Nov
28
2009
While R’s Mom and Durl are up in northeast Texas visiting Mrs. B’s sister, R is responsible for Miss Arty. So he’s had her over here and we’ve had some interesting times with her and Simba. Arty gets close and Simba hisses at her. If they ever got into completely, despite her size I think Simba would beat Arty and could knock her into next week if he needed to because he still has his claws and Arty is a bit of a fraidy dog.
However, yesterday we went over to Mrs. B’s so I could work in the garden and R could play with Arty in the backyard. When we got over there, R decided get some sand and dirt for the flower bed we built (Bob built) Mrs. B for her birthday. Arty felt it was her duty to help R empty the bags of dirt and sand.
no comments | tags: Arty, Bed, Boxer, Building, Flower, Puppy | posted in That's Life
Nov
27
2009
Living Oprah had something to say about the return of the traditional family dishes to the table after last year’s Oprah inspired feast.
I think what struck me most is the comment that LO made about plain old pumpkin pie being back on the menu. “While it wouldn’t have looked very impressive in the pages of Bon Appetit, or O magazine for that matter, on our modest table, it looked absolutely beautiful to my eyes. So sure, last year’s Thanksgiving table was photographable and lush, but I guess we’re a family with modest needs (or low standards).” The food may be simple on LO’s and my table, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Because Thanksgiving isn’t about presenting a beautiful table worthy of a spread in a magazine. This holiday is about being with the ones you love and care about and the blessings that you have in your life.
This year’s Thanksgiving was the first big family-type holiday R and I have spent as a couple ever. His mom went up to see her sister in northeast Texas. And last year we went home so R could meet my family finally. Our first Thanksgiving was a blend of our families’ traditions. We had the stuffing that his mom makes, the cranberry relish that my mom makes, and the pumpkin pie with my sister’s secret ingredient. The turkey and the sweet potato casserole were mine. It wasn’t a fancy meal, but it was us blending our lives a little more and for that I am thankful.
no comments | tags: Bon Appetit, Cranberry Relish, family, Friends, holidays, Living Oprah, O, Oprah, Pie, Pupmkin, Stuffing, Thanksgiving, Turkey | posted in That's Life
Nov
25
2009
My friend Angi from PCOSinConnection recently posted something on Facebook about the cost of eating healthy when on a tight budget. For $73.98, she got two meals, several lunches and snacks for her and her partner. Her complaint is one that I’ve heard on several of the fitness boards – How can you afford better food when you want to eat healthy? How do you eat healthy when you are on the run? And how do you do it when healthy food items do not have coupons associated with them?
I’ve gotten a copy of Angi’s grocery list and I’m going to revamp it. The primary goal is to increase the amount of food purchased (goal is a minimum of 4 meals plus lunches for the money spent). Based on what Angi has described, I’ve got a couple more criteria that I need to meet:
1) Meal/Snack solutions that are portable because Angi spends a good portion of her day on the go and in the car.
2) Angi eats several small meals/snacks a day to help keep insulin levels even. Because many women with PCOS have insulin resistance issues, I’m going to take macro split of 40% Protein, 30% Carbs and 30% Fat when I set up the menu based on my shopping list.
3) Everything has to fall into the categories of natural or organic and generally should be a store brand unless specified.
In Part II, I’ll post the list. I’ll also go window shopping at one of my local stores (I’m in Texas, Angi’s in Connecticut) to get an initial estimate based on what she purchased and find suitable substitutes for the local brands available. So stay tuned!
1 comment | tags: bill, Budget, Eating, Food, grocery, Healthy, Insulin, macros, PCOS, resistance, shopping, store, Stretching | posted in Financial Freak, Retro Kitchen, Weighty Matters
Nov
14
2009
Yesterday morning while driving to work I heard a tale about a gentleman who drove a Bugatti into a salt marsh between Galveston and Houston on Thursday. The reason for the accident? The guy was distracted while driving and claims that a pelican startled him and caused him to swerve. The problem is that someone was filming the car and there’s no pelican to found in the video.
The driver, a Jeff House from Lufkin, TX, is a Car collector and had just purchased the 2006 Bugatti Veyron for $1.25 million. It had 500 odometer miles on it. He was trying to retrieve a cellphone from the floor board when a tire went off the road and he ended up in the salt marsh near La Marque.
I don’t know about you, but if I was driving a car worth a cool million and that could go 253 MPH and had 1,001 HP under the hood, the next to last thing I would do while driving it, is anything other than concentrate on my driving. And the VERY last thing I would do is distract myself with a cell phone.
2 comments | tags: Auto, Bugatti, Car, Cell, Crash, Distraction, Dollars, Galveston, Million, Phone | posted in That's Life
Nov
11
2009
Yesterday was hard at work. We had layoffs. And when I got home last night, I had nothing to say because I was tired and numb. A co-worker I just started to get to know got laid off and I am going to miss him because he brought a lot of good things to our group. There’s going to be changes in our structure and our management. But it’s brought home the reality, that I need to be more careful and budget better.
