Yum!!!!

The other day, I was flipping through a back issue of Better Homes & Gardens, and a recipe jumped off the page at me. Tonight, I thought "what the heck?" and made "Nutty Meatless Loaf."

Don't be fooled by the name. It's not actually a loaf, so I'm not sure why they call it that .... but boy is it tasty. With a big glass of milk and an apple!

Growing up, we didn't really utilize beans or lentils as a protein source, but I have to admit, I love them! Because A) they're easy to store. B) they don't spoil and C) they're way cheap compared to meat.

On THE RECIPE, I didn't do the chutney because it's not "Karen friendly" at this point in my life, but gosh does it sound good. Even without the chutney, it was really flavorful. A bit crumbly, but that's what you get when you forget to spray the pan and then try to wrestle it out in one piece. Oh well. :)

Crossover — crazy-busy

If you think I've been neglecting our little blog, well, let me just tell you it's not the only thing in my life I'm neglecting right now.

But, if you've been on the Heartland Blog lately, you'll know I've been B-U-S-Y.



With Rachel & Jarrod's engagement photos.


With this adorable family (well, the kids anyway!)


And with Kim.

I have loads more editing and slideshow making to do, and our wedding season starts Saturday .... so it's organized chaos around here! :)

I might be a little crazy ...

This food adjustment has been interesting. And part of it is to minimize leftovers (lucky I'm married to Erik, who is the leftover eating machine!). But some leftovers are just plain HANDY. Take, for example, chicken broth. I love to use it in soups and to make couscous.

Previously, I'd been freezing it in about 1-cup increments, but I don't always NEED that much. Especially when making couscous. My solution? ICE CUBE TRAYS!!!! :)

I put the broth in the 'fridge, skimmed off the fat, then put it into the trays and froze it. Now I have a few dozen broth cubes in the freezer, and they're mighty easy to use! Just pop 2 into a pot, melt, add 1/2 cup of water + couscous and we have a Karen-sized portion.

I gotta admit, I feel awfully smart about this one.

My mom's friend tells me the metal trays are way better to use for this, but I don't have any. But I'll be keeping an eye out. :)

Any crazy-smart shortcuts in your kitchen you care to share?

Babysitting

I'm babysitting my friend's chickens while he's on vacation. He lives about 4 blocks away, and I'm headed over to see the ladies (evidently in Salina, you can have up to 12 chickens within the city limits ... who knew???!?!?!??!).

Yeah, I'm cool. ;)

No real point to this post. Just total randomness ...

Life in a comedy sketch

Sometimes, I wonder if I grew up in a bad comedy sketch. Last week, I was talking with my parents, and the conversation turned very confusing. Confusing as in I was saying one thing, but dad was hearing and repeating another. Sheesh. Eventually, I made a sarcastic "Who's on First?" comment, and the conversation went downhill from there. ;)

It's been YEARS since I've seen the skit, so last night, I looked it up. My mom, brother-in-law and I had a good, long laugh.

So, if you need a laugh, or even little giggle:



And more evidence that I might be living in a bad comedy skit: Mom came in from walking this morning

Mom: "It's so lovely outside. It's 60 degrees, the birds are singing ...."
Dad: "What about the turtles?"

Don't try to think about it or see the sense or logic. Just join me in a good eye roll or groan. ;)

Hey CRAZY LADY!!!!

"Hey crazy lady, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU???!??!??!"

My legs and feet were screaming at me.

They begged.

They pleaded.

They wanted a divorce. A trial separation.

Or at the very least, a night off.

But no. Not tonight. There was one more picture to take.

Today was spent walking. And walking. And walking. A nice 45-minute walk with a friend near his college. Then about 3 hours with another friend around Washington D.C. Well, if you eliminate the 20 minutes we spent sprawled out on the benches, as well as eating ice cream and drinking Dr. Pepper, it was probably more like 2 hours and 15 minutes or something was spent walking in the city. But close enough.

So, my legs. They were begging. They'd gone at least 6 miles, and when on a normal day, they go 1/2 mile at most, they were definitely OVER WORKED!

But no.

On Friday when I arrived in DC, I saw a photograph I wanted to take.

For me.

With my departure in the morning, tonight was the night, 6 miles walk bedarned.

My legs and feet wanted nothing to do wtih anything other than a hot bath and epsom salt. But I reached for my sneakers. And my calves screamed.

I loosened the laces, and my feet cursed at me.

I wiggled my toes, readying them for confinement, and they excreted every foul odor they could muster.

But into my shoes they went.

And down the street we went.

To make a picture.

Just for me.

Working!

