cooking and stuff

I am determined to break the recipe rut and try as many new things as possible now that I have the time.  I just discovered Rancho Gordo beans, and I am trying to convince David that we need to buy these beans.  Why?  Because everyone I know who has bought beans from RG swears that they have totally changed the way they cook. Pretty radical.  We've always wanted to transition from less meat more beans, and I think if we actually buy good beans instead of stale store beans, then we can actually do it.  I never thought I would write the word "beans" so many times in one blog post.

Next on my agenda in breaking my recipe rut is to grow my own herbs. I hate that the herbs I buy go to waste because I don't use too many fresh herbs in my recipes. I pretty much rely on the fresh veggies, olive oil, and a little bit of salt and a lot of pepper to flavor my meals. My favorite ingredient is garlic. This is weird, but I love the way my hands smell after I chop garlic. *snnnnnnnnnifffffff*  smells gooooood ;)

But anyway back to the garden - This blog entry was my motivation in wanting to plant my own herb garden. Even though she wanted to do stacked succulents, the inspiration came from none other than *drumroll* Martha Stewart. Gosh, she has an answer for everything, doesn't she!

Here are some recipes that look pretty yummy:
*Cannellini with Tomato & Sage
*Fresh Shell Bean Soup
*Tuscan Bean Soup

So, yep...I am all about the musical fruit right now. We'll see how this little project goes.

xo

school daze

i've got exactly one week of spring semester left as of today.  i have an A in every course, which is pretty cool. i just hope i don't screw something up like forget to do a review or turn something in on my portfolio. that would really blow.  i almost forgot to do a test online last night for my health class and luckily the teacher gives a ten minute grace period, so by the skin of my teeth i was able to squeeze out a C.  since i've done a lot of the extra credit assignments the C won't impact my grade at all.

today i got some paint samples and a can of black lacquer spray paint.  i am going to get some nice fabric maybe from joanns or maybe i'll even brave wal*mart some day if i ever feel like giving up everything i believe in lol.  there are so many activities i wanna try.

i have a stool that i am going to sand and paint the legs & replace the fabric:

then i am going to repaint this box and put some compartments in it, idk for what, maybe turn it into a sewing kit.  the box underneath it is also fabric and it has legs so it is a stool/storage thingy.  im going to repaint the legs and replace the fabric. i'm not sure what i'll put in it, maybe my snuggies so they will be out of the way:

and we got this big dresser from craigslist. it was really inexpensive, but it is painted white with an oil based paint. apparently it's really hard to paint over oil??  anyone know how to fix that?  not sure what color i want to paint it, but i'll take any suggestions.  i am so tired of a house full of brown!

so these will be summer projects that will most likely turn into fall projects. i love to procrastinate.

xo