Green Onion Mayonnaise...

I have a new favorite topping for hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as a dip for veggies and cheese sticks!  My green onion mayo is very versatile & low carb!

First a little history to why I have a ton of dried green onion in my house...  Green onions are super way to regrow!  Just buy them at the store, being them home, and cut off most of the green part. Now, stick the whites (I leave them banded together) into a juice glass, 3 bunches for into my small drinking glasses (a juice glass), with enough water to cover the bulb parts. Then just stick them in a sunny window and watch!  I get about 1/2" of growth every day!  

Back to the cut green parts, snip them up and put them on a foil lined cookie sheet in an oven set to 200-250 degrees and keep an eye on them while they dry/bake/roast. When they are all dry, pull the sheet out to cool. While drying some of the onions will turn brown and get a yummy roasted flavor to them as well! I cut and dry all the green onion tops as they get big, minus what I use fresh. I can get 3 full growths out of a bunch before the onion flavor gets extremely strong (at which point, the whole kitchen is usually smelling like onions as well). After 3 sets of onions bunches, I have cups of dried onion all over my kitchen!  This "recipe" was born from a need to use some of the dried onion up before I was over run!

On to the recipe!

Green Onion Mayonnaise

1 cup mayonnaise

4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) Dried Green Onion

1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley (or 3-4 Tablespoons fresh)

Combine all ingredients and place in an airtight container in the fridge!  

Sometimes, the dried onion turn the mayo brown...it looks unappealing, but tastes amazing still!  Also, I like it really "oniony", so maybe start out with less onion and adjust it to your own tastes.  And, the Parsley just adds color, it can be left out all together if you don't feel like adding it (or are running out/low).

Update - Cockamamie Scheme 2013!

After a little bit of research (and a whole lot of convincing my other half that I could do this for a small amount of money), I got my first hydroponic system set up!

Granted, it's in my bathroom...on top of my toilet, but I can easily monitor it at that location and watch water levels and such.

So here's my setup...the purple light in the photo is from the grow light ($10.97 at Walmart), my water container (holding the nutrient solution: 1/2 gallon filtered H2O, 1/2 scoop Plant Food [$3.97 for a giant box of "off brand" Miracle Grow], and the tiniest pinch of Epsom Salt) is an empty Folger's coffee "can".  I used a small planter (Dollar Tree...$1 for 4 of them) that I drilled massive amounts of holes into the lower half, then filled with a handful of decorative stones (giant bag of them from Dollar Tree..there's probably about $0.03 worth in this set up)...rocks from outside would have worked, but then I would have had to boil them and such to ensure no "ookies" got into my system.  The tubing in the lower left of the photo is my airline, this was another Walmart purchase...you get 8-feet of tubing in the fish section for $1.88.  I drilled a 3/16" hole to shove it into the can and under water it went, with an air-stone attached at the end (it looks like a pencil eraser).  The air pump (also a Walmart purchase for $6.38) is above the whole system on top of my cabinet.

The plant I used for my "test system" is a Celery that I am regrowing!  Even if I never eat it...the plant itself is gorgeous and smells great!  The darker outer stalks and leaves were already sprouted when I set up the Hydro system, but, those paler green leaves in the center are all new in the past week or so!  It is doing amazingly well (even flourishing) in my little Hydroponic experiment.

I need to buy some seeds so that I can get the full system set up sometime between now and winter (I know my original goal was end of Summer, but my hands are getting worse, not better and I don't think I'll be doing much of anything until after I have healed from surgery on both of my thumbs...and I don't even meet the surgeon until the end of June).  I can't wait to harvest veggies from a full-blown Hydroponic System in my garage!  Months away, I know...but a girl needs goals.

For now, I have a second air line and a set of T-splitters ready to expand this little system...just need a plant to go in the pot!

Household Happenings...

This past weekend, I finally accomplished a task that I have been meaning to get done since January (or so)...I got the Christmas tree taken down!  I know, I know...it's May and the tree was still up...but no more!  Also, we figured out why part of the tree wouldn't light up at Christmas...I missed a plug!  There was an outlet plug dangling between sections when I took the center portion of the tree apart, oops!  At least that means it should all light up next year (you know, in about 5 months), assuming I remember there are four plugs to plug in.

Taken while Garrick was searching the garage for the bag the tree goes in.

Also, a little update on my last post (this one)...I got a miniature hydroponic system set up over the weekend (it was a productive weekend).  It's an $11 grow light from Walmart (the whole fixture is cheaper to replace than just the bulb), an "upcycled" water container (empty coffee can), a planter I paid $1 for and got four of them (Dollar Tree), a handful of decorative rocks (another Dollar Tree purchase, I can probably do eight of these planters with one bag of the rocks), a plant (in this case, a Celery regrow from the base of a stock of Celery I purchased from the grocery store and put in water to see if it would grow...it did), and an air "system" (teeny air stone {2-pack at Walmart for $1.38}, 8' line of 1/4" hose {Walmart in the fish section, $1.88}, and a small air pump {also in the fish section, $6.33 for the 5-15 gallon air pump}).  I have the whole thing sitting on the back of the toilet in the Master bathroom because it gave me easy access to two outlets (one for the light and one for the air pump), but when I get the larger system done, I'll have to run a cord out to power the system.  I turn the grow light off from 11pm to 7am (or rather 6:30am when I get in the shower), giving the plant about 16 hours of "light" if my math is right...

