A Bit of Randomness

Well, it's almost a new year and my blog is sorely lacking in updates. It kind of went to the wayside (along with house cleaning) after Robert came home. It seems like I have more time to do things when he's gone (or working) than when he's home all the time!

I am finally back into meal planning -- and hoping/praying that we can finally stick to our budget this year so we can save more money. Saving has (sadly) been a lower priority lately with all our eating out, buying Robert some new clothes, and purchasing our lovely piano (more about that below)!

It's amazing how much money you can save when you go into the grocery store with a plan and a list instead of just thinking of "meals" (if you can call them that) as you go. Our first planned meal was last night - homemade ham and bean soup (using dry beans). Very delicious. Robert loved it. I made homemade corn muffins to go along with it, which was a nice compliment.

I made some sandwich bread yesterday as well - but I think I took it out of the oven too soon, so I'll have to try again next time. I want to start making all of our bread again. I bought some wheat gluten, hoping that will help the bread become less "crumb-y" ... hoping anyway. I might try a small amount of bread flour if that doesn't work, because my italian bread recipe turns out so nicely.

I would also like to start making all of our desserts from scratch. I made some wonderful butter toffee, caramels, and candy bar treats with the help of my mom when my parents were visiting earlier this month. We still have some toffee left over but everything else has been eaten. The candy was so rich and so delicious. I can't wait to make the caramels again to try to improve on them. (They were a bit hard, probably from boiling too long.)

And I've even started making cinnamon rolls from scratch. I've made two batches now (the second was much better), but they are delightful! And they are made with baking powder, so they're fast and easy. The link is on my recipe page.

And last but not least, my new piano! Well, I should say our piano. Robert and I have been eyeing pianos since before Benedict was born (maybe for almost a year now). We considered one, but they were a little out of our price range. I was set on buying a full sized keyboard if we were going to spend the money. There's no use buying one (in my opinion) if I can't even play all my favorite songs on it! So we finally broke down and bought one as our Christmas present to each other this year. It came with an attached stand, pedals, weighted keys, and a bench. I'm so thrilled with the purchase!

Well, if you're still with me, I'm going to try to update once every week or two from now on so that I have a little motivation to stay on track, but also to share with you what I've been up to in the kitchen as well as any new updates with Benedict.