Quote of the Day

Ryan the 2L: Are they done yet? I'm hungry.

Me: No.

Ryan the 2L: Why not?

Me: They aren't insta-grow food.

Ryan the 2L: Are they boneless?

Me: They are baby chicks Ryan. They don't come in regular and blob.

Via text message

Quote of the Day

Ryan the 2L: I love it

Maggy: Teabagging or Tea Parties?

Ryan the 2L: Both

Easter Weekend Recap

The Boy and I went to town for our (now) weekly farmer's market trip, and I spent a few dollars more then last week but I'm not too shocked or surprised. I got more apples, including a hybrid breed called CrispGlo which are amazing! Seriously, if you can get your paws on some of these DO IT. The Boy is very picky about his apples (like his mama, he's a Cameo guy) but I had to hid these so I could use some of them for oh I don't know, cooking?!

My friend who is helping me with a little garden, and oh so kindly donating both land and work, should be finished up with the roto-tilling soon. Since he's putting in so much initial work, I offered to deal with some of the starts and things. I talked to one of the nursery owners, and settled on buying some starts. We are now the proud owners of carrots, lettuce, yellow Spanish onions, thyme, sage and chives. I'm probably forgetting something, but you get the gist.

I also bought some more Irises, and this bunch has the slightest tinge of blue and purples and might be prettier then the last. I made some of the apples into (yet more) apple butter, and tomorrow I'm going to take a shot at Apple Pie Filling. I would have attempted it today, but I didn't have nutmeg. And despite my protest that I think nutmeg is useless (mostly because I didn't have any) Gracie swore I need some or it wouldn't really taste right.

And today was also a bit of a celebration! Ryan the 2L and I have finished our Lent Fast and both managed to lose the 10% total weight loss bet. I still 'won' by 4% overall, but I don't think Ryan wants to admit it. Since today was the first real day I could eat 'whatever' I wanted, you can imagine I've been thinking it over for awhile. But this organic, self-sustaining thing is getting to me a bit and I couldn't force myself through the McDonald's drive-though. Or Jack in the Box. Or Taco Bell. And yes, a little piece of my soul died with it.

Instead, the Boy and I made Snickerdoodles! I found a pretty easy recipe on RecipeZaar and they came out gorgeous! The Boy had a ton of fun rolling the dough in the cinnamon mix, and they smelled like heaven coming out of the oven. The recipe is pretty easy, and luckily I could involve the Boy with little to no mess.

Jack Sparrow never would have been this stupid.

Ryan the 2L over at TSLRF wrote a great blog on how the Pirates are responding to the rescue of the American Captain yesterday off the Somali Coast.

Check it out.

Why? Because I refuse to die first. That's why.

A year ago, I had little-to-no want to have any sort of food prep or real domestic knowledge whatsoever. A few things happened this fall and winter that made me a bit more concerned about taking care of my family if something were too happen. For instance we had a once a century type snowstorm this year, followed immediately by nasty floods. Luckily the power stayed up and running, or things might have gotten desperate pretty fast. But as it were, people were stranded at their homes, grocers ran out of food. I went to a local grocery store and felt like I was in Mother Russia. No eggs, long lines, cash only. I couldn't believe how quickly some of the basic social systems lagged.

This experience made me quite a bit more aware of how I did things on a day by day basis. I had no idea how survive outside of the normal everyday realm. Just about everything we ate was created with things only purchased at the grocery store. I didn't make a single thing by hand, and beyond that I didn't have the foggiest idea where to start if I wanted too. So I took it upon myself to learn. I had help from friends, and did a lot of research. I spent the money and bought a couple books, and started on the road to self-reliance.

Luckily for me, my family has taken my sudden domestic 'insanity' pretty well in stride. My father is LDS, so he's all for it. My mom is a little taken back, but she's very supportive. My sister thinks I've completely lost my marbles, but since I'm giving her some of my canned fruit she's managed to keep her thoughts more or less to herself. I'm not saying I could survive all on my own should something happen, but I sure wouldn't be the first to die.

Now, I also have some amazing friends that need specific mentioning. Ryan the 2L and Theotherryan (or TOR) and TOR's Wifey. You might have heard of them (okay, chances are you have) as they run the amazing Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest. I've known the Ryan's since I was knee high to a duck, and although TOR's Wifey is a more recent addition, she is equally amazing. The Ryan's have introduced me to the scope of the 'survivalist' world (although I still swear I'm a hippie) and helped ease me into it, while still letting me take my own way. I'm very excited to be their sister blog, and hope I can do them justice.

I. Heart. Bacon.

I love bacon. I'm not an omnivore, I'm a baconvore who chooses to add other things to her diet. If I wasn't fully aware that eating bacon, and only bacon, would cause me to drop dead in a relatively short time period, I wouldn't eat anything else.

But it's been a very dark time in Maggy-land, as Ryan the 2L and I decided from some reason (well, because we're crazy) to do a traditional Lenten Fast. It probably needs mentioning that we are all a bit... competitive. And that's putting it pretty lightly. So, not only are we fasting, we made a wager out of it. The goal is to lose 10% of your total body weight in the 40 days of Lent. I don't know exactly why they say it's 40 days, because it's actually almost 50, but whatever.

I don't really feel that bad for myself, except for the basically starving myself part. I feel bad for my friends and family because they all hear about 197 times a day the phrase "Oh my god, I'm starving" come out of my mouth. My dad has been exceptionally succumbed to this, as every time he offers me food I can't have (which is a lot of the time) I just him a look that would put him in mortal danger if I could actually shoot daggers out of my eyes.

I've been really really good about my Lent Fast. Better then I thought I'd be because I'm usually a dirty diet-cheater. Now, I won't lie and say I haven't cheated because God knows better. But I'm sure he still loves me.

This being said, for Easter I don't want a ham. I want bacon. I want pounds and pounds of bacon molded into the shape of a whole pig luau-style with a bacon covered apple in it's mouth , and I want it all to myself. My mom has steadfastly refused to join my bacon-pig mission, and since Easter dinner is at her house this year, sounds like I'm stuck with a regular ham.

Today I was stumbling (if you don't have a stumble button, get one!) and I came across The Bacon Show. The premise is simple; one bacon recipe per day everyday. This makes me happy. I have a pretty decent bacon-inspired recipe list, and I'm sure they will appear from time to time on here.

But until April 12th, all I can do is torture myself by dreaming about bacon and drooling on myself.

Quote of the Day

"One of the biggest differences between Hippies and Survivalists is very simple: GUNS."

- Ryan the 2L regarding my argument that I'm a hippie, not a survivalist. I have a shotgun, therefore I lose the argument.