We are also loving Baby Led Weaning (or rather, Baby Led Feeding since he is not being weaned at all)!  Photographic evidence to follow...

"Baby food"! Bananas, Apples, and Sweet Potatoes.

"Dinner" one night was steamed Apples and Sweet Potatoes with a fried Egg (yolk).

So serious about his food...

Whole Wheat Toast with Avocado smeared on...

He loves egg yolks...especially runny, but hard/medium is okay too.

Another hit!

Tomatoes are yummy too (but plug him up because he can swallow whole chunks without chewing well enough).

Gabriel's preferred method of eating a Banana, he doesn't like holding on to them!

Pre-dinner happiness out at IHOP!  He had egg yolk (runny because they couldn't figure out how to hard cook an egg without scrambling it).

I love having a video monitor and really don't know why we didn't get one sooner (other than the fact that they cost an arm and a leg...)!  I'm so glad Garrick noticed this one on clearance ($50, can you believe it?)!  Now that we have it mounted on the wall, we don't end up with "creepy baby pictures" like this one because the infrared lights are out of Gabriel's line of sight, he does occasionally still look for it though.

Since Picture Me Studios went under (and took advantage of so many people...the parent company, CPI, owned all of the Sears and Walmart portrait studios), we've gone to JC Penney's portrait studio (run by Lifetouch...they do all school photos as well).  They are expensive though!  The paper quality is better, but I hate the studio itself...it's tiny and hot, and for the most part, if you want props that don't look like they've been run over by a truck, you have to bring them yourself.  They also won't airbrush the photos like Walmart did...and since my child is prone to causing himself bodily harm (scratches while he sleeps), both his 6 and 7 month portraits have "head wounds" in them.  I asked on the 7 month ones if she could "touch it up" to get rid of the big scratch down his forehead and got told they "couldn't do that"...it's all done digitally and the computer program should do it without issue....it irks me.  Also, the camera stopped working halfway through his session, she didn't notice (other than that the camera wasn't reacting as fast as it normally does), and we lost some really great pictures of him!  We ended up spending over 2 hours there trying to get portraits and order them.  I'm on the hunt for somewhere else to go...what I'd really love to find is someone who can do them and give us a CD (or other means of digital storage) with the whole thing on it for less than what Penney's wants ($150 for a CD that doesn't include any of the photos they deem "unworthy", which are usually my favorites)!  I like having them print 8x10s and stuff...but if I have to go have them printed somewhere, I'm all good with that too.

6 month portrait session!

7 month portrait session!

Other randomness...

In our "too small for Mom or Dad" baby carrier...it shouldn't be up on my neck like that, but that's where it goes...I'd love an ErgoBaby Sport carrier (in black)!

Tired baby passed out in the car...we get so many compliments for him in his shades!  They have little red flames on the sides.  Macular Degeneration runs in my family, so it's shades on when we go outside!

Rosie willingly lays down with Gabriel these days (this time he rolled to her though).  He is very gentle...until he can reach her fur that he can sink his fingers into, then he pulls out handfuls!

 One last "recent" project...from a few weeks ago actually.  We finally got around to replacing the awful chandelier that hung in our Dining Room (which is now more of a Family Room that happens to be off the Kitchen and has a table in it)!  It's darker overall than the old light, but with a few lamps we should be able to regain more light if we really need it, so far this has been plenty.  A second one of these in the Kitchen would be great, but that's pushing my luck a bit since we replaced that fixture a few years ago (with an extremely cheap round light with three bulbs).  As we slowly replace fixtures in the house, we are changing them all to Brushed Nickel...the old ones are all Brass.

Our new light fixture in our Dining room!

The best part about the new fixture though is that it is very close to the ceiling, so Garrick can easily move around the Dining Room without smacking his head on the lights!  Even I had to be careful of where I walked or moved in there because I'd hit it and I'm an entire foot shorter!

My Latest "Cockamamie Scheme/Idea"...

So...I know I want to grow "stuff" again this Summer.  I also know I won't have as much time to devote to my plants this year (baby and all, you know).  But, I got to wandering around on Instructables...because I wanted to see if I could easily set up a growing situation in my garage to use year-round.  I'd really love it if I could grow tomatoes, Sweet potatoes, peppers, strawberries, etc... all the time, especially with starting up Gabriel on "real" food (we're doing baby-led weaning).

A Ginger Plant growing.  Not mine...found here.

The first thing I found that I want to try (well the first thing I think I can actually pull off without spending an arm and a leg) is growing my own Ginger!  We use this a ton during the Summer mostly!  We love it on Barbequed Shrimp! The instructions were based off someone else reading this post and doing it himself (or herself).  I need to clean a little space off of my Kitchen windowsill before I can start this one though...right now I have a Celery stalk that is "re-growing", 3 bunches of Green Onion (also re-growing), and 5 Avocado Seeds trying to sprout (the sixth one died).  Also, I have my Stevia plant (a Sugar Bush) happily growing away up there, that means I have no "windowsill real estate" right now!

Something like this...maybe.