I'm in DC right now, had an engagement session tonight.

Am wiped out. (and feeling blessed to be able to travel to wonderful locations for work!).

More later.

Census continued

Remember me geeking out about the Census here? Well, a few weeks ago, I was driving, listening to NPR and about screamed and drove off the road when I heard a story about Salina's efforts to get everyone to return their forms on the NATIONAL affiliate of NPR. Not a local story, but it was picked up by NATIONAL. Seriously cool (you can here the story HERE).

Well, because I'm a geeky-geek, I went to the Census Web site to see how Salina's doing. :) (There are 2 more days to mail them back, people, so DO IT!!!!).

Overall, Kansas is rocking out a 71% rate of return.

Saline County and the City of Salina is holding strong at 81%!!!!

Now, there's a list of the top 50 places with the highest returns. But they limit it to cities with more than a 50,000 population. Salina is SO CLOSE to that number. In fact, if we had a 50,000+ population in the last census, we'd be in the top 7-18 cities in the COUNTRY! How cool is THAT? :)


Here are a few maps of places I live/have lived to see the participation rates (coz I'm a geek like that!).


Good, but we can do better than that! ;)


Ah, Hays ....


Look at Salina! My neighborhood has an 84% return!

So, I know there are some sour pusses out there who want the government to buck off. If you are cranky about the current happenings, and I say "be glad we live in America and you can publically grumble about that!" But to people who say "spending is out of control and I won't participate" ... I say the following to you: "By NOT participating, and NOT returning your form, YOU DIRECTLY are costing the government MORE money. Quoting directly from the Census site now: ' If 100% of households mailed back their forms, taxpayers would save $1.5 BILLION dollars.' " ... SOOOOO, don't be a hater.

More information is available at 2010.census.gov. It looks like they want everything returned by April 17, so there's still time, people! :)

The stuff Sunday afternoons are made out of ...

Reading a good book ....

(best if it's Harry Potter!)


And lounging with your honey ...

Aaaand, if you're me, taking beautiful engagement portraits. ;)

I'll post some on the Heartland blog later this week and will be sure to let you know when that happens. :)

The simple things ...

This morning, I made a decision.

I would brew a cup of tea.

I would go outside.

I wold sit.

And I would watch time slip by.

Guess what? I LOVED it! Seriously. Life has been SO busy/chaotic lately, I barely have time to have a full conversation with Erik. Ok, while not ENTIRELY true, more often than not, I find myself running around like a chicken with my head cut off. It's true. So, when I decided to slooooow it down this morning, it was spectacular.

Those of you who have tackled big projects in the homefront will know what I mean when I say how wonderful it was to sit on the patio we'd LABORED to build last summer and just think "all of the hard work is DONE!!!!!" :) Last year at this time, I was thinking and planning and drawing sketches of how I wanted it to look. And now, it's done! Oh, I can't express what a relief it is (Amanda, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right, girl?).

It's interesting how projects evolve. Yes, evolve.

I am a doer. I think of something and I want to do it immediately. But some of these projects have simmered over time, and they're all the better for it.

Last year, I intended to put our rain barrels on the patio itself. But, then we opted to not entirely do that. Well, over the winter, the question of what to do with those barrels simmered. And yesterday when I was at Lowe's, I think the final solution has presented itself. It's hard to explain, but believe me when I say it's going to ROCK! (Ok, anything with EIGHT rain barrels would ROCK, right?) ;) I just need to gather a few more supplies, then it will be full steam ahead with this project.

Also, while we're talking about home improvement ... we're thinking of having the hardwood floors on the main floor redone. And we don't think we'll be doing it ourselves. Any tips/pointers on the process? Anyone?

ps-HOW on earth did this post start with a simple morning on the patio and end up with our hardwood floors? Oh well!

24 hour pantry

Before .... and After! :)

We have this odd little closet in our dining room. It was just empty and wasted space. But not anymore!!!!


Let me start with this above photo of our kitchen. There is a big gap between the cabinets and the ceiling ... so junk has started to amass. Ugh. So the intention with the pantry was to put the slow cooker in there (but it doesn't fit!), but the coffee pot (neither of us drink coffee) does! I also have a good location to store extra cereal and crackers now!

And the growlers you see in the kitchen, well, those will go in a little nook to the left of the door opening. I just have to figure out how to install those shelves.


Now let's talk about my jars.

I love them.

With a variety of grain (steel cut oats, couscous, Israeli couscous, garbanzo beans, navy beans, and the list continues), I don't want to keep a bunch of bags strewn about ... so I hooked it up with mason jars! LOVE THEM! :)


Erik has a whole aside about jars and containers, but that will be another post for another day. I love how I can clearly SEE what's in them. Of course, they probably should be labeled so others know!


