Another Week, 6 More Seconds

I only have 6 more seconds recorded...because I left a day out this week. Hopefully I can stay on track this coming week.

December 5th: Homemade- I decided to make a crustless sausage quiche for dinner. I loved how it turned and I ended up eating on it all week. It is rare that I don't get tired of a food when I eat it leftover all week, but I didn't get tired of eating it leftover. I guess you can't go wrong with eggs, cheese, sausage, peppers, onion, and spices.

December 6th: To-do List- This time last week I had a looming to-do list. Being the last week of class I had several assignments due soon and a final coming up (it was actually today). I also had Friends- Christmas things to get ready/ presents to gather. So..I made a school to-do and a Christmas to-do. I can happily say since my final was today I am done with school work FOR THE YEAR! I do have more Christmas stuff to prepare but that's way more fun than school work!!

December 7th: Best part of the day- This was a difficult one for me. I enjoy mornings because they are calm. I am just waking up, usually drinking some coffee and enjoying breakfast. I can visit with Miss Cleo and then get ready for my day. I also enjoy evenings, when after a long day of classes, homework and work, I get to sit down and relax. Sometimes I still have more homework to do, but at least I get to take it easy for the rest of the night.

December 8th: Best part of winter- I love snow and that is probably my favorite part of winter. But since it didn't snow on the 8th, I recorded myself wearing warm clothes. I really enjoy wearing sweaters, scarves, headbands and cuddling up with warm blankets. This is one of my favorite parts of winter.

December 9th: Snack- I missed my snack...I didn't really like the prompt anyway...

December 10th: Home- I made a fresh cup of pour-over coffee on Saturday morning and I had it sitting on my sink, the steam was rising off of it. I wasn't even sure of the prompt for the day, but I decided to take a clip of my hot coffee, with the morning light coming in through the window behind the cup. I think this turned out to be an appropriate video for this prompt...I drink alot of coffee in my home and I have a coffee themed kitchen...so it worked out. As I mentioned to Granny Eyre when we celebrated our Christmas party on Saturday, home is also where your friends are. When I am around friends and family I am home.

December 11th: Breakfast- My breakfast on Saturday was leftover hash-brown casserole from the Christmas brunch on Saturday (made by Martha S.) and of course...coffee. Over breakfast I was also finishing up a large semester-long case report that was due today.

I hope you enjoyed my last 7 days! 

See you next week....13 days 'til Christmas!! 

The Farmer's Daughter

New

Settling In

Wow! Much has changed for me in the matter of a week. I began moving my things into the little apartment a little over one week ago. It is very different living on my own, but I am slowly adjusting. I've lived in this town before but this is such a different setting. I still have boxes to unpack and things to find a place for, but I am enjoying figuring everything out. I have been shopping for home wares and everyone knows I enjoy shopping for a deal! I have found some bargains I need..and some I could have lived without but couldn't resist. Shopping at the local thrift store I found a set of tea/coffee cups with saucers. They were all so colorful and cute, I couldn't pass them up! I'm not sure what I will use them for when I am not hosting a tea party. Very practical, right!? But, they are adorable. Just look at them!

Coffee & tea party, anyone?

This past Sunday my beau was able to come over and enjoy the day with me. We fixed dinner on the grill and it was great! We fixed "baked" potatoes, corn and steak all on the grill and we also had some fresh green beans. We purchased our ribeye steaks from the BC Farm Store because we thought it would be neat to try their beef. They weren't cheap and we weren't totally impressed. They seemed really chewy for ribeyes and I'm not sure if that was a reflection on their beef, our preparation or what. All the sides were great though!

Peach Dump Cake

Speaking of fixing food, I had Miss Ellaneous over for a lovely visit on Monday night and I fixed a peach dump cake (which I have actually been calling peach cobbler) for us to enjoy. We thought it turned out really well, so I thought I'd share the recipe. The original recipe can be found here, but I made some revisions to it, so I will just include the revised edition on here.

Ingredients: 

• 6-8 ripe peaches, sliced
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• 3 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 white cake mix
• 1 cup sliced almonds (or other nuts)
• 1/2 cut butter, melted
• vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• In a large bowl, mix peaches, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Spread peach mixture in prepared baking dish. Mixture will be very wet. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly on top of the batter. (Do not prepare cake batter.)
• If adding pecans, sprinkle them over the top of the dry cake mix. Pour melted butter evenly over the top of the cake mix. Bake 50 minutes. Let cool. Top with ice cream and caramel sauce as desired

Various stages of yum

Home

Yesterday I went back home to see a play with my mother and some neighbors she invited. It is The Stephen Foster Story and we have been to it multiple times, but it is a very beautiful production. I didn't want to rush off this morning, but I had to come back to mow my nearly knee-high backyard. My beau was able to help me with it this morning so I hurried back and we tackled it. It looks so much better, but I had to cut it on the highest length setting on the mower so it would cut it, so it'll probably need cut again next week.. It was a very slippery, difficult yard to cut, but I'm just glad to have this first cut behind me. I'll try to keep up with posts about life in the new city!

The Farmer's Daughter 

What I'm Thankful For

Well, although Thanksgiving has passed, I still want to share a few things I'm thankful for this holiday season.

1.) A wonderful M.D. I have had several not-so-good experiences with doctors in the past. In our for-profit healthcare system, it can be hard to find practitioners that work hard to make clients feel assurance with the care they receive. The M.D. I started seeing in October, Dr. Yin, has ensured that I feel confident in my health. He is thorough. He listens. And is kind too. I truly appreciate him.

2.) Good cookin' Being home for Thanksgiving, I ate and ate and ATE some more. Dressing, gravy, watergate salad, chocolate pie, Butterfinger trifle, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, Oreo trifle, banana pudding, ham, turkey, mac and cheese, millionaire pie, pistachio salad... the list goes on and on. I'm also thankful that I can cook decently because of some of the women who prepared the feasts this Thanksgiving. My grandmothers and great-grandmother taught me so much of what I know about cooking. I have also learned a few things from my mother-in-law over the last seven years.

3.) Our new home (and dryer!!) We've been in our townplex (we're always debating on whether it's a townhouse or duplex, so I've settled on this term) for a little over seven months now. The longer we're here, the more I like it. It's roomy enough to accommodate guests for parties and overnight stays. The utilities are CHEAPCHEAP for its size. Plus, we're slowly making it feel homey-er. And yes, we finally purchased a new dryer as the majority of our Christmas for one another. It should be delivered sometime next week and I am soooo EXCITED! No more drying racks. No more single loads per day. I'll be able to all our laundry on Saturday's if I want to. Woohoo!

4.) Online banking Gosh, if Lucas and I didn't have it, I don't hardly know what we'd do. We check our accounts religiously. It makes it soo much easier to keep up with spending. We still have to pay a few bills by check..... nightmare. Good example: Sent a check in the mail to pay my doctor bill over a week and a half ago. It still hasn't came out of our account. It's a pretty big bill and there's nothing we can do but wait and calculate that out every single time we need to know how much expendable money we have. Blargh. So for us this tech-driven feature is a godsend.

Since I have been sitting at the computer off and on for over two hours now... I'm going to stop here. Maybe I'll add to it again soon. Adios.