More updates!

Obviously, I forgot that I even had a blog.  Then yesterday, I decided "hey, it would be SO MUCH EASIER to do a photo collage-y thing to show the progress that Sam and I have made on our house over the past year (plus)."  I log in, and BAM, I'm redirected to a page with scantily clad ladies who would just LOVE to have my credit card number.  If I were to give them my info, I would be granted access to a peek into their "everyday life."  Yep.  My blog was redirecting to adult entertainment sites.  So, um sorry to anyone who checked this for whatever reason and saw that.  Thanks Google/Blogger for catching the malware in the HTML code for my layout, oh wait - they didn't.  

Anyways, onto updates.  Short version:  We still live in mumblemumble, Colorado.  I think that our town is the best town ever.  I still work where I work.  Sam is now an ordained minister (weddings and baptisms are half off!),  Hunter is still big, and just a month ago we proudly announced an addition to our unofficially hyphenated family (the lastname1-lastname2/lastname2-lastname1's); Lucy, an Australian Cattledog/Blue Heeler mix adopted from the local Humane Society.   

Long version with pictures:

When we purchased the house, it was pink.  With red bark, red yard brick, and a fuchsia/purple crabapple tree in the front.  The sprinkler system hadn't been used since I was probably in the first grade.  

Without further ado pictures (sequenced clockwise).

Not bad for folk who have only been in the house for a year and a half.  Our neighbors are ecstatic about the changes.  We've already been challenged to a "who has a prettier lawn"competition for next year.

grr.

Hacked.  Fuckers. 

Fixed!  YAY. 

Updates!

Things have been progressing nicely at the house.  We have shiny new gutters, discovered that the GFCI outlet for the garage is in the upstairs bathroom (not in the kitchen, right off the garage), and cut down some trees.  We're the worst Oregon hippies ever, but I'm pretty sure that getting rid of the fuchsia crab apple gives the house greater curb appeal, or something someone on HGTV would say.

Before

After

Pretty marked difference, I'd say.  Next up?  Getting rid of the pink.  The red beauty bark will be a project for next year.  Our next door neighbors gave us some info about native Colorado plants, so that'll be the big landscaping project for the next year.

I am proud to say that our garden is doing relatively well!  We had a pretty awesome raspberry harvest, and although we planted late, we're starting to get some other produce.

Gratuitous front yard rabbit picture thrown in for good measure.  Eventually I'll talk about the sous vide that Sam built, but for now, houses, gardens and rabbits.  You're all lucky I haven't thrown in a cat picture! 

Sorry for the weird formatting. I was trying to be fancy and play in HTML, but once again, the internets owned me.

Home Ownership is Fun!

"Fucking Tafoyas" is a common refrain heard in our home.  The previous homeowners had some, um, "creative" solutions to issues that they had in the house.  When we moved in, the dryer was in the basement, and the washer was one level up, so we hired an electrician to reroute the electrical for the dryer to the laundry room.  Then we discovered that the cabinetry above the fridge wasn't hung level, after the new shiny fridge was purchased, and in our kitchen (of course), which meant we  had to run out and buy a planer to shave inches off of the bottom of the cabinetry.  The latest fun?  Replacing all of the interior doors.  Not only were they pressed "wood grain" particleboard, but apparently someone in the previous owner's family had a bit of an anger issue - EVERY interior door in the house has a "punch" or a "kick" hole in it (please make punching and kicking motions as you read this.  I do).  The previous owner's solution wasn't to replace the doors - instead they purchased wood-grain contact paper to cover all the holes.  It's pretty hilarious actually, and what's even more hilarious is that we didn't notice the punches or kicks until I was working with the home inspector. 

I'm sure this goes without saying, but S and I don't really care for wood-grained doors with other wood-grained contact paper covering the holes.  We fancy ourselves pretty handy, so we've decided to replace all of the doors in our house ourselves.  Sounds easy right?  HA.  We thought we could just buy new doors, and use the existing frames - FAIL.  The door frames in the house aren't standard (maybe they were when the house was built), so we have to go the pre-hung door route, which involves tearing out the existing frame, putting a new one in, and shimming everything.  We've replaced 3 doors (out of 11), and we've got a system worked out.  I cut the shims (using my awesome dremel.  Best. Purchase. EVER), and hold the door when need be - S is best at shimming.  Then he hammers the shims into the frame (for stability), and I use my nail punch to drive the nail into the wood fully, so I can putty and paint over it at some point. 

The particular door that we did this weekend was awful.  To close it, you had to grab the handle and hold the door up to get it to close, because the holes the screws for the hinges were in had been stripped at some point in the past.  The Tafoya's solution? 3 INCH WOOD SCREWS.  GAH.  I have jokingly told S that we should make up a family crest and have "Fucking Tafoyas" as our family motto.

Anyways, on to a few pictures:

This is a listing picture.  If you look closely, you can see the contact paper covering a "kick"

Not the coat closet door, but this fully illustrates the awesomeness of the 80's door with kick-holes in it + wood patterned contact paper = success mantra that the previous owners followed.

 

The somewhat final product - missing the trim of course.  We'll start working on that once we get a nail gun (and we'll be gangsta like Snoop) The doorknob is oil-rubbed bronze, and the walls are Martha Stewart's Fawn.  I love our house.  Especially the stained glass piece above the closet, and my first stuffed animal ever, Eggbert.  He watches over everything.