Some things I need to look into before even truly considering growing in the garage though...cost of grow lights (these can be very expensive) and fish (or other nutrient source).  I could use trout, but then I'd need a huge set up and I'd have to learn to catch/kill/eat them too because otherwise they'd just get ginormous (I guess I could give away or sell them as they got too big too).  I don't like trout, so that's going to take some thinking...also, where does one purchase live trout from?  If I find a "homemade" setup I like and think I can do relatively easily (I did see someone growing lettuce above a Beta Fish tank (they didn't have to eat the Beta)...I could do that, fairly cheaply too), I may  give this a small-scale go before going to the full-scale "farm in the garage" approach.  Also, I'm horrible at growing anything from seed, so I'll need to look for plant starts I can get locally (love the herbs/veggies/fruits at Fred Meyer in the Spring....huge variety)!

Things I need to look at...

• fish (yes/no? Type (goldfish, Beta, Trout...)?)
• getting air in there (pumps, bubblers, etc...)
• light source (grow lights or only use during the spring/summer outside)
• nutrient source (either for the fish or for the plants directly)

For now, it's just a thought...we aren't passed the overnight freezes just yet, so I still have time before I really want to get anything going...and growing in the garage would probably be something to start now, but not get anything planted in until next Spring anyway (giving me time to gather all materials, run a small-scale "test", and do further research...and listen to Garrick complain about "yet another thing that he doesn't give a flying flip about").

I'm off to add Ginger Root to next weekend's shopping list!

August Catch-Up (Part 3)

This should be the end of the "catch up" and I can then move on to the really recent stuff!

Garrick and Wanda

At the beginning of the month, we traveled to the other side of Washington to hang out with some friends for a long weekend.  They had a big BBQ on Saturday that included the yummiest pulled Pork I can imagine ever having!  Even without the sauce, I could have eaten all of it!  It was a potluck and there was a ton of yummy food (I should know, I sampled each and every dish)...we "brought" a watermelon, lol.  While we were visiting, I got to go to an Oyster farm...not something I've ever had the opportunity to do before and pretty interesting for a chicken "farmer" who buys her shells pre-crushed for $0.58 a pound...they had huge piles of shells just lying about!  Of course, I'm sure they probably sell those huge piles to someone who then crushes them and then sells them to people like me, but I digress.

Mike Rowe holding a Geoduck.

I'm told that the oyster farm we went to is owned by the same company as the one that was on Dirty Jobs, when Mike Rowe went Geoduck farming (season 1, episode 28 if you want to go looking it up).  We did not go to the one in the show...but the same guy owns both farms.  Anywho, long story "short", I got to see a real "live" Geoduck (pronounced gooey duck)!  At least, the sign on it said "live", but since it was sitting up on ice, I'm fairly certain that one was no longer among the living...


It was a fun-filled weekend getting to see several friends that live all over the western side of Oregon and Washington (that we almost never get to see)!  It also included a trip to Mallard's ice cream parlor...a local shop that was serving the best Licorice Ice Cream I think I've ever had!  It is certainly a flavor that is very hard to perfect...they did it perfectly!

Michael and I

Did I mention we also met Kevin Smith?  Well, we didn't...that's our friend Michael!  It sorta doesn't show very well in the photos we snapped over breakfast Monday morning before we headed home...but he totally looks like Silent Bob!  You really should see him with a hat on...oddly enough, he has a friend that looks just like "Jay" too...it's kinda freaky.

By the time we got home again, I had a tomato "explosion" going on the plant Garrick bought me (that his co-worker started in her greenhouse..I really need to get one of those built)!  It is still the only plant I've been able to harvest this summer, but my "Red Patio" is currently working on about 6 tomatoes that are getting big(ger), but still very much green.  The ripe tomatoes here are all about half the size of a ping pong ball or smaller, but they taste so good!

Ironing Nursery curtains...

And now, we're back to what I've been up to for the last few weeks...I mentioned in my first "catch up" post that I had made the curtains (and the quilt, my Mom made the crib sheet) for the nursery...here's the proof!  Don't mind the tacky "wife beater" I have on...I was still in my pajamas in this one.  If you look really closely, you can see my slippers too, lol.  I still need to get a pillow case made, but have been busy trying to get baby's room organized and everything put away...so it's still waiting on me to get to sewing!  Maybe tomorrow...

Garrick's pillow case

I also had to pause in the baby sewing to make a little something for Garrick.  He wanted a more "fitted" pillow case for his contoured "neck roll" pillow he picked out when we bought our new bed.  A regular pillow case was just too big for it!  So, I dug through my fabric stash and came up with a chunk of bright green fabric that looked large enough to work and make a simple pillow case out of.  After laying it out over/around the pillow in question, I quickly hemmed the shorter sides of the fabric (in this case, the long direction of the actual pillow).  Then, I laid it back over the pillow and decided a 5-inch over lap of the hemmed ends would make it fit over the pillow easily, yet be tight enough to stay put in use.  I measured both sides and pinned the raw edges, then I quickly stitched both sides closed, making a sham-style pillow opening in the back.  I turned everything right side out and popped the pillow in!  As it turned out, the pillow case was about 5-inches too wide.  That was easily fixed though.  With the pillow case turned right side out, I ironed it and then set the pillow on top is I could get some actual measurements...the tallest part of the side of the pillow is 4-inches, I had 9 inches of fabric "too much" beyond the pillow.  So, I took my 9-inches, subtracted 4 for the sides, and then divided by 2.  I then pinned and sewed a decorative stitch down both sides of the pillow case at roughly 2.5-inches (I think it was more like 2.25-inches).  I think it gives the whole pillow a more "finished" look and it also pulled the pillow case tight enough on the pillow to work perfectly for my picky sleeper!  I also have the same fabric print in red...but he's gonna have to wait a little while for that one to get made.

