Food odds and ends, plus applesauce

Because we're planning to move next May, Shane and I decided that it was finally time to knuckle down and actually eat everything in our freezer. We've never done this before. We've said we wanted to, but then let other things and meals get in the way. Neither of us is terribly fond of fish and that is a majority of what's in the freezer. But now, neither of us wants to even think about moving frozen food. So it's either eat it, or give it away next May.
This past spring, Northwest Edible Life did an "eat from your pantry" challenge. I sort of followed it. At least, it got me thinking more about what we had which needed to get eaten up before summer's glut began. But there's no way we have enough in the house to not go grocery shopping at least occasionally, so I didn't feel really hardcore about this.
This time, things are different. It's not just, "Oh, yeah, I'll make sure we eat that sometime this week." I am planning every meal based on what we've already got in the house. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners...everything has at least one pantry and/or freezer item in it. It's been rather incredible how quickly we've eaten our way through some things. Our chest freezer is already looking a little sparse, which is fabulous! I really think we can make it this time, as long as we keep our motivation up.
I've made cherry scones for breakfasts (using up the last jar of cherries I canned two years ago) and will make applesauce muffins when they're all gone, using the applesauce which, again, has been sitting in our cupboard for several years. I burned it a little when I made it, and it tastes burnt, but not in muffins! I've also used it to make this apple-cranberry baked oatmeal, which uses both the applesauce and some of the last of our cranberries.
Lunches have been dinner leftovers (as usual) and dinners have been surprisingly well-rounded, tasty, and diverse. We're still buying vegetables from the store, which helps, but even the meat portion of the meal has been different every night, despite the fact that we've mostly just eaten fish and moose. But we made pesto salmon which was a huge hit with everyone, including the tiny human. (The recipe is: smear leftover pesto on a salmon fillet and bake until done.) We made curried halibut (it sucked, but only because the fillet was so old...leftovers went to the dog and we scrounged other leftovers and freezer items for lunch), moose roast, chili with moose, and a couple of vegetarian soups. Even those used pantry/freezer items, like tomatoes that I canned this year and celery from the freezer, my homegrown carrots and peas. Soon we'll be making Alaskan pie, clam chowder (we have clams in the freezer), lasagna (with ground moose meat), and of course more salmon. (Tonight: rosemary garlic salmon. Next time: teriyaki salmon with sriracha sauce.)
It's incredible to me how quickly we get through food now simply because we've added one very small person to our house. I swear, she eats half her body weight every single day! I love that she enjoys food, though. She's so far from being a picky eater that she actually loves strong flavors! Curry, chili, pesto...she even loved potato leek soup, so much so that she would ignore the banana pieces in front of her to lean over, mouth open, asking for more soup. She likes cabbage and turnips and carrots and she vastly prefers wild blueberries, which are far more flavorful and a bit tart. But she chews on rhubarb stalks from the garden, so I guess I don't have to worry about her disliking tart or sour things!
Still, though, she is a baby, and she is human. She loves sweet things as much as anybody. She's gotten very small amounts of sugary items (like a bite or two) but for the most part her sweetness comes from fruit. One of the easiest things to make for her, when we're all out of other ideas or foods she can eat (she still doesn't have teeth, at 10 months, so we're stuck feeding her soft foods), is to give her "oatmeal". I bought steel cut oats in bulk and ground them up in the blender so that it's more like oat powder. Into this we mash fruit, or blend it up to mix in, and sometimes add a bit of spice. Her favorites have been blueberries (with nutmeg, if we feel like it), bananas (with cinnamon), plums. And, applesauce.
As I said above, the last batch of applesauce I made for canning, I burned. No matter which pot I used, it always ended up burned. So now I only make applesauce in the CrockPot. I suppose it ends up being a little bit more like unspiced apple butter that way. But, it's delicious. Applesauce is inherently less nutritious than eating whole apples, because a lot of the nutrition is in the skins. But, it's still fruit and until she grows some teeth, applesauce it is. To make applesauce, peel and core a bunch of apples. Put the flesh of the apples in the CrockPot and turn it on low for a few hours. That's it! Cook it down until it becomes the consistency of, you know, applesauce. If you've got a particularly hard bunch of apples you might add a tiny bit of water or cider. But I love using apples which have gone mealy, and they provide plenty of liquid.
For extra frugal points, you can save the skins and cores and make a second batch of applesauce. Once the first batch is out, put the cores and skins into the pot and cook them until everything is breaking apart and mushy. The reason you don't want to do this with the regular flesh is because you'll have to strain out the seeds, stems, and whatever parts of the skins don't break down. It's so much easier when there's a bit less sauce to strain. Once it's cooked, push it through a fine mesh strainer with a wooden spoon, periodically emptying out the mashed up fruit which won't fit through. It's a bit of work, but not too much, and it's totally worth it. I cut all of my apples off the core anyway, so I just save them all in a bag in the freezer until I have enough to be worth saucing. Pear cores and peels can also be added, if you have any.
Some people add sugar to applesauce, but why bother? It's plenty sweet, as long as you use some sweet varieties of apples. You can add cinnamon to the applesauce if you like, although I tend to do that when I'm using it instead. If you want to add other spices, cloves and nutmeg can make an interesting combination, but that also makes it more like spiced apple butter than a true applesauce.
This year, I'm not going to bother canning the applesauce. My MIL gave me a silicone muffin pan which she hated, and which is perfect for freezing into 1/3 cup amounts, which Shane and I have taken to calling pucks. As in, "How many broth pucks should I add?" We've got peach pucks (that is so fun to say) from peaches which almost went bad, broth pucks, and now applesauce pucks. We'll eat through them, just as we're eating through the other stored and frozen foods. And with them, we'll get a little taste of summer or autumn during the long, harsh winter.

Overnight oatmeal with applesauce and cinnamon:

2/3 cup rolled oats*
1 cup homemade applesauce**
1/4 tsp cinnamon, or a little more to taste

Store in a small mason jar in the fridge overnight and pull out for breakfast. Do yourself a favor and warm it up in the microwave before eating. It is so delicious on a cold autumn morning.

