call me julia

One of the things on my goal list was to take a cooking class with Ryan.  I signed us up for a French cooking class as a Christmas present but we waited until now because I was anxious about leaving the baby.  It actually worked out since it fell only a few days after our wedding anniversary so it was nice to have a real date.  The class was at Sur La Table in the Court at King of Prussia. All of the other participants were older women and of course they all loved Ryan.

We made a frisée salad with poached eggs and lardons which was salad of somewhat bitter greens with a hot bacon vinaigrette.  So basically bacon and eggs on a salad.  Neither Ryan nor I had ever poached an egg before.  The salad was amazing and really not hard at all to make.

The main dish was Coq au Vin which was basically chicken and vegetables cooked in a red wine sauce in a Dutch oven.  The side was Haricot Vert (French green beans) with grainy mustard sauce.  Both of these foods were AMAZING.  

We forgot to take a picture of dessert which was an apple clafouti.  It was sort of a cross between an apple crepe and an apple custard.  That was Ryan's favorite part of the meal and he is so not a dessert person.  I will definitely make the dessert again.

It was a fun date night and a chance to try some foods we might not have tried before.  

Frankenstorm is coming!

So if you are anywhere near theeast coast at all you know it's all about getting ready for Hurricane Sandy right now.  Isaac already has school cancelled for Monday and Tuesday (as usual, my school district is still in session, despite the govenor declaring PA to be in a state of emergency). 

I learned a new fact about Ryan: he is obsessed with being prepared for extreme weather conditions.  He was concerned that I have no flashlights in my house.  Then I remembered that my mom had made me and Isaac 72 hour kits as a Christmas present about 5 years ago and I had only a vague notion of where I had store them and no idea what was in them.  So we drug them upstairs and went through them.

These are what they look like:

I believe most of these things were ordered from a website called The Ready Store.  Like I said, they were a gift from my mom, so I am not too sure about pricing or anything like that. 

 I will show you what we discovered in the kits. 

Panchos, hand warmers, candy (I am assuming to keep your blood sugar up, but the candy in my kit was all melted), little flash light, matches, emergency blanket,  a card with survival tips. There was also water purifiying tablets, but I don't see them in this picture. Then  the top the photo are pouches of drinking water and, this gross block of lard or something that you can break pieces off and eat every few hours. 

SO GROSS.  I would have to be in some serious dire straights to eat that. 

The only thing in the front pocket of the backpack was this whistle.

The other backpack was FILLED with all kinds of supplies.  There was this little tent.  Who knows how to set it up, but I guess if we really needed shelter this could do in a pinch...

There was this candle that burns for 100 hours-- could be pretty handy to have this week as I am sure we will lose power at some point.

This backpack was filled with food...

More candy... tons of MRE in those brown boxes and lots of random little foil packets of foods.  The one pictures above is "fortified snack bread"... whatever the heck that is.  I am sure if I am hungry enough, I would eat it.

Most of this looked totally disgusting... but I was kind of excited about those little squarish packets on the top right.  They are COOKIES.  Does my mom know me or what?  There were also lots of these little kits baggies with napkins and plastic silverware.

 More first aid supplies...

More handwarmers...

And finally, the ever important roll of TP. 

I was feeling rather prepared when Ryan discovered another rolling suitcase in my garage that turned out to be a part of the kit too.  BONUS.

The outside pocket had another roll of toilet paper.  And this is what we saw when we opened it up:



It looked like food we might actually WANT to eat!!!

Unfortuneatly, pretty much all of the food was expired.  This is the pile of stuff we had to throw out: apple sauce, Chef Boyardee, granola bars, juice boxes, cereal, canned tuna and chicken salad. The next picture shows the stuff we were able to save:

Pretty self explanatory except for the little bottle. 

So I definitely need to replace the food that actually looks APPETIZING that expired.  Ryan and I also discussed adding a heavy duty flashlight, a change of clothes for each family member, possibly some cash in case ATMS are down, and some additional batteries.

What do you do to be prepared in extreme weather?



New Year's Resolutions?