 This past weekend, nothing got done in the house!  But, we had a very good reason...Garrick's childhood friend got married!  Garrick always looks so good in a tux...this is the third one I've had the pleasure of seeing him in since we've been dating.  Luckily, I paid attention at his last fittings...the groom, Louie, picked up all of the tuxes and then I had to help Garrick get truly "fitted" into this one!  Nothing huge, just adjusting the tie (a clippy thing that holds it around your neck), cinching the back of the vest, doing the zip tie thingies that make the pants fit right, and putting the cuff links on the shirt properly.

I also ended up trying on about 6 dresses before I settled on the long orange-colored one (pictured above) that I got at Fashion Bug several months ago.  I actually bought two dresses specifically for this wedding, but, I got them a month ago and by last weekend, I had so much "belly" that they are now too short!  Even luckier, the shoes that I ran out early Saturday morning to give one of the new dresses a splash of color (they're both black) match the bright colored dress I wore!  They're just a pair of flats with a peep-toe and some matching flowers on the toe.  I even bought a new necklace to help liven up the black...it worked great too!  I also got myself a pair of maternity nylons...what that really translates into is "nylons that will not stay up because the top is so freaking loose".  I put an entire hand through them trying to pull them up in the ladies restroom before the wedding even started...they went in the trash when I got home!  We had a great time though...so glad I got to be a part of it.

Which brings us to "current"!  Phew...I didn't think we'd ever get here, did you?

Chicken Coop and Other Things...

Gerty "inspecting" the clean coop.

So, I finally got the chicken coop cleaned today!  It really needed it bad I'm sorry to say...it has probably been about 5 months since I cleaned it out last, aside from changing out the hay in the nest box.  My girls don't really spend a lot of time in the coop, so it wasn't "totally" disgusting or anything...just "icky" from night time poops mostly. 

Today though, the girls got into yet another fight over the one and only nest box that any of them will use, knocking it over not once, but twice!  When I first got up this morning, I went down and turned it right side up...with Gertrude firmly attached to the interior of said nest box, I might add!  Within a few hours, they had they box overturned, completely this time, and all three were raising a ruckus outside!  I don't want to say my girls are quiet by any means, they are after all a vocal animal, but they are "quieter than most" and really don't get "loud" unless they've just laid an egg or there is a serious problem in the chicken run.  When I say "serious", I mean they ran out of food or water (these have both happened once, maybe twice if I wasn't feeling well) or if there is an issue inside the coop (usually pertaining to the single nest box).  This is when having the security camera on the TV in the dining room comes in handy...I can tell when it's a food/water issue or a "coop" issue (of course, it also helps if you don't accidentally lock them in the coop the night before...).  Since I could see they had overturned the nest box again, I decided it was just time to clean the coop and be done with that chore (until shortly before the baby gets here...but hopefully I'll have a little help with that cleaning).

Clyde was the first to claim the fresh nest box!

Months back when we cleaned out the garage, my Mom washed up an old garbage can for us and we put the open bag of pine shavings in it (I had bought 2 large bags because I got them on sale for more than half off).  However, it never got moved to the run!  So, to start, I had to drag that around the house, really it was less work than it sounds...it's a plastic garbage can and the pine shavings don't weigh much at all, it's just big and awkward (and hard to carry when you've got a baby bump).  Also, I took one of my handy Kitty Litter container to the garage to grab some fresh hay for the nest box.  In the 35-pound container, I can fit enough hay for two or more "fresh" changes!  The hay "bale" is an equally large plastic "sack" full of chopped hay, it was much cheaper than buying a bale of hay.

Gerty checking out my iPhone...

I have worked out a pretty simple Coop Cleaning System really...I just use a broom!  One of these days, I know I need to get out there with an actual cleaning solution and give the floor a good mopping, but we haven't had any issues with the girls being sick or any sort of bugs, so I think the system is working okay.  When we first moved the girls outside last summer, I was carting the used bedding away and dumping it in our make shift compost heap behind the shed...all we're really doing back there is making a huge pile of junk and by December, I wasn't willing to cart it across the snow.  So, "plan B" came into being and we've been using it happily ever since!  Now, I just sweep the old, icky stuff out of the coop into a pile below it.  After the coop is emptied onto the ground, I just shove it the best I can under the coop and the girls distribute it from there.  With all that old chicken poop now in the ground, it attracts bugs and the girls eat the bugs, win-win!  Then, I just put Pine shavings in the unused nest box (if I put hay in it, it just gets kicked out anyway) and that box goes in the corner I can't reach. 

Henri also needing to use the box

Next, I put the fresh Hay in the cat box turned nest box that all three girls use and it goes next to the unused box.  This keep the box they're actually laying in within reach and I can get the eggs by simply sticking my hand in the pop door!  Once the boxes are in place, I start tossing in handfuls of Pine shavings until I'm happy with the thickness of the bedding (usually 2 to 3-inches deep).  Then, I just close up the coop and walk away feeling accomplished!