*I originally tried this with steel cut oats. Don't. Even blasting in the microwave doesn't soften the oats at all. Stick to rolled oats for this.
**I'm sure you could do this with store-bought applesauce as well, but I haven't tried that so no guarantees. If you do try it, just make sure that the applesauce is rather runny since it's the liquid part which softens and gets absorbed by the oats.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Ok, I'm not really going to talk about the Universe. I lied. But I do have a bunch of other cool, and some not-so-cool, things to talk about on varying subjects.
As you may have noticed, I really haven't written much lately. Turns out, becoming a mom has taken away much of my free time. I would have more if my child napped with any consistency or for any length, but she doesn't so I don't. *shrug* What time I do have is usually spent catching up on chores, or just reading. You never realize how much mental energy it takes to keep up with a child and work full-time until you have to do it. Add in tax season and craziness at work (annual evaluations with a completely crazy supervisor, woo) and I've been feeling a little overwhelmed. But in some ways, it's brought me to a good place. It's all forced me to take a good look at my wants and needs, to figure out what is unnecessary stress in my life. Take my garden, for instance. What will be the most satisfying for me? Well, obviously I want to still garden. But, fighting with the weeds and grass in the actual dirt area we have isn't working for me any more. I don't have the time, and I don't have the money to make it right. So this year I'm focusing solely on my garden boxes. However, I am willing to put more time and money into those than I have been. Since they're also the most productive part of my garden, the ROI should be pretty good. And I don't have to stress about what I haven't been doing.
The other benefit of the garden boxes is that they're portable. It sounds like we'll have to move out of our place sometime soon. We were really hoping to stay here until we move out of Alaska (sometime next summer-Shane just found out that he'll finish his degree next Spring!) but there's been a change of regime. Our old landlord sold the duplex, and the new landlady wants to move in downstairs. For now, they've moved in upstairs. Apparently the plan is to fix up the upstairs (to try to rent it out for an exorbitant and crazy amount - $2500!!!) and then move downstairs, where we currently are. She hasn't given us a good timeline, so we're just trying to find something before we're forced to take something at the last minute. Bleh. Again, though, it's making us look around at our Stuff. What's necessary, what isn't? We might have to rent a smaller place, so what can/should we take with us and what should be gotten rid of? I'm paring down the baby stuff a bit (clothes which we were given but won't re-use for a second child, some of the baby blankets which we don't need) and I'm even going through a formerly untouchable category: my books. The idea is to pare down before we actually have to pack it all up.
We have also gained some things recently, however. One of Shane's relatives bought a couch (on clearance) which she didn't like when she got it home. So she bought another couch, and needed to get rid of this one. She gave it to us. Yay! We actually have a decent couch now! We got rid of the second half of our horrible, ugly, broken Cat Pee Couch (seriously, we discovered when we moved it that the cat had been peeing in one corner--thankfully, it was so uncomfortable that we never sat on it!) and put this lovely new couch in its place.
Our upstairs neighbors have moved out, since the new landlady is moving up there. Someone rang our doorbell by accident asking about a piece of furniture that they were selling, and that gave me an idea. The next time I saw them I asked if they had an old T.V. stand that they'd be willing to sell to me. The answer was, "Please, just take it! We don't want money for it, we just don't want to haul it away." So I got a free T.V. stand, in decent shape, to replace the rickety little bookshelf that our T.V. had been sitting on. Thus, we got rid of my biggest babyproofing worry: that she would pull the T.V. over on herself when she starts crawling and pulling herself up to stand. We'll attach the T.V. to the stand so that she can't pull just it over, but now we don't have to worry about the bookshelf and the T.V. falling over. The stand is nice and low and sturdy, just what we wanted. And, just like the couch it was at the right price: free.
In addition to the T.V. stand, one of the neighbors is a liquor distributor and didn't want to move a bunch of half empty tasting bottles he had around. So, he gave them to us. Yep, you read that right. Free booze. And not even a small amount, either. We're not talking bottom shelf liquor, but good stuff, and not all of it has been opened. At my household's normal rate of consumption this is more than 6 months worth of liquor, even assuming we throw a party or two (or bring some along to other parties). I used some of the vodka straight away to make vanilla extract, since I'd been meaning to buy vodka for that purpose for the last month but always forgot. Now, I don't have to worry about it for quite a while.
We went to Arctic Man over the weekend. For me, it really wasn't that interesting. It can be summed up by "A tribute to the decadence of the first world." Or "fat men on snowmachines who think they're so sporty...because they can ride a machine real fast." Ugh. Not my scene at all. the wastefulness of it all, the amount of oil that was burned just in this one weekend. Not to mention everything else. Because people were camped out, a lot of them scoured Craigslist for free couches that they didn't mind having around a campfire. And on the last night, all those couches got burned so that people didn't have to haul them out. !!!! Yeah, you can probably imagine what I felt about that. Then there were all of the motorhomes, and I'm sure lots of food waste and packaging and whatnot. I went for a walk with the baby at one point and a girl on a 4-wheeler stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride. She looked at me as if I was crazy. After all, who would want to walk, right? I said no, of course, and she said, "Oooo-kaaaay," as if she totally didn't get it. Wow. Just wow.
Anyway, we went because my in-laws were going with some friends, and my FIL hasn't seen the baby since New Year's. Unfortunately, she was mildly ill most of the weekend and, especially with the new circumstances, just wanted to be with me the whole weekend. Oh well. But the in-laws were also about to take a trip to Hawaii so they'd brought up a bunch of food for us. A lasagna, a ham (part of which was eaten there), some milk, and a bunch of fruit. Banana bread. So our food bill should be almost non-existent this week, which is nice, especially since we came home to a sick cat.
I took Monday off anyway to watch the ill baby (just a precaution) and myself (I was feeling under the weather too, I just didn't realize it until we got home), so making a vet appointment when I discovered that our cat was peeing blood (I know! poor guy!) wasn't as hectic as it could have been. Still, forcing the cat into the kennel (with gloves on) and taking him to the vet, yowling the whole way, and with the baby, wasn't the most pleasant of activities. I think I need to talk to my child about being kind to animals, though, because she thought his cries of distress were pretty hilarious.
Thankfully, it is *just* a bladder infection. His kidneys seem fine, and the peeing blood should stop within 48 hours. I wish I could tell him that. He might be more willing to take his medicine that way.
So, life goes on. You win some, you lose some. For the most part, things have been going really well for us. Finding out that Shane only has one more year of school was a huge, huge plus. We're nervous and excited because we're not sure where life will take us after that, but it will be good. I'm certain of it.

Book Review: Diaper Free Before Three

I've heard a bit about the book "Diaper Free Before Three" but, of course, didn't really have a reason to read it until now. It was shocking how late people in this country keep their kids in diapers. Are there really normal, functioning children who need to wear diapers until they're ready for kindergarten?! I thought about it and realized that one of my neighbors has a son with autism and he's still in diapers, even though he's at least four. (And from what I've seen and heard, he's fairly high functioning.) It's staggering. Even worse, the cost to people and the environment. All those diapers.
So, I'm behind the general concept of the book. Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to expect most kids to have very few accidents by the time they're 2. And I liked that the author constantly recommended a gentle style of training. Don't scold your kid for accidents, they happen and that will only make them feel ashamed. And I will, indeed, implement a lot (if not all) of the suggestions, including starting Baby Girl on the potty when she's about six months old. I seem to have an amazing knowledge of when she's going to pee, since I regularly open up her diaper only to have her start peeing before I get the next one on her.
I thought that this book was really well researched, involving the history of how we got to this point of potty training so late, the problems caused by diapering so long (especially the emotional ones for both parent and child, and the physical ones), and the emphasis on health throughout. (The author is a pediatrician.)
However, there were plenty of things about this book I didn't like and I'll talk about those more in-depth than the positives because they get less attention. The pluses you can get from any review on Amazon.
First, there's the author's insistence that cloth diapers are such a hassle. "My friend tried to do cloth diapers but gave it up after about a week because it was such a pain to deal with." I've heard this from so many people who basically expect you to fail at using cloth diapers because they're somehow inconvenient. SO ARE DISPOSABLES! Especially considering how much they cost. (Shane has estimated that we're saving, at a minimum, $1.25 per diaper, including the cost to wash the cloth ones. And that's not calculating the savings from using the cloth wipes I made, either.) How many times have people bemoaned the midnight trip to the store because they ran out of disposable diapers? And yet, somehow, they never think that perhaps that makes them inconvenient. But washing diapers? Ooh boy, that's a lot of work! ?? I don't get it. Even when I don't have family staying with us and helping, the cloth diapers have never been a pain to wash.
The author also gets into the environmental factor of diapers for a second. Rightly, she points out that the only truly good option is to get kids out of diapers as fast as possible, since either cloth or disposable use a lot of resources. However, she cites a very old report about the environmental cost of diapers which uses absolutely the WORST kind of cloth diaper use and says that it could go either way, in terms of which is better for the environment. Yes, cloth diapers take a lot to manufacture. So do disposables. However, cloth can be used for multiple children, especially if you wait until an older sibling is out of diapers to have another, or if you have graduated sizes so no two children need to be in the same diapers at the same time. Our diapers have all been used for AT LEAST one other child besides ours, and will go through at least one more before I sell them or pass them along to someone else. In fact, we'll most likely have friends having babies before we're ready for a second, so I'll let them borrow the newborn size until they can collect more diapers or find a style they really like. That makes at least four children for those diapers, cutting down the environmental toll considerably. And, none of us is using a diaper service, the emissions from which (driving to and from picking up diapers, etc.) were counted in the cited report.
Cloth diapers for the environmental win, yo.
My other complaint about the book is about one of the asides. There was a special section talking about girl-specific issues that can come up, and one about boys. This might seem like such a small thing to get upset about, but it's part of a much larger issue. The section for girls mentioned that, at this age, many little girls like to touch their private areas and said that "modesty" should be emphasized for them. There was no such corresponding platitude about modesty among boys who, to be frank, touch their genitals just as much as that age, if not more. It's a thing kids do. A lot. They're exploring themselves. I can understand not wanting them to do that in public, but telling little girls to be "modest" without the same message to boys just makes me see red. All of this message was delivered within a section talking about the fact that little girls are more prone to urinary tract infections. A little girl with dirty hands, touching herself, could easily create the circumstances for a UTI to occur. However, modesty has nothing to do with it! Emphasizing bodily cleanliness is fine, but "modesty" has moral and sexual implications that really, really don't need to be there.
For the record, what I intend to tell Baby Girl (and any future children we might have) is that private parts are for private time. I think this sets the right tone, letting a child know that it's ok to explore their body but that it's not ok to do so in public. I don't want Baby Girl to ever, ever feel ashamed of her own body. I know she will at times, because there's no way I can insulate her against the messages of the rest of the world, but if I can get her off to a good start with regard to body image then I can at least mitigate some of the negativity she will inevitably hear.
I'm done rambling. In conclusion, I would recommend this book, but with a heavy grain of salt. The reasons for starting diapering earlier than most people in the US even think of doing so are excellent and well-researched. The timeline seems reasonable and while starting a kid on the potty before they can walk and talk will mean a bit more work on my (and Shane's) part, I think it will be worth it. At the very least, I won't have a toddler with a profound sense of "bait and switch" as far as expectations regarding peeing and pooping to contend with, and hopefully potty training will be a much more pleasant, uplifting experience overall.

