A Really Dirty Post

I believe this was the year I found my "plant to always grow." Sorry I lack a clever, catchy name for said plant, maybe at some point one will enter my head.

Sorry for the upside-down pic. And my ugly floor. 

So, what is this brave little plant that won't quit? Moss Rose. AKA Portaluca and Purslane. I hear it is both edible and considered a weed. Which kind of saddens me. Why? Why is it considered a nuisance of a plant?

Not long after planting. Note the dried out soil and the dying Petunia, desperately trying to escape this dried-out hell.  I am a fan of this particular color variation. Very saturated in pictures!

Apparently, these guys are not just drought-tolerant, they prefer to be in drier soil. Its planter buddy, the Petunia, not as much. This has worked out great this summer, as I have gone away, forgotten to water, and just when all seems lost, we get a nice storm, and a day later....

KA-BLOOM!

And after that....

It's like it rained Miracle Gro. Please excuse my filthy carport. The maid is off. For life.

So far this year, I have managed to kill a Celosia, Begonia, Petunias, a lovely pink Gerber daisy, and have managed to not plant two bags of Gladiolus bubs. My rose from earlier this summer is still very much alive, the two Orchids I got seem maybe ok (one flowered and looks like it now wants to die; the other one is still bright, green, and flowerless.) My rose from last year is still blooming, which is great except I am not a fan of the color. Sickly pink striped with white. Meh. And my Azalea from last year has grown quite nicely. So, to my original point, if you currently suck at gardening, but love flowers, and would like to not suck so much at gardening, start with something easy. Like Moss Rose. And Zinnias. Just don't give up because you think your thumb is less than green :)

Double Chocolate Muffin Loaf

I have been promising Brian muffins for days now. It all started the night/morning I looked up strawberry muffin recipes online. Well, ok, it all really started the night/morning I ate an entire pan of Martha White Wildberry muffins all by my lonesome. Though they may not be his favorite flavor, Brian was marginally upset by this event, so I promised him new muffins. Better muffins. Chocolate chip muffins. I am not a fan of straight-up chocolate chip anything (save cookies), especially muffins. So, I decided they should be double chocolate. It was also a cheap ploy to get a canister of cocoa powder, which I promised to put into a pot of chili at some point. Don't laugh, it's good.

So, this recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen Blog, but I added a teaspoon of vanilla, a dash of salt, changed the chips from bittersweet to milk, and they aren't actually going to be muffins. My muffin pan is rusted, and rusty muffins are no bueno. So, a muffin loaf it is, which is actually our preferred way to eat them (no wrappers to compete for muffin with, you get a substantial chunk without the "I just ate an entire pan of muffins!" guilt.) Muffin loaf just might change your life, if you let it.

Taste Verdict- I like it. It's not too sweet, it's dense, pretty moist, and for breakfast, you won't feel like you're eating a big chunk of cake. And it could be gussied up for dessert, too, with the addition of ice cream or whipped cream or whatever topping tickles your tastebuds. I would also suggest adding nuts. I like nuts in my baked goods.


Double Chocolate Muffin Loaf

2 whole Eggs
¼ cups Canola Oil
1-¼ cup Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ cups Cocoa Powder
dash salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
2-¼ cups All-purpose Flour 
1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, and sugar. Add the cocoa powder, followed by the flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Note- I baked mine a hair over 50 minutes, and part of it was still gooey in the middle. Perhaps my oven was not hot enough or retaining enough heat; I used a toaster oven. I will try again using our regular, gas, heats-up-the-whole-dang-kitchen oven next time! 

*Something I learned recently, did you know you should heat your pan slightly after you spray it with non-stick spray? I did this last week when I baked a bundt cake. I'd never actually read the back of the can, but it's right there, silently instructing us to do so. It worked fine, no better or worse than not heating it. I do have a theory it helps cut down on that post-baked pan stickiness (hate that!) but only time and further baking/experimentation will prove me right or wrong.*

So Much For That

That job I posted about last.....not happening. Part of me is irritated as shit by this, another part very much "when one door closes, another opens," and yet another part is bothered by the lack of jobs in my line of experience, and the fact that I should have gone to school, oh, twelve years ago.