I might hoard spices and herbs in the freezer, but Erik hoards salad dressing. Do you need any more proof? Didn't think so.


Close up of a jar.


This last photo seems odd ... but bear with me ... you might remember a random post about our bedroom closet HERE about a bunch of extra holes in the wall ... I remember thinking "what kind of idiot drills a million holes???" WELL, let me tell you how this happens. I now know from first-hand experience. This results when your stud finder is being difficult, won't work, and you know there's a stud in there somewhere .... so you drill several holes to find the dang thing. Sheesh!

This project took less than 24 hours, but we've both been wanting to do it for a LONG time. I really like this ... that we can take a small space, make a BIG change in a small amount of time, and it helps clear clutter and organize other parts of our house.

OH, last comment about this ... the shelves here are actually from the master closet. We tore those shelves out and then cut them down for this closet. How cool is that? So we recycled! I had the white paint from other projects, so we were out less than $10 to get the brackets. How do you like that???? :) So it was a GREEN project!

Baby veggie plants!

Sunday, the baby plants were outside! Actually, they were eventually moved into the front yard to take better advantage of the sun, but you get the idea ...


I gave them in rows, with labels on the end so I know what is what.


A little better view of the plants.

We have a variety of heirloom tomatoes in there, also peppers, eggplants, cucumber, basil ... and I think that's it. But I could be wrong!

Earlier this spring, I put a few plants outside, but the wind TOTALLY kicked them down. Killed a few, so I think putting them in the aquarium outside gives them exposure to the elements, but protection from the crazy wind we're having around here.

Esse's new bed

About a month ago, I was downtown, and saw a random bench sitting in a store downtown. It didn't really look like it belonged to anyone or anywhere, so I asked the store owner about it. He was storing it for a friend. I told him if his friend wanted to part with it, I'd be happy to give it a good home.

So several weeks later, I got a call! Honestly, I'd forgotten about the bench, but the price was right, so it is OURS now!

When we went to pick it up, I was a little nervous that it wouldn't fit at the end of our bed. We've been wanting something to sit on and tie our shoes, etc., but hadn't found anything suitable.

But when we got it home, it fit perfectly!

AAAAAAND, bonus of all bonuses, we moved the cat's blanket to the bench, and after only one time of removing her from the foot of the bed and putting her on the bench, SHE SLEEPS THERE ALL NIGHT!!!!! Her sleeping on my feet prohibits my wiggling, tossing and turning, so I'm very excited about her relocation!

I tried to get a photo of Esse on "her" bench, but she wasn't interested in sitting still. But here was our best attempt:


Oh, and we have a new comforter .... it's not shown to its best here, because I was trying to get a photo of the cat .... but you get the idea.

Now, I need to find some nightstands ....

Easter tidbits

ALLELUIA!!!!! :)

I'm celebrating Easter around here ... by painting the closet in the dining room. Festive, I know. ;)

This is one of the first years I've not been to the "traditional" family thing. It makes me a bit sad, but I'm glad my family is chill enough to not make a big deal out of it. To all of you who are racing around to 2+ places for Easter, I tip my hat to you. And I'll do it from the comfort of my very own couch.

Yesterday, I helped a friend's dad set some fence posts. Exciting, no? ;) After setting 4 posts during our patio addition, I have a very healthy respect for what's involved. So I figured "what the heck? I know what I'm doing, and I'm not doing anything else. Why not help?" And I have to say I'm GLAD I did .... because I encountered a new and freakin awesome tool (yes, girls, I get excited about tools!). Are you ready for it???


Now, I realize it looks a bit odd, but you set it flush against your post, and don't have to keep moving the level around. It's way cool.


Not that I particularly desire to install a fence of my very own, but if I ever decided to get serious about it, you can bet I'd spend the $6 it costs to have this gem.

Easter Dress

Remember when you were little ... this time of year it was always time to search for a new Easter dress? (For us, it was an annual tradition.)

Over the weekend, I was chatting with some friends, and we were talking about this.

She said she still goes to get an Easter dress.

I kind of like it. Not that some people *need* an excuse to buy a new dress. But I generally find myself on Easter just staring and thinking "hmmm, I've had that for 8 years. This for 4 or 5 ... nothing really "appropriate" to wear for Easter." ... but knowing other big girls still make the annual trip/tradition, I kind of like it.

Probably won't do it this year, but it's something to think about for next year.

Happy Holy Thursday!