Getting outta bed

This morning I STRUGGLED to think of a good enough reason to get out of bed.  Out of bed, there’s coffee, baking and pottering to be done, as well as an intellectually stimulating essay to write.  Today is bread baking day and I am even buying some yarn for a knitting project.  In bed, I was a bit bored, getting depressed and not feeling very cozy, yet I found myself pondering over whether or not coffee would be worth it?  Duh, of course it is!  I know it’s nicer to be up, doing all that fun stuff, than lying in bed where my head goes into all sorts of tangles, based around the one word: “why?” Now that I’m up and about, I’m visibly happier (to myself, if no one else – my coffee was delicious).  

 

Unfortunately, as winter looms, and the weather keeps getting cooler, it will probably get harder.  Please don’t get me wrong, the day we have kids and jobs and things that force me out, I will miss these days.  But at the moment, I am my sole motivator.  Every day.  And that intrinsic motivation is hard to maintain.  Ask any educator. 

Living on a shoestring

Since moving to the States, Jbird and I have been living on not-very-much.  One of the ways I make this work in our weekly budget is by measuring/weighing ingredients.  For example, a box of pasta suggests 56g/2oz per serving.  This does not seem like much when weighed but it’s plenty, especially if you have a thick sauce full of yummies.  We always have leftovers too so the box stretches to at least 12 meals.  I don’t buy the cheapest laundry detergent because it makes my skin disintegrate but I’m sure to only use up to the 1 on the measuring cup, even on a full load.

I want to assure you we also have margins in our weekly budget, or we’d probably explode.  I drink real coffee (every day, more than once a day).    I always get chocolate chips and our desserts are prolific.  Fruit and veges are a priority – but it’s also my priority to use what we buy. Every now and then we buy cream or bacon.  We just don’t use a whole packet of bacon in one sitting.  We get two lovely, crispy slices each.

The wonders of baking soda

I have known of the cleaning properties of baking soda since I was a young girl and my mother suggested it to remove tea stains from a tea cup when I was on dishes (I remember the kitchen and the moment quite vividly).  Recently, a friend mentioned that it’s all she uses to clean.  I had been using a vinegar cleaning solution from the supermarket which I wasn’t all together satisfied with.  Everything needed a lot of scrubbing and some marks just didn’t come off.  Our second-hand microwave always had an appearance of grime.

I was having issues with one of Jbird's shirts.  It's a black one and he needs it all the time in his line of work.  As with much needed shirts, it had a certain smell that wouldn't seem to go away.  I had tried soaking it but it didn't seem to help.  Because I didn’t want to spend money on a stain remover and I knew this shirt had years of use left in it, I looked up natural solutions to removing stains.  Low and behold, a baking soda paste was recommended and it worked wonders.  When I used the left-over paste to clean the floor, I realised there would be no turning back.  Our microwave is now spotless.  Most of the spots on the hand-me-down kettle have come off.  My cloth tan handbag has been revamped.  With cloth, I tend to make up a paste and rub it into the troublesome spot, leave it for a couple hours then put it through a normal wash.  I'm not sure if the leaving it part is important or not but it's working!  You may find a salty residue is left behind on kitchen/bathroom surfaces but it’s easy enough to wipe away next time you get a chance.

It’s an old old remedy I’m happy to reproduce in our little house.  I wonder if you’ve discovered any similar remedies in your life? (If you do a google search, you'll find at least 100 uses for baking soda).

Preparing for winter

Our squash plant shrivelled up and died on us this week!  I knew, when it first sprouted, that it would be too late for any harvest.  It was growing fantastically though, covered in little yellow flowers and huge flat leaves, its finger-like vines winding themselves around the nearest plants.  It did not like the drop in temperature: we had our first frost on the weekend and though we’ve had some glorious, 21 degree C weather, it was also sitting at 3 degrees C last night.  Facebook tells me there was snow in Boston and Baltimore!

I brought in a huge bucket of green grape tomatoes in time for the frost and they’re ripening on our kitchen bench.  I remembered to collect them late at night by the light of a torch (I felt like the great tomato thief!) and I'm looking forward to making some traditional tomato sauce. I’ve also transplanted a basil plant and a mint plant to pots.  I hope they survive as I think I may have been a bit late in the season to do this.

It's time to find room for the rest of the pots inside the apartment.

A Brahms Special

Tonight, I went to a concert for a solo violist, Robert Diaz.  I had no idea what his program would be but before I went I said to Jbird “Wouldn’t it be neat if he played the Brahms Sonata I used to play? I’ve never heard it live.”  Well.  It was a Brahms Sonata concert!  What a lovely surprise.  He played both viola sonatas and a violin one (transcribed for viola).  A sonata is really a conversation between the pianist and instrumentalist.  Now that I have a special interest in piano music, I can appreciate this more.  When I was 18, learning the piece, it was hard for me to hear the conversation as I was concentrating so hard on the notes and then on counting the rests.  Brahms wrote some doozies, these were originally written for the clarinet.  They’re incredibly lyrical and beautiful and they only get better the more you know them.  Look ‘em up!

