Thursday, December 23, 2010

Ooops!!!

I thought I was doing so good . . . putting together a few posts on Sunday night and scheduling them to auto-post through out the week.  You know . . . because I have a JOB now, generally every morning starts with "this is stooooopid" don't get me wrong I really like my job and not playing musical credit cards at the grocery store is even better but actually having to work is a drag.  And things happen like scheduling blog posts and not actually pushing the post button. Sorry about that and the dump of posts that are a week late!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Christmas Tree

What's the best thing to do on a pouring Sunday afternoon? Go cut down your own Christmas Tree. I transformed the house into a mess. Trying to get some of the decorations up and rearrange the furniture to incorporate the tree.
 So after getting most of the candle lights in the windows and keeping the tree in the breezeway for a few hours to dry off, we put up the tree.
 Then decorated it, I was worried that we wouldn't have enough ornaments but we definitely did.
So the tree is a little bit scraggly, but it makes me warm and fuzzy to know that we bought this tree from our neighbors.  The tree farm was on one of Bruce's marathon train routes this is the definition of "Buy Local" and we love it!

Monday, December 13, 2010

1 Year!

Saturday marked one year since we adopted Kenny puppy!  I look at this photo and I could have never imagined that he would be the goofy beast next to me on the couch. How did we celebrate? We took him to the vet for his yearly checkup.  But really, he likes the vet.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Thesis Update

Earlier this week I dropped of my thesis manuscript to be bound and entered into the University's library.

Thesis 100%

Done.

Hopefully our work will be published in a journal this year or the coming year.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A Week of Dinners

What's the most diverse protein?

Chicken.

What's the easiest thing to pop in the oven and do a bunch of other things?

Chicken.

What goes on sale once a month?

Chicken.

You get what I'm saying typing.  It's also a great Sunday dinner.  My new favorite way to roast a whole chicken was from Big Girls Small Kitchen which I can't directly link to because I can't find it.  But you do this.

No roasting rack, herbs, onion and lemon inside; salt and pepper on the outside (and maybe some bacon) and a big baking dish of potatoes underneath.  Roast until the juices run clear (165 degrees).

Use for salads, calzones, stir frys, pot pies, enchiladas, gumbo, soup . . .  pretty much anything you can dream up! AND you can make stock from it!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Waterproofing: Update

Over the summer we started trying to make our basement dryer here and here.  Then we got distracted by a tree.  We figured out that the puddles in the stairwell were because the tension hinges were not in the doors, easy fix. And we haven't had any puddles since I sealed the windows.  I think it's pretty awesome that we went from giant puddles to no puddles, just from sealing a two windows.  I still need to put some DryLOK plug in a crack by one of the windows and eventually we'd like to DryLOK all the walls but the major water problem has been solved!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Quick and Easy Dinner

So now that I'm working a regular nine to five, quick and easy dinners are crucial.  One of our favorites is pizza.

That baby is home made, all the way. The dough is super easy to make (or pick up on the way home).

  • 1 Teaspoon dry activated yeast
  • 2/3 C warm water
  • 2 C flour
  • honey, sugar OR agave nectar
  • salt
  • olive oil
  1. Combine the yeast, warm water and a short squeeze (1 tsp~ish) of your sugar source. Let sit for five minutes, the yeast should wake up, start to smell yeasty and make some bubbles.
  2. Add 1.5C of the flour, plus some salt and four second drizzle of olive oil with the dough hook of your mixer.
  3. Gradually add the rest of the flour once the dough has formed a ball stop adding flour, beat at 6 or 8 for 5 minutes until the dough ball looks elastic.
  4. Turn dough out into an oiled bowl, cover with a dish towel and let rise for ninty minutes.
  5. Knock down and shape. (I usually make two regular size pizza from this amount of dough you would separate at this step, or if you are freezing or sticking the dough in the fridge for a few days do it after this step before the second rise.)
  6. Let rise for 1 hour on a floured surface.
Top with your favorite toppings or the weeks leftovers and bake for roughly 20 minutes at 425 degrees on a pizza pan or an over turned cookie sheet. 

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Painting Adventure: Making Progress

So on the 18th of November, our room was such a disaster with the re-paint that we started sleeping in the guest room. And we've been sleeping in the guest room.  With half the furniture from our bedroom, and the ironing board and (of course) Kenny puppy. Now because I didn't take our bed out of the room I trailed the paint around the perimeter of the room with me and it has taken me this long to get all the paint off the floor and piled everything on the bed which means all our bedding is due to be washed.

We're almost there.  We will sleep in our own room tonight.

I have to go make the bed.

oh yea, Benjamin Moore - Grey Owl on the walls and the trim is White Blush (also BM both Natura)
There's obviously a lot still to do, curtains, furniture, paint the rad cover, replace outlets and switches . . . but it will be great to sleep in our own bed again.