Share-a-sock Drawer

Jacob is an amazing husband.  I realized the other day while vacuuming before mopping up the kitchen that it was the first time I had actually used the vacuum, we’ve had it for months (and used it! With my hair this is quite unavoidable).  Another chore that Jacob is better than me at is laundry.  Well, maybe that is too harsh, but he has some Monk-like tendencies and I really don’t care if I wear a wrinkled t-shirt every single day.  But he needs to look nice for work so it makes sense as well.  He is qutie on top of things like dryer sheets and hanging up shirts right when the dryer is finished.  But I’m learning so he can be happy if I do the laundry.

But we like to fold together.  Neither of us is really into folding the others clothes or putting them away.  We have both done it for the other and will continue to but it really is easier to just grab your own and do it since there is only the two of us.

Our one roadblock, however, has been socks.  First you have to pick them out of all clingy fabrics, you know they get stuck inside your shirts too, then you have to match them and finally split them into his and hers piles.  This seemed too much for us and since we wear almost identical socks anyway, and when he was out he would grab a pair of mine anyway…, we decided to consolidate our collection.  Obviously this means he will have to avoid the pink edged ones in the morning, and I his black dress socks but these are minor obsticals when set beside our beautiful new sock drawer.  Thats right, in the apartment where we had to use every bit of closet space (which is a lot) we made some room for an entire draw of socks.

My socks used to be in my underware drawer and his with some of his folded up shirts.  But at Lowe’s we found a sweet little sweater caddy to hang in the closet.  He has filled it with his t-shirts.  (I have a similar object in our front closet for all my athletic clothing, I obviously have too many clothes for my own good but since I’m a paid athelete I kind of refer to it as my uniform.)  Anyway, the t-shirts moved out and my socks moved in and now we are blissfully happy sharing a sock drawer.  Obviously, this isn’t for everyone.  If we had to organize the sock drawer this might be, again, more hassel.  But since we share so much it works out for us.

Slow-Cooker Chili

Once when I asked Jacob for a meal idea he immediately wanted chili, like his mom makes.  He got her recipe; I believe there is a lot of experimenting still to be done but here is her original suggestion:

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of kidney beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can of chili beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 large can of crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
  • chili powder (sprinkle some in)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (12 oz)
  • 1 onion
  • 1 lb-ish Hamburger, cooked

Those were our instructions.  Throw it all in, let it go all day.  The end.

Well O.K., I like the idea but I’ve run with it a bit.  I like the amount of tomatoes but we wanted less liquid, and more beans.  In my most recent episode of chili, I actually soaked some dry black beans (1 lb) over night and threw them in as well.  I’m very new to this bean thing, so I didn’t realize I also needed to cook the beans, they were a bit hard but the chili is still fine to eat.  We made the mistake of trying to fix the liquid and bean issues at the same time, which resulted in a very thick chili, not a problem per se but I will leave in all the juices the next time I add beans (but not the bean’s cooking water).

I like to cook the onion with the meat before throwing it in.  This could loose some of the flavor to the chili because some flavor is lost in the juices/fats removed, but if I have to cook the meat, I might as well throw in the onion.  That is just a personal preference.

I think in my next iteration I would like to maybe add more vegetables like celery, if I have any at the time.  I would also like to normalize my addition of chili powder, Jacob says it never has enough so I will start with 1 Tablespoon, and work from there.

In general we really love this recipe for a start, I love that I don’t have to add water or a ton of seasonings.  And Jacob only had to buy 8 cans of kidney beans to get sent a free stuffed bean, yay for food storage and free toys.  Seriously, I do love that all these ingredients are storable, so as long as we have power, or a fire we can made some chili with all our canned beans and tomatoes.

Fun Attachments

Getting married comes with many perks, one being a registry.  We had a pile of gift cards left over once we owned everything we really needed for our kitchen.  While going through and deciding what would be a good use of the rest of our money we decided to get two kitchen-aid attachments.

The slicer/grater attachment has already served us well, and I haven’t yet made scalloped potatoes or potato chips.  We have grated a block of cheddar into a pile of toppings for some chili we made this weekend, and we grated some potatoes into hash browns for a treat on our snow day from school and work, and topped them with the cheese we grated.  This tool is very useful for large projects, slicing up even three potatoes is not always a blast, but can be done in seconds with this attachment, and since everything is dishwasher safe, you don’t even have to hand wash the knife!

The other tool we purchase was a meat grinder.  We were both kind of on the fence about this one.  However, I was sold when I found out it also did nuts and Jacob likes toys anyway.  I found out recently in an environmentalism class I’m taking that there can be meat from as many as 200 cows in one hamburger patty, also they are all the leftover pieces from other cuts of meat, yippee right?  Well, the first part is not so important if everything is cooked thoroughly, but the second part: who want’s the dregs of any animal? This way we can grind our own meat, and almost any cut would be better than all random pieces, or at least we think so.

Our third attachment, that my parents are lending us since they have a stone mill is a grain mill.  The wheat I must say, is incomparable to my parents, however we are able to use wheat berries as flour and that is the whole point.  There is a lot of bran, and when replacing wheat flour with white flour in recipes one must start in small increments and maybe increase the added flour to a third of the flour or so.  Never more than a half for normal recipes.  But wheat in cookies give them such a body.  My husband can just blow through a pile of cookies, but with just a little bit of wheat they sink in faster.  More filling, less food, sounds like a plan!

I feel like all of our attachments add to our kitchen experience.  They even help us get excited about exploring the little known (to us) world of cooking.  They also help us remove ourselves from pre-prepared foods, why should I make scalloped potatoes in a box if I have a slicer that will do all the hard work for me and my family can eat real potatoes.

Even though we had to pay a larger amount than, say, a box grater or a hand slicer, it uses the power of a machine we already own.  We just aren’t ready to buy a food processor and the need for one is diminished with these tools.

(As a side note: we do own a box grater, I don’t think it is replacable by a machine, zesting would be quite difficult on the machine, and sometimes one just doesn’t want to get out all the tools to grate enough cheese for one salad.)

Fried Rice

Today, with some left over rice and extra ham from hash browns earlier this week I was able to throw together a pan full of fried rice.  I thought I would share the way I made it.

Ingredients:

  • Tablespoon of canola oil
  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 3 cups of rice
  • 1 cup of cooked ham, diced
  • 3 Tablespoons of soy sauce
  • pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 2 eggs

Cook the 2 vegetables, until cooked enough to eat, tender but not browned.  Add the rice and add following ingredients and stir until heated thoroughly.  Add the peas and warm them.  Lastly create a doughnut hole in the rice so that the pan is visible in the middle of the rice.  Crack and scramble the 2 eggs in the middle of the rice, mix in only after the egg is fully cooked.  Mix the eggs evenly throughout the rice mixture.

Many different vegetables may be used for this recipe and any kind of cooked meat is also fine; this recipe is very versatile.  You can try different kinds or vary the amounts to suit your family.

This is a good main dish for a few people or a side for strips of meat.  This would also be amazing with some egg rolls, yum!

Welcome

Welcome.  I suppose that is a statement both for you and for me.  I got very exited about several things that Jacob, my dear husband, and I have been doing with our new apartment.  From food storage to decorating, meal planning to finding time for homework, my life has been turned upside down since we were married this past January 2nd.  I have loved every minute of my new life.  Here lies a record of this new life and the things I’m learning as we go.