Increasing the Yummliness

I’ve been meaning to make a plug for this great recipe search engine I use: yummly.com.

It works like the usual recipe websites (my fav. being allrecipes.com, second fav.: epicurious) except that it draws from all of those websites and displays a clear list of recipes that you can choose from, with a list of the ingredients you will need if you choose that recipe.  If you decide you don’t want to use a particular ingredient because you don’t have it, just right click on that ingredient and you can discard it.  This will whittle down what could have been a HUGE list of thousands.  The less specific your search, the more recipes you’ll be offered but it’s a great way to start brainstorming a meal.  When you choose your recipe, there is also the option to choose how many servings you’d like to make and it will do all the lovely maths for you.  The units of measurement seem very accessible (i.e.: no sticks of butter or packets of yeast).   I haven't yet used the columns on the left as Jbird and I eat basically anything but if you have an allergy or a dietary requirement, even a taste preference, yummly is ready to help. This site is fabulous and can be easily forgiven its lack of pretty pictures.

Tonsils, are you there?

For at least a week, maybe longer, I’ve felt as though I was getting food stuck at the very back of my throat.  At first I would try doing that rather uncivilised hoik at the back of my throat to get it out.  Then I’d blow my nose super hard.  Now I kind of squeeze the back of my throat over the lump. 

Since then, I commented on my friend’s fb feed about her tonsils being able to grow back if she gets them removed.  They do, by the way, my friend had his removed TWICE.  Today it dawned on me.  Maybe what I can feel isn’t food.  Maybe my tonsils have grown back!?  I had a look by the light of a torch and there are two round things back there I'm sure are tonsils.  Nobody really has a use for those little guys yet they can be removed and grow back.  I find this fascinating.  Now that I have solved the mystery, I can stop being irritated and get used to having something back there again.

We brought them back from the dead

We bought our very first American pot plant – a kind of burgundy/green creeper – for our first apartment.  I wouldn't let Jbird get any more, that apartment was too small and too depressing.  Let's call it the cave from now on.  Luckily we had so much light in our next apartment, I didn't know what to do with it, and I became a pot-plant-aholic. 

That first poor plant was not looked after very well and it grew soft and weak from being indoors.  It was down to being a stem stuck in some dirt with four leaves for A YEAR. It would not die and it would not grow.  Since I’ve had it here, outdoors and in the sun, it’s grown lovely and healthy into five different plants (at least).  It's all ready to come in and keep our apartment cheery (and the air nice and clean) for the winter.  I hope the dry, still apartment air doesn't shock it too much!

An exciting update: the Meyer Lemon tree which was a bare stick with a few leaves that were falling off and had been overtaken by the capsicum plant (this was mentioned in a previous post - tree spotting).  It recently DOUBLED its leaf population, from 12 to 24. There are early signs of more new growth <phew>.  Lemons next year?  Here’s hoping!

SHHHHH...don't tell!!

World cup fever hasn’t really made it to Bloomington, Indiana.  The timing is all off as the games play in the early hours of the morning here.  Jbird has been able to watch one pre-recorded game on a t.v. screen and we’ve watched two others and highlights, more than 72 hours after the original screening (the earliest you can watch them besides getting up to watch live), from the internet.  Our Scottish friend has paid for the cable channel which shows some of the games and he has recorded the final for us to watch this afternoon.  That means no email, no facebook, no radio ALL DAY.  <What a lovely reprieve>.  I have made chocolate éclairs for the French and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and hopefully a white silver fern and/or kiwi birds iced on top (not yet completed) for our All Blacks. 

Jbird, unfortunately, just went on our gmail account to call his sister about church this morning and the inevitable has happened.  Someone emailed (to congratulate? Condole?): he read the results in their subject line!!  His reaction is awful (i.e.: it was explosive and now whatever he says is leading and it’s got me all in a tither).  The first disastrous moment is over and I think I might make it to 3pm.  He’s super disappointed but I’m glad it wasn’t me!

Fattening the Calf

Tonight, I realised I had a bunch of Korean type ingredients all on hand, waiting to be used: spring onions, thinly sliced beef, baby bok choy, sesame seeds, sesame oil, snow peas.  Even a tub of kimchi!  I NEVER have that stuff!  The ingredients were screaming at me to make beef bulgogi.  Beef bulgogi is always best when you can just keep eating it so I made a lovely large mound and then quickly steamed/fried the veges (adding broccoli too).  You can get the recipe here: http://www.koreanhomefood.com/?p=138 I used my cast iron pan as the bbq/grill. 

I tried to leave lots out for Jbird, he's all skin and bone at the moment from biking to and from school a couple times a day, but it was hard to stop guzzling.  My stomach kind of aches...but it was so good.