January Update

Here is an update on how we did in January

FINANCE
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account
2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary
3) Make 1 extra house payment- I paid an extra 5.45% towards this goal
4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)- Wow I spent a lot this month. We had to restock on a lot of staples and we gave three meals to friends plus some extras for parties and such. Hopefully next month will be drastically less.
5)Never use a credit card -didn't use for us. I had to buy some things for work. But i was reimbursed promptly and i plan of paying it off in full when the statement arrives.
6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw
7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower
8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer
9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. (Only have some medical bills, but i want to keep it this way)- YEAH NO ADDITIONAL DEBT!! (OK, so its been a month, but it still makes me happy)
10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)-Paid our regular payment plus a little extra. Still $2000+ to go
11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- Set up for a yard sale next month. Its amazing how one small house can accumulate so much stuff you never use. We also tried to sell two slides and a camera on Craigslist. No luck, but we are working towards this goal.
12) Start a savings account for a new car

FAMILY
1) Go on two weekend family vacations- Nothing planned yet, but we do have some Christmas money set aside for this purpose.
2) Visit both families at least once

HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer
3) Grow a successful garden- Nothing in the ground yet, but we have started planning on what we want to plant.
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc.- We received 6 grocery bags of grapefruit a couple weeks ago. We have all of them sliced ad juice. This week we are going to can the fruit and freeze the juice.

SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- I am 12.5%$ of the way there. I am definitely learning self control with all of the wonderful baked bread and sweets around the house. I want to start working out but am having trouble finding time. This is my mini-goal for February-start a semi regular workout schedule.
2) Make two dresses for Hannah- No dresses yet, but i did have some sewing time with a lady at work. We made a little bag together.
3) Learn a new hobby- Any suggestions on a new hobby? I have no idea what this will be yet
4)Make 2 books on picaboo- I am up to date with Titus's baby book.
5) Read the entire bible 11 out of 260 chapters read. I know this is pathetic. I need to work on finding time to set aside every day to do this.
6) Get more involved at the church. - I really want to do this. But, I'm hesitant to commit myself to too much. They have opening for things i think I would like to do but I just don't have the time to do. Hopefully God will lead me to the right ministry. Too bad there isn't a baking ministry.

AARON
1) Hunt something (Armadillos do not count)- Our neighbor called about a wild boar bothering his pigs. He hunted but was unsuccessful because of the daytime and surrounding obstacles (houses and cars). But the year is still young.
2) Process one animal
3) Make a rocking horse

OTHER
1) Make our own (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- So far we have not bought any bread. This is going to be a much harder goal than i first anticipated.
2) Make 52 new recipes- I made 7 new recipes this month.

Some thoughts from this month. I am excited about everything that we accomplished or started in motion this month. I know its easy to make a list and dream, but i think because of this list we will accomplish great things this year. I now realize (as Aaron warned me) how ambitious my list really is. I am very thankful of his support and help in my crazy dream of accomplishing all of this. I already would have failed if it wasn't for him (who knew he was an expert bread maker).

Recipes #6 and #7

On Thursday, the guys in my lab and myself got together for a potluck lunch. One of the guys brought in his grill and we all pitched in some money for steaks. We grilled them and chicken breasts. Along with the meat we all brought in one side including mac-n-cheese, baked potatoes, potato salad, squash casserole, and fruit salad. And I was in charge of the desserts.


At 7 pm on Wednesday night i still had no idea what i wanted to make. Finally i remembered I had Lynn's cookbook. So I opened it up and was again stumped... on which pies to make. I finally picked the triple chocolate mouse pie and the blueberry banana creme pie.


Both were amazing. I got rave review on both. The bigger hit of the two was the blueberry banana cream pie. Everyone loved unique yet obvious combination of flavors. Both are definite hits that i will make again.


For the recipe.... See her newer cookbook (the one we got at Grandma Nell's 100th b-day party). I did have to slightly modify the recipes both nothing that would drastically alter the taste. (My pans were too small and I had to reduce the amount of blueberry pie filling on top)



Side Note: Our lunch together was great and we ended up with a ton of leftovers. We could easily have a second meal with all of the food present. We are already planning out next luncheon together.

Recipe #5 Oatmeal Raisen Cookies

I think I finally found an easy amazing oatmeal cookie. I always find it hard to get the perfect mixture of crunchy and chewy in an oatmeal cookie.

Again, I found this recipe on recipezaar.com. If you want to look it up search or recipe#35813

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2c flour

1t baking powder

1t baking soda

1t salt

1c butter, softened

1c sugar

1c dark brown sugar, packed (you must use dark brown sugar. I think its why they are so good)

2 eggs

2t vanilla

3c oats (not instant)

1 2/2 raisins

In a medium bowl, mix four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. In a large bowl mix butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together. Mix on med to high speed to cream. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Fold in oats and raisins.

On a greased cookie sheet scoop 2T worth of dough into mounds spaced ~2 inches apart. Bake 11-13 minutes at 350 until the cookies are a nice brown. Let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: I used my large scoop which is probably ~1T. It made 3 1/4 dozen cookies that were a nice size. They took ~9-10 minutes to bake.

