Jumping Off the Starbucks Wagon

One of our goals this year was to reduce our elective spending and focus on getting our bills paid off and building up an emergency savings. One of our major major wastes of money was going out in the evenings and getting coffee and pastries or cookies. If we went to Starbucks we would spend about $12 or so, if we went to McDonalds and got cookies and coffee it would be about $4. Either way we would spend the money to get there. So I have been trying to make coffee at home but the cookies part wasn't happening. A couple of nights ago I got the urge again but didn't want the mess of cookies. I started thinking about shortbread because we have an extra box of butter in the fridge that needs to be used up before it goes bad. So I went to Baking Bites because it is one of my favorite cooking blogs. She has a recipe there for Cashew Brittle Bars that are basically shortbread with cashews in it. We just got a big container of cashews at Sam's so it was like a perfect storm. I baked them and it was one of the best baked goods I have ever tried. I even have a shortbread pan that makes the thistle imprint on the surface of them. Note that for my shortbread pan I cut the recipe in half and it fit perfectly.

Since we both have a tendancy to pig out on any baked goods that are around the house we both ate one of the bars. I froze the rest in a ziploc baggie and took them out to reheat them when we got the coffe/pastry urge. It has worked out beautifully so far. The bars are by far better than anything at either place and so we're not going out anymore. It isn't exactly healthy for us, but neither were their snacks. So here's one for cutting costs and still getting comfort. :)

Pruning

Over the years I have collected a lot of gardening books and magazines. Books I will refer to from time to time, but it isn't often that I leaf through magazines or catalogs except for right after I buy them. So I have a pretty big stack of magazines in the bookshelf that I have been meaning to get around to. I want to go through them, pick out the ideas that I like and come up with a plan for my garden area here. So with that in mind I decided that I would start trying to go through a magazine or two a week and see where I end up.

The first victim of the culling was a Better Homes and Gardens special edition from 2007. Here is what I liked in this magazine:

1. Bonsai - I have always been fascinated by bonsai and so I would like to incorporate a specimen in my garden. I actually have some plans on doing some sort of tribute to the Ave Maria Grotto here in Cullman, AL and could work a bonsai into that. So I need to figure out what kind of tree I want and whether to do it from seed or buy one already started.
2. Hollyhocks - I really love the simple charm of the single hollyhocks and think they would be good for a back border. So somewhere in my plan I need to put a stand of these.
3. My whole pond area is up for redesign this year and I want to incorporate a streambed with some small waterfalls into it. I am working on a sketch of my ideas and will post it when I get it done.
4. I saw a cleome plant at the house of one of my friends. I have decided that I need this plant in my garden too. And maybe I can beg some off of her since it tends to naturalize. :)
5. Soil improvement - I need to work on a good soil mix for my raised beds.
6. Reading bench - I would love to make a reading spot out in my garden. I'm trying to figure out a way that it could have some shade but not be too shady, if you get my meaning. And finding a comfy bench/chair is going to be tough...has to be okay to sit in for a while but still be able to be left outdoors.

So there are the results from magazine #1. Seeing how big of a list came from one magazine I think I'm in for it since I have about 25-30 of them to go through. ;)

Volatility

I stepped outside this afternoon at work and couldn't believe how warm and bright it was. I went back inside and checked the weather and it was 67 degrees outside and sunny. 67 degrees! In January! And you know what is so ironic? It is supposed to snow tomorrow. :P And then get up to 47 degrees. The only thing predictable about winter weather here is that it won't be predictable at all. Since the days are starting to get longer also it was light long enough to take a walk after we ate dinner. We also had a bonfire around sunset time taking care of some brush wood that has fallen along the back treeline while the baby ran around on the grass. It was definately a much more pleasant evening than we've had in a long time.

Green Thumb Sunday 1/25/09

It's a beautiful balmy 47 degrees for a high today so I am not going to complain that it is a bit chilly outside. I looked out in the back garden today and saw that my winter all-star creeping phlox is still blooming so I had to feature it. There were a lot of birds taking a bath and getting a drink in the pond today, so it was an interesting show out the back window. There are still a lot of seedheads on the plants that I'm going to have to take care of and cut back sooner or later.

