Goals: September

This past month I tried something different - I actually WROTE OUT what I wanted to accomplish during the month.  Some of the goals were small, some large - but I wanted to maintain an actual record of what I would be accomplishing during the month. 

With that being said - let's evaluate.

August Goals
1. Email Julie pictures from her bridal shower.  (I had put this off and finally uploaded theme to the computer!)
2. Email Kristin pictures from the wedding.  (Same story different time - I don't know why these things linger around.)
3. Start lit search for a paper I am working on at work (Eh, this was started and then the project date was pushed back.)
4. Have a fantastic time with the Fam with they visit. (Done and Done!)
5. Have a fantastic time in Boston at M and J's wedding. (so.much.fun.)
6. Strive to exercise 3 times a week. (total fail - I was good at the beginning of the month but with trips and family in town staying with us - this was hard.)

Now on to next month...

September Goals
1. Strive to exercise 3 times a week.
2. Finish my current knitting project.
3. Scrapbook the remaining misc. items in my box.
4. Start “Smart Women Finish Rich” and actually complete the book exercises.
5. Have a fantastic time at the shore during our mini-vacay!

77. Go on a date with J once a month. (August 2010)

While in Boston last weekend for Mike and Julie's wedding (CONGRATS on ONE WEEK OF MARRIAGE!!!)  J and I spent a morning together exploring The Old State House.

I should also mention, J and I love history, true stories, and John Adams.  So I apologize in advance for the history nerdy-ness to follow :)

Built in 1712, it served as a market exchanged, meeting place, and an assembly location for elected officials.

The bottom floor houses a vast collection of artifacts from the events leading up and from the Revolutionary War.  One of the coolest parts of the museum was the "phone tour" - where you could call from your phone, and listen to an audio tour and as you moved through the exhibits. Very cool.

Afterwards, we went upstairs to the balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read on July 18th, 1776.

This was also the same balcony which overlooked the events in which the Boston Massacre transpired from.  The little circle inside the traffic triangle is the marker for the massacre.

Afterwards, we walked around Boston for a bit and then met back up with K and L to head back to NYC - what a way to end a perfect weekend in Boston!

60. Figure out what to do with desk.

For months J and I have labor back and forth about what to do with our old desk.

Do we sell it?

Do we paint it?

Do we move it into the living room?

Finally, we figured out an ingenious way to create more storage in our bedroom and to "pretty-it-up" beyond a normal desk.

Enter, curtains.  Yes, curtains.  The perfect solution to the problem.  With a set of curtains and some velcro, we were able to create an area to store all the clutter in our bedroom.

God bless you velcro.

All done!

I am so glad we thought of this solution.  With minimal financial input - we were able to maximize our storage and save a piece of furniture. Score!

94. Take a sailing lesson / Date Day July 2010

Over 4th of July weekend, J and I took a sailing lesson to celebrate J's birthday.  (Happy 25th & <3)  We had fantastic weather.

We were placed on a smaller 20 foot boat along with two other sailors and our instructor, Reilly.

After raising the sails - we headed out.

Love you!

We even got to steer the boat!

We learned to jib, tac, raise the sails, adjust for wind and currents, steer the boat - we had a fantastic time and learned so much!

Us with our boat.  Happy Birthday J!

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

I recently became involved with a wonderful organization Operation Baking GALS, which is a group of volunteers who stir, pour, and bake homemade treats to be sent oversees to our heroic military men and women.  We GALS, which stands for Give A Little Support, bake to show support and send a little bit of the USA to remind them how much we appreciate all they do for us everyday.

For my first package, I included some store bought goodies as well as Brown Sugar Cookies and a loaf of homemade Zucchini Bread. (I even made another loaf with chocolate chips for J!)

Both turned out fantastic!

Yummy cookie batter.

All the cookies - packed and ready to go.

Packed and ready to go - Zucchini Bread, cookies, 

trail mix bars, tuna packs, oatmeal, and hot chocolate packs.

36. Learn to make my own dish detergent.

After the success of making my own laundry detergent, I decided to take on making my own dish detergent.

Most of the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent with the addition of salt and citric acid (aka lemonade)

Homemade Dish Detergent:

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup Borax

1/4 cup Salt

1/4 cup Citric Acid

Add all ingredients to a container.  Shake container.  Use 1 tablespoon per load. Enjoy!

I need to work on perfecting the perfect balance of ingredients as we have hard water, and it leaves a bit of firm on some of the dishes.  Other than that, I have noticed this mixture does not do a very good job of removing caked-on food, but I have found that pre-washing my dishes, or soaking them overnight takes care of this problem.