Making room for baby, i.e. nesting Fairbanks style

Oh my gosh, the endless lists of "must haves" for Baby. Some of them are great, some of them are totally ridiculous. I'll never understand why a changing table is on so many "must have" lists. It's safer and, frankly, easier to change a kid on a mat on the floor or the bed or the couch or wherever you happen to be. Even more ridiculous, a "wipe warmer"--because you simply can't swab your baby's butt with wipes which haven't been heated up first.
However, there are, of course, necessities which Baby must have. Some of these things are even more urgent because of where we live and when she'll be born. A November baby in Fairbanks? I feel a little crazy for doing that. It could very well be -40 by the time she arrives. (Of course, being Fairbanks, it would probably warm up to near 0F soon after, then back down to -40, then hover around -15F, and all in under a week.) Some of the things I see on baby lists make me laugh. "You don't really need more than 3-4 sleeping outfits, and maybe 1-2 hats." HA! That's what Baby is going to LIVE in for the first few months! Onesies will strictly be under-clothes, as another layer to help keep her warm.
It might seem crazy, or paranoid, that I'm thinking so much about how to keep her warm. Keep her inside, you might be thinking. Well, in the winter our apartment doesn't stay that warm. It's old, it's very drafty. The thermostat might say 70F, but away from the thermometer who knows what the temp really is? Sometimes, probably closer to 60F in the bedrooms. So my biggest concern is how to keep Baby warm enough. She can't have blankets to sleep with at first, because they're a health hazard. I would let her sleep in our bed, but we have the pets who also sleep in our bed (and kicking them out now would cause other problems) plus all the blankets which we sleep with. (There was a case of SIDS in my family--not my generation, but a sibling of one of my parents--and it has always terrified me. So I've been reading as much as I can about it and risk factors for it. It helps me worry less.) Since babies can't really regulate their temperature well, keeping her warm is a priority.
So we have stuff that can be ignored, but some still needs to be obtained. That will be fine, we'll figure it all out. Then the problem is, where to put it? And, how do you do all of this on what is, essentially, a negative budget? (Money for this will have to come out of savings.) In a small apartment (I almost said "tiny", but that's not strictly true--our cabin was much smaller--but the bedrooms are tiny so it feels like less space) where will she fit? Accommodations will have to be made in some things, such as needing more storage space for all of the new stuff we'll have to have. I'm not even talking toys, I mean clothes and cloth diapers and such. Books. Bottles, when I go back to work. (And a freaking breast pump. Not looking forward to that.) Heck, even just toiletries (like baby nail clippers and diaper rash cream) and towel space in the (itty-bitty) bathroom. And, doing all of this in a rental where I'd really rather not put holes in the walls, where we can't change too much to suit us better.
So I've been looking around our apartment with a very critical eye. More decluttering! More cleanup! Finding space wherever possible and thinking about how we can rearrange things to work better for our new circumstances. As stupid as it sounds, Baby will be living out of our closet for a while. There are no doors on it (and, honestly, no space for doors) so we'll hang a couple of curtains for darkness (using sticky hooks and a long, thin dowel) and she'll be both easily accessible and we won't have to worry too much about doing things to wake her up, like turning on a lamp. (Most winter evenings, we hang out in the bedroom together anyway, so we'll be right there if she needs anything.)
This also means that we need to clean out our closet. The clothes are no problem, we've already done that. But our closet is stuffed with my craft supplies, mostly yarn. Half-finished projects abound. So one of my goals for the summer is to complete many of those half-finished projects, if only to get them out of the way. I've already started on a couple, and for some I need to buy a few other things before I can finish them, but it shouldn't cost too much.
I think I'm going to be buying a lot of those sticky hooks soon. In addition to the curtains over the closet, I was also going to get enough stuff to put curtains up over our back door (which we can actually feel the heat leaving through around the edges during the winters) and some for the bathroom, to utilize what is currently empty wall space. I have plans, and hopefully pictures will follow soon.
We're not doing much with the spare bedroom right now (other than continuing to declutter and organize--that's where Shane's crap is in boxes and he needs to clean them out) because we'll have family visiting a bunch during the first few months of Baby's life. My parents will be here for at least a week, Shane's parents (and possibly grandfather) will be here for a short time (although not staying with us, since the visits will coincide), and I'm hoping that my brother will come up for a bit toward the end of my maternity leave. After family visits, then we'll talk about turning it into a nursery. We'll sell the queen sized bed that's currently in it, get a better crib (more on what we've got now below), and it should be about that time (4-5 months?) that it's less urgent to have her in the room with us all the time.
I'm slowly identifying our "must haves" and narrowing down the list to specific products that I think will work for us. Because so many family members have asked about it, Shane and I are capitulating and coming up with a baby gift registry. (I'm sort of ambivalent about things like baby showers--not comfortable being the center of attention like that, but understanding that other people are excited as well and want to show their love for us and for Baby. And, honestly, a registry means less stuff for us to buy and it means we get what we need, not crazy crap that we don't have room for.) For instance, an Ergo Baby carrier, which my parents have generously (super generously) said that they wanted to get for us. I did a bunch of research about carriers and decided on this one because it's got the proper seating for Baby (some can cause hip dysplasia), because it has a nice hip strap so that Shane and I don't kill our backs using it, and because of the heavy weight limit, meaning that we'll use it for many years. I already know from my years as a nanny that I love baby carriers (so handy) and really, for our climate, it will be so much more useful than a stroller or even a jogger. Who wants to push one of those through the snow? And, it would be too cold for Baby to go out in one of those during the winter. With a carrier I can snuggle her up to me, under my coat (but with plenty of breathing room, don't worry--no zipping it all the way to the top or anything stupid like that) and take both her and the dog for walks. Even better, since carrying a baby burns more calories than pushing a stroller, it will help me get back in shape that much faster.
We already have a cradle (which my MIL bought for us, and which will fit nicely in the closet), and people have gifted us so many things already. J & L, who are having a boy this time around, gave us a whole load of baby clothes which they deemed too girly to re-use for #2. I sorted them into piles by size last night and we should have plenty of baby clothes up until about 6-9 months. Even then, one of my cousins recently had a baby girl and she has offered to send stuff up to us. At the very least, she's sending a few more maternity clothes and newborn cloth diapers which her little girl has already grown out of. Since her family lives in Texas she was worried that clothes for her girl probably wouldn't work for us (summer baby in Texas to winter baby in Fairbanks? probably not) but 6-9 months is probably about the size our two climates will converge so she'll send up those baby clothes. Because people have been so eager to buy things for us, and give away old baby things they don't need anymore, we haven't had to buy a single thing for baby so far except some of my maternity clothes. We even already have two sizes of snowsuits (courtesy of my MIL) so she'll stay nice and warm all winter when we go out. (Seriously, these remind me of the little brother in "A Christmas Story"'s suit. "I can't put my arms down!" And me being me, she'll probably have four layers on underneath anyway.) I am so, so grateful for everyone's generosity.
Lastly, I am, of course, trying to figure out what I can make that we will need. Things for the apartment (like an actual bumper under the door to keep the heat loss to a minimum, rather than just a towel), and things for baby (hats! sweaters! cloth butt wipes! changing pads so she doesn't pee all over the floor or bed!), and things for myself. And doing all of this on my $0 budget. I've got old sheets which I can cut up for some things (a flannel top sheet--the bottom sheet got torn to shreds years ago--which can be made into said butt wipes and part of the changing pads, a random pillow case which can be made into the door bumper, etc.) and for others I will have to stretch our budget to make room for a few (mostly used) materials. I have a bit of an idea on making a nursing top or two for myself, using parts of clothes I already have but can't really wear anymore. (Thanks, cat, for putting holes in the boobs of my t-shirts.) It's an experiment, so we'll see how it works out, but if not then it's not a loss anyway. What am I losing, a shirt which can't be worn and can't be donated? Oh no!
The one thing that I feel the most pressure about now is time. It's running out rapidly, and while in some ways I am starting to feel like being pregnant is taking forever, I do know that November is going to be here in what will later feel like the blink of an eye. I have so much to do between now and then! I'm starting to resent the time I have to be at work because it feels totally useless. There are so many more practical things I could be doing with my time, rather than sitting at a desk! As well as time, though, there's also my energy levels to think of. It's waaaay better than the first trimester, but I'm still needing more time to sleep than I normally do, and I tire easily. So we'll see how much I manage to get done. If I do get these projects completed, I might actually remember to take pictures to share. Hopefully.

Lotion

Fairbanks is dry. Very, very dry. As in, I often come home with two or three new paper cuts just because my hands are so dry that simply handling paper cuts my skin. No matter how much lotion I put on my skin, it's never enough. And because it's so dry, hand lotion is a popular gift to give a woman when you don't know what else to get her. Most of this lotion is super scented, which I'm not a huge fan of. It tends to be more of a way to perfume oneself, rather than to actually moisturize your skin.
I'm pretty picky about my lotion. I don't have that many brands which I really like, and even fewer that I'll actually remember to use. And yet, I found myself with about 9 large bottles of lotion, and 8 small bottles, all of which I probably wasn't going to get around to using, plus a small bottle of scented anti-bacterial hand gel of which I have no clue about the origins. Since I've been slowly trying to de-clutter our apartment, I really wanted to get rid of all of these but I felt bad throwing them out.
I got the genius idea a few weeks ago of taking them to work and putting them in the bathrooms. Since I have so many bottles it would be easy enough to put a few of them in the bathroom, wait until they were used up or taken, and then deliver a few more bottles. It's working. I brought in the last of the lotions today because the rest were all gone. My coworker knew what I was doing and told me a few weeks ago that she's noticed one of the bathrooms smells much nicer since I put the lotion in there, and I've often been able to tell from lingering scent that the bottles were actually being used. Then people started taking them, which I also don't mind. I'm glad that something I didn't enjoy and wasn't going to use is helpful to other people. I brought in the last of the lotion today, though, so once these are gone perhaps other people will be inspired to bring in lotion they can't use or don't want.
A few weeks ago I was washing my hands and another woman, at the sink next to me, mentioned something about how dry it was that day. She added, "Thank goodness they've started putting lotion in the bathrooms." I just smiled and nodded without mentioning that I was the lotion fairy.

