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All Ice Cream is Not Created Equal

Courtesy sodahead.com

My awesome fiance brought home dessert last night. He does a great job when he goes grocery shopping when it comes to buying natural, but is sometimes a little unsure — I think mostly because his job keeps him so busy and I’m the one sitting on my tush doing the research and most of the buying. SO, when he showed up with two brands of ice cream, I couldn’t really complain, could I? 😉

One was mint chocolate chip, and it was all natural — by Breyer’s. I looked over the ingredients and was pretty pleased; aside from using raw local milk and making it myself, it did as well as it could. Plus, it was my favorite flavor and definitely won’t go uneaten (ie inedibly freezer-burned).

The second kind was one that we rely on quite a bit from Hannaford –Nature’s Place (a Hannaford specialty that often is slightly cheaper than other healthful alternatives; we also get their organic milk, among other items) chocolate and vanilla. Upon looking over the ingredient list, I noticed that one of the ingredients was corn syrup. Oye.

While it’s not as bad as high fructose corn syrup, seeing the term sends alarms off in my head. It’s still a corn-based product used for sweetening, but less “dangerous” — I’m still concerned that our intake of corn isn’t a “natural” amount, and after seeing Food, Inc., I’m wary. I prefer agave nectar or raw sugar for sweetening, but I’ll even take refined white sugar to corn syrups. It may be correct, it may not be, but it’s my level of comfort.

*** This post requested by above-mentioned fiance. Not the compliments about him, just the “surprise” about the ice cream. 🙂 ***

Our Cat is Greener Than We Are

While reading up on simple ways to go green in the ever-popular blogosphere, I read a short blurb from a Best Green Home Tips article stating:

“Got pets?: Let them go organic too. Many people forget their pets but currently there are many organic varieties of pet foods, green pet homes, and toys out there.”

It made me think…and furrow my brow…and do some counting (fingers were involved). Given our little guy’s daily life, around 90% of it is completely eco-friendly. Here’s the run-down:

– His very important food choices (which took us weeks to get down pat) are either all-natural, organic, or both. We use Science Diet Nature’s Best Adult Cat Food, Chicken & Brown Rice Dinner for his everyday crunchies (we were ecstatic when we found it while looking at the Science Diet lineup, where our vet had steered us — even moreso when we discovered he LOVES it). We throw the occasional wet food down for him, too — the only brand we try to use is By Nature’s Organics line (turkey & chicken flavors ONLY). We had an issue with anything containing fish meal, regardless of its organic status. So, this stuff is not only organic and fish meal-free, but he loves it. Bonus!

– His potty time is even eco-friendly. You’ve all seen the commercial — we’ve got “World’s Best Cat Litter”. While it isn’t completely smell-free (do you emit zero smell when YOU poop?), it is pretty darn convenient and less smelly than the usual stuff. We keep an old Cool Whip container near the pan so that, whenever he goes, we can scoop it and bring it to the human commode to flush. I usually wait until he’s gone a couple of times so that we’re flushing less (our water usage has decreased A LOT since we went “mellow”). It’s strange to be so happy flushing cat feces, knowing that clay mines aren’t being stripped just for my cat’s poop. Pretty cool shhhh….stuff.

– And Boo’s #1 favorite toy is a green one that I bought for under $4 at a recent vet visit. It’s only a long dowel with a jute rope and a cute mouse (remnant fabric) at the end. He tends to love anything that “hangs” for playtime — including Mommy’s hair.

But, Beardslee hasn’t been a 100% green kitty, I’m afraid. From day one, we had gone into panic mode since he was so sick, just wanted to give him an opportunity to go potty and eat — so, poor Dave went into Hannaford (and *gulp* later, Walmart) to stock up on goods. None of it was eco-friendly, much of it was cheap. So, the cat pan is plastic. Many of the toys we have (several as gifts) are plastic. The cat tower isn’t the DIY project that I’d envisioned using old carpet for. But, we’d rather USE ’em than fill a landfill with them and be unappreciative. 🙂

The “important stuff” that we have to buy regularly, though, is very green. Beardslee’s on his way to being greener than we are — and we’re so proud!

