I Get Really Domestic on the Weekends

This weekend has been QUITE the success.

Here's the run down.


Friday
CRAZY insane day at work. Especially the last half hour. We had all of the really tough kids left, my room wasn't cleaned yet - none of the rooms were clean yet. I go to clean my room I hear the other two teachers screaming to me from down the hallway... toilet is overflowing EVERYWHERE. Apparently I was the only one who knew how to shut the toilet off. Plus the plunger was in my room. So I took care of that, cleaned my room, and THEN had to clean up the massive flood in the other room. But before we could do that we had to remove a MASSIVE spider. Ugh. Half an hour after closing, we finally got out of there. Quick trip to the store for yarn supplies and finally home.
We made a trip to Trader Joe's the night before, so I was really craving the Chicken Shu Mai that we sampled and then bought. I decided that fried rice would be just the thing to go with it. Having never made fried rice before, it was going to be quite an adventure. But it was SO FREAKING GOOD. And I will share my recipe.

How to Make Fried Rice - Ashes Style

Ingredients
- White rice
- Green onions
- Bean sprouts
- Oil
- 2 eggs
- Soy sauce
- Marmite or Vegemite




* Cook or have six cups of rice. I made it up because I didn't have any on hand, but apparently leftover rice is also good.
* Chop up some green onions. Set aside.
* Lightly beat 2 eggs with some salt and pepper. Set aside.
* Heat up a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of oil. Once it's hot, add the eggs. Scramble 'em up. Don't overcook. Take them out and set them aside.
* Clean out your pan, and then put 2 tablespoons of oil in again. Add the rice. Stir fry it for a bit.
* Add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce. I didn't measure it. I just splashed it in until it was a color I liked.
* Add a little yeast extract, such as Vegemite or Marmite. (I used Marmite. We ran out of Vegemite and can only buy Marmite locally.) Again, I didn't measure. I was stirring with chop sticks, so I just dipped my sticks in and grabbed a little blob. Stir stir stir.
* Add the eggs back in. Add the green onions. Add some bean sprouts.
* EAT


Saturday

Oh yeah, baby. I found some Tim Tams! FINALLY. FINALLY!!!!
Danny and I had crazy plans to walk the rail trail from Easthampton to Northampton (about 7 miles) in 40 degree weather. I decided that I was going to do this, I needed a fleece vest. So we went to Old Navy, and since I'm a glutton for punishment, decided to make yet another stop to Target to hunt for the elusive Tim Tams. I wasn't getting my hopes up. Even though Target's website said they were in stock - they day I checked online, I also checked in stores and it said they were in stock and they definitely were not. So I checked the dollar racks for stickers for my preschoolers and Danny went to look for himself. Moments later he returned with two packs of TIM TAMS!!!! I literally squealed out loud. And then ran back for two more packs. Like just two would be enough. PAH. I would have bought ten if my budget had allowed for it.
Even though I had loads of Tim Tams, I still went for my walk. And it was lovely. But the Tim Tam Slams to be had when I got home were even lovelier.


Sunday
Domestic goddess day. I had the whole freaking apartment scrubbed and shining before noon. NOON. Floors, dusting, organizing. The works. Still kind of smells like Lysol in here.
After that I rewarded myself with hours upon hours of Sims 3, while knitting an amazingly long scarf made of lovely lovely lovely baby alpaca yarn. And then I baked like a billion pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for my preschoolers, while chatting on the phone with my Nana about affordable, tasty recipes. Check these babies out.

 

I'm going to have some happy kiddos on Tuesday. Let's just hope they actually last that long! They are yummmmmmy. No canned pumpkin up in here. This is still from the pumpkin we carved. So far I've made a double batch of pumpkin pie pudding, a loaf of pumpkin bread, a dozen pumpkin muffins (or was it two?) and then these cookies. And I still have another bag of it frozen. I don't know why I haven't been doing this for years. Fresh pumpkin is more fun and FAR more cost effective than canned pumpkin. And while I was skeptical at first, I do think it tastes better. 

How did you spend your weekend?

World Food Market

I think I like international food better than American food. My favorite cookie, by far, is a Tim Tam. (I'm still on the look out for them... It's October. Where are my Tim Tams?!) My regular grocery store carries Jammie Dodgers, which make their way into my cart fairly often. I'm even starting to learn how to cook some Asian meals. (Plus I make Indian food from a packet on a regular basis too)

Yesterday, I looked for Tim Tams at a different grocery store (I only KNOW that Target carries them... gotta keep looking at other places too though!) and they didn't have them. Big surprise. So I decided because we were kind of on the way towards Hadley (still way out of the way) we should go to this World Food Market I've driven past a few times.

Definitely a great idea!!! There's an Asian Food Market beside my work, but this place was like 10 times bigger. And so much awesome, fun stuff. Here is everything we bought.

Strawberry Wafers from Thailand (I think?)

These are actually your basic artificial strawberry flavored (but a nice, sweet flavor!) wafers. Nothing too special. Still tasty though.

Red Bean Cake

Danny's choice, but I had a taste of it. Very... interesting. It's definitely straight up beans inside of that thing. For me, the more savory taste of beans doesn't go so well with the sweet bun flavor. Also, the texture of the bun and thick, slippery, and well, kind of reminiscent of flesh. Then look at the shape of the bun... Well??? I'm not the only pervert out here, right???

Taro... things.

So these remind me of those Pirouette sticks, but I'm not sure what you would actually call them. Wafer tubes? Cookie straws? I don't have a clue. These are another Danny pick. He loves taro. I haven't actually tried these... I'm not a huge taro fan.

Mochi Ice Cream

OH. MY. GOD.

SO GOOD.

I don't really have anything other than that to say about mochi ice cream. Just go buy some, right now. I hear you can get this at Trader Joe's. DO IT NOW.

