How We Spent Our Monday

Boys will be boys. Shawn's friend Justin came to visit today and they did some recording, then they played a few rounds of Halo 3 while munching on candies before heading over to their other friend's apartment to hang out for a few hours.





I can honestly say this is the first time I've had the apartment to myself for such an extended amount of time since we've moved in; since Shawn is still looking for a job he's always home before and after I get back from work, so we don't spend much time apart. It might seem strange to other people, but we actually enjoy each others' company, and we can spend time together without getting on each others' nerves! But I must admit, it is nice to have the whole place to myself for a few hours. But only for a few hours. After a while, it just feels empty and strange, and I don't know what to do with myself. I baked off some chocolate chip cookies, but I have no one to share them with.

Speaking of cookies, it's about time I show you guys my little trick! Every time I make cookies, I always have extra dough left over that I ball up and save for another day. Our friend Christine works at a restaurant and gave us a handful of handy plastic take-out containers that we use for food storage; they are perfect for cookies and most other things. Saving extra cookie dough like this allows me to easily bake off just a few cookies at a time days later - for that same fresh baked cookie taste but without the fuss of having to make the dough from scratch.






I also made some more dog treats before baking off cookies. I've been tooling around with my recipes to see if I can make them even healthier, and this was a successful attempt! I have three different types of treats to offer right now: peanut butter treats, pumpkin treats, and carrot, corn & oat treats. I'm working on a molasses cookie for my next type of treat.





Having guests over is always a good excuse to clean/organize! We cleaned up the apartment this morning in preparation for Justin's arrival - I did the dishes while Shawn vacuumed, we put away out summer shoes and hung some things we'd been meaning to put up on the walls - everything looked so neat afterwards! We're definitely not messy people, but it's always nice to walk into a completely uncluttered space. Here's a peek at our bedroom!





After all that cleaning, I made myself some tasty pesto tomato penne pasta for lunch; no photos of that but I did get a shot of Shawn's italian sub. There's an awesome pizza shop about a five minute walk from our apartment; they make delicious pizzas, and even tastier subs. Fresh veggies on top every single time.






So that was our Monday! Now Shawn's back home and we're munching on munchos and cheese puffs and watching Dancing With the Stars, which I must admit is surprisingly entertaining. A nice relaxing evening after a rather busy day. I'm not sure what's in store for tomorrow, other than the huge load of laundry that needs to be done!

We Love Trader Joe's!

We've already praised Trader Joe's for their cream sodas and chocolate, but we love them so much we decided we needed to write a whole post about it.

Tribute to Trader Joe's

I was so happy to find out that the only ingredients in Trader Joe's brand peanut butter (only $1.79 for a 16oz jar!) are, well, just dry roasted peanuts - and nothing else! No added sugars or oils- even the name brand 'natural' peanut butters still have added sugars and oils, and they cost almost twice as much. Thank you, Trader Joe's, for keeping it natural and affordable.



When Shawn and I moved here from New Jersey we thought the prices everywhere were already a lot cheaper than what we were used to. We thought people were crazy when they said the local grocery stores were expensive! (eastern PA's Acme and Genuardi's equate to NJ's ShopRite and A&P - in terms of product and service...) But after a few months, we discovered Trader Joe's and everything was really put into perspective.

We had no set grocery store prior to Trader Joe's. We would go to Acme for bread, canned or frozen veggies and assorted toiletries, and we'd frequent the local farmer's market for fresh fruit, veggies, fish and meat, and we bought our milk and snacks from the local Wawa because that's where they were cheapest.

I really discovered Trader Joe's through work because I go there often for extra baking supplies. It was easy to ease in to the Trader Joe's mentality that way - the store is on the smaller side so once you become acquainted with the six or seven short aisles and the contents of their shelves, it's much easier to migrate the masses of customers that always seem to swarm to the exact item you're reaching for. Things are organized pretty logically and they have a small selection that's large enough to give you a choice but small enough not to overwhelm you, and they're constantly showcasing new products.

What really got me though, is their Fearless Flyer. The old-timey cartoons are hilarious, and the entire flyer is an amusing yet informative read. I love that they take the time to let you know what's going on on their end and what changes they may have made to certain products. It also can't go without saying that at every single Trader Joe's I have ever been to, the staff have always been incredibly friendly and helpful, and entertaining too! The atmosphere is so light, and compared to most other grocery stores around here, you feel like the staff actually wants to be there, and they enjoy having you there too.