So one of my New Year's resolutions was to start eating a healthy breakfast. During the week I almost never eat breakfast. That leaves me famished by the time snack rolls around and then I end up scrounging in my desk drawers for stray Hershey Kisses or picking random stuff from the vending machine the faculty room. When I did eat breakfast before school, it didn't fall even close to the "healthy" category. So I picked up some yogurt and some instant oatmeal packets determined to learn to like something healthy for breakfast. And since then this is what I've had for breakfast pretty much every day once I get to work: Yogurt was just okay, but my friend Jami suggested mixing in some granola and I LOVE it. I'm a weirdo in that I don't mind eating the same thing every day, so this works. I debated picking up one of those ones with extra live cultures or whatever for digestion, but I was worried it would taste different or something. Is that true? How have you been holding up with your New Year's Resolutions?

lazy sunday morning

Yesterday I got my car inspected. It needed some work but Tom was able to get me a really great deal on parts (like, I think I paid 25% of what they would have charged a regular customer who came in the front door), and of course he doesn't charge me labor. He's pretty much the best brother ever. I'm so proud of him and how successful he is. He's such a hard worker and such a caring person. He also really has no shame which used to embarass me a little bit when we were kids, but cracks me up no as he dances around the shop singing Neil Diamond at that top of his lungs with no qualms at all.

I am so glad to have that taken care of. For the first time in recent memory, it doesn't need brakes (it's a Christmas miracle! I am notoriously hard on brakes...) I got two new tire ties, he fixed my sunken four way button on my dash, put in a new turn signal switch (so my car no longer continuously ticks like a bomb when I'm driving around... felt kind of omnious...) and changed my oil. I'm going to need two new tires within the next few months and there is something with the transmission we are keeping an eye on, but for now, the Alero lives on at 167, 542 miles.

While I was hanging around the shop one of the salesman found me and tried to get me to consider a new car. As long as the Alero is running, I'm going to drive it. I don't know how I will afford a car payment again. The guy in the bay across from Tom was working on a Chevy Cruze. I might consider one of those, after some time has passed, if I can find one that is a year old or so. I'll let someone else take the depreciation hit, I think.

While he was working on my car I finished off "Fly Away Home" by Jennifer Weiner. I found a copy in a thrift store near my mom for only 2 bucks. It's the only book of hers left I haven't read, and this one didn't disappoint either. I'm also so exicted that my friend Selena is reading The Hunger Games. I loved the books and I am so excited for the movies, but NONE of my friends have read them. And she loves them.

Anyways, from there I met perfect on paper guy for lunch. Even though I am not interested in him romantically, I do like him and do want to be friends with him, even if there are certain things about him that are quite irritating. We had a nice lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (I had huevos rancheros-- so yummy!!!). He brought me a calendar he had made for me with photographs he had taken. We wandered around the mall for a bit after that.

Then I met my girlfriends for dinner at the vegan chinese buffet in Malvern, which was also delicious. I love that I have such interesting friends. My friend Jami has gotten really into gymnastics and has joined a team and is competing in meets. My friend Selena is becoming a certified tobacco prevention specialist. She helps workplaces go smoke-free and also helps people to quit. Her area of focus is smokers with mental health diagnosis such as schizophrenia. And I was home and in bed by 11:30, because I'm old.

I have a ton more stuff to blog about, but I'll have to get to it later. Have a great day everyone!

Hey look!

I baked something and it actually turned out delicious! I've tried a few things from The Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook and been pretty successful. I was supposed to take a dessert along to a little BBQ this past weekend, so I figured I would give this recipe a try.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Rounds

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup of peanut butter*

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts**

* I used all natural organic peanut butter

** I realized once I started that I didn't have any of these on hand, so I just substituted 1 cup of chocolate chips, because, you can't make anything worse by adding chocolate chips, right?

1. Mix butter and peanut butter with a mixer on high for 30 secs or until combined. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats and peanuts (or chocolate chips!).

2. Drop rolled dough 2 inches apart on un greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 degree oven about ten minutes.

They were really yummy. I definitely plan on trying them again with the cocktail peanuts too.

...Fourth of July....

First of all, how amazing is this cake that Hayley brought home from the bakery where she works? The burger is airbrushed rice krispy treat. It was so cute we almost felt bad eating it.

whirlwind

What a crazy weekend! Friday night my mom and I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Fulton theater in Lancaster. I had never been there before and had pretty low expectations. Especially since I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the West End in London. I was pleasantly surprised, however. The Fulton was a beautiful old building and the production was great.

