You want me to do what?

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but this new thing I am trying is one of the scariest, dangerous and most difficult things I have to do in a while.  I am trying to… (Pause here for effect)… eat LEFTOVERS.  I know, I know. You’re asking yourselves, “How can she do this?”  But it’s true.  For those of you who know me, you know that I cannot STAND to have my food touching.  I know it all goes to the same place in the end, but I just can’t get over it!  My biggest fear happens every year at Thanksgiving. Someone always puts their mashed potatoes on the same plate as their Jell-O, things start to run, and you can just imagine the horror that ensues… Really?  Cherry-tinged potatoes?  Ugh.  I am gagging just thinking about it.

So as picky as I am about my food on the first day, I am especially picky about it on the second or third day.  Nothing ever tastes the same after it has sat in the fridge all night.  And it usually doesn’t get eaten the next day anyways, because who wants to eat the same thing two days in a row?  I am now trying to repurpose leftovers into other things, so our menu stays exciting and we're using things up instead of tossing them out.  Some homemade salsa from last week (made from our own veggies!) was added to chili, giving it the extra little kick it needed.  Left over boiled potatoes were added to breakfast the next day, along with eggs, cheese, onions and peppers.  My mama is an expert at taking any sort of left over and turning it into a fabulous soup, so that is next on my list.

Banana bread might not sound like an adventure to most of you, but there was a time when I could not imagine using a brown banana for anything other than the trash.  But that was the old me.  The new and improved me has discovered that there is a place in this world for rotten bananas – and that place is in my stomach!  In a time where brown bananas used to mean the garbage can, now they mean only one thing – banana bread. The sight and oh, the smell of banana bread can brighten anyone’s day.  So here you go.  This is a basic, but very tried and true banana bread recipe.  You could also add nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips if you want.

Banana Bread

4 small bananas

1 cup sugar

1 lg egg

1 ½ cup + 2 tblsp flour

1/3 cup butter

¾ tsp baking soda

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Mix wet ingredients, and then slowly add dry ingredients.  Pour into lightly greased bread pan, and bake 55-60 minutes. 



A work in progress...



My oven is older, and I used my stoneware, so I usually have to bake mine for an hour and 10 minutes.  But just keep an eye on it, and check it often – it is SO worth the wait!



Is your mouth watering yet?



And if you don’t have any extra bananas sitting around, I will share some of my bread with you…  ENJOY!!

Mmmm... the breakfast of champions

Our Bountiful Life



This year was our first attempt at having our own garden. I was so excited to be able to walk out back and pick fresh veggies for dinner whenever I needed them.  I LOVE salads and figured this summer would be a perfect time to lose some weight, so in the spring we planted 30 heads of lettuce, carrots, spinach and cucumbers.  Yummy – perfect salad fixings!!  We also had pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, onions, zucchini, green and yellow beans, broccoli and corn. Phew!  The garden was a bit of an overkill for our family of four.  There was no way we were going to be able to eat all of these veggies!  But the kids had a blast helping us plant everything, and it became routine for us to all go out and check for any new sprouts.  The hubby and I would spend hours picking weeds from between the rows. Sometimes we would talk and sometimes we wouldn’t, but it didn’t matter because we were there together and working towards a common goal.  It was quality family time for all of us, and something that we all desperately needed, whether we knew it or not.

                                                                                               Here they come...

All of our veggies came up perfectly.  Although I guess I wasn’t really thinking that they were all going to come up at the same time.  Really?  30 heads of lettuce?  We couldn’t have eaten all of it before it went bad even if we were a family of rabbits.  So in the end, we ended up giving a lot of our loot away.  Whenever ANYONE came over, they had to leave with a bag of nutritional goodies.  People asked us why we didn’t have a vegetable stand, but out here in the country there is a vegetable stand practically every five feet going down the road.  And besides, it felt good to be able to give something back to the people that mattered so much to our family.  Even if you don’t have a lot, there is always something that you can do or say or give to someone else.  What a great lesson for the kids.  You don’t have to spend a ton of money to show others that you care – it’s the small things (unless you are talking about my zucchini) that matter most!

                                                            The hubby trying to carry our loot

                                                           A zucchini the size of a 2 year old!

 

 

Yummy!!