A roundup

I've had so many interesting things this week that I've discovered and dived into, and projects for myself that I've been working on, that to do a single post about each of them would be time consuming and very short individually. So here's a short blurb about each of them.

First of all, I discovered the blog Mr. Money Mustache, which is a blog about personal finance and, mostly, financial independence. This guy and his wife saved as much money as possible during their 20s so that they were able to retire around age 30 so that they could then have a kid and both be there for him. Inspiring, right? It's what every (good) parent wishes, to have more time with your kid(s). Even if that's not your motivation, however, most of us don't want to work until we're 65 and then spend our "golden years" in retirement homes, too crippled to have fun because we didn't have enough time when we were younger to take care of ourselves. Most of us would also appreciate the security to not constantly be worrying about employment. So if that sounds like you, check it out. He also has environmental motivations for the things he talks about, which I love, and he's very frank about things. There's no quibbling about, "Well, you could do this..." He'll tell you straight out, "If you do this, I want you to punch yourself in the face for being an idiot."
One final note about the blog: his definition of "retirement" might not match yours. His wife still works part-time because she enjoys it and they get a few bonuses to help keep their living expenses low. He works as a freelance carpenter. So they haven't totally quit working, they're just now able to work on their own terms.
I started reading the blog back to front (from the first post, working my way toward the newest) and I highly recommend doing that.

On appearance: For a short time, I was starting to get sucked into the Pinterest idea that, hmm, maybe I should start wearing some makeup again. I talked with Shane about it and he essentially told me, "Makeup is fine for dates, once in a while, but why would you ever want to start wearing it every day? I like to actually be able to see you, not the makeup you're wearing." Well, that settles that then. My husband doesn't compliment often, but when he does it's both outside the norm (no generic, "You're pretty," from him) and incredibly sweet.
I did dye my hair, however. It's fun to do every once in a while. I always seem to need a change at this time of year and hair is one of the simplest (and cheapest) things to change. I used henna, which doesn't have any (or most) of the nasty chemicals which are in normal hair dye. Yeah, still a little bit of garbage so it's not zero waste, but it will also be part of my Halloween costume so it serves a dual purpose.
I've also been looking up how to cut my own hair on Youtube (wanting something different than just a straight cut) and that's been helpful. I might try it tonight, to give myself some time before the weekend in case I need to re-do it or something.
Being able to cut my own hair is a skill I very much enjoy having at least amateur status at. I once told a hairdresser that the last cut I'd had was one I gave myself and she exclaimed, "Don't ever cut your own hair!" Ridiculous. People have been cutting their own hair for thousands of years. Yep, having good tools helps and it is possible to damage your hair with bad ones. But other than that, I'm saving money and if I give myself a bad haircut the only person who's harmed is me. Haircuts are expensive, and I've had more bad professional haircuts than bad haircuts I've given myself.
I noticed that my wardrobe has been both shrinking (because I've given so much that I didn't really wear or like away) and because many of the shirts I wear all the time have been wearing out. My favorite plain black t-shirt has had a small but noticeable hole over my right boob for over a year now, thanks to my cat. Not such a huge deal since I generally wear a sweater over it but still annoying. Small things like that have been occurring in many of my favorite clothes: small holes from use, some stains, and just general shabbiness. One pair of jeans wore out (always near the crotch!) so I dragged a friend to the Fireweed Consignment Boutique, of which I've heard lots of good things. They didn't have a huge selection in my size at that location, but I still found some great things. One shirt (plain black, but a bit dressy for work, so I can retire the other as a "weekend" shirt), one sweater (dressy enough for work or a night out with friends), and one pair of jeans. And all for waaay less than the cost of buying these things new plus someone else in town made a few bucks from me, as well as supporting a local business. I brought in a few things of my own, but they only take donations on weekdays (except by appointment) so I'll have to do that another time.
I said a while ago that I was trying to come up with a good recipe or formula for my own face lotion. I think I got it last night. I used cocoa butter, aloe vera, vitamin E oil, and some tea tree oil. It smells...interesting (mostly of the cocoa butter and tea tree oil, which makes an odd combination) but it goes on smoothly and it immediately smoothed the two rough, dry patches that had been forming on my cheeks. Just be sure to add enough aloe vera gel and oils that the cocoa butter doesn't go all solid again, and you have to mix it a lot at first (I melted the cocoa butter before I mixed it all up), but it works very well.

On the bookshelf: I've been reading Caitlin Moran's book "How to be a Woman", which is absolutely hysterical. Loving it! She goes through pretty much every stage of her own puberty and uses it as a jumping off point for discussions about modern feminism and what it means to be a woman. So, she uses her first period to lead into her first discovering masturbation, into a surprisingly thoughtful (and yet still funny) discussion of pornography and what's wrong with it. Discovering her first pubic hairs leads into a discussion of the recent pressure on women not to have any pubic hair, ever, and the fact that, "It's actually costing us money just to have a vagina! Ladies, this is ridiculous!" I totally recommend this book.

On decluttering: I've been very much enjoying this blog about decluttering and simplifying. It, along with several discussions with Shane, have caused me to look around at my apartment and assess just how much shit we have that is totally unnecessary to our lives. Even with both of us trying to be careful about what comes into our house in the first place, it's not always easy. We're still getting mail for a roommate who moved out three years ago. It's been stacking up in a corner and when we disassembled its perch to make the cat's Recovery Palace, it ended up on the dining table. Thankfully, we saw him at a friend's house last weekend so I packed all that mail up in a bag and gave it to him. He promised to go through it and call places to give them his new address.
There's lots of stuff that's required to basically be a normal, functioning adult, however. Shane has been required to keep some paperwork for a job he worked three years ago and he finally decided that "a reasonable time" has passed so it's gone. Our marriage certificate has been sitting in an envelope on top of my desk for a year now, so I at least moved it to a drawer so that it's out of the way.
This frustration with all the junk in our house also motivated me to take out our recycling again. I think the last time I did that was around June? Some of it I can walk to work, but other stuff (such as glass) doesn't have a recycling bin anywhere near my office so it requires a special trip. We tend to hoard it all in the garage until we have enough to justify the car trip. But it was crowding my clothes-drying rack, and getting out of hand. Just doing that one thing made the apartment feel so much freer and cleaner!
We have lots of other projects waiting in the sidelines, and other things which I'm sure will build up between now and then. Decluttering is an ongoing process, but it does feel nice to get each of these things done. Even finding a new home for things which we need to keep, or which we can't get around to just yet, helps a lot.

It's trauma for the whole family!

We finally took our cat back to the vet's yesterday. About six weeks ago, after a night out on the town (for the cat) I noticed that he was really lethargic, and that he was limping. So we took him to the vet who put him on antibiotics and sent us home with instructions to monitor him. When Zap (the cat) was still pretty young, he got out one night, got into a fight with something, hurt his back a bit, and got a small infection. So this seemed like par for the course. (His back has been fine for a long time, don't worry.) No big deal, right?
Except that this time, instead of getting better, Zap just stayed the same. Still sorta lethargic, still severely limping. When he hurt his back I was able to lift him under his front paws so that he was standing on his hind legs and walk him around like that to get his muscles working again. (His hind leg muscles had atrophied from disuse. He looked like a cat version of Joe Swanson.) Shane was amazed that I didn't get my face clawed off, but it worked.
I tried doing that a couple of weeks ago and nearly did get my face clawed off. My poor cat was obviously still in pain, still not doing well. He was still seeming lethargic, not his usual bouncy, curious, cat self. I told Shane that we needed to take Zap back to the vet but Shane just said, "Let's wait and see a little bit more."
Finally, last week I put my foot down and made an appointment. I had to make it for this week, when Shane would be home and I'd have a vehicle, but I was done waiting and seeing. Zap was making little noises of pain every time he jumped and still wasn't putting any weight on his rear left leg. He was still lethargic and quiet.
So we took him to the vet yesterday when I was done with work. Right from the start it was awful. We'd borrowed a cat carrier from friends. It was the same one L and I used last time we took the cat to the vet and, unfortunately, he recognized it. As soon as I pulled it out he got really low, stared at it for a second, and then tried to slink away quietly. Shane and I together couldn't force him into it (partly out of fear of hurting him more) and he wasn't going to allow himself to be quietly wrapped in a towel for the car ride. Shane finally pulled out the big dog kennel and I feel so bad because the cat saw it and went, "Safety!" and leapt into it. I tossed the towel in after him, we closed it, and took it out to the truck. He looked so betrayed.
Then he peed. And it got all over him on the short trip. Then it got all over me because I was the one who mostly held him, poor guy. I tried to make him feel safe.
The vet examined him and said that there was something moving which shouldn't be moving near his hip. So, X-rays. And a sedative for the X-rays. Poor Zap. Instead of his usual strident "MROOOOW!", when they were manipulating him for the X-rays all he could do to protest was a low "mmmrrrrrrrrr" noise. He couldn't move. I ended up holding him while we waited for the X-rays to develop, and while the vet saw another patient. I took the opportunity to weigh him (he hadn't been weighed since he was a kitten) and found out that even in his weakened state he weighed 16.5 lbs. I knew my cat was big! (The ideal weight for the average domestic cat is 8-10 lbs. 16.5 probably means that Zap has some Maine Coon in him, along with the strain of Russian Blue we already knew about.) No wonder he feels like he can take on the world.
The sedative made it so that he couldn't even lift his head. Any time I shifted his weight (I was holding him for about 20 minutes, after all) his head would fall to the side. It was heartbreaking. My cat also doesn't like being held for too long, generally, so while I enjoyed getting the snuggles it sort of added a whole new level of pathos to the whole situation.
The vet took one look at the X-rays and said, "Oh my gosh. Well, yep, that's the problem. I've never seen anything like it, though." The bit of bone which connects the hip ball to the rest of the femur was pretty much completely shattered.

