tallsarah's Profile

I didn't like cous cous too much until I had Israeli cous cous. It's much bigger & has a great flavor, especially if the grains are toasted before boiling. Not all stores carry it & it's more expensive. Soaks up sauces deliciously :)

Beautiful! It will go quite nicely with the flame I already have :) Now I know what to ask for my birthday....

I like a combo of hot Italian sausage & stewing beef. Plus bean, lots of beans. And a chipotle chili & some pickled jalepenos. It goes in the crock pot all day & then when done, mix in a cup or so of cheddar or monterey jack cheese. Yum. Serve with cilantro & green onions on the side. Delicious! I'll be making it for the Super Bowl :)

Cute. But talk to us when you own about 6000+ legos. Seriously. My son & daughter now have so many sets it's out of control. We have 2 of those under bed storage containers filled to the brim with them all mixed together. No way in the world will I organize them by color- that would take days & we are not organized/ ocd enough to keep them that way. I don't mind sitting down with them to help build things for half an hour or so.

When my kids get new sets (birthdays, Christmas or when they spend their saved up money), they will build them, play with them for a couple of days & then dismantle to make crazy ships, cities, etc. We have a rule that we must clean them up off the living room floor each night & back into the bins. Their bedrooms are small, but there's enough room to keep a few built items out & then we can just push the small pieces aside or back into the bins.

I'm just happy Costco carries 12 lb bags of it. I go thru several a year & they are great! I keep one in my basement with the laundry stuff & keep one in my kitchen for cooking & cleaning.

Oh, how I wish this post was 13 years earlier :) For our honeymoon to Hawaii, I made my husband back a dark suit. Yes, a suit, to Hawaii. We had FOUR suitcases for the 2 of us. Not the carryon size, either. I was ridiculous! It was all my fault, thinking I would need even 1/10th of those clothes. I still overpack, but now it's more like 2 t-shirts & a sweater too much. Now that we have 2 kiddos, we try to tell them to only pack a couple of outfits for a week's visit. Since they have their own little wheelie suitcases, they have plenty of room left for a couple of toys & books & art supplies. This past summer, we went to NC & SC for almost 3 weeks with 3 small wheelie bags & 1 checked bag for our family of 4. Best packing job ever for us :) Not nearly as good as all you previous posters, but great for us!

All those would turn into DIY nightmares if I tried my hand at them :)

My family of 4 became members of a meat csa last year. Every 3 months, we get 25 lbs of meat (mixture of beef, pork, chicken & occasionally lamb). I also purchase separate turkeys for Thanksgiving from local farms, a couple of lambs in the spring (my friend's mother is the lamb farmer) & some additional pork from another local farm. It is not hard for us to do since we are in an area that has some great farmers (Mass). On average, I pay $9/ lb for the meat, so it's way more expensive than the discounted bins at the grocery stores.

It's funny though, a few years ago, I started analyzing what our family spends/ month on food. Back when I would go to the grocery store (mixture of Costco, Whole Foods, Market Basket grocery), I spent about $800/ month on food & alcohol. After a recent cost analysis, I now spend between $800-900/ month. We waste a lot less food b/c I force myself to cook from our csa's instead of running out to the store to get a couple pounds of whatever. Joining the csa's requires bigger chunks of money up front (like the summer veggie $600 that's due later this week!)

When we go out to eat, my husband & I will often order vegetarian if the restaurant doesn't offer locally raised meats. And a couple times a year, we will get the double cheeseburger at Five Guys.

I'll take this post as a reminder to water my own plants :) Thanks! You just saved me a hundred bucks!

In the photo'd kitchen, yes, I would love the mirror. It reflects calm, order & beauty. In my kitchen, it would reflect, piles, messes & my disheveled self. So, no. I would not want an oversized mirror in my kitchen.