June 4, 2013
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January 23, 2013
January 21, 2013
This is so easy to make and it’s Gluten Free too! I got this recipe from Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, but I simplified it by using premade sauce (I love the one by A Taste of Thai) and substituting chicken instead of shrimp. Cooking shrimp skeeves me out.
Click “more” for the recipe 🙂
I got this recipe from Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book and then made a few tweaks to it so its faster to make and dairy-free. It’s vegetarian, but my husband loves it! His coworkers have even commented on how good his lunch works when he takes this as leftovers.
Click “more” below for the recipe.
It’s true. I love watching my kids (I just need a break every once in a while from the craziness to recharge and go back to being a patient mama). I love cooking. I even love paying the bills. But oh how I hate cleaning.
Every day I look around the house and say to myself, “What needs to be done today?”
EVERYTHING.
It’s the job that never ends. When my kids ask me why they have to make their bed because it will just get messy again, THEY HAVE A POINT. In fact, why do I have to make MY bed? Can’t I just read or something?
I think cleaning is dead dull. To be honest, it’s more interesting to stare at my wall than to clean – which is what I do most of the time that I’m trying to psyche myself up to get some vacuuming done or something.
This is something I’ve been working on. Obviously I will end up living in a pig sty if I don’t work on my cleaning skills. And I do enjoy a clean house. I just loathe the process it takes to get there. Since I can’t live in Downton Abbey and have a housekeeper and a staff of maids, I came up with something to make cleaning more enjoyable.
A checklist.
I LOVE lists. A lot. I make them all the time.
“There is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis.”
– Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
I printed off a cleaning checklist I found on Pinterest and it’s changed my life. Now, cleaning is DONE. When I check all the little boxes for the day, cleaning is officially done no matter what my house looks like. And when I was consistent with the checklist my house almost looked like it really was run by Mrs. Hughes. I’m sure she’d frown at how dusty my place is, but still…
“O, heavens, girl. You’re building a fire, not inventing it.” — Mrs. Hughes to Daisy, Downton Abbey S1E1.
I still think cleaning is dull, but I’m going to try to listen to music or audiobooks to help with that. Keep my mind occupied while I clean the bathroom. Again.
Anyway. Since I’m going to move in one week, I wanted to put pictures on my blog of what my soon-to-be old apartment really looked like. A woman in church yesterday made the comment that she stopped reading blogs because she was comparing her life to everyone’s highlight reel. This blog is not a highlight reel of my life. I want to be as realistic and honest as I can about my life and include the gritty things, too. So this is what my house looks like more or less everyday. I took these pictures on January 24 before we started packing.
I’m under no delusion that my new house will be magically cleaner, but my gosh I hope there won’t be toys in every single room since we will have a loft.
(Image Credit: lynac)
I had way too many bread-ends sitting around at my house, so I decided to make french toast out of them. I used Martha Stewart’s recipe, but I made a few changes to it. I have a joke with my mom that Martha likes to drink alcohol in like every episode she does. So when I saw that her french toast had cognac in it, I was like “Booze is not for breakfast Martha. Honestly.” So I left that out. I also used coconut milk instead to make them dairy-free. I didn’t take a picture of them because we ate them all before I even got out my camera 🙂
Click “more” below for the recipe.
I found a recipe for Hobbit Scones from the Harper Collins Second Breakfast website. I made them for the Lord of the Rings marathon party at my aunt’s house. The Harper Collins website had the measurements in grams so I converted all the measurements. I also made them in the food processor instead of by hand. I had a raging cold at the party and I couldn’t taste anything. Everyone assured me that they tasted good and weren’t too sweet – the way scones should be, in my opinion.
So here is my version of Hobbits Scones.
I feel like I’m starting a new chapter in my life with buying our first house. I really wanted a blog to talk about my personal life some more. I want to write about all the many, many projects I will have to do in the new house. I wanted a place to post recipes, crafts that I do once or twice a year and a few current events in my life. Book blogging is my passion, so I plan to only post here a few times a month at the most. But I think this blog will be a lot of fun.
My name is Jessica and I’m a stay at home mom of two young boys who keep me very busy. I love cooking, traveling and reading. Read more... 