That's the area there. The vet just kept saying how he'd never seen anything like it before and couldn't quite think of what would cause such an injury. His hip hadn't been dislocated, which in a way added to the mystery. What would cause such a catastrophic injury that wouldn't also get the hip ball? Since Zap was, once again, running a fever the vet speculated that perhaps there was some sort of bone infection, but we didn't run any tests for that. He's on more antibiotics and on kennel rest for one whole month. At the end of the month we'll take him back for more tests and X-rays. Fun, right?
When the vet said a whole month of kennel rest Shane said, "And are you willing to give us a month's worth of sedatives?" He was only half joking. We asked for ideas about how to keep him entertained and all the vet could really suggest was catnip. If anyone out there on the internets has ideas about how to keep a normally very active but caged cat entertained for a month, please let us know.
As if all of that trauma wasn't enough for my poor cat, as soon as we got home I had to give him a sponge bath to get the pee off of him. The poor guy tried to run out of the kennel but was still under the effect of the sedatives and his leg was really hurting so he couldn't really run. I had to corner him and listen to the most pitiful crying while I wiped him down with a damp towel.
The dog freaked out, not knowing what was going on, and wouldn't leave him alone in the kennel. At first it was funny, then it was just annoying. After I fed the cat the dog kept scratching at the door because she wanted his food.
And the kennel isn't going to be big enough. I know, the whole point is to keep him essentially immobilized. But this kennel is about the size of the tote we use just as his litter box. Putting a shoe box in there full of litter wasn't cutting it. He ended up pooping in his food bowl and then peeing all over himself again. Shane cleaned up the poo, I once again cleaned up the cat. The smell of the poop got to Shane, who threw up, and I got scratched by the cat. Everyone had a great time.
So when I'm done with work today, we're going to figure something else out to keep him in relative comfort. Something at least big enough for a litter box he can use. I might try to set it up by the windows, too, so that he can at least see what's going on outside. Maybe that will keep him from crying all day? That's all he did last night--cry and scratch at the door of the kennel. Shane said, "Well, at least we know what the saddest sound in the world is."
Our cat is still pretty young. He's only 4, and the average lifespan of a male domestic cat is 12-14 years. If he was older, I'm not sure what we'd do. But this is (hopefully) going to be worth it to save our young cat. Worst case scenario, a total hip replacement. Slightly better case scenario (and probably the most likely), he's crippled but mobile for the rest of his life. I'm not holding my breath for a full recovery, and I feel like the worst cat owner ever.
Probably the best decision we made last night was to not cook dinner. When we were still at the vet's I asked Shane, "How about we get takeout Thai food instead?" So Shane picked that up after dropping me and the cat at home, while I was trying to get the kennel somewhat comfortable and clean up the cat pee. I tried to be mad at myself over the garbage produced by getting takeout. Our Thai place uses plastic tubs and Styrofoam containers. But I was so drained by everything else that I thought of it and then mentally shrugged.
Every time Shane says, "This month is going to suck," all I can think is, "YOU'RE GOING TO BE GONE FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS! I'm going to be the one taking care of everything, it's going to suck for ME!" But I've managed not to say it...more than once. Yes, October is going to be long and it is going to be painful.
Adding to it all, I seem to be coming down with a cold. La vita e bella.

Apples

One of my favorite parts about home cooking is the fact that the food you cook is never the same twice. This can be both a good thing (lots of variety) and a bad thing. Sometimes you can't live up to your own past cooking. You try to recreate what you did last time but it's just not quite as good.
However, the freedom to mix things up is so wonderfully freeing. Yes, I follow recipes. But I usually end up changing things, so recipes are more like guidelines. Obviously, some should be followed with a bit of exactness. I'm not going to mess around with the acidity of canned goods. However, the flavors? Oh, man, that's the best part.
The apple guy is selling his fruit at the farmer's market, and even at $10 per bag (I have no idea what the weight is) it's well worth buying. From what I've seen he's got at least three varieties of apple. In the past couple of weekends I've bought three total bags of two of the varieties. I ate a couple, but wanted to put the rest up for winter. Success! This time around, I decided to make and can applesauce. This applesauce is unlike anything you could get in the stores. For one thing, these varieties aren't grocery store apples. One of them was quite tart, and the other was so much more complex than anything I've found in the grocery store. To simply call it "sweet" is reducing it too much. I can't even really describe it other than to say that I very much enjoyed it.
Apples like this deserve a complex-tasting applesauce. I think I managed it. Also, it's super easy. It took some time, because of the size of the apples (they're much smaller than grocery store apples) but that was about it. After the chopping, throw them all in a pot and cook them down until they've made applesauce. Stir occasionally. Seriously, making applesauce is that easy. I threw a little bit of water to keep it from burning, and some spices. You can add sugar if you want, but depending on the apples it probably won't be necessary. I did add some maple syrup to these apples, simply because it tasted a bit tart when it was all cooked down, but only a few splashes. (Of course I didn't measure!) Maybe 5-6 tablespoons?
The spices I used were cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. I know, I've been using tons of cloves lately! But something about autumn makes them so appealing. I must say, they went quite well in this sauce. Rounded out with the slight hint of maple syrup, it's divine. (If I do say so myself!) Apple-cinnamon is such an overdone flavor. It's good, but everyone makes apple-cinnamon this and that. I'm glad I went with something different.
I'll mess around with the spices again next time I make applesauce. And there will be a next time, since this is far too tasty not to make more of. I'm certain the next batch won't turn out just like this one did, and I look forward to it. Maybe apple-ginger? Or just a straight apple-nutmeg? They both seem like yummy flavors.

So, if you're looking for a recipe, it's quite simple. I cut up enough apples (keeping the skins on) to fill my dutch oven. (No juvenile jokes, please, I get quite enough of those from my husband.) I added about half a cup of water and sprinkled in cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. I cooked them, stirring occasionally, until the apples were so tender they were literally falling apart and turning into sauce. When I determined that it had cooked down enough I pulled it off the heat and used my immersion blender to get the skins. (If you like a chunkier applesauce, don't leave on the skins, cook it a bit less, and don't blend it.)
I followed standard canning procedures and processed the jars depending on their size, 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts. For the amount of sauce I made I got five pints and 1 quart. Plus a little bit for eating tonight. :)
Making applesauce inherently has a bit of waste, though. What to do with the cores and other bits you don't really want gunking up your sauce? Well, there's always scrap-apple cider vinegar. I saved my cores so I'm making that, too. Two products for the price of one. I know some people like raw apple cider as a health thing but I haven't looked into that at all. I just know that making this is very frugal and helps to reduce my waste stream. Both of those things are fantastic. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Bread Pudding

The other day I tried making some more barley bread. It has always failed me for bread, but I was out of other flour so I tried it. It failed me again. Even as no-knead bread, it didn't rise and it turned out a flat, weird sort of bread. It was too crusty on the outside (more like eating a cracker) but undercooked on the inside. Blech.
But I didn't want to waste it, so what to do? Bread pudding was the obvious choice but I hesitated. Despite my love of all things bread-y and carb-y, bread pudding has never been my favorite. It's something I feel should be delicious but usually leaves me feeling a bit disappointed. Almost every time I've had bread pudding it's been rather bland.
I also didn't want to make an entire bread pudding for just myself. That problem was solved by going to J&L's for dinner last night. Since I was going to be biking and wouldn't have any way to bring a pre-baked pudding with me, it was simple enough to bring along, uncooked. I put the dry ingredients in a Pyrex storage dish (with a lid) and the wet ingredients in a quart-sized mason jar. Once I got to their place I borrowed a 9x9 baking dish and put it all together.
I cobbled together about four different recipes for making this. I found a bunch of lovely organic peaches at the store the other day, and they need to get used up so I figured this would be a perfect use for one of them. It turned out wonderful! We were all pleased. So here's my non-bland, super easy bread pudding recipe:

Bread Pudding

4 packed cups of bread pieces
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup of sugar
1 large peach
3 eggs
1 tbsp butter
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350^.
Melt the butter, then whisk together with the milk and eggs. (When I did it, I didn't melt the butter or whisk this all together until I got there. Butter floats, so I merely scooped it out of the jar to melt it, then whisked things together once it was melted.)
In a separate dish, combine the bread, sugar, and spices.
Cut the peach into chunks and combine with the dry ingredients. Then put it all in the 9x9 baking dish and pour the wet mixture over the top. Bake until lightly browned, about 40-45 minutes. (I think--we didn't have a timer so keep an eye on it!)