I also spent a little time on the goings on in the chicken's run as well.  We recently made the switch to pellets instead of crumbles.  This was a change I really wanted to make last year when the girls got weened off of chick starter, but until this last visit to the feed store, they've always been out of pellets!  Pellets take up a little less space, meaning in a week, we're already down to only having 2 litter containers full instead of three.  Some say pellets reduce the amount of feed chickens waste, but my girls never let any food go to waste, so I can't see any difference there!  I also refilled their water with fresh...last time I cleaned their water dish and put a little Apple Cider Vinegar in it as well (good for them, but I fail to remember why).  I need to remember to not do that!  The girls don't like it, they drink less water than they do normally, the water turns milky and mold grows (gross)!  So, I dumped it out and gave them a container of fresh, clean water today as well!

Then, I got to moving some of the stuff in the coop around...a few weeks ago, we (Garrick) finally got sand back in the sand box!  The girls have gotten pretty good at digging through the river rocks and finding the sandy dirt below it, but they really enjoy climbing into their turtle "tub" for a sand bath more!  I also moved the Sumac limbs around a little too, made them more horizontal...the gals have never really climbed on them as they were and I needed to make room for the "new" garbage can storage out there!  I may need to raise the feeder up a little now though, we'll see if they start making a mess out of it!  It may be a good thing to mention that the big white bucket is my water system (two nipples drilled into the bottom of that bucket) and in reality, it is several feet away from the turtle.

And in other chicken "stuff", I do believe as of today, all the girls are back to laying!  Gerty has been dropping a ton of feathers everywhere, but I don't think she "looked" like she was molting...however, she laid a 1.7 ounce "torpedo" egg today! I know it was Gerty because she was the only hen not fighting for the box after I cleaned the coop.  It has been several months since we've gotten 3 eggs a day!  Of course, the day before we go out of town for several days isn't the ideal time for us to get an influx of eggs...especially when I didn't line up a chicken-sitter for this trip!

I guess getting moving is what I rally needed to do recently too...over the past several days I have been dealing with increasingly more swollen ankles!  Today they were/are so bad, that even my fuzzy slippers are leaving a crease line in the middle of my foot!  But, I did manage to get a pair of socks and shoes on to go out and deal with the coop, and surprisingly, once I was done, I noticed that my right foot was a little less swollen.  Of course, the relief lasted until I sat down for 5 minutes...so it was short lived relief.  I'm gonna try soaking them later, maybe that will help?

While I was outside, I decided to snap a quick photo to show how tall my tomato plants are this year!  They're in large pots on the back deck and if you only count the part above dirt, they all start about mid-shin on me.  Boy do I look puffy today!

And here is a preview of a post I'm planning for the future (near I promise)...aren't the colors just awesome?  It's a quilt, and I am sort of following a pattern...but more on that once it's finished!

Hello 3rd Trimester!

According to the "handy dandy" app I have on my iPhone from What To Expect...  today marks the very first day of my third trimester with the little man!  I am so excited and a little scared all at the same time.  I can't wait to meet this little guy, he's been wanted for a very long time, but at the same time, I don't feel like we are "ready" yet.  We're ready to be parents, but the house...oh the house!  His future bedroom/nursery is still a working office, we have nothing (okay, I do have a few {dozen} diapers, but not nearly in the quantity we need) to put on his rump, clothes...well, we have lots of hand me downs, but not a ton in any one size (my sister has given me everything nephew #4 is outgrowing and another friend gave me a box of 6+ months stuff) and I just have this sneaking suspicion that this guy is gonna be tiny! 

I was complaining (whining really) over the weekend that it felt like the little man was trying to "make more room in there" for a growth spurt and I think I was right!  Besides the fact that clothes that fit last week no longer fit, he is really rocking and rolling in there!  Last night before going to sleep he was really hunching/kicking really hard, harder than I have ever felt!  And he continued it all...night...long!  Even as I type, he's in there practicing to be an MMA fighter I think!  I'm thinking tomorrow will be a "quieter" day though since he seems to be doing a lot today!  Just as long as he cooperates on Friday, we have yet another ultrasound because the doctor hasn't been able to "see everything" he wants to see yet, this will make our third "anatomy scan"!

Other than baby stuff, I have had a pretty full week so far (keep in mind it's only Wednesday)!  Yesterday I made another batch of dog food, this time we used Hamburger, mostly because we had bought a pound for us to eat and plans changed...we are horrible about using stuff in our freezer, so I made dog food with it instead of trying to "save" it for another day.

Before the Rice got added!

Beef/Veggie/Rice "Dog Stew"

• 2 lbs Hamburger (I used 1 80/20 & 1 93/7, we buy leaner meat for us than we do for the dog)
• 12 cups cooked Rice
• 2/3 of a 1 lb bag Frozen Chopped Spinach
• 1-1 lb bag Frozen Green Beans (French style cause they're $0.98 a bag)
• 1-1 lb bag Fozen California Blend (Cauliflower, Broccoli, Carrots)
• 1 Qt Beef Broth (I use 4 cups of hot water and a heaping tablespoon of Better then Bouillon in Beef Flavor)
• 1 container Cottage Cheese (okay, it was more like 3/4 of the container, but it was going bad)

I started by making up a batch of rice in our (still new) rice cooker, it makes 6 cups of rice at a time.  After that batch, I took the rice out and put in a big glass bowl to cool and let the cooker cool so I could handle it to clean it and get another batch going!  After getting the second batch of rice set up, I grabbed the steamer basket that came with the rice cooker and tossed in about two-thirds of the bag of frozen Spinach, it filled the steamer basket!  By the time the rice was cooked, the Spinach was perfectly steamed and all the nutrients from it had dripped into the rice (I see a few dinners for us being made this way in the near future), turning some of the rice green!  After the last batch of rice was cooling (the first batch went into a ziploc and the rice and spinach went in the bowl), I got the hamburger cooking in our "dog food pot", which is a 12-Qt stock pot that I burned rice in (you remember the day my rice cooker died and I got to talk to the alarm company because I set off the smoke detector, right?)...most of the black is gone from it, but we weren't using it for anything else and this way, I can add doggie supplements (when we have them) without worrying if I have them all scrubbed out before I cook for the humans in the house.  I didn't bother adding any oils this time, the meat had plenty of fats in it! 

