Life on the home front.

Every morning, when I walk out of the kitchen to the living room to open the curtains, Lola pops her leg up in the air and insists that I give her a belly rub. A morning belly rub to get her through the day. A day full of lolling and sleeping. Her life is so rough.

Summer is coming at us like a fright train, with temps reaching the 100's already. On days like that the ground gets too hot to take the dogs for walks. So we take them on rides instead, which suits Duke just fine...especially when we roll the window down for him.

Jeremy surprised me with roses, chocolates, and Mother's Day cards from him and the fur kids on Saturday. But that wasn't ALL..he also brought me new plants for our front yard. West Texas is in a serious drought. Just about everyone's lawn is brown and dead due to severe water restrictions. Between no water and the extreme heat in the summer and rare freezing temps we have had the last few winters, many of our trees and shrubs have died. So Jeremy spent his day out in the heat, chopping down trees and digging up plants. And planting new, pretty things.

 

On Sunday, we had my mom and Jeremy's parents over the lunch (next time I promise to have dessert, Mom). Dolly was there too, of course. I didn't get a picture, but I painted her nails a silvery-white (she brought me the polish she wanted to use). We also watched one of her favorite movies, currently, 'Dear Dumb Diary'. I swear the songs will be stuck in my head for days. But it was still a cute movie.

I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!

Just Jinny in the Kitchen

There is nothing I love more than a one pot recipe.

 

I enjoy trying new recipes, but when my kitchen looks like a war zone after I'm done making it the recipe usually goes right in the trash can. I don't care how good it tastes.

 

So, this recipe was right up my alley.

 

Spinach and Sausage Pasta.

View the full recipe here.

 

 

You got your onion, pasta, chicken broth, diced tomatoes with chiles (rotel would work, I used "Mexican style" diced tomatoes), spinach, green onion, shredded cheese, and sausage (not pictured).

 

 

Chop up your sausage and throw it in a pan with some olive oil. Let it start cooking.

 

Chop up some onion and throw that in with the sausage. Let it all cook down and get all nice and brown.

 

 

Add in the diced tomatoes and chicken broth (two cups), stir it up and be sure to get the goodness off the bottom of the pan from cooking the sausage. Then add in the pasta. As you can see, not all my pasta was submerged. Do not worry, it turned out fine.

 

Slap a lid on it and bring it to a boil and then down to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Poke at with a stick a few times and stir it up. {I added some basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper during this stage}

 

Add a handful of spinach at a time, stirring it all in between handfuls (about three handfuls total). Sprinkle some cheese on top and put the lid back on for just a few minutes.

 

Chop up the green onion, BAM! it, and serve.

 

 

Nothing Better Than

• Wearing one of Jeremy's long sleeve shirts while I'm lounging around the house.
• The "big" boss sending an email saying "I agree w/you". I want to print it out and frame it.
• My Boys (the Cowboys..duh) making it work two weeks in a row. Might not be pretty, but we like to play a little down and dirty.
• Walking the dogs at the end of the day and airing our frustrations from the work day. By the time we get back around to the house we are done complaining and can enjoy our evening.
• Seeing all the rain. It might not always be right on top of us, but it's been around. And after so long of being without it..without a HINT of it..even a glimpse of rain is welcome.
• Overtime at work right before the Holiday season. I'll be doing some Christmas shopping very soon.
• The front yard spigot getting fixed...finally {Love you, Honey}. There has been a leak in our spigot for weeks now and it's finally fixed. I can't even describe how happy it makes me to walk up to the front door and see DRY dirt and not a small mud puddle. It's the little things, people.
• My neices and nephew making me feel special. I always try to make them feel special and loved but I'm amazed at how special and loved they make ME feel.

Stepford Speciman #105

Y'all something strange is happening. A disturbance in the force. An odd occurrence. It's making me wonder if I haven't been abducted by aliens and lobotomized.

For years and years of this marriage, I didn't do any of the cleaning. Or cooking. All I did was bring home the bacon and then sit on my big butt. I didn't do the dishes. I didn't do the laundry. I didn't scrub the tub or sweep the floors. Jeremy took care of everything while I was just lazy. There were a few occasions when I would get the notion to try and 'help'. But the minute I would pick up a laundry basket or start to unwrap the vacuum cord Jeremy would be right there to tell me not to worry about it..he had it all under control..to go sit back down. So, eventually it just became habit..it became normal for Jeremy to do everything and for me to do nothing.

