Family Goals: Going Green

Man, this NaBloPoMo is no joke. I'm a bit behind.

Joe and I have formulated some Family Goals. One of them is to go greener. The problem is, we are on a budget. So shopping organically and other high price changes aren't an option. Here are a list of things we are trying to do within our budget:

1. Plastic bags take 1000 years to decompose. This means that we try not use them. We shop with cloth bags when possible, don't take bags if not needed, ask for paper bags if offered and give any plastic bags we do use a second life. Taking out cat litter for example.
2. Recycling. We have REALLY stepped up our recycling game. We have always done it, but the past month we have been more diligent and filled our recycling dumpster but only had one or two bags in our garbage dumpster. One technique we used was adding a recycling container on the second floor (re used plastic bags!). This makes sure we catch toilet paper rolls, drink containers and empty shampoo bottles. It has made a huge difference.
3. Compost. Joe isn't as excited about this one, but it will make a huge difference in my garden. We take out any compostable kitchen scraps and add yard waste. When there isn't a lot of "brown" options, I add shredded newspaper to decrease smell and increase decomposition.
   
4. Green cleaners. We have started making a shift towards some green cleaners. Particularly our dish soap and all purpose cleaner. We haven't gotten too far, but it is a step
5. Nonstick cookware. If I need a nonstick skillet I use my cast iron skillet. Less chemicals.
6. Eating more left overs. This will forever be a challenge for us. Ugh.
7. I try to hang dry most of clothes. This uses less electricity so it is not only green, but also cheaper!
8. Buy recycled when possible. This is a little harder, but when I had to buy more printer paper, I chose to spend a few extra pennies to buy recycled paper. Also, one of the grocery stores I shop at sells loofas made of recycled material.
9. I usually cook from scratch. I know its isn't nearly as good as shopping organic, but I figure it has to reduce some chemicals from our diet.

So these aren't huge improvements, but they are a bunch of small ones that will hopefully make a difference.

My Little Monster

This guy gets into everything. He is currently locked in the bedroom because he was attempting to eat Joe's computer cords. He chews on pencils and thinks moving needles are a challenge. Then he goes and does something heart melting adorable and we can't stay mad too long.

Sharing A Good Post

I've been following this blog for over a year. It's written by a mom trying to balance a whole bunch of challenges. Last week she shared the post bellow and it meant a lot to me. There are a whole lot of Christians in my life whose faith manifests in many ways. Sometimes my insecurities (all self imposed) have me feeling not good enough. This post puts it in a completely new perspective. God and I have a relationship with an honest, constant conversation. The past three years there has been a lot of "God, I'm mad/hurt/lonely, please help me do my part to repair our relationship." I figure he knows what's in my heart so we may as well talk about it. There are also many thanks, but regardless of what the conversation is about God and I keep it real. And I try and serve God through my servitude of others. Those would be my love languages with God. I hope the article helps you become more confident in your relationship with God.

http://dianawrote.com/2013/10/finding-our-love-language-with-god/

History Was Made Today

Today Illinois became the 15th state to recognize gay marriage. About 14 too late but that's ok. I've always believed that people should be free to live their truth in sexuality and gender. My poor parents had to deal with an extremely progressive youth. Today Illinois has caught up. 

Congratulations to all my LGBT friends. I wish you all the happiness in the world!

Dinner

We had originally made plans to go out to eat tonight. Unfortunately, that wasn't able to happen. So we made a burger bar at home.

The thought was to make sliders so that we could try a wide variety of burgers. 

Assembled are: swiss, cheddar and blue cheese, ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, mayo, spicey mayo, guacamole, tomatoes, onions, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, bacon, jalapeños, lettuce and relish.

Joe also made his speciality fries. 

Entertaining on a budget for the win.

November Equals Challenges

It seems November is all about challenges. Some for good purpose some to be silly.