While the meat browned, I finally got my Laundry Soap bottled (in milk jugs that have been washed out and saved)!  I don't fill the jugs all the way, that way there is room to shake up the contents and distribute the soap in the water better.  This batch (the double batch I made a month or so ago) turned out really runny.  But, I got it in three 1-gallon jugs and four half-gallon jugs (but really it's only about 4 gallons of laundry soap)!  Some of it is going to go home with my Mom when she visits next month, but with what I have left still from the first batch I made (about half a gallon) and what I keep of this, I should have a year's supply of soap, lol.

Between filling each jug, I stirred the meat.  Once there was no more pink in the meat, I added both bags of frozen vegetables, normally I thaw these while the other parts cook, but I forgot, so they went in straight from the freezer this time.  It works either way, but the frozen veggies solidified all the fat and looked really gross.  After giving the veggies some time to hang out with the meat a little, I added the Beef broth (to make this, I take my 2-Qt glass measuring cup, [get one if you don't have one they are a kitchen neccessity] and this time only used 4 cups of hot tap water because the rice was already cooked.  I used a Tablespoon and just made it heaping, 4 teaspoons of the base makes 4 cups of broth.  Once you get it off the spoon, microwave it for 2 to 3 minutes and get it nice and hot!  It'll help dissolve the base.).  Let that all come to a boil, it cooks the veggies and lets everything soak up a little broth.  Then, turn off the heat and dump in the rice!  I mixed between each addition of rice, it gets really hard to stir with 12 cups of rice in there!  After it's all mixed, I divide the mixture between the glass bowl I let the rice cool in, the measuring cup, and the stockpot so that it cools faster...don't add dairy to hot food!  Then, we left the house and went to lunch...this stuff takes forever to cool off! 

 

Rosie follows me when I'm cooking Dog Food!

Later in the afternoon, I divided what I had of the Cottage Cheese between the dishes and gave it one last mix.  Then, it was portion-bagging time!  Rosie weighs in at 61 pounds, and most sites suggest 2-3% of the dog weight be fed daily, that puts her food needs at 19.5 to 29.3 ounces.  We give her roughly 2-cups of food, twice a day (two bags of pre-portioned food weigh in at 25.0 ounces).  We bag it all up once cooled into sandwich size ziploc bags for easy feeding throughout the week (Garrick does most of the feeding, I do the cooking).

This batch gave us 13.5 servings (or 6.5 days of food and a little "taster" plate for Rosie when we were done bagging, because who can resist that look on her face after hours of seeing it?

The chickens got the rest of the bag of Spinach, but they didn't eat it!  It's the first thing other than potatoes that they refuse to eat!  I was shocked because they loved it in the winter, but this time it was served room temperature, not hot like before.  Speaking of the gals, they got a mini-coop clean up this morning!  I noticed that the hook we hang our water from was being bent under the weight of the water, so I took it down, scrubbed it clean, and moved it to a new hook (we have 3 to use for the water and food, luckily).  I also hosed out their sandbox, which has been empty for a while now and was beginning to look more like a public bathroom than a place to take a bath in!  Since I was out there anyway, I also took them one-quarter of a "personal size" watermelon that I bought (in June).  The flesh was still very firm, but it was beyond anything I would want to eat.  It took some convincing to get the girls to try it, but they eventually did and last time I checked, they were enjoying the cool treat!  The rest of the melon got cut into sections, bagged, and tossed in the freezer (we have some high 90's days headed our way) for the girls to have another day.  To get them to try the melon, a new food for them, I sprinkled the pieces with Red Chili Pepper pieces (a favored treat and natural wormer), BOSS (just a yummy treat), and finally, a few Meal-worms (Gerty is the only chicken I have that likes these, but once she got interested in the melon pieces, Clyde and Henri soon followed)!

And since I was outside anyway...I went ahead and watered my "deck plants".  They don't get any direct sun in the afternoon/evenings, so I figure I'm okay to do that.  It also is only 83 today, so not scorching!  My Raspberry bushes are really filling in this summer, as is all the weeds and "voluntary" Blackberry bushes!

The one and only tomato plant that I have actually producing any tomatoes is absolutely loaded with them!  I may pick one or two to have with dinner tonight, they look like they might be ready.  They're a little bigger than a Cherry Tomato!

One night this week I'm finally going to harvest some of my Pineapple Sage too, though I'm not sure what night that will be just yet.  It is such a full, bushy plant this year!  I'm hoping that it will make the transition to an indoor plant this Fall, the Stevia did well last year so I am hopeful.  I'd really like to have this herb around year-round!

