Wall Hangings

So as I'm sure none of you know Lilly and I are about to move out of our apartment at the end of the month. Which means this blog will go on hiatus for a while. But as a final post for the time being I thought I'd document a few of the things on our wall that were super cheaply obtained that I really enjoy. The first is this fish, which is actually a plastic plate/serving platter. It's just so funny, and we got it at Savers, though it was probably just as cheap brand new. Below is a painting we got at a random second hand store that we are 99% sure is a paint by numbers. But it's so great. 

Both of these items live by our kitchen sink:

Above you may recognize those little red ornament cutouts (which are plastered in glitter) from my holiday post. I convinced Lilly to let me keep them up all year because I like them oh so much. They were gotten in the dollar bins at Target. Below is a small painting Lilly got at another random second hand place living above the moss terrarium! 

These two items live on a wall in an in between space in our apartment. The painting on the left we got at Savers and the mirror on the right Lilly got at a thrift shop, but it used to be blue and have a few stickers and what not on it. She cleaned it up and gave it a few coats of paint and now it's the delightful mirror we know today. Well, that's all for now, see you in some future unknown Tuesday!

Beans

Okay, let's talk about beans. And no, not about how they're the magical fruit, but about how the hell did I never really eat them until college?! They are just about the easiest, cheap, nutritious thing for simple meals (the number of times I've eaten beans and rice and in the last year is crazy, and I'm still not sick of it). Until very recently I had only ever bought beans in cans, but knew that I could make this already cheap food even cheaper if I started with a bag of dried beans. But for some reason I was intimidated by the cooking process of beans, which probably stems from my complete inability to cook rice on the stove top successfully (all hail my rice cooker and microwave). But as it turns out, way easier than rice.

The above picture are the dry kidney beans and chickpeas in jars, on top of some that have soaked in water all day while I went to work. And after I drained them they looked like so:

Then into new boiling water with a pinch of salt. I just stir and check on them periodically (ie: during commercial breaks) until they're done (I eat one occasionally near the end of the cooking process to figure that one out). Way easier than cooking rice on the stove. Then rice and beans for ever! (or hummus :) See you next Tuesday!

Curried Lentils

Lentils! Yay! Let me start by saying I loosely followed this recipe, and boy do I wish I had some sweet potatoes when I made it, not because it wasn't delicious without them, but it just looks and sounds like it would be oh so much better with them. But alas, we did not have any sweet potatoes in the apartment. Also I feel as though every non-sweet baking recipe I made starts with, let's cook up some onions in oil. And honestly, I don't have any problems with this situation!

Ginger. Garlic. If you've followed this blog even a little, you know that these also rank high on things I love using. Instead of the recommended spice amounts I just took a table spoon and filled it almost 3/4s of the way with curry powder, most of the rest with cinnamon, and a little bit of ground cumin. This seemed to work fine. I also forgot to add salt at any point in time. Oops. But I also figure that vegetable broth tends to have a high enough sodium content for this not to be a huge problem. Which really, it didn't turn out to be a problem.

I did not have, nor want, jalapeños. I'm just not that into spice. But we do have a bag full of little peppers in our fridge, so I chopped up four of those and threw them in the mix. No swiss chard for me (I'm not even that sure really what it is), like the salt I forgot black pepper, no cilantro (I wish! Lilly doesn't like it though), lime juice yes, zest no, bay leaf yeah sure we had that, no almonds or scallions (though I'd add them if you have 'em), and when it seemed to be a bit dry I added milk instead of more stalk, cause I'm just that kind of rebel. 

After covering it and letting it simmer for 25 minutes it was ready to eat. I threw it over rice and had a delightful lunch. Then I took a nap, but that's a different story. See you next Tuesday!

Peanut Sesame Noodles

There is almost nothing I love more in this world than noodles. I think I have already spoken to this subject before, but here is how I have been preparing my noodles lately, that's perfect for a summer lunch (though I suggest cooking them in the cool of the night, no one wants to boil water during the hot summer days :/ )

Sometimes I use Lo Mein. Sometimes I use Soba. Usually I use a mix of the two. 