I loved the contrast of the spiky shadows on the rocks under the coneflower seedhead.

And there are still the remnants of the three aster blooms from last fall.

And as if taunting me for my inactivity the horsetail has runners up three feet or so from the main plant. I mean to pull it up in the spring and haven't decided if I want to put it in a container or just get rid of it. I'm not feeling too sympathetic for it right now. :)

Book Challenge - Cache Lake Country

I was visiting Rosemary's blog and saw the Book Challenge and had to see what mine is. Here is what the challenge is:

Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Rosanne is passing this challenge on, one she found from Every little thing blog.This is a fun idea to see what everyone is reading in the midst of a very cold winter.

My book is Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods. My very good friend One Hope, One Heart just got it for me for Christmas. Here goes:

"If a strip is short you sew it to the end of another. The next step is to twist the strips around thin hide thongs until they form what looks like a fur covered rope.These pieces are then woven into a robe about four foot wide and eight feet long. You want them wide enough to roll in and plenty long enough so your head can be covered. Some Indians make their robes of flat striips cut lengthwise of the skin and then sewed end to end."

These are instructions for making a rabbit skin robe. The book is about a gent that gets a job as a land surveyer and finds a remote lake. He builds a cabin and lives there. It's on my reading list, but I had it out looking at the illustrations on some of the pages. Thanks Rosemary! :)

......

I am a bit in shock today because today 20% of the people in the company that I work for got laid off. I don't think that my job is in jeopardy right now (at least until the next round!) but it is such a grim thing to have happen and makes you think a lot. One was a good friend of mine and the rest were mostly people that I saw and interacted with daily. Definately makes one re-examine economic decisions and think hard about plans for the future. And definately makes one appreciative of the blessing that a job is. :)

Chili Weather

All that I can say is that I'm really glad that we didn't have anywhere that we had to be this weekend. It is cold. Not quite as cold as the -40 that Minnesota is having, but cold for here. :) The picture above is the ice on my lotus container. We went down to Lake Guntersville this morning to have brunch with a friend of ours at the Outlaw Steakhouse. I had ideas of getting some good pictures to post while we were there because it is very scenic. I quickly decided though that maybe the springtime would be a better time for pictures.

So we came home and I decided that we would have chili and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper. Here is my reliable stand-by chili recipe.

1 lb. ground sirloin
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1 (5 oz) can of tomato juice
1 (16 oz) can of petite diced tomatoes
2 (16 oz) cans of black beans, drained
1/4 c. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. each black pepper, oregano, sugar
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

In a frying pan, brown the ground beef, onions and green peppers. Put the remaining ingredients in a pot, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes or so.

I personally don't drain the beef because ground sirloin has barely any but if you used a higher fat percentage you would want to.

:( :( :( :( :(

Holy cats is all I have to say. It was coooold, and 14 degrees had actually warmed up some. It wasn't too bad when in the sun and the wind wasn't blowing. At least I am home for the long weekend and the fireplace is going. I think some hot chocolate is in order. :)

Pico de Gallo Garden

Back when we lived in Virginia, about 10 or so years ago I started growing some vegetables. They didn't ever do that well and I gave up when we moved to North Carolina. Now that we are getting settled again here, I would like to give it a try again. I figure that this time I'll start small and then when I have proven that I can take care of a very small amount of garden plants I'll slowly start adding more. I always wanted to try Square Foot Gardening, so I figured that if I started with one 4'X4' bed that would be good for the first season.

Now the other fact of the matter is that I am a hopeless addict to fresh salsa. I can literally go through a whole big bowl by myself in no time flat. So I figured that the best thing to attempt growing was a salsa garden. After spending quite a bit of time out in San Diego I have settled on Pico de Gallo as being my favorite form. There is something about its elemental simplicity that I love. So since I have been piled under with seed catalogs for the last couple of months ago, I finally pulled out the Cook's Garden catalog to have a look at what they are offering this year. Here's what I'm looking at getting:

Persimmon Tomatoes - These are the tomatoes that I tried growing in Virginia. I am really debating whether to try starting my own seeds or just buying some plants instead. My seed starting efforts in the past haven't been that successful. So if I go with plants I will probably get something locally.