How to Be a Child

Lately, I’ve been itching for something more creative in my life. I do theater, but it’s on hiatus for the summer, and I’m feeling pretty durn anti-social. I’ve tried writing, and will continue to try it, but it’s not quenching my proverbial thirst. Although, I must say, GoogleDocs is our new best friend in the McCoy-Dellecese household — you can write from anywhere, share it with anyone (or no one), and you don’t need a server of your own.

The more I think about it, I’d like to delve into painting and drawing again. As children, when we were bored, our go-to activity was always drawing. The question we had back then holds true today — “Mom, what do I draw?” (delete the “Mom” part — and, no matter if it was my mother or grandfather, the answer was always “a barn”). Then, throughout childhood and adolescence, we turned to music and experienced less art — mostly because art classes were electives held during the same periods as band and chorus (and we were in both — “we” meaning my sister and brother; Bill was more of a band geek than a drama guy).

So, when I reached community college and needed some artistic electives, I decided to take drawing AND painting — all in the same semester, with the same teacher. There wasn’t a lot of direction, which I loved. Mostly inspiration. “Bowl of fruit, go.” I’d throw on my Walkman (how out-dated) and just paint…or draw. Always loved charcoal. And acrylics, but mostly for their clean-up factor (and color — there’s only so much life you can give to charcoal).

It’s not that I’m even very good. I’m not, really. But, how do we get good at things without trying?

So, while I have no idea WHAT I’ll paint (or draw), I’m going to get the drawing pads back out and purchase some new paint (I have found ZERO eco-friendly acrylic-style paints worth their price or even make-your-own paint recipes! Grr!!) — at least to possibly get some artwork in a couple of our bare rooms. And, if the mood strikes me, I’ll keep working on those just-started works on GoogleDocs. 😉

I think that simply the process of creating something forces you to let go of your self doubt and questioning and, in a way, become a child again. Kids don’t say “that sucked, I quit” (unless they’re O.C.D.); they don’t care if someone else likes it or not. And, of course, when you get better and make something that you can be proud about, your self esteem rises, and isn’t that just great? Kind of reminds me of how I feel when I make a successful recipe.

So, off to Michael’s and PetSmart (and, possibly, TJ Maxx) to keep life happy — a happy cat, some room decor inspiration, and trying to “practice” at something again.

Local, Organic Comfort Food

Sunday was a nice, quasi-typical Sunday for us. It was highly-relaxing (after an uber-busy work week, plus a garage sale thrown in for fun), we got some stuff completed, and while it was still humid, was kind of dreary. If it had been colder, it would have felt like an autumn day — which are our FAVORITE types of days. Dave’s a “drizzly” fan and I’m an autumn fan, which is why we’re risking a possibly rainy wedding day in October.

All Ice Cream is Not Created Equal - image on https://megactsout.com

From workman.com

Regardless, I was going through several of my new “real food” cookbooks and pondering what we had to cook. My decision came down to free-range chicken soup or chili — and the newly-popping jalapenos in my garden helped me to decide.

I used the cookbook Food to Live By by Myra Goodman. It’s an enjoyable book to simply read, given that the author is a mom who raises her kids on a working farm, so I figure “If she can do it, certainly I should be able to.” Here’s my version of her recipe:

“Foggy Day Chili”
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3/4 c. diced yellow onion (for me, it was 1/2 an onion)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1-1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef (mine was from a Herkimer farm)
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. dried oregano
several good sprinklings of cinnamon (my addition)
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, undrained
1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans, undrained
1 can (28 oz.) crushed or diced tomatoes, with their juices
1 tsp. salt, or more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Dried red pepper flakes (optional)
1 minced jalapeno pepper, seeds removed (depending on how hot you like it)
A handful or two of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (optional — I added them to my bowl since Dave could “taste chocolate” — if I hadn’t told him he had it in his bowl, he wouldn’t have noticed )

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until onion and garlif are soft, not browned, about 1 minute longer. Add the beef, and break up with a wooden spoon.

2. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the spices (except the red pepper flakes). Cook, stirring frequently, until the mean is cooked through; ~7 minutes.

3. Add the beans and tomatoes, with their liquids, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let the chili simmer, gently stirring occasionally until thickened and the flavors are concentrated, about 45 minutes. (If it’s not thickening to your liking, remove the cover to evaporate some liquid.

