after Matt snapped the picture.

I'm realizing this was probably one that should have been deleted...

Day 18 at long last. Aren't you glad this is almost over?

Sunday, and once again I didn't leave the house except to walk Roy Boy. An hour and a half walk, mind you, yet he never once calmed down. Some days he gets like that...crazy and spooked and unable to walk like a normal dog. He was almost walking on his hind legs he was pulling so hard! I thought his trachea was going to collapse I kept yanking the life out of him! But he survived and so did my temper...

That night I reheated the beef bourguignon I had made the night before, whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes (and to my co-workers, if you read this, if I stink tomorrow blame it on the two whole HEADS of garlic that went into those potatoes!), and opened a bottle of Pinot Noir for a nice dinner with my hubby.

Since I don't think ratty cleaning pajamas count for this challenge this is what I changed into after I finally took a shower and cleaned up.

I had the apron on and Matt commented, "All you need are some pearls, now," so out came the pearls!

I'm not really a "pearls" girl...but sometimes there are exceptions.

I'm almost through my first cycle of bottoms...I think I only have two or three pairs of pants left and one or two dresses...things might continue to get interesting in this challenge!

Today's charity spotlight goes to...

The Conduit Mission (thanks again Stephanie!)

According to their website, they are:

The Conduit is a Christian non-profit organization based out of Franklin,Tn. The Conduit was started as a Bible study September 16th 2007 with a goal of being a “conduit” of God’s power, God’s love, and God’s resources. The Conduit partners with organizations that are providing basic living needs such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care. The over head of the organization is kept low in order to accomplish the goal to “live simply that others may simply live”.

Mom, take note. They're based out of the town you and Dad are thinking of moving to and they were founded on your birthday...a sign? Maybe...

Back to the charity though.

On one of their posts (their website is set up almost like a blog with updated posts), it states, "This week we have 42,000 lbs of food as well as water filtration systems arriving in Jacmel Haiti for our friends at Restoration Ministries. "

You can donate to The Conduit Mission by clicking HERE.

As with all the charities I've spotlighted, donations over $100 are available to receive an end of year tax giving statement from The Conduit upon request. The Conduit is a federally recognized 501c3 non profit organization.

All checks should be sent to:
Conduit Mission
256 Seaboard Lane
C-103
Franklin, TN 37067

Anyone else got a charity to spotlight? Is your office doing something? Your church? Your knitting club? Let me know!

Challenge Days 12,13, Ode to Le Creuset and Krochet Kids

Ah Monday. The 25th of January.

According to Time Magazine and a researcher from Cardiff University the third Monday of January is supposed to be the saddest day of the year. You combine the dreary weather, debt from overspending during the holidays, failed New Year's resolutions and the fact that its a Monday and you've got one heck of a depressing day!

Le sigh.

Luckily it was a lovely sunny day for the most part yesterday, we'd been saving for Christmas since July and I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions to break so I'm doin' dandy!

That being it said it was still chilly so I wrapped up in my comfiest big sweater and headed off to work. Here's Day 12, ladies and gents.



I'm quickly beginning to realize that my number of work or dress pants/skirts far exceeds the number of jeans or casual pants I have. Leftover from days at a dressier office, they've sat in my closet on the forgotten side for a couple years now. Doing this challenge has helped remind me that there's always a place for good quality clothing in a person's wardrobe.

That being said I knew I had to face a skirt again head on. It is, though, one of the cutest skirts ever to have been made. Smooth front with just a bit of a gather in the back and seaming in all the right places...I would have taken a picture of my rear but I think that would be going a bit too far now.

So here's Day 13

I'm not exactly sure what's going on with my face. I think I was attempting to look cute and fell short. And you can't really even see the skirt, but what the hay. Whatcha see is whatcha get.

That night I met Matt at mall for dinner and for him to get fitted for his tux. I beat him there and decided to swing by Marshall's to see if by chance they had any Le Creuset cookware on a crazy deal.

Remember me telling you about having to "Crowd my mushrooms" and not having enough room in my pot to do enough chicken for the Julia Child recipe? (That was Days 7&8 btw) Well when I get my mind set on something...like a larger enamel covered cast iron pan...I kinda get tunnel vision. Thanks to my lovely readers who remember to click on a Google ad every now and then on my blog or hub I had a check from Google and I knew that's what I wanted to use it for.

