Settling in

8th August 2007

We’ve been settling in to our new house here in sunny Florida, after *insert long story* finally getting all of our things from South Carolina. We’re mostly unpacked, and we have been using our new pots for some yummy home-cooked dinners.

The first night we were here, we went to Wal-Mart and got cereal, which we ate for dinner on our living room floor. The first full day though, I worked hard to get the kitchen stuff unpacked, washed, and put away, and I made some very tender baked chicken and fresh green beans. The husband remarked, “It’s so nice that after only 2 days here, we can have a real dinner out of our kitchen.” It sure is, babe.

We’ve also made hamburgers and chicken and dumplings (so good). Tonight, I made a variation on a pasta dish I watched Rachael Ray make on her show. The “sauce” is basically made of cooked, mashed cauliflower; garlic; and sauteed onions and garlic… all boiled down in chicken broth and some starchy pasta water. Toss the pasta in it, then top with steamed carrots and zucchini and some cheese.

So the kitchen is up and running.

I still need a table to use for crafts and sewing, before I can start working on any more aprons. I’m trying to find one on freecycle or craigslist before jumping into buying a new one. We just bought a new computer desk and a ton of little stuff, and it adds up pretty quickly.

Let me tell you though… Dyson Animal? Totally worth it. Vacuuming is so disgusting now because you can see all the crap that this thing sucks out. It’s sort of like those Biore strips for your nose, where you can see all the nasty stuff that came out of your pores, and it’s revolting, but you just. can’t. stop. staring.

I’m gonna go spend time with my husband now! We missed our after-dinner walk tonight because we had a pretty late dinner and it was dark when we finished.

I’m going to try to get back on the Joyful Abode posting routine. Encourage me by telling me how much you missed me, kay?! And tell a friend about Joyful Abode!

And pssst… new aprons up soon (I took pictures of them yesterday).

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Day-to-day, Food, Cleaning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On August 8th, 2007, Wendy said:

I totally missed you!!! Glad you’re settling happily into your new home though! Enjoy your hubby, but still post lots!!

posted on August 8th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

2 On August 8th, 2007, whitedove1 said:

DYSON
I love my animal.
There can be only ONE
and Dyson is it.

posted on August 8th, 2007 at 10:26 pm

3 On August 9th, 2007, admin said:

Thanks Wendy. I’m going to try!
Dovey, I KNOW. *sigh*

posted on August 9th, 2007 at 5:05 am

4 On August 9th, 2007, Rebecca said:

I can across your blog randomly and I saw you baked chicken. I’m a TERRIBLE cook. I knew very few things. Anyway. I’m pregnant and gaining weight too quickly here at the end. I’m bad at chicken but most of my meals call for baked chicken. Can you help? Give some guidance?

posted on August 9th, 2007 at 7:01 am

5 On August 9th, 2007, YaYaNaNa said:

I’m so glad to here that you and everything finally got to Florida. And that you are having FUN.

posted on August 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

6 On August 9th, 2007, admin said:

Rebecca, if you’re really freaked out at the concept of baking chicken right now, a quick fix would be to get a pre-cooked (like rotisserie) chicken from your grocery store and use that as the meat.

What sort of recipes are they? The chicken and dumplings recipe called for cooked chicken, so I threw some chicken tenderloins into a nonstick pan on medium heat with nothing else and just cooked them all the way through before throwing them in the pot with the other ingredients. Super-easy to do.

Thanks YaYaNaNa