wendelah1's Profile

The Rapini with Orecchiette sounds good. I'm always happy to find pasta recipes without dairy. I wonder how hard it will be to find whole wheat pasta in that shape.

Our rent when we got married was much less than 30% of our gross income, which allowed us to save up for a small down payment on a house. We lived in my husband's crappy student apartment for three years, with a kitchen the size of a small closet. When we bought our house, the market was relatively high and so were interest rates. We were definitely house poor for the first few years, until we could refinance and get out from under the nearly 15% interest rate. Unlike many people here in SoCal, we stayed in our little starter home in a very unhip neighborhood. But it's paid for now. This way, I was able to retire at 58; my husband is retiring in a few months, and our son graduated from college with no debt because we were able to finance his education ourselves. We have not spent our income on fancy furniture or expensive wallpaper. But we are celebrating our 34th year together with a four week trip to France. You have to figure out what is important to you, and budget for that. And I would not advise anyone to move to California right now. The economy here is still in the toilet, and our infrastructure and public school system are both suffering as a result.

I've used a garlic press for ten years, love it and wish I'd gotten one years ago. The coolness factor is irrelevant.

I'm a pretty indifferent housekeeper now, but when my son was crawling, I mopped the floor and vacuumed daily.

People have slow days at work?

When you lay out the dough on the parchment paper, what are the dimensions you stretch it to before you start hacking it up? What size are the cut-up pieces?

My husband and I have slept in separate beds for the last 17 years. He has a medical condition which requires that he sleep at a 30 degree angle. I need to sleep flat. In 1995 we purchased two extra long twin Electropedic beds with latex mattresses, which we have fastened together. We'd been fighting about the firmness of our mattress for the first 15 years of our marriage anyway. He likes a softer mattress, I prefer a firmer one. He also has restless leg syndrome and would wake me up by kicking me. I have slept much better since we came to this arrangement and it has not disrupted our communication--or our sex life.

Lovely apartment but I don't get the Vermeer comparison at all. His paintings are suffused with light, but it's a warm, golden light. His paintings bear no resemblance to the cool whites and light grays of her rooms.

I used a whisk instead of a spoon to stir it a couple of times, and when the five minutes was up. I didn't get any lumps. I do the same thing when I make cream of wheat in a microwave. I ate this tonight for dinner with butter, grated cheddar cheese, salt and pepper. Bacon would have been great if I had some bacon on hand. I like the idea of the sauteed mushrooms, too. Good to know about the time for doubling the recipe, too. Thank you, Kirstjen.

Annamaria,

If you don't want people to make presumptuous assumptions about your relationship issues, don't post about them on the internet. I think your post speaks for itself.

There is no point in getting defensive here. Your fiancé makes more money, spends more time doing it than you do free-lancing, and consequently you do more housework. Your life, your choices. I'm not judging.

But I'd settle the money issues before you get married, rather than after. As far as the housework goes, all that matters is that you are both happy with the arrangement.

For the record, I've been happily married for nearly thirty-two years. Neither of us is any good at keeping house. We live in a run-down little tract house in the suburbs that is never going to be featured in House Beautiful or even Apartment Therapy. You'll have to trust me on this. If you love each other, if you treat each other with care and respect, if you can make your bills and save a bit, and you have your health, you have everything you need for a good life. The rest is just details.