Man, I’ve been busy this week! Almost every night, I hung out with friends after work and this weekend, same thing. I’m not complaining, but I’m looking forward to laying low this week before I head to Dallas on Friday.
This is going to be a hodge podge post, just kind of recapping the highlights of the past few days. Where to begin…
Oh, I made goat cheese!
Pressing the curds makes it firmer, which I prefer. It turned out great, but I should have used more salt. I used what was suggested, but I didn’t taste it before I pressed it. This was so easy – I will never buy goat cheese from the store again. I just used store-bought goat milk, but next time I’ll buy some raw milk from a place near my house.
Okay, what else… Uh, I had some fast food on Friday! After working a 12 hour day, the last thing I wanted to do was cook, so I stopped by Burgerville because I had a coupon. You’ve probably heard me talk about Burgerville on here before – it’s a northwest chain that prides itself on being sustainable and using the best quality food available. They have seasonal items and vegetarian burgers, so I had the Yukon & white bean basil burger. It was delish.
I totally got fries AND a soda which was a really nice indulgence I thoroughly enjoyed. Look, even they’re cups are compostable!
This morning was super productive – Chris and I cleaned the house, worked on the yard and even FINALLY unpacked the last of the boxes we had around the house. When that was all done, I cleaned out & organized my pantry. I buy a lot of things from the bulk bins, but I’ve never really tried to store my food properly. This is what everything looked like before:
I didn’t want to store everything in plastic bags & tupperware, so I went to my local hardware store and bought a bunch of mason jars. After:
And everything in the pantry…
It feels so good to have everything organized & labeled! I really wanted to do some baking & cooking afterwards, but the Super Bowl trumped that. We just watched it with some friends and were really low key. Stephanie made her Mom’s famous dip, or as she called it, “middle of the grocery store” dip as almost everything in it is processed and canned
So good and so bad for you – but hey it’s Super Bowl Sunday! And to wash down the dip, I hauled over my Vita-Mix and made margaritas!
The Vita-Mix is great because I just put a whole lemon and two whole limes, alcohol, ice, and a touch of agave and blended everything together. I usually hate frozen drinks because I end up chewing the ice, but in the Vita, it gets all nice and chopped up! It tasted so fresh and just as easy as using a mix.
At the end of the night, I was craving chocolate, so Stephanie brought out her stash:
This girl has excellent taste in chocolate. I’ve had Scharffen Berger before, but I was so excited to try the Askinosie chocolate! Askinosie is a fair trade chocolate company in Springfield, Missouri (Stephanie’s home town) and her friend Kesha works there. Kesha has a beautiful blog that you should be reading called Shared Sugar. This chocolate is amazing – some of the best I’ve ever had and I’ve been lucky enough to sample chocolate from all over the world. You should definitely check out the Askinosie website – the company is just as impressive as their chocolate.
And saving the best for last, ROSE HAD HER BABY!
Rose is my closest friend to have a baby so this is very exciting for me and my group of friends. Rose was always scheduled to have her baby early (due to a previous health condition), but the little guy decided he wanted out a week earlier than planned. He’s in the NICU because his lungs aren’t quite developed enough yet, so if you could send some good vibes their way, it would be most appreciated. I guess this is somewhat standard for a premie and he’s been improving the last couple of days and they expect him to recover fully – but a little prayer or two couldn’t help. I totally cried when I saw pictures of him (he still has no name!) and can’t wait to meet him for the first time. Congratulations Jon & Rose – I love you guys!





























