I’ve been a little more lenient than I should be with my spending and that needs to change so that if needed, I have a cushion to fall back on.
no comments | tags: Emergency Fund, finances, layoffs, NaBloPoMo, numb, savings, spending | posted in Financial Freak, That's Life, Weighty Matters
Nov
9
2009
I wish I had something to say, but I don’t. I’ve just been hammered at work and I saw something today that just left me absolutely speechless and wondering how people can be so narrowly defined in what is “right”. I’m gonna have to think about this for a few days.
2 comments | posted in That's Life
Nov
8
2009
It’s mid-November, but those of us on the Gulf Coast are waiting to see what Hurricane Ida does in the next few days. It’s been a quiet year for the Gulf of Mexico in terms of storms but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to worry about them – hurricane season doesn’t end until November 30th. Nor does that mean that any of us, regardless of where we live, should not be prepared for emergency sitations. It can be a difference between having an easier time during the crisis and being totally stressed out in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
When Ike rolled into Houston a year ago, I spent a couple of days preparing. I took the following steps:
- Gathered all my important papers into one envelop that I carried with me. Documents you should take with you – Social Security Cards, deeds to your property, insurance cards, titles to your vehicles, etc. Things that would be important to help you keep your home. There are some folks on Bolivar Penisula who have run into issues because they didn’t take deeds with them and almost everything was wiped out. They are now trying to prove that property is theirs.
- Made sure I had a First Aid kit. If you need medications, make sure you have those in your medical/first aid kit as well.
- Made sure I had cash in my wallet. Cash is King in an emergency situation. It doesn’t required electricity to make a cash transaction. ATMs and Point of Pay systems were down for days.
- Bought a car charger for my cell phone. Car batteries provide a great way to charge your phone during an emergency.
- Filled my car up with gas and fill up extra gas cans if you can. Pumps run on electricity and having full gas cans saved us as we were trying to get things done after the hurricane.
- Had three days worth of water for me and my cat.
- Made sure we have plenty of food. R and I did a lot of cooking on the grill. We cooked and ate things that would spoil first and then we did a lot of improvising. How could we use the dried food and canned foods that we had in our collective pantries?
- Made sure I had bedding to sleep on.
- A few changes of clothing
There were other things I did. And even with what I did, I think next time I will be better prepared. One of the things I bought was a crank/solar operated radio and I will test the electronics as part of the preparation before the emergency. I found out the hard way that my battery operated radio didn’t work in the middle of the hurricane.
Ultimately, we have to be ready before a situation happens. Finding out afterwards leads to a lot of extra stress that you don’t need.
no comments | posted in Weighty Matters
Nov
7
2009
A week or so ago, I did a cheesy experiment. I made my own Mozzarella type cheese. I say type because things didn’t turn out quite as planned but I still got product in the end. I decided to try my hand at cheesemaking after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
by Barbara Kingsolver. I got the supplies from Ricki – the Cheese Queen’s Web site and went to the local market to buy organic milk.
The results were interesting to say the least because during the time time I decided to actually MAKE cheese and ordered the supplies to do it, the milk producer changed the way they pasturize their milk and I ended up with some not so good results. So here’s the pictures from my cheesy experiment.
Rennet – This is what makes milk into cheese curd. You dissolve 1/4 tablet into a little water and add it to the milk when you get it warmed to 90 degrees.
Stirring the milk after adding Citric acid to the milk.
Checking the temperature of the milk – looking for the 90 degree mark.
The rennet has been added to the milk and now it’s sitting so the curd can form.
Houston, we have a problem. The curd has set, but not like I expected, it looked more like ricotta cheese. The high temps from pasturization has denatured the proteins and makes it hard for the milk to form decent curds.
I ended up with this:
After a little more messing with the curd, I ended up with this (A.K.A. my cheesy brain):
The next step is to heat the curd again and get it smoother. This took working in small batches so I could work the cheese with my hands. If you ever try making your own cheese, you might want to have some gloves for this step, the cheese gets hot!
You know the curd is about right for pulling when it gets stretchy on the spoon.
All the cheese after it’s been stretched a bit. It is smoother and tends to be a little flatter.
The final step was to give it an ice bath to cool it off
A little morsel of the final result. It tasted like Mozzarella even if the consistency wasn’t quite right.
All in all, I’m pretty happy about my end result. It wasn’t quite what I expected, BUT it did resemble Mozzarella which is what I was shooting for. I think the next batch I make will be much better. I found a source for milk that is not pasturized at high temps so the protein shouldn’t denature. I can’t wait to try the next batch.
1 comment | tags: cheese, Cheesemaking, Making, Mozzarella, Supplies, The Cheese Queen | posted in Eating Local, Paula's Picks, Retro Kitchen