Another variation I thought would be delicious would be to add ginger. The only reason I didn't use that was because I ran out of ginger the other day. But the cloves were tasty, a great compliment to the peaches, and it added that little kick I generally find lacking in bread puddings. If it's winter or you don't have any fresh peaches on hand, canned peaches would work just as well. Try substituting some of the peach juice for the milk and have a super peach-y pudding.
I still have a bit of bread left so I'm thinking about making a small one for myself. You know, just to not be wasteful. :)

Feeling a little failure

I have a confession: last night, we ordered Chinese food.
Doesn't sound like a failure? Well, to me it sort of is, and I should probably explain why. When Shane is gone, I get to eat whatever I feel like. (You know, within my own make-it-yourself, locavore-if-possible personal rules.) Usually, this means sandwiches. (Why heat up the kitchen, since it's summer, just for myself? Why waste the electricity?) Since the food they give Shane at camp isn't the greatest, I feel like he should get to eat whatever he most wants when he's at home. Usually, this means whatever we want to prepare. But he's actually been sort of wishy-washy about what he wants to eat so far. I didn't do a big grocery trip last weekend because, well, I didn't have the energy for it for one thing (damn cough!), but I also didn't know what we'd be making. I prepared one meal for Sunday, when he'd be getting home, but didn't have meal prep beyond that. So last night I got home from work and one of the first things I asked was, "Should we go to the store? What do you want for dinner?" He said, "I honestly don't know." As we sat there trying to think of what we might want to eat, and what wouldn't heat up the house much (it was over 80 degrees--blech!), and what would be easy to prepare, Shane finally suggested, "Why don't we just order Chinese?" And I said yes. I knew that there were all kinds of reasons that I didn't really want to order Chinese, but it wasn't until the food arrived that I thought, "Oh, yeah. All the Styrofoam packaging. And the plastic packets of soy sauce, and the plastic-wrapped cookies. And where on earth are the vegetables?"
I really should have planned better. I should have come up with a backup plan in case Shane didn't have any preferences. I've been making excuses for myself about being exhausted from this cold--which I really have been, and getting myself well is priority number one. (I can't do anything else if I'm ill!) But I know that I could have done better.
This morning we ran out of bread, so I'm going to make more tonight. As of this morning, it wasn't quite as hot as yesterday so hopefully it won't be ridiculous to heat up the oven and the house. In fact, if we get some rain I'll probably take the opportunity to make this a baking night and get some other things done (scones!) so that I have backups in the freezer and I don't have to bake later on other hot days.
I'll need to pull out my big book of recipes again and try to figure out which meals are great for summer. We should eat some grilled salmon sometime this week, but what else? I hate having more than one meal in a week that's ruled by the Meat portion. What else could we grill that's perhaps more veggie-centric? After I make bread tonight, we'll probably make some of our favorite sandwiches and use a bit of my homegrown basil.
One of the biggest keys to getting more sustainable is having a plan, I've found. I really feel the lack when we don't have one. Which isn't to say that I plan everything out, or that everything goes according to plan. (Just look at my gardening--that never goes according to plan!) When I make a "meal plan" for the week, I don't plan out which nights we're going to make what because I don't know which days are going to be too hot to cook/bake, or if something unexpected will crop up. But it is nice to have that plan so that I know what ingredients there are on hand, to know what I can make without a trip to the store.

Not so very zero waste

On our trip, I was very proud of myself because I remembered our reusable mugs. Among other things, our first flight, to Anchorage, left at 7:30 and I knew we'd be tired and wanting coffee/tea. After we made it through security we went over to the coffee shop and when we placed our orders I had the mugs out. The woman at the counter started pulling out cups anyway and I said, "No, in here please." She looked at the mugs, then at the cup in her hand and said, "Well, we'll just do it this way and you can pour the coffee in those after." After an incredulous moment Shane and I chorused, "That really defeats the purpose." She looked at us all confused and said, "Huh?" We gave up. I'm not sure if it was stupidity or if she was just too set in her ways to accept reusable mugs in her world, but that was a battle we weren't going to win. I'm still in awe, though, that she somehow thought that using a cup and then having us pour our drinks into our reusable mugs just to throw away those cups anyway was a good idea. *Facepalm*
The mugs came in less handy than I thought they would, because we only stopped for coffee/tea once in Hawaii, and then once more in the Anchorage airport on the way home. For many of our drinks, they came in plastic cups anyway and of course there was no public recycling. The bar next to the beach which we favored (the one outside the hotel the wedding party was staying at) served everything in disposable plastic cups, which was annoying. I supposed I could have boycotted them, but there were several times when I really needed some water, and a few times when a pina colada was just irresistible. For the most part, though, we did resist any impulse to buy heavily packaged stuff. Or really anything, for that matter. We bought a couple of toiletries we forgot (btw, never sleep with your contacts in after traveling all day--your eyes will get red and slightly infected and all your friends will make jokes about what a stoner you appear to be) and food, but that was about it. We figured that we'd go shopping if we had time, and I had planned to find somewhere to get a bunch of bulk dried fruit like papaya and mango, because it's hard to find here and very expensive. Macadamia nuts would have been nice too, and a few chocolate covered ones. But we never bothered even trying to find someplace like that. We were having too much fun to go shopping.
So what did we do? Lots of beach time. Lots of bar time with friends. Dinners out, wedding stuff, and on the last day we hiked Diamond Head. Then went to the beach again to cool off. :) So really, it was a fairly inexpensive trip because so many of our activities were free. And I'm not as disappointed by the lack of shopping as I thought I would be. When we were thinking about what we wanted to do I thought it would be fun to go to the International Market, or to try finding a thrift store/consignment shop to see what a big city has. (Many of my shirts are getting old and have some holes in them, so it's about time to turn them into rags. It wouldn't have been shopping just for the sake of shopping.) The fact that I came home empty-handed doesn't disappoint because I wouldn't have traded any of the activities we did get around to.
I am upset that we didn't bring home a magnet for L, though. She loves magnets from far away places and asked for one, but we didn't think of it until it was too late. :(

