Memories

Garden Progress

We have gotten a handful of things accomplished this weekend. We went to an Oregon City nursery and got 2 pear trees and 1 cherry tree and planted them in the backyard (they are all dwarf trees so they won't take over our whole backyard but will provide shade eventually for the garden). We also got a compost bin and started a compost mixture and added some organic materials to it. Then we bought wood and assembled the garden boxes and lined them up. Whew! Next, we have to remove the grass from around and inside of the boxes and then get fill dirt to mix with some of the compost, then we get to plant. I need to start sprouting seeds for planting in the next couple of weeks too. I think we will start building the chicken coop in the next couple of weeks too. This Wednesday is Simon's 2nd birthday so we are having a little party to celebrat next weekend so the backyard project might take a break, we will see.

Here are photos of the progress so far:


Hi Lola! Not so pretty backyard.



You can barely see the baby trees, but here they are with our new compost bin.



Garden boxes!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are some of my favorite things from the past couple of months (in no particular order):

- Banana Bread (recipe at the end of post)
- Brussels Sprouts (as I am writing this I had no idea they are called Brussels
Sprouts, not just Brussel Sprouts)
- White Russians
- Stuff White People Like website (it's scary how many are true for me but I am ok
laughing at myself unlike some of us)
- Atomic Ranch houses (especially when they are furnished with modern furniture, this
is the house I want to buy next)


Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas, I usually don't have enough so I use
applesauce to make up the difference
* my sister adds some chocolate chips too


Directions:


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.


Here is how I prepare Brussel Sprouts in case you want to be brave and try them:

- cut Brussel sprouts in half, long way
- sautee in pan with olive oil and chopped garlic flat side down until that side turns brown, then flip, squeeze a wedge of lemon on them and cook a couple of minutes more
- when they are done cooking add pepper, chopped pecans and some crumbled gorgonzola cheese, yum

Back to It

Ok, everybody. I know that I have completely neglected this site 100% in the past 6+ months or so but I have been working on blogs over here for business etc. As I am getting the hang of consistent posts over there, I am reminded that I have a personal life too and should update here more often. I am not going to make any promises (to all 2 of you that maybe look at this a couple of times per year) but I will try.

Plans:

The Yard - The Vision





So I have a grandiose plan for our backyard this year. We spent a bunch of money a couple of years ago to have a patio, fence and pretty green grass installed and at that time I vowed that I would never want a garden blah blah blah, fast forward to now and guess what? I want a garden. The plan is to have a couple of garden boxes, plant either 2 pear trees or 2 apple trees, maybe a couple of blueberry bushes, and build a coop and get some chickens. That's right, you heard me, chickens! Every time I tell someone that we are thinking about getting chickens they either ask me if they can buy eggs from me or say "gross, do you know how bad those things smell?" I am going to try it out but am still not too sure if I will actually want to touch them, I might assign that job to Simon. Work on the garden portion of our plan will commence this Saturday morning.

"I Want to Wash My Hair and Brush My Teeth with Snow"

Here it is, Arctic Blast 2. We have been waiting for 2 days for it and now that it is here we are all bored and want to go out and about. Seriously, yesterday there was no snow so I got a lot of shopping done. I have kind of half expected us to be snowed in at this point so I have totally procrastinated cleaning and decorating our house for tomorrows holiday party....oops. We will have to sled up to the liquor store this afternoon. Here is a funny video that show Portland drivers making their best effort.

May the Force Be With You

View From the Office

M Realty

Fun Photos

I got a new application for by phone that adds fun filters to your
photos. Cheap photoshop.

Arctic Blast Survivor

Practicing for the Ms. Pacman Tourney

At Flying Pie during the Arctic Blast 2008.