You can't argue with quality product for good prices; let me give you the breakdown:

1lb heirloom tomatoes - $3.492lb bag of yellow onions - $1.793-bell pepper pack combo of red, yellow, orange - $3.791/2 a dozen english muffins - $1.492lb bag of tortilla chips - $3.4916oz chunky medium salsa - $2.2917oz chocolate bar - $4.99a little over 1lb natural ground beef - $5.041 1/2lb natural chicken breast - $5.841/2 gallon nonfat milk - $1.69 (10 cents cheaper than Wawa!)1lb unsalted butter - $2.99dozen large brown cage-free eggs - $2.49

Those are some of the things we buy on a fairly regular basis, so our total cost comes out to around $50 each trip, and we go about once a week or so. That seems like a lot of money to spend on groceries, but we mostly cook dinner at home and rarely eat out, so that's actually most of our food cost for the week. And we're walking home with a lot more tasty mostly natural goodness in our paper bags for $50 than we would anywhere else.



peanut flour - $3.49

Another thing I love is that Trader Joe's always a few interesting products you won't find at other supermarkets: this month, for example, they've been show casing pumpkin butter and these bags of peanut flour. I've passed it by a few times, curious, but not sure what I would do with it if I bought it. Then, the other day, tired of just passing it by I decided to buy a bag. It's vacuum sealed and I haven't opened it yet but if it's anything like almond flour I can use it for cookie recipes and the like. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do with peanut flour? Trader Joe's suggests coating meat or fish with it, or using it to thicken soup, or for baking purposes. I like all of those ideas!

Thank you for being awesome, Trader Joe's!!!

A Quick Update from Channel Shawn

A quick update on our animal friends!

Our apartment offers us a central view of the courtyard. 

From our living room window we can see most of what is going on in the courtyard. 

We also have a big bush OR a little tree that grows in front of our kitchen window,

 which is located at the back of our apartment.

We also have a better view of out back from our bedroom window. 

Soooo we've got all the basic angles covered for optimum entertainment.

 Much like our friend Mr. Surly Squirrel, we have other little critters that stop by and say hello.

The other day we were graced with a female Cardinal singing away in the bush/tree.

To be honest, it is very difficult to photograph animal life through a window. 

This is doubly so when there is a screen behind the window.

 So auto-focus is not your friend.

 THEN you have to fight trough tons of branches and leaves to be able to focus properly. 

With only several seconds to get a shot, you are VERY limited. 

You also don't want to make too much noise.

Otherwise you run the risk of scaring off your subject.

Our living room window also offers up good entertainment. 

We get a great view of the courtyard. 

In the courtyard you can witness the daily activities of not only your neighbors who aren't afraid to go outside, but also the the daily routines of all the little critters.

We have a variety of birds that stop by, like the cardinal,we have THE SQUIRRELS, 

and also the cousin to the squirrels - CHIPMUNKS!!

I was able to click off two not so blurry shots in my attempts to photograph this little guy. Chipmunks are very very quick. So the difficulty of focusing against the elements, as described above, is multiplied! Ahhh!

I had mere milliseconds to get the shot! 

The two non-blurriest shots even needed a bit of sharpening in photoshop. 

This is most likely due to the fact I had to use my zoom lens that isn't digital!  

At least I got something out of it!

Look how cute this little guy is! 

It looks as if he is praying to the sun!

"Thank you Mr. Sun for being so bright and warm after a cold night!"

Shortly after this shot, he sprang over the ivy and ran off.

 he was too fast for my shutter finger!

Busy Rainy Weekend

If you caught Shawn's post before this one, or if you live on the east coast, you're aware that it's been raining on and off here for the past week and a half, and the sun hasn't shown much of its face in days. Waking up to grey skies is a huge de-motivator for us, so we've been laying around all week. But this weekend we were tired of being tired.

My mom's birthday was on Sunday so I spent Saturday evening baking up a storm; I needed to make a dessert that would travel well and brave the rain and humidity, so I made pot de creme and chocolate brownies; I have no photos of either, but trust me when I say they were delicious. The pot de creme were insanely rich and so filling that two people could share one ramekin and both be completely satisfied. And my brother claims the brownies were the best I've ever made. You'll have to take his word for it!

Shawn's friend and bandmate Dan came to see our new digs for the first time and stayed to watch some football on Sunday too, so when I came back from my mom's birthday celebration I made the guys some cookies and later Shawn made us all some tasty pasta for dinner. There was lots of tasty food going around on Sunday!

It was gloomy again when we awoke later than usual on Monday morning, but just when we thought it'd be another blah-kinda day, motivation hit us and we decided to clean and re-organize the pantry and the kitchen cabinets!




The pantry before and after - it may not look like much of a change, but it's much better organized than it was. We have a lot of food storage containers - glass pyrex, plastic containers, and plastic restaurant takeout boxes; they're much more accessible now. I also keep and re-use peanut butter containers and jars, but use those much less often, so we moved them lower. All of my baking stuff gets its own shelf, and that's been organized over time as I collect boxes from work. Remember what our pantry looked like in our early days here? Much better now.