4. Add the salt and taste for further seasoning (including the pepper and red pepper flakes). Add minced jalapeno and chocolate (if using) and stir. Serve with cheddar cheese or sour cream, if wanted (we didn’t).

We ate the chili with a simple corn muffin that Dave prepared — his first ever. All we did was add Jiffy corn muffin mix with a handful (give or take) of thawed frozen corn and a diced jalapeno, baked off, and enjoyed with butter. It was the perfect pairing. Delish!

Seriously, this was a pretty easy meal to make. You should try it! It’s my new go-to chili recipe. Oh, and the onion and garlic were from the Herkimer Farmers’ Market, as I said, the beef was local and grass-fed (and the jalapeno was from my backyard), the beans were organic (one wasn’t, but I felt better because it was locally-made), as was the can of tomatoes; pretty much everything except the spices and chocolate were either locally-grown or organic. Not too shabby, I think. At least, it was absolutely delicious. I foresee it being dinner tonight, as well. 😉

*By the way, the picture is a royalty-free image from the Internet, not my stove top. I miss a gas stove, and only wish I had gorgeous pots like that, but I’m lucky to have what I do. 😉

Preserving the Bounty

I’ve been doing a lot of reading (and a little bit of buying) on canning and the preservation of fresh foods, particularly produce. I’ve got canning jars sitting in the back of my car — and was super excited to find that they more often are sold with cool silver lids these days rather than the outdated brassy ones! I guess design and aesthetics interest me more than I’d like to admit… 😉 Still, the idea of canning (especially when it entails the use of a pressure cooker — which I don’t have, and are generally pretty pricey…and, can they really explode like in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?!?!) was slightly intimidating.

So, how excited and serendipitous was it that my Nourished Kitchen newsletter today contained a Preserve The Harvest Challenge?! Pretty durn excited, I’ll tell ya.

The challenge is as follows:

In the month of August, we’re setting aside our pressure canners and we’ll be preserving the bounty of the summer season naturally while optimizing the nutrition of the foods we put up for winter. Over the course of 5 weeks we’ll cover sun-drying, oil curing, freezing, fermentation and salt-curing – traditional techniques that optimize nutrition and don’t heat up the kitchen like canning. Plus we’ll have some great prizes for participants! You’ll receive an email once a week covering a specific technique for traditional methods of preserving the harvest. So sign up, share it with a friend and hit up the farmers market! Who’ll preserve the most?

Last year, my family put up enough of summer’s bounty (without canning and its resultant nutrient loss) to last us until April! So let’s learn the lost art of traditional food preservation this August – filling our pantries, cellars and freezers with the rich fruits and vegetables of summer all prepared through time-honored techniques.

So, not only do I get classes on the different methods of preserving foods, I have an EXCUSE for shopping at the farmers’ market — actually, a guilt factor! Awesome!! 😉

I’ll let ya know how it goes. Oh, and I WILL do some canning. For now, we’re focusing on preparing for our annual garage sale, which will be this Friday and Saturday. Less than a month to go before summer school’s over! Lots goin’ on.

Organic Follow-Up

Back in May, Dave and I started to make some strides in our attempt to go organic in our eating. Here it is, almost 2 months later, so I thought I’d update ya on how it’s gone. You’re welcome. 😉

Anyhoo, for real, I think we’ve done pretty well. We’re eating several all-organic meals a week, at least one meatless dinner (at times lunches and breakfasts, too), and most of our other meals include some organic ingredients or from-the-garden goodies. As you saw in my last post our lettuce has been growing like nuts (or would it be…like weeds? Not sure how fast nuts grow…), so we’ve been using a lot of that, as well as our parsley, rosemary and basil. I’ve turned to shopping pretty much 90% at Hannaford, which isn’t always cost-effective, but it definitely helps me make better organic choices. However, I don’t want it to sound like it’s been expensive — I still grab the occasional “less dirty” foods from Aldi (and on sale at Hannaford), and we are incredibly conscientious about what we’re buying. It’s been, overall, wonderful.

We’ve been to several farmers markets, but honestly I’d LOVE to utilize them more. The summer’s just gotten away from me! I’m also doing more research on investing in a CSA for next year, especially for our local meats and poultry.