The next day I met up with a good friend from college, Nicole. She was in town visiting her father. That has been a fun part of my parents moving to the Lancaster area: we end up in town a lot of times for holidays. I had only intended to stay an hour or two but it was so pleasant floating around in her pool that I ended up spending most of the afternoon there. I had put sunscreen on my face but I ended up up with a bad burn on my chest.

After that I dashed off to a graduation party at the TrueDeeva's house and spent the afternoon giggling at her former mother in law's antics being shocked at how much all of the kids had grown up. I think her daughter was in first grade the last time I saw her, and now she looks like a young lady, ready to go off to middle school. I managed to avoid drama with Isaac's daddy (We had both been invited and I had asked that we go at different times because I thought that might confuse Isaac. His dad didn't like that suggestion, but it worked out in the end.)

From there I met up with my friends Becca and Jami. She is officially moved into her house in Fishtown. It was such a nice night that we ended up wandering around the city from place to place. We checked out Stephen Starr's newest place Frankford Hall. Although I don't have much use for a beer garden, it was a really neat place, with a huge outdoor courtyard and ping pong tables and girls walking around selling huge pretzels. We also walked to PYT in Northern Libs but was disappointed by horrible service. Seriously, the worst service I have had in ages. We were this close to just walking out, which is a shame because the food was really good.

Sunday I squeezed in a walk with my friend Kim, before we were back to Lanc for a nice meal with my dad. Joe grilled steaks and I had a turkey burger. At first I was sad and it was one of the first times int he past year that I really found myself wanting to eat red meat. But once they were there on the table, they looked less appetizing and I was fine with my turkey burger. It was a great weekend.

Bring it to the table, bring what I am able

Firstly, in the spirit of fairness, I should feel like I should disclose that Isaac's dad DID show up yesterday after work. And I gave them some ideas on what to do to entertain themselves and then went upstairs and did my own thing, instead of lingering around trying to facilitate interactions. So that was good.

Secondly, what the heck is going on with Blogger? The spacing and formatting keys have been messed up for weeks now. Spell checker doesn't work. What the heck?! I'm getting tired of formatting everything myself with html. Get your act together Blogger!!!!

Anyways, onto what I really want to talk about. After watching The Human Experience, I was feeling really bummed. I was so inspired to, like, go to Calcutta and work amongst the impoverished. I was feeling rather discouraged because I'm not someone, like my sister, that gets called on to drop everything and go to places like North Carolina, and just get busy serving humanity where there is a huge need. I want to do something service oriented that feels really important.

Anyways, yesterday was the culmination of the a big food drive I helped organize at church for the North Coventry Food Bank. We met to load up everything and bring it all over to the pantry. There is a couple who is called to work with the YSAs and he is a night manager for Target. He arranged for Target to donate all of their damaged stuff from the month of April to the pantry. I expected a few ripped boxes of trash bags and maybe a couple of cases of toilet paper. He showed up with a *huge* truck load of diapers, paper towels, sandwich bags, laundry detergent, baby wipes, and cleaning supplies. This was in addition to the food that we had been able to collect from the congregation. We met the lady at the food pantry and unloaded it all.

I had spoken with her on a phone a few times to make arrangements but I didn't know where the pantry was. Turns out, it is less than 3 minutes away from where I live-- just a little storage room in the basement of the township building. She was so appreciative and sweet. She said that they never get significant donations this time of year and that she was overwhelmed by the amount that we had brought her.

Times are tough for everyone, and money is always tight for me. My budget is so tight that any unexpected expense feels like an emergency. But I have so much to be grateful for. I have never had a situation where I didn't have food to eat or put on the table for Isaac. I also have a supportive family who I know I could turn to if my financial situation ever became truly dire. It was very humbling to think that there are 90 families in my immediate area who depend on the foodbank to get by. The whole experience reminded me of a quote I heard once by C.S. Lewis. I tried to find it to share it exactly, but I can't find it. Anyways, it was essentially saying that one of the tricks of the devil is to let you think that you can only be effective if you are providing relief to people across the world, and thus you ignore the needs of people right under your own nose-- pretty much my exact attitude.

