Perhaps I Have a Green Thumb!

It's that time of year: gardening time! Over the past week or so, I have been reading up a lot on vegetable gardening, and Mom's annual trip to K Drive Greenhouse for flowers provided a perfect opportunity for me to get a few vegetable plants that I could easily grow in pots. I have wanted a vegetable garden the past few years, but had never thought of trying a few plants in pots before this past week. I didn't realize so many vegetables were actually quite successful in large pots! Mom and I purchased two varieties of bell peppers and one of cherry tomato: Cajun Belle, Better Belle, and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes.

My seedlings!

All the plants, ready for new homes!

The transplanted lilies

Time to get dirty!

My first vegetable garden!

I've only helped plant flowers a bit (and done my fair share of weeding) in the past, so this is a chance to really try out gardening and farming a bit. I hope to have a huge vegetable garden someday, so this is a place to start. Someday I'm hoping I won't need to go to the grocery store every week for produce!

Unfortunately there are two sorry circumstances of this summer's growing season: 1) we had an early warm spell, followed by a few very cold nights, which decimated the majority (think in the 90-100% range) of Michigan's fruit crop, and 2) I will only be here until August, which prevents me from picking apples (provided there are some), squash, etc. to can. I can do some canning, but I won't really be able to reap the benefits, unless I brought it to school with me, which is a possibility! It would be simply delightful to have home-canned food in my refrigerator!

Yesterday Mom and I had an excursion downtown to go to the library and the farmer's market. Because it was pouring rain, we stopped at the library first. That place is dangerous. I intended to just find a couple books, maybe, since I already have a stack of nearly a dozen next to my bed, but instead, I came home with a treasure trove--nine more! It included a few cookbooks, some on gardening, a novel, a scrapbooking one, and a few others. It is delightful to just peruse through them looking for ideas!

The farmer's market was also a worthwhile stop, and it had stopped raining, which made it much more enjoyable. Despite the warm spring, this early in the season doesn't have too many different crops ready for harvesting. We did find rhubarb, beets, and spring greens, all of which have been delightful. I can't really take credit for doing anything with this set of vegetables, as Mom did the labor this time. She made a rhubarb sauce, which we have been enjoying over frozen yogurt, and cooked the beets, which we tossed with sweet onions and red wine vinegar for a nice salad. If I had remembered to take photographs, there would have been some...but alas, as usual (except for my gardening escapade!), I forgot. Sorry, folks.

Besides having a green thumb, I also spent a bit of time in the kitchen making Valerie a loaf of Oatmeal Bread. She had mentioned having homemade bread while she was home, but since we did not get a chance in the short 48 hours, I decided to bake her a loaf to bring with her instead. It was super easy--except for the fact that the bread machine's motor kept jamming, but we eventually got it to work. The bread turned out very well: sweet, doughy, and delicious all the way around.

Oatmeal Bread:

3 1/3 c. bread flour

1 c. quick oats

1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. brown sugar

4 t. vegetable oil

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. water

1 1/4 t. active dry yeast

1) Pour wet ingredients into bread machine.

2) Put the dry ingredients--except yeast--on top of the wet.

3) Dig a small well in the dry mixture and put in the well. 

Summer Speculations

Perhaps the title is misleading, as it is not technically summer. Not until the end of June. But in my mind, summer begins when the academic year ends. As I have mentioned many times recently, my primary goal this summer is to become much more domestic than I already am. I figure it is good practice for when I am actually living on my own, in my own apartment or house, not eating dorm food.

This week has been primarily focused once again on food, as it is the easiest and requires the least amount of materials (besides the weekly grocery shopping, of course). My family ate well again this week--or at least I thought so--with the following menu:

Monday-Red Beans and Rice with added pinto beans, onions, and peppers, served with tortillas

Tuesday-Fresh Take Chicken Chili Lime & Panko version (Caroline had a $1 off coupon, which was incentive to try it) served with rice and the Green Giant Baby Brussel Sprouts with Butter Sauce (yes, I know, brussel sprouts...but they were a) in the freezer, b) lathered in butter, and c) actually quite palatable)

Wednesday-Four Cheese Ravioli (found deep in our freezer from Meijer, but no complaints about taste, save for the freezer burn!) with sauce made from our last can of home-canned tomatoes, spruced up with garlic, basil, oregano, and celery

Thursday-Portabello Mushroom Burgers (we used premade balsamic vinaigrette as the marinade from The Cheese Lady in Muskegon) served on Aunt Millie's Hearth Buns (buy one get one free, with two coupons totaling $0.60) with dilled zucchini and summer squash (the veggies were discovered on the "dead produce" rack at Meijer for a grand total of $1.69; there were four zucchini and five summer squash, enough to give each of us a good cup of vegetables)--Judging from this meal, I don't think my parents need to worry about me being a big spender once I leave home. Budgeting is a game, and I think I'm in the lead!

My apologies that there are no pictures...of the meals, that is. However, another find from the dead produce rack was two 1-pound containers of strawberries (1 berry was dead, the rest were perfectly fine) for $0.84 each. I chopped them up, and froze them for smoothies. This morning I made a smoothie with a ginormous banana (certainly not local, but one of the cheaper fruits on the market right now at Meijer), a bit of milk, the strawberries, and ice. It was very thick, courtesy of the banana, and a perfect way to start the day. 

The strawberry banana smoothie, posing next to our cookbooks.

 And now...for a bit of a photo dump :)

All three cats on my bed...such a hard day they've had. 

Graduation Festivities for Caroline
(she technically graduates in December
but was allowed to walk at the
School of Engineering ceremony)

All of the cousins (and the Bramers' exchange student) at
Michael's graduation from Ball State University last weekend

Christine, myself, and Valerie the day I left Pitt for the summer
Miss them like crazy!!