HOWEVER, what I’ve REALLY been doing a lot of research in is the rest of greendom — figuring out how to lessen our footprint, bulk up our health quotient, and get into the green habit for our future kiddies. So, while I feel like it’s a slow process, I’m truly enjoying learning new ways to live greener.

Some future goals? Oh, of course, you know I’ll share them — and get back to you when we haven’t accomplished them completely, hee hee:
– Future renovation projects will be green-minded: For example, low- or no-VOC stain when we refinish/have our floors refinished (and using natural fiber throw rugs when it’s done).
– Collect rainwater for garden watering.
– Think through the stuff we grow in the garden next year — and start canning for winter. (This Irish girl is GOING to grow potatoes. Stubborn? Yes.)
– Finish up replacing our windows — BUT finding creative ways to use the leftover window frames. I’ve got ideas a-flowin’! Can’t wait.
– Antiquing, antiquing, antiquing. Oh, and Salvation Army & Craigslist searching. 😀
– Buying eco-friendly cleaning products or making our own.
– Purchasing sustainable clothes — and other fabrics.
– I’ve gotta learn how to eco-design.
– Buying a hybrid after one of our cars kick the bucket.
– Hand-wash more often
– Soooo many more…

What are we already doing?
– From Day One here at the Crooked House, Dave used energy efficient lightbulbs. Check!
– We’re using more eco-friendly bath supplies, a low-flow toilet and showerhead, and are going to get into the habit of flushing less (don’t make me explain further — just #1, though). Check!
– Saving up for Energy Star appliances, when it’s time to replace what we’ve got now. Oh, and before that day comes, we only wash a full load — and I’m trying to use the clothesline as much as possible.
– While it’s gotten a little water-logged lately, I’m hoping to amend my compost pile to be used in next year’s planting. Check!
– Boy, do we have a lot of hand-me-downs, whether we like ’em or not. Check!
– Water filter + stainless steel water bottles = Check!
– Growing our own salads (among other things)! Check!

Hey. BTW. “B” (as I call him, along with Boo) eats organic — and he LOVES it. When we gave him the new organic crunchies, he turned his nose up at the old wet stuff — which was organic, too. Let’s hope the kids follow suit! 🙂

Inspiration to Plant

Last weekend, Dave and I went to our good friends’, Breelynd and Brandon, house for a surprise-ish birthday party for Bree. While we had a blast eating incredible food, enjoying a local keg, and sucking at a very fun lawn game (what was it, German?), what I left excited about (other than how we somehow are ALWAYS excited and chatty after leaving Bree and Brandon — everyone should have friends like that in their lives) was the inspiration I gleaned from Bree’s extraordinary landscaping.

I didn’t take any pictures, since I thought it might be creepy and more than weird to be snapping shots of her, um, plants, in the midst of such a cool shindig. However, I will show you some of the goodies I was stirred into buying.

Until this point in my life, I have intermittent experience with flowers. As a child, my mother always encouraged us to help her with weeding and planting, so many of the flowers and plants that she bought hold a solid, unwavering place in my heart. I see them and I’m brought back to simplicity and fun and love; it’s wonderful. So, several of these plants elicit similar feelings. As I grew older, I became selfish with my time and my thoughts and wouldn’t consider such things as plants; college, bills, friends, love, jobs all came first. But, now I have Dave, who makes me feel as secure as, somehow, the plants do, and a house that may need a lot more time and energy but that we love, and it deserves some landscaping that shows we love it. And let it be known that I know very little about the plants themselves, beyond the simple task of actually digging and covering and watering.

In a weird way, some of the plants accomplish giving me that wonderful feeling along with a somber clouded feeling. While I love the Silver Mound Artemisia that I recall my grandmother lovingly tending and my young feet always wanting to gently graze, it also reminds me of her last days as, essentially, a shut-in within a sterile assisted living facility, unable to tend a garden or even go to the bathroom on her own. It reminds me that she’s gone, and it hurts. Planting it seemed like saying a prayer, although I’m not a “prayer person” – or perhaps more like acknowledging that I still think of her daily and carry her lessons (and, at times, her attitude and stubbornness) with me.

It looks spiky, but I SWEAR it’s soooo soft!