I'm not quite done with my busy day today either, I need to go do some shopping!  (Twist my arm, huh?)  I'm looking to get enough fabric to make two reversible/lined slings...mostly because my pre-pregnant size is between sizes on the cutting chart, but also because Garrick is squarely in the lerger size and I want him to be able to pack little man around too.  Also, I found a tutorial for making a quilt out of a Jelly Roll that looks super simple and a new skill to be learned (quilting) at the same time!  Then there's the "cover the window on the door" project that I still need to get some magnets for, groceries to buy, and baby stuff to ogle!

Why I Wash w/ Shaving Cream...

Okay, first let me start off by saying, NO...it isn't the kind you buy at the store!  Now, why do I wash with my Homemade Shaving Cream?  Because it smells freaking awesome!  And...why not?  I mean it's only four ingredients, the first of which is shampoo.  As mentioned in my last post, I make my Shaving Cream/Lotion with Shampoo, conditioner, Lotion, and Coconut Oil...that's it!  Some have said that they get a lovely lather from the recipe I follow (and passed on to you all in my last post), but I do not...I get a white, sorta thick fluid that quickly disappears into my skin!  But, oh...it makes my skin feel so good!

This is more information regarding my breasts than the "average" reader needs, but here it is anyway.  Since becoming regnant, my boobs have drastically changed...I'm talking, shape, size, color...the works!  So, one day after making a fresh batch of the shaving cream I was taking a shower (and shaving my legs for no good reason other than to be able to use my shaving cream again) and I got to thinking about the ingredients in it...I use a Vitamin E Lotion and at the time, was using Organic Coconut Oil, sounded good enough to me to help ease some of the "tightness" I was feeling in my chest...if nothing else, it smelled good and gave me a slippery/smooth feeling while I rubbed the tender areas!

I still don't get a lather (at all), but I now enjoy the scent of my homemade shaving cream/lotion nearly every shower by also using it as a body wash as well!  It doesn't take a lot either, I use about 2 teaspoons worth to wash with (I use double or triple that to shave each leg)!  My little 3-ounce shower bottle lasts me well over a week, in fact, I have about half of it left as of today's shower!  Somehow in the making of the last batch, I made 8-ounces of shampoo and another 8-ounces of conditioner, plus 2-ounces each of lotion and coconut oil turn into about 30-ounces of shaving cream too...so it isn't like I'm going to run out any time soon!  Even if I manage to work it up to using 3-ounces a week, I still have about 2.5 months worth of yummy smelling cream to go!

But, in other news around the house...

Look at my belly!  But, please...don't look into my messy office or the super bright bathroom...just check me out! I got the dress I'm wearing there before our trip to Las Vegas last January (that feels like a lifetime ago now), it fit a little big at the time, but it hung really well and was long enough I didn't feel like I was going to be flashing anyone.  The floral part is sheer with a black "slip" lining under it, the lining is fitting me very snugly these days though...the legging are to keep my big 'ol thighs from rubbing together and causing other "issues", but I think they look okay.

Recently, since my birthday is coming up and I sign up for every freebie I possibly can, I have gotten a slew of emails offering me "free stuff" since I'm turning old(er).  Last night I enjoyed a free dinner at IHOP, not the "best" option for my Diabetes, but I don't kill my diet too often.  I got a free "Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity", basically it's 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, and 2 pancakes topped with your choice of Strawberries, Blueberries, or Apples.  Each fruit is really just pie filling dumped on top, I get mine with the fruit on the side, so I can indulge in the Butter Pecan syrup (mostly) and then eat just a little of the sweet fruit.  We had to pay for drinks and Garrick's meal (of course), but we did save the $6.99 that my meal cost.

Also on the "meal plan" this week is a stop into an old favorite (that isn't a favorite anymore since they closed down the location nearest our home), Perkins.  I have a free meal coupon for there too...2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage links, and 3 pancakes.  I also have (but will most likely not use) coupons for a free shake at Arby's, a BOGO deal at Aunt Annie's Pretzels, and a free cone at Ben & Jerry's.  These ones don't get used often (or ever for some) because they just aren't "worth" it to us.  Aunt Annie's is in the mall, but we've never tried them, B&J is across town and is a free ice cream cone really worth the $3-4 it would cost to park downtown?

What is always worth the free coupon (and a special trip out to get it) is the BOGO deal I get from Coldstone Creamery on my birthday!  Yes, we got the huge sized cups...but for the extra $0.40 it costs to go from a medium to the large size, each cup makes 3 or so treat servings for us...worth the extra change I think, especially since this beauty on the right was absolutely free!  What did I get though?  Well...I got a Cheesecake Fantasy, but instead of Blueberries, I got fresh Raspberries, and instead of Strawberries, I got Whipped Cream!  So, what I ended up with was Cheesecake flavored ice cream, graham cracker pie crust crumbles, raspberries, and whipped topping...can we say "yummy raspberry cheesecake with a load of whipped cream all tossed in the blender to make a tasty baby" in unison now?  I ate the cup almost level with the top, popped a lid on it and it is now chilling in the chest freezer downstairs!  That was not dinner though....oh, no! 

Dinner was a new "experiment" for us.  We tried out Five Guys for dinner!  If you have one of these near you...you must go try them out!  It's like Subway...but with burgers!  I got a "little cheeseburger" (one meat patty) with Mayo, Lettuce, Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, and BBQ Sauce...it was the best burger I have had in quite some time!  Garrick got his cheeseburger (2 meat patties) with just Mayo and BBQ Sauce, he doesn't like any "veggies".  We also got sodas...they have those new "fancy" Coke dispensers that have all the flavors you can add and a bazillion choices to start with (okay, the thingy says it makes over 200 flavor combos), including at least SIX diet choices!  Gone are the days of not having any choice if you had to drink diet soda! 