Red Baron Scallions - I am a sucker for things that have different colors in them. I figure if you're going to the trouble of growing your own veggies you should get something you can't just buy in the supermarket.

Jalapeno - The peppers are subject to the same dilemma as the tomatoes - try to start seeds or get plants. Jalapenos are the classic peppers for Pico de Gallo and I definately don't need anything hotter.

Cilantro Defino - I like limited amounts of cilantro in my salsa, it is very easy to overdo. When there's too much it reminds me of soap. Not a good thing by any means. I like this one because it's feathery so I won't have to try as hard to chop it up fine.

So there are my plans. Which do you guys think...start my own seeds or buy plants?

What The??!?!!

You'd think it was January or something! After the last week that was warm and even sunny, the bottom dropped out of the temperatures. I woke up this morning to a heavy frost, freezing fog and 23 degree weather. (Whine) I took these pictures at work early this morning.

As I finished taking pictures, our production planner Chuck came up to me and told me that there were some spider webs with frost on them back in the smokers' overhang. So I grabbed my trusty camera and went to take some more pictures. They looked extremely cool, unfortunately most didn't have a very good backdrop (the overhang is in the back of the warehouse and has vehicles parked all around) but I did get a couple of good ones.

Isn't it time for spring yet?

Six Things That Make Me Happy

Kiy tagged me with this meme so I thought I would come up with some. I don't really have anyone to tag so this part ends with me.

1. Holding and nursing my daughter. I wasn't sure how I would feel about this when she was born, but it is so special.

2. Getting time to play my guitar, even though I have a "helper" :)

3. Having time to cook, doesn't happen often.

4. Being outside in my garden.

5. Uninterrupted reading, which doesn't happen often either.

6. Sitting and having long conversations with my husband.

A Quilting Diversion

My mother was here for a visit last weekend and I wanted to take her to our local quiliting/cross stich store. Patches and Stitches has a large selection of material and also cross stitch patterns and threads. I don't cross stitch much (okay, at all) anymore but I do appreciate it when it is well done. So we set out on Saturday morning.

It was hard to capture detail on this miniature quilt to make you appreciate its scale, but it was amazing.

Here is the room with the threads in it.

One of the mixed fabric bundles.

And this is my mom, Kay. :)

Painter's Sky

I stepped outside to walk between buildings at work today and had to run back in to grab the camera. The whole sky was covered with the clouds shown in the picture and it was probably one of the most amazing skies that I have ever seen. It looked like an artist's painting.

Blue Sky

For those of you that aren't living in Northern Alabama the picture above might look pretty mediocre. For those of us that have been living under gray skies with damp and rain for the last few months it is one of the prettiest sights seen in a long time. The skies were bright blue with puffy white clouds and the sun shone down. It was colder than a witch's bosom though so I stayed inside for most of the day, looking out whenever I had a chance. I'll enjoy it while I can. :)

Walk in January

My mom left this morning and we are getting settled back into our routines. I finally got my tulip bulbs planted. I took Quickbeam out for a walk this afternoon to see what was happening. January is starting as grey and damp as December was.

There aren't a whole lot of things to see, but here and there are a few things of interest. These are the seedheads from my crepe myrtle tree.
I was surprised to see some buds on my Butterscotch Jessamine. I don't know if it is going to frost before it blooms.

And finally, there is still a little life left in the hen and chicks on my succulent bird feeder.

The Elephant in the Room

A few years ago I was a frequent business traveler to San Diego. There was a wonderful nursery there that I used to visit and I bought this little elephant statue there. I have kept him on an endtable in the living room ever since and he has helped to bring some zen-like tranquility into the house. Alas, this is the year of child-proofing and rearranging so I moved him out into the garden. I think he will probably be happier there.

And yes...the phlox is still blooming. :)