Similarly, the Dusty Miller brings me great joy paired with serious sadness. Mom used them a lot at the house and, while it’s never been said, I assume they were one of Dad’s favorites. It could have been just a budget that we had or the fact that Mom liked them, but we always used the extras, along with a few geraniums to brighten up his headstone. To see them alive is like seeing his spirit, which I don’t remember much at all, still well and alive around us.

Then there are just the fun ones that were either inspired by Bree’s gardens and foundation plantings and even her hanging planters, or by the heirloom gardens that I see at the Cooperstown Farmers Museum or other living history locales (Gen. Herkimer Home, Upper Canada Village, Orchard House, etc). The romantic timelessness leaves you feeling relaxed and ready to create. Anything. It’s like stepping into Jane Austen or Louisa May Alcott’s timeless shoes.

Oh, and we can’t forget the front of the house! Our house is north-facing, so with the addition of a huge old tree right in front of it, it’s hard to grow much around the foundation. When we first arrived, I added a hydrangea plant (‘cuz I loves ’em!) on the opposite side of the tree so that it gets sun, a partial shade bush, and a few chicks-and-hens that my mother gave me. Otherwise, we’ve got a hosta trio which doesn’t work since the East side gets some sun…aaaaand that’s about it. They look like “Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear.”

So, hopefully it works — I transplanted the baby and the mama together to appear to be one larger plant (still not as huge as the papa, but it’s better) with three fern plants in between. When they grow more, it should create a much more pleasing ground cover. I’m excited to see what next year brings!

The east side of the house gets some good morning sun, but a little shade from the porch. Last year, I just threw a few annuals there. THIS time, I decided to FINALLY put in a boxwood bush along with a few dramatic friends.

Mind you, I haven’t finished buying (I know, it’s already July, I’m behind) — I still have some potted planting that I’d like to do. But, for now, I can feel better about some of my surroundings. My goal for next year is to continue this trend, including some more old-fashioned type plants (thinkin’ phlox) to our side of the garage and more planter groupings on/near the porch.

And, while we’re at it, I thought I’d give an update on our garden and my beautiful rose plant. As you can see, the left side of the garden gets the most sun, and clearly the tomatoes are taking over. I staked them not too long ago (they had already gotten naughtily overgrown, or else I’d have used trellises or cages) so that the lettuces could keep going strong. By the way, we haven’t bought bagged lettuce in a couple of weeks, they’ve been doing that well! (We eat salad with pretty much every dinner, so that’s saying something.) The romaine is perfect and incredible, and the mesculin mix is delish! Obviously, the basil has been flowering and I haven’t done a good enough job to keep it short and squat with large leaves, but we’re using it and its taste hasn’t been changed — gotta work on those better next year.

Oh! Here’s a cheesecake shot of some gorgeous bulbous growths (that sounds disgusting) that our pepper and tomato plants are showing. Awesome! I’m just glad we’ve grown ANYTHING since our neighbor insisted that her three attempts failed. 🙂 Whew!

Here’s my yellow rose plant, which I didn’t think would do much of anything this year — but, as you can see, it bloomed! (Actually, we’ve seen a few blooms — this was quite a hot day, so it’s a little wilted, but happy nonetheless.)

Basement Inspiration

So, I need to make a confession. I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE Polyvore. It may not be a perfect program, but it’s fun, free and helps me to make mood boards that I can actually utilize when looking for projects around the house. I can’t redecorate in one fell swoop (Reasons? #1: money, #2: time. Duh. ;-)) but this gives me inspiration, and the time lapse gives me flexibility. If I find something on the cheap at TJ Maxx or the Christmas Tree Shop out and about that comes close to what I’ve created, well great! I prefer it that way! Plus, I get to be a little creative, so it’s win-win.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a HUGE fan of Young House Love, which is a blog about design and home improvement, among other things. They’re one of the main reasons I thought to start a blog, myself. So, I think I’ll take a mini-vacation from my usual posts and share with you my latest mood board — for our basement, which we’re working on cleaning out and, throughout the summer, waterproofing, painting, and organizing (yet again). We’ve got some additional projects in mind, like adding a 1/2-full bath and creating unified storage areas, but we’re not sure if those will all happen this summer…remember, we’re also planning a wedding. 😉