A Pumpkin Kind of Day

Since being home, I have taken it upon myself to be the domestic head of the house. So far, that has mostly just involved kitchen duties--cooking, grocery shopping, coupon clipping--and I have enjoyed it quite a bit. I've been making weekly menus with creative and healthy ideas, and love seeing my family eat --and usually enjoy--my new recipes. Once I hook up Valerie's printer (she needed one at Michigan State, but won't need it for the summer, so I get to use it!), I will print out the successful recipes and add them to my newly made recipe binder. I promise to post some photographs soon of both the binder and the recipes... I just haven't gotten around to uploading them. My apologies.
Today I tried two new recipes, both involving canned pumpkin. Because the squash was canned, these recipes were so incredibly simple; I practically could have done them with my eyes closed! Last week pork loins were on sale at Meijer, so we grilled blackberry and honey glazed pork chops and froze the remainder of the loin in chops. Tonight we used a few more of those chops to make Pumpkin Pork Chops. It was ridiculously easy: combine the pumpkin and spices, then pour over the pork chops in a glass baking dish, and bake for 40 minutes. Couldn't get much simpler! Served with rice pilaf and asparagus, it was both a healthy and delicious meal as well!
The second recipe was even more effortless, if that is possible. Caroline and I made pumpkin spice muffins. The recipe? 1 box of spice cake mix, 2 cups of pumpkin, and 1 cup of water. Mix and pour into muffin cups, then bake for 20-25 minutes at 350°. They are wonderful! If you want to increase the health content of these muffins--I tried this--add a few tablespoons of ground flax seed. Flax seed is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential to brain health. Can't hurt, right?
One might wonder where I am getting the inspiration for all this domestic-ness. I have been reading a book called Real Food on a Real Budget by Stephanie Langford. She is the author of a blog I stumbled upon a few months ago, and both the book and blog are wonderful. Langford discusses how to stretch a tiny budget very far, buying healthy, wholesome foods for her young family. In fact, she discusses many of the same techniques I talked about in my March 5 post: The Game of Frugality. Although I am living at home, and Mom graciously foots the grocery bill, it is fun to scout out the best deals, use coupons to save money (Did you know companies actually plan coupons into their budgets? Basically, don't feel guilty about using them!), and try recipes with cheap ingredients. Tonight I am soaking dried beans we have had in our pantry forever from our "share of the farm" a few summers ago that we never got around to using. I am making some sort of ham and bean soup, and I will post pictures and a recipe once I finish. I hope to throw in tons of veggies too--we have some dying celery in our fridge, and canned tomatoes are always an option. The ham is frozen leftovers from Easter, so this will really be a budget-friendly, hearty soup. Gotta love it!
How do you solve the food-budget puzzle? Feel free to post any great ideas or recipes!

Mind. Blown.

It has been over a month since my last post. Where did the time go? (I seem to be asking myself that a lot lately.) The past four weeks have been ridiculously hectic; between exams, Easter, and evacuations, I have not had time to sit still until this past week.


Exams. I am officially finished with my freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh! I can't believe how fast the time flew by. I met some of the most amazing people in Pittsburgh and made some great friends that I am sure will last a lifetime. Unfortunately a good portion of the last week was spent studying for microbiology--there was an insane amount of memorization to be done. However, the last weekend was filled with fun celebrations: the last Friday Dollar Dinner, the final FOCUS 101 student leader meeting, another "Babies and Bagels" Mass, and a trip to Razzy Fresh for the end of this year's Catholic Action.
For those of you wondering, "Babies and Bagels" is the 11am Mass on Sundays at the Newman Center. A lot of families--many graduates of Pitt--bring their little ones and there are bagels, donuts, and coffee following the Mass. The families take turns providing the treats; I want to be part of a parish community like that someday! I practically begged to hold a little 3-month old girl named Lucy, and I was graciously provided the opportunity to hold her in my arms for a whole fifteen minutes. Pure bliss. <3


Easter. I planned on spending Easter in Pittsburgh with my friends, and we would all have dinner with my friend Melissa's family. Little did we know that the week prior to Easter, the University of Pittsburgh would receive dozens upon dozens of bomb threats, prompting as many evacuations. Beginning after spring break (one occurred February 13, but the remainder came after our week off), threats were scrawled on bathroom stalls and emailed into various news organizations. At first only the Cathedral of Learning and Chevron Science Center were threatened, but soon buildings all over campus were targeted. In the beginning, it was one building at a time, and then many threats came simultaneously, sometimes in the middle of the night. I resisted going home for Easter at first, but finally, we all just needed a break, and so Christine and I headed west on Good Friday when my mom was amazing and came to pick us up. It was three solid nights of sleep we had not had in a while.
Most nights, even post spring break, I wasn't sleeping in my own dorm room. My roommate had withdrawn for the semester, and I didn't like sleeping alone. I sometimes slept in Valerie's room; other times my friend Laura (aka my "bomb buddy") went to the missionaries Ruth and Gina's apartment. Ruth and Gina graciously housed us many nights--sometimes up to five girls--providing a safe haven only a short walk from campus. Although we would still wake up to the text alerts informing us of evacuations, at least we would not be jolted awake by fire alarms, sending us into Oakland at two a.m, (although it did happen a few times, and luckily we were welcomed into the homes of off-campus friends). It strengthened some friendships, although I know that's not what the threatener intended. In fact, no one really knows what the threatener intended to convey through these 137 threats; he or she stopped after promising to do so if the reward for his/her conviction was removed. What we did learn, however, was how amazing our Pitt Police Officers--and yes, K-9 Officer Riggs--truly are and how much they will do for us. It showed an awesome sense of Pitt Pride!