While the water is boiling and the noodles are cooking I prepare the sauce in the microwave. First I chop up some ginger and put it in for 30 seconds. 

Then I chop up some garlic and onions and pop it in the microwave for another 30 seconds. 

Into the bowl goes sesame oil, thai peanut grill sauce, soy sauce, peanut butter and brown sugar.

 I microwave that for about a minute to a minute and a half, then stir it up. Once the noodles are done cooking and drained I mix them all together. Garnish with some variety of green onion. Now it's pretty good right then and there. It's even better the next day after it's been in the fridge if you eat it cold (though it gets a little less noodly this way, but I don't even care). Perfect summer lunch. Seriously. Pair it with an apple (side note: I eat a lot of apples). See you next Tuesday!

WIne Cocktail

This simple summer wine cocktail is born of a certain life experience. While I was studying abroad we realized that while the really cheap wine was way better than cheap wine in America ... it was still cheap wine that didn't taste top notch. The solution? Orange Fanta. When mixed with cheap wine, it made the wine a delight to swig down compared to before. So this drink here is an homage to those long spring nights of pre-gaming before wandering around and enjoying the Greek island life. Heck, throw a shot of brandy in this and I'll even let you call it sangria!

Step One: Start with a glass. (yes this is one of the ones I cut myself)

Step Two: Frozen berries.

Step Three: Wine.

Step Four: Orange soda. Sidenote: this Sanpellegrino blood orange soda is fantastic in general!

Bottoms up! and I'll see you next Tuesday!

Popsicles

So I don't know about where all you are, but here in New England we've had some fucking hot weeks this summer. Which has led to the perpetual making of popsicles in our freezer. We like to use Goya fruit nectars for a couple of reasons. A) One can is the exact correct amount to make our set of monster pops (though it comes up a little short with our other pop mold, but we just throw a little something random into that last pop). B) It's super cheap. 50 cents a can, which makes 4 popsicles cheap. And nothing is more delightful than a fruit ice pop on a hot summers day...well as far as eating goes I suppose. Enjoy these pictures of the adorable monster pops (and the clutter of our freezer) and I'll see you next Tuesday!

Rice Cooker Repair

I'm about to tell you a sad, tragic story. So don't say I didn't warn you. A few weeks ago I came home from work on a Sunday night, and I was tired, having gotten very little sleep the previous night due to my youthful partying, something I am no longer quite accustomed to. I decided upon finally getting home from work, I'd put some rice in my rice cooker and take a nap while it cooked. I awoke to a pool of water with rice in it. My rice cooker was broken. It no longer even turned on! (To which you may say, how did you not notice that when you turned it on, and the answer is that the previous time I had used it the light didn't turn on then either, but it had still worked, so it all seemed normal I guess). 

So I decided the most reasonable thing to do was to see if I could fix it, and according to the internet, this is a common problem with rice cookers and an easy enough fix. You see theres's a fuse inside which burns out it if gets too hot. So I ordered some new ones of approximately the same temperature rating and set about taking the old one out and putting the new on in. 

So one side is connected to the power cord, and had I been more prepared I would've gotten a new little cinch fastener, but I ended up just kind of wrapping them around each other and taping it. 

 The old one is on the right and the new on the left, this is after I switched which one the little fastener that you use to screw it in place was on.

Here's that wrapping around each other I was talking about before. All in all after I was done it did indeed work again. So this was a much cheaper option than getting a new one. And makes me feel good that I didn't send this one off to the landfill, when it basically was fine, just needed a tiny new part. Yay fixing things! See you next Tuesday!

Tortilla Chips

Lilly and I had a stack of corn tortillas that were very near the end of their life. We were also out of tortilla chips. So I decided the time had come to try making our own tortilla chips. Step 1: make a small stack of tortillas and cut them in quarters (or 6ths if you prefer).

Step 2: arranged on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Step 3: drizzle with oil and salt.

 Step 4: bake at 350*F until crisp, flipping them over half way through (at about 6
 minutes)

Step 5: enjoy!

See you next Tuesday!