Freezer cooking: Part 1 - Chili

I can tell it's Fall - I suddenly have the desire to cook.  It comes on for a few weeks when the weather turns, before winter closes in and I remember how much more I like to eat out. 

In honor of Fall (and in an attempt to not completely undo all the running I have been doing all week with one meal out) I decided to make some things we could freeze and eat later.  I started with the Pioneer Woman's chili (linked here), and am moving on to the Sunday Night Stew.  The chili turned out well - very thick and meaty.  I really like chili with a lot of big tomato chunks in it, so I think next time I will add some extra tomatos. 

Happy Fall,
Jess 

Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival

Shawn and I spent a few hours tonight at the Jazz and Blues Festival.  People were everywhere, enjoying the music. 

The music was great, but they could have used some more food vendors set up with a better selection.  Shawn had a pulled pork sandwich, and I had a muffaletta sandwich for the first time.  I love olives, but it was way to salty for me so never again. 

Jess

In search of a grown-up bed

I have never had a bed with a headboard.

Ever.

And after watching the paint wear off the wall in the back of our bed (more painting - yea!) I think we need one.

As a reminder, here is what we are working with in our bedroom: 

 

 

I'm thinking about an iron bed to keep the room open and light - head board only, so we can still move around the end of the bed easily and use it for boring, necessary things like sorting laundry, switching out summer and winter clothes, and storing my work clothes after work until I get motivated to hang them up. 

 

 

I found this on Pinterest, and loved it:



 

 

This one is actually for sale in the US, for a reasonable price:

 

 

 

With a coat of white or silver paint, it is almost identical to the first bed.  What do you think?  Should I go for it?

 

Jess

 





South Dakota: Our Journey West!

Shawn and I just came back from a week in South Dakota, and it was beyond amazing.

We traveled up through St. Joseph and Sioux Falls, to see the Laura Ingall's Wilder house in De Smet:

Everywhere you look, there are feilds:  corn, prarie, and 180 degrees of the bluest sky and summer sun.  We joked that this is the edge of the world - at some point the road stops, and you will look around and see nothing but corn and sky going on forever. 

It was beautiful and lonely and wonderful standing out there on the prarie, listening to the wind sing over the grass. 

From there we drove to Rapid city, with a quick stop at Wall Drug before moving on to Mount Rushmore.  I've seen Mount Rushmore on the TV so many times, and it is incredible to actually be there seeing it in person.  It is larger - and higher - than it appears on TV, sitting at the top of a granite crest. The carvers grew so talented at using dynamite, they were able to blast the rock within inches of the finished surface.  The cracks in the granite are inspected each year, with caulking applied to keep water from splitting the rock.  In 10,000 years, the sculpture will have lost only one inch to erosion due to the toughness of the granite. 

 

 

 

 

 

Next post:  Black Elk Wilderness & Custer State Park!

 

Jess

Rhododendron for shade

Ever since my six holly bushes died in the drought, I have been trying to find something to take their place as a privacy hedge along the heavily shaded back fence. 

The plant manager at Lowes has solved my problem - shade tolerant, evergreen rhododendrom.  I had no idea that they were evergreen.

I like the Black Satin PJM and Catawbiense versions found here and here.

 

The house wanted pink

When we moved into our house, it looked like this:

It reminded me of a park - lush, green, and neat. 
And the art deco style house, frankly, reminded me a little bit of an apartment building - all vertical lines and geometric shapes.

So I was thinking of how to soften it up, and I started with flowers.  If we had a frame farmhouse, a sloping dutch colonial, or a Queen Anne style victorian I might have done wispy, wavey wildflowers in pastels - pale pinks, lavendars, and delicate white flowers to make it look wild and romantic. 

But our house was built very near to the 40's - tailored lines.  And the more I looked at it, the more I thought that it needed a touch of glamour - nothing wispy or shy, but something loud and confident, like the bright red lipstick of an old Hollywood starlet. 

This house needed pink.
 

A lot of pink!

And a little bit of white.  The six little vinca I planted went crazy at the bottom of the stairs. 
Shawn is so excited about our hot pink yard.  : )

Jess

Progress and Blue Sky

Here is a a peek at the painfully slow progress I am making tearing up the carpeting in the last bedroom. 

 

 

And some random shots of the ride to and from my parent's house.  I have been thinking about the sky views out in the country, and how far you can see from horizon to horizon.  I think I need to become a farmer - I need more open space in my life!

And finally, a random shot of an earlier summer project - my stoop garden:

Jess