Lately, things have started to change. I'm not sure exactly when it started to happen or why. But I can no longer come home after work and relax until I have done something..anything..to tidy the house. I feel guilty if I don't. So, I come home from work and I unload the dishwasher and then re-load if there happen to be dishes in the sink. I rinse out the coffee pot. I wipe down the stove-top and counters. I clean the litter box. If I know there are clothes in the dryer from the night before, I'll get them and put them away. If I need to take something out for dinner, I'll do that too. And I do all of this as soon as I get home from work, before I can sit down to do anything else.

To a lot of you out there, all of that might sound like your normal every day life. But, for us, it is completely abnormal. For ME, it is totally out of character. I'm surprised my husband hasn't said something..like 'What's wrong with you?' or 'Who are you?' I don't know what changed. All I can say is that it makes me happy to have a clean sink. For the rest of the evening, I can relax..knowing that I did a chore or two. Or maybe its all some sort of alien experiment. Excuse me, the mother ship is calling.

Goals for 2011

1. A New Dishwasher

2. A New Stove

3. A Costume Birthday Party

4. A Kick Ass Concert

5. A girl's weekend with the crazy ladies of my family

6. Warrior Dash

7. A trip with my sister

8. Getting my toes in the sand

9. Cultivating my talent

10. Getting a laptop

11. Visit Lost Maples

12. Go to the Texas Ren Fest

13. Visit friends, family, relax, calm down, laugh until I cry, savor good food, remember my blessings every second.

The week we lived in a pink house

After the house fiasco last month we have sort of fell back in love with our house. Nothing like nearly losing your home to make you appreciate it.

We decided that our house just needed some TLC. It needed some attention that we should have been giving it all along. When we moved into this house about eight years ago we did all sorts of renovations. We painted walls, pulled up carpet, put down tile, crown molding, new sinks and fixtures. The works! But then we got lazy and decided that we would be out of the house soon anyways..so why bother doing anything else. Yeah, I know. Makes a whole lot of sense doesn't it?

The outside of the house has suffered the most. The paint (that came on the house when we moved in) was starting to look a little shabby and peel. The screens (which also came with the house) are bent and have a few holes in them. The back patio (which we did not put up) leaks all over our patio furniture when it rains. Our screen door (you got it..already on the house) finally gave up the ghost months ago. So, having a new found love for the house we wanted to show it some TLC and paint the outside of the house.

Sounds easy enough right? Wrong! You are so very wrong..and have obviously never done any type of home improvement. First things first, the siding on the front of the house, made out of masonite, was chipping at the bottom. Jeremy decides that we should probably replace those before we paint. Should be easy right? Ah-ha, you're catching on. The actual removing and replacing of the siding went pretty smoothly actually. It was the pesky spigot that happens to find its home in the bottom piece of siding that gave us trouble. The pipe busted, under our house. It was a two hour disaster in which I just prayed that Jeremy didn't get stuck under the house because I didn't think I could hold my shit together long enough to crawl under there and help get him out. It was also the disaster in where Jeremy had to send me to the hardware store...with a list...in a hurry...because we had no water. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because when I found the first employee, pointed at him, and said in a frantic voice 'You there! I need help'. I think he actually thought about turning around and running away from me. But Jeremy did finally get the pipe fixed and we were back on track.

I had picked the color for the outside of the house. Hot Cocoa, it was called. I admired the little paint sample for weeks. And then, after the pipe busting, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to get a test sample and do a quick patch on the house..just to make sure we liked the color. I figured it would be our luck to buy a whole 5 gallon bucket and then decide we didn't like the color on the house. Smart thinking, right? Look at me, thinking ahead..trying to avoid disaster. We painted a test spot on the house and both decided we liked the color. Bought the paint and opened it up to check it out..it's not the right color. Instead of Hot Cocoa it looked like cream. Much too light. Jeremy hauls it back to the store for them to fix it. Turns out the guy only mixed in enough color for a one gallon bucket, but instead of starting with a fresh 5 gallon bucket they doctor the one we have to fix it. SSSooo, we wrangle some help and paint the front of the house.


That was on Saturday. By Tuesday, Jeremy tells me he isn't sure about the color. Oh great! He says he thinks the house looks pink. I'm not sure that it looked pink but after standing back and looking at the house we both decided that the color just wasn't right. I don't know if it was just a bad decision or if they botched the re-mix of the paint. Who's to know. But it was just too...warm. Or something.