Recipe #4 Key Lime Bread

I was looking through my frig and found a partially used bottle of key lime juice that i wanted to use up. I was in the mind set of making bread that could be frozen for quick breakfast, so looked online and found this recipe. It was on my favorite recipe website http://www.recipezaar.com/

I hope you all enjoy. If you want to look it up on recipezaar, it is recipe #249793.



Key Lime Bread



2/3 c butter, softened (i used margarine)

2c sugar

4 eggs

2T lime zest (because i only had juice, i skipped this)

2 T key lime juice (I added 3 to make up for zest)

1t vanilla

3c flour

3t baking powder

1 t salt

1c milk (we were out so i reconstituted some dry milk)

1c chopped nuts



Glaze

2/3c confectioners sugar

1-2T key lime juice



In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add lime peel, juice, and vanilla and mix well. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture alternating with milk. Fold in nuts

Pour into 2 greased 9x5 pans and bake for 50-55 mins at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool completely. Make glaze and top when cooled.



Notes: I did not remove my from the pan (it was late) and they turned out fine.

We ate this one quickly. The second one is in the freezer with glazing instructions waiting to be eaten another day.
I loved the bread. Aaron liked it. Hannah only at the top part with the icing. I will definitely make this again. Its great if your in the mood for key lime.

Recipe #3 Grapefruit Bread

We were bless with three bags of wonderful grapefruits from a guy I work with. He has 30+ grapefruit trees in his backyard and had to pick all of the fruit because of the extremely cold weather. I am planning on making grapefruit marmalade, but found this recipe and was intrigued. The bread turned out really good. Its a dense bread with a light citrus taste. I took a loaf into work and everyone loved it.





Grapefruit Bread

3c flour

1/2t salt

4t baking powder

3/4t baking soda

2/3c honey

1/4c margarine, softened

1 2/3c rolled oats

1 egg

1 1/4c grapefruit juice

1 walnuts, chopped



In a medium size bowl mix the dry ingredients. Set aside. In another bowl cream margarine and honey. Add egg and mix. Add oats, juice, and flour. Mix together. Fold in nuts. Pour into 1 9x5 loaf pan and bake for ~1 hour at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.



Note: When I made it, I added the oats to the liquid mixture (honey, margarine, egg, and juice) and let it sit for a minute to soften them. I then added the flour mixture.



Note: If you let the dough sit for a minute before baking (like while waiting for the oven to heat up), your dough will get really big. The texture will seem a little funny too, but don't worry it's still good. It's just all the baking powder working.

Recipe #2 Albondigas Soup

The second soup Aaron made for me was a recipe I copied 3 years ago. I do not remember where I got it. Albondigas soup is basically a mexican meatball soup. The recipe is below and i highly suggest everyone try it. It is amazing and makes a nice big pot. Also, it reheats really well and is just as good if not better the next day.

Albondigas Soup

1lb lean ground beef

1/2lb pork sausage (we used 1 lb accidentally)

1 onion, chopped

1 egg, beaten

1/2t salt

1/4t garlic powder

1/4c milk

1/4c fresh basil, chopped

1/2c corn meal

6-14oz cans beef broth (we used beef bullion to make the equivalent)

1-8oz jar salsa

1 onion, chopped

2-14.5oz canned peeled and diced tomatoes

1/2t basil

1/2t oregano

1/2t black pepper

1/2 white rice (not instant)

Mix together beef broth, salsa, 1 onion, tomatoes, dried basil, oregano, and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 mins.

Mix together the ground beef, sausage, onion, egg, salt, 1/2t pepper, garlic pepper, milk, fresh basil, and cornmeal. Mix well. Form into tiny bite-sized meatballs.

Add the meatballs and rice to the broth. Simmer covered very slowly for 1 1/2 hours.

Note: I would add the rice for the last 30 minutes instead of the entite 1 1/2 hours. Its was a little mushy for my taste.

This is great with corn bread, day old bread, and cheese quesadillas.

Recipe #1 Tomato Soup

Last week, Aaron made two wonderful soups. The first was a tomato soup. It was absolutely wonderful. I had asked Aaron to make tomato soup. I was planning on just pureeing a can of Italian diced tomatoes and heating that up. But Aaron found a recipe on line that was slightly more involved and a hundred times better.



So, here is the recipe as found online with our changes in the parentheses.

Creamy Tomato Soup
4c chopped tomatoes (2 cans diced tomatoes. We used one regular and one Italian)
1 sliced onion
4 whole cloves (minced garlic)
2c chicken broth
2T flour
2T butter
1t salt
2t white sugar

In a pot over medium heat, add tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the tomato mixture and put through a food mill. (We pureed it in the blender and then ran it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the chunks).
In the empty pot melt the butter. Add flour and mix until a light brown. Slowly add the tomato puree into the pot. Season with salt and sugar.

Enjoy!