Hawaiian Coffee

Another Danny choice. I should have gotten some more things for just myself. Danny thought this tasted just like iced coffee we make at home, but I thought it was delightful. :)

Do you have a World Food Market nearby? What's your favorite thing to buy there?

What I've Been Up To

I miss blogging. I really do. I miss writing, and I miss talking about my life.

So what have I been up to lately? Let me shoooow you!!

I moved into my new apartment.

 

And I've been enjoying it to the fullest. I basically spend all of my free time at home doing this...

 

and this...

And really just enjoying life. I'm so much happier in my new job and my new apartment. I'm making sales in my Etsy store left and right, which makes me feel so fulfilled and proud of myself. It's always been a hobby I've been really into, and being able to share that with other people (for a profit!! That I put right back into crafting :-D) just makes me happy.

I have some photos and stories about road trips and shopping trips to share... probably tomorrow. :)

New Blog?

My Tumblr

Maybe I'll be more devoted to tumblr than this...

Teaching and Stuff

So, I a a terrible blogger lately. Really terrible. I want so badly to get back into this and call myself a blogger again, but I find myself coming home from work and just crashing. And on the weekends... more crashing. And packing! I can't believe I'm finally moving in just 2 days. Oh my.

Teaching. I should talk about that. So, I'm teaching preschool at a daycare/child care center (whatever you want to call it it... I prefer child care center. Daycare sounds like I just play with kids all day. I don't. I teach.)I started during the summer (it's year round) and now the "school year" is starting next week. So all but a few of my current kids will either move up to Pre-K or the kindergarten in public school and I will have a whole new class next week. Luckily though, I have met just about all of my new kids and I am excited! My very very tough class is about the get just a bit easier. And now I will be used to my school and my classroom a but so we should have a very good school year together.

I am finally starting to love my job. It's been a rough couple of weeks, getting settled in, worrying that I was selling myself short by teaching early childhood instead of trying to get into a public school (it's for the experience though), still living with my roommates instead of having my own place, general money anxiety, plus then the work stuff of having a really tough, undisciplined group of kids and being evaluated by the state my third week (did not go well. Not at all). However, I'm feeling confident now though. It helps immensely that I have a great teacher's aide who always manages to keep things humorous during the day. I'm so glad that we hit it off right away. I had so much trouble at my old job because one co-worker immediately decided that she hated me. Having a teammate in this class really makes the job easier.

So, that's where I'm at. Hopefully I can manage to blog some more in my new apartment next week. :)


Oh, how about some Ten on Tuesday?

1. What is your favorite brand of shoes?
I don't really have a favorite. The only kind of shoes that I am "loyal" to are Old Navy flip flops.

2. How old were you when you learned to tie your shoes?
I think six. I remember having to have my 1st grade teacher tie my shoes (yes, I remember stuff like this) and I do not remember my second grade teacher tying my shoes, so I'm guessing I learned in first grade.

3. How do you feel about freckles?
I have a few random ones sprinkled around. I kind of wish I had some on my face. I feel like I'd be the kind of girl who looks cute with freckles. (Sorry, freckled girls, but some of you don't wear it well.)

4. I can count to ten in ___ languages.
Three, I think. I could probably remember how to do it in French if pressed to.

5. What is your favorite store-bought ice cream flavor?
All of them. It's ice cream, guys. You can't go wrong. (Okay, you can. But I just don't have a favorite. I like ice cream)

6. Were you in ballet or gymnastics as a little girl?
Neither. I was in baton.


7. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
This question was recently asked (as evidenced by one of my blog posts that I just read) so I refuse to answer it again.

8. What’s your bedtime?
I don't have one. Whatever 8 hours before I need to be up is. Or 7 hours, if I'm feeling rebellious. Oh this life I lead.

9. Do you have any jewelry that you wear every single day?
Yes. My tourmaline ring and my infinity loop necklace.

10. Who is the bug killer in your household?
The cats

18 Days

That's how long until we FINALLY move into our own place. I hope to never, ever have to do the roommate thing ever again.

We bought a few things for our new place yesterday at IKEA. First trip there! Some may think it's insane to drive 2 hours to go shopping, but I guess because we're from Maine and you HAVE to drive at least 2 hours to get to ANYTHING it's not a big deal. And it was actually a lot of fun. I love spending the day with Danny and just getting away from here. Lord knows I need to.  We were after a desk for Danny in our new office (yay! office!) but we didn't find one we liked for a price we liked. However, we did get a new coffee table and side table for the living room, and a sewing desk for me! Also, a new set of dishes. They're green. And beautiful. And a few little incidentals like a $1 pack of candles (how could I resist!!!), a toilet brush (something I don't think should be brought along on any move - gross), and a new frying pan. (broke the handle on my old favorite one)

I'm getting really excited. 18 more days!!! We get the keys on the 1st of the month, which is a Thursday. Logically, we should wait until Friday night or Saturday to move, but one of my roommates (who has a truck) is willing to move it all up Thursday night when I get home from work. I'm not even going to pretend that it's not because he wants us to move out as soon as possible. And I'm not going to pretend that I'm not perfectly okay with this.

10 Day "You" Challenge ~ Nine Loves

9. Teaching. So much.

8. Crafting (Particularly quilting right now)

7. Sleeping.


6. Really good food.


5. Daytrips. Overnight trips. International trips. I love to travel!!!


4. Being famous in Australia. It's kind of amazing. I even do love cricket now.


3. My kitties, when they decide that they love me too.

2. My nephew, Hunter. And the rest of my dysfunctional, "bat shit crazy" family.

1. Danny - of course. :-D


Last week's 10 Day You Challenge ~ Ten Secrets (Okay, so it's been more than a week.)