Now if you don't know what a Le Creuset pan is, let me explain a bit. Its the creme de la creme of cookware. The Queen of the Culinary Kitchen. Goddess of gourmet. Maybe I'm getting a little carried away, though.

In its most basic form, it is enamel coated cast iron cookware. That comes in beautiful colors. Not all of it is cast iron...some is stoneware some is enamel coated steel...but what they are all known for is their high caliber of quality. One Le Creuset Dutch oven will last longer than you will.

We got our first Le Creuset item for our wedding. It was an adorable red tea kettle--the enamel coated steel kind. Two and a half years of sitting constantly on our stove top and being battered by grease and whatknot and its still as durable and cute as ever.

The next member to our family was a little blue 3.5Qt Dutch oven. This is actually Matt's Dutch oven. We both started to really get into cooking about a year ago and this was a birthday present for him. He wanted to make sure it was known that it was his, so he chose the blue color since everything else in our kitchen was red.

Hi baby. Mama loves it.

This is probably our most used piece of cooking equipment, just the right size for a stew or soup for two people. For the first six months we didn't have a space for it because it went from the stove to the fridge to the sink to the stove. But it is not, I say, not big enough to do a decent size batch of browning or searing.

I toyed around with a substitute. After all, a medium size Dutch oven costs well over $200 no matter how you dice it, and I only had about $100 to play with. I looked at Mario Batali brand, Rachel Ray, even some really cheap knock offs. I even went out and bought a Lodge enamel coated Dutch oven. But as soon as I got home and took it out of the box...I knew.

There would be no substitute.

The Lodge 6 Qt one may have been large and in charge, but the whole thing curved down until the actual flat bottom of the thing was no larger than my smaller pot. It was like a bowl...and if you remember...I didn't want to crowd my mushrooms. Plus after reading some reviews I found out that after a year or so the enamel starts coming off.

I heard someone say once, "I'm too poor to buy cheap," and I think this is a great example.

So I put it back in the box, re-seasoned my non-enamel coated Dutch oven (which still makes great stuff but is way more of a hassle to use and you can't let food sit in it), and waited.

When I got to Marshall's on the aforementioned night, I walked to the back and saw one, sad, lonely braiser in the Dijon color sitting there without its knob surrounded by cheap imitations. I grabbed it and clutched it, praying it was withing my budget. I turned it over...$130. A bit over...but it was missing its knob, I could at least ask for a discount for that...

After a comical game of ring around the Marshall's with one deadbeat employee, a clueless cashier and a harried manager, the price was marked down to...you guessed it...$100. Just a hair under what my check from Google was for!

I met up with Matt at the mall and we headed to That Kitchen Store where I showed him what kind of pot I got (it was $200 at that store!) and we got a replacement knob for $10!

At home I screwed the knob on, sat it on the stove and just stared at it.

I felt like a real chef. The kettle had whetted my appetite, the mini Dutch oven had been my training wheels but this, this was big girl stuff. Tons of surface area on this baby! I gazed at the trio of rainbow cookware on my stove...and sighed.

I pet it, called it my precious, and went to bed.

Sorry you had to read through my Ode to Le Creuset to get to this part, but here's the charity spotlight for the day.

Krochet Kids International



Their mission states: Employing this generation through the creation of products, and educating the next through their sale. Krochet Kids international works in developing nations to empower impoverished communities to rise above poverty.

Their history is actually pretty cute...three high school boys from Spokane, WA who crocheted hats to save up for their Senior Prom...you can read about it, and see their awesome frilly shirted Easter egg colored tuxes HERE


Their turn towards a non-profit began with a trip to Northern Uganda in 2007 (hey, same time as me!) where they realized their hobby could be used to help empower women to learn to crochet hats that would be sold in the US for a profit.

With the recent earthquake in Haiti they've focused efforts there. As stated on their website:

Here is our humble effort toward reaching out in LOVE to our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Our staff will be crocheting a premium line of hats that will each be sold for $100. All money raised through the sale of these limited hats will be matched by the individuals in this organization to make a great impact. Join with us, get a sweet hat, and double your donation to the earthquake victims.

To buy a hat, click HERE

I plan on doing this and I'll post pics of the hat as soon as I get it! Thanks for the info Stephanie! And the rest of you let me know of any other great nonprofits you may have heard of!

Wardrobe Challenge Day 7 & 8

First of all I'd love to hear from you on which chaitities you donate to or volunteer with!