We've re-organized the cabinets several times since we moved in, but I think this was the first time we pulled everything out at once, scrubbed the shelves down, and put everything back in a more logical fashion. It was hard to tell where things should go when we didn't have our rhythm in the kitchen, but now that we've got our groove, it's clear to see where the plates are more accessible and where it makes more sense for the coffee mugs to be.






Shawn and I both really like this photo; it makes us wish we could rip the doors off the cabinets and display our wares proudly, but alas, we're merely renters here.





And today I made some more dog treats to give out as samples. I also took some fun photos of the treats to use for the etsy shop. At first I thought - 'photographing dog treats on plates? ridiculous' but my first set of photos of just the treats and nothing else turned out awful, so on second thought, photographing dog treats on plates isn't such a ridiculous concept. They look good enough to eat!

I also made some cinnamon roll muffins today; it seems to be the trend on Tastespotting lately so I wanted to try my hand at it. Unfortunately, the recipe I used this time around wasn't as good as the last recipe I found for cinnamon rolls. The muffins were tasty but they were nothing spectacular. I think I'll try making them again with the recipe I used last time (the one that caused such a ruckus on facebook). Then I'll show you how those turn out!

Peace, love, and cocoa puffs!

Give me your Nuts!

Marine and I live in an apartment that seems to also be inhabited by squirrels. Everyday we wake up and can look outside our bedroom window and our living room window and be entertained by these little ninjas of the trees. They run and chase after each other.They dig holes in the dirt and live a generally safe squirrel life. Without any natural predators and the lack of human intervention, the squirrels that live in the courtyard and out back have it safe and easy. I believe I  have mentioned our squirrel friends beforehand - the squirrels that dig in the neighbors flower pot and our little window visitor.


This squirrel, which we have named "Surly", has been visiting our kitchen window ever since we moved into our apartment. At first his visits happened every other week or so. It was always a nice treat to see Mr. Surly Squirrel early in the morning.

For the last two weeks, the east coast has been drenched with rain and gloomy weather. It rained last week and it seems like it has yet to stop with the added cloudy and gloomy days in between.

The local area experienced some heavy flooding, due to rain last Thursday into Friday and partially into Saturday. It has been raining for several days in a row now.

Saturday afternoon, the rain showers had subsided for the moment. This allowed the sun topoke its head out and grace us with a smile. This also gave all the little critters a chance to warm up and dry off. So logically, our good friend Mr. Surly used the perfect bush right outside of our kitchen window for a calm nice place to dry out.

Mr. Surly Squirrel has also put his little hand up to mine ( with the window closed ) in response to my attempt to "high-five" with glass between us. 


He seems to be a little camera shy though. Because every time I run to get my camera, he scurries off. 


Like in the picture to the left. Once he realized I was taking pictures of him, he skedaddled. 

Sunday it was also raining. My buddy Dan came down to watch some football. So, Marine decided to bake off what was left of the "inside-out peanut butter cups". The warmth of the oven not only warmed our home and hearts (and stomachs. Dan devoured the IOPBC's) but the oven also offered warmth to a squirrel.

a Mr. Surly Squirrel. 

As you can see in the picture below, our out-take fan sits right next to the oven. On the other side of that fan is a vent, which expels our excess heat from the oven.

Sunday, while watching one of the games,  Marine began to "Whisper Shout" for me  from the kitchen. However, my attention was occupied by the great american sport that is football. So naturally I took my time  to make my way to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, this is what transpired....

Marine- "Surly was just at the Window!"

Shawn - "You had a squirrel visitor?"

Marine - "Yes, but at first I just saw his fluffy tail out of the corner of my eye.

He then climbed up the screen to see if there was a way to get in."

Shawn - "So you could see his squirrel junk?"

After a bit of banter I went into the living room to get my camera. I came back to find Mr. Surly Squirrel just chilling right outside of the vent. Reaching out for it and sniffing the air around it. Below is a picture of Mr. Surly chilling in the bush, on the branch, directly outside our kitchen vent.

Thinking about it afterwards, in wasn't the warmth that had attracted Surly's attention  it was probably the smell of the fresh baked "inside-out peanut butter cups". The intoxicating aroma of baked peanuts was driving the squirrel nuts. He was looking for a way into our kitchen and steal our cookies. 

Monday, to our surprise, he came back to visit us again! While we were making coffee; he must have heard the grinder and came running. He climbed up the screen and looked directly at us as we were both in the kitchen.  

and again today (Tuesday) .....

This is an image of Mr. Surly cleaning his tail. He leaped to the branches seconds after.

He is plotting. Look at those eyes. 

He is testing the fence, seeing if there are any weaknesses.

And when he finds one...