Not wasting food

It's been a whirlwind week so far, for both of us. Shane went back to work Monday morning (leaving at 5:30) and hasn't worked less than a 12 hour day since then.
I've been working 9 hour days to try to conserve as much of my vacation time as possible for when I can actually spend time with my husband and family. I'll be doing the same (or possibly even working a couple of 10s) next week when we get back. I'm hoping to use less than 3 days of vacation time for the 5 1/2 days we'll be gone.
But we're going to Hawaii! I'm so excited. To see Shane's wonderful aunt (who is letting us stay with her), to see my friends get married, to see the tropical island again and swim in warm ocean water...it will be bliss. And best of all, I get to spend a bunch of time with Shane and with my brother. I'll even get a chance to know my brother's girlfriend a bit.
Even with such a short trip, though, there's a lot of planning involved. Not only finding a pet-sitter and someone to drive us to the airport, packing, and working a lot, but also making sure we're not wasting food. Over the weekend, when Shane and I went to the grocery store together, I bought a bunch of fruit. He ended up asking me, "Can you eat all of that? Are you sure?" The answer is a definitive yes, because I have the last of it packed for lunch. After I eat dinner tonight, the only thing we'll have in the house which could go bad is some celery, and I'll probably eat some of that with my dinner before blanching and freezing the rest.
Of course, this means that on top of everything else I'll need to do when I get home, I'll have to go grocery shopping. But I would have had to do that anyway, since this food would have gone bad before I got home. This way it's just not wasted.
I am rather proud of how perfectly I planned it all, though. I made a wrap sandwich for lunch today (we don't even have any bread left) and ended up using some of my homegrown spinach in it because all of our other leafy vegetables and things which might have gone into a sandwich have been eaten (or were so old that they'd gone moldy, like the avocado I bought, darn it!). Now I've harvested from my garden stuff: a few spinach leaves, 2 beans, and 7 pea pods. Not bad for the beginning of June in Fairbanks!
The packing is the only major thing I have left on my list. I haven't started yet, of course. I wait until the last minute so that the pets don't have as much time to freak out. They're freaking out anyway because Shane's gone, so I really don't want to add to that. I'll pack tonight, and I'll have to do some digging for the clothes I want, since truly hot weather is a rarity around here. Thankfully I have a few sundresses, two of which my MIL bought for me, one from Italy, and one from the last time Shane and I went to HI. (He bought me a dress, and I bought him a shirt.) Since we won't be gone that long, everything will easily fit inside my hiking backpack. I have a dress that will be great for the wedding itself, and I'll be packing a total of three pairs of shoes. (One pair of flip-flops, one pair of walking sandals, and my ballet flats.) Now is also when my Nook is going to come in most handy: I'll download some free books from ListenAlaska to put on there and won't have to worry about running out of things to read. The only actual book I'll bring will be one which I'm returning to my little brother, via my middle brother (who's coming to the wedding). That middle brother will also be bringing a couple of books to me, one return and one loan. :) Ah, Sibling Post. Love it.
In addition to everyone we'll see in Hawaii, we also get to see my MIL. We had to stop in Anchorage no matter what, so we made it a rather long layover and my MIL will drive up to have lunch with us. Not only that, but she's giving me her old iPod Touch. It's not at all old, but she got an iPhone and decided that she didn't need the iPod anymore, so she offered it to me. I tend to be the type of gets an electronic gadget and uses it until it starts to break. This is the case with my old, first generation iPod Nano. There was a recall a while ago because so many of the first gen ones broke, and they replaced them with newer ones. But I never did that because mine worked just fine. Well, now it's not. Some of the buttons are dying, and the sound goes off sometimes. I would want it replaced anyway soon (running without music is unbelievably boring!), so it makes me happy that I can replace it without either spending a lot of money or buying something new.
Talk to you later, folks!

Paper Towels

I was so happy to read this article about how everyone can (and should) get rid of--or at the least, reduce the use of--paper towels. It's really not as hard to break the habit as most people think.
The biggest suggestion in the article, and one that I inadvertently follow, is to keep paper towels out of sight. We sometimes have them on the roll in the kitchen, but when we finally do run out of a roll we don't replace it until we find a "need" for another paper towel. (Yes, I know, they're not really "needs", but there are some uses for which paper towels are just easier. Like draining cooked bacon on.) This means that we'll often go weeks without a visible paper towel roll in the house (we keep the bag of them under the sink, and I haven't had to buy any for about a year now) and it encourages us to first reach for rags, which we keep in a fairly open spot. We keep kitchen rags (formerly "dish towels") all over the kitchen for cleanup. Next time I go to Value Village I'll probably try to find some newer, cleaner looking dish towels but it doesn't really matter if I don't find any. We use the dishwasher for most things, and when we do hand wash dishes I pull out a clean rag from the drawer to place the clean dishes on to air-dry. Once the rag has been used for that, it gets set on the towel rack by the sink to help clean up spills and from there goes into the "dirty rag" pile for washing.
We also have a pile of non-kitchen rags which we keep in an old milk crate (found somewhere for free) that we keep by the door. These are mostly used for pet messes and other household cleaning. What rags do I use here? Pretty much anything. We got our couch for free and when we looked under the cushions we found several old towels and a pillow case. The pillow case has been washed (several times) and gets used to hold bread in the freezer. (Even gallon-sized plastic bags can't hold an entire loaf of bread. The pillow case holds several and keeps them from getting freezer burned, and I cycle the bread through fairly often.) The towels went into the rag bin and are most often used to clean up pet messes.
Socks with holes in them are frequently used to dust--I dampen the sock, put it over my hand, and run my hand over whatever needs dusting. Super easy. One of my brothers mocked me for this thrift saying, "Oh, you Alaskans. You know you can buy things called sponges, right?" I shot back with, "Yes, but these are free Mr. I-Had-To-Take-A-Second-Job." At the time, both of our spouses were out of work. We have similar rents, and my high utilities pretty much make up for his more expensive commute. But he had to take a second job, whereas I didn't. Don't underestimate the power of thrift.
The socks are also useful when the dog's paws are hurting her. After I spread the Bag Balm on her pads I sometimes put an old sock on each foot so that she doesn't wipe or lick off the ointment and so that she doesn't get it on the carpet or the bed. About the time the socks start falling off they've done enough that the ointment has done its work.
Old clothes which have fallen apart, or which have been deliberately destroyed (some VV shirts got turned into a Halloween costume, and the leftover bits couldn't be worn anymore) are also tossed in there to be used as rags for assorted cleaning. I even clean the bathroom using just rags. If you're worried about contamination from these rags getting onto clothes in the wash, like I am, the solution is easy. I do a separate load of laundry that I think of as "gross" laundry. We have enough rags that I don't need to do this often. Maybe 4-5 times a year? But into this load go the pet towels, the kitchen and bathroom rugs, and any household cleaning rags. (The kitchen ones go into clothing loads, so that we're not accidentally spreading what got onto the rags used to clean up pet messes all over the kitchen. I might be paranoid about that, but better safe than sorry.)
Rags like these can also be used in the garage to clean up messes like oil, or to wipe hands on when you've been working on an engine. For those, though, it might be better to pick the oldest, nastiest rags you have so that you don't feel bad about simply throwing them away after using them, rather than trying to wash them.
It really is easy to reduce your dependence on paper towels and other paper products. And don't be afraid to get your kitchen towels dirty! That's what they're for! The last time we had J&L and their baby over, Baby spit up. I handed L one of the kitchen rags and she asked, "Oh, you don't have a paper towel or anything? I don't want to get this dirty." Ummm...that particular rag already had a big hole burned in it from our former roommate. I don't think a little baby spitup is going to hurt it, do you?
We're conditioned from a young age to think that cloth is "special" or "for nice occasions". But cloth is what people always used to use to clean up, and it was far more expensive in the past than it is now. As with so many other things, we've put it on a pedestal and used it as an excuse to justify disposables. People don't want to use cloth napkins, placemats, and tablecloths because they're "too fancy". Who says? And even if they are "fancy", don't you deserve that? Doesn't the dinner you lovingly made deserve to be elevated to a special occasion? Believe me, time with your family is so special, and it deserves to seem that way too. If we celebrate the small things in life, we're much less likely to be discontented with what we have, and less likely to "splurge" on things we don't need.

"You killed the dog."

I've said several times before that I'm not much of a runner. I do enjoy exercising, but usually I'd prefer other exercises. However, lately I've really been enjoying running. For whatever strange reason, it's starting to become one of my default workouts. (At least, while it's warm out. I don't think I'll ever go for a run when it's -15 or colder.) So the dog and I ran for about 45 minutes last night. She still doesn't totally have her summer paws yet, and the scrape she got last week opened up again. However, she loved every moment of that run. And she behaved so well! When we got home, she got so much praise and so much attention, plus a few treats. After she'd drunk half her bowl full of water, she laid down next to Shane and fell deeply asleep. So deeply that when he called her name, she didn't even twitch her ears. I ended up having to carry her back to the bedroom for the night, awake but completely limp in my arms. When I put her on the bed, we spoke to her and petted her for a few minutes and she wagged her tail at us. A completely contented dog.
If you're afraid that I've been "working" her too hard, don't be. She loved every second of the run. When we had to wait at the first streetlight, she bounced and barked at cars in a "Look at me! I get to run!!" kind of way. Even at the second (and last) streetlight, near the end of our run, she was panting and wagging her tail. As soon as we could cross, she jumped ahead and practically pulled me across the street. I am acutely aware that our little lady will be 9 this summer, and that the average age of death for her breed is 10 1/2. We run together as much for her health as for mine. My very good friend came over briefly last night and remarked on how trim and healthy the dog is looking. Since this friend is also the daughter of our vet, that's a wonderful compliment.
With the roads and sidewalks now clear of snow and ice, it's also biking season!! Shane did the grocery shopping the other day, but when he went to HG Market, they were pretty much out of everything. He said it looked like they were doing some spring cleaning. But we needed chicken for our dinner last night, so I decided to bike there and see if they had more. I wasn't hopeful, so I only brought one small reusable container. Darn! They had lots of lovely things. I ended up getting an absolutely enormous whole chicken breast, two rather small pork chops, half a pound of bacon, and two heads of broccoli. I'm so excited that they're getting more and more veggies. If we'd had any meals coming up that involved red peppers, I totally would have bought some from them.
I'm looking forward to a long summer of biking, rather than driving. In fact, tonight I'm probably going to bike to the store to get some more bags of soil. I know, I know! Plastic bags of dirt! It's ridiculous! But I don't really have any other good way to get soil. My compost isn't done yet, and in any case I have nothing with which to turn it and get to what might be good compost at the bottom. So bags of soil it is. I need more to start my seeds in, and it actually turns out that I need more yogurt containers to start them in too! I didn't realize how many I'd brought in to work (besides my veggie plants, I've got my begonia and several spider plants in yogurt containers) and I didn't have nearly as many as I wanted for starting plants at home. I'll have to look around and see what else I have to start plants in.
I also haven't made my planned trip to the transfer station yet. I'm getting an idea about what kinds of things I'd like to find to help my plants. I'd like to avoid buying too many cages for tomatoes, peas, and beans if I can. So I'll see what I can find.
I did plant in my large totes last night, though. Two of them have two tomatoes and rows of carrots. The other two have two each of peas and squashes. It was more plants than I originally meant to put in the squash buckets, but I think it should do all right. I tried to get one summer squash and one winter squash in each.
Trying to figure out where to put and plant some of my other seeds is interesting. Can I start my parsnips outdoors yet? What about broccoli, do I really need to start that indoors? And my cabbages? I'll need to check on those. The seed company threw in some small "Parisienne" carrots with my order, for free. Since they're small, I can utilize some long, low buckets that I have as their planters. I just need to get the dirt for them, first.
I'm also on a mission to find some organic fertilizer if possible in this town. If anyone knows where to find it, please tell me! On my (admittedly, very few) trips to greenhouses and even the major home stores, I've never been able to find organic fertilizer. I think it's going to be a must for keeping my garden healthy and productive this summer. I'm using companion planting wherever I can, but I'd like to have a backup in case that's not enough.