So we go BACK to the paint store and very carefully pick out two more colors. We get paint samples of those colors AND the color we want to paint the trim, which is a bright white. We take all the samples home and paint big ol' swatches on the front of the house..with a few pieces of the trim painted white. Let's re-cap, shall we. That is a total of five colors that are on our house. Blue trim, with patches of white, Hot Cocoa on the majority of the front and two patches of a cooler beige and a gray-ish blue color.


And we lived with that until the weekend. We figured this is what we probably should have done with the original color, lived with it, some place on the house that we have to see every day, for a few days to make sure it was right. But..you live and learn right? Oh and we are learning.

Anyhow, three weeks later we are nearly done with the front of the house. The front and the carport, but that's it. This whole 'painting the house' project is moving along a little slower than we thought. But..at least the house isn't pink anymore.

Just give me a home..where the stray cats do not roam

This year is certainly going to be one for the record books. Besides celebrating our 10 year anniversary and going to Hawaii, I'm also turning 30, and...AND we are buying a new house.

We've talked alot about moving. Should we stay or should we go? There are advantages to both. We have talked about moving. Moving to Colorado, Pensacola, Dallas, Austin, Hawaii (ha ha..kidding about that last one...sort of). But, when we really talked about it and put it all on the table, it is better for us as a family to stay here. I hope to move some day and maybe experience another city, but right now is not the time.

That doesn't mean we aren't moving.

I want out of those house...in a bad way. We bought this house probably seven years ago. We were like 22 years old. BABIES! We were just babies..what were we doing buying a house? lol. I'm kidding. This house has served us well in our early adulthood. It was just the right size, in just the right location, for just the right price. We cut our teeth on this house and learned alot..mostly by making mistakes. But even though our family hasn't grown (people-wise..animal-wise we are at our limit) this house seems to be shrinking. Basically, we are out growing this house. It's time for a 'grown-up' house. It's time for a privacy fence and a two-car garage. It's time for a utility room and a pantry. It's time for an actual guest bedroom and a second bathroom. It's time for us to find the perfect house to host holiday parties and backyard barbeque's.

So, I called and made an appointment with a local realtor on Sunday. She is coming here to this house..to look it over. *blank stare* Is it normal to feel like I need to empty rooms out? To clean the baseboards with a toothbrush? To deep cleaning our furniture? There is something very revealing about letting someone in your home to evaluate it. It makes me feel very vulnerable. Like she is going to find all my dirty little secrets if I let her look too close.

Her visit might go something like this...

Her: This living room is a nice size.
Me: Please don't look at the un-even baseboards. We put them in ourselves. We didn't know what we were doing. We were babies!

Her: Let's have a look at the kitchen.
Me: Please don't look at the cracked tile on the floor. We put it in ourselves. We didn't know what we were doing. We were babies!

Her: The hardwood floors are lovely.
Me: Please don't look in any corners. We have five animals. FIVE! You have no idea how hard it is to wrangle the dust bunnies in this house.

Her: This room is an interesting shade of green.
Me: My husband did it! It's all his fault. *smacks Jeremy on the arm*

*groan* What are we doing? Selling a house is hard and we haven't even started yet.

What makes a house a home

"Home is a shelter from storms - all sorts of storms." ~ William J. Bennett

Over on Shutter Sisters the question was asked "Do you surround yourself with the magic reminders that make your heart sing?"

I started thinking about my home and our decorating 'style'. I can admire rooms out of Better Homes & Garden or Martha Stewart Living all day long, I can appriciate the design and the beauty. But, my home will never look like that because its not really my style. My home is very lived in. There is very little that was specifically bought to just fill up space on a shelf. There are very few vague floral prints framed and hanging on my wall just to take up wall space.

No, I enjoy surrounding myself with things that mean something to me. Things with sentimental value, things that mark special moments in my life. First, we have filled our home with art work from special places or that we have created ourselves. We aren't "professional artist" by any means, but we do have fun with our art.

Art work my sister brought back for me from San Francisco.
Another piece of art my sister gave me when she went to Paris.
My husbands artistic talent combined with his love for comic books.
Another of my husbands work..this one is from his high school years.
And this is one of MY paintings. It's fun..but you can probably guess who the better artist is.


We collect things that we enjoy. I don't have a thing for cows in general, but I do love the Cow Parade cows and have quite a few of them spread out through my house. Other items are from places that my husband and I have been together. Maybe a very special gift that someone gave me. I know these things are very personal and might not appeal to everyone, they don't all fit a certain 'theme'. But, when someone comes to my house they can truely see me..us..the REAL us.

