Leftover Night Fiesta

I was thhiiiiisss close to going to grab sushi or burritos tonight. The fact that I have $180 to last me through August, including three weeks of vacation with my family, and a conference on the coast, held me home. Thankfully I had some nice time with my lovely, beautiful roommate and I was suddenly inspired to cook. I've been wanting tacos and I realized I have enough food here for a delicious leftover fiesta!

I took the two half pork/half beef grilled burgers that James made for dinner on Sunday and chopped them up. Roughly chopped 1/2 onion and sauteed that in olive oil on high. Added the burger, cumin, nutritional yeast and chili powder. Cooked that up a bit, then added salsa and a bit of water, and put the lid on it. I wrapped the corn tortillas in a cloth napkin and put them on top of the lid to heat them up.

Used leftover veggie medley from last night's dinners too. Beet greens, onions, garlic, zucchini, carrot, mushrooms, and basil. Threw in a can of black beans and some spices. Heated that up, then smashed it with a masher. Added some braggs at the end.

Chopped up the tops of an onion from the garden along with some surprise cilantro that is growing from the flower seed mix we planted. Had the girl get some lettuce out of the garden.

I had a can of olives in my stash of food from the grocery outlet and a tub of sour cream from a free box that my friend left on my porch.

And for the special treat, I sent Mx to the store for ice and lime. Then I put the ice in my hand held food processor(roomie is moving out and packed her blender) along with strawberries that needed to be used today and a can of og pineapple also from the grocery outlet stash. Made virgin margarita for the kids and added tequila, triple sec and a salted rim for a mama margarita! YUM!!!

What a feast! Kids and I are happy. Less leftovers in the fridge. Didn't spend money. Enjoyed the bounty of our garden!

Now time for watering garden, doing dishes and reading books with the kids. Summer, summer, summer time.

Tuesday night alone

Spilled dressing all over the floor whilst grabbing food from the fridge. At least I was going for real food, as apposed to the tortilla chips and cherries I had for "lunch".

Sat on the couch and read the Sunday paper that James bought for me--two weeks ago.

Watered the garden. Things are looking gooooood! Will eat the first tomato off the vine for dinner tomorrow with James and the children. Sat in the backyard planning on how to make the yard look nice for my party. Have some good ideas, and some problem areas that I want to sit with James and see if we can come up with a solution. I'm sure it will look fabulous. Appalachian-hip mama chic.

Finished knitting two washcloths! Well, just had strings to tuck in on one that has been done for months. The second one I started knitting a couple weeks ago while we were camping. Just took a few rows to finish up. Almost organized my sewing box. Having to dive into it looking for a needle was hell. I started on third using the last tiny scraps from a couple balls of cotton. They look great together. I did a diagonal one this time using a pattern off a website! My first time ever. I was able to figure out Kf&b, but had to look up a demonstration of yo after getting some screwy loose places when I tried to figure it out myself. Watched two The Daily Show episodes and a Primetime special doing this. I'm only not finished because of a pleasant interruption from my roommate.We've been having a bit of a twisty time. But things are cool after our interaction tonight. I am so thankful for that!

Somehow found myself doing dishes and making a batch of Kombucha at 12:30 am! Made the tea with ceylon, agave and rapadura. I am pretty bummed that the caffeine may be affecting me. I have been drinking my kombucha as an after dinner tonic. Settles my tummy. Ha, then I'm up at 1:15 am blogging!

Time for a productive break---

Phew, just been tidying the house, packing my bag for tomorrow, making a to-do list for the rest of the week, stuff my mom would call puttsing. I wanted to capture this puttsing behavior to share on my blog. I found the camera in my basket. A plum had exploded on my camera. The gooey fruit dried on the camera. I was trying to figure out what to do, what to clean it with, do I have to do it now, this is gonna take forever. Then I realized I could just take the batteries out and set it aside to clean tomorrow. I had to take the batteries out because if I turned the camera off the lens would have gone back in and possibly gunked up the insides of the camera more than they already were. It's sitting straight in front of me right now.

Hmm. I think I am ready to tuck in.

This Is How I Do It

One of my fantasies has been to be a Home Ec teacher. As early as I can remember I was in the kitchen cooking up a storm, investigating, trying different concoctions, reading the labels on spices to see if I wanted to dump them into the pot. My mom has stories I'm sure she would tell you if you asked. I loved Home Ec in middle and high school. In fact, I bonded with one of my teachers in particular in high school and still talk to her till this day. At home and at school, I learned how to sew, cook, clean (not my favorite, my mom will tell you about that too), babysit, build things and do just about anything around the house that I wanted to. It built my confidence and has been paramount in my development as a strong independent person.

You can imagine this came in handy when I became a mother at the age of 19. Raising babies, staying home with them, cooking, nursing, nurturing, loving, goodness, I just remember that period of time as some of the best joys of my life. It wasn't just the babies in all their glorious yumminess though, it was the homemaking.

During my academic journey, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, home ec teacher was at the top of the list. It seems though, that the family and consumer sciences have become pretty obsolete in the public school system and I chose a different path for myself (Community Health, I'll tell you all about that later!). My new scheme/idea/fantasy was to teach home ec type classes to my peers. My roommates and I would joke about starting a public access television show a la Martha Stewart for the young, alternative homemaking crowd.

Part of my intention with this here blog is to share some of my homemaking tips, tricks, methods, style, lists, etc. I will name such posts "This is How I Do It". The title is to stress that this is how I do things, I do not take my logic and methods as the only way, and certainly don't think this is how everyone else should do it too. I just want to share the methods of my madness. I have found great personal growth in being efficient and crafty around the house and would like to share that spark.

Let's Test This Out

Finally getting around to a blog! Now I need to figure out how it's done.