First!

Greetings from H'burg!

We signed the new lease and it goes through May 2013, then we'll be headed back to the 'Noke to finish up wedding planning and then (Lord willin and the creek don't rise!) baby planning. 

Being that my fiance and I are college students (go Dukes!), money is scarce, so I'm always trying to find cheap recipes that I can make that will last quite a while. So, two days ago we made this delicious potato soup (with homemade croutons,yum!):

 It's yielded quite a few servings since it's lasted almost three days.

Garlic Croutons Recipe:

• Bread
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cube bread of choice. (I used one white bolillios roll from Walmart because there are only two of us. It made enough for four big servings!) Put cubed bread in zip-top bag.

Melt butter, add all the other ingredients. (I never really measure unless I'm baking or trying out a recipe for the first time. So add your ingredients at your own discretion. Also, though garlic powder is really good, I'd like to try real garlic next time. We were out though.)

Pour melted butter mixture over bread in the zip-top bag. Close the bag. DOUBLE CHECK to make sure bag is closed completely. Then shake, rattle and roll. Which reminds me:

Spread out the bread on a cookie sheet and pop in the oven for 10 minutes or until brown and golden.

In other news:
I started the dishwasher all by myself today. Jack and I moved in here a year ago this August and I've done everything in my power not to learn how to use it. Growing up, we didn't use a dishwasher. My sister and I were the dishwasher. At five years old, I couldn't reach the sink, so my parents pushed a chair up to the sink and said "There: Problem solved." We had a dishwasher, but I was too little to push it up to the sink, connect it, and make it run. My dad assumed we just never wanted to fool with it, so he got rid of it. Thanks Dad!  Then I hit those horribly shameful teenage years and learned that I could say "NO!" to my parents.

Anyway, since we moved in, if something needed washing, I just did it by hand. At first I just decided we would use the dishwasher for storage. So that's where I kept all my neat pots, pans, and serving dishes that I had collected over the year previous. Then school started and I just didn't have time (I probably did have time but if you include all the goofing off that I did in between studying I didn't "have time") to do the dishes by hand. My fiance took over kitchen duty and always did the loading and washing. Now that he's in school and working and I'm not in school and not working, I've started helping with the dishes and today I decided to experiment. I hope I did it correctly. From my livingroom, it sounds like it's doin it's thing.

I wouldn't want someone to go off thinking I don't do anything and my fiance does everything. Totally not true. Actually that's my biggest pet peeve right now. Friends have said to me "So are you going to find a job this Summer?" When I say no, they've answered with "So you're just going to cook and clean?" and I answer "Oh no, I'm a kept woman. I don't have to work."

 meme by Chewyness

It's really a shame that people think housewives don't do anything. Tell me we do nothing after you've done nine loads of laundry in an apartment size washer/dryer once a week (including picking up off the floor, sorting, loading, loading again, folding, and putting away.) Thank God clothes in the Spring and Summer are smaller and lighter. I keep this place clean and I make 2-3 meals a day. If I'm not cleaning, I'm cooking or taking the dog on her walk (and I goof off too.) Here she is by the way, our miniature pinscher Giggs (8lbs) and our giant cat Biz (12lbs):