I was on pinterest and a composting pin caught my eye. The pin redirected me to Someday I'll Learn. They talked about composting and how easy it was. I started to think about how much trash we throw out for just two people. We do the recycling thing but I thought we could do better.
I googled "composting chemung county" and was immediately directed to Chemung County's Composting Program. Crazy! Who knew? I read through everything that they said about composting and their program. I couldn't believe everything that you can compost. Here's the list of items that can and can't be composted. It looked pretty easy but it was going to take additional effort on our part. We could do it. I had looked at the bins we could get from Chemung county and fortunately, they were only $50. The actually retail for $199. I figure that's a pretty good deal. Next step, convince Tony. This was actually much easier than I thought. I sent him a "Wanna try?" e-mail and he said sure. Easy peasy.
A couple weeks ago, Tony set up the composter near the house but hidden from a main line of site. I had to get a countertop compost container. I wanted something that we could throw food scraps for a week then take them out to the compost bin. At first, I was planning on getting the OXO Good Grips Compost Bin mainly because Shelley works for OXO. Unfortunately, I didn't like how it didn't snap shut. I was worried about bugs and the smell. I ultimately settled on the Oggi Stainless Steel Composter. I liked the way the top nestled into the base and the filter.
Here's what I do when I take our kitchen scraps and add them to the outdoor composter.
Step 1: Add some "brown" from the above list. For me, It's leaves.
Step 2: Add the "green" from the above list. This is our kitchen scraps.
Step 3: Cover the "green" with "brown."
So far, there is no smell, no bugs, nothing. It's really nice.
Do you compost?
One of my go to comfort foods is Mac & Cheese. Normally, I settle for the Kraft variety but let's face it, it tastes like it's out of a box. Growing up, every once and a while, we'd get the "special" mac and cheese that took over an hour versus 12-15 minutes.
Here's the yummy recipe.
BAKED MAC AND CHEESE
Makes: 3-4 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 45 minutes
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| Baked Mac & Cheese |
Ingredients:
1 cup pasta - elbows
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2-3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
Velveeta cheese
butter
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cook pasta.
3. While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a sauce pan and brown the bread crumbs. You'll need enough butter (~2 Tbsp) to coat all of the bread crumbs.
4. In a greased baking dish, put 1/2 of the pasta on the bottom.
5. Layer with slices of Velveeta cheese.
6. Top with the remaining pasta.
7. Layer again with slices of Velveeta cheese.
8. Mix milk and eggs in a separate bowl then poor over the casserole.
9. Top with bread crumbs.
10. Bake for 45 minutes.
Enjoy!
When we repainted the living room, I didn't want to put our makeshift entryway bench back. It was time to find a proper table. After searching in stores and online, we found something that would work. Viola!
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| Before and After |
Thanks for stopping by!
A while ago, I posted about replacing our thermostat and fixing the wall. The gaping hole was the catalyst that I needed to get Tony on board with repainting the family room. Granted, the color wasn't horrible. It was slightly more pea green then I wanted but it was okay. The thing that was worse, was the paint job itself. There were so many short cuts that drove me nuts!
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| The errors! |
After repainting several rooms and the ceilings, we figured out the best way to repaint an entire room when we re-did out Bathroom/Laundry room. Paint the ceiling and the white trim first. Go back and tape them off before painting the walls. That's what Amy and I did when we repainted the family room.
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| Before and After |
I absolutely love the color and the clean lines that we were able to achieve. A slight color change, new ceiling paint and trim makes all the difference in the world! The pictures don't do it justice.
Happy painting!
I was feeling nostalgic so I created this coffee ice cream recipe. You can modify it to fit your preference for how strong you want the coffee to taste. I think that a hazelnut coffee would taste amazing!
COFFEE ICE CREAM
Makes: 2 quarts
Prep and Cook Time: 3 hours
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Coffee Ice Cream
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Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup strong coffee, chilled (I used Vanilla Flavored Coffee)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
Instructions:
1. Mix the milk, cream, coffee, sugar, and vanilla together.
3. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
4. Freeze for at least 2 hours and store your remaining ice cream in an air-tight plastic container in the back of the freezer. This will help preserve the flavor and texture of the finished ice cream.
If you add a bit of chocolate and make a milkshake, it'll taste just like a Jamocha Milkshake from Arby's.
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| Jamocha Milkshake |
Enjoy!