So for now, I am scouring the local job sites, hoping to find something above minimum wage, maybe with various benefits. Close to the house would be lovely. What I want to do with my life is still unclear, which is why I did not go skipping off to higher learning in August of 1999. I have ideas but lack direction. Maybe this was easier for women sixty years ago, but I don't necessarily want to go that route. I'd like to retire with some money to my name, but the way I'm going, it'll only happen if I win the lottery. So back to the drawing board, annoyed, kind of sad and confused, and really tired of being broke. I have a real problem with wanting to progress right fucking now, because most of my life has been stalled since I got out of high school. Engaged for four years, no degrees, no nice place to live, no kids...I am utterly frustrated and hoping I figure out a way to change it. Soon.

Summer So Far

Unemployment, relationship woes, non-working vehicle- so this is my summer. Let me clarify: April, I quit my job because my ovaries are bitchfaces. May, I broke up with the fiance and then convinced him we should reconsider the break. We are back together. My car overheated and stopped working on my way home from Lafayette, and hopefully will be repaired soon. I waited almost 2 months for my dad to come take a look. Mechanic dad is, in my imagination, as good as doctor dad or dentist dad or carpenter dad. If he were "mechanic-I'll never make spaghetti again in my life-here's some money for all the years you never got an allowance, aka 'all of your childhood'-I quit watching Fox News because fear mongering and lies are not cool-I have a magic box that makes appear before you any food you could ever want" dad, well, I might have to move back home. But I hate spaghetti. And Fox News. But I love my dad, and can usually count on him to maybe not agree with my food/social oddities, but understand them, because he's pretty much the same. Hell, I had to get it somewhere. I will say this- he is very odd where cheese is concerned. I am the same way with my fruits and veggies, so perhaps I should not go "ok, weirdo," next time he's all "how can you eat THAT <points to slice of Swiss cheese I'm shoving into my face gap> straight from the fridge? At least melt it first!" Ok, weirdo.

Perhaps the second biggest thing of the season for me is Pinterest. I have become a pinning fool. I'm also considering starting a Dirty and Girly Pin page, but then I would get even less done, and I have to sleep at some point. Someone mentioned if they were paid to pin, they'd be rich. I'm approaching that faux income bracket quickly myself. I think I'm over 600. If one received five dollars per pin, that'd be 3,000 dollars. I'm willing to sign up for this. Other things I am considering are a mobile beauty service (I watch too much Jerseylicious. And I would need to go to beauty school. But it's a goal!) and possibly start working towards a degree in Pre K-3 education. It is hard to get a teaching job in this area, however. And I doubt "opening a homeschool" counts or is even a good idea. But since I was about 4, I claimed I would teach kindergarten during the school year, cut hair during the summer. I keep going back to those two, possibly because Vet school is 8 years total. And I would like to finish before I'm 40.

The biggest of all.....my newest niece! Kaitlyn Elizabeth, born July 8. She was not due to meet us until August 4, but she decided earlier was better. Hopefully she keeps that in her little bag of virtues; my mother is late to everything but work and dessert. This has somewhat trickled down to my sister and me. The day we show up to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner before everyone has eaten is record-shattering. Kaitlyn, our little early bird, is also the first July baby in a while for the family. She is sweet, calm, smiley, intrigued by whatever may be going on around her, and completely photogenic. I don't say this as any sort of bitchy remark, but babies are not generally a pretty lot. Unless you find raisins and aliens pretty. There are plenty of cute babies, and I can think of one gorgeous baby (to whom I am also related, my little Brookey, sweet west-coast cousin) but Kaitlyn, she is so pretty.

And don't tell me I'm biased, this kid is clearly ready to take the world by storm. After her nap.

I am allegedly starting a new job soon, so I plan to blow most of my income on getting out of debt. And nail polish. And on the Nyx website. And books. And magazines. And probably cheese. Now I intend to look forward to fall, and hoping that it's going to be a cool one. A frigid one.
Praying for a September blizzard,
-C