So, with no further ado…

There are actually three spaces listed: the Living Space, the Laundry Area, and the Possible Bath. These areas are separate; there will be unfinished basement space separating them (it’s a pretty good-sized basement). Since I know we’ll be using a tan paint (either colored Drylok or a paint over the Drylok-ed areas) on most of the foundation walls , I wanted to come up with color schemes that would work with it. Here are some of my ideas:

The Living Space:
-See that curtain on the upper left? I’m thinking of using outdoor curtains on one of the walls to add textural interest and a little bit of insulation. I did research and got the inspiration from this picture; somehow I always feel like I can do something after I’ve heard that others have done it and didn’t have issues. Needless to say, I’m pretty nervous about decorating in a basement — I’ve seen floods and all the damage they can do, but our house is so small we HAVE to make it usable space.
– The color scheme I chose for this room includes beiges and tans as well as greens, turquoise and darker brown. This room will be the most finished (probably including flooring, which may or may not be a chocolately faux wood laminate). When we eventually invest in a new living room set, we’ll be putting our coffee table, couch and chair in this space — so it’ll have lots goin’ on. We already have an extra entertainment center (along with TV — moving 2 apartments into one house does that to ya) for the space, too.

The Laundry Area:
– The black-and-white flooring is actually leftover from our kitchen flooring project last year. If we have enough to make it look good, it’ll also be in the bathroom. So, as with our kitchen, I LOVE a light turquoise (almost Tiffany’s blue) accent, so I’d like to paint out the cement walls in this area bright blue. To tie in with the living room, some pops of lime green will help modernize the space, too. (Baskets, waste basket…any other items I can pick up.)
– To continue the curtain theme, I’m planning on running an industrial steel wire line from the two outside walls of the space and hang grommeted curtains so that we can close off the space or create an “entryway” (a bit of a continued inspiration from the picture).
– Yeah. We don’t have a HE front loading washer/dryer yet…we’re keeping an eye out for sales and “out of box” choices. We’re lucky enough to have a F-R-E-E set right now, but our eventual goal is all-new appliances, upstairs and down. *crosses fingers*

The Bathroom
– As I mentioned, the floor will be checkered. If it’s a half bath, it’ll just have the sink and potty (yes, I call it a potty), so the turquoise towels would be pretty irrelevant. Keeping the whole space a bright tan; crisp, clean white; and sharply contrasting black (check out that fluffy black throw rug! I bought one for my mom’s updated bathroom and she loves it) would be enough. Throwing in a pop of turquoise would be easier with the shower, if it happens. I’m fine if it doesn’t; just having an extra place to *ahem* use would be awesome, especially when kids, one day, will be using the basement to play and have sleepovers.

So, as things get underway, I’ll be updating with photos of the progress. As with most things, I assume this will probably take longer than we expect it to — most projects have been broken up into parts, each of which will make its own timeline. Plus, with a cat who loooooves to look around the basement area (especially when the rest of the house isn’t necessarily cool) and will do anything to be where we are, it should be pretty interesting. 🙂

Look, We’re Normal!

We all have excuses for lots of things. Heck, I put off calling to get a copy of my baptismal record for the wedding — like, consciously delayed it. For awhile I had “too busy” excuses, but those turned into a fearful laziness. I think the more you put something off, the less you want to do it. But, this morning, I finally called and felt the weight lift, especially with how easy it was. Were the excuses worth it? Now that it’s done, it doesn’t much matter.

But what about the excuses we use regularly? Our excuses yesterday were pretty darn good. One, my sister and BIL were coming over for a quick visit (unexpected but always welcome). Two, we had been doing lots of labor-intensive yard work throughout the morning and early afternoon, and were EXHAUSTED. Third, and most importantly, the cat had been sick all weekend — new meds. Remember, he’s had a rough start with us, and while he’s not at 100% he’s way better than when we found him.

So, what horrible thing did we do, having such great excuses in our back pockets? *gulp* I sent Dave out to get KFC. Yes, I know how horrible that is for us. Yes, I know how horribly they treat the chickens. Yes, I consider KFC the devil. Yes, yes, yes. But, we had a great coupon and, in all honesty, it was a moment of weakness — literally! (Mind you…we had a huge haul at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market the day before — we’re evil.)