Two nights ago I got a text from my coworker that she was sick and I needed to cover the front desk...for the early shift. If you know me and early we do not get along well. But, grateful to even have a job I hit the hay early so I wouldn't be a complete zombie the next day.

Here's Day 7

nothing extraordinary, a gray thermal, jeans, and a luxuriously soft purple Vera Wang scarf that I got for Christmas. Did you know Vera Wang is designing for Kohl's now? Helloooo Vera.....
Oh, but I'm not wearing the scarf in the pic...that's a purple coat I got for last year's Christmas...but hey I made the effort to take a picture of myself at 6:30 in the morning driving in the pitch black darkness to work...give me a break!

On a completely different topic, the night before Matt had surprised me with my very own copy of Julia Child's The Art of Mastering French Cooking! I've been reading her biography and hearing about all the hard work that went into it I had been dying to get my hands on a recipe or two. Now with the whole 730 pages of it, I didn't even know where to begin! So many new things to try! Did you know she has a whole section on brains? They sure didn't mention that in the movie, although that would have been a funny one to see her try to cook!

We walked Roy to the store and I loaded up on mushrooms, shallots, heavy cream, wine, a baguette...all the things necessary to make a gourmet French meal (don't worry, we had plenty of butter at home).

At home I got to work on her recipe for chicken breast with mushrooms and shallots in white sauce. Reading her cookbook really is like having here there over your shoulder giving you little tips. I can completely see how one would get very attached to her without having ever met her--her voice just shines through the text. I can just hear her saying "Now, you must dry the chicken thoroughly or it will not brown, dear!" or "Wait until the sauce looks positively syrupy before adding the cream."

As I began to add the shallots and mushrooms to the foaming butter I realized all too late that my Le Creuset casserole dish is altogether too small. I was (please say this in her voice) "Crowding the mushrooms!" So I tried my own variation which involved doing them in batches. Which involved me schlopping mushroom juice all over my stove top and hot mushrooms on my toes as I clumsily tried to transfer them to and from a plate.

But then she instructs you to cook everything all in one dish in the oven...but my little chickenies were completely covered with mushrooms! Hmm...eventually I did make it work and removed to the chicken to a warmed (boo-yah-yeah it was warm) plate to work on the sauce. A bit of bouillon, dash of wine, reduce reduce, add the cream, add a few drops of lemon juice and voila!

According to Matt it was one of the top 5 things he's ever tasted in his life and he dubbed it, and I quote, "phenomenal." Thanks Julia!

We have decided to make Wednesdays our "no TV" nights so we actually ate dinner at the table, played a card game and I took a bath. I think we need to do that more often!

Today I got the early shift again (feel better Carol!) and was bound and determined to wear a skirt. You know the rules, I have to cycle through bottoms (skirts, slacks, jeans, etc) before I can wear them again and the skirt section in my closet has just sat there staring at me menacingly. Our workplace is a bit more casual than some of the more suit-like stuff I own, so trying to dress it down was going to be a bit of a challenge. But hey, that's why its called the Wardrobe Challenge, right?

So here's Day 8


Thanks to my purse hanging on the coat rack for the substitute tripod...

The pencil skirt from my suit I paired with a graphic tee, sweater and a hat. Whaddya think? My boss said he liked it and when I told him about the challenge got inspired to get rid of all the shirts he's bought and never worn...so that's a good thing!

Today's charity spotlight goes to...Doctors Without Borders. Or, since I made a French meal last night, Medecines Sans Frontieres.

Rated 4 stars (the highest) on Charity Navigator, its mission reads:

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Wall Street Journal that was written by two women stationed in Haiti with MSF when the quake struck:

Five minutes after the quake, people were banging on our door in need of help. There were four of us, including a fourth year nursing student with minor injuries, and we worked all night. The janitor helped with bandages. It was quickly overwhelming from a medical standpoint: Within a few hours there were hundreds of people in need of surgery.I see some people and can't believe they are alive. They have extreme crush injuries, partial amputations, and open fractures. A mother helped me bandage her infant, whose left hand was gone. It took an hour, but once the baby was bandaged, she was calmer. I can't imagine what the mother is going through. I changed the bandages on a little girl and it took me a while to see the wound, but part of her skull was missing. She needs immediate reconstructive surgery.

You can read the article in its entirety HERE, but I warn you its pretty graphic.

To donate to Doctors Without Borders, click HERE.