Here are a list of some of the challenges I am seeing around me:

1. Listing something you are thankful for every day. (Self explanatory, I decided to give it a try this year. Things are....complicated. So it is nice to remind oneself of the things going right.)
2. NaBloPoMo (write a blog post every month....I need this to challenge my creativity. Blogging challenges me to think deeper and usually involves some fun house project...which I seem to be all 1950's housewife about lately.)
3. Movember (dudes to weird facial hair. I am eternally grateful this doesn't appeal to Joe.)
4. NaNoWriMo (write a novel in a month. I have many friends taking on this endeavor. God. Bless. Them.)
5. The 30 Day Challenge. (you heard of the squat challenge? the plank challenge? Well we (Yes, I signed up...so far so good...talk to me in 27 days) are doing 5 of those challenges at the same time.)

How do you keep yourself challenged?

Caring of Cast Iron

When I received my grandmother's cast iron skillet I didn't get it. I have very vague memories of her making my favorite chicken and dumplings in them, but I mean very vague. What was the point of cast iron? There are all these amazing nonstick options that are new, what is the point of using this old pan? To be honest, I only kept it because it belonged to my grandmother. Even when it was beyond rusty and I was convinced it was garbage, I just couldn't part with it.

 Grandma's Skillet

And then this past year I got it. The nonstick pots and pans on the market are bad for you. They leach chemicals into  your food. You wouldn't go to a restraint and order Teflon, so why let it slowly infiltrate your food? But there is a natural and safe nonstick option.....properly cared for cast iron.
(Please note: any bare metal pot or pan is not good for high acidic foods---think tomatoes---I have purchased enamel cast iron for those and use regular cast iron and stainless steel for all my other cooking.)

My first challenge was getting rid of all the rust that built up on this decades old pan. Bring on the steel wool. And scrub like mad. This however, gets rid of the cast iron's nonstick surface. So you must season it. When I do this from a pan that has been stripped of its nonstick surface I use Lodge's instructions. I melt some vegetable shortening and brush it on the pan. I then take a paper towel and wipe off the shortening. The point is to leave the thinnest possible coat of fat on the skillet. I then bake it upside down in a 400 degree oven, turn off the oven after an hour and let the pan cool. It is important to do this several times (4 or 5) after using steel wool. A well seasoned cast iron skillet should allow an egg to slide around it without any fat.

Vegetable Shortening

For every day care of your cast iron it is best to clean it as soon as it is cool enough to handle after cooking. Do not use soap. We will be heating up the pan high enough to kill anything you can't clean off with a nylon scrubber. (Sometimes if I'm lazy and don't clean it right away or if the nylon scrubber can't make it appear clean I will use soap. But this is incredibly rare and followed with an extra coat of fat in the seasoning process.) Give the pan a good rinse and wipe out excess water. Put your skillet over a burner until it dries. Turn off the flame and pour in a little dab of flax oil. Flax oil is a hard oil making it great to form nonstick surfaces. Leaving the flame off use a paper towel and spread the oil across the pan and up the sides. Take a clean paper towel and give it another wipe to leave a minimal amount of fat on the pan. Return skillet to heat to cook the oil into the pan. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool before putting away.

Flax Oil

 



If your skillet ever needs a good scrub, go the steel wool route and start over.

Nylon Scrubber and Steel Wool

 



When properly seasoned, a cast iron skillet will be a breeze to wipe clean and will season effortlessly. It is well worth the effort to take care of your natural nonstick pan. The cast iron skillet I was once afraid of gets used weekly now. I truly don't know how I'd live without it at this point.

NaBloPoMo

It is November 1st and I completely forgot about NaBloPoMo. So today's post is a cheat. It is 11:30 and I just got home. Time for a late dinner and bed. But I will be -attempting- to participate this year with a much more substantial post tomorrow.

Thai Spring Rolls

I made these Thai Spring Rolls for Election Night last year....that's a holiday/party in the house. My darling friend gets all psyched up with me and we spend the night talking, eating, and drinking. This was one of the snacks we had that night.

I made these again for our House Warming and they were LOVED and people asked for the recipe. I'm ashamed its taken me this long to get to posting the recipe.

I saw a spring roll recipe on a blog, and adjusted the ingredients for a Thai theme. I don't have exact measurements because it really goes by quantity and taste. Rice paper was hard for me to find, I had to go to an Asian market a few towns over.