Note cards that we picked up in Colorado. We just tore the back pieces off and hung them in frames.
Just a small peek into Jeremy's Metallica collection.
This is the turtle that Jeremy gave me for my birthday..my 17th birthday. It was the first gift he ever gave me.A poem my sister wrote for a school assignment.
A set of nesting dolls we bought in Fredericksburg.


But mostly, we surround ourselves with things that make us happy..things that make us smile..a mix and match of postcards, drawings, fortunes from fortune cookies, little reminders of our hopes and dreams and wants, and family photos.

Pumpkin Empanadas

"Condensed milk is wonderful. I don't see how they can get a cow to sit down on those little cans." ~ Fred Allen

It's getting a little cooler outside. Starting to feel more fall-ish. The grocery store smells like cinnamon and there are pumpkins everywhere. So, I thought it would be the perfect time to try out a recipe I had tucked away..pumpkin empanadas.

First, turn the oven on! To 425, please and thank you.

They are super easy to make. First, you dump 15.5 ozs of pumpkin stuff in a bowl. I could only find a 29 oz can so I eyeballed it. Then you add three eggs, two teaspoons of pumpkin spice, and a 1/2 cup of condensed milk. *I did a taste test and decided it needed sugar. Feel free to add sugar to taste if you prefer*

Start stirring....

Keep stirring...I promise it will come together. Like this:


Ok, set that bowl aside for now. Now you need a package of pre-made refrigerated pie crusts. The package I bought had two pie crusts in there, lucky me. The written recipe calls for the use of a round cookie or biscuit cutter about 3 inches in diameter. I just used the bottom of the condensed milk can since I don't have a round cookie cutter.


Once I had as many circles cut out as I could get from the dough, I used the tablespoon sized measuring spoon to scoop the pumpkin stuff into the circles. Again, this is eyeballed. I put too much in some and it squished out the sides.

And if you know how to 'pinch and fold' dough edges then fill free. For me, I haven't had a lot of practice pinching and folding so I just used a fork to seal the edges together.


Spray a baking sheet down with non-stick spray before putting the empanadas on it. Last step before going in the oven. Use a basting brush or whatever tool you prefer to brush the tops of the empanadas with the condensed milk. It helps the dough turn that golden brown and it gives it a little sweetness.

Pop all of it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Mine only took 10 minutes, so keep an eye on them.


When they are done put them out on a cooling rack for a few minutes. MMmmm, look at the golden goodness. And trust me, you won't mind the sloppiness of the pumpkin stuff leaking out when you taste them. So good.

Sandra Lee ain't got nothing on me

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves." ~ Thomas Wolfe

So, tonight was my turn to cook. Lazy Day chicken, in fact. I love this recipe because it's super easy..and I'm all about that.

If you want to cook along, you better just turn your oven to 350 degrees now.

Lazy Day chicken is so simple that everything you need is in the picture below. Chicken, beef broth, tomato sauce, onion flakes, and garlic powder. Ta-da, that's it. Oh, and some non-stick spray which you already put in the dish before adding the chicken, right?


The recipe itself calls for 1/2 can of both the beef broth and tomato sauce. I just eye ball it. I pour enough broth in there to cover the chicken and enough tomato sauce to make it..well..tomato-ish enough for my taste. Same with the seasoning, just add whatever you think you might like.


Slap a lid on it and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes. And try not to burn yourself in the process...like I did. Doh! Now, just walk away. Go tweeze your eyebrows or something. After 30 minutes, take the lid off and put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. You have about 10 minutes to kill before putting on the water for the rice.


Ok, so I'm pretty sure y'all know how to boil water. But, it's a cool picture, huh?


Once the water is boiling toss in the 'boil in the bag' rice. Yeah, yeah..it's instant. Deal with it. Let it go for about 10 minutes.


Once you've hit the 5 minute mark you can put the steamed veggies in the microwave. Have you tried this stuff? It's really, really good. I didn't add anything to the veggies, but you can if you want.


The veggies are done just in time to pull the rice out of the water. I like to add butter to mine, not much..just a dab will do ya.


I intentionally turned the spices around because really you can add whatever flavors float your boat. For mine, I added a little onion poweder, garlic salt, dried parsley, and dried basil.


And there you have it. A full meal. And don't you even worry about all that splattery crud around the edge of the chicken dish. I swear it washes right off!


Jeremy gave it two thumbs up!!