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

One random Friday over the summer, I decided to make a treat to bring into work.  I ended up making strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing!  They were too good - and I must admit - fewer made it to work due to my appetite for sweets!

They were a big hit with the co-workers!

95. Watch fireworks with J.

While we were in Disney World - J and I attended the wedding of J's Stepbrother in Disney World.  We were so happy to be able to share in such a special event.  (Congrats JP + E!)

One of the most unique parts of the wedding reception was the private viewing area in which we watched Epcot's Illumination's fireworks.

We enjoyed coffee, cookies, and an ice cream bar while enjoying this...

What a magical trip!

The Fam!

71. Make 80 new recipes.

For our monthly potluck meeting at work - I broke out one of my Mom's favorite go-to's for entertaining.

Apple Cinnamon Dip

¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon
2 cups finely chopped apples (usually about 2-3 apples depending on size)
8 oz. room temp cream cheese
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup sour cream
Chopped walnuts, pecans (optional)
Crackers for eating with dip

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine sugar, cinnamon, apples, nuts in a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix cream cheese, cheddar, and sour cream.

The original recipe has you put the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the pan and topping it with the apple mixture for a more “apple pie” feel. Instead I…

Mix the two mixtures together then spoon to a 9 in. pie plate and smooth out. Top with chopped nuts. Bake @375 for 20 minutes. Serve with crackers.

My co-workers LOVED this one.  It will definitely be making an appearance at many more potlucks in the future.

86. Go geocaching.

Over Memorial Day, J and I went to visit J's sister K, and her boyfriend L.

J and I had been looking forward to this visit because L has just purchased a handheld GPS for camping and geocaching!

In case you don't know what Geocaching is - it's basically an adult treasure hunt.  The GPS coordinates  are used to find various objects which includes a log of all those who have found the object before you.

On our first geocach-outing, we set out to find a nano-cache - a super small container.  We also brought along a cache object K and L had traded for during their last outing.

Take me out to the ballgame...with a baby baseball!

At first we headed in the wrong direction.  I blame clouds affecting the GPS. maybe.

Then we were in the right location - with a lot of searching to do.

I won't show you the location of the actual cache  - 

but it took us a while to find it - and it was in a place completely unexpected. 

oh, and I found it :)

We added our names to the list and returned the cache to it's secret location. 

The next day, we headed out to do some hiking and geocaching along the way.

We found another cache (L did!) complete with a pile of goodies.  L traded his baby baseball for something way more man-ly...

Miami Ink playing cards!

We had a great time laughing and having other people stare at us like we were nuts.  I can't wait to find more caches! 

70. Make 10 meals in the Crockpot.

Ok, so maybe this doesn't count as a "meal" per se, but I was super excited to find out I could make yummy chicken stock right from my crockpot!

I used Gina's method and it worked perfectly!  8 hours later, I had the best homemade stock and some shredded chicken I used to make homemade enchiladas.

Before.

After.

Plus it made the apartment smell heavenly.  Kinda like those days where it's all snowy outside and you can curl up and read a book all day...just like that.

71. Make 80 new recipes.

With the leftover basil from my tomato bruschetta - I decided to make homemade pesto.

First - I should let you know two things. 

1. I have not gone food shopping for about 2 months and had to shop at the little grocery store around the corner from our apartment.

2. That place is mad expensive.

Because of this, I had to tweek the traditional pesto recipe slightly.  I bought and used walnuts instead of pine nuts.  (I was not about to spend $9 for 3 ounces of pine nuts.)

After that everything was pretty much the same.

Next time, I am going to toast the walnuts before adding them to the processor.  I like the smokey-ness it brings out.  I am also going to use a sharper Parmesan cheese.  The cheese I had was a bit milder than I would have liked. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures - I was too hungry!

I served it over whole wheat penne with extra Parmesan on the top - yum!

71. Make 80 new recipes.

With the official start of summer - I decided to take on the challenge of making one of J's favorite foods - Tomato Bruschetta.

I always crack up because J HATES tomatoes yet gobbles up bruschetta like they are the last food on earth.

But I digress...

I couldn't find a recipe which I liked and which included all the foods I already had at home- so I modified a few. I used:

3 large tomatoes
1 cup chopped basil
1/2 a large onion
3 cloves minced garlic
4 tbs Olive Oil
1 1/2 tbs Balsamic Vinegar
8-9 1 inch thick pieces of French Baguette (toasted)
Salt and Pepper

I combined all the ingredients (minus the bread!) and let them set in a bowl for about 30 minutes to let their flavors meld. I topped the toasted pieces of bread with this - and we were ready to ring in summer. J gave it two thumbs up!

The only thing I would change is the amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar - I used way too much of both.  I ended up having to staring the mixture out of the liquid at the end. no bueno.