H with her pumkins



                                                                      



 



Adventures in Crocheting

One of my most recent attempts to save some cash was to teach myself to crochet.  I would love to make some hats for the kiddos, and I am DYING to make H a pair of leg warmers. You can teach yourself to do anything with a little time and youtube.  I figured the easiest thing I could do was to make myself some new dishcloths, especially since my old ones were from the pre-husband and kids era (and completely full of gaping holes.) And really, could it be that hard to make a square?

So obviously, when I got to the yarn section of the over-sized super center, I went to straight to the yarn that… matched my kitchen of course!  I paid no attention to what it was made of, the size, anything.  But the browns, creams and maroons in the Cherry Chip yarn I picked out were going to look fabulous as I washed my dishes with my new dishcloths.  I needed a hook too, and I picked one out that I thought looked like it would work nicely.  Hmmm… letters and numbers on top of the package… I wonder what those mean?  Oh well.  The one I picked was an awesome shade of metallic purple, and you can never go wrong with metallic purple. 

I raced home and sat in front of the computer with my yarn and needle and put my youtube teacher on pause and repeat until about 2am when I had finished my first masterpiece.  Ummmm, yeah…

                                                                         so sad...

Not only did it look like a trapezoid, but apparently my fabulous Cherry Chip was made out of acrylic – which does not hold water too well - and I left pools of water all over the kitchen table while trying to clean up the next day.  So that evening I brought my sad dishcloth and my defeated attitude to work with me to see if I could get some help.  One of the perks of working at a nursing home is that my residents are a wealth of information on all this old school fun I am getting myself into.  They told me my crochets were WAY too tight, I was missing the last stitch on every row (which is why it was shrinking), and I needed to get 100%cotton yarn for my projects.  I don’t remember Ms. Youtube telling me any of those things.

The next day I went to the local craft store in town and got myself a beautiful new cotton yarn called Early Americana, which will also look fantastic in my kitchen and a new hook (that actually fit the yarn I was using!)   I am now on my third dishcloth, although I think I will have to throw Ms. Cherry Chip out.  Everything is still a work in progress.  Like I said, I am learning as I go.  But I know I have it in me to figure this all out, and I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough and I can pass on this knowledge to her.  It is such a fun and relaxing past time, and at the end you have something truly beautiful to show for it.

Hello out there...

Okay.  So why am I jumping onto the blogging bandwagon?  Is it because I need a little free therapy?  Maybe.  Is it because I am hoping to find some kindred spirits out there in online outer space?  Of course.  But I guess mostly I have to admit that I feel as though something is missing in my life.  I feel like I should be doing more or contributing more to my family – as if carrying two kids for nine months, cooking, cleaning, loving, helping, caring, working, and trying to be the best mother and wife possible aren’t enough, right?

I have just about had it with the “Final Notices” we have been getting in the mail.  I know I am not the only one out there, and I am not too proud to admit it.  My hubby and I SUCK at balancing our checkbook.  There is a lack of communication when it comes to our finances, and we are living completely paycheck to paycheck.  We have done the usual cut backs that most families are doing.  We make our own pizzas on Friday night.  We only go out to eat for the current birthday/anniversary/etc.  I am in LOVE with shopping at Aldi, which is like the cheapest grocery store on the planet.  We grew our own garden this year and put up a clothesline.  I even started making my own laundry detergent!!  It is PHENOMENAL by the way (and works out to cost ONE CENT PER LOAD – are you kidding me??????)  My biggest accomplishment was that I quit smoking.  My vice, my crutch, and  my LOVE.  I do feel better, and I will be a better role model for my kids, the health benefits are great and we will be saving a TON of money.  It has been 3 months now, and although I still want to jump out of a window sometimes, it is getting easier.

But in the midst of all this stress with money issues, our family has really started to come together, and we have realized that the money isn’t really all that matters.  I must admit that I think the only people who say “Money doesn’t buy happiness” are the people that actually have it…  I know that I would be a lot happier if I could pay my bills on time.  But our family is getting back to the basics.  We are spending time together in the garden instead of watching movies.  We are fixing up old things and appreciating the cracks rather than buying new stuff.  I am canning and crocheting and loving it!!

So maybe that’s what this is all about.  My new found old-fashioned lifestyle.  My successes and failures with handmade and homemade.  I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I am willing to try anything because I am LOVING the direction that my life is headed.  I am so excited to start this journey, and to have all of you be a part of it with me. So here it goes.  “My name is Sarah. I am a wife and a mother and I am a blogger.”