I mentioned the guilt factor to Dave, who very easily brushed it off, saying, “Yes, we shop at farmers’ markets, buy organic when we can, and do our best with all the green stuff. But, it doesn’t mean I can’t jump off the wagon for the sake of convenience once in awhile. And, we don’t do it much.” His ease in letting the words flow off his tongue made me feel a hell of a lot better — and let me enjoy the disgustingly fatty chicken, #1 mac ‘n cheese, and buttery biscuits easier.

I’ve noticed that, since I don’t eat junk food as much (the junk I do eat is organic — pita chips, organic Pop-Tarts — I consider myself a stage 2 or 3 on the “how healthy are you?” scale), when I DO, I’m more conscious about it. It’s less of a “I’m gonna gain weight” thing and more of a “I’m not proud of myself. This is disgusting. This isn’t the wonderful stuff I’ve been giving myself.”

Guilt is a human reaction that’s just a stone’s throw from joy. Generally, when feeling guilt, you’re enjoying something that you probably shouldn’t be. We all do it — some guilt is for really bad things, some isn’t a huge deal, but what one person thinks is huge may be nothing to the next, and so on. So, in this case, we’re moving on. Some day, maybe I’ll be so super-human that our future kids won’t be allowed to have McDonald’s , and our house will be impeccable. You can hope for wonderful things, but in the end, we’re all just human. I’m not in this thing to be perfect.

Free Shopping

One of my favorite things about the Internet is guilt-free window shopping. It’s helped with my wedding (although, with so many options out there, it’s made decision-making harder) and to check reviews before making a big purchase. It helped get me through the terrifying wait a year ago while buying our house; it was a foreclosure, and there were lots of delays — so, Lowes.com was a great calmer and made me feel productive, strangely enough. And, we’re still being “lurkers” in terms of the Foodshed Buying Club; none of our necessities have come up yet.

But, on days that I allow myself to be lazier than I’d like to admit, I let my browsing fingers tap the less practical side of my brain and look into the prices of dreams, ultimately researching possible nothings or hopeful somethings. That sounds confusing, so let me elaborate — mind you, these are things that many of our friends aren’t even aware that we discuss.

1. I found some web sites today that got me pretty excited about a prospect Dave and I have discussed numerous times. Dave has always complained that we don’t have a good cafe in our area. You have to drive to Domenico’s in Utica for a decent place to get creative, meet friends or…dare I say…enjoy a good coffee or cappuccino. We have one small joint in Little Falls that could possibly be considered hippie enough to fit this, but considering that Herkimer is a larger town, it’s downright disappointing. There are 2 Dunkin’ Donuts stores a stone’s throw (seriously — one at Walmart, another 1 1/2 blocks away) and a Stewart’s every other town or so — but both places feel franchisey and sterile (when actually clean) and just…not like a “cafe.” So, we’ve considered it as a career/retirement project later in life — or whenever a cheap property rears its head. We both have coffee experience (my own being a few years at said Stewart’s shop) and good customer service knowledge…aaaaand not much more than that! I’d like to do some baking to sell with coffee early in the morning and come up with panini recipes for later in the day, and would prefer keeping the place as green as possible — check out THESE cups and things — but still have refined sugar and “normal” options for our less conscientious clientele. But…again…this is all just a dream, so it may never happen — but wouldn’t it be neat?!

2. If the second dream were to happen, the first one definitely couldn’t (at least, not in Herkimer). I use homes.com to search for homes in other areas that are more eco-friendly and less economically depressed (hopefully with more opportunities for us and the “future kids”). I’ve looked throughout New England, “shopped” for jobs in London…hell, I’ve looked everywhere. And, clearly, nothing much comes from it, but somehow it makes me feel better about the future and where we might be going with it.

3. Speaking of “future kids” — yeah, I’ve done free shopping for them, too. More just getting ideas as to whether it’s worth it to be so eco-friendly to give up disposable diapers, and learning about the cost of things. No big whoop. But, it’s still dreaming since we’re not even hitched yet.

Luckily, my guy and I get to do some REAL shopping tomorrow — which may be dangerous since I just got a chunk from my “end of year” check. And this ain’t just ANY shopping! We’re re-visiting the Cooperstown Farmer Market tomorrow morning, this time with cash in our pockets, a cooler in the car and an un-stocked fridge — meaning we can actually BUY AND USE what we get, rather than the last time we went (I’d done some grocery shopping that week…blah). CAN’T WAIT!!!