Thai Spring Rolls

rice paper
rice noodles
shredded carrots
shredded purple cabbage
roasted red peppers, julienned
cilantro, chopped
green onions, chopped
peanuts
wonton strips
edamadme, cooked and cooled

1. cook the rice noodles as directed and cool by running under cold water
2. one at time, soak the rice paper in warm water until pliable, add small amounts of each ingredient and wrap like a burrito
3. serve with peanut sauce

**Squint close and you will see them on the white plate!

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

I saw something similar on Pinterest and developed my own recipe. It's delicious and I think I will make these instead of wings for Super Bowl, so much easier and less time consuming.

1lb chicken sausage
2oz cream cheese
3T celery, finely diced
1/2 cup plus 1T Frank's Hot Sauce
2T blue cheese crumbles
2c panko
pepper to taste
1/2 cup butter

1. combine butter and 1/2 cup of Frank's Hot Sauce in a sauce pan until melted and combined, set aside.
2. mix remaining ingredients. form balls. brown in a skillet
3. place in baking dish, cover with butter mixture and bake at 350 until cooked through (20-30 minutes)
4. serve with blue cheese dressing

Picnic Table Makeover

I had this idea to have my cousins over for a bonfire in October. Great idea, right? It was, until I remembered that I didn't have any lawn furniture.

We had decided that a picnic table was the best choice for us because we don't have a patio for a table and chairs. Then I looked at the price of a picnic table. It was an unexpected surprise to see them go for $100 minimum. That just wasn't going to happen right now. So my sister in law suggested Freecycle. That night I searched and posted on Freecycle, Craigslist, and a buy/sell group I belong to on Facebook. Within 24 hours I found a style Joe and I agreed on and that was in reasonable shape for $10.

I quickly recruited someone with a bigger car then mine to help me pick it. After seeing it in person I became a little nervous. It wasn't in quite as great a shape as I had thought. It also didn't help that the guys wife, who was home at the time, seemed a little confused as to why I was buying something so old. (This is where I would like to show y'all a before picture, however I wasn't smart enough to take one or copy it from the listing before it expired.)

Never one to give up, we brought in home in several pieces, and determined that four of the supports had to be replaced, as well as one of the boards on a bench. We acquired some wood, stain and borrowed a power sander. That's when I got REALLY nervous. How were the new boards going to blend it? What am I sacrificing in my attempt to be ridiculously cheap?

And then Joe started sanding, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be ok. I obviously have never done this before, or I wouldn't have gotten so nervous. Lesson learned.

And then it was time to stain. This was another decision based on cost. I wouldn't have chosen this stain, but thankfully it works out wonderfully! Especially with the red in our house and garage. Getting it back together was a little difficult. It also required a quick run to the Depot for some screws. We are still slowly acquiring things homeowners should have on hand.

Tada!!! Some other boards will be need to be replaced in the coming years. But it fulfills our needs for the rest of this season, and maybe even next. I, as always, was very happy to cross something off our Home To Do List (it really exists, I'm an organizational freak).

Total project cost: $10 for table, $10 for stain (with TONS left over), $15 for wood (also with lots left over) and a six pack for the gentleman who helped me pick it up. Not bad for our first project of this type.

Lessons of a Home Owner

We have learned a handful of things in our three and a half weeks of Home Ownership:

1. There may be 9+ smoke detectors in the house (don't ask....), but none of them will go off if someone falls asleep on the couch and burns the contents of a pot to smithereens, filling the whole first floor with smoke so much it messed with my asthma.
2. Apparently, if you want to save $20 you need to read the directions on the bag of fertilizer so you don't have to run out and buy a second bag.
3. Hard wood floors are pretty....and cranky.
4. Having a one car driveway means at some point I will HAVE to drive Joe's Accord. Shucks. ;)
5. There are too many hiding places....making you wonder if Tiger found a way to sneak out.

Dr. Who

Last night I went to a friend's house to see the latest two episodes of Dr. Who, a British Sci Fi show. I won't comment on those shows, not knowing who hasn't seen them yet. But I will say.....those weeping angels are not very nice.