 As a side note here, I can remember as a kid not wanting to eat at McDonald's because the only drink option I had was Diet Coke (which I hated then, but prefer now) or water.  I swore when I was younger that "someday" I was going to open a restaurant that served only diet drinks with Coke (or Pepsi or RC for all I cared) as the only sugared soda.

So, I happily filled my cup with Diet Barq's Root Beer and Garrick got Diet Coke.  We've found that we really do not like the extra flavorings they offer, though it was nice to try Sprite Zero (otherwise known as Diet Sprite) with Grape and Orange Flavorings (separately)...and a few other combos, I just wasn't feeling that adventurous with my beverage choice this evening.  Then, it was off to sit at a table and await our fresh cooked burgers while enjoying a pile of in-the-shell peanuts!  I don't know why, but places that offer these are always some of our favorite places to eat...there used to be a lpace in Bend Oregon that we loved...they gave you a giant bucket of peanuts and just swept the shells onto the floor (which they swept nightly), it was always so much fun to go there and eat peanuts and dump the shells right on the floor...taking kids there was even fun because you didn't have to worry about them making a huge mess...it was part of the "charm" of the place!  They also served super strong "adult" beverages in mason jars.  But, back to tonight's story...Five Guys is most definitely going to be a place we go again...they don't serve a lot of "choices" as far as the food goes, but it was perfect for dinner!

My tomato plants are nearly as tall as me...I may or may not have mentioned this before.  I even had to go out and by longer plant stakes to help support them!  Each plant now sports a 60-inch bamboo stake along with the cages and shorter stakes.  Well, all of the ones I bought and planted are...the one Garrick bought me (that was much large and more established when I got it) is only as tall as the tomato cage, but it is loaded with small tomatoes!  Some are almost ready to be picked and eaten too!  They aren't very big...about the size of a golf ball maybe, but they look so good, I cannot wait to eat them!

We really haven't been "using" our garden (as it were) much this year...heck, the BBQ is still in the process of being cleaned and we haven't used it yet this year!  But, we do plan on getting that finished up (tomorrow hopefully), as we have hot dogs and our favorite Summer recipe, Fiery "skewered" Shrimp on the menu!  For the Shrimp, I use our Pineapple Sage (a lot of it) and then barbeque them in a grill basket, way easier than soaking skewers, threading the shrimp, carefully turning the skewers, prying you don't lose any of those yummy shrimps to the bowels of hell (otherwise known as "where good food goes to waste") if it falls through the BBQ...much easier to give the basket a few good shakes and wait for all those shrimps to be ready to be inhaled by us!  Even our nephews like this one (the oldest one or two anyway)!  They like shrimp though...  We buy the smaller shrimp because we don't have to thread them on skewers...saved us about $5 for an equal sized bag at Costco...we got 31-40's (shrimps per pound) instead of (18-24's or something like that)!  All it really means is more tails to give the chickens!  Get them raw though if you plan to BBQ them...don't want pre-cooked ones here!  Also, get them peeled...it saves you a lot of hassle and the meat gets more of the flavor from the marinade!  (I have posted this recipe before, but will likely do so again later this week after I cook up this batch.)

In all things "baby related"...

I think I've settled on a "look" for our nursery!  I've been struggling to find an affordable set, I know it isn't something we "need", but an overall theme/look is something I "want"!  Way back before we knew we were having a boy, I had settled on the idea of Sage and Brown as a color scheme, whether our little one was a girl or a boy, and I really haven't let that go...too much!  We did buy a "nursery in a box on Friday night that only came in Cherry colored wood (not so hot next to brown room decor in my opinion), so I have spent the weekend looking for bedding sets that compliment the wood color.  To my surprise, a lot of the brown themed sets were displayed with cherry wood and they don't look too bad!  But, the set I currently like the most is less brown and more green anyway.  The set is a 13-piece set, but does not come with the bumper...and costs $82.  The bumper (that's in the photo) is another $20, but I can easily just add the "breathable mesh" kind for $21 (all prices reflect walmart.com prices as of last night when I was looking)...it's a safer choice and I can get it in Sage green as well.  It isn't the "cutest" option, but safety wins I think!

I have "graduated" into nursing bras....darned under-wires were causing all sorts of issues that no one ever tells you about before you get pregnant (or after for that matter)!  Giving up my under-wire was hard to do....mostly because I've grown so big (I am now too large to fit my G-cups) that I cannot find anything locally!  I did manage to find Bravado Nursing Bras in their Double Plus style at Diapers.com though!  What a life saver those are!  Sadly, they only carry them in a sports bra style (hello to a few years of nothing but uni-boob), but at least I'm not in pain anymore!  The XL size in the Double Plus fits 42-46 E-G...they don't tell you that on the website, that's what the packaging says.  I would not have thought to try them if it hadn't been for a lovely woman who wrote a review on the website and stated that she was in an F-cup prior to becoming pregnant!  The bra really offers zero support and pretty much just barely keeps my boobs from going wherever they please, but it is better than nothing!

Lastly, we may have a name for our little man!  Of course, that changes on a weekly basis, but this one just feels "right", so we shall see...  We aren't going to be sharing our final name choice with anyone though...until he's born.