Not to toot my own horn here (too much) but I guess it was just a nice little affirmation. I may not be able to volunteer in an orphanage in Ghana like my sister, but I *can* do things that are important to people who live right around me. I organized an effort that filled up the food pantry that is right in my own backyard. That food might end up on the tables of kids in Isaac's class. Hopefully in the summer when my schedule open's up a bit more I can devote some more time to helping out there or at the Cluster of Religious Communities in Pottstown. It's so easy to get trapped in that self centered mindset of "me, me, me". I really want to make a concerted effort to try to focus on others' needs.

Anyways, that's all for now. Spring break is over and back to the grind of the school year. I just need to push on a little longer until June.

This is what happens...

when I clean out my fridge...

I inherited all of my parents condiments when they moved last summer.

And I was horrified today to discover how many were well beyond their expiration dates.

Next to tackle: the medicine cabinet.

Christmas and some other unexpected expenses (coughcoughspeedingticketcoughcough) along with just a desire to get a better grip on my finances has me trying to get serious about reducing expenses . But it's hard!!! Also, here are my hang-ups: * I'm freaking busy. And when I come home from work I'm hungry. I don't want to spend a ton of time cooking a big dinner after a long day at work. Also, although I get that it can be cheaper to make things from scratch I also have to factor in the time that it will take. My time is worth a lot to me. I won't sacrifice three hours to save three bucks. * It's really just me eating. Isaac is horrendously picky (that's a whole 'nother blog post). There is no point in making a big casserole. Even if I eat it for lunch and dinner the next three days I will never finish it. I need small portions. And sometimes I am just too lazy to make a whole elaborate meal with sidedishes etc. just for me to eat. Also, buying in bulk seems so silly when it's just me. * I'm not that great of a cook. I'm improving, but I don't have a solid foundation of homemaking skills to build on. So I stumbled across this article: 35 Ways to Reduce that Grocery Budget . Click on the link to see all of the author's links within the article. Here is the article and my reactions:

• Buy the least expensive ground beef and rinse the meat to reduce the fat content. I never would have thought of this but I'll give it a try. I usually buy ground turkey instead of ground beef.
• Stop buying baby carrots and cut the carrots yourself. I should totally do this. I'm so lazy though.
• Milk your milk budget by using powdered milk when milk prices are too high. Not really applicable. I only buy soy milk for Isaac to drink and milk occasionally for cooking. This one doesn't really appeal to me.
• Try making your own coffee creamers and syrups to save on your coffee expenses. Not applicable. Don't drink coffee.
• Dispose of disposable items and switch to cloth napkins, washclothes and microfiber cloths to replace your disposable wipes and paper napkins. I should do this. I am better with using cloths for wiping the counters now(it used to totally gross me out). I need to buy cloth napkins too. I don't have them.
• Try to make your own bread using a bread machine or making bread the old fashioned way. Haven't done this. I would give it a shot though. However, I don't eat a lot of bread. If I don't remember to toss the bag in the freezer it usually grows mold before I finish it. Also, I am worried that baking my own bread might take more time than it would be worth in dollar savings. Does that make sense? I'd try though.
• Start keeping a price book to cash in on the best deals. I've been meaning to do this forever. I don't have that many grocery stores around here but there is Target, and Weis. I generally shop at the Giant. I would like to at least get a baseline price for the stuff I normally buy.
• Take advantage of grocery delivery options or free in-store shopping services to help avoid impluse shopping. I will freely admit that I am an impulse shopper. It is worse when I take along another impulse shopper (Isaac). And having groceries delivered is terribly appealing.
• Give wholesale shopping a try for items that you use frequently, just be sure to use your price book to compare the prices. Joining Costco has been on my to-do list forever too, if for nothing else than the tires and the discount movie tickets.
• Start making homemade cleaners. I would give this a try. Goes hand in hand with the "going green" thing too.
• Learn the art of stockpiling and create a system for storing your stockpile that works for your family. I need to get better at this too. My idea of foodstorage is helping myself to my parents pantry.
• Try using coupons and utilizing free coupon services to help you score the best deals for your money. I try to make coupons work-- I really do. They are all over my house. They are stuck inside my purses. They are expired in envelopes in my car. But I don't think they really help me save money. I don't want to buy two of something to save 35 cents. And the store brand is usually cheaper than the discount that I get with coupon, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't get it. I can't make it work.
• Start gardening with simple foods that are easy to grow like tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and squash. I really, really wanted to do this this year but it never happened. I am definitely doing it this coming year. My gardener friend Andrew said he would help me get things going, so that is exciting. I'm so on board with this one.
• Make your own baby food. Not applicable, but I am totally interested in doing it if I ever have the chance to have another go round with a second baby.
• Give cloth diapering a shot! They have come a long way and can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars! Same comments as above.
• Sign up free samples of food and toiletry items. You will waste less money trying out new products and these samples can get you through when times are more lean. Not so sure about this one. I don't usually remember to use the samples. Also, getting samples usually puts you on annoying e-mail and mailing lists.
• Make your own mixes instead of buying. I love this one. I would love to do this. My mom went to a class on how to do this and I need to get her to give me a tutorial.
• Try shopping at a less expensive supermarket. I have done this to a certain extent. When I lived at my parents I shopped much more at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Now I pretty much only shop at Giant because it is big, clean, close by and new. The Weis and the Aldi's that are near me just seem icky. However, in the name of cutting costs I may need to stop being so snobby. Hopefully the pricebook will help me decide if I should change up my grocery shopping or not.
• Bring your own grocery bags for a grocery bag credit at most supermarkets. Eh. I have a million of those cloth grocery bags and although I have the best intentions I rarely remember to take them to the supermarket with me. Last time I checked they were giving you 5 cents a bag which doesn't seem to add up to that much of a savings. I bring 10 bags and I save a whopping 50 cents.
• Shop at a store that will double your coupons. I guess this assumes you are using coupons. I know the Giant will double ones under a dollar.
• Bring cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card. This will help you stay on a budget better. Oh I should totally do this. The debit card gets me in trouble a lot because I don't often bother to balance my checkbook.
• Utilize a slow cooker so you can buy cheaper cuts of meat and use the slow cooker to tenderize them. I don't have a slow cooker. But it is something I am interested in looking into.
• Make your own condiments like pancake syrup, croutons, and salad dressings. I'm willing to give this a shot assuming I don't have to buy a lot of crazy ingredients and again assuming the time it takes to do this is worth the savings in money.
• Take inventory in your fridge, pantry and freezer to avoid buying repeat and unnecessary items. I could do better at this. I often buy doubles. I also have something halfway made and then realize I am missing an important ingredient.
• Try replacing one evening meal with breakfast foods instead. Most brunch dishes are less expensive and you can omit or stretch meat in these dishes a lot further. I think I've mastered this one! I thought I was just being lazy though. "Hmm, I don't feel like making meat tonight for dinner... How about we have waffles instead?"
• Instead of buying prepackaged bagged ingredients, try prepackaging your own ingredients once a week instead. It will help get dinner on the table faster and save you money on your grocery budget. Doing this helps the portion issue and the time issue I mentioned at the beginning. I would be very interested in this. Anyone have ideas?
• Schedule a day in your kitchen every week to make cooking easier and to save money buying convience foods. So this would be the time to make your dishes and your dinners in a bag. I have done this before but I would like to get it scheduled in more regularly. I'm thinking either Sundays, or the Saturdays that Isaac goes to his dad's. I don't think a week night would realistically happen.
• Make a homemade pizza instead of buying a frozen one. I do this one about half the time. I have bags of frozen pizza dough, cheese and sauce. It doesn't take long to slap them together.
• Give once a month cooking a try to save time/money. Same as above.
• Eliminate meat or make one night a meat free night. I have been trying to reduce the amount of meat we eat (especially red meat). I need to do better at increasing the veggies though. I find my meat free meals are just variations of pasta.
• Make snack items more convenient so you don't have to buy prepackaged goodies. I don't buy tons of snack items. I would like to make my snack items more healthy. This will come into play more when I have to start packing Isaac a lunch again I'm sure.
• Buy your meat in bulk. I do this already. Ideally in the future I would love another freezer to store things in. My freezer is on the small side.

So do any of you have reactions or comments? Other tips? Lay 'em on me.

Dinner tonight...

Included these: delicious loaded mashed potatoes (they tasted amazing and they were so, so, easy) and these dinner rolls (with about a million more frozen in the freezer for future use). Thanks Thompson girls. I am contemplating making something pumpkin for dessert. Maybe there is hope for this undomestic goddess after all. =)