Mutton chops: my dog has them.

The dog got a haircut last week. When Shane took her in he told the groomers to "keep the mutton chops" and they did.

She looks utterly ridiculous (the picture doesn't quite do it justice because her ears get in the way), and has earned the nickname of "bearded lady". I keep telling Shane he's cruel for having taken away her superpower: sad eyes. Usually she has the ability to make us feel guilty for just about anything. The eyes say, "Why are you leaving me? I don't like being abandoned...." Or sometimes, "Why are you not giving me those meats? I like meats. I would gladly take them off your hands for you...." Now she just looks silly, and the power of her sad eyes is gone.
I can't even feel that sorry for her when she shivers. Which she's been doing a lot of. I wrap her in blankets as often as possible to help keep her warm but if I then leave the room she tends to jump up and follow me. At least she's been warm at night, snuggling down under the covers with us...between us.
So if your dog, too, is having a hard time adjusting to a new haircut, or any new circumstances, I have a few simple steps you can take to help them feel better.

1.When looking through the freezer for dinner options, unearth an unidentifiable and badly freezer burned steak or chop of some kind. (Seriously, we couldn't tell what it was.) Set it out to thaw.
2.Finally decide that the salmon filet which keeps throwing itself out of the freezer at your feet was meant to be dinner. Set it out to thaw as well.
3. Bake both (in separate dishes, of course) and give the dog a mix of salmon and steak for dinner.
4.Before she's done eating those, make a whole chicken for dinner, reserving the giblets for dog meat. Cook them up and serve them with the leftover salmon and steak as dinner.

This is how to win your dog's undying loyalty. (As if you didn't have it already!) It's amazing how much having a dog around helps to prevent waste in our household, though. Leftovers gone bad? As long as they don't have things in them that are bad for dogs (like onions, grapes, and chocolate) they can be fed to the dog. Any freezer-burned meat we find gets cooked up for the dog. Heck, even moldy bread could be given to her. (I put it in the compost instead, just to be on the safe side.) She's our little waste disposal unit. :)
Speaking of whole chickens, though, (it's a terrible segue, I know) that's what we're having for dinner tonight. J&L&Baby will be over so it'll be a great mid-week meal with friends. I just wish I'd remembered to set up the CrockPot last night the way I intended to. This morning I opened the fridge to get out my breakfast and thought, "Oh, crap." As if it wasn't bad enough to have to set it all up, the crock was still dirty from our roast the other day so I had to clean it out, too. Then simultaneously make and eat breakfast, make lunch, make dinner, feed the pets, let the dog out/in. I can't believe I made it to work on time.

P.S. I've discovered that the best topping for those zucchini pancakes I love so much isn't maple syrup (although that's still great). What I like even better is cheaper, can be sourced more locally for most people, and way more nutritious: applesauce. Yum!

Bowls...so many bowls

Any kitchen which is going to be functional needs bowls. Generally, lots of bowls of varying sizes. But you know this already, don't you?
For our wedding, we received no less than eight bowls. Two very pretty salad bowls, and two sets of mixing bowls. Considering that we already had several bowls of our own, it seemed like bowl overload. (The last time we chatted, my best friend noted that she hadn't yet sent us a wedding present. After the usual back-and-forth of 'don't be silly, you don't need to send a present' and 'don't you be silly, of course I do', I gave in with the caveat no more bowls.) Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful. But this seemed like an excessive amount of bowls. Particularly since we're very short on (usable) kitchen storage space and I wasn't sure where I was going to fit all these bowls. (The obvious answer would seem to be, inside other bowls. Trust me. We've done that. In our kitchen, everything which can be stacked is.) Perhaps I should be grateful that one of my Pyrex bowls shattered so spectacularly in the autumn? Anyway, I admit to feeling a twinge of dismay when, sometime around Christmas, my brother-in-law gave us our second set of mixing bowls as a late wedding present. (Mind you, we only had the one set of mixing bowls on our registry, and neither of the salad bowls. I figured with that one mixing set we'd be set for the rest of our lives. Our family had a different opinion, I guess.) But the bowls he gave us aren't just ordinary bowls. Not only are they mixing bowls, but they have lids.
I have a very sorry history of lids. I always see things with lids (like Pyrex pans) and think, "Why would you need a lid for that?" (In the case of Pyrex, the answer is, "Ah. So that you don't have to waste aluminum foil for your leftovers." I don't have lids for my pans, darn it.) Well, it turns out that these lids are way, way more useful than I thought. When I made cookies for Valentine's Day, I made the frosting in the smallest of these bowls. That way we could just spread some frosting on before eating the cookies. It worked well. The frosting stayed smooth and soft, rather than dried out and crunchy. Just as good, no wasted aluminum foil for a top.
But the fun doesn't end there. I forgot to mention in my post the other day about the no-knead bread what to do to keep the bread moist while it's sitting out for a day. She of Northwest Edible Life said originally to spread it with some plastic wrap. Later on she mentioned that she'd stopped buying plastic wrap and had experimented with several alternatives. A tea towel didn't do well enough, but a plate was apparently perfect. Well, for me it was the largest size of my lidded mixing bowls that came to the rescue. It was the perfect tool for this job. Are you seeing where my shortsightedness with lids comes in? I would never have bought a mixing bowl with a lid for myself, but it has proven its worth. Never again (hopefully) will I discount or dismiss the humble lid. I'm even looking forward to finding new ways to prove myself wrong now.
On top of all this, as it turns out we've had almost all of these bowls in use at one point or another. It seems excessive, and ridiculous, even to me. But it's true. I did mention that big things don't get washed as frequently, right? It turns out my family might just know what I need better than I do.

More

Here's another perspective on zero waste. At times on her blog, Bea can make it seem so simple and easy to go zero waste. I end up thinking, "Well, yeah, if you're in California and you have access to Whole Foods and a year-round farmer's market...." So it's nice to get the perspective of someone else who's struggling with trying to drastically reduce the waste in their lifestyle. There are so many times when I basically have to grin and bear it, and buy something that's packaged in a way I don't like. But the author of the above article suggests that we also need to take a closer look at what actually constitutes waste.
Here's another idea about food storage without using a refrigerator, which really isn't the best way to keep food a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, it's great for things like milk, but vegetables and even eggs aren't at their best when stored in a refrigerator. We've had eggs get frozen if they're accidentally pushed to the back. (Fresh eggs, if they've never been refrigerated, can be kept safely without refrigeration longer than you think. One source I've read says about 6 weeks, which was a number she'd gotten from a Mennonite farmer. I'm not sure how true that is, though, having never tested it myself.) And delicate fruits and veggies, such as tomatoes, are incredibly prone to getting essentially a mild form of freezer burn, even just in the fridge.
I did always wonder about people who've managed to get rid of their refrigerators (most use an ice-box instead) or switch to a small dorm-style refrigerator (which isn't as efficient as you'd hope--if you need that, you might as well get a large one). I assumed that most of them must eat out most of the time. This is proof that even people who cook at home can switch to a smaller fridge (or get rid of it entirely) without reducing their quality of eating and without getting rid of all refrigerated items. I'd still need somewhere to store leftovers, and the loss of freezer space would suck, but I could maybe see myself trying something like this in the future. Especially during the winter. It seems silly to pay for refrigeration when it would make much more sense to simply store stuff in an ice box in the coldest part of the garage and shove our freezer outside for cold. (Keeping it in the freezer would insulate it somewhat from the temperature swings.) Could I see Shane going along with it? Maybe. I think it would mostly depend on how much work for it he had to do. :) If I took care of all of it, he'd be very happy with it.