What I did want to comment on is the fact that I now watch a Sci Fi show! You'd think that someone as geeky as me would normally be all over it...but I'm not. I don't really do Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. I'm not sure I've ever seen Star Trek. But Dr. Who speaks to me. Maybe its because a majority of the episode is about the story of the main characters or that they are doing good with their time. Loving London certainly has an impact on it. But I have grown to love the show. I get sad when the Doctor's companions leave....loosing the Ponds was extremely hard. I get invested in the Doctor. (Who here still doesn't miss David Tennant?....not that Matt Smith isn't good.)

Another thing that makes Dr. Who appeal to me? I got introduced to it while studying abroad with some of my closest friends. Well, I suppose if we are being literal, I was introduced to a Dalek cake and a few bottles of beer. But the same friends introduced to me to the Dr. Who TV show once we came home. To still be watching five and a half years later is pretty special!

TV Shows That Need A Reboot

With the Boy Meets World remake coming up, and with seeing Sally Field in a movie preview, I started thinking of shows that need to have a reunion.

1. Full House
2. Brothers and Sisters
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. TLR
5. The West Wing
6. Six Feet Under
7. ER

What would you add?

AFSP Update

I have blogged about my volunteer work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in the past. This fall, in addition to being a chairperson for the Community Outreach and Education Committee, I became a Board Member for the Illinois Chapter! I am so excited to help this great organization in a great way!

Fiesta!

Today I received the new Fiestaware I ordered with some birthday presents. As it is every time I get new Fiesta, it was like Christmas! Big dork, I know...but if Joe can do his car thing, I think I can do a dishes thing.

I have a place setting in the new Flamingo, including a bread and butter plate, fruit bowl, ramekin and trivet. The utility tray (a new piece!),  a large canister and a small one, to complete a set I started a few months ago. I also have two replacement glasses....apparently they easily slip out of hands :)

I'm Proud

I am only 27, but in those 27 years I have seen lots of changes in society that I am proud of.

1. I am proud to be alive for the first African American president. This thought is NOT political. I am just proud that society has moved far enough past racism (its not perfect yet) that we can elect a non-white person to lead our nation.
2. I am proud that our soldiers able to talk about PTSD and get help for it. Again, we aren't nearly as far along as I would like to be, but those men and women are willing to give our lives for the rest of us and need to be taken care of.
3. I proud that psychiatric illnesses are being coming less taboo to talk about and receive medical help for.

Yes, at the moment this is a short list. But all of these are very significant to me. I can only imagine what else will happen in my lifetime!

Vote!

Crazy short post today. I forgot about NaBloPoMo until just now...

Please go vote tomorrow!!

Fakesgiving

I decided I wanted to cook a full blown Thanksgiving dinner. Then I realized my fridge is full of food for another party I am throwing on Tuesday. So I invited some friends over to join our celebration and cut down on left overs!

Here is the menu:

Turkey Breast (A frozen cook in the bag thing from Target...it was my only option)
Sweet Potato Casserole--- my aunt's recipe
My Oma's Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Butternut Squash
Salad -- with dried cranberries substituting the dried cherries
Cranberry Sauce
Store bought rolls
Store bought apple pie


Slightly over board? Yes, I think so. Oops!

Schedule

I do crazy things to my schedule. People think I'm a little nutty. Example: throwing our House Warming and Joe's 30th Birthday Party within three weeks of each other. In addition tomorrow I am having a small Fakesgiving (basically an excuse for me to cook a huge dinner), having a friend over for a food and tequila filled election night party and having my grandma from Wisconsin come over for a dinner in two weeks. I spent a ridiculous amount of money on food the past three days. I was visiting my grandma and wanted to take advantage of the no food tax in Wisconsin to stock up on party non perishables and the alcohol I'd need for all said events....I'm sure that whatever the Wisconsin liquor tax is less than Crook County's.

In other scheduling news, I also have two AFSP events coming up. Including Survivors of Suicide Day November 17. I will be going back to work a seasonal job in about a week as well. My cousin and I have also set a date for our annual Christmas baking day. Oh! And it looks like one of Joe's friends will be staying with us for the second half of December.

I know this is all pretty boring to read, but my calendar looks nutty! And this is just slightly more chaotic then usual. I don't do bored well.

Tomorrow I will post some of the Fakesgiving recipes I used! Yum!