Julie & Julia

My husband is doing his programming homework.  So I watched Julie & Julia.  I love that movie.

If you are familiar with the story line, Julie Powell has decided to take Julia's book and accomplish all of her recipes in exactly 365 days.  It is not an easy task, but she is dedicated, and accomplishes the impossible.

Now, I don't think I could ever commit myself to such a task.  First of all, I could see the pounds coming on quite fast.  (Especially since every recipe tends to feature butter, butter, and more butter!)  Second of all, I don't think my wallet (or Ryan's!) could afford that kind of exquisite cooking day in and day out.  Third of all, I'm not that determined.

But, I do want to become better at cooking.  In fact, I did try something new this week.  I cooked with pork for the first time ever.  I didn't even need to call my mom.  (A simple feat that I am quite proud of!)  It turned out delicious.  I need to become more brave and adventuresome with cooking.  We have had too many meals of soups and sandwiches and spaghetti.  My poor husband. 

So I'm off to become a better cook.  Not quite like Julia Childs, but better, nonetheless!

Bon appétit! :)

I may or may not have added this book onto my wish list after watching Julie & Julia.

I'm a prisoner here.

Saturday Night

Happy Saturday!

Do you ever feel like you've wasted your Saturday? I sure do.  Sure, I was productive at times...but for the most of it?  Pure laziness.

I need a hobby.  A real hobby.  Something I can do at home that will entertain me for hours, if I so choose.  But see, the problem is I get bored easily.  Oh, and frustrated.  I've tried sewing...but I only get frustrated if things go wrong, or it takes too long.  I get bored of drawing.  Or reading.  Or writing.  And the list continues.

The internet is NOT my hobby.  Well, truth be told, that is where I spend my time when I'm bored.  I surf blogs, pinterest, and Facebook. I could probably do it all day long, just wasting my time.  That's the problem...at the end of surfing pages and pages of nothing, I find that I've accomplished just that: nothing.  I feel as if my brain has been sucked out and replaced with fluff.

I need a real hobby.  I also need to spend less time on the internet.  I hate that I have wasted so much time today whether it be on the internet, sleeping, or doing absolutely nothing.  Help?

Pins That Work

Today I am letting you in on my Pinterest undertakings.  On my Clean House, Happy Heart board, I have managed to implement a few pins and to much surprise, have found great success in doing so!  Check it out:

Vanilla Pin

Claim: Put two TBS of vanilla extract in an oven-safe cup/bowl, then place it in the oven at 300 degrees for one hour. Within twenty minutes the whole house smells like Heaven. It's actually a common realtor trick.

Result: My apartment smelled FABULOUS!  It smelled like fresh baked cookies all throughout the apartment.  The down side: The smell quickly faded after it was taken out of the oven.  I would have loved the smell to linger a bit more.

Newspaper Pin

Claim: Ball up Newspaper and stuff into refrigerator when it SMELLS BAD. Change out papers every 2 hours until smell is gone! (A plumber recommended this to us when we returned from vacation to find a basket of rotted spinach!!! IT WORKS and worked after 3 changes - we had already tried everything else!)...wonder if it would work in a microwave where someone burnt the popcorn?

Result:  Worked like a charm after ONE try!  However, I only tried this for the microwave.  You know that nasty smell that builds up in the microwave? Yup.  This solved that problem.  I will forever be using this trick.  I have yet to try it for the fridge though, since we haven't had problems yet, though I imagine it works great.  No down side.

Shower head cleaner

Claim: 1/3 cup baking soda -1 cup white vinegar -1 plastic bag -1 large bag twisty tie Let sit several hours or overnight.

Result: Amazing!! Our shower head was completely blocked and water was coming out of it irregularly. After an overnight treatment of this, it flowed nicely and opened up holes that hadn't been used in a loooong time.  Highly recommended.  No down side.

There you have it!! I tried it, faced success, and now encourage you to do the same!  Don't you just love Pinterest?  I'm addicted.