Our entryway is nearly complete - I still think I want to find something to do with the area that has the coats hanging on the wall, and my china hutch will make everything nicer, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's all turned out.   

I was going to include a picture of the cat, but blogger's photo uploader thingy is sucking balls, so sorry, no Huntercat.

Sriracha-Honey Salad Dressing

Ready for more of my rambling?  

We had a wicked wind storm this past week.  It picked up the grill and blew it across the yard.  The next morning it snowed.  I kind of love the changes in weather here.  

The Seafood and Wine Fest in Newport, OR is this weekend.  It always used to drive me nuts that people called it the SWinefest.  Last time I checked it was centered around Wine and Seafood.  Not pork.

A bit ago, I asked S if he'd like to get Men's Health Magazine, you know, to counteract the cooking magazines that I have in the house (in my defense, I also get Vanity Fair and National Geographic).  S mentioned that there were recipes in the Men's Health, and I was a little skeptical - what recipe from a Men's magazine could be all that good?  

I'm eating my words on that thought.  We've tried a couple of recipes out of the magazine, and have loved both of them.  The one we tried last night was FANTASTIC.  Recipe follows.  Men's Health Magazine 2 - Z 0.

So, the recipe is for a seared steak salad with a Sriracha-honey dressing.  I used a lettuce blend (the ones in the plastic clamshells), used sliced red onions, fried chow mein noodles (from a failed recipe), diced roma tomatoes and avocados. 

Fun tip: if you slice the red onions a bit beforehand, and put them in a bowl of cold water to soak, it lessens the "raw onion" bite. 

Sriracha-Honey Dressing
adapted from Men's Health Magazine
 

2 tsp. honey

1.5 tsp. Sriracha sauce (more if you like it spicy, but be sure to taste before adding more)

0.75 tbs. low sodium soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime (~1 tbs.)

0.25 c. canola oil 

Dash ground pepper

• Whisk together honey, Sriracha sauce, lime juice and soy sauce.  Slowly whisk in canola oil.  Refrigerate for a bit to allow flavors to meld.

An Open Letter to Whatever

I made a fantastic chicken soup this weekend.  It was necessary, as the gentleman and I were under the weather.  (insert expletives about the stomach flu here).

Since we were both feeling cruddy (I luckily got the long end of the stick, and ended up with just aches and fevers, and let's just say I didn't get the flu as bad as my gentleman), we spent a bunch of time just being lazy asses.  I avoided watching cooking shows while S was watching, as the worst thing ever during the flu is not being able to eat what you want (I always want pizza), but when S went upstairs, I was drawn to the trainwreck known as the Pioneer Woman.  Here are my thoughts on that cluster of a cooking show:

• Smore.  one word.  not Sah-more. I'd be fine with S'more, but there's no freaking "ah" in the word.  
• Ree Drummond has a rabid following of "home cooks."  Her blog is full of picture of how to dice a freaking onion.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to explain liquid v. dry measuring cups, and why she was able to use dry measuring cups for liquids and not screw up her recipe (hint: if you fill a dry measuring cup to the brim it has the same volume as a liquid measuring cup, except, NOT REALLY.) USE A LIQUID MEASURING CUP.  hey y'all, I hear the prairie has those new-fangled glass cups, I think they're called Pyrex?  
• Hey, PW, how about you stop pretending to be a normal "ranch wife"? The sheer amount of Le Cruset, and designer drapery you wear every day doesn't mean you're "Just like everyone, y'all!"  
• My Marta's family is in the farming industry.  The women don't prance about in designer clothes and shirk away from getting dirty. (for the most part).  
• Learn how to make a fucking roux.  Sorry for the language, but if people consider her recipes as their bible, stop touting butter as the fix-all for every recipe. 
• She's just like us, y'all, except for the 6K in LeCruset and $500 mixer, oh, and that whole "place where I make my food" makeover the gal needs to come back down to her reader's level.  I fully expect Martha Stewart and Ina Garten to have fancy stuff - it's who they are, and they don't pretend to be anything else.  Ree Drummond?  She's "one of us, y'all" except that she writes shitty recipes that anyone with an inkling of how to cook can realize that they're shit. Does that mean I'm snobby?  No.  It means that I get offended by someone who pretends to be a "simple ranch wife" making difficult recipes that DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE. 
• Stop pretending that because you go to the Wal-Mart, you're on the level of the "normal folk" aka, the people who may have a Kitchen-Aid mixer, but surely don't have french enameled cast iron pots.  They have shit from the wal-mart, most likely paula deen brand.  
• The accent.  You can tell she's wealthy Oklahoma because of the lack of it.  4 years at USC (eating sushi and dating gay guys, y'all) doesn't erase 18 years of an accent.  

Other things that rile me:

• Jello cups with sticks in them. (I'm talking about YOU, ConAgra)
• The stomach flu.

 Anything sticking in your craw as of late? 

I tried sushi, and didn't hate it!

Here's my attempt at a wrap up.  

• Still sucking at using my cookbooks.  
• I feel like I'm in a cooking rut...again
• I go back to full-time next Wednesday.
• Hunter LOVES going outside. 
• We tried out a new-to-us place last week - it's a sushi/tapas bar.  For a self-professed sushi hater like me, this was awesome; but then I discovered that if you take the cucumber out of a spicy tuna roll, and substitute it with avocado, I don't hate sushi!  Sam is beside himself, as this means he get sushi much more often.  

That's all I've got.